Belaire’s DIY Integrity – And a Free Show Saturday at Frontier Bar

If you were cognizant of the Austin indie rock scene circa 2003-2010, then you have probably heard of Voxtrot. Admittedly, I was pretty obsessed with Voxtrot for a while; then, sometime in late 2007, I realized that two of Voxtrot’s founding members — Matt Simon and Jason Chronis — were moonlighting in a band called Belaire with Cari Palazzolo. Needless to say, I immediately went out and bought everything Belaire had released up until that point: a self-titled EP (2005), a 7″ EP Haunted Castle (2006), and their first full-length Exploding, Impacting (2007). It was not long before I began to switch allegiances from Team Voxtrot to Team Belaire.

With the exception of their recordings, I did not know much about Belaire until I saw the Austin music documentary Echotone. Palazzolo is one of the primary subjects of Echotone, and that is how I learned about her unwavering DIY artistic integrity. She merely wants to make music and share it with an audience; Palazzolo does not want for her music to become a commodity. It will obviously be difficult to make a living as a musician in a capitalist country with that attitude, but it is an admirable artistic philosophy nonetheless. (I should probably point out that Belaire has loosened their stance on the commodification of their music — they recently recorded a few tracks for Southwest Airlines.)

Belaire’s second full-length Resonating Symphony is now available on vinyl, CD, and download via Indirect Records. Their next Austin gig is a FREE show at the Frontier Bar on Saturday, August 4 (check out the Facebook Event Page for more details). In the meantime, here is a video of Belaire performing “Resonating Symphony” at the 29th Street Ballroom: