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Written by Tamara Dwyer
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 MICKY AND THE MOTORCARS
Naive
Smith Entertainment
(Release Date: 7.29.08)
The title track of Micky and the Motorcars’ fourth release, Naive, showcases the bands straight-up country vocals, backed by three powerful guitars, bass, and drums. This is country played with youthful enthusiasm and rocking guitar licks; fans of Red Dirt country will feel right at home. |
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Written by Hillary R. Skaff
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 THE DIRTY HEARTS
Pigs
Socyermom Records
(Release Date: 7.22.08)
Listening to this latest CD from The Dirty Hearts, it’s easy to imagine yourself at the live show, pushing through the sweaty crowd and catching some second-hand nicotine in your lungs. No question, Pigs makes you want to get out and knock around and throw an elbow or two. |
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Written by Dante Dominick
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 MARIO MATTEOLI
Golden State
self released
(Release Date: 7.12.08)
Mario Matteoli, known for a rollicking six-year run fronting twanggrassers The Weary Boys, has quickly shown the frenzied pony ride was just a jumping point. Where Weary Boys relied on blazing fast solos and backwoods mayhem, Golden State—Matteoli’s second solo release—is a compositional masterpiece: warm melodies, absorbing refrains, and mighty fine playing while visiting an array of Americana genres with one cohesive sound. |
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Written by Dante Dominick
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 LOS LONELY BOYS
Forgiven
Epic Records
(Release Date: 7.1.08)
Often lumped as a top-notch SRV redo with a Santana touch (as if that’s a bad label, right?), this categorization of Los Lonely Boys misses the sweet spot that makes LLB stand out even from those luminaries: the Garza brothers’ vocal harmonies. Sweet, pretty, and soulful, acting as a counterbalance to the searing guitar and drum onslaught. And if we’ve learned anything from the Louvin Brothers, Everly Brothers, and Andrews Sisters, it’s that siblings can take vocal harmony to Everest-heights that mere bandmates can’t reach. |
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Written by Tamara Dwyer
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 IAN McLAGAN & THE BUMP BAND
Never Say Never
Maniac Records
(Release Date 6.24.08)
Never Say Never is the latest entry in keyboardist Ian McLagan's mile-long discography, which started in his native England in the ‘60s with Small Faces and Faces. If you've heard "Maggie May," "Maybe I'm Amazed," or "Stay With Me," you've heard Mac. When the Rolling Stones finally came to Austin in 2006, McLagan was on the bill both as a longtime friend of the Stones, and as a longtime local musician: McLagan moved to Austin in 1994, where he and the Bump Band have a regular Thursday happy hour gig at the Lucky Lounge. |
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Written by Patrick Cosgrove
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 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO
Real Animal
Manhattan/Back Porch Records
(Release Date: 6.24.08)
If James Joyce were around to load Real Animal on to his gramophone, after a couple listens he might remark: “What a bloody good portrait of an artist as a young (and middle-aged) man.” Alejandro Escovedo’s latest record — his finest, most thematically cohesive effort yet — is a musical memoir of a three-decade career. And it rocks. Produced by glam specialist Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex) and co-written with Chuck Prophet, Real Animal covers every phase of Escovedo’s professional life through songs that play out like chapters of an intimate autobiography.
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Written by Danté Dominick
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 GRUPO FANTASMA
Sonidos Gold
Aire Sol Records
(Release Date: 6.17.08)
The timbale rumble conjures a ‘70s Super Fly riff from the horn section; soaring, reverbed electric guitar sears underneath, giving way to polished cumbia rhythm and acid-jazzy wah-wah. This all in the first 30 seconds as “El Sabio Soy Yo” opens Sonidos Gold with seemingly impossible musical dexterity and Latin funk bombast. In other words, true to form for the 10-piece psycho-salsa orchestra Grupo Fantasma. |
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Written by Danté Dominick
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MY EDUCATION
Bad Vibrations
Strange Attractors Audio House
(Release Date: 6.10.08)
The drawing on the cover of My Education’s Bad Vibrations seems to capture a man enjoying the wanton bliss of a thrilling acid trip at that exact moment where it turns bad. He just doesn’t know it yet. |
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Written by Jason Repko
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OCOTE SOUL SOUNDS
Alchemist Manifesto
ESL Music
(Release Date: 6.10.08) Alchemist Manifesto is the second release from Ocote Soul Sounds, which features the Latin-dub touch of Grupo Fantasma’s Adrian Quesada combined with flute-driven, psychedelic funk of Antibalas’ Martin Perna. |
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Written by Chase Hoffberger
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 SHEARWATER
Rook
Matador Records
(Release Date: 6.3.08)
The most telling aspect of Shearwater’s fifth LP comes at the top of charging ripper “Century Eyes.” Amidst the jangling of metallic acoustic guitars is a quarter-inch chord finding its way into the input of an electric guitar. A split second, then the race is on. It’s a minute sampling, but the brainchild of Jonathan Meiburg intended for such. Because with Rook, coming in at just under forty minutes, it’s all planned, laid out with not a minute to spare. |
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Written by Chase Hoffberger
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THE MOTHER TRUCKERS
Let's All Go To Bed
Funzalo Records
(Release Date: 6/3/08)
Smoked-out skins and a rebel’s share of stories pits The Mother Truckers with Let’s All Go To Bed, the Austin quartet’s third effort and first to be recorded on a label—Tucson, AZ’s Funzalo Records (which re-released TMT’s sophomore effort, Broke, Not Broken, after signing the band in 2007). Lead axe man Josh Zee finds dirty Texas country in his Stratocaster, aided by his reunion with drummer Dan Thompson from Sony alt-rock band Protein. |
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