Cory Graves
This Week, Sealion Got A Fizzy Lift.
Each week, we take a survey of the local music scene and try to determine which acts in town are really putting in work and seeing it pay off. Which bands have the most intriguing shows coming up? Which bands are getting the most press around town? Which bands have accomplished the most notable feats of late? Based off these criteria, our music writers submit a list to be weighted and compiled into a master list revealed each week in this here space. We like to think it's fairly revealing. Check out our previous Buzz Rankings here.
We recently wrote that after four years of peppering Deep Ellum with its stickers — not to mention its increasingly blistering live shows — Sealion's brand of margarita punk has become “one of the neighborhood's most stabilizing forces.”
It's somewhat remarkable, then, that the quartet has somehow never managed to top our Buzz Rankings in over two-and-a-half years of our keeping track.
By all accounts, though, Sealion had a hell of a week: The band released its much anticipated third album, Heavy Fizz; it stole the show at last Wednesday's Sound Select show; and it even headed out on tour.
We aren't the only ones that think Sealion had reached new heights this week, either. In its own review of that Sound Select show, the Dallas Observer's H. Drew Blackburn wrote that “as mighty and as badass as JEFF the Brotherhood is, the champions of the evening were Sealion, a Dallas-based surf-punk-garage outfit. They completely tore the roof off of the place with their youthful, melodic and agile set. It's almost like they were having more fun than the crowd, but this cannot be the case, because a 10-year old hopped on stage and danced around and sang. Eventually, he made his way around the room crowd surfing. As a rule of thumb, when a 10-year old crowd surfs at a rock show on a summer night, it is a momentous occasion.”
Indeed.
Also? In his review of Heavy Fizz, the Star-Telegram's Preston Jones “one of the year's best.”
It was nearly just as big a week for Dallas' Sudie. The singer and producer received loads of buzz this week thanks to her performance at D Magazine's “City Under the Influence” event this past Thursday. In their own recap of the event, that magazine's Christopher Mosley wrote that “Sudie is as every bit as talented as has been reported. She has a crowd-pleasing ability to carry a note to improbably soaring heights.” That said, we expect great things from her debut EP, which Sudie also announced this week would drop in August.
Also due out in August is the new one from Terrence Spectacle, who earned himself a feature this week in the Observer. Layer Cake, meanwhile, released its new EP at its farewell show, and earned itself heaps of praise in the process.
Other new releases earning buzz this week include Bukkake Moms' latest, which will be released this weekend; Cozy Hawks' sophomore LP, which earned its release last weekend; Spacebeach's new one, which earned some praise in the Star-Telegram of its own; Big Hud, whose next release will seemingly feature every rapper in town; and Lord Byron and Mystery Skulls, who each released new singles.
Elsewhere: Maren Morris co-wrote a song on Tim McGraw's upcoming record, Edie Brickell is coming home to perform with Steve Martin this weekend and Warbeast is headlining a big one at Gas Monkey Bar & Grill.
(Also receiving votes this week: Emily Elbert, The Outfit, TX, Tunk, The Polyphonic Spree, Varsity Cheerleader, Dripping Wet, The Phuss, Jonathan Tyler, Spooky Folk, Anger House, St. Vincent, Yung Nation, The Black Dotz, Wiccans, George Quartz, Wiving, The Diabolical Machines, Fogg, Yells at Eels, Tum Tum, The Dangits, Eyes, Wings and Many Other Things, Blackstone Rangers, Analog Rebellion, Bethan, Collin Herring, The Blank-Men, The Chloes, J. Charles & the Trainrobbers, Moonbather, Calhoun, The Theater Fire, The Angelus, Ronnie Heart.)
