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.
TC Superstar “Mama Mia”
On “Mama Mia,” debonair pop savants TC Superstar ponder the allure of a relationship that is clearly toxic over a beat that would make Hot Chip envious. The real draw of the track is the air of exasperation in the vocals, delicately striking a balance between a resigned awareness of being doomed to repeat the same relationship mistakes and of being charmed by the person causing all those headaches in the first place. But the production itself shouldn’t be overlooked either, with its mix of DFA Records style percussion and early Depeche Mode synth bop.
Poolboi Blu “Denim”
Not to get too hyperbolic but I can confidently say Poolboi Blu’s “Denim” is the greatest tribute to utilitarian street fashion since Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” Built out of glassy samples and slacker trap riffs instead of chugging nu-blues riffs and strings, “Denim” is a chilled out love letter to that most casual and durable of fabrics. Poolboi’s smirking yet affable delivery makes up a lot of the appeal, bringing just the right amount of smart ass sass to the track without turning it into an unfun mockery.
Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice + LoPhi “Uncanny Valley”
Over on the more cerebral end of the spectrum, Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice and LoPhi have teamed up for Uncanny Valley, an album that serves as “an abstract, dusty experimental sonic exploration of deeply inward-facing reflections.” All of it is an exploration worth taking but the title track is where these two pioneers truly fuse together, with Chief sounding like a reverberating phantom calling out from within LoPhi’s sputtering electronics and digital cacophony. Or as Chief puts it in the lyrics, “backchannel chatter where we hammer out a gameplan” to “generate fantastic from the havoc automatic.”
Go Fever “Feel So Much”
Vapor Caves “I Miss You”
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