Tuesday, April 1, 2025
The Cosmic Clash

BÖNDBREAKR

"Iconoclast "

Reviews

New music
AlbumReviewRobert Dean

New music: Teddy Long, Dim Light and Hugo Monster albums are fresh finds

Robert Dean

I wanted to give you a few new things to listen to if you’re in the market for new ear candy. When the world is a constant depression machine, the power of music is unmatched, a salve that can make us feel human again when there’s just too much punishment on our hearts and souls and by the grace of god, some caveman, somewhere, figured out that if you beat a few rocks together with sticks over a cowhide, the beautiful noise happened.

Tear Dungeon 2 HV SXSW 2025 Troy Gonzales
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: SXSW 2025 finished with Space Agency Booking, Webberville Block Party

Case Cockrell
DoomBoyz 2 Stoner Jam SXSW 2025 Troy Gonzales
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Midweek SXSW 2025 jaunt to Radio East and Stoner Jam at Far Out

Case Cockrell
Live music review: SXSW 2025 music week began with a wide range of musical styles
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: SXSW 2025 music week began with a wide range of musical styles

Case Cockrell
Interpol Moody Center Drew Doggett
Drew DoggettLive MusicReview

Live music review: Interpol Honors 20 Years of Antics with Precision and Nostalgia at Moody Amphitheater

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Almost twenty years ago, I downloaded my first song off iTunes. I put $0.99 down for the Interpol lead single Evil that would keep a steady hold on the automatic “Top 25 Most Played” playlist. After obsessively listening to the song, Antics became the first album I downloaded. From there it was The Strokes, Pixies, Modest Mouse, and Sonic Youth. Antics was my gateway into a wider array of sonic landscapes and I am eternally grateful for that 30-second iTunes preview that hooked me.

On November 21, Austin’s Moody Amphitheater hosted a celebration of the 2004 album, where the band delivered a masterful two-hour set to honor the record’s 20th anniversary and provide some fan favorites to boot.

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Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Holiday Hootenanny with Danny Brown, HEALTH, Of Montreal, Water From Your Eyes set for December 14-15

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Resound Presents’ annual winter formal returns this year with a two-day event set to take place on December 15 and 16 with a worthy lineup to ensure Austin music fans send off their year with a bang. The 16-band excursion dubbed the “Holiday Hootenanny,” is an enormous opportunity to see the up-and-coming and well-established talent with many acts that have torn through Austin in 2024 as show favorites as the stacked concert calendar in town has continued to unfold. The event is also co-presented by all-star concert photographer Pooneh Ghana and famed local radio station KUTX. The annual programming will take place at the multi-stage Radio/East, located in South Austin, one of the city’s most exciting new venues

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Wizard Rodeo 2024 poster
Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Wizard Rodeo festival is set for year four with thoughtfully curated eclectic bill

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The annual Wizard Rodeo music festival returns to The Long Time Sandlot for another year of folk-oriented fun on December 7. An eclectic lineup put together by San Antonio country rock sensation and Lonesome Rose venue owner Garrett T. Capps, Little Mazarn’s Lindsey Verrill, and The Long Time owner Jesse Ebaugh, Wizard Rodeo promises a celebration that defies all the current era’s normalities with a genre-spanning music lineup, art installations, and multiple stages, (Including one located inside of an onsite boarding house, go figure.) The booked talent will showcase the widespread creativity of Central Texas and beyond.

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King Gizzard at Germania
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: King Gizzard played marathon three hour set at Germania Amphitheater

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The trek out to Austin’s Circuit of the Americas racetrack where Germania Amphitheater is located is a daunting one. From taking in an hour of traffic, ludicrous drink prices, and baffling ticket expenditures, the Formula 1 Racing spot has most Austin music fans disinterested in driving out to the sticks to experience its monstrosity. (17 miles outside of the downtown area to be exact.) In last Friday night’s case, fans of a certain Australian band made an exception.

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Amanda QuraishiPremiereSong

Song Premiere: Starflake releases single Cuando Tomas (In My Head Again) today

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Now, O’Brien and his long-time collaborative compadres are back with a new song titled “Cuando Tomas (In My Head Again)” and it does not disappoint. Once again O’Brien (vocals, bass, guitar, Roland JX-8P, Wurlitzer) is joined by Zac Catanzaro (drums) and Juan Alfredo Ríos (electronic percussion), delivering a track that swings like a cosmogonic pendulum between the ethereal and the funky.

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Fastball at Scoot Inn
Greg AckermanLive MusicReview

Live music review: Fastball played Scoot Inn in support of their new album Sonic Ranch

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Fast forward to last week’s show at Scoot Inn on the East Side of the Live Music Capital when fans gathered to hear the band introduce their latest effort, Sonic Ranch. What may surprise fans who haven’t kept up with group, is this record is quite good. If you were at Scoot Inn on Thursday last week, you saw the pride on the faces of bandleaders, Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga as they introduced their new songs. They have every right to be proud.

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Love is Evermore 2024 banner
Greg AckermanLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: The Bright Light Social Hour to play Evermore benefit at Radio East November 17

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On the heels of Rocktober, as the holidays approach and touring shows become more infrequent, the live music focus in Austin turns towards local acts. Local lineups appear at the Armadillo Christmas Bazar, holiday themed events such at The Last Walz and occasionally worthwhile benefit concerts like the Love is Evermore event taking place at Radio East a week from today on November 17 at Radio East with The Bright Light Social Hour headlining their only Austin Fall performance with Parker Woodland and longtime Austin musician, Oliver Steck’s Squirrel Show. Evermore is a bereavement advocacy group that works on policy initiatives and provides resources to the public. The group is dedicated to making the world a more livable place for bereaved people.

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The Sword 1 Stubb's
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Day 3 and 4 of Levitation wrapped with standout performances by The Sword, Wine Lips and more

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Levitation Festival 2024 soared into the weekend with its expected triumphant intent. Every Halloween weekend, fest producers The Black Angels and show runner Rob Fitzpatrick never miss the mark in serving music fans both the hot up and comers and the legacy acts that paved the way for those new acts to take form. The Cosmic Clash team witnessed the annual extravaganza from its Thursday kickoff until the closing moments and picked out our favorite highlights that lit up the weekend to make up one of Levitation’s most landmark years yet. With a multi-venue format that requires fans to jump from show to show to get the most out of their experience, there isn’t a shortage of music to see, which makes a statement for both the robustness and openness of the Austin music sphere.

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Osees at Levitation
Brian HillsmanLive MusicReview

Live music review: Levitation Halloween Kickoff at Hotel Vegas with Osees and Kairos Creature Club

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Halloween night 2024, marked the opening evening of Levitation Festival this year.  With artists from around the globe opening on stages at venues throughout Austin, Kairos Creature Club and Osees presented a Halloween kickoff at East Sixth’s Hotel Vegas. It was a show that would surely deliver. Each year, Osees make their way to Austin for a four-night residency at East Austin live music hub. And every year, they put on versatile sets that exceed the expectations of music fans. Halloween night last Thursday was no exception.

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The Black Angels Levitation 2024
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Day one and two of Levitation brought world’s best independent acts to Austin

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The first two days of Levitation Festival 2024 featured multiple stacked bills for a plethora of packed venues in the downtown Austin area and beyond. The Cosmic Clash team was in attendance to capture the action and highlighted some of our favorite acts that made their way to Austin for the action-packed Halloween weekend. From the Red River Cultural District to South Austin, the carefully curated talent brought their best for the masses that flock to the local music joints to watch the coveted Black Angels produced weekend with some of the independent music world’s best acts.

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Case CockrellInterviewsLive Music

Interview: Austin stoner metal act The Sword talk return, Austin scene, weed, to play Levitation this weekend

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Revered Austin metal act The Sword is back and locked in for a performance on Sunday at Levitation Festival in Austin, Texas. The doom act announced their breakup in 2022 after 19 years as a band and fans have been feigning for a reunion ever since. The local heavy act will close out the Black Angels-produced festival with a headlining set at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre in the Red River Cultural District in the downtown area and will be joined by local acts Gran Moreno, The Well, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, and also famed proto metal act, Pentagram. Frontman/guitarist John D. Cronise, bassist Bryan Richie, drummer Jimmy Vela, and lead guitarist Kyle Shutt all showed up to deliver their insight on why it made sense to come back. To get a feel on how the band returned and what the quartet has been up to in the interim, we sat down with them after their rehearsal and discussed what the reunion means and how it all came together.

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