After their synthesizer-heavy debut single “Pockets,” Roaring Sun have taken a different route with their latest single, “Racecar”. This indie “boy band” made up of brothers, Doran and David Rawlinson, Ricky Acosta, and Eric McKeefer, have released a single that will sure be the highlight at a live show, starting by slowing down the piano bit in “Cold Cold Man”, by Saint Motel and then continuing with a mellow raw tone layered with harmonies and a guitar. It’s a bit reminiscent of the slow melodies from Young the Giant’s album Mind over Matter, but just when you think this all seems too familiar, Roaring Run brings in a fresh feel and pushes the song to a new and interesting path with a unique beat on the drums and some warped melody fun.

The entire combination is bound to get you thinking of susnset evenings of music festivals and dancing, so if that strikes your fancy (as it certainly will for many in Austin), listen below!

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Chandana Kamaraj

Throughout Masterpiece, the humbly sublime debut album from Brooklyn folk-rock quartet Big Thief, love braves through woe. As sung by the ever welcoming Adrienne Lenker, these painful yet vital songs near a height of beauty that reminds one of music’s transcendent power.

Following the nimble opener “Little Arrow,” the album starts its raw power with “Masterpiece” (streaming below), the rollicking single that deservedly drew attention a few months back with its panoramic view of searching souls. Like Bob Dylan’s generation-defining “Like a Rolling Stone” from the 1960s, this guitar-trickled song is both addicting and elegant, rough and pretty and, ultimately, lasting in its sheer soulfulness.

A series of lyrically vivid tracks named after potential lovers (“Paul” and “Randy,” for example) follows next, alongside guitar-winded cuts that briskly tackle such elusive motifs as romance and the transience of time, emitting an overall beatific aura in the process.

The type of record that has the possibility of transporting the listener to a calmer, perhaps better plain of existence, Masterpiece is not just the first offering from an intriguing new band but a preciously passionate work in and of itself. – Zach Weg

“Loud songs for good and bad days” is the sole biographical information available on Planet Manhood’s (a.k.a. Sam Houdek’s) social media accounts, and though it’s one of the briefer bios you might run across, it’s also the most accurate. If you’re on the hunt for a meditative-yet-grungy record to accompany you through the long, hot nights (both those bad and those good), look no further than Planet Manhood’s most recent endeavor, the EP Mistake House.'

Drawing influences from Superchunk, Pavement, and Built to Spill, Planet Manhood falls somewhere between grunge and classic rock, while never quite becoming either. The mysterious cover art for Mistake House was done by Boston-based artist Kelly Kikcio, a feminist artist whom Houdek came across from a stick-n’-poke tattoo she gave to a friend, an image that Houdek gravitated towards because it seemed so incompatible with the hyper-masculine name of Planet Manhood.

Though each of the five songs on Mistake House is dispatched with a heavy dose of guitar distortion and lumbering drums, underneath the fuzziness lies remarkably gentle snapshots of the subtleties in human relationships, as Houdek sings quiveringly, “I like your backpack, is it burlap? Are you feeling like an outcast?” After attending UT and bouncing between multiple jobs, including booking shows, cleaning pools, guitar teching and working in multiple bands, the artist seems to have genuinely hit his stride with Planet Manhood, including departing for a tour of the Southeast a couple of days after dropping Mistake House on June 10.

If you’re in the midst of a bad (or good) day, hit play below for a loud song that might also make you feel a little bit more understood.

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Katy Kirby

Blue Smiley is back with their new release Return! The record calmly rushes with its energetic yet soothing mesh. The buoyant tones are counteracted with a tendency to surge forward in a dose of mind-altering, hard fuzz. That combination of cruising and crushing keeps one on constant alert. (Cover Art by Emily Daley)

A recent tug at the heart strings led Maggie Morris to write Genders newest sarcastically lovelorn track "Life is But a Dream," which premiered yesterday over at AllMusic. It shows Genders at their usual best, luring you in with incredibly relatable lyrical themes and charismatic song structure.

"Life is But a Dream" is officially releasing this Friday, with their single release show this Saturday at Bunk Bar with Divers and Times Infinity. The track peaks at their new Phone Home EP, due out soon. Listen to the track below.