Just Checking In On Grandparents

grandyIt’s been almost three years since I last wrote a word or two about Portland’s Grandparents, but now that they’r prepping new tunes, seems like the right time to give the band a shout-out.  In writing about this tune, part of it’s because of my love of the band’s early work, and the other part is that it seems like the band spent a lot of time listening to Your Majesty by the Anniversary…an album I still think people overlooked. It’s got some space-age keyboards, but a sound rooted in folk/soul, wrapped inside a nice little indie box. Hopefully we hear more soon as the band prep their forthcoming LP.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/03-Kids-in-the-Alley_2444.mp3]

Download: Grandparents – Kids in the Alley [MP3]

Blast from the Past: The Return of Josh Berwanger

3ue5_BERWANGERLPINSERTAdmittedly, I went through a pretty intense emo phase (by that I’m talking 2nd wave).  One of the acts I got really into was the Anniversary, which interestingly appealed more to me with their second album, as it grew much like I did.  Here we have Josh Berwanger, one of the band’s primary songwriters returning.  It still has some of that country twang to it, though the Josh’s usage of combining male and female vocals is still evident here.  It’s a pretty casual track, but I’m not going to pretend like the harmonies don’t make their way into my heart.  He’ll be releasing his debut album, Strange Stains, on October 1st via Good Land Records.  I’m actually looking forward to what he comes up with this time around.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/03-Baby-Loses-Her-Mind.mp3]

Download: Josh Berwanger – Baby Loses Her Mind [MP3]

FTC: The Anniversary

So maybe with my from the closet features I’ll start getting the “emo kid” tag, but I don’t really care.  The era of the emo, post-emo, pop-emo, or whatever you wanna call it was when I really came into my own as a music critic and fan.  That era also exposed me to indie artists like Spoon, Wilco, Ryan Adams and tons of others that have become some of my all time favorites.  Now I won’t try to claim that emo kids The Anniversary belong in the same category as those bands, but they were good for what they were at the time.  I also wouldn’t claim the band as an inovator of the genre but more a band who rode on the coat tails of fellow midwest bands like Braid and The Get Up Kids.  I’ll of course be going with a song from their debut LP Designing a Nervous Breakdown since that was really the high point of the band that sort of fell off after that.  So why not re-live a little turn of the decade post-emo music with “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” from The AnniversarySide Note: I once gave a member of The Anniversary the middle finger during their set at Emos for talking about the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team during the NCAA Tournament.  The guy saw me (I don’t remember which band member it was) and called me out, but I kept my middle finger raised.  Hey UT was in the Sweet 16 and this is Austin mo fo!  Kansas lost in the Final Four BTW.  Good story huh?

[audio: https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/hunter.mp3]
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