New Austin band golden

Some live music performances can be so captivating, they stay lodged in your memories for months on end. Austin band My Golden Calf's powerful and clever lyrics, saturating rhythmic melodies and catchy tempos definitely have this effect on listeners. Their debut album, "Rituals To Make New," is now available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify, and can be downloaded for free on their BandCamp website.

Jangly folksy-rock is one way lead vocalist and guitarist Dabney Dwelle describes the band's sound. Their unconventional, bluesy beats convey a sense of mystery and allure listeners to the stories contained in Dwelle's bewitching lyrics. They offer a more sincere and unique sound than many of the other thousands of indie rock bands out there.

They worked on recording the album over the summer without looking into signing with a label yet, Dwelle said, and are offering the album for free to see if they can round up interest in their music.

The band's first connections began when Dwelle played with drummer Tim O'Neill before joining a different band, then later reconnected with him in 2008 to work on some songs Dwelle wrote. My Golden Calf formed with the addition of bassist Joe Salinas and keyboardist and guitarist Carlos Cardona. Due to recent scheduling difficulty, a new keyboardist, Brian Tomlin, has joined the band in place of Cardona.

One track on the album, "Fruit For Our Guest," tends to stick out as a fan favorite. It has a lot of different parts and reveals a brooding, poetic and unclear story seemingly about a predator. The tone and mood of the song ride a rollercoaster of emotions and leave you longing for more of its catchy melody.

Another song, "Bee In Your Bonnet," has a sinister bass line and obscure lyrics. Listening to it makes you feel like you're nosing around a town in a mystery movie, trying to find a culprit guilty of humiliating you. In the song, Dwelle talks of being too shy to pose questions, and the fear that others will find him strange.

Dwelle's lyrics are personal but camouflaged, so unless you were in the situation, it would be hard to grasp exactly what has happened. His phrasing and syntax could be characterized as somewhat Biblical language, although the content is not religious.

"It just comes out that way, not exactly on purpose," he said. "I'm not a very literal singer, I push myself to exercise muscles in the brain and write lyrics more creatively."

He said he likes it when people listen and think about the words to find their own interpretation because, ultimately, the listener draws the meaning of a song.

Dwelle does most of the songwriting, but the rest of the band has a lot of input and helps better arrange the music after he creates initial demos on his electric Wurlitzer piano.

Some of the band's influences include folk music and old-style country singers like Jimmy Rogers, The Zombies and Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers to name a few. Dwelle said he also grew up listening to musicals, and still watches movies to help him write. He also draws character from many indie bands he heard while traveling in Chicago during the mid 90s.

Dwelle has been playing music in bands since the age of 12, but never sang vocals until he was about 24. He said he never had the drive to sing until no one else around him chose to be vocal, so he put himself out there and found a new instrument – his voice. After that performing took on a whole new life for him and made music feel new again.

The name ‘My Golden Calf' is a reference to the idea that music has become somewhat of a false idol to the band, distracting each of them from other life pursuits. The goal of their music is not to become mega rockstars making millions of dollars, but to be a healing elixir to their own ears and issues. The music itself has selfish origins, Dwelle admits.

"I had dreams when I was younger [that being a musician would] float me away on this crystal, magic cloud, but now I've accepted the reality that music is just something you want to do without the expectation that you're headed to world fame," Dwelle said. "I write more for myself sort of as a form of therapy ... any attention the band gets is just a bonus."

With Salinas on crutches after ankle surgery, O'Neill in the process of building the band a recording studio and Tomlin catching up to speed, learning all their songs, Dwelle said the band is taking a break from playing shows. When they feel comfortable and confident with their performances they'll start booking venues again, he said, which may be as soon as January 2012.