If you ever feel like your finger has slid off the pulse of Austin’s local music scene for a minute or so, you can always make it a New Year’s resolution to find that pulse again. See, unlike losing 15 pounds or cutting back on your K2 use, it’s a resolution you can actually keep — because the Red River Cultural District makes it easy with Free Week.
Margin Walker has released the lineup for Free Week 2019, the annual multi-venued, no-cover extravaganza scheduled for Jan. 1-6. As usual, some of Austin’s most popular local artists of the moment — including Erika Wennerstrom, Tameca Jones (above), Ringo Deathstarr and Sailor Poon — will take center stage.
Wennerstrom — the Heartless Bastards’ next-level lead vocalist who dropped her first solo album, Sweet Unknown, earlier this year — earned the top spot on the poster. Not far behind are Jones, the appropriately branded Queen of Austin Soul; Ringo Deathstarr, representing shoegaze and moody alternative; and Sailor Poon, the noisy and often filthy-minded feminist punks.
Other local favorites in the lineup include Palo Duro, Michael J. Winningham’s synth-y atmospheric rock project; Moving Panoramas, who offer more solid shoegaze-y rock and more atmospherics; and American Sharks, traditional speedy metalheads who evoke a little bit of Ozzy and a lot of Motorhead.
Margin Walker says further scheduling announcements — presumably, dates, places, and set times — will be forthcoming later. In the meantime, you can check out the full lineup here.