Meet the Culture Wars

Meet Culture Wars: Rising alt-rock band adopts new name and edgier direction

CultureWars performs at White Oak Music Hall this week.

Other than Nickelback, whose trajectory no good music writer can explain, it’s pretty obvious early on whether a new band has the goods to convert the music into an actual career. Austin electro-rock act Culture Wars is one group with the potential to hit the big time. The band is set to make an impact with its self-titled EP, released this month.

While only five songs, each one could sit comfortably on alternative rock radio charts. From the soaring Imagine Dragons riffs of “Hideaway,” to the Alt-J via Depeche Mode styling of “Bones,” and the Nine Inch Nails-meets-T. Rex stomp of standout “Money (Gimme Gimme),” there’s not a dud among them.

Culture Wars hits White Oak Music Hall Thursday night after a long gestation period in the studio, ready to ply their hard work into a live experience the band promises to be special. Be there to say you knew them before they blew up.

The band's guitarist Mic Vrendenburgh recently checked in with CultureMap following a studio session where the band is working on new songs for a future full length.

Five things to know about Culture Wars:

Culture Wars rose out of defunct Austin five-piece The Vanity and all three members have been playing music for years. Fun fact: Vrendenburgh holds a graduate degree in cello from University of Texas.

Mic Vrendenburgh: The three core members came together after the demise of The Vanity. That band phased out sometime last year and we started writing music that was very different from that, which we decided to call Culture Wars at some point. The other two band members have known each other for a little longer than they’ve known me, but I’ve known them for about three years now. I got really close to them and when the time came to start a new band, I was very happy to keep going with them because they had become my best buds.

The name Culture Wars came from a long list of names, ultimately decided on because it fit the new direction of the music.

MV: It had a bit of an edge to it when a lot of other names didn’t and we felt it represented the new music better, it’s a little more aggressive and experimental. As far as the political ideology that comes to mind with the term "culture wars," there wasn’t really anything like that in creating the name. But that being said, we do like to draw from a lot of different places when we write music, so it kind of works that way too.

The band’s EP, produced by Rob Sewell, features a cache of tracks with the ability to get into your head, including first single,“Money (Gimmie, Gimmie).”

MV: (After The Vanity), we had the conscious thought that we still wanted to write really great music but we wanted to give every song the chance of being someone’s favorite song on the radio, not something experimental song structure-wise. I think it takes a certain discipline to really make something with the fat trimmed off, that has that pop sensibility and still keep your own character in the sound. That’s really what we were going for.

The EP was mixed and mastered by Alan Moulder who has worked on a ton of classic albums by artists you love, including Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, Depeche Mode and Interpol, and Manny Marroquin, who worked on albums by Kanye West and Imagine Dragons.

MV: It’s a dream come true. We have a great manager, Kevin Womack, here in Austin that has helped us out through the whole process in creating a new band. He had a good relationship with Manny and made it happen. It wasn’t a sure thing but we thought, "Why not?" It worked out and ended up being really cool.

Not surprisingly, Culture Wars is influenced by those bands and others that incorporate electronics into their rock sound.

MV: Depeche Mode is definitely a big influence. Tears for Fears too. A lot of them are what you would call synth-pop bands. We used a lot of synthesizers on this EP, which is different for us because we were guitar-based before and now we combine everything and pull out all the stops.

Culture Wars performs at White Oak Music Hall on Thursday, Aug. 24 with Houston act Deep Cuts and Austin DJ Charles Mxxn. Doors open at 8 pm. Tickets are $10.

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Movie Review

Supergirl fails to take flight in a movie weighed down by grief

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

Last year's Superman reboot brought a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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