Latest Toughs: The Teeta, Kady Rain and more

Nick HanoverSeptember 17, 2018

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 artists to get you up to date and make each of your workdays a little easier.

Sasha and the Valentines “Good Fun”

God it’s going to be so nice to wear layers again. I want to put on a hoodie and a coat and shove my hands into that hoodie’s pockets and walk over decaying leaves while I reminisce about good times with people I don’t get to see anymore. And I want Sasha and the Valentines’ “Good Fun” to be playing in my headphones while I do so. I want that because it is a song that sounds like it has been played to you through a tin can and a shoestring from a lonely romantic whose identity is a mystery but whose voice feels like it’s known you all your life. I want that because the title recognizes the good fun that comes from making yourself paradoxically miserable and gleeful in the remembering of better times that will never come again. I want that because it is that particular kind of magic music that you swear was made for you and only you.

Brother Sports “One More Time”

I suspect the boys in Brother Sports have been told once or twice they feel too much. Their new single “One More Time” admirably leans into that, the big ramshackle pop of the production squeezing in on a voicemail vocal where our heartbroken lead admits “I like to hear your voice/I like to say it so.” Musically, it’s as though our boy’s heart hasn’t caught up with his brain, so chipper melodies on warbly synths and four to the floor drums barrel forward, blissfully unaware of the recognition of a fizzling out of affection happening in the lyrics. Surely you can sympathize with that feeling, yeah? Of a time or two when your heart kept thump thump thumping for a crush while your head sighed and saw the end was on its way or, worse, already here?

The Teeta “Summersault ft. Yung Simmie”

The Teeta turned a lot of heads recently when he became one of the few hip-hop artists to ever grace an Austin Chronicle cover. Dubbed a leader of “The Next Generation of Hip-Hop” alongside fellow soon-to-be-sensations Kenny Gee and Quin NFN, Teeta’s fluorescent aesthetic has long been overdue for recognition from the Austin scene at large, particularly when you compare the mindblowing stream counts he gets in comparison to the generic rock acts that paper loves to glorify. What usually gets lost in the coverage of Teeta though is his ability to pivot on a dime, his singles as likely to fit the perpetually dismissed mumblerap signifier as they are to be more aptly described as club rap or in some cases, outright pop. Teeta’s newest single “Summersault,” featuring Yung Simmie seems deliberately designed to poke a hole in the standard mumblerap dismissal, the Neptunes adjacent Wavybandz beat keeping things chill enough to allow Teeta to show he has far more lyrical dexterity than he’s given credit for. The production lacks the chaos and claustrophobia that usually feature into the Teeta sound and it’s more than a nice distraction, it’s an indication that what we’ve seen from Teeta so far only barely scratches the surface of what he’s capable of. Fuck what anyone else says, if Teeta and company represent the “Next Generation of Hip-Hop,” then we’re in good hands.

The Teeta plays Scratchouse next Saturday, September 29th with Sertified and more

Cherry Fox “Mother Nature”

Between the name Cherry Fox and the white-out text on an old arcade polaroid cover art, I was pretty sure “Mother Nature” would be skatepark pop punk. Instead, it’s simmering post-punk for a late night metro ride back from a date you didn’t even want to be on in the first place, wishing instead that you’d had the nerve to at least manage a hello to the true object of your affections. The coiled, frosty synth and guitar and pulsing beat are striking and infectious but what makes “Mother Nature” near impossible to not add to every single playlist you’re working on is Fox’s cool yet anxious voice, invisibly emerging from the corners like nerve gas, seducing you towards a more permanent kind of sleep. And I’d be doomed because I wouldn’t hesitate to give in.

Kady Rain “Bad Kids”

I’ve watched enough Riverdale and ’80s teen movies to know that bad kids always have much more fun. But Kady Rain’s late summer jam “Bad Kids” is a handy refresher on all the activities that make that stereotype so true, ranging from “smoking behind the school” to “making out in strangers’ muscle cars.” Like Kady Rain’s best work, though, it’s actually an anthem for inclusivity, its top 40 veneer covering messaging of acceptance and the thrill of finding out being one of the misfits doesn’t mean being alone but instead being part of a loyal, open minded group. So perhaps the lesson is that bad kids were good all along? I’ll see myself out.

Kady Rain play Pecan Street Festival Sunday, September 22nd

Got a single you’d like to be considered for Latest Toughs? Email us with Latest Toughs in the subject!

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