Last week, just in time for the unseasonably torrid temps hanging in the mid-90s, every Texan’s favorite unelected regulatory body, ERCOT, called for residents to set a hard thermostat floor of a balmy 78 degrees. Excuse us while we don these oxygen masks to recover from hysterically laughing all that precious O2 from our lungs. This is Texas, babee, and we do what we want! Whether it be constitutionally outlawing state income tax, refusing to wear masks during a worldwide pandemic, or cranking our ACs down to 60 during an energy shortage that could be avoided if ERCOT and Gov. Greg Abbott weren’t self-serving assholes, we will not be contained!
Another thing that simply won’t be contained (brace yourselves for this neck-breaking, out-of-nowhere transition) is … local music. Prolific musos from every genre seemingly never stop showering us with great tuneage like a misting tent on a 100-degree day at Six Flags. This summer proves to be no different. No matter your stylistic predispositions, local musicians have you covered like SPF 50. Here is just some of the local music we’re looking forward to this summer.
Wry, reverb-surfing garage rock band Prof. Fuzz ’63 has a new full-length out on June 10 called Peaches and Herbicide. They’ll be releasing it at a show at Arlington’s Growl Records that night, along with power-pop alt-rockers the Jet Noise (formerly Josh & The Jet Noise), who are dropping a new EP (sans Josh) of their own at the show as well. The group will disband after the gig, so see them one last time!
Outlaw country crooner Wayne Willington keeps padding his already lengthy catalog with Temptation Road, another collection of his smoky baritone over bopping two-steppers and sad country ballads, and singer-songwriter Court Hoang has a new full-length called Get Right hitting streaming services June 17.
Rap fans won’t be left out with several heavy hitters dropping new tracks in the coming months. One of the Fort’s best rappers and hip-hop ambassadors, Lou CharLe$, comes correct with his latest single, “Hit Different.” Nerdcore rapper J/O/E has an album perfectly fitting for summer entitled Pints in Padre, while Neo Sohl has a new joint called “The Mission” on the way. One of the godfathers of Fort Worth hip-hop, Fort Nox’s Complete, is set to release L.I.F.E (Lyrics Intended For Everyone), which promises to be another album’s worth of intelligent, thoughtful, self-reflective rhymes, on June 14. Could this summer bring the final installment of the horror-core collab between Tornup and masterful producer BLKrKRT? The sci-fi fantasy concept album about a sleazy record producer enslaving rap artists as holographic replicas needs a finale! Bring us Hologram Zoo, Vol. 3.
Committing to a full-length recording project is as big an undertaking as ever. Just ask Phorids, who are working on finishing their first full-length for a late-summer release. When you follow a band over time, full-length albums are essential to being a fan, because they give the listener a window into where in life the artist was at the time — what he or she or they were going through. Singles can do this, too, and recording and releasing one song periodically is a lot cheaper and easier. Edgy pop-rockers The Troumatics are set to release a single called “Blood on My Knees” on June 17. They plan a full-length album to follow at the end of the summer. Sugary indie-pop trio Phantomelo plan a new single with accompanying video for their new song, the very summer appropriate “Shark Attack,” in June. On the heels of the success of his last single “The Pass,” artsy pop rocker Denver Williams has a pair of songs, “Key Lime Pie” and “Radio Is On,” scheduled in the coming months.
Dream poppers Big Heaven are planning to debut a new EP titled Void in late July/early August. A single, a collaboration with the psyche-rock outfit Itchy Richie & The Burning Sensations, will tease the EP. Hook-centric rockers Henry the Archer are also forecasting an EP later this season. Mixing/mastering of the five expected songs is finishing as we speak.
This summer, expect to hear long-awaited new singles from psychedelic punks Mean Motor Scooter, wintry songwriter Eric Osbourne, Austin-based studio wizard Taylor Tatsch’s prog-pop project Shadows of Jets, and from Clint Niosi, whose ear for the cinematic makes of each of his releases a fun task to imagine what movie the song might provide a fitting score.
On the horizon are also new releases from the experimental, ambient project Slow Draw and one of the Fort’s most underappreciated songwriters in Kevin England’s jangly punk rock outfit Cool Jacket.
There’s plenty of hot tuneage coming to warm over eager ears and keep us in the right headspace as we tackle the next three or four (or five) months of sweltering days and slightly less sweltering nights.
Read about summer shows in our second Music Feature in #SummerEdition2022.
