The Austin 100: Mal Blum

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 1, 2018 at 6:00 AM EST

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Genre: Pop-Punk

Why We're Excited: Mal Blum writes deadpan, funny, frequently self-effacing songs about the hidden meanings and mundane minutiae found in day-to-day life: watching TV, feeling alone, fumbling for the right things to say. As with the singer's spiritual forebears in The Moldy Peaches, Blum's songs practically brim over with clever ideas and keen observations, interspersed with notes of raw, unvarnished humanity.

SXSW Schedule:

March 14: The Sidewinder Inside (715 Red River St.)

March 16: Cheer Up Charlie's (900 Red River St.)

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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