bauwaves is a new Austin, TX band featuring Lew Houston, former singer/guitarist for beloved late-'00s Austin-DIY-scene stalwarts Wild America (featured on Matador's Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010 compilation); Rob Barbato, former bassist for The Fall and Darker My Love; and Art Limon, former drummer for Austin's The Anchor.
bauwaves began when Houston fell apart, succumbing to a crippling bout of depression in 2016 that led him to stop writing songs for the first time in 10 years. In early 2017, after therapy and energy healers and meditation and, finally, medication; a new song popped into Houston's head on a walk home from his weed dealer. He dug his guitar out of the closet and started working on the songs that comprise u r everything bauwaves debut LP out on Salinas Records on January 3rd.
With Limon and Barbato on board the band tweaked the songs at Houston's house for most of 2018 and went into Barbato's comp-ny ATX studio in the spring of 2019 to record. The upbeat, catchy, raucous '90s-by-way-of-'70s-and-'80s vibes of the songs (think desperate and distorted Lemonheads with a hint of Husker Du and the Ramones) are belied by the at times heavy lyrics in which Houston starkly chronicles the year he spent contemplating self-harm while doing too much crying. These days however, his depression under control, Houston has found new focus in bauwaves who are already at work on their second album.