Rock – Page 11 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Portishead – Third (2008)

It’s easy to forget that the gap between Portishead‘s second album and their literal Third album was eleven years long. They’d put out two perfect trip-hop records and then faded out after drummer and songwriter Geoff Barrow became uninspired with music, underwent a divorce, and moved to Australia.

He started tinkering with music again in 2003, eventually landing on one of the tracks that would be on Third. That led him to link back up with keyboardist and guitarist Adrian Utley in 2005 and things blossomed from there.

They, along with singer Beth Gibbons, started collaborating on more tracks and Third emerged seemingly out of nowhere, surprising fans and critics alike. The surprise came from not only Portishead releasing an unexpected album, but also from the unexpected sound of it. Gone were the trip-hop elements, replaced with krautrock, synthwave, and dark wave.

“Silence” opens the record with industrial percussive beats while Charlotte Nicholls‘ cello haunts the entire track and its abrupt ending pulls the rug from under you. “Hunter” sounds like something you’d hear in a Twin Peaks episode if the show were scored by Can instead of Angelo Badalamenti. “Nylon Smile” has Gibbons singing about how she’s trying so hard to accept love and give more in a relationship that’s already boring her. “The Rip” almost becomes a sea shanty with Utley’s simple guitar picking, but then it transforms into a synthwave hypnosis session.

“Plastic” is jagged and weird (in a good way), reminding me of giallo film music at times. “We Carry On” goes almost full krautrock with its throbbing beats and unsettling synths as Gibbons sings about tastes she can’t describe and putting one foot forward to get to the next moment. The shoegaze guitar power chords from Utley are sharp on this track. “Deep Water” is an acoustic track that’s almost a lullaby.

“Machine Gun” is an immediate contrast with industrial thumps and hisses while Gibbons sends out siren song to hypnotize the sailors working deep in the hold of a passing ship. “Small” gets close to trip-hop, but keeps a darker edge to it that gets under your skin and into the back of your skull.

“Magic Doors” is the no wave song Barrow started writing in 2003 that eventually led to Third‘s creation. Vintage synthesizers are all over the album, with the final track, “Threads,” being no exception. The band used a detuned sound of a VCS 3 to create a spooky effect that resembles a clarinet played by a wraith. Jim Barr‘s guest bass is like a slowly boiling contents of a cauldron found simmering in a dark woods.

People are still unraveling Third, myself included, all these years later. It’s worth the effort.

Keep your mind open.

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Guard your eardrums. Numero Group is releasing a four album set of live Hüsker Dü music on November 07, 2025.

Numero Group announces the release of Hüsker Dü’s 1985: The Miracle Year, a live 4 LP box set, out November 7th. Witness the transcendent Minneapolis punk trio tearing into the most incendiary year of its existence, captured live on stage at First Avenue in perhaps the highest fidelity recordings of the band’s lauded SST era. 1985: The Miracle Year includes Beau Sorenson’s restoration of an entire January 30, 1985 set, plus 20 extra live tracks from the year’s touring schedule, and a deluxe booklet detailing twelve months of history-making Hüsker Dü. Along with today’s announcement, four songs from the box set are available to stream now. Titled Jan. 30, First Ave Pt. 2, the collection features “The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill,” “I Apologize,” “If I Told You” and “Folklore.” What is the sound of a legend being written?

Stream Jan. 30, First Ave Pt. 2

Looking at 1985 through the dynamic lens of independent DIY music, mid-decade, there was a year-long succession of leaps by Hüsker Dü, each building on the powerful and undeniable sprint from the scrappy punk institution SST to the artistic empathy of Warner Bros. As observers began to catch on, testimonials came from many quarters, including the New York Times, which recognized the band as “the best to have emerged from the hardcore scene.” Consistent with such praise, Hüsker Dü revealed a heightened creative pace rarely, if ever, seen in any musical era. Before or since. After blowing the doors off the burgeoning alt-rock movement with Zen Arcadethe previous July, the band dropped New Day Rising just six months later on January 14, 1985, and then never stopped chasing the Hidden Beach sunrise that adorned that album’s cover.

On January 30, 1985, Minneapolis reached -11° at show time, marking 19 points of mercilessly dropped mercury from the day’s 8° apex. The 1500 attendees inside First Avenue, however, wouldn’t be needing so much as a T-shirt, let alone the nearest fiberfill parka: from the first blinding moments of “New Day Rising,” it was clear that Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Nortonhad arrived intent on setting every molecule in the room alight. Their setlist displayed a night-long cascade of fireballs chosen from Everything Falls Apart, Metal Circus, Zen Arcade, and New Day Rising, and five new songs that would reappear later on Flip Your Wig. They also made several nods to the band’s rock forbears, with a ballistic take on The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” a turbulent spin on The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” featuring Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, a pop-punk remake of “Ticket To Ride, ” and closing with their signature cover of Sonny Curtis’s Mary Tyler Moore theme “Love Is All Around.”

Considering the late-January 2011 house fire that consumed a precious portion of the Hüsker Dü archive, it has to be reckoned as a kind of subordinate miracle that the 1985 First Avenue tapes survived at all. They deliver peak Dü at full gallop through already beloved material, still years shy of fully cementing their status as a blueprint for the alternative rock skyscraper to come. This box set celebrates these tapes, strikingly perhaps the highest fidelity Hüsker Dü recordings ever produced during the band’s lauded SST years. “When I think of that time,” Greg comments, “it was three guys doing what they loved, having fun, and basically showing other people that you can be true to yourself, true to your music, and not have to bow down to fashion or expectations to make something really great.”

Pre-order/Pre-save 1985: The Miracle Year

1985: The Miracle Year Tracklist:
Minnesota Miracle
SIDE A
1. New Day Rising
2. It’s Not Funny Anymore
3. Everything Falls Apart
4. The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill
5. I Apologize
6. If I Told You
7. Folklore

SIDE B
1. Every Everything
2. Makes No Sense At All
3. Terms Of Psychic Warfare
4. Powerline
5. Books About UFOs
6. Broken Home, Broken Heart
7. Diane

SIDE C
1. Hate Paper Doll
2. Green Eyes
3. Divide And Conquer
4. Pink Turns To Blue
5. Eight Miles High

SIDE D
1. Out On A Limb
2. Helter Skelter
3. Ticket To Ride
4. Love Is All Around

More Miracles
SIDE E
1. Don’t Want To Know If You’re Lonely
2. I Don’t Know For Sure
3. Hardly Getting Over It
4. Sorry Somehow
5. Eiffel Tower High

SIDE F
1. What’s Going On
2. Private Plane
3. Celebrated Summer
4. All Work And No Play

SIDE G
1. Keep Hanging On
2. Find Me
3. Flexible Flyer
4. Sunshine Superman
5. In A Free Land
6. Somewhere

SIDE H
1. Flip Your Wig
2. Never Talking To You Again
3. Chartered Trips
4. The Wit And The Wisdom
5. Misty Modern Days

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR!]

Review: Birds of Nazca – Pangaea

I don’t know how two people – Guillaume – guitar and Romauld – drums of Birds of Nazca can make so much sound, but they do it on their new album Pangaea…which is somehow heavier than their last (Héliolite).

As you can guess by the album’s cover, it blends desert and cosmic rock and has gravity-defying and / or crushing riffs throughout it. The theme of the album is that each track refers to and is inspired by a different place, landscape, or (I suspect) energy vortex of the Earth.

Beginning with “Batagaïka” (the name of the infamous melting permafrost crater in Siberia), BON explore a place on Earth and in our minds that is withering away to expose things we’ve long buried or have been hidden. Guillaume’s multi-layered guitar chords are like a giant stretching after a long slumber while Romauld harness the sound of cracking firmament.

“Gang Rinpoché,” also known as Mount Kailash” in China, is one of the tallest mountains in the world and perhaps the one with the most spiritual significance to at least three different religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The mountain is believed to be the connection between heaven and earth and no one has ever reached its summit. Climbing it is strictly forbidden by the Chinese government and anyone who has tried has failed. That doesn’t stop BON from creating a mountain-heavy track dedicated to it and its mystery, however.

“Racetrack Playa” is in Death Valley, California. It’s a dry lake bed where rocks can move during the winter (thanks to ice and wind) for several, if not dozens, of meters and leave “racetracks” in the land. Appropriately, BON stomps the gas pedal and takes off across the salty flats while it sounds like they’re being chased by a post-apocalyptic biker gang armed with chainsaws.

We next travel to Russia and near the Ural Mountains to see “Man Pupu Nyor” (“Little Mountain of the Gods”) – the weird and somewhat spooky rock formations that might be warriors frozen in time. BON makes it feel like those huge warriors are breaking free of their rocky tombs and knocking the rust off their axes in preparation for battle.

The birds fly over to South America and the Andes Mountains for a visit to “Incahuasi” – a mountain that borders Argentina and Chile. I don’t recommend playing this if you’re ascending it. You might cause an avalanche because Romauld’s drums alone sometimes sound like tons of ice roaring toward you.

The album ends with the title track (which itself ends in birdsong) – a reference to the “supercontinent” that existed over 200 million years ago and consisted of most of the land masses we know today. It’s mind-blowing to consider how (relatively) close all the places BON have named on this album used to be to each other until great cataclysms divided them.

It’s the same with people, and I think that’s the underlying message of the album. We all used to be neighbors. We all had sacred connections to spaces and knew Mother Nature could crush us in an instant, so we had to take care of her. We still do. We still can. Put on this album and get to work.

Keep your mind open.

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[Merci á Birds of Nazca!]

Just Mustard’s release powerful new single – “Endless Deathless.”

Ireland’s Just Mustard release “ENDLESS DEATHLESS,” the third single/video from their new album, WE WERE JUST HERE, out October 24th via Partisan Records. “ENDLESS DEATHLESS” arrives on the heels of a sold out September tour and release of the album’s title track, “WE WERE JUST HERE,” which “takes Just Mustard’s minimalist noise rock into a dreamier, goth-like arena” (Consequence). One of the most explosive tracks on the album, “ENDLESS DEATHLESS” captures the band at their most urgent and cathartic. It’s immediate and visceral, built on a foundation of warped guitar textures, clattering percussion, and thudding sub-bass. Katie Ball’s vocals rise above the chaos; a break in the clouds cutting through the noise. It’s a high point of the record’s embrace of physicality and directness, designed to hit with the impact of a packed club running at full tilt. The song’s accompanying video was directed by band member David Noonan.

Watch the Video for “ENDLESS DEATHLESS”

Just Mustard is Katie Ball, David Noonan, Mete Kalyoncuoğlu, Rob Clarke, and Shane Maguire. WE WERE JUST HERE was recorded at Black Mountain studio just outside of the band’s hometown, produced by Noonan and the band, and mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, FKA twigs). The strange and distinct universe the band creates on record is reinforced with haunting interludes of speech and noise, snippets of voice memos, and elements from various demos. While their approach to composition had previously been inspired by their love of electronic music, starting with instrumental loops and textures and later weaving vocal ideas around them, the band made a conscious decision to reverse engineer this process on WE WERE JUST HERE. This meant adopting a more traditional method, looking to the swirling rock and dynamic song structures of Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine and striving for big, bold, fully encompassing songs.

“The vocal structure was the most important thing,” Noonan comments. With choruses bursting with melody and brightness, Ball’s vocals rise higher in the mix throughout the album. Her lyrics can be ingested as a conflicted and toxic grasp at positivity, or a cathartic breakthrough into bliss. “I was trying to write more optimistically, and feeling like a fraud sometimes. I was trying to put myself in places of physical joy to try and get that euphoric feeling,” Ball explains.

WE WERE JUST HERE signals a pivotal moment for the band. Across their first two albums—2018’s Wednesday and their 2022 Partisan debut Heart Under—the band “rode a wave of noise to the front of the shoegaze pack, breaking from the distorted yearning of the genre’s softer acolytes” (Pitchfork). While Just Mustard’s signature elements are still intact on WE WERE JUST HERE, it’s all been channeled into a warmer and more anthemic path. For Heart Under, a core concept of the album was to make listeners feel like they were traveling through a tunnel. With WE WERE JUST HERE, they explode out into the blinding light.

Pre-order WE WERE JUST HERE

Watch the Video for “WE WERE JUST HERE”

Watch the Video for “POLLYANNA”

Just Mustard Tour Dates
Fri. Oct. 24 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East
Sun. Oct. 26 – Kingston Upon Thames, UK @ The Fighting Cocks
Mon. Oct. 27 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade Bristol
Tue. Oct. 28 – Brighton, UK @ Resident Music
Wed. Oct. 29 – Liverpool, UK @ Rough Trade Liverpool
Thu. Oct. 30 – Dublin, IE @ Spindizzy Records
Fri. May 1 – Dublin, IE @ Olympia Theatre
Fri. June 26 – Dublin, IE @ Marlay Park *
Sun. June 28 – Belfast, IE @ Belsonic ^
Sun. Aug. 23 – Edinburgh, SF @ Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh Summer Sessions #

* with The Cure & Stella and the Dreaming
^ with The Cure & The Twilight Sad
# with The Cure, Slowdive, & Mogwai

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Levitation 2025: Day Three recap

You can always recognize faces by the final day of Austin, Texas’ Levitation Music Festival. You see the same people who’ve been sweating and rocking with you all weekend and can tell who hasn’t had enough sleep, who’s been in the sun too long, who’s hungover, who’s dehydrated, and who’s an old pro.

The crowd was light when I arrived to see Daiistar open the final day of the festival. This isn’t because Daiistar is a bad band, quite the contrary, but the people who show up early on Sunday are either the die-hards who are getting every cent of their money’s worth for the weekend pass, the people who can only make it on Sunday and have the same logic, the fans of the first band, and those who are so deep in the festival zone that showing up when the gates open has become as automatic as breathing. All of those people got to see a good set of early-90’s vibe psychedelia from Daiistar that was a good warm-up to a hot, humid Sunday.

Afterwards, shade spots were prime real estate at the outdoor stage for Population II, who brought their fiery cosmic psych all the way from Quebec and wowed the audience. They cracked jokes about touring, their own merch, and lack of English in between songs about everything from pizza to panic.

Population II gathering a large population of new fans.

Two friends, Wes and Chelsea, met me at the festival on this day, and I took them to see A Place to Bury Strangers. This was their first time seeing APTBS. “I envy your innocence,” I said. We walked into the indoor stage area within moments of the opening notes of the set and, of course, were greeted by what sounded like a saw mill on fire. As is now custom at an APTBS show, they came into the middle of crowd, near us, to perform a wild, weird set of hammering rhythms and distorted synth…something. Chelsea said, “It felt like they’d summoned us to be sacrificed and then put a hex on us.” We later told frontman Oliver Ackermann this and he said, “Yes! That’s it.” Chelsea said she was still thinking about their set by the end of the night.

A Place to Bury Strangers casting spells.

As if that wasn’t enough face-melting for you, along came Frankie and The Witch Fingers afterwards with a ton of groovy garage-punk chaos for which I joined the mosh pit and rocked out with the sweaty crowd for a bit (which you could easily have done outside as well since it was so hot and humid that day). FATWF always play well and are a ton of fun.

Frankie and The Witch Fingers casting spells.

We had some time for food at some point. It’s difficult to remember when you eat and which set is at which time when you’re on Day Three. We did remember that The Black Angels were up next for us. The festival’s hosts and curators always play and put on a set of some rare tracks I hadn’t heard in a while, possibly ever, which was a treat.

The final two bands of the night on the indoor stage were indie rock giants -— both of whom drew big crowds. First was Built to Spill, whose lead singer and guitarist Doug Martsch had some of the best guitar tones of the entire festival.

Spilling thrills for the appreciative crowd.

Next, and closing the day and the festival, was Pavement. They had a great time on stage, laughing a lot, poking fun at each other, and getting a lot of cheers from the crowd.

There’s always an odd feeling when Levitation ends. You’ve been there for multiple days and nights. You’ve made some new friends, seen the same groups of weirdos, ate some spicy food, drank too much caffeine, and your ears are sore from wearing earplugs for three straight days or not wearing them at all. You’ve experienced something…and now it’s finished. You don’t feel empty or sad, but you do wish you could squeeze another day or night out of it…and you also feel renewed and ready for next year.

See you in 2026, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin 2025: Day Two recap

“This is gonna be a sweat-fest.”

Those were the first words I heard about Day Two of 2025’s Levitation Austin musical festival as I walked toward the entrance of the Palmer Event Center. Some guy said this to his pal as they steeled themselves for the day to come. The guy was right, as the bright sun was brutal at times — especially at the outdoor stage.

I started indoors, both to avoid the peak sun and to see Hooveriii put on a solid set of psych-rock that bordered on grunge rock a couple times (which was fine by me).

Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”, not “hoovery.”)

Many of us ventured out into the sun to see Dutch disco funkers Yīn-Yīn play for the first time anywhere in the United States. They had the afternoon crowd jumping and were having a great time despite not being used to such heat.

Yīn-Yīn getting their sweaty groove on, and on all of us.

I had time for a chicken shawarma wrap (possibly the best food bargain at the festival) and some ice cream before heading back to the outdoor stage to see Model / Actriz put on a blistering set of queercore post-punk with lead singer Cole Haden prowling through the crowd while his bandmates played tight, snappy beats and riffs. Guitarist Jack Wetmore knows not only how to play, but the right moments not to play — a skill overlooked by many.

Model / Actriz bringing more heat than the afternoon sun.

I took some more time to hydrate and get a full meal (It’s a marathon, not a sprint.) before heading back indoors to join the large crowd for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who played to a happy crowd — many of whom (at least around me) hadn’t seen them before now. It was a good set, with only minor issue when, believe it or not, Anton Newcombe decided his microphone had too much reverb.

The Raveonettes were a welcome return to Levitation. I hadn’t seen them since 2013 when Levitation was still the Austin Psych Fest (which has returned in its own form). They still sound great and played classics and newer stuff.

The biggest show of the night, and for the entire festival for me, belonged to TV on the Radio. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see them, so their appearance at Levitation made the decision to fly here a no-brainer. They slayed it and had everyone jumping and moving. Their energy was infectious and immediate, and a great way to close the night.

TVOTR didn’t close my night, however. I was so wired after their set that I walked over a mile to Elysium to see Past Self and Urban Heat. I knew we were in for a treat when Past Self’s bassist started the show by playing his guitar with a bow. What followed was a mix of desert rock (They’re from Las Vegas, Nevada.), New Romanticism, and dark wave.

Past Self. Are they ghosts, musicians, past incarnations of you?

Urban Heat are local heroes who play aggressive shoegaze mixed with post-punk anger. It’s good stuff, and they seem destined for big things. They reminded me a bit of early TVOTR, which was fitting because I bumped into TVOTR’s guitarist / multi-instrumentalist Jaleel Bunton at their show and got to thank him for the great set.

Up next, psychedelia, indie rock, and a couple sets that might cause you to seek a chiropractor afterwards.

Keep your mind open.

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Runo Plum takes you “Halfway Up the Lawn” with her newest single.

In November, runo plum will release her debut LP on Winspear (Wishy, Slow Pulp, Teethe). Entitled patching, the album was produced with her new Winspear labelmate Lutalo, and was announced in late August with the single “sickness,” which arrived with a Rolling Stone featureand saw praise from outlets like Stereogum, Line of Best Fit and BrooklynVegan.

Today, runo is sharing another preview of her new album, a track called “Halfway Up The Lawn,” with a video shot by David Milan Kelly.

Unbridled sincerity isn’t anything new for runo plum, who’s been writing and quietly sharing bedroom dispatches of her intricate folk for a half-decade. During the pandemic years, she steadily caught the ears of a widening circle of listeners and soon began independently releasing a series of singles and EPs, all while cutting her teeth on the live side supporting Searows, Angel Olsen and Hovvdy.

In the midst of this wave of success came an unexpected heartbreak. It wasn’t until runo had written a mass of songs in a five-month burst of intense creativity following that chasm that she realized that not one, but two, records were forming. “I was writing like I never had before and everything felt more meaningful than ever,” she says.

On patching, the work of metamorphosis plays as large of a role as the studied process of mending and repair. Across its twelve tracks, runo paints her melodic arcs with a sharp sense of dynamics, crafting songs that capture both the hazy highs and the dark blue lows of all the natural cycles that make the world turn. At the heart of her writing lies a sort of ephemeral magic, one born from her ability to alchemize a deeply formative chapter of life into a vivid scrapbook of songs, capturing the contours of her experiences in shimmering detail.

“Halfway Up The Lawn” recounts the messy and deeply human desperation phase of a breakup, unraveling all of the yearning and mental hang-ups over persistent, near-hypnotic instrumentation. “I don’t wanna watch you turn green, but I will” she sings, toying with acceptance, but not entirely giving up the fight.

“This song is about when you get broken up with and you aren’t on speaking terms with that person anymore. It makes you feel so insane, you want to scream, you’re checking socials, waiting for a text, desperately waiting for literally any sign of life. I imagine myself pathetically sitting outside of their house waiting for them to get home, but–nothing. The line “I don’t wanna watch you turn green, but I will” is ultimately about accepting that they have moved on. We ended up using my demo guitar solo for this one, which is so funny because it’s sort of a mess but it ended up fitting perfectly with the chaos in the theme.”

In support of the record runo will be embarking on a UK/EU tour that includes appearances at Pitchfork London and Paris. Full details of those dates can be found below.

11/1 – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling Festival
11/2 – Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukuft
11/3 – Hamburg, DE @ Aalhaus
11/5 – Ghent, BE @ Big Next (Trefpunt)
11/6 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rotondes
11/7 – Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Paris
11/8 – London, UK @ Pitchfork London
11/10 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
11/11 – London, UK @ Moth Club
11/12 – Brighton, UK @ Dust
11/14 – Sheffield, UK @ Hallamshire Hotel
11/15 – Leeds, UK @ Live at Leeds

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Levitation Austin 2025: Day One recap

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the first full day of Levitation 2025 than a slow-motion sword fight between a Rat Queen and a rat skull-headed incarnation of Death over a book containing countless souls.

That’s how Day One of the festival started in its new home — the Palmer Event Center. The new space is impressive. The interior stage is in a massive cave-like room with 360-degrees of projections to keep you tripping all day if you’d like. Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers described it to me as “amazing,” and I think he and his bandmates (still a bit bleary-eyed from their recent South American tour) are eager to blast the place on Day Three.

First to blast it, and setting a high bar for the rest of the bands to come for the rest of the festival, were a band consisting of a vampire, a druid, a plague doctor, and a warrior queen.

Castle Rat came out to an exuberant crowd as the voice of a distant wizard told us they had been given the task of protecting The Bestiary — a book of souls they must protect at all costs from evil forces. As a friend put it, “Listening to them is like opening your Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook for the first time.” They proceeded to flatten the place, ending their too short forty-minute time slot with the aforementioned sword fight.

The line for Castle Rat’s merch was at least twenty minutes long for hours after their set. I later met their drummer, The Druid, and told him my friend’s description of their music. He laughed and said, “Yes! That’s exactly what we’re going for.”

The exterior stage is in a smaller space, and set up facing south with the unintended result of having many of the bands (depending on their set time) staring into the afternoon sun. One such band was Skloss, who’d just returned from a tour in Scotland and had become unaccustomed to such bright sunlight. Guitarist Sandy Carson had trouble seeing his foot pedal board a couple times, resulting in what drummer / singer Karen Skloss called “the Skloss experimental set” by the end. Regardless of the pedal trouble, they still put on a loud, psychedelic show that blasted as hard as the sun.

I had to get some hydration and calories by this point, so I missed the opening of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s set, but got there in time for a lot of solid rockers such as “Heel,” “1-800-EAT-SHIT,” and “I’m the Fucking Man.” They sounded great, even better when I saw them at Levitation last year at Stubb’s BBQ on a much bigger stage.

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Whatever the Fuck

I had a little time to wander for a bit, checking out the various vendors there, and then got to see most of the set from Austin’s own The Sword — who played to a packed house indoors. Their set got a bit funky by the end, which I thought was great.

The Sword cutting through time and space.

I took a much-needed disco nap back at the hotel after their set, and it was almost too good of a break. I woke up groggy and debated not going downtown to see the late night show for which I’d purchased a ticket a while ago. I decided to go outside, get some fresh air, and make the decision. It turned out to be a good one.

I didn’t get to Elysium in time to see Austin drag star Louisanna Purchase perform, but did get there for the last half of Auragraph‘s drum and bass set that had the place bumping. Much like the Boy Harsher show the previous night, the goth and queer crowd was out in force here — which is always great to see.

Pixel Grip was playing down a man with synth player Jonathon Freund not being able to make the show, but pre-programmed loops and chords keyed up by drummer Tyler Ommen worked just fine and singer Rita Lukea commanded the stage and the jam-packed crowd. They had the floors shaking multiple times. It was a wild end to a wild day.

Up next for Day Two…post-punk, disco, and a DJ set from my favorite band.

Keep your mind open.

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Sell Everything offer “Girls, Girls, Girls” for you.

Hailing from Dublin, SELL EVERYTHING is a five-piece collective fusing jazz guitar, off-kilter rhythms, and sharp lyrical wit into a sound entirely their own. Their genre-blurring approach — spanning indie rock, grunge, jazz, and hip hop — yields songs that feel equally at home in dimly lit clubs and on festival main stages. Frontman Tom Kelly’s wry, observational lyrics thread through lush arrangements with a balance of intimacy and detachment, creating an emotional pull that’s both immediate and enduring. With a DIY ethos and a reputation for unpredictable, compelling live shows, SELL EVERYTHING are rapidly emerging as one of Ireland’s most exciting and forward-thinking acts.

Today, the band are sharing their latest single, a track called “Girls, Girls, Girls,” which is out today on their label home Future Gods.

The band’s early singles have drawn praise from Stereogum, FLOOD, and Line of Best Fit, earning comparisons to artists like King Krule, Bar Italia and Mk.gee. While those comparisons might imply a downbeat vibe, “Girls, Girls, Girls” injects that vibe with a looseness and a sense of fun.

A jazz-leaning indie track built on warm guitar work inspired by Wes Montgomery and a rhythmic sway that nods to Anotr and early Underworld, the track is lyrically playful yet emotionally sharp, drifting between fleeting encounters, restless desire, and self-deprecating humor. It’s the band’s most immediate and infectious release yet, with a groove that lingers long after the track ends.

The band say of the song:

“‘Girls Girls Girls’ is written with irony at its core. On the surface, it feels upbeat and soulful — almost celebratory — but the heart of the song is about that nagging feeling of missing out, when really it’s just in your head. The video reflects that through the pirate character: he’s dressed as an outsider, but it’s his own perception that keeps him apart. The verses carry a bright, major feel, while the chorus shifts into something more melancholic and reflective — a push and pull between joy and self-doubt. In the end, it’s less about wanting what you think you lack, and more about realizing that you’ve put yourself on the outside.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Levitation Austin 2025: Day Zero recap

I’m going to call the September 25, 2025 Thursday night late shows of Levitation Austin 2025 as “Day Zero” since the official festival doesn’t start until September 26th. “Day -1” would’ve been September 24th when you could’ve seen Mdou Moctar, Beach Fossils, Strange Lot, Water Damage and other good bands.

The main festival has a new home — the Palmer Event Center pretty much in the middle of the city, and only has the “pub crawl” events (shows at various venues downtown) at night. As usual, there’s always at least one good band playing the Thursday night before Levitation to entice you into coming to town early. This year, “Day Zero” had several: Warmduscher and Starjunk 95 among them, and I opted for two other shows out of six you could attend.

I first went to Stubb’s BBQ for what would be the only show I would attend there the whole weekend (which felt odd): Kumo 99, Martin Rev, and Boy Harsher.

Kumo 99 kicking off Levitation with a good start.

I’d only heard one song from Kumo 99 before coming to Austin, so I didn’t know what to expect apart from some electro music. What I got was electro plus synthwave plus Japanese vocal punk rock. I was impressed, and so were a lot of others judging by the size of the line at their merch booth after their set.

Martin Rev will hit you with a key-tar and then put you in the Sharpshooter.

Up next was the legendary Martin Rev — one half of synth / punk pioneers Suicide. He came out in ripped-up leather pants, a sleeveless shirt, and goggles suitable for alpine skiing or for Brett “Hitman” Hart cutting a professional wrestling promo. What followed was a weird, loud no wave noise set that left most of the audience (who didn’t realize who he was) baffled. Rev was hammerfisting his keyboard through most of the set, bludgeoning us with distorted din. He sampled Bon Jovi, ZZ Top, and The Trammps at various points while singing / talking with so much reverb in his microphone that one guy in front of me just yelled, “What are you saying?” during a brief break in the noise. Rev even did a bizarre cover of Sam the Sham & the Pharohs‘ “Wooly Bully” at one point. A woman next to me said, “I hope I can be that cool at (age) seventy-seven. I’m ready for bed by eight and he’s out here doing his thing.” That “thing” being not giving a damn what people think and giving them more of an experience than a performance.

Boy Harsher winning over the crowd at the first note.

The crowd (with a big goth and queer contingent. Hell yeah!) for Boy Harsher was huge by the time they took the stage. They played much the same set as when I saw them at Levitation France months earlier — packing in pulsing synthwave with great electro dance beats. I found out from the woman next to me that they’d played a DJ set from the back of a truck the previous day and had done a record signing at End of an Ear in Austin. That’s way cool.

Speaking of way cool things, I walked a half-block after Boy Harsher’s set to Elysium where I caught Johnny Jewel‘s great set of his film score and other music – which included a set from Drive, a salute to David Lynch, and even a different version of Chromatics‘ “Lady.” He played various clips from Lynch films, Twin Peaks, giallo films, and other oddities throughout it.

Up next, and closing out Day Zero, was one of Jewel’s many side projects — Desire. They played a long set of lovely synthwave and electro-dance tracks, mostly about wanting, finding, and / or losing love. The crowd loved them, and the trio work well together. They even played two New Order covers (“Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Blue Monday” – with Jewel on lead vocals for the second) and Taylor Dane‘s “Tell It to My Heart” — which was a natural fit for lead singer Megan Louise.

It was a late night, but worth it. There’s a lot of good synthwave at Levitation this year, and Day One will end with more…but first there will be a lot of metal.

Keep your mind open.

All right, all right! I’ll get on it…And you spelled my name wrong again, David!

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