Letting Up Despite Great Faults Share Self-Portrait Video

I’ve spent a lot of time the last few weeks enjoying IV, the latest long player from Austin’s Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Hopefully you’ve been passing your time in a similar fashion, and if not, then indulge me by watching this new lyric video for “Self-Portrait” in hopes that you see the error in your ways. Starting off with a light jangling guitar sets the mood, just before the rhythm section (which is always spot on) pushes the song into foot-stomping/hand-clapping territory. Mike Lee’s feathered voice softly caresses your inner ear as heavy riffs run beneath the surface, fighting to break through the band’s melodious nature helmed by Lee and Annah Fisette’s vocals. Plus, the band get bonus points here for the great video created by Pelvis Wrestley‘s Benjamin Violet…a kind and artistic human in their own right! Grab the LP right HERE.

Tonight’s Show Preview: Letting Up Despite Great Faults + Pelvis Wrestley

As the music world seemingly gets back to normal (don’t forget your masks kids!), I’m starting, myself, to scope out what’s going on in the world. Tonight, there’s a perfect “dad show” at Cheer Up Charlies featuring my favorites Letting Up Despite Great Faults and Pelvis Wrestley. Why is it a perfect “dad” or “mom” show? Well, it starts after bedtime, with Pelvis taking the stage at 9, and Letting Up hitting the stage at 10; I should be home by 11:15, perfectly sleeping until my little ones wake me up at 5:30! And, there’s an added bonus as we get to see Pelvis Wrestley, whose tape we were fortunate to help get out into the world, plus I know Letting Up Despite Great Faults has a batch of new songs they’re ready to unleash on you and me. Join me tonight, $5 cover!

A New Song from Pelvis Wrestley

Remember when we helped our friends in Pelvis Wrestley release their latest album, Vortexas Vorever, on cassette? Well, they just shared a brand new tune that should make your day; it’s part of Austin Music Foundations ATX Gen Next comp, which also features other artists like Deezie Brown, DRINT and more. This new Pelvis track has this great galloping shuffle to it, but there’s some little nuanced details that I love. Put your ear close, and you can here this brooding fuzz right behind Ben’s voice in there; I can’t explain why, but it accents his great vocal performance in just the right way. Plus, there’s this tamed exuberance that comes in the chorus, reminiscent of Arcade Fire when they were charming…but clearly they’ve handed the reins to this Austin bunch. I’ve also included a stream of their LP, because why havent’ you listened to it enough?

Top Austin Hits from 2020

Seeing as we’re based in Austin, born and raise and what not, we feel a special affinity for our music scene, which has been hit really hard this year. But, let’s celebrate the music that came out, despite the difficulties we all faced. So, here’s our Top Releases from the ATX scene. And still staying away from numbering things, as this feels like telling one friend you like them more than your other friend…and I’m just excited all these great artists live nearby and were able to put their art into the world in this shit year.

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Daphne Tunes Organizes Covered

Our good friend Santiago has been a big part of our site and our label; the label released an LP from his band Growl, and last week we released the Pelvis Wrestley tape, a band of which he is a part. But, he’s really been focusing the last few years on Daphne Tunes, and this time around he’s organized a bunch of friends to throw together some recordings of their favorite tunes; the release is aptly called Covered. There are some other ATH Records alums on here in the form of J Halp (of Marmalakes) and Most Likely (Sam of Growl), but also some great locals we love like Emily and Al of Van Mary or Teddy Glass. Just wanted to give a shout out to the release, with all proceeds going to Urban Roots Initiative. Stream it, love it, buy it, enjoy it.

Catching Up with the Austin Music Scene

Seeing as the City of Austin is determined to ignore the struggling creativity of our city, we’re trying to do just the wee little bit we can for the five of you that read this site. So, I wanted to kind of jump in and highlight some of last week’s great Austin releases. This is all in addition to the great Mobley track we wrote about earlier in that week!

First, we’d be remiss if we didn’t encourage you to listen to Pelvis Wrestley, current holders of the best band name in Austin. Oh, and did we mentioned our label put out cassette of their debut Vortexas Vorever LP on Friday? We did very little but ride the coattails of their genius, which you can stream below!

Second, one of the acts we’ve championed for years, Jana Horn, released her new solo LP, Optimism. Pretty sure this might be one of the best releases in Austin this year, and hopefully the world finally starts to take notice of Jana’s incredible gifts.

Then there was a new single from Dylan Pacheco, which I’ve been super into over the weekend. It reminds me a tad of Elvis Depressedly in that sort of bedroom pop sense, but I’ll admit I feel like Pacheco might have better production touches on this number. His debut EP, Youthful Exuberance, will hit on October 30th.

Future Museums also had a single of his minimal electronica that was released via Holodeck Records. It’s this carefully constructed organic piece that’s probably best experienced while watching the following video accompaniment.

Pelvis Wrestley + ATH Records + Vortexas Vorever

A few years ago, Mike and I caught Pelvis Wrestley; we immediately knew that we wanted to work with them in any fashion. Luckily, as we heard they were ready to release their debut LP, we reached out and agreed to do a cassette version of Vortexas Vorever; you have no idea how we are excited to be working with this bunch.

Here’s what Benjamin Violet had to say about the track that comes with this glorious announcement: “In Heaven takes us to toxic positivity, the shadow-self, and back home again.With nods to Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalamenti, this track is a psycho-spaceage fanfare to celebrate every moment you ever chose to confront your own personal boss-level. In the absence of nurturance, every abuser might as well be dead to you.”

Vortexas Vorever will be available in all the cool spots, and you should definitely grab a tape while you’re at it; pre-orders are HERE.

New Pelvis Wrestley Tune + Single Release

Pelvis Wrestley have two things going for them: 1) an incredible band name 2) the music to back up said band name. They’ve got this great new single, “Susanna,” which they’ll be celebrating here in Austin over at Cheer Up Charlies (w/ Fanclub and Lord Friday the 13th). This new track revolves around a really heavy synth beat, propelling the song forward while Benjamin Violet hangs his pop sensibility along the vocals; I really love the rise and fall factor that coincides with the chorus on this one, particularly as it takes the song toward a soaring close. Come join the band tomorrow night at Cheer Ups if you’re in town, and keep an eye out, as rumor has it, there’s an EP on the way in 2020.

Show Preview: Good Morning @ Mohawk

I’ve been writing about Good Morning for several years now, but since Prize//Reward, the band really seem to have found themselves on a quick rise to popularity, leading us to the very recent release of Basketball Breakups. Tonight, the Aussie bunch bring their sounds to Austin for the first time (as far as I can remember), and why not celebrate them for just making it overseas, as it’s getting super hard for those overseas acts to make it onto our shores. I think the casual pop of the band has them poised to breakout over here, so tonight might be your chance to catch them on the ascendancy. Plus, they’re supported by two of our favorite locals in Daphne Tunes and Pelvis Wrestley. Tickets are scarce, so hunt one down if you dare!