SXSW Six Pack: US Weekly
By Paul Stinson
Somewhere between compulsively groovy and convulsively pointed, the shows turned in by Austin’s US Weekly amount to 40-minutes of head-bobbing, fire-breathing punk rock that is both punk and rock without being cliché.
Somewhere between The Jesus Lizard, Archers of Loaf, The Fall and the brief moments of coherency offered by The Cows, the band’s undercurrent of melody and constructive aneurysm add up to a cathartic bloodletting that is serious but doesn’t take itself too seriously with punk conventions.
Rooted in melody and fury, frontman Chris Nordahl’s barrage of vocal tack-spitting is as focused as it furious, dispensing prose before landing on the song’s vocal hook, delivered again and again like a boxer determined to send you to the canvas over and over until you get the point.
It’s not all yelling and screaming, however. It’s the pacing of the songs, the bouncing and needling guitar against a backdrop of a pulsing rhythm section well-synced to wherever Nordahl is headed next. The punches are collective, repeated and powerful. Catharsis has never been this much fun.
The local contemporary to Austin shitkickers Feral Future – currently on hiatus – the exposure to US Weekly’s raw nerves is unsettling, liberating and not to be missed.
https://usweekly.bandcamp.com/track/whole-foods
3/15 @ Hotel Vegas –> Grenda, Extraperlo, JJUUJJUUm, Total Abuse, Night Beats, US Weekly, Xetas, Sweat Lodge, The American Sharks, The Oh Sees at Hotel Vegas (1500 E. 6th St.) [patio 1] (7 p.m.)
3/16 @ The Brixton –> Sweet Talk, Aquarian Blood, Borzoi, Us Weekly, Slow, Maxine at The Brixton (1412 E. 6th St.) [4pm, free, 21+, fb]
3/18 @ Big Orange (6:15 p.m.)
3/19 @ Pearl St. Co-op (night show)
More SXSW Six Pack 2016
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