Michael Maly – Austin Town Hall

Show Review: Almost Heaven @ Brushy Street Commons

February 2, 2026 Michael Maly Leave a comment

We dance because the stillness becomes unbearable

It seems fitting that the Austin-based electronic/rock duo Almost Heaven took to the stage of Brushy Street Commons on Friday, January 30th, to celebrate the release of their EP aptly titled Raw Cranium, as national unrest took the stage for the world to see. Dance music and dance music culture have historically been a physiological response to constraint – political, social, economic, or cultural. If the response comes in the form of Almost Heaven, we will be dancing our way through these times in the best way possible.

More words and photos after the jump!

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Levitation Halloween Freakend Bonus Coverage (with Photos)

November 10, 2025 Michael Maly Leave a comment

In recent years, the annual Levitation Festival has occupied Halloween weekend, doubling as both a music festival and a holiday celebration. With the event shifting to an earlier date and new location this year, organizers seized the chance to curate a two-day lineup billed as the Halloween Freakend. The lineuppresumably assembled with a spooky, ghoulish fright-fest in mindfeatured a collection of artists that felt fitting in either name or style for the holiday weekend: Machine Girl, Clown Core, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and The Black Lips for reasons that seem obvious.

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Psych Fest Preview: Blackwater Holylight

April 21, 2025 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Austins Psych Fest kicks off 4.25 and runs through 4.27, and maybe a little insight into what Im looking forward to specifically some sleepers or lesser-knowns is warranted. I know you didnt ask, but Ill tell you anyway.

Blackwater Holylight: Friday, 6:15, Janis Stage

Day 1, get there early and get the weekend started right. Sandwiched between the sweet sounds of Jesse Sykes, and the local headliners The Octopus Project and Explosions in the Sky, is a whole lot of black. And I love black sonically and visually.

It would be an easy stab at pushing the other blacks in the middle pack, but Blackwater Holylight deserves the attention just as much as the others. Austins Psych Fest has never been shy about showing off their love for the heavy, stoner, psychedelic, shoegaze-sludge rock and they packed in a few hours of this right about the time that most cubicle-occupying day-walkers are mid happy hour, washing away their weeks worth of toil and making plans to utilize what little time they have to enjoy over the next few days. I think you know what you should be doing in lieu of that time-honored, soul-suck of a tradition. Blackwater Holylight.

The band just released their 2025 EP If Only You Knew, which sees the members exploring more personal themes lyrically while steering into the same sonic vibe. A few singles have surfaced already, if you’re looking for a taste. And the All I Need Cover is kinda cool.

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Psych Fest Preview: King Hannah

April 18, 2025 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Austins Psych Fest kicks off 4.25 and runs through 4.27, and maybe a little insight into what I’m looking forward to, specifically some sleepers or lesser-knowns, is warranted. I know you didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway.

King Hannah: Sunday, 2:55 PM, Janis Stage

King Hannah‘s unique blend of influences think PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, and Mazzy Star makes for the perfect concoction to set the tone for the 90s-heavy Sunday lineup. While the bands roots may be in Liverpool, the American influence left on them during their first North American tour found its way smeared all over their 2024 release Big Swimmer.

Referencing songwriting legends like Bill Callahan and John Prine in lyric, while still maintaining their own distinct perspective, makes for incredibly enjoyable listening especially when a patient ear is applied. Dig into their catalog of two full-lengths, and some notable covers (Madonnas Like A Prayer and Bruce Springsteens State Trooper) and you’ll find yourself awash in a constant glaze of slow-building sonic landscapes, accented by Hannah’s deeply personal and reflective lyrical process.

Coming off a lengthy, successful European tour with countless sold-out shows, the band returns to North America for the first time in a few years. Get there early.

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Show Review: MJ Lenderman @ Emos (2.6)

February 10, 2025 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Breaking up is hard to do, but it sure does make for good music.

MJ Lenderman’s lyrics aren’t sprawling, poetic pleas for understanding. Instead, they arrive as snapshots intimate, personal, and timeless observations of everyday life. Wrap that up nice and tight with music that echoes the highlights of a sound delivered within a newly appointed label aptly titled No Depression in the 90s, which found itself a successful hybrid of Americana and Rock, spawning the genre Alt-Country. Breathing life into its faded wake comes Lenderman.

“Coward cutting Joker lips into a rubber mask
Please don’t ask how I’m doing
Draining cum from hotel showers
Hoping for the hours to pass a little faster.”

Two Days of Far Out During Levitation

November 14, 2024 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Since its inception in 2008 as ‘Austin Psych Fest,’ this Austin-based music festival has built a strong reputation. It offers a diverse lineup of underground, punk, electronic, and shoegaze acts, standing in stark contrast to the larger, more mainstream Austin festival that takes place earlier in the month. The festival features a wide range of underground, punk, electronic, hardcore, shoegaze, and psych-rock acts. It blends established genre titans with progressive newcomers, offering high-quality performances across 11 venues over four days in Austin, TX. The flexible programming allows fans to choose between a single day built around an established headliner or a full weekend exploring diverse genre options across several downtown venues. The one exception is the Far Out Lounge, a short trek south of the city’s center. A venue with two stages makes the location ideal for a day packed with constant action on stage.

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Air Celebrate 25 Years of Moon Safari at Moody Amphitheater in Sublime Futuristic Fashion

November 1, 2024 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Wednesday night at The Moody Amphitheater in Austin, Tx, iconic, electronic French duo Air brought the North American leg of the Moon Safari Tour to its finale. Playing for a capacity crowd, clearly carrying their deep admiration for the 1998, pioneering, electronic classic, Moon Safari, the French duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benot Dunckel accompanied by touring drummer Louis Delorme exceeded any expectations that this experience would be nothing less than sublime. Read more

IDLES Divide, Conquer and LOVE Austin’s Moody Ampitheater

May 23, 2024 Michael Maly Leave a comment

We’re anti-Fascist, we’re anti-violence, we’re anti-racist and we’re pro-creative. -Joe Strummer (The Clash)

We all listen to music for a myriad of reasons but, for many of us, it is our source of connection to humanity. A connection that informs us that we are not alone in this world with our own experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Over 7 years and 5 studio albums, Bristols IDLES have found that connection with an audience that spans generations, race, creed, and sexual identity.Their sound explores the typical musical landscape of punk/post-punk/hardcore, brash, aggressive, and thunderous while delivering poignant, timeless messaging, political and personal, softening the edges with tongue-in-cheek humor and pushing the musical confines of a genre sometimes limiting in sound.

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Slowdive Play the Hits @ ACL Live (5.12)

May 15, 2024 Michael Maly Leave a comment

This past Sunday night, 5 members of the band Slowdive quietly strolled onto the stage at Austins ACL Live Moody Theater to perform for the capacity crowd, a set that one could only imagine might be about as close to a perfect Slowdive set and performance as one could ever expect from the band. The band, well into its 40 years of existence including a brief 22-year pause between albums 3 and 4, has found itself a new audience of youth amongst the longtime, slightly more aged fans they acquired during their earlier years as one of the prominent purveyors of the sub-genre shoegaze. A genre that has found new life in a generation yet to be birthed when the band began.

Photos and words by Michael Maly.

Levitation Reviews: Boy Harsher @ Empire (10/28)

November 2, 2021 Michael Maly Leave a comment

I like guitars.

Because of the introduction of technology, synthesizers, and electronic music, the 80s became the decade of exploration in music less organic. A paradigm shift happened on a grand scale in the art of music sometimes for the better, and at times for the worst. The better of that shift has quietly existed, bubbling beneath the surface while electronic music has permeated the industry on a global scale, diehard fans of the true pioneers, at the time considered underground, find themselves embedded in a resurgence of sorts. Whether intentional or not, the three artists on the bill for the first full night of Levitation Fest 21 at Empire Control Room, embody the essence and pay homage to some of the key players in that pivotal movement of music that ushered in a global shift from our analog lives into the digital world. Hit the jump for more and fancy photos.

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