SPACE CITY ROCK

Buxton

Straight out of LaPorte, out in the Houston ‘burbs, comes some of the coolest mostly-acoustic music you’re likely to hear this side of Austin. Buxton are one of a small handful of indie-folk bands in town who’ve taken the current folk idiom and pulled it backwards to an earlier time, and they’re one of the best around, for my money, in or out of Houston.

I wasn’t sure at first what to make of ‘em, I’ll admit it, but after repeated listens to their latest album, A Family Light, I’m well and truly sold. The songs are warm and comfortable-sounding, even when they deal with the dark and depressing side(s) of love and family — unlike a lot of folky stuff I’ve heard lately, music that sounds so stark and folkishly misanthropic as to be hard to grab onto, Buxton have a very “human” feel to ‘em. And besides, the mandolin playing is absolutely jaw-dropping. (Seriously.) There’s a hearty resemblance to Austinites Okkervil River, and I can’t help but thinking of The Elected’s Blake Sennett whenever I hear Sergio Trevino’s half-broken vocals.

For one of the newer crop of local bands, they’ve actually got a fair catalog going already — two full-lengths, the new one plus previous album Red Follows Red, as well as a given-away-only EP of otherwise unreleased stuff. And it sounds like they’re working on more already, so keep listening.