Austin Scene Veterans DRAKULAS Return With Synth-Soaked LP Midnight City
Austin, Texas synth-punk lifers Drakulas return with Midnight City, their third full-length, out May 1 via Dirtnap Records (Wild Honey Records in Europe/UK). Built from proto-punk grit, garage rock urgency, and the synthetic pulse of early new wave, the record pulls from the worlds of Devo, Gary Numan, Grauzone, Kraftwerk, and the weirder edges of Neue Deutsche Welle, landing in a tight, off-kilter pocket where jagged guitars and cold synth lines push against each other without ever settling. It plays like a lost transmission from a strip mall arcade in 1982. Not nostalgia, not revival, more like something unearthed and reassembled, flickering but fully alive.
Formed by Savage Lord Mic, Sam Francisco, and Pink Rick, with members of Riverboat Gamblers and Rise Against, Drakulas began as a conceptual project but quickly took on a life of its own. The band operates inside a fictionalized late-70s metropolis, a stylized world built from analog textures, early video-era aesthetics, and a long-running interest in character-driven songwriting. Over time, that concept has sharpened into something more cohesive, less of a backdrop and more of a system the band fully inhabits.
After a few years away, Midnight City marks a clear step forward. The songs feel more connected, the pacing more deliberate, and the overall arc more immersive without losing immediacy. “Going Going Gone Gone” sets the tone early, balancing tension and release with a sense of height and risk, while “White Off Your Nose” leans into a darker, late-night pull. At the center, “Singin’ With My Tongue Cut Out” strips things down to something direct and performative, equal parts wired and unhinged. The band’s approach to sound remains rooted in imperfection as a choice, not a limitation. As they put it, “We Drakulas continue to evolve our sonic mastery of lo-fi instrumentation. Midnight City is the result of a dirty basement, menthol cigarettes and the warm glow of a cathode ray TV. We spilled kerosene on the keyboards to make them sound uglier. Not for squares.” That philosophy runs throughout the record, shaping a sound that feels tactile and immediate without losing focus.
