Wednesday, May 7, 2025

post rock

Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Austin Psych Fest brought eclectic talent from across the psych spectrum

The Spring installment of Austin Psych Fest returned last weekend to The Far Out Lounge & Stage for a three-day, two-stage, no-overlap experience that brought over 30 acts to Austin for an eclectic weekend of music from all across the trippy psychedelic spectrum. For 2025, the billed talent stretched its boundaries by bringing a diverse array of artists that catered to fans of Psych Fest past and present. Here’s what stood out to us over the weekend-long stand in South Austin. 

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April DawneLive MusicReview

Live music review: Friday at Austin Psych Fest with Explosions in the Sky, Octopus Project and Godspeed You Black Emperor

Austin has no shortage of music festivals and while most of them are amazing in some way, my favorite is Austin Psych Fest. This year, I caught Texas act, Explosions in the Sky, Austin’s The Octopus Project and Godspeed You! Black Emperor as well as some other worthwhile bands. This gem of a festival melted into Levitation (close second fave) and then split back into two different but equal festivals in 2023. APF is held at The Far Out Lounge, one of my favorite venues in Austin since the apocalypse.

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Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Six bands to watch at Austin Psych Fest 2025

Levitation’s Austin Psych Fest will return to Far Out Lounge and Stage in 2025, coming with a stacked lineup that features acts from all over the world to commemorate its third Spring edition since the return to an annual Springtime, one-location, two-stages, no-overlap festival experience. The three-day festival will feature legacy acts and underground picks that showcase yet another year of reverberation appreciation from the homegrown Austin festival. To help audiences prepare for the event, the team at The Cosmic Clash has curated six bands to watch for the festival during the last weekend of April (25-27), including the kickoff and late-night shows after each day of music

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

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

The 2025 South By Southwest music festival kicked off on Monday and Tuesday this week, featuring artists from around the Austin music scene and worldwide. Each day of music starts at noon and usually continues until the 2 a.m. closing time for each day of programming. For the first two days of the SXSW music showcases, we rounded up some of our favorite acts that started off our music festival coverage with stops at Hotel Vegas, 13th Floor and Stubb’s BBQ to see bands with a wide range of musical styles from the hardcore noise punk of Exotic Fruitica to experimental act Skloss to legendary songwriter John Fogerty and back to the heavy psych rock of Frankie and the Witch Fingers. SXSW runs the musical genre gamut as our coverage attests.

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Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Austin Psych Fest announced masterfully curated lineup today

Levitation’s Austin Psych Fest will return to The Far Out Lounge & Stage in South Austin on April 25 – April 27 for yet another year of a masterfully curated lineup by famed booker Rob Fitzpatrick and Resound Presents. Since returning to a Spring edition on top of the regular Levitation Fall Edition, Austin Psych Fest has both stayed in touch with the current world of independent music at large and the roots of what made the festival the coveted phenomenon it is in the present day.

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Greg AckermanMusic VideoPremiere

Video premiere: SoundMass dropped first single off Ampersand – Let’s Get Doom

If you’re familiar with post rock and you’ve been around Austin for a minute then you may have heard of the group, my education, a long-running act who recently toured with Acid Mother’s Temple. You may be less familiar with their work with Salt Lake City band, Theta Naught called SoundMass which combines the two bands into one giant, symphonic post rock collective. The project dropped their first single from last year’s, effort, SoundMass III: Ampersand.  The new video for the track, “Let’s Get Doom” introduces the new record to fans as it’s the first track on the recording.

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AlbumGreg AckermanReview

Album review: Sprawling Post Rock project Sound Mass announced third album and Texas mini tour

When our friends with Austin band, My Education and Salt Lake City’s Theta Naught told us a new album was coming ten years after the release of their second collaboration, it was a bit of a surprise it took that long to make the follow-up to Sound Mass II: Spiritual Docking. It was particularly perplexing given that the recording sessions for this release, entitled Ampersand were made in 2019 not long before the worldwide pandemic put a stop to pretty much everything including collaborations between awesome post-rock bands. 

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review: Japan’s Boris destroyed Empire Garage, Megafauna played Chess Club after show

Guitar-heavy noise rockers, Boris visited Empire Garage August 25 for a stop on their Heavy Rock Breakfast tour with support from Philadelphia’s Nothing. Needless to say, it was an evening of loudness that fans felt in their organs at various points during the intense, 15-song set headliners Boris delivered.

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review: Semihelix had magical night at Radio Milk with my education and ThunderStars

The unbridled bliss that comes when thing are aligned was present Saturday at East Austin’s Radio Milk Recording Co. The studio White Denim built is also a performance space that is truly special. It was the perfect spot to highlight the work Geannie Friedman of Semihelix has done with her new record, Recoil, which by all accounts is a hit with listeners near and far.

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