Author: brian.gray

The photo taker and manager of the IT Department.

Song Premiere: Western Youth

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Howdy.

We’ve got a local-flavored premier here, the second single by Western Youth from their upcoming release. “The King Is Gone” kicks off with a big guitar making a big guitar noise and settles into a groove that wreaks of Austin. If you ever wonder how one started an evening downtown in the early 90’s, it often sounded like this. Flourishes of piano and organ interplay and harmonize with the guitar and vocals; it is a sound you can only have when you have enough people on stage, enough instruments, enough pedigree lending their voices as the song ebbs and wanes through choruses and solos.

You can preorder the album due September 21 by clicking here, or have a listen live and pick up the record at the release party at Spiderhouse. It reset my headspace and now I can get on with my Friday.

The Twilight Sad Announce New Album

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…and have a new release to share, as well.

I am now officially on the hype train for this new record. The Twilight Sad have been a band that have always carried a weight around with them, but it seems they have found away to distribute that weight a bit in their recent track that had no tie in to an upcoming record. We learn that Andy and James, the driving force behind The Twilight Sad have, in fact shared the load a bit by adding the “touring” members of the band Brendan Smith and Johnny Docherty into the studio for production.

Today, we get another fantastic preview to the new record that instead of building, it smolders in a dark wave melody. The new record called IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME will be releases on Rock Action on January 18th, pre-order here.

PYAITK: Digital Shades

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Several years back, I raved about The New Division. While they have stayed on my playlists, I have neglected to share any recent tracks. In checking in on the band, I learned that John Kunkel has teamed with James Meays, Missing Words, for a project called Digital Shades.

It triggers thoughts of all the glorious, yet brooding synth pop that feels slow and fast at the same time. I pick up tension in space left between notes and treatment of vocals as songs build and move towards shining guitar crescendo to drop to a synth hook or momentary silence. The recently released EP is called Moonraker, “I’m Still Here” is a pleasant intro. You will get your Alphaville, Ultravox, M83 vibe strings pulled.

The Twilight Sad Share a Video for I/m Not Here

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Please don’t sleep on this Twilight Sad track; I am using the release of the video to remind you to listen. The video, much like the song, is swirling and fuzzy with moments of disturbed clarity for punctuation. Directed by Brendan Jay Smith, edited by Michael Sherrington, it uses VHS with overlays with repeated imagery devolving into a negative. More importantly, put your headphones on and let loose.

They are hitting the west coast, Canada and east coast in October/early November before returning to Europe for more dates. New record soon? We can only hope.

Red River Cultural District Gets A New Exec

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Mohawk has long been a favorite venue of ours. It is a home base to start a night and hosted several of our favorite shows over the years, both touring and local. The venue has a following and has been named to best venues lists in several clickbait articles, heh. So many reasons why, but Cody Cowan has been a rock to keep making those gains. Along with being a friend and damn fine photographer, Cody will be leaving his position as GM at Mohawk to become the executive director of the Red River Cultural District. Frankly, we could not think of a better human to trust with our beloved venues. He was a leader in the initiative to get the noise curfew pushed back for Red River venues that has seen revenue increases for clubs that were affected. Chad Swiatecki has a nice intro piece up over at Austin Monitor.

What are your wants and needs for Red River? Let us know.

ps The photo is from a couple years back, but I think it works for this story.

ACL 2018 Schedule Available

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…but you need to download the app.

Go here on your mobile device or push that install if you are so inclined.

Who will you miss when you see Chuhvurches? Deftones on Weekend One, Disturbed on Weekend Two.

David Byrne or Golden Dawn? If your out-of-town buddies haven’t been in the Arkestra and have seen Byrne, you know the answer.

Blood Orange or Sharon Van Etten? Pleased to say, that may the worst conflict.

But check out the app and opt in for updates and news as schedules are bound to be updated and you want the news when it lands.

Das Lebenslied Means The Song of Life

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The Policy is a duo out of Rotterdam. The lyrics of their song “Das Lebenslied” are in Dutch, maybe German, through a vocoder. That doesn’t matter. This is pretty rad.

I pick up Kraut Rock influences, sure, but there is a bit of Detroit and Jungle lurking tonally, certainly not a frenetic drum line here, but waveform patterns and the interesting melodic flourishes in rise and descent echo the progressive house movement’s subtle, but strong run through dance halls and after hours spots in the 90’s. Pierre Hagelaars fronts and Thijmen Hoebink produces, they have been remixing quite a bit lately, but this single has me ready for a full release. This single is now available via [PIAS] Recordings.

Have a Nice Weekend

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Sometimes a friend on the intarwebs shares a band with you via the social media to PYAITK. Fellow music photog Randy tagged me in a post due to my penchant for synth pop after he stumbled across Nation of Language on a Soundcloud bender. They were supposed to come for SxSW where I probably would have stumbled into one of their sets and subsequently followed them around, but recording took the budget. Developing.


New Music From The Twilight Sad

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Nathan and I’s slow, steady bromance started with The Twilight Sad headlining a show at Emo’s. Our manniversary. The last time I saw the band was opening for The Cure a couple years back. Those of you lucky enough to attend the Cure’s 40th Anniversary party in Hyde park may have been there early to see our friends from Scotland, along with Interpol and Slowdive and many others. Jealous.

The lads from Glasgow have a new track to share via Rock Action Records. With a textural undertone and the gradual surge inwards to focus on James’s vocal, which later gets buried again, the song navigates through all the things I love about the band. You can’t escape the accent, the deliberate clarity of core messages, the layers of guitar and synth that cause focus or escapism. There are new things for me here, or at least new application of familiar tools like how the piano comes in not to haunt or highlight, but to fill. Album news soon, they are touring in the fall, though staying on the west coast and before crossing the northern US and Canada and then heading back to Europe. Come to Austin – tacos, bromance and Lone Stars await.

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