With a name like I Am the Albatross, this Austin trio might be mistaken for overeducated wiseasses out to carve a new notch on the indie rock bedpost. Fortunately, that’s not the case on Lonesome Son. For one, leader Jesse Berkowitz and his wingmen rock too hard, pulling riffs from the heavy end of the alt.country spectrum and the harmonious side of Seventies hard rock. Berkowitz also seems less interested in clever irony than in serious expression. The singer/guitarist makes no secret of his ambivalence over the changes his town has been through in the past decade. Angst over the evolving Austin experience powers the rollicking “Port City” and roaring “Garden” like the Holy Spirit driving a Baptist preacher. IATA occasionally overreaches (the overlong “World of Money”), but when it flies, as on “The Vine,” the threesome proves its ability to rock its furrowed brow right into the ground.

***

This article appears in Attack of the 50-Foot Uterus!.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.