Oakland underground music veteran Rob Good has been hard at work with his jangly, power pop trio The Goods, blending shimmery British Invasion-style energy with a bit of 90’s indie pop flair to create something simultaneously nostalgic and new.



The follow-up to their 2023 debut EP is the full album Don’t Spoil the Fun. The album kicks off with “April Fools,” a time warp of a song reminiscent of Big Star and the La’s kissed with just enough 21st-century “Je ne sais quoi” to make you double-check the release date. As the temperature in Austin still wants to pretend it’s between spring and summer, Don’t Spoil the Fun is perfectly timely and a great addition to your unexpected fall pool parties.



Don’t Spoil the Fun is out now on Dandy Boy Records.

Last time we checked in with L.A.’s Tess Clare, we were talking about wanting more and the restlessness of sitting still for too long. Now, we’re reveling in anemoia, a feeling of nostalgia for a time or place we’ve never experienced ourselves. Like elder Gen Z-ers yearning for that night in 1991 when Nickelodeon premiered Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, and Doug…or Millennials wishing we could have been there for the MTV heyday. Or Woodstock!



Tess Clare takes this notion to an earnest level, ruminating on a portrait acting like a portal. A woman in the forest “holding her ring to the flame.” And we’re lost in the portrait with her, ushered through the experience courtesy of Clare’s eerie, dark pop coiled around her poetic storytelling and a haunting tour de force of her vocal range. Ladies, we’re going into the forest, and what happens there will forever be known only to us.

Nashville shimmer pop trio Moody Joody are ushering in a new era of music for themselves and heeding he neverending call of “WE WANT MORE ANTHEMS!!” Or…dancethems if you wanna be cute. Lead vocalists Kaitie Forbes and Kayla Hall along with producer Andrew Pacheco have been working with Grammy-winning Scott Harris (Shawn Mendes, Dua Lipa, Justin Beiber) on their upcoming album of dancethems, some of which were part of their thrilling, raucous set at ACL Fest just over a month ago.



Not only did they stop by our backstage tent to perform the new single, they’ve afforded us the opportunity for you to get a free download of the album version in all its full, studio glitz and glory. Helmed by a bass groove punctuated by Forbes and Hall’s seductive syncopated lyrics and dotted with other shimmery elements, it’s tailor-made to throw on the next time you’re with your girl gang, getting pumped for that big interview, or just getting silly at home.



“OOPS!” is out now. See their ACL Fest backstage performance at KUTX.org.

Across three decades, Born Ruffians have been a pivotal part of the Toronto music scene. And in that time, music has changed, artists have come and gone, leaving their various marks, and while many artists look around and see themselves surrounded by new generations and fall back, the Canadian quartet has marched forward, always pushing for new sonic explorations rather than defaulting to the nostalgic safety net.



“Athena” is a rumination on the Goddess of War operating within the deep, dark recesses of social media and the internet at large while rocking a dance-yearning, poppy synth melody and a kinetic bass groove sitting just behind center stage. Their ninth album Beauty’s Pride is a testament to the group’s fortitude, maintaining their affinity for groovy indie rock earworms but effortlessly sounding fresh, bucking the criticism of “more of the same” and fostering new audiences almost twenty years later.



Beauty’s Pride is out now on Yep Roc Records.

Up-and-coming Spanish alt pop artist Vizzconde made his debut earlier this year with the instrumental dance single “Portents.” He’s followed that up with “Camaleón,” an upbeat song that draws inspiration from medieval times and his Galician roots. The song begins with a gentle piano intro, but with electronic vocal stylings, a driving beat, and a choral background, the song quickly builds to a hair-raising drop.



Camaleón is out now. Check out the music video here.

New Zealand-born, New York-based Dion Lunadon, former bassist of Brooklyn post-punk band A Place to Bury Strangers, has released his latest single “Gold Standard Love” via a limited edition 7″ flexi disc inside the fall issue of the illustrious CREEM magazine. 100 flexi’s inside 100 copies. Whoa. This crunchy, post-punk romp carries that signature NYC early 00’s rock revival sound, and part of that concoction is timelessness. A little Jonathan Fire*Eater, a little Pretty Hate Machine, and simultaneously fresh, the only downside is Lunadon not bringing this high-voltage sound to Austin on this current tour. But I’m putting that energy into the ether and in nabbing one of the lucky 100 copies.

After a year or so of releasing individual dance-pop candies, Austin’s Jane Leo released their sophomore album Creature of Destruction in September. One of the tracks on the album is “Goldmine,” a slightly more subdued song from the art-pop duo, but still dripping with energy and that funky “Imma dance here in my own little circle, in my own little world” energy. Bouncy, sexy, and more vintage than much of what we’ve heard in the past, “Goldmine” is a cheeky reminder that even if you go to Jane Leo show to dance with one foot in the future, they’ve got plenty of tricks up their sleeve to subvert expectations without losing an ounce of their allure.



Jane Leo stopped by Studio 1A to perform songs from Creature of Destruction ahead of their show tonight at Empire Control Room with New Constellations.

Perfect for the chilling temperatures is the latest from Austin world-folk duo Her Mana. Emilie Basez and Kate Robberson return with their latest single “Suena,” a slow, tender tune made for slow dances with long, locked gazes. Produced by Jim Eno and featuring the Ibiza String Ensemble to brighten the thoughtfully equipped negative space in the song and to elevate Basez and Robberson’s angelic voices, the new single is a delicate breadcrumb of new music leading to their show at the Paramount on Sunday, November 16th.

It’s the last day of October, so it’s time for one final spooky toast to our October Artist of the Month. Teethe was formed up in the DIY music enclave of Denton, all students of the University of North Texas. Now, with streaming numbers on their side, a move to Austin, and a European and east coast tour filling out the rest of their year, the quartet is champing at the bit to keep their incisors sharp and their momentum growing.



While their debut album was an amalgamation of their individual songs synthesized together, their new album Magic of the Sale is wholly Teethe: a little no-wave; a little dark, dream pop; and a bit of that classic Denton DIY energy. Our Artists of the Month stopped by Studio 1A to perform songs from the new album, out now.



Read more about Teethe here.

For years now, we’ve been in a bit of a cuffing season with former KUTX Artist of the Month Skateland‘s synth-driven dream pop that’s as delectable and ethereal as the roller rink of his stage name origins. It’s cozy, groovy, and hypnotic all at the same time. After years of breadcrumbing us singles, he’s releasing his debut album Heavenly Bodies, and he’s celebrating the album release tonight at 3Ten ACL Live with Holy Wire and Somebody Somewhere before climbing out of the covers and from under the warm, soft lights and kicking off a 10-day tour next month.

Yesterday, I watched a video of a guy unsuccessfully attempting to get a beached dolphin back into the ocean, and as luck would have it, today I get to write about a song from a dolphin’s POV. And a louche little devil they are. “Eep Eep” is the appropriately named title and single from the Austin quintet The John-Pauls’ new album, out today. While most of the album features the group’s brand of Texas post-punk, the single is a feisty, punk one-off. That dolphin has an agenda, or at least a lot of one type of feeling. Largely recorded live at Matt Gerhard’s (Spoon, !!!, Parquet Courts) studio in Lockhart, the group’s raw energy and notion for noisy descension is beautifully captured.

I’m not sure there’s a better way to say you’re basically a space punk band than to name yourselves MoonKill, and, hey, that’s exactly what this Austin quartet has done. But it’s not like floating-in-space post punk; it’s more like if the Thunderdome had a Tatooine location. They’ve been busy back in the studio working on their sophomore album (due out next spring), and in the meantime you can catch their high octane, power chord-forward energy this Thursday at Valhalla. Time your upstairs pit stop at Marinara Miracles appropriately.



“Full Stop” appears on 2024’s MoonKill.

ACL Fest may be but a flicker in your rearview mirror at this point, but our ACL Fest content is still poppin’ fresh. LA’s Claire Chicha is Spill Tab, a lo-fi alt pop project focused on incorporating rhythms from across time and the globe and nestling them warmly in her dulcet, mezzo soprano jazz vocals. Not surprising considering someone of French-Korean origins, born in Thailand and raised across three continents. Chicha’s humble beginnings as an industry intern have led to her own center stage success, being called one of SXSW 2022’s “buzziest artists” by The Fader. Singing in both English and French, Spill Tab is an amalgamation of all of Chicha’s cultural influences, truly lived.



Chicha stopped by the KUTX tent to perform “Hold Me,” a jazzy piece of cocktail hour perfection, with Chicha’s honey-jazz vocals tucked in a groovy bossa nova shuffle.

They’re back, baby! After a several-year hiatus, the Aussie-meets-Austin rock group Go Fever returns to retake Austin by storm. Known for putting out banger after absolute banger, their “vibrant jungle print, but in rock music” brand with earwormy hooks and lyrics that warrant an English-class close read have been profoundly missed across Austin’s stages.



With a little warm-up reunion a couple of months ago, courtesy of the DIY, underground music champion For Spite Creative, Go Fever plays an official reunion show tonight at Radio/East with Matthew Logan Vasquez and Magic Rockers of Texas. And as we gear up for what we hope is a new era for Go Fever, we’re taking a step back in time to their Artist of the Month Studio 1A session from 2021.

From cellos and pianos to guitars and drums. So goes the story for classically trained musicians (and sisters) Kenzie and Laila Crowe, and together the duo are Girl Tones, a project set on unlocking the secrets of the universe to discover what it is to become more than mere sentient beings. The nascent indie rock duo have toured with Silversun Pickups and fellow Kentuckians Cage the Elephant while having their first releases produced by Cage guitarist Brad Schultz.



Girl Tones popped by the KUTX tent last weekend during ACL Fest to perform a stripped-down, but still energetic version of a song you’re no doubt familiar with from the KUTX airwaves.

Austin duo Briscoe made their musical imprint back in 2023 with their coming-of-age in the Texas Hill Country debut West of It All. Now having toured extensively (“from Canada to Cancun”), their latest album Heat of July is a different type of coming-of-age output for the folk-rock duo, literally written on the road largely without any instruments within arm’s reach and steeped in metaphors of growth that happen with expanded horizons: larger arrangements, bigger harmonies, and waxing poetic on their stint with highways being the only constant. The roster on Heat of July is expanded too, wrangling in musicians from groups like Bon Iver, Houndmouth, and Hiss Golden Messenger.



Briscoe popped by our tent backstage at ACL Fest to perform “Saving Grace,” a love letter from the road sweetly extolling the strength and validation from your person back home who keeps you going through those low and lonely times on tour.



Briscoe kicks off their coast-to-coast US tour this Friday with a free show this Friday at Central Machine Works with Montclaire.

Houston’s Aaron Page is a rising star. The R&B artist recently released his debut EP Before I Go, a meditation on vulnerability and conversations that lead to life’s great romantic pivots, for better, worse, or just more confusing. He stopped by our tent backstage at ACL Fest to perform his viral hit “Lord Knows,” a smooth, sultry inner monologue from Page on a classic tale: see a lady at a club, run through your lines and execute, hit it off, and leave together.



Check out all of ACL content here.

Lush melodies, decadent fashions, and a good hang to boot. L.A.’s Lucius is no stranger to the KUTX airwaves or Studio 1A, and we always get excited with antici….pation. And they delivered. Not only did they stop by to hypnotize us with a deeply lovely performance of “Mad Love,” a song from the group’s eponymously named album about the raw and tender moments the group’s members have encountered in the last couple of years: setting down roots, creating families, and finding home, but co-lead vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laesing stuck around to answer our burning questions about all of those stellar costumes.



Lucius performs this Sunday at ACL Fest at 3:30 on the Beatbox stage.

We’re smack between ACL weekends, rolling out all kinds of nifty gifties for you from social media content to amazing performance photos to videos and free downloads of our backstage performances. Today, we take a look back at one of our favorites with an artist you can see live next week. Austin’s Luna Luna is the solo project of Kavvi, a Colombian-American artist seamlessly blending his Spanish and English roots for an infectious blend of nostalgia-tinted Latin soul with a modern indie-pop flair. The former KUTX Artist of the Month performs at 3Ten at ACL Live next Thursday, October 16th.

For the last five years, UK duo the Heavy Heavy have been dancing through our airwaves with their retro-inspired brand of indie rock, injecting modern hooks and riffs with harmonies that sound positively Woodstock. We played several songs from the duo’s 2024 album One of A Kind, and they stopped backstage at ACL Fest to hang with us and perform a stripped-down version of “Happiness,” one that landed on our Favorite Songs of 2024 list, that will have you asking if this was recorded at a festival in Austin today or Newport a few decades ago.