Wednesday, May 14, 2025
The Cosmic Clash

Review

The Mars Volta
Greg AckermanLiveReview

Live music review: The best shows we saw at ACL Festival 2023 weekend one on Friday

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We’re not here to talk about the weather though, we’re ready to discuss the best shows we saw at ACL Festival, weekend one on Friday. Standout performances were turned in by The Mars Volta, Alanis Morrisette, Foo Fighters, The Breeders and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to name a few. And yeah, those artists represent much of what was good about American music during the 1990s making the entire festival feel like a giant throwback to that era. Even the popular fashions at the festival reflected a late 80s and 90s influence.

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AlbumCase CockrellReview

Album review: Lauren Lakis sculpts ethereal brand of shoegaze with songwriter chops on new album A Fiesta And A Hell

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For musicians like Lauren Lakis, the guitar-obsessive lifestyle of indie-gaze isn’t just about the noise but the high-stakes lyricism refined on a track-to-track basis. On upcoming new album, A Fiesta and a Hell, the Los Angeles-Austin musician offers potent song structures and celestial soundscapes that pitch her discernment with modern greed and corrupt world leadership. 

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Night Beats at Hotel Vegas
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Night Beats and Daiistar gave Austin a modern psychedelic rock treat Saturday

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When a band in Austin gets to make a record after playing their material for local audiences for months, sometimes years on end, it’s worthy of multiple rounds of applause. For Austin shoegaze/noise-pop act Daiistar, it’s been a long time coming. To celebrate the release of Daiistar’s new album Good Time, the rising Austin act enlisted the help of Seattle-born, now Texas-based band Night Beats, who are on a new album cycle of their own.

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Pearl Jam at Moody Center 2023
Brian HillsmanLiveReview

Live music review: Pearl Jam put on historic performance to wrap tour at Moody Center in Austin

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Around 7:30 p.m., on September 19, Eddie Vedder’s voice echoed through the halls of the Moody Center.  It would be the second of two consecutive nights on which the seasoned rock veterans, Pearl Jam, would rattle the walls of the vaunted and relatively new Austin arena on the University of Texas campus, ending their extended, world-wide tour in the Live Music Capital.

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Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Case CockrellLiveReview

Live music review: Frankie and the Witch Fingers unleashed psych and roll on an ecstatic Austin audience

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For Los Angeles act, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, every record has been a step further to indie psych-rock royalty. Formed by frontman Dylan Sizemore as a solo project in Indiana before relocating to Los Angeles recently, Sizemore has assembled his group of rock and roll avengers, sculpting record after record of “psych and roll” material built to blow audiences away. Sizemore and his band did just that for a Thursday night Austin crowd at The Parish in the city’s famed East Side.

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Swans Paramount
Case CockrellReview

Live music review: Swans evades fire code shutdown at Paramount, delivers two hour onslaught

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Michael Gira’s multi-genre outfit Swans showed an Austin crowd that age is just a number on Sunday night at the historic Paramount Theatre down the street from the Capitol. For those unfamiliar, Swans is a New York band that has gone through various phases, line-ups, genres, and forms through the leadership of multi-instrumentalist, Gira since 1982.

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JPEGMAFIA Danny Brown Scaring the Hoes tour art
Case CockrellReview

Live music review: Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA packed Stubbs for collaborative rager Friday  

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The new album also brought out fans in droves at Stubbs which was sold out for Brown and JPEGMAFIA for a live collaborative rager on Friday. For relentless music fans that chomp at the bit for weird music and what lies beneath the surface, Danny and Peggy have brought their unending creativity to the forefront, which comes as an attempt to make the underground and mainstream collapse on top of each other. 

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Sparta at Parish
Live MusicMike CosmicReview

Live music review: Sparta Celebrates Wiretap Scars 20th Anniversary Tour at Parish

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Sparta cruised into Austin’s Parish venue on July 26, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Wiretap Scars. This highly anticipated release came after their 2002 EP, Austere. Wiretap Scars was well received, particularly following the downfall of the critically acclaimed band, At The Drive-In. The breakup of At The Drive-In, due to musical differences, split the band into Sparta and The Mars Volta. Both bands definitely took different paths and crafted their own sound. 

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TBLSH by Andrea Escobar hires (1)
AlbumAmanda QuraishiReview

Album review: The Bright Light Social Hour’s new record Emergency Leisure is here to cure what ails us

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Fans of The Bright Light Social Hour have been waiting patiently for their new album, Emergency Leisure (Escondido Sound) to drop ever since it was announced earlier this spring. It’s been three years since the release of their last LP, Jude Vol. II, and a lot has changed with the band since then. 

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AlbumMike CosmicReview

Album review: Rival Waves to release latest record A Meaningless Chaos August 5

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Rival Waves is set to release their eagerly anticipated new album, “A Meaningless Chaos,” on Saturday, August 5 at ACL’s 3Ten venue.  The spectacular lineup is sure to make it the party to be at that evening. Openers are none other than Austin powerhouse acts The Dead Coats and Lola Tried.

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