There's something semi-ironic occurring in the world of rock. Back in the early aughts, when garage was beginning to rise again, it was a direct reaction to the increasing production values and technical flourishes invading rock and roll. The White Stripes and the Strokes stripped away all of the unessentials and invaded your headphones with reverb-drenched in your face guitar rock circa Television and the Velvet Underground. No frills rock and roll was cool (at least for a couple of years). Rock goes in cycles though, and an army of upstarts with laptops and access to the entire library of popular music began obliterating genre boundaries, and the number of micro-niches populating the musical landscape is only limited by the artists imaginations. Austin quartet Hundred Visions are a band straddling the line of the gritty lo-fi garage of the Strokes with enough genre-blurring ambition to stand out in today's musically ambitious crowd.

Stream their entire three-song EP:



Hundred Visions is equal parts dance punk, garage rock, New Wave, and post-punk, and while you may think you can name some bands that name drop those influences, none of them sound quite like this one. With only an EP to their credit, Hundred Visions are able to equally channel LCD Soundsystem's "Us Vs. Them" and Talking Heads on their undeniably fun "Last Cab To Tunis," and "Red Tides" then proceeds to have more in common with psych-rock ala Animal Collective filtered through the Hives. Hundred Visions made quite the impression at this year's SXSW, and when their debut LP finally comes out, we'll see if their unique sound translates to an entire album experience.