Followed By Static, Demo*lition

Austin duo Followed By Static has been quietly gathering praise as their songs float through the music scene. The sound on their five-track Demo*lition EP may be rough, but their point of view is quite clear: they like airy, pretty guitars combined with a good amount of dirty. Exhibit A: “Lullaby” begins with an almost joyously poppy guitar snippet that gets slapped with heavy screeching after just twenty-something seconds, but happily, the effect is intensifying rather than just jarring.

Exhibit B: the rest of the EP. “AADC” is overdriven overdrive; in comparison, “Bloody Arrows,” though much more toned down, is immensely rich, capturing the same eerie hollowness of Neil Young’s short riffs in the soundtrack to Dead Man. The final two tracks fall a little too much on the droney side, becoming music that you’d rather hear in the background than actively listen to. Nonetheless, Followed By Static should have the utmost confidence that their talent for creating graceful noise will get noticed.