Eagerly awaiting the release of The National’s High Violet? You can stream the band’s upcoming release over at The New York Times today. There’s a lengthy article by Nicholas Dawidoff to accompany your streaming experience. Now, I went to the page and quickly scanned it, and didn’t see the stream, but the band says that it’s there, so check it out for yourself. “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, “Sorrow”, and “Anyone’s Ghost” all sound great, but as most of the band’s album’s go, they slowly reveal their beauty one lovely layer at a time.

Someone muttered the band name Bear In Heaven to me late last year, and upon first glance it sparked some interest, but ceases to fall off my radar completely. If you haven’t noticed the band has been pulling media attention constantly all this year and the quiet buzz is getting louder.

A simple creative effort on the part of the band for this video making use of idle time, and giving the fans and the media another bit to gnaw on, until the next bit comes around, which will surely find more open arms and ears than last time around.

A nice moment during the dust cloud from Bear In Heaven on Vimeo.

And a little MP3 action as well

MP3> Bear In Heaven ‘Lovesick Teenagers’

There’s a genuine honesty and realness that happens in music occasionally wrapped in a weight of upright creativity and passion, that lands in your lap on those special occasions. Denton’s Baruch The Scribe might fit the bill for this particular occasion.

A beautiful organic approach to minimalistic, ambient music created in it’s own patient time and space, Baruch The Scribe may be on the right track to something really great. The instrumentation is broad and airy while the recording incorporates everyday day sounds into the mix. The band has a 6 song EP titled (Let Us Call Them As The World Calls Them) Evil Memories that flows seamlessly from start to finish like the seasons of the year.

MP3> Baruch The Scribe ‘In A Field Of Stiff Weeds’
MP3> Baruch The Scribe ‘Today I Circled The Room With Screams’

This weekend, the 3rd installment of Austin Psych Fest takes place @ Mowhawk, happening April 23rd, 24th and 25th. Three days of music and art in an environment encouraging and embracing the idea of artistic expression.

While the success of Psych Fest has been a bit of a slow grow, the founder’s, consisting of members of Austin’s own Black Angels, continue on with the festival seemingly satisfied with the spirit of what they have created, and not focused entirely on financial success. While psychedelic rock may bear the weight of it’s history, rife with the imagery of tie-dye wearing hippies expanding their minds chemically, Austin Psych Fest has done a great job merging the forefathers of the genre with some of the modern purveyors that straddle the fringe. An accomplishment that hasn’t quite been fully recognized, but should see more appreciation with this upcoming installment of the event. Booking Warpaint, The Raveonettes, The Duchess and The Duke, Silver Apples, and even Austin’s own Yellow Fever are prime examples of expanding the festival to reach out to more music fans.

Three days, two stages, a crawfish boil on Sunday @ 3:33, and all for $40. In this economy, it’s a pretty good deal. You can buy single day passes as well for $15 advance or $18 at the door.

Lineup and some picks after the jump Read more

Okkervil River, one of Austin’s newest modern rock success stories joined one of Austin’s greatest musical legends, Roky Erickson for a recording that is bound to appeal to music fans of all walks. The album, produced by Okkervil’s Will Sheff, and titled True Love Cast Out All Evil will be the first album of new material for Erickson, and is set for U.S. on April 20th.

Relix is streaming True Love Cast Out All Evil right now if you want to see what this match of musical wits has forged.

You know what to do..click the link.

If you haven’t heard, The National have a new release coming our way next month (Yay!). May 10th over in the UK and May 11th everywhere else to be specific. Tracks have been slowly leaking out onto the old interweb over the past couple of months, and today reveals track 5 from the upcoming release titled High Violet. Track 5 is titled “Afraid Of Everyone” and quite frankly, sounds pretty darn awesome.

What are you waiting for? Listen to the damn thing already!

MP3> The National ‘Afraid Of Everyone’

A few years ago, I caught a little known band called Yeasayer opening for the burgeoning young band MGMT on the inside stage @ Emo’s. While the crowd was obviously focused on the blog buzzed band MGMT, Brooklyn’s Yeasayer made it perfectly clear that they were a band that was poised to be a contender in the modern rock scene.

Now, selling out 2 nights @ The Parish is quite the feat for a band, much less to have your shows moved to the almost twice the capacity La Zona Rosa for a 2 night sellout. That’s exactly what Yeasayer did this past weekend, selling out both Saturday and Sunday night playing to exuberant, dancing fans eating up everything that the band would toss their way.

What crossed my mind while watching all of this unfold on Sunday night, was the latest run in sold out shows around town. Not just selling out, but selling out quick. Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Portugal The Man, Beach House, just to name a few. What’s going on in this town, or more possibly, in the music industry? In a time when most of the country is still reeling from a recession that took some of us down like a kick to the groin, people are shelling out cash for live music. Is it possible that its a subconscious reaction to a negative situation, or maybe people are just tired of feeling shitty about life, and are seeking out that, that makes them feel good again? Or the less hopeful option would be that our little city of Austin’s music scene is just exploding? I’m going with people just want to have fun and feel good again. Which ever it may be, Yeasayer definitely made people feel good on Sunday night, and I would expect on Saturday as well.

Thanks to Mary Rehak for the photos

The self-proclaimed loudest band in Brooklyn, A Place To Bury Strangers made their 3rd stop in Austin in about a year at The Parish, this time performing opening duties for the bombast electro-rock outfit The Big Pink. My first thought on this musical road marriage was WTF? I had heard The Big Pink’s latest release A Brief History Of Love in addition to seeing APTBS the last few times that they were in town, and thought that the two were an unusual combination. APTBS usually bring a searing wall of feedback drenched in reverb that intensifies as the set progresses, while disorienting strobes and smoke leave you feeling that you just left a war zone. Maybe because they were the opening act, the set seemed a bit more tame this night, more controlled and a bit muted. Maybe it was attempt to specifically recreate the layered sounds of the latest release by the band Exploding Head. Maybe the addition of new bassist Dion Lunadon, replacing Jonathan “Jono MOFO” Smith previous to this tour created a different band dynamic. Enjoyable as the show still was, the anticipation of wall after wall after wall of slash and burn guitar feedback crushing everything in it’s path, while front-man Oliver Ackerman dances wildly with his instrument, never came to fruition. Maybe it’s not polite to upstage the headlining band?

And about the headlining band? Sounded like leftover NIN scraps stitched together with some Euro trash disco, barking like a pit-bull with a chihuahua body.

More photos from Mary Rehak and some video after the break Read more

photo: jason nocito

Beach House has been that quiet little band that was making music that tickled my interest only a little until the release of their latest Teen Dream. Starting with the opening track “Zebra” the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, set the wonderful technicolor tone of an album that is quite possibly the most refreshing recording that I have heard in quite awhile. Amongst carefully balanced traditional instrumentation with less organic sounds, breathy soothing vocals slowly unravel a 48 minute journey into musical bliss. With hardly a second’s worth of scrap on this album, the strengths and favorites change for me each time I listen. “Zebra”, “Norway”, “Walk In The Park”, and “Lover Of Mine” stood out from the beginning, but with more time devoted the entire recording continues to impress.

The DVD included with this album, featuring videos made by various directors for each of the songs, is pretty damn trippy and worth a few minutes of your time.

MP3> Beach House ‘Lover Of Mine’

Beach House bring their ethereal magic to Emo’s on 4.22, but if you haven’t purchased tickets you might be out of luck. The show is SOLD OUT. Of course there is always Craigslist.

Beach House: Used to Be from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Hats off to the 101x folks for sponsoring some pretty cool shows around town, although I’m not sure how much credibility you can muster when can’t really shake the trappings of traditional terrestrial radio to really support the cool bands on your sponsored bills. I used to like the Toadies.

While the big bombastic Euro sounds of The Big Pink may be the featured domino of the evening, my feeling is that all that this band will leave for us in hindsight, is a brief history of love. A Place To Bury Strangers on the other hand straddle modern abrasive with a hefty nod to  some lesser known pioneers, quietly plowing their sliver of success sans bells and whistles. Who needs bells and whistles when you build your own guitar pedals? The band’s late 2009 release on Mute Exploding Head has competed heavily for spin time on the iPod as well as every other listening device used in this house and car.

I would imagine that one could only expect what is traditionally a APTBS show, loud, heavily fogged, and strobe lights all combined to induce euphoric disorientation.  Get there early for what is sure to be an opening act that will leave it’s mark. And it might sting a bit.

@ The Parish 4.8 Doors @ 8 p.m tickets HERE

The Besnard Lakes are……

What completes that sentence should be of my own words, but the band has so conviently provided a couple of options in the titles of their last two albums recorded for the Jagjaguwar label. The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (2007) and The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (2010) couldn’t be more suitable metaphoric self descriptors, but there’s more.

I always love being blindsided by a band, happening upon their music, not knowing what or who I’m listening to and just falling for it with no preconceived ideas of what I think I might expect. Such was the case with The Besnard Lakes. I’ve known the name of the band, and been quietly drawn to investigate, but just hadn’t. Thanks to some late night television host and his show I happened across the band performing “And This Is What We Call Progress” and was completely drawn to the performance and the song.

The Besnard Lakes are from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed by husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, and have released three albums, but you could’ve found that out exactly where I did. Describing the band’s sound is more difficult that finding statistics on the internet. It’s been described as indie rock (a term that I’m hoping to shed ever using again to describe a band as it’s lost all meaning), as well as shoegaze and post rock.  There’s a soothing atmospheric charm, albeit a bit dark and sometime ominous, layered in rich driving guitars with a swagger of mystery. It definitely stands out from much of the hype driven dribble that finds popularity entirely too quick and lacking any sense of reason why.

The Besnard Lakes are a rock band, much like many a rock band before them, a perfect reason to slip on the headphones and allow yourself to be carried away for 46.5 minutes dancing along the edge of post rock, modern psychedelia.

I highly recommend the recent 2010 release The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night and the band will have a film score for the upcoming Sympathy for Delicious.

MP3> The Besnard Lakes ‘Albatross’

You can check out the band’s television performance that caught my attention HERE.

And you check them live around these parts.. Read more