Live music preview: seven buzz bands to see at SXSW 2025
The 2025 edition of South By Southwest is fast approaching, and the list of acts making their way to Austin for the six-day music festival spans multiple genres and geographic origins. With this in mind, the Cosmic Clash team has curated a group of seven buzz bands we think you should put on your list for the long week of around-the-clock music. All acts are Sx official artists. All set times, along with venues, can be found on the SXSW website and SXSW GO mobile application.
Frankie And The Witch Fingers
Starting as a solo project from singer and guitarist Dylan Sizemore in Indiana before moving out west, this one has become an Austin regular. From sister psych hub Los Angeles, Frankie And The Witch Fingers have become bona-fide Austin mainstays, bringing their top-down psychedelic punk to enthusiastically responsive audiences to what is essentially the whole globe at this point into their now 12th year as a performing act with a solidified touring lineup. With the release of their latest full-length Data Doom, the futuristic West Coast outfit has never sounded more polished, ready to incite positive energy with bombastic outputs of reverberation madness.
Brutus VIII
“We’re building a bomb, or was it robbing a bank?” These are the words that kick off Brutus VIII’s 2024 release, Pure Gluttony. The unrelenting darkness of the solo Brooklyn venture is unforgiving and painfully honest. Following sharing the bill with fellow New York act Model/Actriz, the solo project of Jackson Katz of Slow Hollows is an experimental trip that boggles the senses. For fans of Nine Inch Nails, Water From Your Eyes, and Bodywash, this one’s for fans of capitalistic apathy. Since relocating from Los Angeles to New York, the uncompromising darkness of Brutus VIII is more than what lies above the surface.
YHWH Nailgun
New York City’s YHWH Nailgun congregated in Queens, gaining a dedicated local following with their brand of art punk with a wide variety of influences in the vein of classic punk, post-punk, and math rock with a range of tempo switch-ups and polyrhythms that transition on a dime. With these unpredictable live performances that the spontaneous players have cultivated, their growing catalog has continued building on their enhanced chops, making them a must-see for this year’s SX music festival. Singer Zack Borzone provides as a superb leader for his backing band of technical rockers, with an upcoming LP, 45 Pounds, that will continue to stretch the boundaries of their mechanical explosivity.
Dune Rats
Australia’s Dune Rats have been through numerous trials through touring with kindred spirits FIDLAR. Since getting the production treatment from Zac Carper on The Kids Will Know It’s Bullshit, who fronts the aforementioned Los Angeles Act, Dune Rats have since toured the globe, and have maintained a steady trajectory of multiple LPs, EPs, and a wide array of singles that have kept the music coming throughout their tenure that has entered its 15th year in 2025. Taking on the hard-living lifestyle of their fellow West Coast surf punk contemporaries, Dune Rats know how to set a stage on fire, even if it takes the flammability of grain booze as a result of glassy-eyed summertime amusement.
TVOD
The post-punk revivalism of Brooklyn’s TVOD is another stage staple on the East Coast that goes hand-in-hand with the gothic sensibilities of Austin local stapes like Font and Holy Wire. With humorous and cynical lyricism, TVOD’s 80s throwbacks laced with modern dance elements create a fusion that not only will want to make you move but to think beyond the audio and listen to the delivered words. Fusing post-punk, egg punk, and krautrock, the catchy grooves of TVOD are known to get a crowd moving before inevitably collapsing into participatory chaos.
Haha Laughing
Austin duo Haha Laughing started as a solo project with vocalist and beatmaker Jay Dilick before bringing co-vocalist and noisemaker Aby Oviedo onboard to join a project that blends experimental rap and noise rock. Armed with only microphones, a laptop, and the occasional drum set, the tenured local musicians make music for fans of Death Grips, JPEGmafia, and Hella. With numerous singles, EPs, and a couple of LPs, the pair has become an Austin institution for those who want something that shatters the sound barrier while also penning lyricism that achieves humor and throttled activism. Haha Laughing just released abrasive new single “Peter Parker Ass,” continuing their trend of unbridled rage laced with infectious, throat-shredding laughter.
Native Sun
New York City’s Native Sun are the epitome of the current age of punk rock. Last appearing in Austin for the Resound Presents/Pooneh Ghana Holiday Hootenanny in December, Native Sun presented a hook, line, and sinker performance for the Austin music scene. With an explosive stage presence that includes making their way into the crowd with instruments in hand and climbing any structure in their line of sight, the prodigal sons in Native Sun captivate with no apology. Holstering a mission statement that entails playing every show like it’s the last, the live excursions from the Queens-bred group come with promises of the blood and sweat that would make Iggy Pop feel right at home.
Featured photo by Drew Doggett
You must be logged in to post a comment.