Good Looks

If you’re gonna get in a bar fight, better know who’s got your back.

Man fights self, god, society and whiskey on Good Looks’ debut Bummer Year. The Austin, Texas outfit are a cobbled together quartet of dudes from across the Lone Star State, each with stories of small towns filled with late-capitalism rot. Lead singer Tyler Jordan looks over his shoulder constantly, both to his past and trying to figure out who’s still following him through the brutality of service industry jobs, failed romance and political nihilism.

“My body could be put to better use/ Instead of working all day long/ For someone else’s dream to come,” he sighs on “21” as Jake Ames’ chiming guitar rings out from the heavens. Like the best Alt-Country albums, Bummer Year alleviates its darkest corners with rays of warmth and fierceness. The title track compels the working class to spill into the streets and “First Crossing” is a neat handbook on the best waterholes to trespass into across Texas.

While talking with Jordan, we chatted about Ames’ recent stay in the hospital, after being struck by a car right as the band were releasing the album. Ames is recovering, in part, thanks to a successful Gofundme page and a fundraiser concert that saw the whole of Austin come out on his behalf. But the crushing worry of health care costs combined with the warm hope given by musicians of all sorts coming out of the woodwork reflects the core of Bummer Year. The world will try to crush you, you’re gonna need some friends to survive.

File Under: Interviews