TUNES // Austin Free Week
Hi yall.
I just got back from a trip to Austin with my mom. Not only was it my first time to the city and the first mother-daughter vacation we’ve been able to take but, serendipitously, I also happened to be there for an annual festival of free shows around the city. It was a perfect, if slightly overwhelming, vacation.
I heard so much music and met so many new friends that I’m still kind of basking in it all (seriously go to Austin. It’s beautiful and full of art), and there’s no way I could do justice to the music scene there, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite new artists that came into my life on this trip.
Sun June // Whataya
Sun June variously self-describes as “a strip mall pop band from Austin, Texas” and a “very convincing portrayal of an indie band.” I rang in the new year at a NYE show with Sun June and some other wonderful artists. It was one of my better new years celebrations to date, certainly the first one in recent memory not to end in cheap champagne-fueled tears. And I credit Sun June for at least part of that.
Buy Sun June’s music here
RF Shannon // Tell My Horse
A cowboy at a bar talked to me about sustainable agriculture and non-violent conflict resolution and described RF Shannon as “like a little bit Pink Floyd, a little bit Neil Young, a little bit a genre I’ve never heard of, and another reference I forget” and I’m not going to try and top that.
Buy RF Shannon’s music here
The Deer // Winter To Pry
The Deer would be at home in at least three centuries. Their music is unhurried and clear and sweet and steeped in what I would imagine is the wisdom of timelessness. Fun fact: some of the members of The Deer are also part of a farm collective outside of Austin. Another fun fact: a boy tried to teach me how to properly dance during one of their songs and it was very embarrassing for both of us.
Buy The Deer’s music here
Fairbanks And The Lonesome Light // Nothing To Escape
After seeing Fairbanks and the Lonesome Light’s lovely country-Americana show at Stubbs, my mom and I met the lovely husband-wife duo at the merch table and I discovered that they’d recently moved back to Austin from Echo Park, Los Angeles – where I live now. We compared notes on taco joints and neighborhood haunts and traffic. Funny how small the world gets sometimes when we talk to strangers.
Buy Fairbanks and the Lonesome Light’s music here