Chevy “Dare To Compare” (featuring Centro-matic “Iso-Residue”)

Chevy “Malibu” (featuring Monahans “Traveling Song”)

Browse the catalog in our music library and read more about each of these artists here.

Centro-matic “Only In My Double Mind”

Daniel Hart “The Orientalist”

((sounder)) “Dont Bring It To Life Just To Kill It Again”

Sad Accordions (Seth Woods) “You Can’t Hide From It”

Static West artist Monahans’ music is the backdrop for much of the new Whataburger campaign created by Austin-based ad agency McGarrah Jessee.

The band contributed 9 songs for a total of 15 spots to the latest ad campaign for the Texas-based restaurant now legendary across the South. The landscape-inspired rock has proven the perfect anthem to an all-American brand. + See the campaign

- JEFF RYAN has been hard at work in the studio with acclaimed producer/engineer Stuart Sikes tracking and mixing songs for the upcoming Myopic release (which is a gorgeous collection of songs). He has also spent the Summer lending his drumming talents to the likes of St. Vincent, Sarah Jaffe and Daniel Hart!

- MC TAYLOR and SCOTT HIRSCH have just finished mixes on the latest Hiss Golden Messenger release Poor Moon, which is due out November 1. We’re very excited about that! Click here to read more about this release. Additionally, Taylor spent time earlier this year touring/promoting the last HGM release Bad Debt in the UK to rave reviews (he’ll be heading back in October). If you haven’t heard that recording, you should.

- SCOTT HIRSCH has also kept very busy mixing and doing sound design and FX for a multitude of feature films and shorts. Impressively, he also managed to create and produce an online educational course titled Audio for Film and Video with Pro Tools 9. (Check it out here). In the Spring, we were lucky enough to get to see him in Austin while he was on tour performing with Family Band, opening shows for Warpaint and Phosphorescent!

- BRITTON BEISENHERZ completed a major upgrade to his studio Ramble Creek earlier this year. He has since produced and recorded the new album by Seryn (who has been making major waves lately) and is currently working on the next, much anticipated album by Ft. Worth buzz-band Telegraph Canyon, as well as new recordings with his band Monahans.

- WILL JOHNSON has been busy touring behind his most recent solo E.P. Little Raider (recorded in Jim Eno’s living room) and Centro-Matic’s amazing new album Candidate Waltz. Learn more about both albums and purchase at the Undertow Store.

- ROBERTO SANCHEZ has finally been writing and tracking songs which will make up his debut record which he is very excited about. No release details just yet, but we’ll keep you posted. Additionally he recently recorded some drums with the incredibly talented Eric Harvey (of Spoon) and has been working on the latest collection of Monahans songs.

- GREG VANDERPOOL continues churning out songs and lyrics, many of which are finding their way into excellent new material for his band Monahans. The new Monahans/Sad Accordions Split E.P. was released on beautiful 12″ vinyl this Summer by Austin’s Mt. Inadale Records. Read more about it and purchase here.

- While pursing a masters in music history and literature JOSHUA ZARBO has been teaching both bass guitar and rock ensemble at Austin Community College. He recorded bass for the soundtrack to the video game, “Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare” for Rock Star Games, has been involved in recording sessions for Monahans, Eric Harvey, Plain White T’s, performed live with Bob Schneider, Betty Soo, and Monahans among others, and became an endorsee for Aguilar amplifiers and cabinets out of NYC. Busy, busy dude.

TReND Film from The Butler Bros on Vimeo.

These crazy-talented filmmakers conceived, wrote, shot and edited the film which highlights TReND’s efforts to understand and eliminate health disparities related to tobacco.

TReND is the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities. As the film illuminates tobacco control policy is not a one size fits all proposition. Far too frequently low-SES and minority populations in the United States aren’t being seen, heard or helped in the fight to control tobacco use. There is disproportionate suffering and death as a result.

A partnership of the National Cancer Institute and Legacy, TReND became a model of team science, housing an group of interdisciplinary researchers from public and private institutions. The film served as a capstone piece for TReND’s final conference and a call to action for and into their dissemination tool tobaccodisparities.org

Static West leveraged our partnership with Monahans to create the soundtrack, editing pieces of their work to create a perfect complement  to the film.  The project also featured the handy work of Stuck On On (color/mix) and Ramble Creek (music recording/edit/remix).

The course was led by certified Ableton instructor and local electronic musician Joseph Pailo, and was taught based on a curriculum he’d been developing over the past year. In 6 weeks, I went from having basic knowledge of Ableton, to being able to compose, record, remix, and arrange music in a whole new way.

I now find myself recording and sampling everything around me and creating unique drum kits and synthesizers out of those sounds, and blending all of those elements into my typical recording process. It’s opened new doors in composing music, now being able to very easily change keys, transpose, remix, rearrange, build songs based on loops, etc. It’s a super powerful tool that I am stoked to know how to use, and truly grateful to Dub Academy for showing me how to make it all work.

Roly is one of those classic Austin characters and we immediately fell in love with him and his story. We wanted to post the link to the competition video. Check it out and be sure to vote for him and spread the word if you’re so inclined:

http://rolyrolon.mitchumhardestworking.com/

That’s right. We said it. SWSMco is extremely proud of partner/artist Milton Mapes (now Monahans) and songwriter Greg Vanderpool.  We’ve loved these guys a long time, it seems Robert Plant has caught on to their magic as well and has picked up their song, “The Only Sound That Matters” for his upcoming album.

Courtesy of Thumbtack Media, we have the full scoop:

“The Only Sound That Matters”, a song which first appeared on Austin-based band Milton Mapes’  2003 album “Westernaire”, has been recorded by Robert Plant for inclusion on his new record ”Band Of Joy,” (due out September 14th, 2010 in the US).

The song was actually written in 2000 by Monahans and Milton Mapes front-man Greg Vanderpool while he was living in Nashville, just prior to re-locating to Austin in 2001.  Now it seems to have come full-circle, as Nashville-based Buddy Miller co-produced this new album (which also includes Austin’s Patty Griffin on vocals) along with Plant in Music City.

Coincidently, Miller also mastered Milton Mapes’ debut release “The State Line” in 2001.  Almost seven years later, Vanderpool and his wife had a chance encounter and brief conversation with Plant at the Nashville airport just prior to the release of Plant’s album with Allison Krauss, “Raising Sand”.  Ironically, neither of these events directly led to Plant hearing the song (by suggestion of a friend) and choosing to cover it for “Band Of Joy”.

Milton Mapes’ version of “The Only Sound That Matters” was recorded in Austin at Ramble Creek Studio, by current Monahans members Britton Beisenherz, Roberto Sanchez and Vanderpool back in 2002.  Since then, the track has received critical praise in context of the “Westernaire” album, and was featured on a 2003 Starbucks/HearMusic compilation (alongside Gillian Welch, whose Woodland Studio–oddly enough–is where Plant’s album was made)

Milton Mapes morphed into Monahans in 2006, and since then Monahans has released two full length albums.  Currently, the band is releasing new tracks each month as part of their “2010 Recordings” free download series.  Their latest recording “A Memory Of God” will be available June 22nd via the band’s website www.monahans.net.

The next show scheduled for Monahans is July 30th with Telegraph Canyon at Club DeVille in Austin, four days after Robert Plant & The Band of Joy’s sold-out appearance at Stubb’s BBQ, right across the street.

We’re calling this “soft launch” mode as we’ve limited the number of artists to start. We just want to ensure there are no major issues before we add a bunch more artists.

Our goal is to provide really great, independent artist’s music to you for download in an organic store. No flashy interfaces or hundreds of drop down menus before you find a selection of music. Natural search, tags and categories provide a fluid browsing method.

So to all you agency, creative and film types, we would be infinitely grateful for your input.  If you  think we should do something better, have some suggestions for the store, the type of music, etc., we’d love to hear from you.

As we said, this is soft launch. We’d love to make edits now.

Thank you kindly,
Static West

O Ye Devastator indeed.  Debuting yesterday, Doug Burr’s 4th album has already ingrained itself in a deep pocket of my head.  It transforms you just a little bit every time you give it a listen. The album has this nostalgic quality that makes it the most perfect accompaniment to a day spent walking alone, letting it’s soft, suggestive melodies guide you into perfect peace.

The album was co-produced by our dear friend Britton Beisenherz and recorded at his studio, Ramble Creek Studios.  Static West’s own Roberto Sanchez lent his talents on drums and percussion throughout the album.

We are thrilled for Doug and the success he is already seeing with the album.  Yesterday, KUT named “Red, Red” from the album as their song of the day.  Doug will be playing several shows around Texas for his CD release, Rob will be joining him on percussion for each of these:

Saturday, May 8: Lamberts, Austin

Saturday, May 14: The Kessler Theater, Dallas

Saturday, May 21: Dan’s Silverleaf, Denton

Congrats, Doug.  And don’t forget to check out the new promo video for O Ye Devastator.