Good Looks Album Release and In-Store Signing

Friday 7, Waterloo Records

Good Looks debuted firmly within the country-rock canon on 2022’s Bummer Year, an earnest display of Tyler Jordan’s twangy, candid lyrics and Jake Ames’ bright electric guitar flourishes. Out this week on Keeled Scales, follow-up Lived Here for a While expands on the group’s down-home Americana with heightened energy. “If It’s Gone” connects the LP to its predecessor as Jordan wishes an ex “true love, and money, many orgasms, and fame,” while the rollicking “Can You See Me Tonight?” lays bare his desire for connection with Phil Dunne’s tireless drum fills and a scratchy Ames solo.   – Carys Anderson

Atlas Maior Vinyl Release

Friday 7, Monks Jazz Club

Genre-defiant duo Atlas Maior released their EP Hadal in 2023, which we called “music amalgamating American, Arabic, Moroccan, African, and Brazilian sources” in our contemporaneous review. The formerly digital release manifests in vinyl, with two extra songs and a pair of remixes. Based on American jazz harmonies and the Middle Eastern modal system maqam, AM songs sound like nothing else, adding free-range improvisation to melodies derived from the region. Bandleaders Joshua Thomson (alto sax) and Josh Peters (oud) will be joined by bassist Josh Flowers and drummer Gray Parsons for the Hadal relaunch. Shows at 8pm and 10pm.   – Michael Toland

Big Foot Chester Final Show

Saturday 8, ABGB

After 30 years of hootin’ and hollerin’, Big Foot Chester is kicking its feet up for good. Beginning as a one-off to commemorate the birth of Chester “The Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett – known colloquially as Big Foot Chester because of his formidable size – these rockabilly titans never imagined they’d make it three decades, but here they are. This “punked out blues and country band” boasts a just-as-formidable lineup of musicians: harmonica titan Walter Daniels, guitarist and Austin Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson, Dan Hoekstra of the Sons of Hercules, Sugar Shack and Lord High Fixers drummer Stephanie Friedman, and Angele Moyseos of the Cryin’ Out Louds on bass. Bidding adieu after 30 years seems like a fitting send-off, a full-circle moment for a band who once celebrated the birth of a blues icon.   – Cy White

Exhumed, Skeletal Remains

Sunday 9, Parish

Gore Metal, debut full-length from Bay Area grindcore fiends Exhumed, rolling into Decibel Magazine’s Hall of Fame last month – 26 years on: “Without that record,” concludes managing butcher Matt Harvey, “I wouldn’t have been able to go on this circuitous and sometimes deeply depressing path that led me to a place where I’m pretty much satisfied with where I’m at.” He speaks for legions. The murderous quartet thus stages its Decayed Decades trek with fellow gore hounds Skeletal Remains from L.A., whose fifth LP, Fragments of the Ageless topped year-end lists in March. Blackened Richmond, Virginia, thrashers Morbikon make it a trinity.   – Raoul Hernandez

Parker Woodland Single Release Party

Sunday 9, Coco Coquette

Gentle vigilantes for justice Parker Woodland ring in Queer Birthday Month with the release of their new single “Makeup.” A gentle coo leads into the chorus, a booming declaration of “You know you who are/ And you don’t owe them anything,” as frontwoman and co-founder Erin Walters’ face glistens with proud tears and glitter. The band takes to Coco Coquette to unleash the single unto the masses, no doubt giving those who feel disrespected, disenfranchised, and unloved a rallying cry to carry with them as they make merry in the Austin streets.   – Cy White

American String Quartet’s 50th Anniversary with Anton Nel

Sunday 9, Bates Recital Hall

If you’ve got your ear to the ground vis-à-vis the ongoing Austin Chamber Music Festival (whose many concerts run from June 7 to July 14) then you already know this here’s a show to celebrate. This being their 50th season means the American String Quartet has mastered their self-described “riveting” program of Beethoven and Shostakovich – but wait! There’s more: They’ll also be joined by legendary pianist Anton Nel for an, again self-described, “exuberant” piano quintet featuring ol’ Bobby Schumann’s music. Might as well check austinchambermusic.org to see the whole festival lineup since this level of “riveting” and “exuberant” music is sure to carry across all concerts.   – James Scott

Sydney Wright

Monday 10, Geraldine’s

“I feel we’re all fortunate to be living in a time in history where we have access to technology that can keep us connected despite physical limits.” So wrote Sydney Wright, checking in with the Chronicle during the pandemic. Snyder, Texas, journeywoman to UNT for ethnomusicology and now veteran ATX pop genie, the singer and live music engineer continues fusing a digital roots matrix locally. March single “Fly” soars her breathy electro vulnerability over thick Lone Star grounding from homegrown Graham Wilkinson and Kalu James. Stylish and intimate, Wright’s urbane realness feels ready-made for Hotel Van Zandt’s swanky listening/dining room.   – Raoul Hernandez

Omni

Wednesday 12, the Ballroom

How many times can you re-create post-punk’s founding barbed wire guitar? For Atlanta trio Omni, the limit does not exist. Sure, there’s some obvious Wire influence on February’s Souvenir, but angular riffs, thumping bass, and snappy percussion never get old when done well. Opener “Exacto” beautifies singer-bassist Philip Frobos’ chopped vocals with sustained high notes and glimmering keys, while Automatic singer Izzy Glaudini lends her detached voice to “Plastic Pyramid,” whose droning background synths recall the L.A. band’s own gloriously buzzy psych-pop. Bay Area contemporaries Fake Fruit and Austin bedroom poppers Dorio complete the fuzzed-out bill.   – Carys Anderson

Blues on the Green

Tuesday 11 - Wednesday 12, Zilker Park

A brief cancellation scare at the beginning of the year dealt a major blow to the heart of Austin. However, with the help of some incredible sponsors, including H-E-B, and Austin City Council’s approval of a February resolution – which, essentially, protects the funding and longevity of free events that “reflect the City’s cultural identity as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ for all Austinites and its visitors” – Blues on the Green is back on! A collective sigh, and certainly some tears of relief, rippled across the city. A bastion of Austin’s traditions, Blues on the Green has seen its own kind of evolution with the guidance and thoughtful curation of living legend Jackie Venson. With headliners Golden Dawn Arkestra and hip-hop revolutionists Riders Against the Storm, this year’s show carries special significance.   – Cy White

Alanis Morissette: The Triple Moon Tour

Wednesday 12, Moody Center

Nobody touch me! I can’t be consoled or bothered to care that I’m crying in the key of Nineties-era alternative rock. Much like many young’uns ranging in age from preteen to pre-adult, Jagged Little Pill had me in an unrelenting chokehold back in 1995. So enamored of the unexpected rage in each crack, crevice, and squall of Madame Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” that I’d sing it on the bus home from school. I, too, in my little Black girl emo heart, was angry, full of piss and vinegar. Nearly 30 years later, the album still wraps me in its heated grasp whenever I need a little consolation for heartbreak. Following up her surprise appearance at last year’s CMT Music Awards, Morissette brings her Triple Moon Tour to the Moody Center. And she’s here to remind you that she never left and can leave any of your current faves in the dirt with her unmatched, unwavering vocals alone.   – Cy White

Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla

Thursday 13, Moody Center

When San Antonio-born Megan Jovon Ruth Pete mounted ACL Fest’s mainstage in 2021, her middle fingers pointed skyward: “It’s a big fuck you ... to all these hoe-ass men trying to tell us what the fuck to do with our bodies.” Thee Stallion led a mass twerk that only two years earlier she ghosted while on social media in a Downtown hotel as we all waited in vain at the Miller Lite stage. Of the make-good, the Chronicle raved, “Meg had hot girls and hot boys get their ‘hands on my knees shakin’ ass on my thot shit,’ as the crowd heaved and ho’d.”   – Raoul Hernandez

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Music Notes

by Derek Udensi

Fuerza Regida

Thursday 6, Moody Center

Austin marks the spot as this popular San Bernardino, California, regional Mexican group starts its nationwide tour in support of seventh studio album Pa Las Baby’s y Belikeada. All three singles released from the 30-song Oct. 2023 LP charted inside the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100.

Austin Civic Orchestra

Friday 7 - Saturday 8, Rosewood Park

The ACO heads to the Lampkin Pavilion for a free performance of tracks from various video games. Titles on the bill include Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” (a remix is used in The Evil Within) and selections from Wing Commander: The Jazz Album. A performance of John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars & Stripes Forever” closes the show.

Songs in the Key of Rock

Saturday 8, Antone’s

Salihah Saadiq and Antone’s begin their Black Music Month concert series, Songs in the Key of Us, with a headlining set from Bronx natives ESG. Pearl Z supports.

Movie Music Magic

Saturday 8, Long Center

The Austin Symphony Orchestra tributes the late Jerry Goldsmith with a medley spanning some of his most famous film scores. Cuts include “End Title” from Alien and “It’s a Long Road (Instrumental)” from Rambo: First Blood Part II.