Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager plays essentially the same as his debut album, Man On The Moon: The End of The Day. Both are like lucid dreams with dark undertones, with Man On The Moon II crossing into the boundaries of an airy whimsical nightmare.
Ariel Pink doesn’t necessarily believe in the labels critics and his fans have attached to his aesthetic since he began making music in 1996. Actually, Pink and his band, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, are irritated by those labels and think they have led people to make some illegitimate misconceptions about his music.
Blues has generally maintained a reputation for its spontaneity and improvisational characteristics. Since its inception dating back to the days of bands such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, artists have fused pre-rehearsed tunes with free-form musical odysseys. Keeping the tradition alive, legendary Austin venue Antone’s hosts the Austin Blues Society’s weekly jams.
There were UT and high school students, concert veterans and children throwing rock horns from parents’ shoulders, head-banging metal heads and swaying dream-pop dancers. A wide assortment of people from the Austin community filled Waterloo Park for Fun Fun Fun Fest over the weekend.
There’s nothing quite like getting beat up at Fun Fun Fun Fest while the lead singer of GWAR shoots red dyed water at you. Or getting trapped under a fallen crowd surfer only to push the body off your head so you can continue jumping and screaming along to Bad Religion.
For such an accomplished musician, Ray Benson, the frontman for western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, is hardly pretentious. In fact, he concerns himself with the worries of the common man. During the interview he was keeping an eye on the election results, ruing another four years of Gov. Rick Perry. Perhaps this every-man attitude has led to his extended success as a musician, keeping him clean of the tabloid drama that ruins so many musicians’ careers. This Friday he will be celebrating his success with the current members of Asleep at the Wheel, alumni of the band and Willie Nelson as they play a 40th anniversary concert for the band.
Brooklyn-based duo Matt and Kim do not know what restraint is; stuffing drumbeats, major chords, piano melodies, synths, lyrical hooks and shouting vocals into a blender and sticking whatever comes out on an album. It sounds like one hell of a time, and the duo keeps the good times rolling with its third album, Sidewalks.
At midnight on a Tuesday in early October at Mi Casa, a bar on Sixth Street, there is a crowd of people packed in, all in anticipation for Austin-based rapper Zeale’s performance.