Austin Town Hall

Shortly after our time at ACL, we realized that we failed to interview any of our favorite local acts playing over the weekend.  To make up for our miscue, we caught up with up and coming Austin artist Black Joe Lewis via email.  Black Joe has been hard working hard and touring the country with his band The Honeybears after releasing his debut LP earlier this year.  Follow the jump to read full interview.

Read More

Hole in the Wall is the place to be on Saturday if you want to check out the best and brightest of up and coming local artists!  The lineup is just straight nasty and highlights include ATH favorites Quiet Company, Frantic Clam, Deathray Davies, DJ Mel and a whole butt load of others that won’t all fit in this small space. Ticket prices vary throughout the day so here’s the lowdown on that:

Free from 2-7
$3 from 7-10
$7 from 10-2am

So I say post up at 2, don’t leave, and never pay an entrance fee.  Check out do512 or that fancy poster for full lineup info.  Why not make back to school more like happy time?

We spent a lot of time this week debating our favorite venue.  What constitutes the perfect place to catch a show?  Is it sound alone, or beer prices?  Maybe it’s both.  We decided that we wanted to narrow it down to the best five places in town where you’ll most likely see one of us, or one of our favorite bands playing.  We even developed a rating system for them.  We’ll be using our typical 5 Star system (1 being the lowest, 5 the highest) to rate the following areas: Sound Quality, Band Quality, Beer Prices, Atmosphere, and Mobility during packed shows. Follow the jump for full article.
Read More

Thank you Hole in the Wall for continuing to put on awesome shows for cheap cheap money!  Saturday night the lineup at the local bar/venue features an awesome local lineup with Amplified Heat AND Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.  Please tell me you’ve seen Black Joe?  You haven’t!  Well do it!  Price should be under $10.  Check out some Amplified Heat video’s on youtube here, here, and here.

As if your Friday night concert going decisions weren’t already tough, here’s another great show that should prove to be your cheapest option for the evening.  Hole in the Wall features a lineup of garage rock Canadians Pack AD, Poppy Austinites The Alice Rose, and local singer-songwriter Mario Matteoli.  Entrance to Hole in the Wall will usually keep you under $10.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download: Pack AD – Making Gestures [MP3]

Great Nostalgic is a band we’ve been following closely since we first discovered them so we were of course excited to hear about their CD release party at Hole in the Wall on Friday.  Joining in the party fun will be fellow locals Sunset and The Sour Notes.  The show should be a unique and new twist on your usual Great Nostalgic set because the band has invited the horn section from Hard Proof Afrobeat to play on a few songs.  Show starts at 10pm with door charge being $3.  The band will also be selling copies of their debut LP for $8 which includes a  bonus disc of remixes done by local DJs.  Here’s one of those new remixes available exclusively on ATH done by local DJ Business Man.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We here at Austin Town Hall try to get a show together once in a blue moon, and now felt like the right time to get things going again.  This time around we’ve brought Opposite Day, Whitman, and Frantic Clam to Hole in the Wall this Friday night for a sure to be killer set.  The show will only run you $2, so put down that Friday the 13th box set and get your live music on.  If we don’t see you there, we’ll do to you what Jason did to Kevin Bacon…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download: Frantic Clam – Fort Worthless [MP3]

Rating:

Local Austin band Frantic Clam originally joined forces while serving in the armed forces in Iraq.  The two founding members, Zack and Joe,  spent their spare time crafting simple tunes.  Celebrity is the band’s first EP, but a full length album is scheduled for release this Winter.

Opening track “Mary Elizabeth Winstead” is definitely rooted in a Southern soul sort of vibe, as the guitar work is really gritty.  The vocals are reminiscent of a Issac Brock being raised in the Deep South, with backing vocals added to fill in some the empty space in the song.

They wander off to “Everything is Perfect,” which is probably the best song on the album.  The vocals at the beginning are really crisp, which packs a stronger punch than some of the fuzzier recording that comes along later.  It’s a gentler approach to their songwriting; an attribute the band should consider employing full time.

“Richard Cory” is another mellow number at track 3.  A slower pace allows the band to focus on the melodies here, and this ends up demonstrating the band’s abilities to intertwine hooks with their space infused Southern rock sound. Similarly, “Amnesty” is filled with space keyboards and lyrics battling the mundane world, along with mundane problems.  It comes off like an old Grandaddy b-side.

They close the album with samples of Oz, as they finish with “The Emerald City.” It’s a song that exhibits a bit of funk, as if the band smashed into Stereolab all of a sudden.  It is another sound that demonstrates the possibilities the future holds for this band.  Keep an eye on this group, as I’m sure we’ll hear more of them in the future.

Speaking of hearing more, the band has a gig on December 12th at Hole in the Wall, so go check it out; keep it local.

You can also check out single from the album Richard Cory elsewhere on our site.