Hyperreal Hoedown Fundraiser
Thursday 30, Hotel Vegas
The hype is very real, Reader: Austin’s very own cinema-for-the-people Hyperreal Film Club has secured brick-and-mortar status. Help ’em make the new locale as tricked out as possible by attending the kickoff event for their new Kickstarter campaign. Of course, Reader, you’ll be rewarded for your charity with an awesome experience that includes live music from Loteria, Sentimental Family Band, and a DJ set by Veronica Ortuño; two-step lessons; cowboy karaoke; and a mechanical bull. Tickets run 15-20 bucks, depending on your budget, so grab ’em while they’re hot and start planning your Western wear. You’ll be wanting to dress to impress, ain’t that right? – James Scott
Thievery Corporation Afterparty
Thursday 30, Kingdom
Rob Garza, half of electronic duo Thievery Corporation, married heady downtempo and trip-hop influences with bossa nova, reggae, and Middle Eastern music in the early Aughts. As a DJ, he spotlights lounge-making, housey daytime disco. He’ll go back to back with fellow shapeshifter Matthew Dear, who glides between worlds of techno and indie and is beloved as a dark, accelerative dance floor commander during his live sets, broad-ranging DJ, flexible producer, and respected label leader. Dear last played Kingdom as a secret weapon headliner for the club’s resurrection in August 2022, in a set abridged by authorities around 2am. Ian Orth and James Jones join the bill. – Christina Garcia
Jon Muq Album Release and In-Store Signing
Friday 31, Waterloo Records
With South by Southwest in the rearview and Austin City Limits on the horizon, 2024’s been a landmark year for Jon Muq. This weekend, in between festival appearances, the Ugandan singer-songwriter – whose impossibly serendipitous origin story includes landing in Austin by mistake on the way to Houston, catching the attention of Dan Auerbach, and signing a record deal with the Black Keys singer’s Easy Eye Sound – premieres debut LP Flying Away with a Waterloo in-store signing. Infusing poppy R&B with Afrobeat influences, the album coasts on the cheeriness of the artist’s rocketing career with playful piano, animated acoustic strums, and Muq’s honeyed vocals. – Carys Anderson
The Queers, Noogy, Josh Langford Music, the Butts, Dropped Out
Friday 31, Kick Butt Coffee
Kick Butt Coffee, local martial arts master Thomas Gohring’s 21st-century house of hypercaffeinated underground rock & roll, plays host this weekend to a supreme pop-punk bill. Joe King, aka Joe Queer, has led umpty-ump lineups of the Queers since forming in his native Portsmouth, N.H., in 1981. Every branch on their family tree consistently delivers gems of raw-guitared melodic wonder existing in an alternate universe where the only bands that matter are the Beach Boys and Ramones. Kick Butt rounds out the festivities with four of Austin’s finest pop-punkers: Noogy, Josh Langford Music, the Butts, and Dropped Out. – Tim Stegall
Goatwhore
Friday 31, Lost Well
Better get Ben Falgoust a helmet – or perhaps a pair of horns. Goatwhore’s rangy and ever-raging 6-foot-2 frontman meets low-ceiling biker bar the Lost Well (maybe literally). New Orleans-blackened death/thrash dealers gallop into a favorite den of wolves – Austin – still bearing the aggravated assault of their eighth album since 1997, pandemic homicide Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven. Secret weapon Sammy Duet, band-founding guitarist, also counts Crescent City metal legacies Acid Bath and Crowbar amongst his metallic blasphemy. At Maryland Deathfest last week, more than one hesher bore a band tee proclaiming Satanic trysts. Horns up! – Raoul Hernandez
Curtis McMurtry Album Release
Friday 31, Captain Quack’s
Few songwriters in Austin prove as consistently provocative as Curtis McMurtry. Restless in style and adventurous in narrative, McMurtry’s work swivels through intricately composed Americana-pop, with jazz and classical flavors in exploration of complex characters wrapped in hedonism and redemption. Fourth LP The Pollen & the Rot delivers the first of a planned four-album cycle anchored in the seasons and aptly swirls a spring awakening of lust and yearning. Behind Diana Burgess’ cello and Paul Pinon’s percussion, McMurtry’s social critiques crackle with a lascivious and lurking electricity. Zack Wiggs and Sydney Wright provide bookending support for the release show. – Doug Freeman
Hole in the Wall’s 50th Anniversary
Saturday 1 through Sunday 30, Hole in the Wall
What other still-existing business on the Drag can say it opened its doors on June 15, 1974? There’s been plenty of blips in the dive bar’s history – a brief closure from 2002 to 2003, a near-shuttering in 2015 – but by and large, for half a century, Hole in the Wall has prevailed. To celebrate, the club plots shows for every night in the month of June. Participating artists range from scene veterans, like cowpunk innovators Hickoids and Los Angeles transplant/X singer John Doe, to younger Hole regulars: Van Mary, Harry & Emmy, Loteria, and other “special guests” among them. – Carys Anderson
Big Dumb Fest
Saturday 1, Mohawk
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol have always been riff-lord unicorns, unleashing headbang-worthy guitar lines through the maximalist sonic death ray of singer Leo Lydon’s eight-string guitar and performed with camp and heartfeltness. On their latest, RBBP’s career peak and one of the best-sounding heavy albums of Austin in 2024, they cut to the chase, titling it Big Dumb Riffs. Accordingly, the power trio hosts this Big Dumb Fest with a lineup that encapsulates their heavy-yet-fun tenets: Die Spitz, Mugger, Billy King & the Bad Bad Bad, Buzz Electro, Bosh, and Banged Out. – Kevin Curtin
Still Tumbling 4 U
Saturday 1, Cheer Up Charlies
Cheer Ups’ new monthly sapphic indie-pop dance party is here. Your one-stop shop for all things “gay pop” – the newest genre, according to JoJo Siwa – will be helmed by local sapphic DJs Hexxx GF and Ruby Knight. Expect a night filled with bops from Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, King Princess, MUNA, Janelle Monáe, FLETCHER, Hayley Kiyoko, Reneé Rapp, SZA, Solange, Charli XCX, boygenius, Rosalía, Billie, Caroline Polachek, Indigo De Souza, Rina Sawayama, and more. Phew, what a mouthful. I guess gay pop didn’t begin with Miss Siwa after all? – Lina Fisher
Sam Dimov Album Release
Tuesday 4, Parker Jazz Club
Trombonist Sam Dimov originally hails from Philadelphia, earning a music degree from Temple University and performing everything from jazz to funk to bluegrass (!) in Pennsylvania and environs. He came to Austin to get his master’s degree and integrated himself into the local scene from there. Now he celebrates the release of his debut album, All Day Affair, at Parker – a fitting venue for the traditionalist bop found on the record. If you like your jazz to be a swingin’ affair, whether it’s all day or not, Dimov and his band will definitely conjure up smoky clubs and glittering city nights. – Michael Toland
Guitar Wolf
Wednesday 5, Come and Take It Live
Debuting locally at Matador Records’ South by Southwest showcase a decade after forming in Tokyo in 1987, Guitar Wolf never took its foot off the gas. Last year’s Black Leather Bomb Live at WWWX blisters and writhes a garage punk that’s half Stooges, half Motörhead, and all noise. Harnessing the blinding white heat of pre-millennial digital hardcore, the feral trio’s analog mosh remains completely unhinged. Nagasaki-born frontman Seiji Anno hit 60 last year but shows no sign of slowing. Maybe landing “Planet of the Wolves” on the Men in Black II soundtrack tips us off to the singer-guitarist’s otherworldly lifeforce. – Raoul Hernandez
Jason Eady and Tim Easton
Wednesday 5, Saxon Pub
“Nobody ever wants to admit that what they really wanted nearly killed them,” ponders Tim Easton on the opening title track to his just-released LP, Find Your Way, the veteran troubadour’s gentle vocals folding across the poetic confessional of a life given to running on dreams. Easton’s songs strike with a deep compassion while never shying away from hard realities and truths. Jason Eady brings an equally exceptional songwriting ground in road-worn experience to match, with the Texan recently releasing his Old Wanderer trilogy, which wrangles a weary-voiced longing and redemption across tight, steel-swaddled melodies. – Doug Freeman
HAAM 2024 Corporate Battle of the Bands
Wednesday 5, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Who said the corporate world couldn’t rock? Back for its 15th year, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians’ (HAAM) Battle of the Bands gives stage and spotlight to professional bands who don’t get nearly enough opportunities to shout, shout, let it all out. Each act – sponsored by a local business – has 12 minutes to show what they can do and impress a panel of celebrity and industry judges for the chance to add one of the coveted superlatives to their names. Past winners include Phil Spectrum and the Pantones, the Haptics, the Mag Stripes, and last year’s Band of the Year, Noella Grey and the Imaginary Band. To date, the event has raised nearly $2 million in aid. – Cy White
Austin Cantorum Chamber Choir
Thursday 6, Cloud Tree Auxiliary
Picture yourself in an ancient cathedral, with the dulcet tones of a classical choir resonating as you are bathed in natural light. Talk about transcendent! That’s the vibe at Cloud Tree’s Ambient Music Series, taking guests on a rejuvenating musical journey every Thursday in June. Austin Cantorum kicks off the series with its meditative and illuminating chamber choir music, set against a calming backdrop with gorgeous acoustics. – Kat McNevins
Music Notes
by Derek UdensiTeezo Touchdown
Friday 31, Emo’s
At first, the Beaumont native may seem like just another internet gimmick attempting to make waves. He takes loose stabs at a multitude of genres – rap, alternative, rock, and more – while sporting unconventional fashion. (He has, however, toned down his aesthetic use of nails in recent months.) But there’s a genuine charm about the 31-year-old rooted in his spontaneity and representation of staying true to oneself. He returns to his self-proclaimed favorite Texas city after headlining day one of Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase during this year’s South by Southwest.
Justin Timberlake
Friday 31 – Saturday 1, Moody Center
Timberlake tours in support of his latest album, Everything I Thought It Was. How soon is too soon before the 2006 throwback “Summer Love” reenters summertime playlists?
Tuneful Tales
Wednesday 5 – Thursday 6, Various Austin Public Library Locations
This 2023 Best of Austin Critics Pick returns for another year of fun! Stories (these two dates spotlight Aaron Reynolds’ Creepy Carrots!) are enhanced via Austin Symphony Orchestra ensembles; kids can also enjoy other available activities. The program expands past the Central Library this summer, with performances set to occur at 16 Austin Public Library locations.
Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what’s happening now or in the coming week.
This article appears in May 31 • 2024.
