The four members of Public Practice—singer Sam York, guitarist Vince McClelland, synth/bassist and vocalist Drew Citron, and drummer/programmer and producer Scott Rosenthal—are no strangers to song writing. A Brooklyn DIY super group of sorts, Public Practice combines members of freshly-dead punk project WALL and local pop band Beverly. Public Practice backs their ambitious song writing with serious chops, their live shows already pulling them into the sharp foreground of a scene growing all too warm-and-fuzzy.

Sam York’s lyrics reflect the city and it’s contradictions—they are personal, funny, cryptic and surreal, but never truly pessimistic, rotating around an individual’s toxic but symbiotic relationship with perception. Songs like the sarcastically-titled “Foundation” deep-fry Beach Boys guitars in ice-cold-but-somehow-funky Scritti Politti grooves. Add a dead pan David Byrney vocal, and Public Practice remind us again how integral it is to use honesty and self-reflection to bring some of life’s double-standards to light.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.