Song Premiere: Starflake Has Landed With Single NuBooty

Jackie O’Brien has spent the better part of the past twelve months on the road with The Bright Light Social Hour, the popular psych-rock band he co-founded and fronts. So you might think that the charismatic bass player would be ready for a break this summer.

Instead, O’Brien is running head-first into a brand new project – an experimental tropi-punk ensemble called Starflake. He is joined by two of the hardest working musicians in the Austin music scene, drummer Zac Catanzaro (Walker Lukens, Song Confessional) and percussionist Juan Alfredo Ríos (Como Las Movies, Easy Compadre!), both also members of The Bright Light Social Hour; as well as bassists/synth-psychonauts Ben Nelson (Molly Burch, A. Sinclair) and Alex Holeman (Chroma Phase).

This week Starflake released its first single, “NuBooty” (Escondido Sound), a song that makes the most of the combined talent of this collection of rhythm-conjuring wizards. Ríos’ percussion kicks off the song, tapping in with a wakeup call to dance, and is immediately joined by O’Brien’s assertive bass line that will not be denied. The rest of the band plugs in with a snappy, high-energy beat and a retro synth-psych melody that sounds like it’s come straight from the punk-funk milieu of 1981. O’Brien’s voice floats on top like a dream. His lyrics are poetry, cosmic love meets terrestrial sensuality:

Making love / Making life

Making waves / Pull the tide

To the left / To the right

Howling in the night / From across the galaxy

Celestial trajectory / Known commonly

As a guardian angel / Uh oh

I just wanna give you kisses / And remind you from beyond

You’re so cool

This is the song of Summer ‘24. A cool reprieve from the heat of our collective angst, an invitation to dance despite mounting pressure all around. At the same time, it manages to avoid being frivolous.”NuBooty” isn’t a call to ignore the issues, it’s a reminder that music can be the thing that saves us. The chorus echoes, “lord help me, I don’t know what I’m doing up here,” and we feel it. 

This new offering from Austin’s own petri dish of talented musical artists is not just a footnote in O’Brien’s career, it’s a promise of great things to come. He and his bandmates are a proven, unstoppable force, collaborating across genres as they bring a myriad of musical influences and a staggering amount of creative energy to their rule-breaking, foot-tapping, ass-shaking sound.

Listen to “NuBooty” out now.

On June 28 (O’Brien’s birthday!), join Starflake and the cumbia-psych breakout Como Las Movies – along with promised surprise musical guests- for Flakefest at Mohawk.

Featured photo by Ismael Quintanilla III