Live Broadcast | SXSW
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KUTX at SXSW 2024 was supported by Austin-Bergstrom International Airport‘s concession brand – Beats, Bites and Flights – and Recovery Unplugged
Additional support was provided by Owl’s Brew Boozy Tea and Fara Coffee.
Wednesday, March 13 Lineup
Angélica Garcia
Most of us at KUTX discovered Angélica Garcia through her collaboration with Austin’s Adrian Quesada on his 2022 Boleros Psicodelicos record. Her vocals on the track ‘Idolo’ exemplify the heart-rending melodrama that defines the bolero. Hailing from LA, Angélica Garcia didn’t lean into her Latinx roots until her family moved to Richmond, VA, forcing her to reexamine her cultural identity. Now in New York City, with a new deal from Partisan Records, Angélica Garcia is pushing the boundaries of Latin music with three new singles produced by Chicano Batman’s Carlos Arévalo, her first work sung entirely in Spanish. – Peter Babb
SPRINTS
If anger is post-punk’s merit badge, by now Karla Chubb has earned a sash full of them. You hear they’re from Dublin and instantly think Fontaines DC or Pillow Queens, but SPRINTS are more akin to the Savages in tone and attitude. And their full-length debut, Letter to Self, plays out like a therapist’s exercise, with Chubb exorcising one demon after another. Chubb views her fury as a positive, a way of standing up for herself, and there is a certain optimism to SPRINTS’ headlong drive. She sheds her angst with a joyous rage. On songs like “Cathedral”, “Literary Mind”, and “Up and Comer”, you hear the sound of a band not about to look back. -Jeff McCord
Reyna Tropical
Reyna Tropical’s music is the very definition of the word ‘tropical.’ With an upbeat tempo and breezy vocals, their tracks inspire movement. Originally formed in 2016 as a spur-of-the-moment exchange between two emerging musicians, Reyna Tropical’s self-titled debut EP signifies the emergence and fusion of Afro-Latin rhythms with psychedelic Mexican–Colombian cumbia. After the passing of ex-bandmate Nectali ‘Sumo Hair’ Díaz back in 2022, Fabiola Reyna now leads Reyna Tropical as a solo project. Titled Malegría, akin to ‘bittersweet’, Tropical’s upcoming debut full-length album is a celebration of cultural traditions that dips into themes often cast aside, such as queer love, feminine sensuality, and the transformative power that intentional relations with the earth can hold. Find it March 29, on Sylvan Esso’s new label, Psychic Hotline. -Diego Artea
Hinds
Based in Madrid, Hinds, meaning “female deers”, burst onto the indie scene in 2014 as Spain’s first all-woman garage pop band. With vocalists and guitarists Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote, the indie rock group blends contemporary garage rock with a 60s pop sound, drawing comparisons to artists like The Strokes, Velvet Underground, and C86. After the departure of bassist and drummer in December of 2022, Hinds have re-ermerged with the announcement of their fourth studio album (and first in four years). Their new single, “Coffee”, dropped on February 28. -Sarah Benavides
Thursday, March 14 Lineup
Brittany Davis
Davis is a sightless, non-binary African American who is a part of the Seattle grunge scene (playing in a band with Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard). That’s unusual enough, but it’s when Davis steps out in front of their R&B band that everyone really takes notice. Davis is a dynamo, with a forceful command of a hard-edged soul and a voice that takes charge. Last year at SXSW, Davis overcame a thunderstorm to bring thunder of their own to the indoor stage. Back for more, expect another force of nature. -Jeff McCord
Friko
Merging elements of post-punk, chamber-pop, and experimental rock, Chicago’s Friko recently released their 2nd studio album, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here on ATO Records. According to the band, the album is influenced by a mix of art-rock and Romantic-era classical music, with Friko itself being influenced by artists such as The Beach Boys and Mitski. Get ready for the unexpected. -Sarah Benavides
La Sécurité
A self-described melting pot of Montréal’s vibrant music scene, the art-punk outfit La Sécurité released their debut album, Stay Safe!, last summer. Originally started as a pandemic jam session between bassist Félix Bélisle and singer Éliane Viens-Synnott the duo quickly brought in friends to round out their minimalist New Wave sound. Singing in French and English, La Sécurité channels the Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees with a healthy dose of French pop to fill in the gaps. It’s a bouncy, intoxicating mixture that begs you to jump on the dance floor and move your body at odd angles. – Peter Babb
Kassa Overall
Known until recently as a drummer’s drummer for artists as varied as Geri Allen and Arto Lindsay, Grammy nominated Kassa Overall upended every notion you had of him when he began making his own records. It’s as if he took every one of his musical ideas, wrote them on scraps of paper, and let them rain over you like confetti from a victory parade. MC, producer, composer… his virtuosity is as dizzying as his list of collaborators – Theo Croker, Nick Hakim, Danny Brown, Vijay Iyer, Ishmael Butler. It’s not jazz, techno, hip hop, or even any forced-together hybrid of these you may have heard before. Kassa Overall is doing something brand new. Get in line behind him as he blazes new trails. -Jeff McCord
Friday, March 15 Lineup
Tagua Tagua
A project of Brazilian songwriter and producer Felipe Puperi, Tagua Tagua washes away language barriers with neon-tinged synths and a smooth tenor that invites you to float away to a tropical island in your mind’s eye. The band’s newest, Tanto, channels 80s-inspired chillwave a la Neon Indian and Tame Impala for an entirely immersive listening experience. -Peter Babb
L.C. Franke
In what now seems like a lifetime ago, L.C. Franke was known as Jeff Klein, who released both solo records and albums with his group My Jerusalem. They were excellent, but Klein eventually hit the artistic wall, and decided to take a year off, which the pandemic extended into an indefinite hiatus. He longed to start over and finally realized that nothing was stopping him from doing so. So Franke simplified, lowered the volume, and began a new way of crooning his after-hours music to the world. His ballad of hope, “You And Me And Us Against The World” releases March 5, with an album, Still In Bloom, to follow. Franke calls it ‘easy listening for anxious times.’ – Jeff McCord
The Dinosaur’s Skin
Has there ever been a melancholy more potent than that felt by the last two dinosaurs remaining on earth? As the story goes, the Dinosaur’s Skin’s “Trex’ and “Triceratops” survived the mass extinction by traveling through a wormhole, eventually landing in Taipei, Taiwan. Filled with grief for their long-dead friends and family, these creatures hope through their dream pop music they can find the remaining dinosaurs in the world. We’ll find out if this Taiwanese duo are truly the dinosaurs they say they are. One thing we can say for now is that Taiwan is the home to some of the best dream and bedroom pop recorded in the last few years, and the Dinosaur’s Skin is at the top of that indie rock food chain. -Ryan Wen
Sinkane
You’d need a Venn diagram to pull apart the influences of London-born Sudanese refugee Sinkane (real name: Ahmed Gallab), who immigrated to America and straight into the Ohio punk scene. From there came work with Twin Shadow, Caribou, Yeasayer and more. Over time, Sinkane has distilled all this into a funky, high-powered Afro-pop with hints of Krautrock and psych-era Temptations. Get ready to move. -Jeff McCord
Saturday, March 16 Lineup
Font
Consider Font your Scholz’s Saturday wake-up call. Relative newcomers to Austin scene, Font have only a couple of recordings to their name, yet their skewed, sampled, agro dance-punk has nonetheless built them a sizable following and spots on last year’s ACL and Levitation Festivals. With a slow-roll, improvised onstage approach that has only added to their uniqueness, their songs grow and evolve right in front of you. This spring the band head out on tour with Yard Act. -Jeff McCord
Girl and Girl
With their Sub Pop debut in the works, Brisbane four-piece Girl and Girl are ones to watch in the world of sharp-tongued raucous-riffed garage rock. The Aussie’s unique energy is powered by a rare intergenerational fusion: Frontperson Kai James onstage magnetism and his Auntie Liss’ near 40 years of drumming experience. With Kai’s two longtime friends Jayden Williams and Fraser Bell on guitar and bass respectively, Girl and Girl’s all too rare multigenerational collaboration brings a fresh angle on the post-Strokes garage rock sound. – Ryan Wen
Waterbaby
Stockholm’s Kendra Egerbladh, AKA waterbaby, proves that folky tweepop isn’t a sound reserved for whispered melodies and delicately picked acoustic guitars. The Swedish up-and-comer’s bouncy basslines, autotuned vocals, and a SZA-esque R&B approach bring lightness to the usual bedroom pop yearning, but stay just as earnest and intimate as the best of her genre contemporaries. – Ryan Wen
Porij
Originating from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, this 4-piece band with an eclectic sound is made up of Scout Moore (stage name: Egg) on vocals and keys, James Middleton on bass, Jacob Maguire on guitar, and Nathan Carroll on drums. Porij supported Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres World Tour with their weird little genre mix of funk, new wave, art-pop, and other electro styles, citing artists like MJ Cole and Little Dragon as inspiration. The band announced their debut album, “Teething”, in January of this year, accompanied by their most recent single, “My Only Love” -Sarah Benavides
