We are happy to announce our return to Austin with not one but TWO live show during the famous music festival in the Texan city. The shows are linked to our Austin Synth and Pedal Expo, hosted on the third floor of very central venue Chuggin' Monkey.

This is a free show - RSVP HERE!

Here's the lineup and a playlist for the first night, on March 15, hosted at the Chuggin' Monkey's ground floor right on East 6th Street!

M. Lockwood Porter’s single off his forthcoming EP, Communion In The Ashes (out March 29, 2019) is a what a good folk-Americana song is supposed to be: it’s solid folksy rock infused with cultural heritage and the frustrations of our roots. Think Mountain Goats and Neutral Milk Hotel met the passion of There Will be Blood’s Eli--but less creepy, less religiously obsessed. After teaching in San Francisco for over a decade, Porter’s songwriting began to really reflect what he saw. He writes of the frustration of gentrification, of the sometimes heartless culture of change. In his own words, “The tech boom of the last 10 years has totally transformed the whole Bay Area and essentially made it a playground for the rich...Working-class folks and artists aren't welcome there anymore and this has manifested in rising housing costs, closure of music venues, and the proliferation of homeless tent cities.” His album is an angry-beautiful homage to the people of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley. Give this song a listen, stay tuned for the full EP, and catch him at Amnesia on April 19. -Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor

Oakland’s own SPELLLING released her sophomoric album, Mazy Fly last month and it’s full of vampiric vibes and haunting lyrics. Tracks are somewhere between dark synth pop and experimental R&B, with wild noise clips of flies and whispers, spaceships and flying saucers. Chrystia Cabral, the woman behind SPELLLING, says she wants to evoke the disturbing feels of colonial violence “...that haunt the historical slave ship routes of the Middle Passage.” When you listen with that in mind, tracks take an even darker leap and plunge the listeners into reflection and emotion. - Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor

We’re happy to report that Oakland’s own Rex Ruit will be playing at The Starline Social Club this Thursday the 28th as part of Noise Pop. Tracks like “Vertigo” and “South” give this rocky post-punk album a lighter feel. Lovely guitar melodies blend with vocals that come in and out of clarity and really push this album into an almost dream-pop beachy realm while still keeping that alternative feel the band is known for. They’ll be part of a pretty killer lineup: Black Marble, Spiritual Cramp and Shutups at one of our favorite venues. -Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor

China's newest single “And Then Nothing Happened” has the classic markers of a good country song: the story-telling, the clever lines, and twang all up in their guitars. Vocalist Michael James Tapscott has more of a Jeff Tweedy style than a true country boy, but we like that. The title track off their new album has lines like: “I’m nothing without my baby/and there’s nothing for me after last call.” Good ol’ fashioned Americana values. Overall, their album has a gentle Tom Petty feeling to it (check out track “Crossing the Ohio”). It’s full of lovely harmonies and everytime that sexy pedal steel touches a song it’s a fine moment indeed. How to summarize the album? To steal a quote from the band, they “...are a bunch of beautiful losers caught in a freeze frame hovering somewhere between mundanity and epiphany.” Give these losers a listen here, see them tonight at Papermill Creek Saloon, and catch them locally when they’re back from their West Coast Tour. -Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor