by Nick Hanover
If you live in Austin then you already know there’s too much damn music to keep track of. And sometimes you just want to sift through it in bite-sized chunks. We totally understand. Allow us to introduce you to The Latest Toughs, five tracks from five bands to get you up to date and make each of your workdays a little easier.
Sailor Poon “Marry Myself”
It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving, you’re probably feeling like garbage and bitterness, no one’s returning your texts, even your dog is avoiding you. But that’s fine, who needs the company of others? Just put on Sailor Poon’s “Marry Myself” and embrace the only person who really gets you: yourself. Taken from the group’s fun and raucous Paul Millar produced collection B-Sides and Rarities, “Marry Myself,” ahem, marries the styles of the 13th Floor Elevators and the Modern Lovers to create a completely irresistible garage pop masterpiece. B-Sides is full of other tracks representing Sailor Poon’s maximum crudeness approach but “Marry Myself” is a different kind of rejection of societal norms, with its embrace of the solo life and snubbing of long term commitment. Feel free to crank it up the next time some relatively you hardly ever see asks why you don’t have a marriage and a mortgage yet.
Sailor Poon play Saturnalia Festival, which starts this Thursday, November 30th. More details here.
The Manly Hanleys “Cool Kids”
Though the Manly Hanleys initially sound like another in a long line of Pavement and Archers of Loaf worshipping nu-slackers, their spot on approximation of ’90s indie guitar rock is a smart cover for a delightfully acidic lyrical approach that takes no aesthetic prisoners. Case in point: “Cool Kids,” where seemingly harmless, sleepy instrumentation lulls some titular cool kids into complacency as the lyrics attack “Self righteous bullshit losers” who headbang over their guitars and keep “reciting Oscar Wilde out of context.” Every word of “Cool Kids” drips with infinite disdain but by the time you even notice that, you’re too charmed to think this song is about you.
Pretty Mary K “If They Call Me a Country Boy”
Austin’s indie rock scene has had a major crush on Harry Nilsson for a while now but lately I’m noticing a refreshing shift towards the Kinks as a dominant influence. Usually that comes in the form of “Waterloo Sunset” majesty but the perplexingly named Pretty Mary K pulls from the humbler and less utilized Kinks realm of Muswell Hillbillies all throughout his ambitious album Yard Sale. The LP’s best moment is “If They Call Me a Country Boy,” a shuffling exploration of Southern identity and restless drive and how those two often intersect. But Pretty Mary K deviates from the Ray Davies school of songwriting by keeping the lyrical focus inward rather than outward, examing his interactions with the people who misunderstand him rather than the environment itself. That may seem like a minor difference but Pretty Mary K mines ample material from it and it suits his reedy voice and earnest instrumentation perfectly.
Musa Reems “Lately I’ve Been Sol Searching”
HUNTER/gatherer “New High”
For a while, Austin was absolutely flooded with acts looking to emulate hometown heroes Spoon and follow in their The OC-indebted mainstream success. Luckily, we’re several years away from that now, so when a Spoon-like band pops up, it’s not as groan inducing as it might have been, especially when the band in question is a group like HUNTER/gatherer and the single is as engaging as “New High.” The duo are nearly as odd as their name, so they mostly display their Spoon influence in their approach to arrangement on “New High,” leaving invitingly warm and open spaces in the mix so every single component of the production stands out, from the one note piano riff connecting everything to the crackling reverb drops and delay knob twists. And where Britt Daniel frequently sounds like a robot mimicking human seduction techniques, HUNTER/gatherer give their vocals a lusty quality, the falsetto lead maintaining an excellent balance of breathy and moist. The only real mark against “New High” is its inexplicable descent into a Cold War Kids-like yappy bridge. But hey, no one’s perfect.
Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Ovrld as well as Loser City, where he mostly writes about comics. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with his friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover