MOONLIGHT TOWERS Moonlight Towers dares to float the proposition that rock and roll can still be noble. The Austin four-piece comes by it honestly; there's a quite a bit of the Byrds and R.E.M. in the hypermelodic guitar jangle they've been honing for more than a decade, as well as Big Star, the Velvet Underground and a handful of other bands whose popular success has mostly come posthumously. Towers hasn't quite gone down that road yet, however.

Already well-known and much respected in their hometown, the band is currently making a push for their terrific new album, Heartbeat Overdrive. Last time out Little Steven's Underground Garage named 2011's "Heat Lightning" to the program's esteemed "Coolest Song In the World" list, and new single "Out of the Grey" deserves to make it two for two. Towers will be going back out on tour next month, so consider this a challenge to Walters, Rudyard's or the Continental to book them as soon as humanly possible.

SCRATCH ACID Scratch Acid were frequently vile, and if your mental hangups include a predilection for particularly scabrous post-punk, not many bands can touch them even today. The mid-'80s band's discography amounted to just two albums and one EP of pure psychic torment, before being conveniently repackaged in 1991 as The Greatest Gift. Scratch Acid's footprint weighed especially heavy on the cadre of largely Austin-based Trance Syndicate bands (which also included Houston's Pain Teens) in the early and mid-'90s, while David Yow and David Wm. Sims' took their subsequent group to a new level of opprobrium altogether with the Jesus Lizard.

SLOBBERBONE Among first-wave alt-country bands, Slobberbone deserves to be counted alongside Whiskeytown, the Old 97's and Bottle Rockets, one rung below granddaddy of 'em all Uncle Tupelo. Brent Best's Denton bunch mixed up irony, tragedy and boozy, haymaking riffs much like the Replacements had, explaining why Slobberbone would sometimes break out a Mats cover like "Can't Hardly Wait." After starting the 21st century off with the Stonesy masterpiece Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today, activity plunged sharply after 2002's Slippage.

Best started another band, the Drams, and guitarist Jess Barr became a partner at the Twilite Room, which our DFW sister blog DC9 at Night named the best bar in Dallas last year. In September, bassist Brian Lane announced that Barr was leaving the group to run the Twilite full-time, but that Slobberbone would soldier on.

TRUE BELIEVERS Perhaps no band encompasses the Austin zeitgeist and dream like the mercurical "Troobs." Formed in Austin by Alejandro and Javier Escovedo, with additional guitarist Jon Dee Graham, the band was frequently dubbed a "guitar army." Although they took Austin by storm in 1982 and their shows were discussed in legendary terms, they could never convince major label to take a chance on them, and eventually released True Believers on Rounder in 1986. {Note: this paragraph has been edited after publication.]

The album only cost $10,000, but it brought big dog EMI to the table with a big recording budget. However, EMI insisted on a new rhythm section for the album and bassist Denny Digorio and drummer Kevin Foley left the band. Making matters worse, EMI refused to release the second album and cut the band loose, at which point they disbanded almost immediately. The band reformed in 2013 for some shows, including ACL Fest, and the release of a new EP.

Written by Chris Gray and William Michael Smith

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