Assuming it’ll be safe in October, Austin City Limits Musical Festival will get an A for existence. No doubt Weekend 1 sold out the same day the lineup was released, in part, for this very[…]
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Album review: Sasha and the Valentines, So You Think You Found Love?
Ever listen to something that makes you think about your evolution as a music lover? So You Think You Found Love?, the first full-length from Austin-via-Massachusetts dream-pop fivesome Sasha and the Valentines, just did that for me.[…]
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The Day Live Music Died, one year later; Riders Against the Storm album review; St. Vincent track review
(Photo by Nicole Berlin Photography) Nostalgia is often a trap, when you think about it — one free of crucial perspective. Over-romanticizing the past is something we all do from time to time. You might remember[…]
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How a winter apocalypse and a book about New York rock made me feel a new kinship with Austin musicians
I went just under 60 hours without electricity or heat last week. Judging from what I’ve heard and read about the largest winter disaster in Texas — and Austin — in recent memory, that seems[…]
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Year-end lists: Slamming the door on 2020 with the HI-35 and the year’s 20 best local tracks
The way 2020 unfolded, it seemed to offer a musical choice akin to “fight or flight”: Either you 1) embraced pandemic-inspired music and/or music reflecting the turbulent social upheaval all around us; or, 2) you embraced[…]
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Playing some year-end catch-up on local reviews: Jackie Venson, Bill Callahan, Ringo Deathstarr
For me, the last few months haven’t been conducive to new posts. But the break I took from fresh entries here on Ear Traffic, I’m telling myself, was warranted because the less that’s written about 2020,[…]
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