This weekend, the 23rd annual ArtsGoggle takes place on the Near Southside. Covering 21 blocks across two streets and boasting more than 1,000 visual artists and more than 50 musical acts, it’s a yearly stop for supporters of local creatives. Despite forcing you to decide between bands slotted in competing set times, often separated by several blocks, these festivals have always been a great way for fans to take in the largest swathe of homegrown musical talent. Like our Music Awards Festivals of the past, ArtsGoggle is a veritable Pokemon Go of (mostly) local music. “Gotta catch ’em all!”
Every year, once the lineups are announced, I circle my must-sees like a kid with a Sears Christmas catalog and plan my itinerary. Hit the Chat Room at noon to kick off the day with some indie rock. Then, catch the shuttle to the East Main Stage by 1pm for a singer-songwriter or soul act. Hoof it over to The Cicada for some punk vibes at 2pm, and so on.
A few weeks ago, I caught wind of a brand-spanking-new band that will be making its live debut at the Boiled Owl Tavern on Saturday. Knowing the musical histories of its members, I’ve circled it on the poster, underlined it twice, and planned my whole damned day around making sure I catch them. The group is called Love Cuts, and it features local indie power couple Jennifer and Robby Rux from Year of the Bear, The Fibs, and so many others, returning from a four-year sojourn in Seattle, and playing bass and drums respectively. In addition, Jason Alford from early-2000s-era shoegazers Slumberbuzz, himself recently back home from a yearlong stay in Austin, is picking up his guitar, while Schuyler Stapleton (they/them), formerly of Riot Grrrl send-up Bitch Bricks, has taken on vocal duties.
“I’ve always wanted to play with” The Ruxes, Alford said. “We’ve been into the same style of music and known each other a long time. We’re good friends. Schuyler’s good friends with all of us, too, and we love their style and their voice. It just kind of came together perfectly.”
Forming just about five months ago, though certainly drawing from some of the same stylistic places their former projects have, the band says the sound they’ve developed is unlike anything they’ve individually done before.
“It’s way heavier than anything I’ve done,” Jennifer said.
Alford agreed. “Our songwriting’s really blossomed into a pretty unique thing. It’s got a psychedelic, fuzz-rock thing. It’s noisy, fuzzy, heavy. It’s punky. It’s all these things.”
Robby credits Stapleton for really solidifying the direction of Love Cuts’ sound. They’re “the one who really flipped it,” he said. “It became a lot more punk, and it all just kind of gelled.”
Pressed for some references to illustrate that sound, Love Cuts offered Aussie rockers Amyl & The Sniffers, 2000s New York indie icons the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or what Robby describes as “The Stooges meet Sonic Youth.” All of which paint an enticing prospect for me, a long-in-the-tooth rock devotee bemoaning the ever-deeper decline of his favorite genre.
We’re more than a decade removed from the high-water mark of the local rock scene that peaked during the heyday of Lola’s Saloon, The Aardvark, The Moon, and The Grotto in the first decades of this century. I’ve spilled plenty of ink in these pages mourning that fewer and fewer rock bands exist and that there are fewer and fewer places for them to play over the years, but Love Cuts (a name that “fits across your knuckles if you want to get the tattoo,” as Alford joked) just might be the latest entry into a potential comeback for distorted guitars and pounding rhythms. The bill Love Cuts is sharing at the Owl on Saturday is a slate full of goodness that includes indie art-rockers Horsepowers, alt-rockers Yellowbelly, and young punks LABELS, all from the Fort.
“I think a lot of that is coming back,” Alford said of a potential local rock revival. “I think after COVID, people got tired of sitting around, and they want to jump around again — loud guitars, high energy, that sort of thing. I think the circle is coming back around to that.”
Stapleton sees another possible motive. “I think there’s a lot of frustration to get out,” alluding to the current cultural and economic climate.
Whether joining the vanguard of a rock resurgence or not, Love Cuts are just trying to have fun. After the ArtsGoggle performance, they have a few more shows lined up and recording dates scheduled in the coming months. As far as goals?
“Make millions of dollars, take over the world,” Alford deadpanned, the others laughing. “Nah, we’re having a blast,” he went on. “It’s fun stuff to play and fun stuff to listen to as well. We hope.”
Robby echoes Stapelton. “It’s like they said, with the frustration of the times, it just feels fucking great to bang on the drums.”
