tUnE-yArDs is the typographically-challenged name for Merrill Garbus, a songwriter who's quickly making a name for herself in indie-rock. 2009 saw the quiet release of her debut, BiRd-BrAiNs, which soon became an online hit with its mixture vocal loops and unique poly-rhythms. This week marks the...
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Drummer Josh Block and guitarist/vocalist James Petralli met in Dallas, but their collaboration truly began with a relocation to Austin. The two formed a band and, after seeing bassist Steve Terebecki tear it up onstage while performing in another...
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Akron/Family II is stuffed full of the band's best (and sometimes worst) tendencies. Songs build up with tribal drumming, electronic flourishes, and fiery lead guitar before the trio breaks out into multi-part harmonies. The group draws inspiration from such disparate sources as Appalachian folk...
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Not in the Face cranks out catchy, energetic and dynamic Southern-tinged rock that will have you pumping your fist in the air one minute and crying into your beer the next....
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Our good friend and colleague, Hector Saldana - music columnist for the San Antonio Express-News (and a pretty fine musician himself) - turned us on to this band from the Alamo city. Their sound is anything but reminiscent of the Tex-Mex-tinged music that we've come to expect from San Antone....
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Timber Timbre's Taylor Kirk belongs to that long list of Canadian songwriters who have mastered the sound and feel of Americana despite living north of the border. His group just released their fourth album, titled Creep On Creepin' On, and the record does American better than most American...
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Paste Magazine called Austin's David Ramirez "the best damn songwriter you don't know yet." He grew up in Houston, but his passion for songwriting brought him through Nashville and then on to Birmingham. Austin, however, seems like the perfect fit for Ramirez....
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What kind of music would you expect from a back-up singer who primarily works with Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the Killers? For Lindi Ortega, the surprising answer is a mixture of jazz and country. Her back-up work keeps her on the road most of the year, but she's finding time to release...
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Pearl and the Beard are a quirky folk trio from Brooklyn, New York. Jocelyn Mackenzie, Emily Hope Price, and Jeremy Styles craft an unconventional brew of musical stylings: ranging from soulful gospel and prohibition-era ragtime to lilting sea shanties and indie pop . "Hot Volcano" is a look at...
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For years, John Darnielle recorded his songs onto a busted Panasonic boombox under the name of “the Mountain Goats," but the last decade has seen a change in philosophy. The Mountain Goats have become into a full-fledged band, capable of turning Darnielle's folk songs into energetic fist-pumpers....
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This version of Gorilla Manor standout track, "Shape Shifter," captured in a live performance at KUT, showcases the band's soaring, sky-scraping harmonies, dreamy orchestral melodies, and throbbing tribal beats. Theirs are songs you can dance to almost as well as you can swoon to them. Local...
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Bobby Long is a singer/songwriter from Calne, Wiltshire, South West England. He moved to London to pursue his musical career and is currently on a multi-national tour through United States and Europe. He likens his music to “drops of rain on a bull fighter’s back, like punches breaking through...
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L.A.'s Fitz & the Tantrums played to a packed Austin Convention Center Radio Day Stage on Thursday afternoon for an exclusive KUT-curated performance. Download the live version of one of their hit singles now!...
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When Ray Wylie Hubbard came to KUT to perform a few weeks back, this cover song stood out from the rest. "You Got to Move" was originally written by Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Hubbard's take is not lacking in the Mississippi Delta blues sound that McDowell and others made popular in the '40s...
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