I’ve never been to Austin. It’s a mild regret in the grand scheme of things, and one I can easily rectify if I choose to do so, though “easily” is a relative term given the current cost and potential future availability of air travel. But I digress.
When I say I’ve never been to Austin, what I’m really lamenting is not going to Austin when I was younger, when the city was still cooler than cool (some might even say, weird), it had yet to be invaded by the Joe Rogan crowd, and South by Southwest still had a whiff of new car smell on it. According to those in the know, this was a time when you could go to a joint like Emo’s and catch a then-unknown named Beck opening for Johnny Cash.
Of course what really made Austin seem cool was the local music and arts scene. The city produced legends from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Spoon, and most of us on the East Coast first got a glimpse of city’s culture watching Richard Linklater’s film “Slacker.”
Despite the fact that, in 2026, a trip to SXSW will probably cost around five grand (good luck finding someone with an expense account to pay for it) and you have a decent chance of running into a tech bro or someone in Rogan’s orbit, Austin is still churning out amazing music.
The latest example – and one of my favorites in recent years – is Touch Girl Apple Blossom, a jangly indie pop quartet whose debut LP Graceful drops May 15 on K Records (founded by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, a clear inspiration for TGAB, and home of another 3A6OG fave, Sharp Pins).
In March, I got to see Touch Girl Apple Blossom open for Good Flying Birds at the Quarry House Tavern outside DC (Brad wrote about the show and their 2023 EP). I wisely chose to give the merch guy $20, allowing Graceful to be in rotation on my turntable ever since. No expense account, no problem. It’s been a rewarding listen.
