Gallery • 12 Photos

Maggie Mass

NEW TYPE OF PLAYING: Junior Emily Piper performs in Battle of the Bands as part of the Dolly Llamas, playing the guitar. Her favorite part of their performance was the cover of “Simulation Swarm” by Big Thief they did at the end of their set. Piper is primarily a classical musician, so she doesn’t play this style of music often. “It was just a little fun thing that me and my friends were thinking of doing,” Piper said. “[My friends] were like, 'Oh let's be in a band.'” Piper also said she enjoyed getting to see her friends perform in their other bands. “I have a lot of other connections in the other bands,” Piper said. “I've never seen them play, so it's exciting to see that.” The Dolly Llamas have been together for the past few months, and Piper’s favorite part of being in a band is the community. “We hang out so much,” Piper said. “It's pretty fun. We go out to eat every two weeks together and that's pretty fun.” Caption by Callen Romell.

The classical guitar program held its annual Battle of the Bands in the Fine Arts Building Theater last Thursday evening. Each band performed three original or cover songs, and audience members used their tickets to vote for their favorite musicians. On Friday morning, they counted up the votes, declaring the two winning bands, who will perform a show at The Hole in the Wall, a the legendary live music venue on the Drag.

Malaysiabrunei got the most votes, and Nonsense placed second, thus earning the coveted Hole in the Wall gigs. Malaysiabrunei, made up of juniors Kingsley Taylor (vocals), Simon Welch (guitar), Wyatt Philpott (bass) and April Kjorness (drums), had a strong stage presence with lots of students congregating in the front of the stage and Philpott descending into the crowd. They performed three original songs, “Psychedelic Primate,” “Squatch” and “Moonshine Wizard.”

Taylor said he helped to form the band alongside Philpott.

“We’ve been friends since eighth grade and were in another band before Malaysiabrunei but never really got anywhere with it,” Taylor said. “The very first song we ever wrote was called ‘Listless,’ and it sounds completely different from the music we perform today. After ‘Listless’ we were on the lookout for a guitarist, and I got my friend Simon Welch to fill this role. It took us a while to find a drummer, but eventually, after a few practices together we found April Kjorness.”

According to Taylor, their rehearsals started small, but as the band continued playing together their discography grew and they began developing a genre.

“We started practicing at Simon’s house with some covers like most bands,” Taylor said. “Later, Simon and I wrote our first full song called ‘Communism, Baby!’, which came together through the idea of a punk solo and going over the Communist Manifesto. We eventually made lots more, such as the intro song to our first EP, ‘Pig Smoker’ and ‘Moonshine Wizard,’ which was our first song that was metal and would propel us into what we are today. We like to call our genre Wicked Psychsludge, and ‘Moonshine Wizard’ was a building block of that.”

Malaysiabrunei didn’t have much experience on stage before last year’s Battle of the Bands, so the experience of playing at last year’s event familiarized them with performing in front of large audiences, preparing them for this year’s competition.

“In January of 2024 we did our first show in my backyard, and it was OK,” Taylor said. “After a week or two we did the 2024 Battle of the Bands, and it was a fun time. We came into our own then. That experience made us excited to play in this year’s 2025 competition because of how much we would improve. After those first few concerts, we would later become jammier and better songwriters, so it was nice to see all that hard work pay off.”

According to Taylor, one of the three songs they performed, ‘Squatch,’  was a special song for the band, and they chose to go all out for their performance.

“‘Squatch’ was written by our bassist Wyatt Philpott with lyrics written by me,” Taylor said. “It’s always been a fun song, but it’s especially unique. We knew that if we played it, there would be nothing else like it. I’ve been wanting to do the blood packet bit for a while, and I thought the second monologue of ‘Squatch’ would be good. Simon, our guitarist, continued to vocals while I put fake blood on my cheeks. Right before our set, we made a plan to go up to our drummer, April, and begin bowing to them. We had never done it before, but I’m happy with how it turned out. It was wicked to see the crowd bowing alongside us.”

Taylor’s stage presence was an integral part of their performance, and Taylor was greatly influenced by some of their favorite musicians.

“Recently, Bobby Liebling of the band Pentagram and Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers have been influences on me stage presence-wise,” Taylor said. “Simon and I saw Pentagram a bit ago now, and he would do this thing where he would go up to the guitarist while singing and would make a weird hand gesture to him. Simon and I loved this, so I decided to put it along with my act. Other than those inspirations, I try to improvise a lot on stage. Let it flow. My movements have grown and evolved each time.”

Despite competing against one another, all the bands at Battle of the Bands grew together through music, and Taylor enjoyed the little moments before shows with other musicians.

“We have a new little ritual that Simon and I started doing before shows,” Taylor said. “It’s this weird little praying thing we made up right before one of our shows. I’m honestly excited to do it more because it brings everything together. A lot of my favorite band moments are us doing stuff right before a show or something along the same lines. We went to South Austin Music before recording at Shed Sessions, and we went into the acoustic room and just jammed for a bit. We’d love to do an acoustic set one day.”

Taylor believes that Malaysiabrunei has already had great growth since they started, and foresees much more success in the band’s future.

“A lot of the best parts about Malaysiabrunei is our way of playing with each other,” he said. “We’re able to improvise a lot and make a lot of special moments that you can’t find anywhere else. We hope to play more shows and get some new music out soon. We’ve been working on a single for a while now. We’re so thankful to everyone who has stuck around with us and seen us grow, everyone who bought CDs got our stickers, went to any of our shows, or listened to any of our music.”

We are delighted to highlight this year’s Battle of the Bands for this week’s Tuesday Top 10.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: Sophomore Joaquin Ruiz plays guitar for his band, Ruiz’s Pieces, with his father playing the drums. Originally, the band was composed of Ruiz’s friends, but everyone was too busy to practice and play the show, so he invited his father to be up on stage alongside him.

“I asked him, ‘Hey, do you just want me and you to play? 
I’ll sing and play guitar, and we can play and jam on stage, and he said yeah,” Ruiz said. “It was fun playing with him because he’s a very good drummer, and he has a good beat, which is nice.”

The band covered “Say it ain’t so” by Weezer, “Mia” by Chevelle, and “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter, which was a fan favorite.
“That was when everyone started coming up to the front and moshing,” Ruiz said. “That was amazing because I had played last year and no one came up, and that was fine, they still clapped, but when they came up and started dancing, that was really cool.”

Ruiz’s father chose that song, but it still made Ruiz nervous performing in front of such a large crowd, even if they had performed the year before, and knew what it would be like.

“I had given him a different set list that we were going to do, and he goes ‘Can we try this one?’ and he puts on the song, and I said sure, and we just practiced it,” Ruiz said.” Earlier in the day I had a mini nervous breakdown because I was scared of going on, and then I got on stage and it went away, and It was really nice to be up there.”

As soon as Ruiz got on stage and saw his friends supporting him, he began to loosen up and felt welcomed by his community.
“I feel like I did a lot better than I did last year, especially since everyone came up to mosh. My friends are what helped the start of the mosh pit. My best friend was jumping and brought their friends, and then eventually everyone came up.”

Ruiz was grateful for the opportunity to perform and will be back with another year’s worth of practice up his sleeve, aiming to win the competition and earn a spot to play at Hole In the Wall.

“It was just a very fun experience, and I hope more people come next year,” Ruiz said. “I am definitely doing it again next year, and I plan to win.”
Caption by Sophia Manos. Photo by Maggie Mass.

LIVING ON A PRAYER: Midway through Malaysiabrunei’s set at Battle of The Bands, junior bass player Wyatt Philpott makes the split-second decision to walk down the steps of the stage and into the crowd. As he continued to play his guitar, the crowd gathered around him. Although he hadn’t initially planned this move, he took inspiration from last year’s winning band, Red River Trucking Company.

“I just remember last year, Red River Trucking Company—they were the best part of this [event]—so I was like, ‘What can I do that’s kind of like Red River Trucking Company?’ and I was like, ‘Oh man, the crowd, gotta say hi to them,” Philpott said.

According to Philpott, most of their “antics” on stage end up being spur-of-the-moment decisions like that one.

“There was this point where we do like a breakdown, and our drummer April was doing a drum solo, and I saw Simon walk up, and he got on his knees and started praying to April, and I was like ‘Oh man that’s a great idea; I’m gonna join,’” Philpott said. “And then I got down, and Kingsley came, and I looked behind me and everyone else was doing it, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.’”

Despite some initial nerves, Philpott said he was able to get more comfortable onstage, although at times his mind just “shuts off” and “bass playing mode turns on.” The show that Philpott and the rest of his band were able to put on ended up earning enough audience votes to win Battle of The Bands. Now Malaysiabrunei is set to play at a local live music venue, Hole In The Wall, something Philpott is really looking forward to.

“When we won it felt like ‘What? Oh my God, I didn’t even know we were that good,’” he said. “I was just expecting to have fun. Getting to win is like ‘I get to play at Hole in the Wall?!’ I’ve driven past that place my whole life. Getting to go inside is going to be so cool. I’m excited to just soak it all in, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to play there again so I’m super excited.”

Caption by Lillian Gray. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

NEW NAME, NEW BAND: Sophomore Graham Anderson screams into the microphone during the breakdown of the last song of his band’s Battle of the Bands set, “Wait.” Anderson described his band, Unrestricted Internet Access, as having a loud-noise rock sound akin to Shoegaze, and said the band is inspired by bands like Dinosaur Jr.

“It was an idea that I finally had after a bit,” Anderson said, “because the three instrumental members of the band used to be in another band before this, and it was kind of boring pop-rock stuff.”

Anderson started the original band along with Unrestricted Internet Access’s bass player, who have been friends since elementary school.

“We were just messing around, having fun, and we wanted to make a band out of this first group we came up with,” Anderson said.

This first band started recording together, but Anderson said the members weren’t really having fun and had a hard time keeping a full band together.

“It was actually a joke for a bit,” Anderson said. “We said the name of our old band was Cursed because we couldn’t hold down a drummer for more than a few weeks, but as soon as I decided to change the name, we were able to get a permanent one.”

Along with friends and sophomores Henry McDaniel and Jordan Huxford, Anderson launched Unrestricted Internet Access.

“It was just formed off of me and my friends’ love for music, and especially finding this genre together about a year or two ago,” Anderson said.

Anderson said that “Wait” is one of his favorite songs that he has written so far.

“This was one of the first songs that we wrote when we went into this heavier genre, the Shoegaze and screaming stuff,” Anderson said. “It was a big step up.”

Making the transition to Shoegaze from other genres of music, Anderson said it was painful to start the screaming style of vocals, and he is still getting used to them after only less than a year of singing.

“But I’ve gotten better at it over time,” Anderson said. “I sucked until two months ago. I just suddenly got good is what people told me.”

Anderson said that Battle of the Bands gave Unrestricted Internet Access new attention, noting that the band has already gained more followers on Instagram.

“It was cool to see people that haven’t known us for a long time come see a show,” Anderson said. “And it’s been really cool to see pictures of me doing it because every single time I’ve done it, there’s never been a picture.”

Caption by Camilla Vandegrift. Photos by Maggie Mass.

PORTNOY’S PERFORMANCE: Juniors Harlan Tractenberg, Ace Montie, and Nik Ahmadi, a sophomore at Austin High, perform at the Battle of the Bands competition last Thursday in their band, Portnoy’s Complaint. Formed in December of 2023, Montie had gotten the group together after they tried to form a band called Ibuprofen earlier that year, and had known Ahmadi before then. Tractenberg sings and plays the guitar, Ahmadi plays the drums, and Montie plays guitar as well as bass and writes songs. 

Portnoy’s Complaint played their first show in April of 2024, with fellow bands Shaft, Malaysiabrunei, and Red River Trucking Company, and released an EP the following May. They are currently working on an album and have been able to secure two upcoming shows at SXSW.

For this competition, Tractenberg believes that they played very well and it was a fun experience for the group. 

“People seemed to like us, and all of our songs sounded really good,” Tractenberg said. “It was also a good opportunity to get more exposure to people who would normally never listen to us and also a good way to be a part of the community and be surrounded by peers.” 

Portnoy’s Complaint tries to perform around once a month, but Tractenberg said it has gotten to be around twice a month at this point. After a while of practicing and playing in various shows, he and his band were determined to play in Battle of the Bands.

“A month after we formed, me and Ace went to Battle of the Bands, and knew we wanted to play there the next year,” Tractenberg said. 

They chose their setlist by trying to cram as many songs as they could into their 12-minute time frame and picked the highest energy ones to get the crowd going, according to Tractenberg. Overall, the band ended up being happy with their setlist and their performance, and Tractenberg said it was an enjoyable experience that was made better by his peers. 

“My favorite part of the event was for sure interacting with all of the other bands and musicians,” he said. “I love seeing all the people I know interacting with music and seeing them gather around it, it’s almost like seeing this new history being built.” 

Caption by Priya Thoppil. Photo by Maggie Mass.

THIS TIME COULD BE THE LAST TIME: Jay Biagini, lead singer in the band Javelina, takes center stage to perform a cover of “Criminal” by Fiona Apple, as well as “High and Dry” by Radiohead. Javelina also debuted an original song titled “Pack It Up,” which was written by junior Charlie Loughlin.

Biagini says that overall, the performance could have used more practice as a whole, due to her frequent absence from rehearsal due to scheduling issues since she goes to school at Lake Travis.

“We could have had more practice all together, especially with me since I hadn’t been able to make rehearsals with the band for the past month since I was busy with my school musical,” Biagini said.

Junior Charlie Loughlin says that the opportunity to play at Battle of the Bands was mostly for fun, but somber vibes followed the performance because it might have been the last time they got to play together.

“Mainly for fun, but Jay [lead singer] is a senior, and Trey [lead drummer] is graduated so we weren’t sure if we were gonna have a band next year,” Loughlin said.

Loughlin also added that the performance added extra stress because they were trying new things, in addition to being unprepared.

“I mean just performing in front of a bunch of people we know is terrifying, and we’ve never performed the original before either,” Loughlin said.

Caption by Sofia Saucedo. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

REACHING FOR THE STARS: Zane Shieh sings an original song while playing the guitar with his band, Spiral Maze, at the Battle of the Bands last week.

He sings the long note of his band’s original song entitled ‘Reach’, a part of a new album coming soon.

“This is my second year doing Battle of the Bands and with Spiral Maze,” Shieh said. “We had a pretty tight set but I think it went really well and the crowd liked us a good bit.”

Shieh said his excitement toward playing at the Battle of the Bands this year was being able to showcase his band’s new music.

“My favorite part was performing our new song and playing for a bunch of my friends was super sick,” Shieh said. “It was stressful at first—like a little nervous—but it all cleared up right after the first song and the atmosphere was very chill.”

While it was not his band’s first time performing in front of a crowd, Shieh said he loves playing music at his own school and performing original music.

“We’ve played at the Austin Rodeo two times and a few restaurants like Tamale House and Freddo’s ATX,” Shieh said.

Shieh and his band will be back performing at school at the upcoming McCallum Art Fundraiser, Feb. 22.

Caption by Nate Williams. Photo by Sophia Manos.

JAVELINA’S JAM: Junior Zvi Witchel plays bass for her band Javelina as they made their debut performance at McCallum’s annual Battle of the Bands on Thursday. Witchel started off playing upright bass in middle school for four years and bought an electric in eighth grade, but didn’t start playing it until the band started to kick up during her sophomore year. All these years of experience, she says, have made her become more comfortable and confident playing in front of a crowd.

“I think it went pretty well, I feel like there were definitely some minor issues, and we couldn’t really hear ourselves, so we messed up a little bit, but what mattered the most was that I think people really enjoyed our music,” Wichel said. “We had a great time, and people really got our vibe as a band, and we had great exposure, which was very gratifying.”

The band performed three songs, two of them being covers and one being an original, all of which got the crowd amped up, showing their support.

“It was great to perform in front of my peers because I felt very supported, and I saw so many of my friends in the crowd cheering me on,” Witchel said. “I was pretty scared before, but it was super exciting, and I enjoyed it a lot.”

Witchel is proud of her performance at the concert, and was grateful for the opportunity to showcase her talents on stage.

“We are just so grateful,” Witchel said. “It was very fun to be able to perform with such incredible bands, as we haven’t been a band for a very long time. It is just so amazing that we did well.”

Caption and photo by Sophia Manos.

NEW TYPE OF PLAYING: Junior Emily Piper performs in Battle of the Bands as part of the Dolly Llamas, playing the guitar.

Her favorite part of their performance was the cover of “Simulation Swarm” by Big Thief they did at the end of their set.

Piper is primarily a classical musician, so she doesn’t play this style of music often.

“It was just a little fun thing that me and my friends were thinking of doing,” Piper said. “[My friends] were like, ‘Oh let’s be in a band.’”

Piper also said she enjoyed getting to see her friends perform in their other bands.

“I have a lot of other connections in the other bands,” Piper said. “I’ve never seen them play, so it’s exciting to see that.”

The Dolly Llamas have been together for the past few months, and Piper’s favorite part of being in a band is the community.

“We hang out so much,” Piper said. “It’s pretty fun. We go out to eat every two weeks together and that’s pretty fun.”
Caption by Callen Romell. Photo by Maggie Mass.

LLAMAS ROCK MCCALLUM: Junior Lexi Arujio sings lead vocals for her band, the Dalai Llamas during their performance for the Battle of the Bands.

For The Dalai Llamas, the Battle of the Bands marks a major milestone as the band made its debut. Arujio first had the idea to start a band as a way to bring together friends with musical backgrounds.

  “I brought the idea to my friends, and since we all played instruments, it just felt like a good fit,” said Arujio. 

Though the band wasn’t specifically formed for the competition, it gave them a reason to keep practicing

 “We used Battle of the Bands as a milestone,” Arujio said. “It was an easy first gig for us, and it really kept us motivated.”

 Alongside Arujio, the band’s lineup includes Junior Annabelle Hamburger on drums,  Junior Shirel on bass, and Junior Emily Piper on guitar.

The setlist was curated to fit the competition’s 12-minute time limit, the band selected three songs, including two originals and a cover. The original songs include working titles like ‘Alien’, written by Shirel and Arujio, and ‘Late Nights’ which was written solely by Arujio.

“We picked songs that resonated with us and also gave the audience a good variety,” Arujio said. “ But I definitely liked ‘Simulation Swarm’ the most, because it was a song that everyone knew, and I really love any song where me and Shirel can harmonize. I think it just brings the performance to a different level.”

For Arujio, the most rewarding part of performing was seeing the audience’s support, a unique part of performing at the Battle of the Bands.

“I think my favorite part of performing was just getting to see how supportive the audience was,” Arujio said. “I mean, it was a very new in the sense that there were a lot of people that I knew in the crowd, and it was really nerve-wracking, but it was really nice to see them being really supportive and cheering, and even when we made mistakes, they were just a really good first crowd to have.”

Caption and photo by Magnolia Mass.

GETTING AIR: Junior Kingsley Taylor jumps in the air during his performance in Battle of the Bands. After a suggestion from a photographer, Taylor started doing the big jumps as seen in the image.

“If I remember correctly that was during the first part of our set when we played ‘Psychedelic Primate’,” Taylor said.

Taylor said his favorite moment from the night was the second monologue of ‘Squatch’.

“I’ve been planning on using the blood packet and covering my face with blood for a show for awhile now and it was a lot of fun to do,” Taylor said. “Especially because after we did that we all starting bowing to April. I honestly can’t remember if it was planned before the show or not but once I saw what Simon was doing we all went along. It was wicked to see the crowd also bowing to her. Love to see the audience into it as much as we were.”

Overall, for Taylor, Battle of the Bands brings a sense of community.

“Not all schools do a Battle of the Bands and I think that’s a really unique about us,” Taylor said. “It’s far out to see so many talented bands and performers and it leads to future collaboration.”

Looking ahead, Taylor and his band are working on many upcoming projects, including the earned performance at Hole in the Wall.

“As a band we have an upcoming live session EP called ‘Shed’ that’ll have all the songs we played at Battle of the Bands including one more,” Taylor said. “We also are making a single coming out at an undetermined date but hopefully soon enough. We’re going to go into the studio soon to record a bigger project that we’re all very excited for. We’ve been working on shirts and stickers that should also be coming out in the upcoming months. We’re all very thrilled for the show at Hole in the Wall on April 13, I believe is the date floating around.”

Caption by Shila Gill. Photo by Lucas Walker.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: Junior Phoenix Vaughan  performs during McCallum’s annual Battle of the Bands Thursday night.

This was Vaughan and his band House of Wisdom’s first live performance ever, and overall Vaughan said the performance marked a good milestone for the band.

“It was alright,” Vaughan said. “We had a lot of technical issues, but I’m proud of the parts where I was confident. Overall, I think it was a necessary first step.”

Despite missing some bands’ performances, Vaughan said he appreciated seeing the other bands perform.

“I only got to see half of them because I had an orchestra performance the same night, but I really liked Javelina,” Vaughan said.

Moving forward, Vaughan said he definitely wants to get more experience performing at events and venues and potentially hopes to publish some music on Spotify.

“I have an album that I’ve had written for eight months, and I’ve gone through a few demo phases, so I want to get that on Spotify,” Vaughan said. “I’m also working on writing a symphony that I’ll release as an EP, but right now I want to start playing a lot of DIY shows and I want to put together a rave set.”

Caption by Josie Mullan. Photo by Lucas Walker.

NONSENSE IS NO NONSENSE: The band Nonsense performs at the Battle of the Bands last Thursday. Nonsense was voted favorite band of the evening which earned them a gig at Hole In the Wall on April 13 alongside the band Mayalsiabrunei. Bassist and vocalist for the band, Freshman Preston Cobb said the band was happily surprised by the award. 

“We’ve only performed at Battle of the Bands, so I’m still trying to figure out how we managed that because I didn’t expect to win, but we think it’s awesome,” Cobb said. “I think we played in time together and everything went smoothly.” 

Cobb said the band has been together for several years and has gravitated towards a pop-punk genre like Nirvana and Green Day. 

“We went to middle school together and I played guitar for seven years and eventually I just decided to start playing bass and it stuck with me until now,” Cobb said. “I just liked music, liked performing and decided I wanted to do that.” 

Overall, Cobb said him and the rest of the band are looking forward to their gig at Hole In the Wall later this Spring. 

“We’re hyped to play at Hole so it’s going to be great,” Cobb said. 

Caption by Josie Mullan. Photo by Magnolia Mass.