By the time Radclyffe Hall took the stage at Brush Square Park, the crowd had turned over and the V:Music portion was in full-swing. Radclyffe’s dark electronic pop took on a new feel in the daylight, the low-end bass causing the plastic tent liners to vibrate and the rumble of a dual percussion set-up making the empty Island Creek Oyster bin across the way start to rattle. All we needed was a disco ball and some serious moonlight to turn this joint into Austin’s best nightclub, and the recent Cleopatra Records signing certainly did their part.
After the intensity of Radclyffe Hall, Yellerkin’s joyous-on-the-surface experimental pop was a fitting anecdote. A storm of percussion and breakneck melody took the band’s minimal three-person set up and filled the tent with emotive, sing-along grandeur. Part of the New Torch Entertainment gang that also boasts the aforementioned Verite, Betty Who, and SXSW standout Tei Shi in their ranks, expect Yellerkin’s blissful ear worms to be on many’s summer soundtrack once the weather becomes deserving of it.
After an exhausting day of 10 bands, several solo acoustic performances on the side stage, and eight hours of programming, it was St. Nothing’s melancholic electronic pop that captured our sense of yearning for more while feeling completely fucking knackered. Aided by a newly-added live drummer and enough strings for your post-breakup tears to slide down into a pool of indifference, St. Nothing’s bedroom pop arm-wrestled the outdoor tent vibes until we were all hugging it out and ready to call it a day. Frontman Marco Lawrence remains one of our scene’s best current songwriters, so catch him and the rest of St. Nothing in action this Sunday at the Middle East in Cambridge.
And here’s the comp in its entirety, with artists listed alphabetically…