From debut LPs to established act victory laps, Austin artists produced a wealth of music in 2024. I was delighted to discover new bands like emo trio proun and hip-hop superduo Geto Gala (whose first EP I missed in 2021), and even more thrilled to see longtime favorites like BLK ODYSSY, Being Dead, and Font get some love from non-local outlets like NPR, KEXP, and Pitchfork. Counting backward from 10, these are the albums you likely saw the most on my Spotify Recent Activity tab this year.
10) Geto Gala, Major League
As its name suggests, Deezie Brown and Jake Lloyd’s first collaborative full-length lands in a whole new circuit compared to the MCs’ 2021 The Geto Gala EP. Crazy synth sounds and heavy bass notes remain on Major League, but live-recorded guitars and drums and lush R&B melodies elevate the project – especially in tandem with the rappers’ soulfully sung choruses.
9) Blushing, Sugarcoat
Blushing debuted their brand of dream pop back in 2017, well before the 2020s shoegaze revival introduced the next generation to the joys of an overstuffed pedal board. Still looking forward (or back?), the quartet channels a different era on a heavier LP with breakbeats that recall the Madchester indie dance scene.
8) BLK ODYSSY, 1-800-FANTASY
More teenage dream than IRL sexcapade, Juwan Elcock’s latest concept album soundtracks lust not with slow jams or thumping funk, but with the most decadent music imaginable: capital-P Pop. Radio-ready choruses lodge in your head for days, but stacked vocals and wide-ranging instrumentation dispel any notions of a cash-out dumb-down. The Tiny Desk-appearing producer still has the studio sauce.
7) Font, Strange Burden
Jittery, tortured post-punk; the 1975-inspired, stadium-ready choruses; danceable, new wave rhythms – it’s all there in longtime live favorites Font’s debut LP, which traverses all corners of the alternative rock canon in a brisk 29 minutes. A captivating stage presence makes the five-piece a must-see, but this meticulous studio project does fine in the meantime.
6) Variety, Subtropical
Featuring members of blistering post-hardcore outfit Porcelain and veteran noise rockers Borzoi, Variety’s first longplayer lands surprisingly mellow. Of course, Subtropical still rollicks – opener “Plover” with prickly guitars and rattling percussion, “The Light” with jerky post-punk melodies – but “Valentine” opts for melancholy fuzz, a welcome progression for these reliable thrashers.
5) proun, podium EP
Okay, this one’s cheating. Four songs doth not an album make. But discovering proun – the project of Squamps guitarist Jamie Weed, and featuring guitar wizard Alex Peterson of alexalone on drums in live settings – was one of the best things to come out of my Austin live music excursions in 2024. Whereas 2023 collection form introduced Weed’s louder guitar proclivities, October’s podium opts for quiet introspection. The singer’s aching vocals and slower-strummed melodies land somewhere in the emo realm; that’s a genre I rarely accept with open arms, but this one’s too earnest to ignore.
4) Queen Serene, 2
Shoegaze has become such an oversaturated subgenre that it’s teetering on the edge of monotony. Queen Serene don’t reinvent the wheel on their sophomore album – fuzzy guitars, noise interludes, and nearly unintelligible vocals dominate 2 – but the alchemy of Sarah Ronan and Matt Galercan’s melodies remains memorable all the same. “I’m not gonna let this one go,” the two harmonize in dour track three “Big Fish” – though somehow, the six-string sludge comforts, not bludgeons. Same for follow-up “In a Rut (I’m Stuck),” whose noodling bassline and pogoing riff make the titular phrase – the song’s only lyrics – sound delightful for nearly six minutes straight. Maybe there’s still gold to be mined after all.
3) Big Bill, Strawberry Seed
Big Bill’s third and best album yet takes the punks’ characteristic quirks and blows them up – not into thin air, but into a grand studio project that once and for all captures the band’s genre-agnostic proficiencies. Strawberry Seed excels not just at Eric Braden and company’s usual zippy, left-leaning kissoffs (“Poverty of Wires”), but also nails Lou Reed acoustics (“Ex-Con,” originally written by Bill Callahan), Stooges grime (“Political Meat”), and even pretty-over-snotty group vocals (“Beautiful Angels of the City”). Inexplicably, these 14 eclectic tracks still flow cohesively.
2) Being Dead, Eels
It’s fun to turn your brain off when listening to Being Dead – to clap along to the acid pop of “Godzilla Rises,” headbang to the fuzz guitar of “Firefighters,” or giggle alongside Nicole Roman-Johnston in “Rock n’ Roll Hurts,” all of which appear on the goofballs’ new LP. But it’s more fun to really listen to the songs, and rejoice that such talented – and, yes, funny – people come from Austin. It’s not easy to write songs this catchy, to fuse Sixties Beatles melodies with Western imagery, to reach a beautiful falsetto as effortlessly as Falcon Bitch does in “Dragons II.” As much as us Austinites love to complain when the rest of the world catches onto our hometown secrets, I felt no such jealousy when Pitchfork awarded EELS its coveted Best New Music designation. To paraphrase a track from the band’s 2023 debut: We’re having a good time; I hope new fans are having a good time too.
1) Porcelain, S/T
Guitarists Steve Pike (Exhalants, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes) and Ryan Fitzgibbon (TV’s Daniel, US Weekly), bassist Jordan Emmert (Super Thief, Pleasure Venom), and drummer Eli Deitz (Votive, Shitbag, Dregs) knew each other as Austin guitar scene veterans for years before forming Porcelain around three years ago. Perhaps that’s why the band’s self-titled debut arrived so fully formed. Pummeling yet melodic, Porcelain plays like a defining post-hardcore statement: While Emmert growls and Deitz pounds, Pike and Fitzgibbon play Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, weaving two-part melodies at one moment and bursting into improvised, beer can-against-the-neck feedback at the next. Of the band’s “realistic ambition,” bandleader Pike told the Chronicle earlier this year: “If I’m going to spend this much time [making music], why not be fucking good at it?” One album in, that mission’s accomplished.
Carys’ Favorite Non-Local 2024 Releases
1) Charli XCX – BRAT
2) Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
3) A Country Western – Life on the Lawn
4) The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
5) Faye Webster – Underdressed at the Symphony
6) DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water
7) Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
8) Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
9) MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
10) Soccer Mommy – Evergreen
This article appears in December 13 • 2024.
