Twangy Rock From T. Hardy Morris

t_hardymorris_01As we move into our early week tunes, have a listen to this great track from T. Hardy Morris.  Now some of you may have heard this one already so just bear with me for a minute.  It’s a great country inspired rock track that is worthy of a few plays despite my tardiness.  Think Blitzen Trapper or Deer Tick with more of a punk rock tendency.  Let’s make it through the week…

“Painted on Attitude” is part of a two song single currently for sale on bandcamp.

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What’s in a Fest? An Interview with Athens Intensified

Athens BannerIt seems that every other day, someone has a festival going, especially here in Austin; there’s always something.  I’m okay with that, but over the last few years I’ve noticed a lot of small boutique festivals carving niches for themselves. With  this in mind, I was connected with Gordon Lamb, formerly one of the gents behind Athens PopFest, and now the founder of Athens Intensified.  The festival takes place in Athens, Georgia (not Greece) on September 11-13, with an extra date on September 20th to fit in The Egyptian Lover.  If you’re in the area and interested in going…tickets are HERE.  But, otherwise, it’s still a good read at the world of being a festival curator.  Thanks to Gordon for his time and to Mike for setting up the interview.
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Eureka California – Crunch

eureka3Rating: ★★★½☆

Once in a blue moon you stumble across an album that defies the odds.  You might recognize bits of various genres within this sort of album, but every song sounds completely refreshing.  You’ll get precisely this when you listen to Crunch, the newest album from Athens’ Eureka California; they’ve created a pop rock record that doesn’t give a fuck if you like it.

One of the great attributes, of which there are many, on Crunch lives in the fact that only one song on the album breeches the 3 minute mark, with most falling far short of that mark.  Take the opener, “Edith” which is finished in just under a 1.5 minutes, as an example; it’s a jangling rocker with a nice little bounce, but rather than hit you over the head with redundancy, Eureka California quickly gets to the point, then wraps it up.  This is a tactic that’s used far too rarely nowadays, as many bands want to make sure you acknowledge their musicianship.  Here it’ll allow you to bob your head to track after track, never tiring of a single note.

Still, you can’t just rely on short bursts of joyous pop, you’ve got to have great songs tune, and they’re filling up this entire album.  I love “There’s No Looking Back,” opening with a casual chugging riff and vocals, but as you’re growing accustomed to the tune, it blasts off furiously into a more ramshackle version of itself.  There’s also “This Ain’t No A-Side,” which might be one of the album’s better tracks.  It uses a little bit of fuzziness on the instruments, while holding onto this youthful vibrance that burrows into your eardrums.  And you can’t forget the lead single from Crunch, “Twin Cities.” This song in particular gathers all of my favorite bits of the band and throws it into one song; there’s hooks in the vocals, well-executed guitar riffs, various movements and it all seems like the band is on the verge of falling off the tracks.

There’s a reckless abandon to the entirety of Crunch.  After many many listens it seems like the group got together to bang out the loudest, most fun set of pop tracks they could.  They clearly weren’t concerned with where they fit in the grand spectrum of the music world, they just wanted to write a bunch of great songs; it’s part of what makes every track so endearing, and ultimately what makes Eureka California something quite special.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/08-Twin-Cities.mp3]

 

Hypnotic Electro-Pop from pacficUV

Pacific-UV-Pacific-UvI always have this preconceived idea about Athens, Georgia, at least in referencing the city’s musical history.  But, with bands like Twin Tigers and now pacificUV coming into their own, perhaps my ideas will begin to change a bit.  This tune has a hypnotic electro beat that just grooves the whole way through.  You’ll also find some rad interplay between male and female vocalists that really ups the ante on mass appeal.  The band has a new record titled After the Dream You Are Awake, which comes out on May 14th via Mazarine Records…but if you can’t wait, they have a sampler HERE with a few new tracks, as well as some of their other career retrospective tunes.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/85222547″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Pleased to Meet You: Triads

Things are really slow, with a lot of the music just getting stuck in the same space, so I’ve been relying upon the words of friends around the Net to discover things outside the typical realm.  I’ve really been digging this group from Athens by the name of Triads.  They’ve just released a new single with a killer track, “Day Off,” but I wanted you to look at their starting place, so you get the same introduction I received.  It’s got sort of a post-punk feel to it, though it feels a bit warmer, as opposed to darker…it’s smoothed out by a nice melodic churning guitar that runs throughout.  Hope you’re as excited by these cats as I am.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Triads-Dirty-Laundry.mp3]

Download:Triads – Dirty Laundry [MP3]

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