SAN ANTONIO – Picture this: A bouffant-wigged fictional character who once starred in a twisted cooking show and is now wielding a guitar instead of a kitchen knife, leading one of San Antonio’s most fascinating musical experiments.
Welcome to the wonderfully weird world of Powdered Wig Machine, where performance art collides with raw rock energy, and the result is anything but ordinary.
“Patricia was originally conceived as a cooking show host who moonlights as a serial killer,” explains the band’s vocalist, who embodies the character with a signature bouffant wig and an unmistakable presence inspired by Bugs Bunny in drag. “But she got tired of being a serial killer and cooking show host. She thought, ‘I think I’m gonna be a rock star now.’”
From web series to rock reality
Like all great rock ‘n’ roll origin stories, Powdered Wig Machine’s began with a dash of chaos and a sprinkle of serendipity. What started as an ambitious web series with episodes featuring Patricia and her backing band “The Bralettes” morphed into something far more electric when the fictional character decided to ditch the script and crash-land into reality.
Taking their name from a Desert Sessions deep cut (a song titled “Powdered Wig Machine”), the project evolved from pixels to power chords, with Patricia trading in her web series spotlight for real-world stage lights. Nowadays, she commands a dynamic three-piece outfit featuring Daniel Raigoza on drums and Derick Penrod on bass. (Alex Morehead plays bass in this video, taped in April 2025, but has since left the band.)
Their sound draws from an eclectic well of influences. Patricia cites Unwound, Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, and jazz legends like Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, Raigoza brings a punk rock intensity inspired by Bad Brains, and Morehead contributed contemporary influences like Tame Impala’s distinctive bass lines.
Songs born from San Antonio streets
Their songwriting process is as unique as their stage presence. Take “Holiest Bones,” a track that captures an ephemeral encounter with a magnetic Austin bartender.
“It speaks to the kind of ephemeral nature of everything in life,” Patricia said. “Good and bad, it all just kind of comes and goes.”
Then there’s “Glory Days,” a song that transforms from a seemingly innocent tale of elderly ladies placing penny bets into a newsworthy catastrophe, complete with a fictional news anchor narrating the ensuing chaos.
San Antonio’s musical community
What sets this scene apart isn’t just the music; it’s the intricate web of collaboration that makes it thrive.
“I’ve lived across the country a little bit here and there and delved into some of their scenes,” Morehead reflected. “And some of them are just harder to get stuff started, or maybe the scene is a little more fractured. But here, everyone’s like, if someone has an idea and somebody else hears about it, they would be so willing to help out, put on whatever it is that they’re trying to do.”
The collaborative spirit manifests most vividly in the city’s D.I.Y. shows, where the lines between bands, artists and vendors blur into a communal creative force.
“It’s just a warm, warm environment,” Raigoza said. “Everyone kind of comes together as a community. Whether it’s you need bands or art or vendors, everyone just kind of calls their friends to work with them.”
Yet, as most local musicians mention, the scene still faces its challenges.
“We live in one of the most populated cities in Texas and in the United States,” Patricia said. “We just got to figure out ways to get people in.”
The band envisions a future where musicians come together, thinking up guerrilla marketing tactics to cut through the noise and draw people through venues’ doors. It’s about rising above what Patricia calls “the static” – that digital noise that can bury even the most promising acts in the algorithm.
“How do you do a Poltergeist? How do you reach through the TV and grab people and pull them in?” Patricia muses, half-jokingly suggesting, “Make a TikTok. Benevolently.”
Looking forward
The band has been crafting their upcoming record for the past two years, with nine original songs that promise to showcase their evolution. Following the release of their covers EP in December 2024, this new album represents a more focused and conceptual direction for the group.
For this SA Vibes set, Powdered Wig Machine performs “Holiest Bones,” “Let Me Be Your Woman,” “The Shift,” “Horizon Gasp,” and “Glory Days.”
You can catch Powdered Wig Machine at Shotgun House Coffee Roasters with Darian Stahl & Honey Dro on Sept. 27 and at First Friday at Brick with Harvey McLaughlin on Oct. 3.
You can follow Powdered Wig Machine and find their music on their Instagram page and Spotify. You can also visit the band’s YouTube and their Apple Music page.
After you check out this set, the band recommends you check out Any Color You Like, The Wizard, Et Al, Gult, Moontokki and Jason Kane & The Jive.
Special thanks to Jacob Guerrero at The Starlighter for mixing and hosting this SA Vibes!
About SA Vibes
San Antonio is well-known for its culture, but the local music scene has always seemed a bit hidden.
Unless someone takes you to a local show — at venues like The Lonesome Rose, Hi-Tones, The Mix, The Starlighter and 502 Bar — chances are you’ll never even know our music scene exists. That’s what made me decide to launch this passion project that we’re calling “SA Vibes.”
My name is Valerie, and I’m a video editor at KSAT. I’ve been attending local shows for over a decade, and I want to put a spotlight on the great talent that San Antonio has to offer.
Each month, we’ll be releasing a new “SA Vibes” video across all KSAT digital platforms and our YouTube channel, showcasing a local musician performing live versions of their songs from music venues around the city and the KSAT garden.
If you’re a San Antonio musician and would like to be a part of this project, please send information about your next show to our SA Vibes email. (We can only feature original music because of licensing.)
More episodes of SA Vibes on KSAT: