Austin, TX · boogie-rock · psych

White Denim

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Austin's virtuosic boogie machine — prog chops, garage soul, and tempo changes played like party tricks.

White Denim formed in Austin in 2006 out of two local bands, Parque Touch and Peach Train, who played a joint bill at Beerland in March 2005. Bassist Steve Terebecki joined singer James Petralli, guitarist Lucas Anderson and drummer Josh Block; when Anderson left for Russia the following year, the remaining trio took the name White Denim and began recording lo-fi, punk-tinged blues rock in Block's 1940s Spartan trailer.

The band draws on boogie and Southern rock, psychedelia, dub, jazz-influenced improvisation and garage soul, favouring home-recorded loops and loose song structures over fixed arrangements. Live, that translates into abrupt tempo shifts and extended instrumental passages, a sound that has carried through as the line-up around Petralli and Terebecki has shifted over the years.

Early releases moved fast: a self-pressed single in 2007, then a tour-only EP called Workout Holiday that caught the attention of the netlabel RCRD LBL. UK label Full Time Hobby signed the band and issued a full-length version of Workout Holiday in 2008, the year White Denim also won Best New Band at the Austin Music Awards and released its US debut, Exposion, first sold on tour as a CD-R.

The band's third album, Fits, came out through Full Time Hobby in 2009 and through Downtown Records in the US. A second guitarist, Austin Jenkins, joined in 2010. Albums including D and Corsicana Lemonade followed and remain among the band's better-known releases, made by a group that has long built its reputation through hard touring.

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boogie-rockpsych