Sunday, March 8, 2026
The Cosmic Clash

Greg Ackerman

Greg AckermanLiveReview

Festival Review: Iconic artists mix with future stars at Austin City Limits Festival

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Last weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Fest) featured legacy acts Paul McCartney, David Byrne and Metallica along with upcoming stars, Janelle Monae, St. Vincent and Austin’s own Shakey Graves. We’re partial to female-fronted acts and we’ll take this opportunity to point out it was the many talented female fronted acts along with legends Sir Paul and Byrne who garnered the most attention over the three-day event held at Austin’s Zilker Park. 

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AlbumGreg AckermanMusic VideoReview

Album review: The Bright Light Social Hour released first new music in three years Friday

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After covering The Bright Light Social Hour for nearly a decade, since their debut album The Bright Light Social Hour dropped, I can honestly say I couldn’t be more excited for the group. If you clicked the link, you saw tens of thousands of plays their debut has on Soundcloud which isn’t even the most popular streaming platform they’re found on. The band was hot. You couldn’t turn on KUT (KUTX didn’t exist yet) without hearing one of the band’s singles.

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Greg AckermanMusic VideoReview

Music video premiere: San Antonio post art-rocker Ila Minori releases beautiful Mend clip

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Today we’re premiering another video from San Antonio songstress, Ila Minori. The haunting clip from the song “Mend” details the fallout of a breakup, featuring Erica Monzon aka Ila Minori as she contemplates her breakup. The video is beautifully shot on location in Austin and San Antonio by John-Marc Lucid (Lucid House Productions). Lucid expertly depicted the emotional lows of dealing with a sudden breakup. The clip is moving to watch and highlights Ila Minori’s incredible vocal style.

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Greg AckermanReview

Festival preview: Utopiafest Makes a Move

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For the tenth UTOPIAfest, the limited attendance music festival has rebranded, Utopiafest Down in the Oaks to reflect the new venue the event has moved to located at a ranch near Burnet, Texas which is significantly closer (45 min) to Austin than the original venue. Organizers have also made some other changes, inching up the attendance cap and limiting BYOB beverages to the camp ground areas to grow festival revenue while maintaining the same community vibe that has been the festival’s hallmark. This year, the fest takes place Nov 2-4, promising cooler weather than past years. For festival goers, the experience at UTOPIAfest is vastly improved from larger format festivals. Fans can get close to the stage. The atmosphere is more relaxing and less hectic. It’s simply a more enjoyable environment.

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Greg AckermanPreview

Live music preview: Waterloo Music Festival launches three nights of The String Cheese Incident this weekend

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Austin welcomes progressive new grass jam band The String Cheese Incident and friends back to Texas for the first annual Waterloo Music Festival. September 7-9th at the beautiful Carson Creek Ranch which sits on the banks of the Colorado River near downtown Austin, will be occupied by veteran national act jam bands as well as local acts to help keep the party going.

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review: Ghostland Observatory swooped into Bat Fest with new show

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It’s been eight years since Austin electronic duo, Ghostland Observatory put out an album. Let that sink in… EIGHT YEARS. That’s a lifetime in today’s music environment of countless streaming services, instant singles and surprise albums. The pair comprised of Thomas Ross Turner (keys, drums and weird sounds) and Aaron Behrens (guitar/vocals) hit the proverbial creative wall after non-stop touring and hype wore them out following the success of their aptly named second album Paparazzi Lightning and two more records on the heels of that impressive sophomore effort. 

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review and photos: Walker Lukens at Antone’s Nightclub

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All photos: Brandon Sandler

Following a week-long taping of his Song Confessional series, Walker Lukens spearheaded with a variety of local acts including Hard Proof and Croy and the Boys at Native Hostel, the upstart indie musician played to a nearly full house at the legendary blues emporium,  Antone’s Nightclub in downtown Austin.

Lukens dropped his sophomore record, “Tell It To the Judge” to wide acclaim, getting name-checked at NPR and ABC News among other places. The singer collaborated with Spoon drummer and acclaimed producer Jim Eno at his Public Hi-Fi Studios. The album was also listed by our own editor as one of the best local albums of the year. Walker Lukens has got some serious momentum going. 

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AlbumGreg AckermanReview

Live music preview: Rival Waves to drop debut album Friday at Empire Control Room

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Austin rock band Rival Waves are dropping their first full-length album, Transducer this Friday, August 10 at Empire Control Room. The group was voted Artist of the Month by The Deli Austin readers in July. The band recently provided support for Young Rising Sons at 3TEN Austin at ACL Live. Cosmic Clash Presents even had the Joel De La Garza-led act on one of our bills before they unfortunately had to bow out last minute. We’re happy to have a hand in announcing their record release this week as a consolation prize. As a bonus, one of our local favorites, Darkbird perform with Midcentury rounding out the bill. It’ll be an energizing night of rock n roll for local music fans. 

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AlbumGreg AckermanReview

Live music review: Austin rockers Graveltooth introduced new album at Continental Club

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Story: Reed Brownlow & Greg Ackerman

Last month Austin rock and roll outfit Graveltooth, featuring former members of The Wheeler Brothers, The Madisons and Moving Matter took the stage at South Congress Avenue live music mainstay, Continental Club to a good-sized crowd for a mid-week, midnight set time. Right out of the gate, the group proved whether it be two or two hundred fans, that they were going to deliver a good time for fans. Brothers Evan and Dustin Bozarth are capable musicians joined by Curtis Pierce, Cameron Cummings and Keith Laudieri to form a rock and roll act with a hint of psychedelia thrown in.

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review: Jawbreaker returned to Austin over 20 years later

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On Friday at the Long Center’s Skyline Theater, Jawbreaker played their only Texas show on the seminal Emo-punk band’s current tour and first performance in Austin in over 20 years. The venue which holds over 7,000 fans came close to selling out which says a lot about how this fringe but influential punk band from California garnered so much attention when they reformed last year. 

Jawbreaker is often cited as a precursor to more popular Emo bands Dashboard Confessional, Fallout Boy and Face to Face. The latter two often cite Jawbreaker as an influence. The group is perhaps the most influential band most people haven’t heard of. Yet, the Blake Schwartzenbach-led act is much more than just an Emo punk originator.

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Greg AckermanPhotosReview

Live music review: Jared Leto’s Thirty Seconds To Mars landed at COTA Saturday

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Saturday actor and musician Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds To Mars landed at the Circuit of the Americas’ Austin 360 Amphitheater (COTA) with Walk The Moon. K. Flay and Welshly Arms opened the performance. One might be skeptical about an Academy-award winning actor making popular music but Leto has been at it 16 years selling over 15 million records in the process.

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