Austin’s free week is alive and it is well all up and down Red River.  Get involved.  Friday night the general consensus was that the PartyEnds show at the Mohawk inside stage had the best acts/crowd/ and the most sweat left on the floor.  L.A.X opened up with live drums and plenty of autotuned vocals that gave all of their die hard fans an occasion to DANCE.  San Marcos’ Zlam Dunk crammed all 7 members on stage and played party rock that Andrew WK himself would have been proud of.  What do they put in the water in San Marcos to churn out such energetic big bands?   The Always Already debuted a new incarnation with a fourth member who alternated between keyboards, drums and all sorts of effects/samples and ultimately contributed to their best shows since their last one. They played last night at Emo’s also and I imagine it was more of the same.  Hopefully you caught at least on of their performances and if not be on the look out for them next time.  Lastly, Built By Snow played thru hits from their forthcoming record Mega, all the good jams from their Noise EP along with a great Devo cover (“Girl U Want”) and a great Rentals cover (“Friends of P”). They were, as always, radical.

The show was perfect.   A few times it seemed surreal how well it was attended, as it basically was just a showcase of some of my favorite bands.  Thank you to all who came out! If there is one thing that I know about Austinites- it is that they love free things and music is refreshingly no exception.   Soak it up while you can.  Check the listings out over at ShowListAustin.

******************************************************************************************************************************************** Enough about Austin music- (I have to stop myself from droning on and on about it sometimes….) It is time to draw attention to me being behind the times.  Here is a fun little MP3 from a Seattle band that was SO 2008 but nonetheless is still fun.  Check out Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head if you haven’t already.  It is full of quirky keyboard noises and thanks to Black Kids paving the way, might just appear on a rock station near you soon.  Their album Glistening Pleasure has been out since July and I have been enjoying saying their name since then and just now discovered how much fun it is to TYPE it.  Check it out:

MP3: Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head-  Slow Motion Tag Team
Learn more about the above picture HERE.