Album Review: Radiation City – Animals in the Median
Radiation City’s Animals in the Median is an album of quirky, off-kilter little pop songs that owe as much to the Crystals and the Shangri La’s as they do the Pacific Northwest haven of creative…
Album Review: Club 8 – Above the City
Club 8’s newest and eighth album, Above the City has taken the Swedish twee-pop duo into a more electronic and industrial direction. Club 8 has recently reclaimed their self-produced status under Johan Angergård’s…
The Lonely Wild at Holy Mountain Live Review
The Lonely Wild are an ambitious bunch of Californians. Eschewing the popular tendency of young bands to start a guitar-drums-bass trio that commits lo-fi songs to tape in a garage, The Lonely Wild…
Video: Good Field – “These Dreams”
If you read Pop Press International with any regularity, you likely know that we completely adore Austin band Good Field. We listen to their self-titled, debut LP constantly and had the band play…
Video: Caged Animals – “Cindy + Me”
We wrote previously about the 80s synthy goodness in Caged Animals’ new song “Cindy + Me.” Now, the electronic pop project has released a video for the track which appropriately spins the concept…
Nelsonville Music Festival Underway in Ohio
Nelsonville Music Festival takes place each year in the rolling hills of Southeastern Ohio each year, and boasts alumni such as Andrew Bird, Avett Brothers, and Flaming Lips. This year’s festival, which commenced…
New Track: Austra – “Painful Like”
We continue to be impressed with Austra. Their show opening for The xx in Austin was outstanding and frontwoman Katie Stelmanis can belt it out like no one else. The synthy art-pop group…
New Mellow Pop from Lovers Without Borders – “She Wants a Baby”
Lovers Without Borders is a project comprised of Karl Blau, Allen Peril, and Jessica Bonin and based in Anacortes, Washington. The group runs with K Records stalwarts and alumni and has been known…
EP Review: TEEN – Carolina
Carolina, the new EP from Brooklyn’s TEEN, features an impressively varied and divergent array of sounds across its five songs. The EP is a follow-up to last year’s well-received and buzzed about full…
Album Review: Cloud Boat – Book of Hours
Cloud Boat has created ambient and transcendental music in their first full length release, Book of Hours. This London duo doesn’t subscribe to contemporary compositional styles, injecting electronic elements into mournful ballads, like…
Mount Eerie Shares New Cut of Track from Upcoming Live LP
We wrote previously about how deliriously happy we are over Mount Eerie’s upcoming album Live in Bloomington, September 30, 2011. Mount Eerie has a longstanding track record of both putting out small releases on…
FPSF Preview: A Place To Bury Strangers Discusses Desire to Fornicate with Texas
If you’re booking a festival, hell, if you’re booking a show anytime or anywhere, you should consider A Place to Bury Strangers. Few bands making music today come with a more talked about…
FPSF Preview: Interview with The Sour Notes
Before The Sour Notes were one of Austin’s most steadfast acts, some of its members called Houston home. This weekend they’ll return to the HTX for an appearance at FPSF alongside huge acts…
David Byrne & St. Vincent Share New EP for Free Download
David Byrne not only makes some the greatest music of all time but also continues to interact with the public and discuss ideas in a very human way, which makes him one of…
Best Coast at Mohawk with Lovely Bad Things and GALPALS Live Review
Best Coast’s performance at the Mohawk on Sunday night featured a lengthy setlist of upbeat pop songs and solid performances by opening acts. The sold out crowd seemed to agree; concertgoers bordered on…
Album Review: Brazos – Saltwater (Pop Press Pick)
A period of inexplicably silent years separates Brazos’s adored 2009 release Phosphorescent Blues and their new album Saltwater, out today on Dead Oceans. Not only years but also geographical distance separates the Brazos…
New Danceable Experimental Pop from Gold Panda – “We Work Nights”
Half of Where You Live, the new album from Gold Panda will be out in two short weeks on Ghostly International, but you can hear album track “We Work Nights” today. The track…
Show Preview: Win Tickets to Quiet Company May 31st at The Belmont
Austin’s Quiet Company has slowly but surely risen to being one of the city’s most lauded bands. Following a rapid expansion of their fanbase, fueled by appearances at festivals and on television, the…
Album Review: Free Time – Free Time
The self-titled debut album from New York indie-garage group Free Time, headed by Melbourne transplant Dion Nania and out this week via Underwater Peoples, strives for an unhurried, unworried charm with easy melodies…
Album Review: Alex Bleeker and the Freaks – How Far Away
Formed by the bassist of Real Estate, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks drops their second album this week, How Far Away, out on the Woodsist label. Having assembled a motley crew of bandmates…
New Track: Haerts – “All The Days” (Recommended)
In my last post about Haerts, I mentioned that the Brooklyn pop band reminded me of Fleetwood Mac, and although their new song “All The Days” takes them deeper into lush, modern production,…
Show Preview: Black Moth Super Rainbow at Mohawk Tuesday May 28th
In October of last year, experimental psych band Black Moth Super Rainbow dropped their fifth studio album Cobra Juicy. The band will bring their experiential live show to Mohawk on Tuesday night for a…
Album Review: Saturday Looks Good To Me – One Kiss Ends It All
Before indie pop and beachy lo-fi songs became entrenched as a major facet of independent music, before Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart captured…
New Track: Sombear – “Love You In The Dark”
Electro-pop musician Somber, aka Brad Hale, creates tender pleas over beat oriented synth pop. “Love You In The Dark” recalls contemporaries such as Autre Ne Veut, but the track relies on indie-pop sensibilities…
Scout Niblett Announces Tour, New Album Out This Week
As a follow up to her new album It’s Up to Emma, released this week on Drag City Records, Scout Niblett has announced a string of stateside dates to follow a series of performances…
Washed Out Announce New Album, Share Trailer
Ernest Greene’s project Washed Out has announced a new album, Paracosm, set for release on August 13th in the US via Sub Pop Records. The album was produced in Georgia with Ben Allen, who…
Album Review: Majical Cloudz – Impersonator (Pop Press Pick)
Here’s the thing about Majical Cloudz’ new album Impersonator — I can’t figure out what makes is so irresistibly good. And it very much is. More often than not, my brain over analyzes what makes…
Crocodiles Announce New Album, Share Single “Cockroach”
If you needed a little blistering garage rock to wake you up this morning, you’re in luck; Crocodiles have got the cure for that lethargy. A swirling mass of guitars and growling vocals…
Lightning Dust Shares Video for “Diamond”
Synchronized swimmers do their watery dance to Lightning Dust’s song “Diamond” in the band’s new video, directed by Helen Reed. Although the video begins with a group of average, almost bored folks hanging…
Brazos Shares New Video for “Charm”
After an incredibly creepy introduction that I thought was taking viewers down an irrevocably disturbing path, the ensuing video for Brazos’ newly released song “Charm” is rather whimsical in moments, operating on the…
Eternal Summers at Mohawk Live Review
Saturday had to be one of the busiest show-packed weekends in a long time for an always busy live music city. Outstanding local bills took place at Beerland and Holy Mountain while touring…
Contest and Show Preview: Best Coast at Mohawk on Sunday May 26th
Could there be a better way to kick off the summer than taking in the beachy sounds of California indie pop group Best Coast. Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno have become households names…
Show Preview: Win Tickets to !!! at Mohawk on Saturday May 25th
!!! (or Chk Chk Chk, if you prefer) has pretty consistently cranked out a danceable and irresistibly fun album every three years, but they remain lodged in my mind as a band that was at…
Show Preview: Win Tickets to The Lonely Wild at Holy Mountain 5/26
The Lonely Wild create acoustically driven, elaborate folk music angled toward celebrated bands such as The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, or Beirut. Epic, minor-key choral chants, claps, kick drums and tambourine punctuate pianos…
Album Review: The National – Trouble Will Find Me
The National’s High Violet was a near perfect assemblage of songs that utilized a distinct and arresting sonic palette of instrumentation that simultaneously sounded enormous while nearly vanishing into the darkness from whence it came….
Album Review: Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is the Devil
Listening to the new double-album Drifters/Love is the Devil from Canadian artist Dirty Beaches aka Alex Zhang Hungtai feels rather like being trapped inside someone else’s mind; particularly someone who suffers from interchanging…
Album Review: pacificUV – After the Dream You Are Awake
After the Dream You Are Awake is the fourth full album from Georgia-based indie-group pacificUV. As its title suggests, the album, which appropriately fuses mellow shoegaze, psychedelic dreamsound, and experimental space-rock, is a…
Borrisokane EP Release Party at Scottish Rite Theater Live Review
Borrisokane weaves mutli-textured pop music, employing an unexpected blend of guitars electric and acoustic and sounds synthetic and organic. Though many of the bands with which Pop Press International has fallen in love…
Austin Offers Inarguable Reasons to See Live Music This Weekend
At the tail end of a Friday, when all statistics and web-traffic research say there’s almost no point in blogging, we’re throwing caution to the wind. Why, you ask? Because as is often…
New Track: The Books of Love – “Space Time”
The Books of Love is a newly announced project built on the collaboration of Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls/La Sera fame and the Hush Sound’s Greta Morgan. Plenty of bands have created saccharine…
New Track: Spectrals – “Sob Story”
Spectrals will release their sophomore album Sob Story on June 18th via Slumberland Records. The album follows a slew of singles for esteemed labels such as Captured Tracks and Moshi Moshi as well as…
Album Review: The Blank Tapes – Vacation
The Blank Tapes’ new album Vacation, out this week on Antenna Farm Records is the sound of falling in love with summer—a collection of eleven beachy pop songs featuring infectious melodies and relentlessly…
Video: The Blank Tapes Performing on Breakthru Radio
Breakthru Radio has put out a couple of great sessions by artists we really like lately. Eternal Summer, who will play the Mohawk on Saturday (win tickets here) are one, and Pop Press…
Tele Novella Launch Tour; Share Two Songs
Following the dissolution of long-time band Agent Ribbons, one half of that band, Natalie Ribbons formed Tele Novella with some of Austin’s most notable musicians–Cari Palazzolo of Belaire and Jason Chronis and Matt…
Show Preview: The Boxing Lesson Record Release Show Tonight at Mohawk
Two days ago, celebrated Austin band The Boxing Lesson dropped their new album, Big Hits! on Frenchie Smith records. Tonight, the band will celebrate the release with a show at Mohawk that includes support…
Show Preview: Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk with The Villettes and Jess Williamson
Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk will bring their folk pop to the Mohawk for a mid-week show, Tuesday May 21st, with Austin folk songstresses The Villettes and Jess Williamson. We decided…
Mountain Goats Prep Re-issue of Classic All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats are my favorite band. So, the announcement that the group will release a remastered, expanded edition of their cult classic All Hail West Texas, which will be available on vinyl for…
Julianna Barwick Shares Track “Forever” from Nepenthe in Album Trailer
A press release from label Dead Oceans explains that nepenthe was a magic drug of forgetfulness used to wipe out grief and sorrow in ancient Greek literature. The title is fitting for the newest record…
Mikal Cronin Releases Video for “Change”
If you read our review of MCII, you know that we are huge fans of Mikal Cronin’s recently released effort on Merge Records. The album is full of perfectly balanced and gorgeously distorted power…
Scout Niblett Shares “Gun” Video Ahead of Upcoming LP
Scout Niblett will release “It’s Up To Emma” on May 21st on the Drag City imprint. “Gun” is the opening cut from the album, featuring sparse and haunting guitar and vocals. Whimsical and…
Ty Segall Shares Trailer for New Album
The simple acoustic chords that eventually float forward over scenes of Ty Segall sleeping in various locations in the trailer for his newly announced and forthcoming album come as something of a surprise. Will Sleeper,…
Bouquet Shares Video for “Falling”
With every post we write about Bouquet, we have to say from the start that we’re superfans plain and simple. We first saw the band under the most perfect conditions imaginable, splayed out…
Show Preview: Eternal Summers Play Mohawk, Release New Song, Announce Album
Eternal Summers is an apt name for a group who creates upbeat indie-pop that could easily serve as a backdrop for your sunny seasonal vacations. And just in time for this summer, the…
Album Review: The Shivas – Whiteout
Shimmering guitar feedback splashes as an announcement of the onset of the Shivas’ Whiteout, released at the end of April on K Records. A piercing scream, a clear play on the song’s title…
Pageants Release Live Performance Videos for “Chai” and “Deep Ring”
It’s no secret that over here at Pop Press International we’re huge fans of Pageants, the indie-pop project fronted by Rebecca Coleman of Avi Buffalo fame. The trio performed at our SXSW day…
Midgetmen’s 11th Anniversary at Red 7 Live Review
What, you thought a little rain was gonna stop the Midgetmen from getting sloppy drunk and playing some sloppy punk after doing it for 11 years? Anyone who knows anything about the band…
Superchunk Announces New Album, Tour, Releases Teaser Trailer
Quintessential power pop band Superchunk has announced a new album and tour dates for the summer and fall. After a decade of inactivity, the band released Majesty Shredding in 2010 and will follow with I…
Video: Daft Punk Releases Album Teaser Preview
Secretive and mysterious electronic duo Daft Punk have released an album teaser preview video in advance of their forthcoming record Random Access Memories, due out on May 21st. As is common with the band,…
Bill Callahan at Central Presbyterian Church Live Review
I wrote in my preview of Saturday’s show that Bill Callahan was a too-often forgotten treasure of the Austin area, a fact bolstered by his intimate and impeccable performance at Central Presbyterian Church…
Father John Misty at Emo’s Live Review
I’ve seen Father John Misty twice before, and his recent sold-out performance at Emo’s marked the third occasion. If you can see a band that has only a single album more than once…
Royal Forest Shares “Everyone Who Knows You” Ahead of Full-length
Austin band Royal Forest is one of the city’s most under-talked-about bands on the scene. Frontman Cody Ground is something of an indie rock institution, having founded the band Loxly, who performed significant…
The Dig Releases Psych Rock from Forthcoming EP
The Dig creates atmospheric and textured psychedelic rock and both approaches are reflected in “Angeline,” the opening track on the band’s forthcoming Tired Hearts EP, out June 4th. David Baldwin provides dreamy, reverb-soaked vocals over…
DIANA Signs to Jagjaguwar, Announces LP, Video, and Tour with Austra
Dream pop group DIANA has signed to Jagjaguwar while simultaneously announcing a self-titled debut full-length, new video, and late summer string of tour dates with art-pop band Austra. The psychedelic, neon video is…
Show Preview: Bill Callahan at Central Presbyterian Church
Perhaps attributable to his reclusive nature to avoid the spotlight, it seems that Austin sometimes forgets that we have a priceless treasure in songwriter Bill Callahan calling the Austin area his home. After his…
Ten (More) Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now
We were honored when Nerve magazine recently asked me to compose a list of five albums for their recurring guest column “Five Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now;” the results are…
Album Review: Mikal Cronin – MCII (Pop Press Pick)
We were greatly impressed by the balance of melody and noise on The Babies’ 2012 album Our House On The Hill, and other bands such as The Men and King Tuff have experimented with…
Phoenix ACL Taping Live Review
I’ve never seen an ACL taping crowd more amped during a performance. While this resulted in more noise than usual and one woman having to be removed from the studio, it also made…
of Montreal at the Mohawk Live Review
No one delivers more of a spectacle in a live performance than experimental dance-rockers of Montreal. Their shows utilize costume, performance, projected light, and a barrage of textured pop to provide a multi-sensory…
Austin City Limits Announces 2013 Lineup
It seems that this year’s ACL Lineup was more heavily anticipated and produced than ever before, which only makes sense as the festival will expand to a two-weekend format for its 2013 installment….
Album Review: Deerhunter – Monomania
One thing’s for sure: you can count on Bradford Cox to create excellent music, but you simply can’t have expectations about what that music will sound like. Monomania is the newest effort from…
Jim James ACL Taping Live Review
Over the past decade and a half, My Morning Jacket emerged as one of the most beloved indie-folk bands on the scene. At the forefront of that band was the always captivating Jim…
Yo La Tengo at the Mohawk Live Review
Indie-rock royalty Yo La Tengo performed at The Mohawk on Friday night, gracing Austin with an incredible set in three acts. The first act consisted of a mellow, almost whispered, series of songs….
Austin Bands Set To Play Toronto’s NXNE in June
Living in Austin means that being a part of SXSW is next to given, and most citizens find themselves caught up in the festivities at least once during its sprawling ten days. However,…
Free Press Summer Fest Releases Schedule for Great 2013 Lineup
For a relatively small festival that feels like it’s still in its infancy, Free Press Summer Fest constantly delivers some knockout surprises. While The Postal Service has gone on to announce an extensive…
New Track: Caged Animals – “Cindy + Me”
Built on quirky, squealing synths, strange percussive clicks, and thin distorted bursts, “Cindy + Me” is the first single released in advanced of Caged Animals’ sophomore effort, which is due out later this…
Album Review: Cayucas – Bigfoot
Beachy, fun pop has been a recurring theme and the modus operandi of any number of indie rock bands over the course of the last decade or so. Not that it ever disappeared…
Austin Punk Veterans The Midgetmen Host 11th Anniversary at Red 7 on May 10th
Austin’s Midgetmen have been at it for 11 years, a testament to the band’s ability to just keep churning out slacker pop-punk power and pulling wild stunts. On May 10th they’ll celebrate those…
Full Coverage of Austin Psych Fest Day 3 with Moving Sidewalks, Roky Erickson, and Clinic
On paper and in actuality, Austin Psych Fest’s Sunday lineup boasted the most anticipated and most enjoyable bands of the weekend. From festival headliners The Black Angels and The Moving Sidewalks to underground…
Win Tickets to of Montreal with Wild Moccasins at Mohawk Monday May 6th
An of Montreal show is simply not to be missed. Their recent appearance in Austin included giant inflatable suits, painted skeleton faces, amorphous shapes created by multiple people in a costume, epic spandex,…
Show Preview: Yo La Tengo at Mohawk Friday May 3rd
Yo La Tengo’s oeuvre spans an impressive array of musical styles and years, consisting of more than a dozen studio albums. Their newest effort Fade is outstanding–one of the finest albums of the year so far…
Win Tickets to Father John Misty at Emo’s Tuesday May 7th
Last year, when we ranked the 20 best albums of 2012, we put Father John Misty’s Fear Fun at number three. What’s maybe more important is that we listened to the record more than any…
Photo Gallery: Austin Psych Fest Day 3 with Black Angels and Moving Sidewalks
Full coverage of Austin Psych Fest Day Three will be up tomorrow. For now enjoy our extensive gallery of photos from the third day of the fest. All photos © Bryan Parker and…
Small Black Shares New Single, Hosts Art Show, Announces Tour, Inspires Beer
It’s a big day for news with Small Black. We’re looking forward to the band’s upcoming album Limits of Desire, out May 14th on Jagjaguwar. The album’s first single, “Free At Dawn” was a…
Album Review: Beacon – The Ways We Separate
With their debut album The Ways We Separate, Brooklyn based-group Beacon has fashioned a wholly original mode of soft electronica. From the press circulating over the album it might be interpreted that The…
Austra Shares New Video for “Home”
We wrote previously about the forthcoming album and single from art-pop group Austra. “Home” was released in advance of Olympia, which is out June 18th on Domino. Today the group released a video for…
