It’s only going to get worse.
Cherubs, "Carjack Fairy"
Invaders from LA/Brooklyn, Cherubs know who you are. Lock your doors, fuckers.
A Giant Dog, "The Grand"
Please, turn off the middle-of-the-roadville radio disguised as community FM — you certainly don’t need to take a nap on the upper deck. Take your tech salary to the record store and buy the A Giant Dog LPs, put the songs on your smart device, plug it in and put the peddle to the meddle. You are almost cool.
Dikes of Holland, "City Feet"
Since I’ve been sitting here for so long, I’m gonna get out of my car and use my city feet to dance dance dance like someone on a commercial for a digital listening device and embarrass everyone, especially myself. Or, just maybe, I will walk!
Stevie Ray Vaughan, "Texas Flood"
This one’s for the fellas. Okay, you’re angry. You might as well take your pee pee out and play it. Wank. Wank. Wank. And wank some more. Feel better? (Turn the sound off; that will help.)
Riders Against the Storm (RAS), "Shake"
Whew! Relief. Also, what?? Taking Lamar north to Koenig to the northeast side is faster than 15th Street to I-35N? Who’da thunk? Happy song!
American People, "Teenagers R Stupid"
Displacement is a useful defense mechanism when dealing with difficult situations, and who better as the recipient of your rage than some undeserving, unsuspecting pimple faced punks? You know what, those little hellions just broke down your new Crestview door and are in your living room taking pictures of themselves sniffing your glue and drinking your booze. They do deserve it! If that doesn’t make you feel better, the hooks in this refrain — "teenagers are stupid/stupid stupid/teenagers are assholes/assholes assholes/teenagers think they got the the world by the balls" — will.
Miss LaVelle White, "Stop These Teardrops"
It’s hard enough to drive west when the sun’s going down.
Spoon, "Car Radio"
Sometime in the mid-90s, after he taught me how to use the internet and attempted to help me refine my songwriting skills, Britt Daniel emailed with the following news: “I just wrote a song that goes car radio car wash. I like it.” "Gee, that sounds great, Britt," I thought to myself sarcastically. Fast forward 15 years — guess which one of us is playing huge festivals all over the world and which one is begging people young enough to be her children for gigs and writing listicles for CultureMap? Ah, but Britt Daniel’s recently moved to Los Angeles. Have fun on the 405, rock star! (Also, re: this video. Is he eating a Twinkie? Maybe teenagers aren’t so stupid after all.)
The Inhalants, "Misanthrope"
This piece was originally going to be Top 10 Garage Rock Songs to Sit in Your Dumb Car to. But some know-it-all was bound to challenge the garage rockness of the songs, or claim that garage rock is an outdated term, or marginal crap no one with pride need concern themselves with, or stupid, or meaningless or trite. Anyway, here’s the Inhalants doing "Misanthrope."
Krudas Cubensi, "Horizontalidad"
Krudas Cubensi are Cuban hip-hop artists who split their time between their homeland and Austin, fighting oppression and working for revolution the world over. It’d be silly to compare the Castros with the Austin City Council, but perhaps you could say they’re equally ineffective at their jobs. Si Si?
Esme Barrera Fan Club, "She’s a Rainbow"
When the Austin music scene tragically lost one of its most ardent supporters, Esme Barrera, two years ago, it left a gaping hole that still hasn’t healed. At her Austin memorial, 40 of her musician friends and fellow Girls Rock Camp Austin volunteers came together to perform this moving tribute in Esme’s honor. You’ll be hard pressed to find five minutes of purer music anywhere. We might not be able to tame the wild beast that Austin has become, but dangit, we still have each other. We have to stick together. We have to keep spreading goodness. And if you’ve moved here recently, you have to do this, too. Contribute to the community. Support the local music scene. Dig deep. Go to shows, pay cover. Listen to community radio. Go to the record store, buy music. You’ll have a lot of time to listen to it, sittin’ in your car. Most of all, love one another. It’s the only way.
Miss Lavelle White
Odds Bar & Bistro will serve very upscale "bar food."
Photo courtesy of Odds Bar & Bistro
