Phosphorescent Plays Two-Hour Set at C Boy’s Heart and Soul
Before kicking off a string of tour dates, Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens band Phosphorescent booked a last minute show at the tiny C Boy’s Heart and Soul venue on South Congress. It seems that kicking off…
The War On Drugs, Psyched Out Americana at Stubb’s: Live Review
Although The War on Drugs’ show at Stubb’s in Austin was not sold out when the doors opened at 7:00 on Sunday night, an enormous line soon snaked around the block to purchase…
We Were Marfans For A Weekend at El Cosmico
As I navigate Route 67 south towards Marfa, TX, en route to the 8th annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music + Love, the mountains grow more jagged, the plains reach further to the horizon, and the…
Alex Napping’s Album Release at Cheer Up Charlie’s: Live Review
To celebrate the release of their debut LP This Is Not A Bedroom, Alex Napping recruited a standout lineup of Austin bands–Big Bill, Soft Swells, and Löwin–to play alongside them on Friday night at…
Phosphorescent Plays Last Minute Show at C Boy’s Heart and Soul Tonight
The last time Austin had a visit from Phosphorescent was the 2013 installment of ACL Fest. Almost exactly a year later, the Brooklyn by way of Athens based project of primary creative force…
Lower’s Mean Spirited New Video for “Daft Persuasion”
Spitting venom at one anonymous, despicable individual, Lower’s Adrian Toubro seems especially ready to persuade the viewer to feel his animosity. A hooded figure lightly drapes his arms across Toubro’s chest, as if…
Future Islands Leave It All on the Floor at ACL Taping
After an ingratiating and soft-spoken greeting in which Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring tells a packed Moody Theater about how in North Carolina, where he’s from, sometimes the only way to see music…
Swedish Duo JJ Creep Around the Desert in New Video “Dynasti”
The new video “Dynasti” from mysterious Swedish duo JJ pulsates with occult imagery and pagan ceremony. As girls spin around in glitter masks with cloaked minions, they set on fire enough upright pianos…
Alex Napping Celebrates Album Release at Cheer Up Charlies Friday, September 26th
With namesake Alex Cohen at the helm, indie-pop four-piece Alex Napping will celebrate the release of their debut LP tomorrow night, September 25th at Cheer Up Charlies. This is Not a Bedroom dropped earlier…
Oddball Comedy Fest at Austin 360 Amphitheater: Recap & Photo Gallery
This Sunday marked the final show of the Oddball Comedy Festival. After twenty shows in sixteen different states with guest comedians including Demetri Martin, Kristen Schaal, Flight of the Concords, Dave Chappelle, and…
Reflections on Conor Oberst’s Show at Stubb’s
In July, when news broke that Joan Faircloth, the woman who had accused Conor Oberst of rape, had retracted her claims and admitted that 100% of the story was fabricated, I was relieved…
Album Review: Terry Malts — Insides EP
Garage-punk trio, Terry Malts releases new material this week via Slumberland Records with a 7” entitled Insides EP. The story of Terry Malts’ formation isn’t one that you’ll hear from the direct source, rather the…
Marianne Faithfull Breathes Life Into A Dark New Single
Marianne Faithfull began her career in the early 60s by immersing herself in the exploding London scene, befriending the greater Rolling Stones entourage that helped get her career started with, “As Tears Go…
Show Preview: The War on Drugs at Stubb’s w/ Genuine Leather After Show
The War on Drugs’ newest effort Lost in the Dream, is one of the year’s most lauded records. Full of Americana points of reference slathered in introspective, garage rock sensibilities, the songs are somewhere…
Yonatan Gat’s Incredible Cheer Up Charlie’s Show: Live Review
Watching Yonatan Gat and his band perform will blow your mind. The former Monotonix member’s live show leans heavily on improvisation and borders on performance art, incorporating signature lighting and expelling an incredible…
Album Review: Odesza – In Return
When club music veers into alternative territory, splashes through the waters of chillwave and resurfaces amongst the electronica glitter, you get the sound that is Odesza. For sure, the Seattle duo’s first full…
Ramesh at The Belmont: Live Review
Sometimes unexpected and less than desirable elements make for a more magical evening of music. Former Voxtrot member Ramesh, who recently released his first solo full-length The King, was supposed to play Belmont’s outside…
Song Premiere: Yuma – “Gone Before You Leave”
Yuma’s new single “Gone Before You Leave” explodes from the speakers at the onset, all squealing guitars and staccato snares. After a half minute of those early aughts guitar textures, the mix falls…
Live Review: Daybender at Empire Control Room
Empire Control Room hosted the Daybender party this past Saturday, taking on a dual role as part of Weekender Austin and as the release celebration for Punctum Records‘ Taft and Little Lo‘s split 7-inch vinyl, as if the bill…
Sebadoh at Red 7: Live Review
For indie rock purists, Sebadoh resides unquestioningly in the hall of fame. While the Sebadoh project has been largely inactive in the new millennium, the members have all been pursuing other collaborations and solo projects….
You’re Here! Fall Kick-Off at Cheer Up Charlies
Last SXSW, Pop Press International joined forces with local label Punctum Records, non-profit organization Attendance Records, recording studio Estuary, and tape label Accrue Cassettes, along with a few other entities and sponsors, to…
Live Review: Monofonus Press & Spray Paint Take Over Hotel Vegas 9/19
A light sweat covering his face, John Wesley Coleman strummed through a couple of his best C-major compositions kicking off the Monofonus showcase at Hotel Vegas Friday night. With a lighter amount of…
Live Review: Shabazz Palaces Get Otherworldly at Red 7
Hip-hop can be a difficult genre to perform. In terms of actually “performing,” the result can be more karaoke than art exhibition. The easiest route for large scale stage productions usually revolves around…
Photo Gallery: Shots from Utopiafest 2014
Rain or shine, weather happens. Even if the forecast is less than desirable, one simply has to embrace it. Ringing especially true at outdoor events, doing so peacefully echoes the natural disposition of the earth much more than…
Dear Someone: (Where are the) Girls, Girls, Girls?
Walker Lukens is a musician living and working in Austin, Texas. His latest album is called Devoted. His advice column Dear Someone runs semimonthly on Pop Press International. You can send in your own inquiries by emailing…
Live Review: The Gospel of Earth at Red 7
Just to preface, Earth is possibly the heaviest live band I have ever experienced. I’m not necessarily using the word “heaviest” like most passionate metal fans would in terms of their favorite “heavy”…
A Weekend of Glorious Escape: Utopiafest 2014 Photo Essay
Through cloudy skies, Utopiafest shone. This past weekend, despite the downpour and its muddy repercussions, this family-friendly festival had music lovers, yogis, and ultimate frisbeers alike flocking to Utopia, TX, unleashing their outdoorsy…
Utopian Living: Highlights from Utopiafest
Yesterday, Pop Press INTL. Assistant Editor Lukas Truckenbrod did a great job capturing the Utopiafest vibe and reported about some of the music from this year’s installment. 2014 marked the third time I’ve…
Yonatan Gat Brings Killer Live Show to Cheer Up Charlies Tonight
This summer, I stumbled into catching a set by ex-Monotonix member Yonatan Gat. Floored doesn’t quite cover how taken I was with the performance, which had me sputtering incomprehensible praises of the show for…
Upcoming: Spray Paint at Hotel Vegas 9/19
Friday the 19th welcomes Austin’s premier scum-rockers back to Hotel Vegas. The no-wave trio will be celebrating the release of their new LP Clean Blood, Regular Acid. A set of their noisiest, dark-humored…
Indie Rock Legends Sebadoh Play Red 7 Tomorrow, September 19th
This is indie rock royalty. It seems crazy that this show isn’t yet sold out, but I’d call it a solid bet that Red 7 will be at capacity come tomorrow night when…
Barcelona with The Young Wild at Holy Mountain: Live Review
Monday night atop the Mountain, Seattle band Barcelona immersed the grooving audience in melodic songs of old and new. The trio released the final component to their three part EP series, The Melodrama, in March, revealing yet…
Vibing at Utopiafest
Despite some serious rain Friday evening, vibes were mellow at Utopiafest 2014. Yes, arriving at Utopiafest on Friday night was not the smoothest ride; buses and cars were stuck in mud, shuttle service into…
Live Review: 2014 Stargayzer Festival
The clouds that hung over Austin on Friday the 12th were omnipresent, looming and spitting even after the sun went down. The mat grey sky blanketed everything as the temperature dropped below 80…
Album Review: Ty Segall – Manipulator
At summer’s unofficial close, Drag City cranked out yet another Ty Segall album, Manipulator. Since 2008, Segall has stayed monumentally busy, pushing out at least one album per year. And what’s even more…
Spotlight: Voxtrot Member Ramesh’s Royal Ambitions with New LP The King
“Yeah, whatever happened to that band?” A common lament among music aficionados, especially those tuned into alternative label bands that might only make an album or two before succumbing to the enormous difficulty…
Delta Spirit with EDJ on at Emo’s East Riverside: Live Review
East Riverside’s premier rock and roll venue, the venerable Emo’s, hosted epic indie-rock darlings Delta Spirit last week in support of their newest release, 2014’s Into the Wide. The album’s lead single is a…
Show Preview: Barcelona with The Young Wild at Holy Mountain, September 15th
Tonight, following their release of The Melodrama, a three-part EP investigating the nature of love, Seattle trio Barcelona is swinging into Holy Mountain at 8 PM. The show promises to douse the audience with a…
Sungod’s Heavenly “Shiftless en Nkawkaw”
Out of the gate, Sungod blazes into their latest single with a barrage of percussion. At first, the mix seems to be restrained and tame, easy on the listener. But things are not…
Inaugural Stargayzer Fest This Weekend in Austin
This weekend begins the first ever Stargayzer Festival, held at the east sides infamous Pine Street Station. A spectacular line-up of a 100+ artists representing the LGBTQIA community will fill out the weekend…
Interview: Hikes’ Woodsy Selves Ready for Utopiafest
Yesterday we brought you a Q&A with Austin band Borrisokane. Today, we’re proud to bring you another interview with an artist performing Utopiafest this weekend. Hikes will play tomorrow at 2:15 PM. Band…
Austin Band Borrisokane Talks About Upcoming Utopiafest Performance
Austin’s music scene is diverse to be sure. However, few bands exercise the kind of diversity within their body of work as Austin’s Borrisokane. They’ve been called dream pop, gloom pop, synth pop,…
Hungry Cloud Darkening Shares “Blue Green” from Glossy Recall
Anacortes, Washington based band Hungry Cloud Darkening is set to release their new album Glossy Recall, out October 7th via OFF TEMPO. After a close listen to the band, you won’t be surprised to…
SOAK Shares Single, Signs to Rough Trade
UK songstress Bridie Monds-Watson is 18 years old, and she’s already garnering acclaim with her songs that employ diverse production values and emphasize her smoky vocals. Likely that’s what prompted stalwart indie imprint Rough…
Video: Amen Dunes “Splits Are Parted”
A pendulum ponytail wags in the dark as a young girl runs towards the viewer, opening the video for Amen Dunes’ latest single “Splits are Parted.” Backlit, hand reaching forward through a strobing…
Show Preview: Delta Spirit with EDJ at Emo’s Thursday, September 11th
Touring in support of their newly released album, Into the Wide, Delta Spirit will bring their famed, energetic live show to Emo’s tomorrow night. With four albums under their proverbial belt, the band has…
Live Review: Balmorhea Returns to Austin with Jess Williamson at the Parish
It’s been over a year since Balmorhea played in their hometown of Austin, Texas. Over a year has the fan base been out of touch with one of the most precise post-rock bands…
Gridiron Maiden Week One
In case you missed it, 10 representatives from across Austin’s music community are playing in a fantasy football league called Gridiron Maiden. You can win tickets to a Transmission show by predicting the…
Dear Someone: Will Reuniting Feel So Good?
Walker Lukens is a musician living and working in Austin, Texas. His latest album is called Devoted. His advice column Dear Someone runs semimonthly on Pop Press International. You can send in your own inquiries by emailing…
Upcoming: Shabazz Palaces September 16th
Tuesday the 16th welcomes back Seattle’s hip-hop wunderkind Shabazz Palaces. On the tail of their most recent, excellent release, Lese Majesty, the duo of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire will perform on the…
Show Preview: EARTH at Red 7 Sept. 16
Ever-cosmic and always-droning, Seattle band Earth pulls into Austin’s live music orbit this coming Tuesday (a week from today) at Red 7, where they will be joined by seriously psychobilly singer-songwriter King Dude…
Whirr at Red 7: Live Review
Cruising through two decades worth of College Rock 101 in an open topped convertible, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes began the night at Red 7 Saturday. A guitar/drummer two-piece, the band exhausted their audience…
Contest: Win Tickets to Slow Magic at Mohawk September 17th
Mysterious, masked DJ Slow Magic, who blends electronic beats with live drum performance will play the Mohawk a week from tomorrow on September 17th. Slow Magic is yet another DJ in the rising…
Live Review: Raw Paw Closes Out Summer with Epic Scoot Inn Show
Despite rain in the early evening, the weather was just fine, if a little muggy, for local arts and music collective Raw Paw’s epic send off to summer at Scoot Inn on Friday…
Parquet Courts Share New Video, Play Dates Under Multiple Pseudonyms
Today slacker rock band Parquet Courts shared a new video for “Bodies,” a track culled from their recent effort Sunbathing Animal. The track features the group’s distinct, lackadaisical vocal delivery over wavering guitar lines…
Raw Paw Hosts Stellar Bill Tonight with Hikes, Milezo, Chipper Jones
Tonight at Scoot Inn, arts and music collective Raw Paw will host an awesome bill of bands and reveal the theme to their new zine. If you’ve been to one of the collective’s…
Austin’s Music Geeks Are Playing Fantasy Football
You heard me. Pop Press International has organized a fantasy football league of folks from Austin’s music community, employees of Transmission Entertainment, Mohawk, Holy Mountain, Cheer Up Charlies, Side One Track One, Austin…
Should We Be Watching Football?
When I read this Buzzfeed article about Michael Sam being cut from the Rams earlier this week, my guilt reached meltdown proportions. Although Oshinsky has a few issues with the logical structure of…
Show Preview: Whirr at Red 7 Saturday, September 6th
Supporting their new album Sway (out September 23rd on Graveface Records), the bay area’s Whirr will be playing at Red 7 this Saturday September 6th. A sound equal parts atmospheric and heavy, Whirr…
Austin Bat Cave Benefit Hosts Benefit with Bill Callahan, Jon Dee Graham
Austin Bat Cave is a non-profit writing and tutoring center serving a diverse population of young people. The center fights the good fight daily to keep our young people interested in reading and…
Show Preview: Balmorhea at the Parish Sunday
Balmorhea is the kind of band that can take hugely expansive ideas and wrestle them into musical form, creating a cinematic experience for the ears. Strings, synthesizers, vocal harmonies, fingerpicked guitar and various tuned…
Hear Tracks from Taft/Little Lo Upcoming Split on Punctum Records
We’ve written before about how much we like both NYC-based dream pop band Taft and expansive indie rock outfit Little Lo. So, we’re naturally thrilled that the two projects will share a 7-inch…
Non-Profit Experimental Theater Company Twin Alchemy Plans First Season
On recent trip to Houston, I had a conversation with a close friend about the abundance of live theater in Houston. We’ve had similar conversations in the past about the city’s arts community as…
Bishop Allen at Holy Mountain: Live Review
Bishop Allen hasn’t played Austin in years. His show last week at Holy Mountain was a must see for me, as I’ve been a fan from the earliest days. I was eager to…
United, 7th Street Jams
This weekend, Austin Music People took over the streets with United We Jam, a massive event supporting Austin musicians and benefitting Austin musician-lovers. AMP works to improve upon the state of Austin’s music industry and…
Suspirians Release Show at the Lost Well: Live Review
What once was the Frontier Bar in Austin’s East Side is now the Lost Well, opened by biker-friendly, former Lovejoys bartender Marcello Murphy. To keep heaviness afloat Saturday night, Austin indie-psych-noise band the Suspirians…
J. Roddy at ACL Taping: Live Review
In its 40th TV season, KLRU’s Austin City Limits has brought a loaded hand to the table. With tapings from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Jeff Tweedy, Los Lobos and Beck, the series…
Dear Someone: Doggone It, People! Like Me!
Dear Walker, My ex and I have a lot in common. We both live in the same town, we’re both musicians, we both share some of the same friends… But unfortunately he is…
Mother Falcon at Mohawk for United We Jam: Live Review
Last weekend, on both Friday and Saturday nights, Austin Music People’s fundraiser United We Jam hosted bills of local bands at myriad venues across the city. Our own Lukas Read wrote yesterday about…
Jamie xx at Mohawk: Live Review
I’m glad there’s a market for Jamie xx. There’s certainly risk in the work of the esteemed DJ behind The xx’s electronic soundscapes and beats. It doesn’t offer the emotive depth and traditional instrumentation that…
Mineral Plays First Show in 17 Years
Although I was lucky enough to catch a couple of sets from Mineral spinoff projects after moving to Austin in 2001, I was several years too late to see the quintessential emo band….
Holy Wave Euro-Tour Kickoff Show: Live Review
Holy Wave will be in Europe by the end of the week, kicking off a stint of dates with a show in Sweden at the Oslo Psych Fest. But before leaving, they stopped at…
Mumblr Shares “Got It” Ahead of Full of Snakes
If you’re looking for a soundtrack to laying around on a thrift store rug, semi conscious, surrounded by a sea of red Solo® cups, then you’re in luck! Philadelphia based rock quartet Mumblr…
