The Austin 100: whenyoung

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 5, 2019 at 5:01 AM EST

Hometown: Limerick, Ireland

Genre: Rock

Why We're Excited: Aoife Power, the live-wire singer and bassist for whenyoung, presides over a spiky and buoyant pop-rock sound that's won praise from The Pogues' Shane McGowan, who personally invited the band to perform at his 60th birthday party. Pinning down a pithy description of whenyoung's music isn't easy — a spikier Pale Waves? a zippier Cranberries? — but one thing's for sure: Songs like "Pretty Pure" seem crafted from equal parts spit and sugar, and provide a kicky, jangly jolt right when you need one.

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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