Best of Austin Music 2012

Written by Don Simpson // December 19, 2012 // Austin, Music // No comments

DanaFalconberry

I never thought the independent music scene in Austin could ever top the late 1990s, when I was really loving on bands such as Spoon, Knife in the Water, The Kiss Offs and Silver Scooter. Of course, I have since been proven wrong by the massive explosion of incredible music currently being made in this city on a daily basis. For the second time in my life, a majority of my favorite bands hail from Austin; and it has been an honor and privilege to track the progress of these bands over the last couple of years for AdobeAirstream.

You probably know by now that I really hate to play favorites, but 2012 will forever be remembered as the year that we witnessed the release of two seminal albums by Austin bands:

Leelanau by Dana Falconberry

Plague by The Eastern Sea

That said, there was a ton of other truly amazing LPs released in 2012 in addition to those two musical masterpieces (a word I very rarely use)…

Resonating Symphony by Belaire

Banana Moon by Burgess Meredith

The Couch by The Couch

Deep Time by Deep Time

Before You Were Born by Frank Smith

Daydream Western by The Lonesome Heroes

And, there were also a lot of great EPs released in 2012 too…

Let Them Talk by Agent Ribbons

In the Fire by Knifight

Rocketship Girl by Grace London (an honorary Austinite, in my mind)

In Arnica by Marmalakes

Written by Don Simpson // December 19, 2012 // Austin, Music // No comments

About the Author

Though he studied Accounting at Elizabethtown College, Don Simpson insists that the knowledge he acquired during his four years as a deejay and two years as Music Director at the college radio station (WWEC) has been more transformative to his life. Except for some ill-conceived drum lessons in 7th grade (which were promptly cancelled when on one fateful day he brought a Dead Milkmen cassette to practice -- it was a Catholic school), Don is a self-taught musician and makes absolutely no claims of possessing any musical talent. His music journalism career started in the mid-90s with a couple of handmade 'zines (The Crack and Re-Verb) and quickly progressed to contributing writer positions at Devil in the Woods, Pop Culture Press, and the Los Angeles Journal. He currently resides in Austin, Texas where he enjoys writing about music and film.

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