CL Feature: The Bright Light Social Hour, an Austin foursome that brings their Southern grimy funk-dance-prog-psyche rock to The Hub on Thursday (with video)

No indie rock band has ever banked on the marketability of a mustache quite like The Bright Light Social Hour did with bassist/singer Jack O’Brien’s handsome handlebar. In fact, the shaggy ‘stache earned the Austin foursome a good chunk of the money to record their 2010 eponymous debut.

“We’d heard about a lot of bands doing donation campaigns,” O’Brien said when I chatted with the musicians by phone last week. Some bands have found success via online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com; TBLSH ran their own quirky yet effective campaign completely independent of Kickstarter. “AJ had this idea to put my mustache in charge of the fundraising. So we set up JacksMustache.com, where you would donate different amounts and in exchange receive different services from the band – dinner cooked by us, or a car wash. Pre-ordered CDs really helped. We funded about a third of the record from donations that way.” [Check out the hilarious video after the jump.]

Getting noticed in the “Live Music Capital of the World” isn’t easy, either. “There are a million startup bands here, so it can be hard to rise above the pack.” said O’Brien. “Which is good because it forced us to really take a look around us and do something new and inventive and really hone our sound in our live show. Once we did start developing, the city became very supportive and enthusiastic about what we were doing.”

So much that TBLSH took home “Best Indie Band” honors at the 2010 Austin Music Awards, SXSW’s closing celebration. Past honorees include high-quality Austin exports Okkervil River and The Octopus Project, a good sign for Bright Light’s own future.

This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.