SXSW 2012

A SXSW Interactive tradition! Amazing, poignant, moving, and funny 2-minute presentations by 20 of new media's most creative minds.

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2012, presented by Anne Heller of Aurora Plastics Company and Church of the Friendly Ghost, is a three-day experimental improvisation and outsider music festival, now in its 12th year. Poet, musician and filmmaker Anne Heller (of the experimental improv band Aurora Plastics Company) began the fest in the year 2000 to celebrate still being alive and to return a bit of happiness to the community by creating a manifestation of “flying the freak flag.” She organizes and funds the fest herself, paying the performing bands equally from the profits, if any. Inspired by Andy Warhol’s legendary “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” happenings, this showcase of up-and-coming tonal artists is accompanied by the film installations of video artist Paul Baker and others, creating a hypnotic ambiance throughout. 

Experimental improvisational music is “art for art’s sake,” creation as a means of intense personal expression. The bands featured in Yeast by Sweet Beast are all experienced improvisers who feel comfortable and relish the magic which is creativity in the moment. Many also perform in other musical genres. Each band gets a 30-minute set with 8 or 9 bands performing each night of the fest.

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2012 will feature Louisville, Kentucky’s Bosco Stravinsky and Houston’s Future Blondes, as well as such Austin-based experimental stalwarts as ST-37, Plutonium Farmers, Attic Ted, Book of Shadows and organic-electric soundtrack conjurers Aurora Plastics Company. Paul Baker of Sub Oslo and others will visually accompany the musical performances, in traditional Yeast by Sweet Beast fashion.

For more info visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yeast-by-Sweet-Beast-Fest/321347237877510

Film Fresh invites you to celebrate the relaunch of their film recommendation and film delivery service. They offer indie, international and Hollywood films in digital format at filmfresh.com for PCs and Macs, as well as stores on mobile devices, living room CE devices and Facebook. Come meet them, have a drink, win some prizes and check out their cool new Film Finder™.

From Dan Oko, The Austin Chronicle:

The ukulele dares us to laugh. Yet without virtuoso ambassador Shimabukuro – raised in Hawaii, playing since age 4 – today's uke fad would never rise beyond novelty. Between last year's irresistible Peace Love Ukulele and the 8 million YouTube views of his miraculous version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Shimabukuro will have the last laugh.

Union Specific began in the summer of 2008 in Sherman TX,
where singers/songwriters Tyler Wallace and Gregg Maher
attended Austin College, a small liberal arts university. The two
had long known of each other's songwriting endeavors, but they would not begin making music together until late in their junior year, when Tyler approached Gregg to play with him in a talent show. The two soon realized that they had a palpable combination when they put their talents together. What came out was a medley of hard driving roots country mixed with thoughtful indie melodies, a combination resulting in bona fide Americana. The boys got together a group of friends and were soon playing every dive in North Texas. The joints were rough, but, through these experiences, the two developed a love for the informality of the grungy, smoke-filled venues and wished to incorporate that into their sound as well as their live show.

Ian Moore is a singer/guitarist/songwriter who has released 10 full length records. He has opened for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul Weller, and countless others. He has appeared in films such as Billy Bob Thorton's movie Slingblade, and crisscrossed the world many times in support of his releases. In the last years he has also moonlit as a sideman for artists as diverse Jason Mraz and Roky Erickson, while starting a company, Madrona music, that focuses on film scoring.
Ian's music is rare in its scope and diversity, and he has reinvented himself with every release.
Well known in his early years for his fiery, bluesy guitar playing, and soulful singing, he was anointed at a young age as an Austin legend
His inquisitive and ambitious spirit has led him to greatly eclipse the songwriting and musical latitude of his early release.
His latest release, El Sonido, Nuevo, finds him digging deeper into the realms of power pop/psych rock, while maintaining his core musical values. 'El Sonido' is a collaborative release, written with Matt Harris(Posies, Oranger) and the music reflects their collective musical visions. The current show is visceral, tight, laden with harmony and taut musical arrangement. Guitar is featured, but borrowing equally from the likes of Richard Thompson and Tom Verlaine, and the songs borrow but never steal. The music doesn't surf the wave of desperate modern trends, but swims freely beyond the waves, imbued with the music of deep record collections, but maintaining a musical vision of now

FREDDIE STEADY KRC BIOGRAPHY
Austin Music Awards Hall-of-Famer Freddie Steady Krc comes by his name honestly. This singer / songwriter / guitarist / drummer / renaissance Texan has plied his musical wares around the world the past few decades.

In the late summer 1979, Joe "King" Carrasco formed a stripped-down four-piece combo to replace his Chicano big band, El Molino. Dubbed the Crowns, organist/accordionist Kris Cummings, bassist Brad Kizer, and drummer Miguel Navarro backed up Carrasco at Raul's, the famed punk club, and the Hole-in-the-Wall, and other University of Texas-area venues in Austin, quickly gaining a following around their revved-up Tex-Mex brand of punk rock, harkening back to the classic Vox and Farfisa organ-driven sound first popularized by the 1960s Texas bands Sir Douglas Quintet ("She's About A Mover"), Sam The Sham and The Pharoahs ("Wooly Bully"), and ? And the Mysterians ("96 Tears").

Nate Nelson, a native of Athens, Georgia, has been making music since he was fifteen. He has released and toured with two previous records (Random Acts in 2004 and Knobs Have Turned in 2007). He has contributed to countless other recordings and tours over the past eight years as a musician, producer, engineer and friend. Nelson sang on Maria Taylor’s “Clean Getaway,” toured as her bass player in release of Lady Luck, played with Nik Freitas, A. Armada, and Andy LeMaster's solo project, LeMaster. He has produced and engineered records for Kuroma, Hardy Morris, Ruby Kendrick, Gift Horse, and more. He has also shared the stage with acts such as The Whigs, Futurebirds, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and Cary Ann Hearst

Max Gomez got his start as a working musician at age 15, singing both original music and country and blues classics in bars around his hometown of Taos, NM. He studied blues artists like Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy, while also learning songs of legendary country/folk writers including Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson. “I’m influenced by the old stuff,” Max admits. “To me, that’s the best music.”

The Mastersons.
Husband and wife, singing and playing together.
And they’re each deft instrumentalists, and they’ve spent years playing in others’ bands before coming together as a unit. They’re bound by music and an uncommon depth of companionship, they’re good enough to make Steve Earle swoon, and all of that sounds quite nice.
Until 16 and a half seconds into track one, when Eleanor Whitmore begins singing, “The twitch in my left eye came back today.”
“Yeah, we’re not exactly gazing lovingly at each other while we’re playing these songs,” says guitarist Chris Masterson. “Sometimes the ‘couple’ thing can seem a bit schmaltzy. We’re more a band than a duo, and we’re not going to be George and Tammy. We might not even be John and Exene.”
That’s not to say that these folks don’t love each other, or that they aren’t of a piece. It’s just that listening to The Mastersons - either live or on their immediately engaging, musically expansive debut album, Birds Fly South (due out April 10 on New West Records) - isn’t akin to eavesdropping on two soulmates’ impossibly intimate conversation. This is more fun than that, with bright melodies that lead to dark lyrics, inventive harmonies and enough sparkle and twang to fashion a Porter Wagoner suit. Together, Whitmore (who plays guitar, violin, mandolin and most anything else with strings) and Masterson arrive at a singular blend that Emmylou Harris speaks of as “the third voice,” one distinct from its individual elements.
“Eleanor on her own has a beautiful voice, far better than mine,” Masterson says. “But when we come together, something bigger happens.”
That “something bigger” is captured in full on Birds Fly South, an album with soul and groove and teeth and not an ounce of schmaltz. Like the Jayhawks or Buddy & Julie Miller, it exists in an expansive territory that encompasses rock, pop, blues and country, but this is not an “If you like x, then you’ll like y” kind of record. It’s an unexpected and frequently astonishing melding of sensibilities, from two unique yet perfectly-matched artists.
Both the Denton, Texas-born Whitmore and Houston-reared Masterson have been musicians for as long as they can recall. Whitmore’s parents were both musicians, her mother an opera singer and her dad a folksinger who piloted Delta airplanes for a living. She began playing fiddle at age four, and she and sister Bonnie (now a touring songwriter) played in the family band as kids, and she studied fiddle with Texas swing master Johnny Gimble. Masterson was playing searing blues in Houston clubs at age 13, and he spent his adolescence as a disciple of blues greats Big Walter Price and T- Bone Walker.
“We were both doomed from the start,” Whitmore laughs. “Actually, we were lucky. It’s rare to have supportive parents that believed and expected we would play music and be successful. Most people that have a passion for music aren’t that fortunate.”
Whitmore and Masterson apprenticed for years with other musicians, she with Regina Spektor, Susan Gibson, Kelly Willis, Diana Ross, Will Hoge and others, he in the bands of Jack Ingram, Son Volt, Bobby Bare Jr. and more. They met in 2005 and each
released solo debuts (hers was 2008’s Airplanes and his was an EP called The Late Great Chris Masterson), but found themselves compelled to write and sing together. “It all started coming together organically,” Whitmore says. “And the songs started to sound like a band, not like a song swap.”
To capture that sound, The Mastersons headed from their Brooklyn home back down to Texas, where they worked with a core group of close friends (Grammy-winning engineer Steve Chrisensen, bass man George Reiff and drummer Falcon Valdez) to co-produce Birds Fly South. To capture the harmonies, Whitmore and Masterson sang together, into one microphone. That didn’t mean the proceedings were free from arguments or eye- twitching.
“It’s weird working with someone you love,” Masterson says. “The highs are higher, and the lows are lower. The way Eleanor and I treat each other, you’d never treat someone else on a session or gig. There’s a candor there that’s insane sometimes, and we both believe in what we’re doing so much and neither is willing to back down.”
With the album complete, Whitmore and Masterson headed back to New York, and in May of 2011 they joined Earle’s group, The Dukes and Duchesses. Each night on the world tour, Earle moved aside to let his spotlight shine on The Mastersons, whose efforts were met with reviews like “scintillating” (London’s The Telegraph). Whitmore and Masterson remain integral players in Earle’s band.
“Playing with Steve has been so great for us,” Masterson says. “We’ve both learned so much from working with other people. We’ve learned to have something succinct to say onstage and learned a whole lot about work ethic. And we’ve learned to handle so many many different scenarios.”
The release of Birds Fly South should provide for some more of those scenarios, though The Mastersons aren’t making any predictions.
“I’m not in the outcomes business,” says Masterson. He and Whitmore are more concerned with the action than the consequence, more about the offering than the reception.
Eye-twitching or no, Birds Fly South is a lovely offering. The Mastersons.
Husband and wife, singing and playing together.
And it sounds quite nice.
Delightful, even.

Buxton, who Esquire.com recently called one of “2012 Artists to Watch,” are currently touring behind their New West Records debut album Nothing Here Seems Strange. Buxton’s fusion of lovely harmonies, jarring explosions of energy and meticulously applied instrumentation is led by Sergio Trevino on Vocals/Guitar with Jason Willis on lead Guitar/Mandolin, Chris Wise on Bass Guitar, Justin Terrell on Drums and Austin Sepulvado on Guitar/Vocals. Haley Barnes often joins the group on keyboard and harmony vocals. The band, with two self-released albums, is already garnering critical praise with the Houston Press declaring “Simply put, these guys are getting ridiculously good.”

After surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, Ponderosa rises to the pinnacle of their profession, promoted to Admiral's of the Fleet, knighted as Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and named the 1st Baron Hornblower.
Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Ponderosa to everyone literate I know," and Winston Churchill stated, "I find Ponderosa admirable."

GRANDFATHER CHILD is: (left to right)
Geoffrey Muller - Guitar / Vocals
Ryan Chavez - Drums / Vocals
Lucas Gorham - Vocals / Lap Steel
Robert Ellis - Bass / Vocals

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

Lineup info:

4:40 PM
Black Pistol Fire (Austin, TX) 
www.blackpistolfire.com

4:00 PM
Natural Child (Nashville, TN)
www.naturalchildband.blogspot.com

3:20 PM
The Docs (Austin, TX)
www.thedocsmusic.com

2:40 PM
Viva City (Newcastle, UK)
www.vivacity.us

2:00 PM
Zelazowa (IndieOnTheMove.com)
www.zelazowa.com

1:20 PM
Hello Caller (Austin, TX)
www.hellocaller.com

12:40 PM
Love Hate Affair (San Antonio, TX)
www.lovehateaffair.com

12:00 PM
The Red 100s (Dallas, TX)
www.myspace.com/thered100s

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

The Docs (Austin, 4pm)

Free Booze :: Free Food :: Swag Everywhere :: 8 Bands All Day

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

 

Sometimes you encounter a musical artist for a first time and find yourself
experiencing a warm sense of déjà vu – not a feeling that you’ve heard it all before, but a
feeling that you’ve reunited with a person you’ve known for ages, someone with whom
you share a connection. That’s the vibe conjured up by Charlie Shafter, a young singer-
songwriter with an old soul – and a knack for forging a connection with just about anyone
who crosses paths with his songs.
On his self-titled debut album, the 26-year-old Shafter weaves ten richly-toned
tales that recall iconic writers such as Townes Van Zandt and Elliott Smith, songs that
range into acoustic blues and the grittier side of country-rock on a panoramic trek through
blue-highway Americana. Shafter doesn’t write songs that grab you by the lapel and
shake you into listening; they’re more likely to throw an arm around you and whisper
their way into your consciousness.

Malford Milligan’s powerful, raspy voice and riveting stage presence have drawn comparisons to such soul icons as Otis Redding and Al Green. With his nationally acclaimed band Storyville, he recorded 3 CDs for Atlantic Records and November Records. He has performed on Austin City Limits twice with Storyville, and once with Eric Johnson. Malford Milligan has also appeared on the Conan O'Brian show and has toured and appeared with Bonnie Raitt, BB King, James Cotton, Edgar Winter, Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne Shepard and many others. Malford has recorded on more than 30 albums with such artists as, Hal Ketchum, Marcia Ball, Doyle Bramhall, Alejandro Escovedo, Sue Foley, Stephen Bruton, Chris Smither, Eric Johnson, Double Trouble, The Boneshakers, and Toni Price.

I present to you,Shinyribs, the living embodiment of the tension between two opposing truths, The Father Of Secular Gospel, A walking talking Conflicted Juxtaposition, The Laziest Man In Show Buisness, Mr. Cold Fusion, The Sweet and Sour, Super funky Tonkin,slippery hipped, crazy leg, wing flappin, toe tapping, stump jumpin, frog giggin, smog lickin, half coonass man freak from Austin,Texas by way of Beaumont TX and Shreveport, LA. A A card carryin' psycholiteranaut w/8 AA batteries-tweed facade-equal parts Waylon Jennings,Robert Rauschenberg and Harvey Korman transmitting on a frequency of 667,000 cycles per second.

EST. 2004 Scooter Brown started out as an acoustic duo after lead singer Scott Brown returned home from serving 4 years in the United States Marine Corps and 1 tour of combat in Iraq.
Scooter Brown as they are known now, is a 4 piece band rooted in Country Music with a mix of Rock, Alternitave and Americana. The band has produced 3 albums on their independent label BrownStar Records. Starting as a local hometown band, Scooter Brown, based out of Montgomery, Texas, is now touring on a regional base averaging over 220 dates a year. They have played in front of National acts such as Ely Young Band, Jason Aldean, Hal Ketchum and just about every major Texas act in the last 5 years.
2012 is looking to be a great year and the band is excited about all the big projects they are working on. The first being a new single, Produced by Grammy Award winning producer, Graham Marsh. "When the Whiskey Starts Talking." It will be released to radio after the 1st of the year, along with the bands first music video!
All in all, Scooter Brown puts their hearts and souls into their original music and live performances. When you watch them on stage you can tell they love what they do!
For everything Scooter Brown, you can visit their website at www.scooterbrownband.com. Watch for them coming to a city near you!

There's country. There's alt. country, and then there's Marvin Country. It's a magical place, way off the map, populated by back-porch philosophers, hobos, brokenhearted lovers and spacemen, and presided over by the man the L.A. Times called, "one helluva songwriter," and Billboard compared to Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Patrick Sweany likes the spaces in between.

It's the Core Power Day Party! Free booze, free food, swag everywhere. 8 bands, all day!

More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/129137090539427/

Lineup info:

4:40 PM
Triple Cobra (Brooklyn, NY)
www.triplecobra.com

4:00 PM
The Black Shades (Bowling Green, KY)
www.theblackshades.com

3:20 PM
BP Fallon & His Bandits (New York, NY)
www.bpfallon.com

2:40 PM
The Ghost Wolves (Austin, TX)
www.theghostwolves.com

2:00 PM
Leopold & His Fiction (Austin via San Francisco, CA)
www.leopoldandhisfiction.com

1:20 PM
The Sweet Nuthin (Austin, TX)
www.reverbnation.com/thesweetnuthin

12:40 PM
Hargo (Los Angeles, CA)
www.hargomusic.com

12:00 PM
Love Hate Affair (San Antonio, TX)
www.lovehateaffair.com

Rayland Baxter is a gentleman, a singer of song, a teller of tale, a picker of strings, a thinker of things. Born in the untamed hills of Bon Aqua, Tennessee, he tells a story unlike any other, a story that is true and full of unravelling emotion. No lines drawn, no box to be found in the world of Rayland Baxter. He is who he is and he tells the unmatched story. Whether it be the story of love, the story of struggle, or the story of joy, the road that he travels is full of dust and flowers, fire and ice, comets and dreams, and he walks with stars in his eyes, leaving the scent of wild magnolias for those on his trail...for us, we are fortunate to find him at the end, smilin. Tradition is a staple in Rayland's music. In any given song, one can hear the nuances of his favorites...from Dylan to Van Zandt, Johnson to Hopkins, or anyone else on the musical map that has tickled his fancy at one time or another. His reconstruction of song is mesmerizing in its own right...a true artist...a humble man...a dreamer.

ABOUT LARKIN POE
(“The Band For All Seasons” by: Rebecca & Megan Lovell)
We are sisters. We are music lovers. We are storytellers.
Every since we were little girls, we’ve been awed by the power of a story well told: from children’s books
and bedtime yarns to figments and fairytales. Before we were able to read, we hounded our parents for
“more stories!” and then, when at last we could; we began hounding the bookshelves.
Now, nearly a decade later, at 21 and 22, we’re still doing the same thing.
We’re still on the search for stories, and striving to learn how to tell them well. Now, we not only hound
bookshelves, but also the people surrounding us. We search for stories of human experience, of love won
and love lost, and of the million mundane things that make up everyday life. Larkin Poe: the name of our
great-great-great-grandfather; a man who survives in the memories and hearts of succeeding generations;
a legend, a tall tale, a truly everlasting story. Just the thing that we hope to become.
Our musical journey, which began for us as children playing classical violin and piano at the ages of 5 and
6, continued through our teenage years as we toured internationally from 2005 to 2010 as The Lovell
Sisters. This incarnation, which included our eldest sister, Jessica, took us from the stage of the Grand Ole
Opry to wonderful summer festivals such as Bonnaroo and Telluride, and even gave us the opportunity to
collaborate with the likes of Elvis Costello. In January 2010, after saying ‘farewell’ to The Lovell Sisters, the
musical story of our young adulthood has begun in the form of our new band, Larkin Poe.
Larkin Poe released its debut EP, Spring, on February 17, 2010. As a brand new band, we were looking for
a way to bring our friends, family and fans along with us on our musical journey as we discover who we are
as Larkin Poe. Looking for an answer – and always looking to do things in our own way – we decided to
embark upon the quest of recording and releasing four seasonally themed EPs in 2010: Spring, Summer,
Fall and Winter. What better way to let folks be a part of our development as a band than to record and
release our newest experimentations every few months? After 12 months of non-stop work, all four EPs
were successfully released in 2010 (and additionally compiled into a box-set: “The Band For All Seasons”)
and continue to garner attention and good reviews internationally. We continue to tour extensively in Europe and across the United States and are preparing to record and release a new project in 2012.
Come join us on our journey.

Brooklyn-based Americana/Alt-Country band Yarn’s sound owes as much to Gram Parsons and Earl Scruggs as to Jerry Garcia and Exile On Main Street-era Rolling Stones. Following in a fine tradition that includes forward thinking roots bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers and New Riders of The Purple Sage, Yarn weaves roots music idioms into a fresh sound that turns on hipsters and fans of country music alike, with technically impressive song-crafting and universal tales from the road of life.

From Jim Caligiuri, The Austin Chronicle:

With the recent addition of Jon Grossman on keys and accordion, Uncle Lucius hasn't so much expanded its Southern rock sound as embellished it with more authentic colors. The local fivepiece has turned into massive road hogs, growing its audience as far north as Chicago and as east as New York. 2009's Keep Your Head Up remains a recent high-water mark.

Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds is a nine-piece powerhouse that puts a modern spin on classic soul. The band is led by Arleigh Kincheloe (Sister Sparrow), whose astoundingly powerful voice and sly demeanor make for a spellbinding presence onstage. She is backed by the mighty force of The Dirty Birds, a flock of eight men who masterfully lay down thundering grooves and soaring melodies. While each of the Birds are capable of lighting up the stage with jaw-dropping displays of musicianship, it's clear they're focused on delivering the band's infectious music as a single entity. Simply put, the band's live show is explosive.

Formed in Austin, WHEELER BROTHERS have emerged as one of the most exciting bands breaking out of Texas. The five-piece act composed of Austin natives combines the gutsy indie vibe of the modern central Texas music scene with the longing strains of time-honored Texas folk. Brothers Nolan, Tyler and Patrick Wheeler met Danny Matthews at LSU where they spent their afternoons picking guitars and swapping stories in the bar rooms of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Once back in Austin, the group rounded out their sound with the addition of a lifelong friend, guitarist A.J. Molyneaux. Each member brings his own musical direction and ideas to the group, and through precise vocal harmonies and a unique cast of instruments. Wheeler Brothers have created a sound that has put their name in the forefront of the Austin music scene.

The Pauses' (who prefer that their possessive noun-ing be spelled Pauseses) overall sound is one anchored in complexion and combination, a world where guitars are BFFs with synthesizers, horns, bells, and ukuleles. Tierney Tough's bright, fresh voice - which fits nicely between Metric's Emily Haines and Feist - glides just as easily atop the breathy sparkle and agile math of Rock Band track "Go North" as it does the indie-pop sway and post-hardcore torque of "Beyond Bianca." From the serious, atmospheric mood of "The Migration" and "Pull the Pin" to the lithe, glitchy charm of "Hands Up," The Pauses got mad range, often in the same song. Rooted in the dynamics and ethos of '90s indie rock, their sound is a balancing act between rock and electronics, airiness and heft, suppleness and angularity. And their debut album, "A Cautionary Tale" (produced by J. Robbins of Jawbox and Burning Airlines) shows that you can explore without losing your core.

The Tampa Bay area's Alexander & The Grapes are a revelation. Young minds and hearts meld with influences worn boldly on their collective sleeves. We won't say indie or alt-country. We won't declare them breezy singer/songwriters. But... with 'wise beyond their years' touches of The Last Waltz sprinkled in with sounds of peers and contemporaries Fleet Foxes or David Bazan, we will say all of the aforementioned exist within the realm of The Grapes.

Veteran Tampa Bay Area indie-scene singer-songwriters Susie Ulrey (Pohgoh, The Maccabees) and Michael Waksman (The Washdown, Zillionaire) have turned a longtime casual collaboration into a gorgeous collection of compelling, thoughtful and artfully composed tunes that balance wistful maturity with a certain earnest and eternally young expression. Not quite pop, not quite anything else, these songs feature an amazingly comfortable balance between the two singers' influences, sounds and styles.

Sleepy Vikings have braved an infernal Florida sun to write the songs about stalkers, dead kings, summer, presidents and teenage loitering that make up the debut, They Will Find You Here.

New Roman Times lays out New Wave/post-punk hooks 'On the Sleeve'. It’s got that dancebeat of Radio 4. It’s got the brooding of the Psychedelic Furs. It’s music for arming yourself against the world’s attacks on you. It’s headphone music for introverts who need to have a soundtrack to propel them forward on their mission. It’s train music even if you’re commuting in an automobile. It’s atmospheric in a way you wouldn’t expect, so that you’re waving your arms around, dancing by yourself, listening to old things like the House of Love and the Railway Children. And it’s all worth every moment of being lost inside the wonderful parade of sound.

Starting out as a garage band in South Texas, Dignan was formed by friends Andy Pena, and Devin Garcia who loved to play music, and loved the music they played. Dignan's sound has evolved into a powerful, dreamy, washy indie pop sound, with the help of David Palomo, and Charlie Vela. Though South Texas has never been a playground for artist spotlight, Dignan has made a national name for themselves through relentless DIY touring. Since Dignan's formation in 2007 they have been invited to SXSW 3 times, CMJ '09, Pygmalion Music Festival, Next Big Nashville twice, and have earned their place as "road warriors" playing over 700 tour dates nationwide. The band was recently invited to perform for Daytrotter.com which showcased them as Artist of the Day. Dignan has also been featured in several music magazines such as Paste, Under The Radar, Relevant, and Spin. In Texas, Dignan has been approached by booking agencies such as Windish Agency, Agency Group, Paradigm, and High Road to lend support to their touring artists such as Cursive, Twin Sister, Colour Revolt, Miniature Tigers, Cloud Nothings, Baths, Gobble Gobble, Max Bemis (Say Anything), Twin Shadow, Anathallo, Facing New York, and many more. In an industry where artists and fads come and go, Dignan has stood the test of time, and stayed true to a sound all their own. Starting to write and record for a "TBA" full length record, Dignan is excited to see what these next years have in store for them.