King Warbler: “Lifestyle”

If you’ve been keeping tally of unique local releases just over the past month, you already know 2024’s shaping up to be a big year. And King Warbler is definitely among that elite subset of Austin specimens who always perk our ears up within the first couple notes of their distinct calls.

With chief songwriter/vocalist/piano-keyboardist Jack Van Norman ever steering the formation forward, the five-player flock recently took another interesting turn in the long migration from 2016’s Rosanky. A half decade removed from the distortion-heavy 2018 EP Wake Up Blonde, King Warbler’s maintains that elevated production level on their upcoming sophomore full-length, Texas Sky, albeit with an extra element of ’70s sass showing up to the party.

Texas Sky touches down this Friday, followed by an LP release show 9:30PM this Saturday at Captain Quackenbush’s Soundscape alongside Abram Shook at 8:30 and Batty Jr. at 10:30. And based on the pair of lead singles that got shared a couple weeks back, Texas Sky is looking like a horizon-filling collection of sounds. Such as the blue-eyed “Lifestyle”, which circles the docks of early yacht rock on feathers of Allen Toussaint and Elton John with a little crest of Leon Russell on top. With a drum shuffle we think Bernard Purdie’d approve of, jazz-adjacent piano chords that give off Steely feels, beautifully-busy, scale-spanning bass licks, some tasteful electric guitar soaring past every once in a while, and impressive vocal intervals to boot, “Lifestyle” is a graceful, mature, and warmly-welcomed addition to Love Austin Music Month.

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