David Garza

Human Tattoo (Cosmica)

No accident Elliott Smith’s family trusted David Garza to host a bicoastal tribute to the late pop mystic. Austin’s musical polymath shares Smith’s lyrical intimacy offset by a restless, amniotic instrumentalism. Lo-fi intent meets surround sound execution, beginning with Garza’s overall statement of purpose in opener “Creation,” wherein self-reflection turns into sheer human wonderment. A watery, diaphanous float through Nina Diaz’s “Weigh You Down,” featuring San Antonio’s Girl in a Coma herself, should prompt a longer, David Byrne/St. Vincent-like collaboration. Human Tattoo coheres best on the back half, space lock antimatter flying around the distortion motored “Jean Genet” (“she reads Jean Genet/she wishes she was gay”) and space station love song “Kiss & Run.” Barrelhouse blues funneling a futuristic radioactivity (“All Summer Long”), and cabaret disembodiment (“Rude Eyeshadow”) warm up closing piano ballad “Heavens in Your Heart,” a great American songbook-sounding triumph of smoky mood and soul. Produced by Adrian Quesada (Grupo Fantasma, Brownout) with indelible album ink by Amy Cook, Human Tattoo sticks. (CD release: Cactus Cafe, Wednesday 28 & Thursday 29.)

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This article appears in August 23 • 2013.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.