🥤 SIPSMAN COMMUNIQUE: March 2025
SXSW • POP Montréal • Lily Seabird • The Convenience • Fusilier • Krill 2 • Skylar Gudasz
Third Mardi Gras complete 🤝 best one yet. Thousands of people dressing up to impress their friends, that’s how simple it can be. Thanks to those who helped pack out the Saturn for The Convenience, SPLLIT, T.A.C.K., and Earthbound Sound. Thru the following week I caught MSPAINT, Miss Pussycat, Quintron, Snööper, and dozens of marching bands, including one that covered Sade's “The Sweetest Taboo.” Next Sipsman show is Monday at Okay Bar with Thomas Dollbaum, Maddy Kirgo, Dan Wriggins (Friendship), and Lonnie Walker.
I, too, am in Austin this week. Catch me outside, how 'bout that:
POP MONTREAL
TONIGHT @ 8:00pm: do not pass GO do not collect $200 go directly to Swan Dive for “POP” and M For Montréal’s excellent annual showcase of the best and brightest from Canada, including Population II, Annie-Claude Deschênes, Knitting, and more. With our poor excuse for American leadership belittling Canada’s very own sovereignty, causing other Canadian events to reconsider stepping foot in Austin this week, I can’t think of a better year to start supporting our neighbors and making this a SXSW tradition. Press play on the showcase playlist, RSVP here, see you in le pit.
LILY SEABIRD is playing shows in Austin this week, and the rest of the world this year:
THU Mar 13 @ 2:10pm: High Noon (Paste)
THU Mar 13 @ 4:10pm: Tweedy's Backyard Bash
THU Mar 13 @ 6:30pm: Alienated Majesty Books (Lyrics As Poetry)
FRI Mar 14 @ 8:00pm: Cheer Up Charlies (Howdy Gals)
SAT Mar 15 @ 2:15pm: All the Sudden (Dear Life Records)
SAT Mar 15 @ 6:45pm: Feels So Good (Happen Twice)
Since last missive, Seabird shared two new singles from her forthcoming album Trash Mountain, out April 4 via Lame-O: “How far away” (which closes Side A) and “It was like you were coming to wake us back up” (which opens Side B). The latter details a short moment that I experience every now and then: someone approaching you that looks like a person you have lost, "but the closer you got the further you were." These music videos were shot in New Orleans during a record snowstorm with Seabird’s dear friends and you can feel the warmth thru the screen.
SKYLAR GUDASZ is also playing shows in Austin this week:
FRI Mar 14 @ 8:40pm: Stephen F’s Bar (Sleepy Cat Records presents Hotel Carolina)
SAT Mar 15 @ 3:45pm: All the Sudden (Dear Life Records)
Have you revisited 2024’s COUNTRY recently? Would advise. B-side “Lean Closer To Me Now” was originally part of New Commute’s crucial Cardinals At The Window compilation for Western NC last fall, now available everywhere you stream music.
FUSILIER
The Brooklyn-based singer, polyglot, session player, and sommelier made the most out of a lunchbreak to turn in a visualizer for the sultry slowburner “NSA,” which debuted on Monday. From inside a supply closet, using anything at his disposal, Fusilier lets theatrics express his complicated emotions: hurt, sensuality, maybe a little silliness. “No strings” never guarantees “no feelings,” which overflow in abundance on the song itself. A chorus of voices, including Bartees Strange and Teeny Lieberson (Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory), accompany Fusilier in his wounded, delirious ode to a relationship that grew far larger than ever intended. It’s the latest track from Fusilier’s debut, Ambush, arriving SO SOON March 28 worldwide via IS NOT MUSIC.
THE CONVENIENCE
Like Cartoon Vampires showcases the musicianship and sheer versatility of The Convenience, the production and songwriting duo of Nick Corson and Duncan Troast. Their new album arrives April 18 via Winspear—so far, we’ve been treated to the Stereogum-approved “wiry rocker” “I Got Exactly What I Wanted,” and the “sharp angles and acerbic attitude” of “Dub Vultures,” as described by Various Small Flames. Yesterday, The Convenience turned the volume down and the BPM up with new single “Opportunity,” built around a propulsive beat and a chorus that also acts as a bridge. Listen while you watch its accompanying lyric video over at Flood where Mike LeSeur accurately clocks the “particularly German-expressionist conclusion.”
KRILL 2
Don’t call it a comeback… call it a sequel. Jonah’s been playing some new songs recently under this name, sometimes solo, sometimes not. This includes Saturday at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge with the mighty Ovlov. Sounds fun. Maybe copies of the Alam No Hris 10-year anniversary will be there.