As 2024 comes to an end, Resound Presents, KUTX and Pooneh Ghana have decided to gift Austin with an early holiday present to close out the year: The Holiday Hootenanny Mini-Festival.
Resound Presents, KUTX and accredited photographer Pooneh Ghana have decided to team up once again to bring Austin their first ever Holiday Hootenanny, a two day micro-festival featuring an assortment of local and regional based musical acts across multiple-genres, a gingerbread house competition, an ornament decorating station, a local and vintage clothing market, food trucks, and more! If that isn’t enough to get you out of the house and take a break from all the dreaded gift wrapping that you’ll inevitably put off to the last minute, we’ve decided to break down and highlight some of the top Holiday Hootenanny performers that you won’t want to miss.
Danny Brown
These days, the Detroit hip-hop legend has been spending more time in the podcast studio than the recording studio as Danny has explored has newfound talent of interviewing comics, musical artists and internet celebrities, but that hasn’t stopped him from going back to doing what he does best, delivering hot ass bars with his original style and flavor that put him on the map in the first place. Danny rose to prominence in the late 2000’s with his unique voice and flow, wild stage antics, and alternative style which eventually led him to become Spin Magazine’s artist of the year in 2011. While Danny has been more focused on the podcast mic than the rap mic in recent years, as he carves out his new career working out of Tom Segura’s studio here in Austin, he continues to pump out hits, making a joint project with rapper JPEGMafia and dropping his 6th solo LP, which were both released last year. The multi-talented artist will be headlining the Hootenanny on night 1 of the Holiday Hootenanny, and will surely be a performance that you won’t want to miss.
haha Laughing
Opening up the festival on day one, is none other than local Austin experimental hip-hop group, haha Laughing. Created from the minds of founding members Jay Dilick and Aby Oviedo, haha laughing is one part hip-hip, one part punk, one part industrial, and all parts crazy fun, high energy. Their live shows are like no other donning their signature look of colorful raincoats, the occasional appearance of the slug mask, an assortment of live instruments featuring a sax, guitar, and drums, and wild off the wall stage presence as they completely lose their sh-t on stage and in the crowd. While their talent is there, the egos definitely aren’t and as they name implies, haha Laughing doesn’t take themselves too seriously, making for one hell of a show. You’ll want to make sure you pull up to this festival early so you can see the group in all their fun loving glory.
Tear Dungeon
They don’t have social media and they don’t like to show their faces, yet these crazy punk rockers are the talk of the town and their live shows have been described akin to those of urban legends from those that have gotten a chance to witness them, like the Chupacabra or Bloody Mary. And much like Bloody Mary, if you scream their name three times and ask nicely, they may spit blood in your face before they take your soul. The five piece punk band have carried the torch of their old school punk predecessors such as the Dead Kennedys and the Melvins, both in spirit and in sound with their anti-authoritatrian lyrics, heavily distorted and fast-paced gut punching riffs, and anything goes off-the-wall live performance. Tear Dungeon has created quite the following for themselves here in Austin off just word of mouth alone and if you go just to see them you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth.
of Montreal
If the lineup hasn’t enticed you already, then maybe the funky, quirky, electropop group known as of Montreal will. With a career spanning almost three decades, of Montreal is more than deserving of their night 2 headlining showcase. Coming hot off their latest release Lady On The Cusp, which dropped in March of this year featuring lively and colorful album art much like their shows, the band has been supporting their new LP with an extensive tour, with the last stop taking place right here in Austin at the Hootenanny! The Athens, GA born group created by frontman Kevin Barnes has consistently changed and evolved their style and sound over the years while maintaining their signature groovy, care-free, dance party energy which has influenced the likes of MGMT and the Flaming Lips. For music lovers reminiscent of the early 2010s era heyday of the whimsical, fun, indie pop sound, of Montreal will help you fill that void and get you feeling right.
Voxtrot
The Austin indie pop royalty known as Voxtrot has returned to the stage and studio after over 10 years of being away from the limelight, and after releasing their four song EP earlier this year, it’s only appropriate that they would be co-headlining night 2 of the Holiday Hootenanny festival. The band initially broke up in 2010 after a string of critically praised studio releases, and although the members’ minds were in other places, their fans never forgot the music that made them fall in love with the group in the first place. After seeing all the love and support the group had been receiving over the years, the members decided to give it another go and in 2022 Voxtrot released another album and began playing shows again. With soulful and heartfelt melodies from frontman Ramesh Srivastava, mesmerizing lyrics, and catchy and funky rhythm section to tie everything together, Voxtrot has created a timeless sound that would make you think they were crazy from ever stepping away from the stage in the first place.
The Holiday Hootenanny will be taking place on December 14th and 15th at RADIO/EAST in Austin, TX. This will be the last music festival of the year and quite possibly one of the last shows that you can catch in 2024 so don’t miss out! Buy your tickets here.
I’m a photographer currently based in Austin after recently relocating from Denver, CO. I graduated from the University of Colorado, Denver in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. I love music of all genres and have been going to live shows since I was 5 years old. Some of my favorite artist currently include Freddie Gibbs, Lola Young, Ivy Lab and Knocked Loose, but that is always subject to change.
