Pleaser Magazine

New York-based band MisterWives may have been around for more than a decade, but the group is still exploring new sounds with their new album Nosebleeds. The band, made up of Mandy Lee, Marc Campbell, William Hehir, Etienne Bowler and Mike Murphy kicked off their latest tour in the Live Music Capital at Austin City Limits. Pleaser sat down with the group to discuss their career, vacations and collaborating with their favorite artists. Pleaser: The most recent album that y’all have put out has ki...

A lot of people have diaries or journals growing up to share secrets, write about day-to-day happenings or to process the hardships of life. For singer-songwriter Rett Madison, her diary was songwriting. It gave her a way to process her feelings and provided a tool for catharsis. When Madison lost her mom, she found herself processing her grief and journey of falling in love through songwriting. “I kind of took a step back and realized that I probably had a collection of 12 or so songs,” Madison...

The band West 22nd, composed of Jet Beck, Logan Madsen, Jeremy Ancheta, Douglas Blatt and Gabe Acevedo, are making history at music festival Austin City Limits by being the first all student band to be in the lineup. After garnering the attention of the city’s student population, the band is working on expanding their catalog while balancing their studies and making a name for themselves in unique ways in the city they call home. Pleaser sat down with the band on the Sunday of the first weekend...

The first single and title-track, “People Watching,” is a more mature take on the sonics heard in Fender’s previous album Seventeen Going Under. With Fender’s recognizable guitar chords and saxophones making appearances in the bridge, there is a sense of familiarity and the feeling of coming home. In the verses, Fender’s intimate vocals and exploration of the lower part of his tenor make trademark storytelling lyrics feel like a conversation between friends in the corner of a quiet pub. These qu...

Two things that are almost guaranteed at Austin City Limits: It will be super hot, even though it is technically fall, and the dust will cause attendees to have a post-ACL cough for at least a day after the festival. Despite these seemingly unpleasant guarantees, the environment, music and food make the festival worth going to.

The highly anticipated fourth album from Fontaines D.C. ended a sizzling summer with a blistering and, at times, almost boisterous bang. Although the group already has a few albums under their belt, Romance is the group’s first album after Skinty Fia brought them into the international limelight.

Pleaser die-hards will know that last Austin City Limits, I found myself watching Niall Horan and Hozier grace the Amex stage. As soon as they both left the stage, I knew I had to see them again when they came back on their individual tours.

Hailing from California’s Bay Area, StrateJacket takes inspiration from California’s pop-punk scene and infuses their own twist of 21st century borderline nihilism.

Austin, Texas, is known as the Live Music Capital. The city prides itself on the amount of local venues that allow artists of all genres to find their people through music expression. The sounds of up-and-coming bands ooze out of every bar, house and concert hall imaginable, creating a diverse and eclectic music scene.

In the 1980’s, the DIY punk band Meat Joy found their calling to entertain. Through their experimental sound, they gained a cult following both in their active years and after they parted ways. Now, 40 years later, fueled by a desire to play together again, the band reunited in the town they used to call home.

Some of my earliest musical memories involve my mom driving me and my sister to preschool. During the drive, there would be a wide variety of songs that played over the radio and on the CDs. The songs my mom would pay special attention to, like country blues artist Bonnie Raitt or anything from U2’s Joshua Tree album continue to be the ones I remember the most clearly.

The Thing’s sophomore album, The Thing Is, which came out on February 2 sees the New York four piece take influence from 60s and 70s rock and musical stylings à la early Arctic Monkeys. Even though the influences of The Thing are clear, the group is able to find their own touch, adding a certain panache that those who are well versed in the musical past use to drive music’s future forward.

The LP features 11 songs and over 35 minutes of play time. One of the standout parts of the album is the m

After Irish singer-songwriter Hozier had wrapped up his Austin City Limits set under the watchful eyes of the setting sun, it felt like I had put my ear up to the world’s largest seashell. The whooshing of cheers and admiration put ocean waves to shame, my ears could not physically intake any more decibels of sound.

This was a very different feeling to that of the playful-chastising Hozier had given the crowd earlier for not being able to sing back to him a set of falsetto notes in key as a cal

Italian Eurovision winners Måneskin’s newest single “HONEY (ARE U COMING?)” brings the group's signature rough, dirty and sensual tone into their latest venture. They stick to what made them popular: a fun, slightly raunchy, party-rockstar tone with crashing instrumentals and a gravely vocal performance from front man Damiano David.

Although David’s vocals demonstrate his ability to ensnare the attention of the listener with his gritty and accented lilt, the true star of this punchy barely thre

How do you recover from the fact that not only did you win a radio contest to see arguably your favorite band, but that you sat five-feet away from three out of the four members and watched them play an acoustic set and give a short interview with only 35 other people in the room? I’m open to suggestions.

For five days I had been trying to secure seemingly elusive tickets to an intimate performance at the Austin City Limits Radio Station’s Dell Music Lounge.

In something that seemed too good t