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![Weekend Music Preview: Woven Bones Tour Kick-Off [Beerland / Friday]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2009/11/beerland_27nov2009_250-thumb-110x110-460924.jpg)
Weekend Music Preview: Woven Bones Tour Kick-Off [Beerland / Friday]
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What’s the Deal: They’re a local grand, alterna-pop group that has come from out of nowhere with a sound that’s just quirky enough for indie rock fans and also highly marketable. Their upcoming debut album, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, recorded and produced by local Lars Goransson arrives soon, and if they play their cards right the group will be set for certain heat-seeker status. Don’t hold it against them that the title is so very close to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Sonically, the two don’t share many similarities. Soaring vocals hijack the focal point of many of the songs with their sometimes Muse-esque method, and spacey keyboards fill out the four-piece rock sound nicely.
One of Whiskey’s stand-out tracks is “No Rhyme,” which features plenty of those vocals soaring above our heads in higher pitches equipped with stylized quakes and shakes. A steady, danceable beat thumps as plinky guitars chime along with the lyrics sung. “Everybody Wants To” feels a little closer to the digital age with its keys resembling robot backup vocals rising above the song’s super-solid structure. The final track on the album, “Undone,” ends things with a lament from behind a piano which rises into a passionate arrangement and bows out gracefully.
Something Interesting: They’re headlining a show at Antone’s Thursday, November 29th with Spoiled Royals and Muchos Backflips!
Other Tracks Worth Checking Out: “Microwave” and “Satellite”
What’s the Deal: Officially named Dark Meat Vomit Lasers Family Band Galaxy, this group of 18 or so musicians has created a sonic blunt instrument that knocks people, not unconscious, but into a dancing frenzy. Sometimes the sounds get scattered about on the floor and it’s hard to pick out the notes of a particular instrument, while other times it’s a psychedelic, bluesy rock-out. This Athens-based forceful, blaring rock band with a prominent horn section began while they were all working in the same kitchen, which is the reason for the culinary-inspired name. Dark Meat also has a deeper philosophical meaning, something to do with humans’ similarity to the food we eat. On stage, the group is supposed to be quite a sight to behold, like a carnival of colliding sound.
“One More Trip” off their debut, Universal Indians, is full of blasting horns, guitar squeals and high, ballsy rock vocals set to a dance-til-you-drop kind of beat. The track even ends with the sound of all the instruments crashing and clashing. Listeners are thrown for a loop, however, when “Freedom Ritual” starts up. A lone female voice singing at her apex in Scottish folk fashion begins the song, which soon after speeds up and begins to clamor with their collective rock sound.
Something Interesting: The fact that they try to fit 18 people and their instruments on a stage is interesting enough. Also, instruments like the harp and violin appear in posed photos of the band, but the music is too thick to pick them out. Take a listen and try to see what instruments you can identify.
Other Tracks Worth Checking Out: “Three Eyes Open”
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