SXSW Six-Pack: Van Mary Brings the Real
Van Mary: The Return of the Literate Grunge
By Paul Stinson
Capturing the human experience in all its melodic and vulnerable glory, Austin four-piece Van Mary fire up a fuzzy-indie-grunge spiral of nourishing guitar-drenched songs, a foot on the distortion pedal and the occasional finger in the eye of gender inequality and the patriarchy.
A welcome throwback to the urgency of 90s fuzz rock, the songs are as lyrically poignant as they are feel-good mosh-adjacent in tone. Ranging from disarmingly lilting to declaratively-pointed in delivery, songwriter Emily Whetstone is one of Austin’s most dynamic lights, unflinching in her biographies or narratives on the world around her.
A finalist for Austin Chronicle’s 2021 song of the year, “Connie Converse” is a hauntingly upbeat four-minute rocker celebrating love and grappling with unresolved questions and grief in the wake of loss, putting forth a vulnerable ferocity reminiscent of Bettie Serveert’s ‘Lamprey’ or the urgency of The Pixies ‘Doolittle.’
2020 single “Hug” is both a meditation on fighting through pandemic isolation and a hopeful call for reconnection. The song reflects on eating a whole pie in bed and unaccomplished domestic tasks while offering “I want to hug all of my friends,” –a rallying refrain that grows stronger, transformed into an exit out of darkness, looking toward brighter days.
Perhaps most powerfully demonstrating Van Mary’s dynamic sound and songwriting strength is “New Mexico,” a personal narrative and call for individual agency in the face of Texas’s increasingly restrictive abortion laws. The slow-building track takes its name from the nearest state with access to the procedure absent of major restrictions.
“They’ll take away your healthcare/but let you keep your guns,” Whetstone directs her snarl toward Texas lawmakers, later adding: “And I’m always apologizing for things I shouldn’t be sorry for/I’m not ready to be a mother can we please respect one another?” The song builds toward a headbanging crunchy indie-rock conclusion and any elbow or two taken in the rib-cage from the grunge throwback pit is a fair price to pay.
Live and in studio, Van Mary pushes a lot of melodic hooks and a lot of buttons on what it means to pay attention to yourself or the surrounding world. The Austin four-piece makes the powerful case that the point of getting out of bed is to be real, human and speak-up, unapologetically.
Van Mary (non-SXSW dates)
April 8 – Hotel Vegas
April 22 – MoFest
May 27 – The Espee Pavilion
SXSW SixPack is a yearly series of unapologetic enthusings/profiles on bands that need to be seen and heard by more people.
Paul Stinson is Nada Mucho’s Austin Music Correspondent. Formerly a Texas and Oklahoma statehouse correspondent for a major news organization, Stinson is plotting his next move and can be found lurking in Austin’s music shadows and Casino El Camino burger joint. Or playing with his cats Olive and Piko.
One thought on “SXSW Six-Pack: Van Mary Brings the Real”