A serious hat tip is due to Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona for turning OTR on to Paper Hotel. The local quartet has kept a low profile – no management, label, or publicist – but managed to land the Bubble producer Jason Buntz for a digital EP, Hearts & Spades, which recalls the Arctic Monkeys in all the right ways.
Lead single “Golddigger” should be a 101X staple by month’s end. Catch Paper Hotel at the Mohawk on Saturday as part of FFF Nites.
Paper Hotel “Golddigger”
Girl in a Coma “Smart”
Solo and electric, Nina Diaz debuted “Smart” at the Pachanga Music Festival in May, her piercing eyes as telling as the song’s nostalgic melancholy. The single received full-band accompaniment on latest, Exits & All the Rest (Blackheart), and an even better video, courtesy of director Jim Mendiola and premiered by Rolling Stone.
Pure X “Surface”
Local drone trio Pure X just released the second video for the summer sizzler, Pleasure, which slow dances between creepy and compelling. It was directed by contemporary Malcolm Elijah of Silent Diane.
This article appears in The 1%.