Tonight: Aqualung @ The Parish Room

For quite a long time, Austinist was oblivious to our friends' references to British singer-songwriter Matt Hales, better known as Aqualung, as "that guy with the VW jingo." We tend to be repulsed by corporate sloganeering, particularly those of the rather catchy sort; we also never got around to buying a television. It was only by sheer coincidence that Aqualung happened to play the same SXSW show as our current Britrock obsession, Bloc Party; we were left simultaneously impressed and feeling somewhat nostalgic, although for what we weren't sure.

Aqualung's music largely consists of gentle, minor-key piano ballads accompanied by his lilting, languid vocals. Both are heavily infused with a sense of haunting melancholy. Most of the time he sounds an awful lot like Chris Martin circa Parachutes, before Gwyneth, Apple, or the swanky Upper East Side flat.

Much of Hales's formative years were spent surrounded by music, perhaps largely thanks to his parents owning an independent record shop in Southhampton, England. At age 17 he'd already written and performed his first symphony, "Life Cycle." A brief flirtation with classical music studies at London's City University further enhanced his naturally gifted composition skills, which are self-evident on tracks like "Brighter Than Sunshine" (which appeared on The OC's soundtrack, natch) and "Easier to Lie."

Aqualung's US debut, Strange and Beautiful, is actually a combination of two previous releases, a self-titled LP and 2003's Still Life, both of which garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK but failed to find distribution in the States. Now that he's allied with Columbia Records, Austinist predicts that little will prevent Aqualung from achieving mainstream success. Before that happens, we'd advise you to check him out either at the Parish tonight or at his in-store appearance at Waterloo Records.

You can also hear a lot of his songs online.

Aqualung
Tuesday, June 14

The Parish Room
Doors at 8, Show at 9