DiverseArts Culture Works Music Spotlight - 07/25

What are you saying this post is late?

ANYWAY, as many of you probably already know, our music venue Kenny Dorham’s Backyard hosts an awesome music event every 4th Friday of every month.

I was super lucky in that I was able to catch July’s 4th Friday in time and I must say that it was a pretty spectacular way to prepare myself for what I am expected to do during my time at DiverseArts — not to mention that it was so much fun!

I know what you’re thinking: “An intern actually enjoying work? Madness!” But believe me when I say that it was a great experience talking and listening to bands that I would probably have never known otherwise. The East Side really does have it’s own history and culture that so few people have ever really attempted to learn about or explore, and I’m beginning to really understand why people and organizations like DiverseArts are trying so hard to protect it.

Here some pics of some really talented people and the bands that they perform in — hopefully, more of you Austinites out there will be inspired and either check out their music and/or come on down to Kenny Dorham’s Backyard to see what else we have in store! : )

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This was our opening band, Squoze, who I was really impressed by considering they’re all high schoolers! That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up in Houston surrounded by incompetent teenage musicians, but I digress. : P My favorite song of theirs was the one they played after the guitarist and bassist switched which I can’t seem to remember the name of to my utter frustration, but ‘Silver Tongue’ also had me tapping my fingers along to the beat. You can listen to Squoze’s music here on Bandcamp!

Ok I'll be honest, I was not expecting to like our headlining band Atlas Maior as much as I did, especially since they describe themselves on their blog as a "a music project based in Austin, Texas that maps diverse musical traditions, placing Middle Eastern, North Indian, West and North African as well as Latin American musical idioms in dialogue with one another" but I was eating my words by the end of the night. They are seriously such a great band to zen out to after a stressful day! You can learn more about Atlas Maior here on their main blog, or check out their facebook page.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures of our closing band The Death Aquatics, but they did an interview earlier this year for a highschool newspaper called The Shield which you can find here. You can also check out their facebook page if you're interested in getting to know more about them! : )

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