Posts by Lee Ackerley

Excluding perhaps Bjork, there is no better Icelandic music export to the world than the post-rock trio of Sigur Ros. Unique ethereal soundscapes pour over a variety of slow-building emotions that are voiced by singer, Jonsi Birgisson. Birgisson uses ‘Hopelandic’ – a gibberish form of the Icelandic language – to paint the song’s mood. While […]

[rating=6.00] Bleached in the San Diego sunshine and hardened by almost a decade of constant touring, the surf-punk quartet, Wavves, perseveres on with their sixth album, You’re Welcome. While the metamorphosis from struggling, angst-riddled, rebels to manicured, industry-friendly professionals was completed albums ago, lead singer Nathan Williams still has seven shades of smoke up his […]

[rating=8.00] A band birthed from controversy and dissension, The Black Lips released their first album in over three years, and the overdue release couldn’t be set for a larger impact. Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art? was released May 5th release through Vice Records, making it their 8th full-length studio effort. The album’s producer, Sean Lennon, […]

[rating=8.00] When you bring up the Danish band, Mew, the majority of Americans will assume you are talking about a Pokemon character – rather than one of the most uniquely talented bands of the last two decades.  While Mew has toured with big mainstream acts like REM and Nine Inch Nails, they are on their […]

Austin is a mecca for music festivals, but Euphoria Festival stands out from ACL, SXSW, and the countless others because of its curated atmosphere, which immerses you in a different universe. Walking into the venue – Carson Creek Ranch – psychedelic lighting mixed with pulsating rhythms, and the festival grounds opened up to expose the […]

The multi-genre dance extravaganza Euphoria Festival is back in 2017, once again taking place at Carson Creek Ranch on April 6-9 in Austin, Texas. While other festivals in the Austin area were stricken with bad weather throughout the spring of last year, Euphoria flourished, bringing in over 50,000 attendees. While it is easy to label a […]

[rating=7.00] Therapeutic may not be the appropriate word, but the innately intense release that comes with listening to Pennsylvania-based sludge rockers, Pissed Jeans, is undeniable. Matt Korvette’s guttural vocals strike a primal chord while distorted guitars saw into monotonous drums on their new album. Absurd yet relatable song themes characterize, Why Love Now via Sub […]

A surprise sell-out crowd at the Mohawk on Monday night meant that 90’s nostalgia and Swedish dream pop hasn’t lost its luster. The Radio Dept. is a Swedish indie cult band that would prefer to operate out of the studio than be caught banging around on tour. Alas, having only released three albums since their […]

“It’s great to be back in Austin. I spent this last year working a day job in my hometown of Oxford in England so that I could come back to my favorite places like Austin”, Chad Valley admits to the crowd. “What was your day job?” an audience member asks. “ I mixed paint…and sniffed […]

[rating=6.00] Six years since their debut album, the Cloud Nothings are back with Life Without Sound, their most polished album to date. Frontman Dylan Baldi has historically had a lead foot on the songwriting accelerator, releasing albums in rapid succession, that is ,until he began writing Life Without Sound. Baldi took his time perfecting the […]

In it’s second year, Day For Night is the festival that Houston deserves. Appropriately held in the abandoned Barbara Jordan Post Office downtown, the building projected the industrial grittiness of Houston, with its precarious lighting and dark swaths of space connected by dank metallic staircases. Occasional wafts of rotten seafood and sewage competed against the […]

On tour nearly a decade after their first release, electro-dreamer duo Phantogram have shown no signs of regressing and still dwell on the cutting edge of their intricately curated infectious electro-beats. Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel have known each other since junior high, and their chemistry onstage is undeniably electric, making their live performances a […]

The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi missed playing live music in front of crowds, so he started his own band, CRX. Stepping out from his support role in the Strokes, Valensi has adapted to his lead role as writer/singer/frontman incredibly well. The band’s latest effort, New Skin, bears the unmistakable mark of its producer – Queens […]

[rating=8.00] Rishi Dhir has no reservations embracing the retro sounds and dated influences to form the unique dynamic that psych-pop trio, Elephant Stone, has become.  Dhir, the group’s frontman and bassist, has a predilection for Beatles-esque  60’s style clean melodies that he then dresses with more contemporary psych-rock attributes.  The Quebecois trio have elevated their […]

[rating=9.00] Josh Hodges never dreamed his once “novelty” project, STRFKR, would gain enough momentum and popularity for him to still be releasing albums nine years after his debut in 2007.  Yet, now on his fourth album, Being No One, Going Nowhere, Hodges has elevated his music writing to a personal zenith. This latest album combines […]

[rating=7.00] It’s time to start feeling dated when you realize that Kings of Leon released their first album over 13 years ago. On their seventh album WALLS, Kings of Leon returned to Los Angeles to record in an apparent effort to recapture the magic of their first two albums.  Yet the rowdy Southern ‘kick the […]

Thomas Fec is the frontman of Black Moth Super Rainbow and also creates music under the name Tobacco. Tobacco just released its fourth full-length album, Sweatbox Dynasty, which warps 80’s electronic synthesizers into a unique infectious dissonance. Sweatbox succeeds in going into an even deeper and darker place sound than previous Tobacco albums, which might be […]

What happened at Houston Open Air Fest? The black storm clouds rolling in over the Houston skyline may have made for a knarly metal music video but the ominous and uncooperative weather ended up putting the kibosh on Houston Open Air Fest instead. In its first year of putting on Open Air in Houston, the […]

[rating=7.00] In the four years since the release of 2012’s Crystal Castles (III), the electronic duo has experienced some tectonic changes leading up to their latest and much-anticipated LP release Amnesty (I).  For any Crystal Castles fan potentially living under a rock -Alice Glass left the group in October of 2014, citing creative differences and preservation of […]

The sun began to set on a humid Summer night at the Circuit of the Americas, but the masses of black-clad concert-goers had already amassed. The Austin360 Amphitheater has seen its share of ‘big’ acts, but it has never looked as packed and ready to burst at the seams as Slipknot and Marilyn Manson’s show […]