Austin, say hello to your Telepathik Friend. He knows you're going to anyway.

Telepathik Friend. The new music resident (via Florida) recently took the oath of citizenship - to "keep Austin weird".

Telepathik Friend's First Austin Show: Tuesday, September 1st @ Austin's Pizza

I met Telepathik Friend after experiencing a Quintron & Miss Pussycat show for the first time (at Red 7 on August 15th). As part of a "sci fi/space/dream rap" trio - Telepathik opened a show for the funky badass New Orleans duo in Florida. I first spotted Austin's new dreamy d-i-y musician dancing on stage at the Q&MP finale, before the encore - and before we were introduced by a mutual friend.

Telepathik Friend (who knew I was going to blog about his upcoming show before I even mentioned having a music blog) had just moved to Austin, Texas a week earlier, after a summer tour in California took him from the place he called home - Florida. After a ride in a Dirty Limo to an after-party, Telepathik told me I would be writing about his Austin premiere with longtime experimental music residents Night Viking - at Austin's Pizza on UT's drag.*

He was also kind enough to fill me in on the details since I don't share his power. Performing with Telepathik Friend at 8 pm will be the amazingly and oddly graceful ambience of How I Quit Crack (Houston, TX), Skullcaster (another recent arrival to Austin), local noisemaker Bubblegum Shitface, and the Earth premiere of Maria Mars, who Telepathik describes as a "Mysterious Alien Tone Daughter of the Cantina Band from the Psychedelic Clubs of Planet Tatooine".

My new favorite music experimentalist also mentioned that there has been a lot of confusion over the years about his name. To address this issue, there's Telepathic Friend is Telepathik Friend. Contained in this artist's blog: All the information you'll ever want or need to know about Telepathik Friend before he landed on music-friendly planet Austin.



Night Viking (9 pm)
&
Telepathik Friend (8 pm)
w/ How I Quit Crack
Skullcaster
Bubblegum Shitface
and introducing Maria Mars
Tuesday, 9/1/09
Austin's Pizza
2324 Guadalupe St
Austin, TX 78705

*Some of the details during the limo ride and after-party may be inaccurate.

Splinter Cake (Portland, OR) and John Rose & Friends Band Debut Tonight!

drawing by Rhonda Turnbough

Natrix Natrix Records presents Splinter Cake, and John Rose & Friends.

Splinter Cake makes a tour stop in Austin, playing what I can only describe will be a minimalist punk meets folk rock set. John Rose (member of favorite rock trio Housewife), directs a solo project that evolved into an album, Present Imperfect, and now a band featuring Elizabeth Hansen on keys, accordion and backup vocals, Afsheen Nomai on bass (and "sarcasm") and Mike Sherk on drums (and "swimming"). We're guessing these "talents" are inside jokes - so you'll have to ask the band in person tonight.

If you didn't get the office memo, "Thursday is the new Friday", the house party tonight with Splinter Cake and John Rose & Friends confirms Thursday as a good time to hear the best and brightest of touring and new local bands.

Get directions to the b.y.o.b. house show.

BackFlash: Yogurt Patrol, VC Chldkrft, and Criminal Tower (minus a few members) @ Cherrywood Coffeehouse

The Band: Yogurt Patrol
The Date: Friday, August 21
The Time: After 9:30 pm

Review to be posted soon.

Darling New Neighbors Wants Your Vote in NPR Blog Theme Song Contest

Maybe you haven't heard: August is Darling New Neighbors Month in Austin - and to celebrate, they want your vote in NPR's music blog theme song contest. Monitor Mix, headed by Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney fame), narrowed the field of contestants and Darling New Neighbors is currently in the top 10, and they want fans and friends to give them the win. Let's do this!

The indie pop darlings have been favorite live performers since 2004, bringing an eclectic, energetic genre spanning repretoire to the stage. Darling New Neighbors, known for covering popular rap and Tejano tunes as well as producing an original melange of country, folk, punk, and "accordion disco" tracks, will perform a similar mix of old and new tunes Thursday, August 6th at Austin Moose Lodge No. 1735. Then at Carousel Lounge on Saturday, August 22nd, DNN officially launches Rocket, the long awaited and anticipated self-released followup to Every Day Is Saturday (I Eat Records, 2006). I'll have official news about the show posted the week of the big release party.

In the meantime, vote for Darling New Neighbors' song at http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/2009/08/video_blog_theme_song_finalist.html, then check them out live this week.

Rocket CD Review: Texas Platters by Audra Schroeder (Austin Chronicle)

DNN is RIYD: Gomez, Kleenex/Liliput, Orange Mothers, The Raincoats, Yo La Tengo, Young Marble Giants

Flashback Tracks (From Every Day Is Saturday Night - listen @ Last.fm.):

"Grocery"

"Overgrown"

"You're Like Gasoline" (Live)

Official DNN Site: http://www.darlingnewneighbors.com/

DNN on Facebook & MySpace

Voxtrot: Pop/Rock Cult Heroes in Austin, With Return to Recording

In a rare newsletter sent early this morning, intropsective pop rockers Voxtrot announced the Monday, August 3rd release of a limited 7" single pressing, "Berlin, Without Return...", via their own Cult Hero Records label. The band has been on hiatus to pursue individual musical projects (and perhaps to take a break from incessant touring after recording a string of EPs, and releasing an LP on PlayLouder in 2007), so the 400 copy release announcement is welcomed news.

The break appears to have revitalized Austin's Euro-pop sweethearts, who are back to form with another quick fix, proclaiming in the email: "[W]e're quite proud of it." This is the kind of self-assured self-release fans and d-i-y music lovers like me need.

Voxtrot also assures us not to fret if we don't have a record player: The new single, which includes a b-side titled "The Dream Lives of Ordinary People", is also available for download at Amazon, eMusic, iTunes and Napster, among other sites, for about $2.00.

Peep the band's website for more info: voxtrot.net, and I'll definitely keep you posted about the possibility of shows.