Video: TV Torso and The Happen-Ins at Beerland

Uber-hip Austin transplants WOXY hosted a free show at Beerland on Thursday night, and it was worth every penny. I checked out the show because it featured two local bands whose names I've been seeing a lot lately, both in show listings and on blogs.

TV Torso has gotten lots of attention locally because the band was formed by two former members of Sound Team, a mid-2000s Austin next-big-thing band that imploded after releasing its major-label debut on Capitol Records. Based on what I saw at Beerland, TV Torso is a middle-of-the-road indie band. It's the kind of inoffensive stuff that does well on Volkswagen commercials and in coffee shops. I wouldn't call their music bad, per se. It just didn't bring anything new or interesting to the table.

The Happen-Ins played their first show almost exactly a year ago. They're getting hyped up early on in their career because, much like TV Torso, the band was formed by dudes who used to be in other hyped-up bands that broke up in their prime (both Lomita and The Dedringers, in this case). I appreciate the energy The Happen-Ins put into their live performance (shimmying and shuffling, and whatnot), but the music just didn't do it for me. It's hard to be '60s-retro and memorable these days, especially in Austin, where every nook and cranny of the 1960s has been mined for inspiration by one indie band after another. Unfortunately, The Happen-Ins' take on early R&B and rock 'n' roll lacks the memorableness of The Strange Boys, the infectiousness of The Ugly Beats and the effortlessness of Hacienda.

File Under: TV Torso, The Happen-Ins