Results tagged “mohawk”

It takes some serious effort (and pocket change) to sift through all the handmade CD-Rs, cassettes and seven-inches that fill up the annals of scum-rock and "New Weird American" music. Certainly a fair amount of these groups veer towards noise and semi-ambient clatter and drift, but the line from No Neck Blues Band and Talibam! to an outfit like Blues Control ends up quite squiggly.

Thanks to everyone who came out Friday night for Local Music Is Sexy. We had a wonderful time. All the bands were amazing, and we can't wait to see you again next time. Austin Kleon was on hand drawing the party from his viewpoint on the balcony, view the rest of his images here.

So you missed last night's Bleet Up, the first event leading up to what will surely prove to be the best Fun Fun Fun Fest of all time. Well fear not, music-loving citizen: you have an excellent opportunity to redeem yourself tonight by attending, and definitely not, in any way, shape, or fashion missing, the greatest installment of Local Music is Sexy yet. Even better than the Bleet Up ('cause it's free!), Austinist will take over both stages of the Mohawk and the outside stage Club Deville tonight to present sets by some of our city’s finest practitioners of the rock and roll—not to mention disorderly marching music—to help you celebrate the imminence of the only fest that offers you fun in triplicate.

The music starts at 8pm following the early-ish After the Jump blogger panel (featuring Austinist's own music editor Paige Maguire), and runs until midnight. We’re keeping mum, but there may or may not be a few surprises in store for those who stick around the Mohawk’s inside stage after the clock strikes 12. Let’s run this down one more time: free, sexy, local, music. Those are the makings of a definite must-attend event in our book. Follow the jump for a complete list of bands and set times, and we'll see you tonight!

Photos courtesy Pooneh Ghana.

It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from them, but San Diego’s Black Heart Procession is back with a new album Six —their first numerically titled album since their 2000 effort Three—and a tour that brings them through town with a show at the Mohawk tonight. It’s an interesting time for the band, as singer/guitarist Pall Jenkins and keyboardist Tobias Nathaniel recently reformed their indie rock combo Three Mile Pilot, who recently finished recording their first new album in over a decade and are operating concurrent to BHP for the first time.

Photos courtesy Pooneh Ghana.

Our friends at Ultra8201 have the scoop on Fun Fest kickoff and after parties. Here's the deal:

By now you know the lineup for this year's Fun Fest, and you're already planning your schedule. Once again, the festivities kick off on Friday night at the Mohawk and Club Deville, where Austinist hosts our annual Local Music Is Sexy party and the After the Jump Blogger's Panel along with the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Who doesn't like Scotland? The small and perpetually rainy land of just 5 million has brought us great things that are twee (Belle and Sebastian, Travis), tough (whiskey and Irvine Welsh), and even strange (haggis, kilts, and the Loch Ness monster.) We won't even get started on Belhaven and Sean Connery. The latest indie rock sounds from Scotland seem to be of the emotional, anthemic, and up-tempo variety, as evidenced by the triple bill from Brighton's FatCat Records playing The Mohawk on Thursday evening. These songs deserve to be at Erwin Center, but you can see them - cheaply - on Red River, up close. Here's the bill:

By now you know the lineup for this year's Fun Fest, and you're already planning your schedule. Once again, the festivities kick off on Friday night at the Mohawk and Club Deville, where Austinist hosts our annual Local Music Is Sexy party and the After the Jump Blogger's Panel along with the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Austin’s own Brownout!, the not-so-secret Latin funk alter-ego of the grammy-recognized, Prince-backing Grupo Fantasma, are celebrating the release of their sophomore album Aguilas and Cobras tomorrow night at the Mohawk. While their first record, the mostly instrumental Homenaje (literal translation, Homage) paid tribute to the band’s funk and soul forebears, Aguilas and Cobras sees the group experimenting with vocals, adding psychedelic elements, and even coloring a song or two with the occasional tinge of disco, without sacrificing the vintage beats and hard-edged soul that is the core of the group’s sound.

Photos courtesy Chad Wadsworth.

Eric Johnson, the sole constant member of Seattle via Chicago’s Fruit Bats, cut his teeth as a touring member of the windy city’s excellent ramshackle avant-folk combo Califone, and released the first Fruit Bats album, Echolocation, in 2001. On the strength of that album, the group signed to Sub Pop and released Mouthfuls in 2003; a huge leap forward for Johnson in terms of the refinement of his songwriting and vocal arrangements, Mouthfuls saw him performing most of the music. The record earned the band a good bit of attention, Johnson's harmonizing with former member Gillian Lisée especially winning over early fans and critics. Their second Sub Pop LP Spelled in Bones followed roughly the same template in 2005, so when setting out to write and record its follow-up, the just-released The Ruminant Band, Johnson purposefully loosened his grip on the performance aspect of the record, choosing instead to trust the talents of the players he’d assembled.

Last night's Sword show at the Mohawk was jam-packed -- sold out, in fact -- and was blisteringly brutal on all fronts. Though some fans were turned away, they'll all have another chance again tonight as the local metal outfit takes the stage for part two of their Austinist-presented stand. Photos from last night's show courtesy Tyler Nutter.

North Carolina's Bowerbirds couldn't be more understated in their approach. When we last saw them at South By Southwest, they hardly looked big enough to be a band, and they didn't have much equipment. Yet when they started playing, the crowd fell silent, and some beautiful and unexpectedly huge sounds emerged. The combination of he/she vocal harmonies, basic acoustic guitar, and simple percussion somehow emerges as something greater than the individual parts.

There's a Greezy Wheels-sponsored meeting to discuss returning KUT vets Paul Ray and Larry Monroe to full-time status. Meanwhile, Joe Gross gets to know their replacement, Matt Reilly.

Austin's The Sword have been busy. In 2008, after the release of Gods of the Earth (Kemado) the band toured extensively with bands like Machine Head, Lamb of God and Clutch. They also did dozens of dates with Metallica, supported them on the 2008 European Vacation Tour.

Now this, this is going to be some kind of unhinged, goofy, and indubitably fun time. Atlanta’s the Coathangers are in town again, and this time around they’re supporting their new record and first for Seattle’s Suicide Squeeze label, the aptly titled Scramble. For a band that essentially began as a one-off joke at a house party, the Coathangers have gotten a lot of mileage out of a crass abortion reference and a sound that's somewhere between vintage Athens new wave and a ramshackle Kathleen Hanna tribute/novelty act.

We've got a big bill tonight at the Mohawk full of bands with nada in the way of a cover charge. Hot dog!

Despite the bluntly, perhaps cynically attention-grabbing name, Holy Fuck have earned their position by figuring out what hasn't been done before and doing it very well.

All photos courtesy of Nari.

This pair of Drag City folk heroes aren't the type of musicians to be taken lightly.

Sir Richard Bishop has been challenging listeners to follow him on a fascinating, diabolical, and occasionally hilarious journey for nearly thirty years. First as the guitarist with experimental pranksters Sun City Girls, then through his early involvement with the superlative Sublime Frequencies label, Bishop has synthesized his wide-ranging influences, including esoteric mysticism and the occult, Hinduism, and Django Reinhardt through field recordings, solo performances, and outright psychedelic freakouts.

The Helio Sequence is a lovely balance of enchanting and inspiring musical variety. Birthed in a Portland suburb in 1999, the group consists of Brandon Summers contributing vocals and guitar and Benjamin Weikel on keyboards and drums. The indie power-rock outfit has got it pretty well made in the music biz. But things weren't always so sweet. Following two epic, self-produced albums on Portland’s Cavity Search and six months of touring with major indie bands, Summers damaged his vocal chords and was unable to sing. After losing his voice, he was still optimistic for awhile until a doctor forbade him to sing for two months. Then it dawned on him—what will I do if I lose my voice permanently?

If it's too loud, you're from out of town.

Where to begin? If you read the title of this post and didn't pee a little, then either you're: A) a ledger-blind CPA in your mid-to-late 50s, B) a dimension-traveling psychic man-child just beginning to understand our culture, or C) a very lucky Austin resident about to have more new favorite bands than you know what to do with. Really, all three of the aforementioned will find something to swoon over in this lineup.

Rarely do bands actually have release shows on the day their album is released, which is usually a Tuesday and isn’t always conducive to partying and general merrymaking. In many ways, Tuesday is the worst day of the week. Friday seems too far and you don’t have the Monday blues as an excuse for slacking at work. Perhaps this is why the people who pick days picked Tuesday to be album release day, to give everyone a reason to wait for this not-so-pleasant day. And maybe, this is why Austin’s Jude/Ross decided to hold their album release at the Mohawk on this day.

It's about that time of day when the potbellied devil arrives on one's shoulder amidst a puff of smoke and, tapping the end of his trident on your earlobe, whispers, "I don't care if it's a weeknight. Let's catch a show and show up at work tomorrow smelling like PBR." If you're like us, the angelic foil arrives on the adjacent shoulder, putting out a Triple 5 on her sandal, chiming in her two cents, "sure why the fuck not?"

In the grand tradition of Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and Christopher Cross, Austinist is proud to present a very special Indieroke, featuring local bands covering their favorite smooth tunes. We'll still be doing karaoke as usual, but the list will be an abbreviated version, comprised of only smooth music.

Austinist will be bringing you unprecedented coverage of the festival each day, as well as some interviews and introductions to the bands leading up to day one. Don't miss our review of Propagandhi's latest release Supporting Caste, and stay tuned for more - including some giveaways. Heck, let's start now. Follow the jump for the festival's complete lineup and venue list, and register to win a pair of tickets to the Thermals and Shakey Hands show Friday, May 22 at Mohawk. We've already given away one three-day pass to Emo's, and we'll be doing that again very soon.