Austin360 blogs > Michael Corcoran's SXSW Journal > Archives > 2008 > March
March 2008
This week in the Austin Agenda
In an otherwise breezy round up of SXSW 2008, Austin Chronicle’s “Off the Record” columnist Austin Powell refers to the Lou Reed tribute show at “the universally reviled Fader party.” Huh? Is that why there were continuously long lines of people trying to get into the 1,000-capacity venue on Fourth Street? They desperately wanted to get in there so they could be “reviled” by all the free booze, top flight talent and good sound.
The Levi’s/ Fader Fort, which transformed the American YouthWorks building during that charter school’s spring break, has been a sore spot for SXSW (founded by the Austin Chronicle) during the past few years because so many registrants would rather hang out at the Fort than at Grandma’s (the Convention Center). The spacious, mazelike Fort is in taunting range of the confab vortex, but what really irks SXSW organizers is that it used to be theirs every mid-March.
SXSW used Youthworks as headquarters for the volunteers and to handle various office chores. “When we tried to do music there,” festival director Roland Swenson told me during SXSW, “they said we couldn’t serve alcohol.” But when a couple of corporate interests came waving money a couple years ago, the party was on, big time. SXSW was left outside, with all the others who couldn’t get in. They let that prime real estate slip away and Levi’s/Fader rubs their faces in it every year, picking the cream of official SXSW acts to play their daytime parties. (Administrators at Youthworks, which trains “at risk” teens on job skills, won’t be back in the office until Monday and could not be reached.)
The Fort, which hosted Ting Tings, N.E.R.D., Duffy, David Banner and on and on, was the place to be, one of many, during SX. Universally reviled? Only if you’re talking about the claustrophobic universe that exists on West 40th Street, where a volleyball court separates SXSW from the Chron.
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Duffy one more time
Duffy from http://kcrwmusicnews.vox.com/
The song of SXSW, performed live on KCRW 3/14. This was recorded at the Tequila Mockingbird jingle factory in back of Clay Pit>
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A Letter To Andy
(Note: Former New York Rocker editor Andy Schwartz has been coming to SXSW since the beginning, but family commitments kept him in New York this year.)
Hey, Andy-
We missed you this year at Liggerpalooza, where the freeloaders have run wild. The kids who made Napster such a phenomenon years ago are now all over 21 and so they snag a few party laminates and download free booze and food all day, laughing that only suckers need to buy badges and wristbands.
Our friends over at SX have been harping for years that “parasite” parties are hurting the official segment of the conference and until recently I thought they were just being paranoid and overreactive. Especially when they themselves went into the private party biz, setting up tent shows for corporate and cultural interests at the Brush Creek Square.
But, check this out, Andy: when wristbands went on sale to the public last month, using a lottery system to control demand and limit scalpers, the 4,000 reduced-price bands did not sell out. Meanwhile, paid registration is flat, even as the number of acts (1,700) was 300 more than ever before.
The success of SXSW is built on alcohol sales. That’s why the clubs turn themselves over to SXSW volunteers and production crews for four days out of the year. You’ve heard it over and over: clubs can do six weeks of business in four days. I’m going to ask around, but I’d bet the clubs didn’t do as well as in earlier years. Who’s going to buy six or seven beers at a SXSW evening showcase when they’ve been drinking for free all day? (Well, besides Canadians?)
When bartenders aren’t as busy as they used to be, clubs will opt out of SXSW and book their own showcases or rent themselves to the highest bidder. You remember how big New Music Seminar was? This was one of the reasons it crumbled in 1994.
What most people don’t realize is that, until they get the clubs under contract, the only thing SXSW really owns is its name and the rather staid and underattended goings on at the Convention Center. Everything else can be taken away.
The folks who put on SXSW are not visionaries. They’re not doing something of their own invention. Their idea was, simply, to do in Austin was New Music Seminar did in New York and what Popkomm did in Berlin and what MIDEM does in Cannes. Fortune smiled when it turned out that Austin was the perfect city for such a convention based on live music. You’d spend $50 a night in cabs at NMS just to see three bands; with Austin’s entertainment district already in place, SXSW was so much more convenient. The city of Austin has as much to do with the success of SXSW as the people who put it on and so the city should (and does) share in the profits.
But there seems to be this attitude of entitlement in Austin, as if personally benefiting from SXSW is a birthright, even for the 90% of Austin residents who were born somewhere else. You’ve never seen so many whiners, who hate SXSW because they were at a cool party last year that was shut down by the fire marshals because the permits weren’t in order. The clueless vitriol, under the cloak of fake names, has flowed dramatically on the Internet .
As always, Andy, SXSW brings out the best in people and the worst.
Here’s the truth as I know it. SXSW organizers act less out of greed, than of a genuine fear of losing what they’ve worked hard to build from the ground up. And the money is nice.
In the amped-up crush of SXSW, it sounds absolutely ridiculous to suggest it won’t be around for years to come. If SXSW organizers are visionaries, it’s because they can see a future not as rosy and when bellies are filled with free mojitos and ‘cue.
What can be done about all this? I really don’t know. It’s a free country. Also, you have to wonder if the international acts, which have really improved the personality of fest, will continue to fly from overseas enmasse without the opportunity to play six or seven daytime parties.
SXSW is too strong to not survive, right? Right? But a word of advice, Andy. I wouldn’t miss too many more.
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Ice Cube: turn it up!
Ice Cube is one of those rare rappers who understands the concept of a live show, so although he was certainly throwing down at Auditorium Shores Saturday, there was just no kick in the sound system. You should not be able to hear the couple behind you talk about dinner when Ice Cube is on the mic.
Still, it was great to hear the former N.W.A. cat revisiting “Straight Outta Compton” and “Gangsta, Gangsta.” I just wish I could’ve felt something more, like the first time I saw him live.
By the way, Cube’s still got draw (at least when it’s free). I’d guess about 12,000 turned up for the set.
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Let’s hear it for the home team
I’m a huge fan of Okkervil River and yet I’d never seen a full set by the band until Saturday night and they were pretty terrific. Singer-songwriter Will Sheff had worried about his voice holding up after a frantic schedule this week, but he must’ve found the right throat spray because he sounded in top form.
They opened with “The President’s Dead” and moved through such “Stage Names” material as “Unless It’s Kicks,” “A Girl In Port” and “Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe.” A great moment of the set was “For Real,” which pulsed with purpose.
This is not just a band that makes great records.
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Darondo!
The funkiest place to be at all of SXSW was Club Deville Saturday night, when the mysterious Darondo, who recorded three singles in the ’70s and disappeared, performed. His band of fellow Bay Area rollers played about half an hour before the main man hit the stage, looking like Chuck Berry and singing like Al Green.
“How I Got Over” (not the gospel song) trounced like a bull out of the chute, while a song of parental admiration, which could be called “I Love My Papa” rode an intensely nasty groove. The band, with a horn section, couldn’t have been better.
As the crowd chanted his name, Darondo seemed genuinely touched. “I may have to move to Austin,” he said.
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Perezzzzzzzz Hilton party
In case you missed the Perez Hilton party, I wouldn’t say you missed it. The shindig at the old Redrum Club (renamed Palm Door) was kinda lame- way too crowded with humorless jarheads. And you couldn’t get a beer. The bar served only rum drinks. What are we, pirates?
I stayed for only one act, the very fiery Katy Perry, but I couldn’t take the crowd and left 15 minutes before N.E.R.D. took the stage.
ME TV’s Josh Shepherd was still rattled from an earlier encounter with N.E.R.D.’s Pharrell Williams at ther Four Seasons. Shepherd had gone to the hotel room to interview Williams, but found a very hyper, confrontational, paranoid subject. Shepherd says ME will air some of the craziness later.
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Ludacris throws dem bows
“How many people are intoxicated in the afternoon?” Ludacris asked Saturday at about 4:30 p.m. at the DMX party at Brush Creek Square. Hands shot up in the air, kinda like they just didn’t care.
“They finally got some rap at South By Southwest,” Ludacris said at one point. Wrong fest, m’ man. That’s ACL. I think SXSW is where Whodini got signed.
There were dead mic problems about 15 minutes in, but that got corrected and the party started right back up with “Pimpin’ All Over the World” and “Roll Out.”
This is about the fouth time I’ve seen Ludacris and I will say this about him: he’s a professional, who didn’t resort to profanity (the crowd called back every missing F-word.). He always brings it big time, and the people love him for it.
The party hosted by DMX (not the rapper, the mall music piper-inner) also featured my girl
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A switch in time
SXSW organizers contend that day parties could be the end of their fest.
Meanwhile, every year there are fans who swear they will never go to the Austin City Limits Festival Fest again with its 100-plus degree heat in September.
Why don’t SXSW and ACL switch dates? Day parties won’t be so cool if you’re standing under a tent in the sweltering heat. And can you imagine how great ACL would be in March?
Just an idea — a million dollar idea!
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Worst kept secret
The word is that rapper Ludacris will make a “surprise” appearance at the DMX party to be held from noon to 4p.m. today at Brush Square Park (409 E. 5th St.) Invite only, but the chain link fence is only about 50 yards from the stage. Also on the bill: Los Bad Apples, British Sea Power and Back Door Slam.
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Hot Saturday tip: Darondo
Bernard Vasek owns the Musicmania record store that sells all that horrible “screwed and chopped” music, but he’s probably the biggest music fan I know. He knows who’s got it and he passed on a name of a can’t miss act: Darondo, playing at Club DeVille on Saturday at 10:45 p.m. “It’s like seeing James Brown,” Bernard said. Consider yourself tipped.
By the way, wasn’t Friday afternoon hot? It seemed so much like ACL Fest I wondered when Wilco was going on.
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Scion change miffs bouncers
“We’re gonna get things straight before (Saturday’s) hip hop show,” my friend the doorman told me Friday at Stubb’s. Check it out: he and his crew were handling things fine Thursday afternoon, with Motorhead about to go on at three p.m., but when party organizers saw the half-filled venue, they made the show open to the public. Next thing you know, there’s a line around the block with a bunch of amped up Lemmy fans not wanting to be left out. Many were, which made the bouncers’ jobs less than fun.
- Spotted at the annual Roky Erickson Ice Cream Social Thursday at Threadgill’s was for Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Stu Cook. who’s recently moved to Austin. Billy Gibbons jammed, of course.
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Vampires, Duffy and the Truth
What a fabulous Friday afternoon. Let’s start at the Spin party, which didn’t have a line even though imperial buzz band Vampire Weekend and old standbys X were playing. Raveonettes were third on the bill and not impressive at all in the ACLian heat. This is a band that should only play indoors at night.
At most day parties the bands try to get people to move up front so they can rock out without looking needy. At the Spin party that wasn’t necessary. The front of the stage was shaded, while way in the back felt like Death Valley.
The precious pups of Vampire Weekend were much better than expected, with their Soweto show tunes making for a cool vibe. What I liked best about the three songs I saw (deadline for Duffy) was that each musician was doing their own unique thing and there was separation in the sound. Ninety-five per cent of the bands playing SX just come out in one big (mostly boring) sound, but Vampire Weekend sounded like the late, great Tom Dowd was at the board. Liked their (non) attitude, also.
So I raced over to the Mercury, just in time to catch the U.S. debut of Duffy, who has the number one album in the U.K. Well, she was everything I’d hoped for and more- so confident, so effortless, so hypnotic, with a really good band. I’m going to throw a name out there I don’t do lightly: Billie Holiday. Duffy doesn’t sing jazz or blues, but she’s got that same smoky vulnerabilty to her voice. The obvious comparisons are Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone, but Duffy’s got a better voice (but not better songs) than Winehouse and more bite than La Joss. I’m going to see her tomorrow at Stubb’s (8 p.m.) and I suggest you do the same. Duffy’s something special.
To top it all off, I got to stand ten feet from Billy Bragg at the 115 Club as he did his best to rally the Music Managers Forum, while playing chilling new songs like “Sing Those Souls Back Home” and “I Keep the Faith.” After that latter song, Bragg launched into a right-on diatribe about how the changes in the music industry have made it harder for newer artists to make a living at their craft. Song rippers, he said, “are not bandits, they’re music fans.” He went on to say that in his 25 years in the music biz, one thing has never changed. “There are people who want to make music and people who want to hear music.” The big question he said, is how to get fans to support the musicians. The current business model is a mess. Then Bragg ended with a version of “There’s Power In the Union” that had fists pumping in the air.
God bless Billy Bragg, a man of eloquence and soul.
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Day parties hurting SXSW registration
The streets are crazier than ever, but things were quiet at the Convention Center Friday afternoon. Registration is flat, said SXSW director Roland Swenson, who estimated a total of about 12,500 badgewearers, about the same as last year.
Longtime badgewearers like publicist Michelle Roche of Atlanta are finding they can get a lot of networking done without having to pay (walk-up badge rate is $650, though it’s cheaper earlier). “I’ve been coming to South By for 19 years and in the last couple, I just hit a few day parties, meet up with folks for dinner and I’m back in the hotel and in bed by midnight,” she said.
- Yesterday’s free Auditorium Shores show headlined by Spoon drew a whopping 16,000 people, the most since Los Lonely Boys drew more than 20,000 in 2004.
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The old man in the sea of kids
Charles Attal was right. The C3 Presents booker had chided me about how I was gettin’ too old to party with the big boys and I assured him that I would come to his annual afterhours party Thursday (which I’ve tagged “the Friday Killer”) at an empty warehouse on 3rd St. two blocks from the Convention Center. With Lightspeed Champion and the Heavy added to headliners Moby and Justice this bash, co-hosted by Playboy magazine, looked to be a blowout. And it was downtown, not way out in East Austin, so there was no excuse.
But I just couldn’t do it. I was dog tired at 10 p.m. from lugging my laptop all over town, so I called it an early night. Go ahead and laugh, C.A., but I’m well-rested today.
What’s on the agenda today? I’ve got the Spin party at Stubb’s, the Mercury party at the Parish, where Duffy makes her U.S. debut, then there’s the Village Voice party at La Zona Rosa, where Trail of Dead are gonna tear it up and then Billy Bragg at Club 515. And that’s all before 6 p.m.
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Swenson makes front page of WSJ
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story on SXSW’s struggle to keep corporate parties from infesting the fest. Here is an interview we did with Swenson last month about the fight for control of SXSW.
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Lou Reed indeed turns up
SXSW keynoter Lou Reed played the “Lou Reed Tribute” Thursday evening at the Levi’s/Fader Fort. He performed “Walk On the Wild Side” with Moby, not really an adventurous choice. The songs I heard for two hours, many of them sounding alike, kinda rat out Reed as an overrated songwriter in the right place, right time. Where’s his “I Say a Little Prayer?.” What’s the great song he’s written in the past 30 years?
But there’s no denying Reed’s incredible influence. Since the Stooges owned 2007 and the New York Dolls were the big band a couple years earlier, it’s only fair that 2008 is a salute to the Velvet Underground, who were the Grateful Dead with worse drugs, but better guidance. Next year: Mott the Hoople. My early fave of the Reed trib was Ezra Furman’s solo acoustic take of “Heroin.”
To many, the highlight of the night was My Morning Jacket’s version of “Head Held High,” which I missed because, like you, I miss all the truly cool stuff and have to hear about it later.
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Early highlight of Lou Reed tribute
Yo La Tengo totally slayed on “I Heard Her Call My Name,” with Georgia Hubley playing standing up a la Maureen Tucker, and her husband Ira Kaplan wringing out every bit of beloved sleaze out of his crazy guitar at the Fader Fort. I’ve never been as huge a Yo La Tengo as I probably should have been, but this was just cool to the bone.
Before Yo La the best thing at the LR trib was Ezra Furman and the Harpoons. Best version of “Heroin” i”ve heard since “Rock N’ Roll Animal.”
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Notes from 2:30 p.m. Thursday
The traffic is worse than it’s ever been on a Thursday at SXSW, with most the streets between 5th and 7th downtown closed for various tent parties, swag booths and just to make it safer for the overflow of people.
What if someone sent out invites and everyone came? That seems to have happed at today’s NPR party at the Parish. Look at the lineup: Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, Adele, Jens Lekman and more and you can understand why there were about 200 people hoping to get inside a jampacked club at 2 p.m. People, nobody’s leaving.
A queue of a whole different tribe wrapped around Stubb’s in the afternoon for the chance to see Motorhead’s only SXSW appearance. It’s the longest line I’ve ever seen outside Stubb’s. Again, do these folks really think they’re going to get in?
Fortunately, there was no line at the usually sardinistic New West party at Club DeVille. One big way in which SX has changed: there used to be a huge alt-country presence, but it seems heading more and more to international act.
Today marks my first visit to the Levi’s/Fader Fort, which has always had too long a line in previous years. But the chance to see My Morning Jacket, Moby, Yo La Tengo and the man of honor himself do Lou Reed songs had me waiting in line for more than 30 minutes. That’s about three times longer than I’ve ever waited in line at SXSW.
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Backstage at the Austin Music Awards
Britt Daniel (left) and Spoon took home seven awards at the Austin Music Hall Wednesday night
Realtor Suzee Brooks and Yvonne Lambert of Octopus Project hug it out backstage at the Austin Music Awards.
Roky Erickson (left) and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top visit backstage at the Austin Music Awards. Word is that Gibbons may produce Erickson’s next album
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Rokkervil River rolls! More from awards show
They rehearsed only one time, for less than an hour, but Roky Erickson and Okkervil River clicked Wednesday night at the Austin Music Awards. It was smart to open with “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” followed by “Starry Eyes,” Erickson’s two best songs. And the third and final collaboration, “I Walked With a Zombie,” which R.E.M. had done so brilliantly on “Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye,” gave the Okkervil boys a chance to get creative. Jonathan Meiburg’s piano solo- part Thelonius Monk, part Marvin Hamlisch, was especially inspired.
The show-closing set opened with O.R. doing three of their own songs.
I was home writing so I, unfortunately missed the Walter Hyatt tribute. But the Statesman’s own, Rudy Gonzalez beautifully captured the segment and more.
Gary Clark Jr., who played a short, but blues-quenching set at the awards show, finally has a manager. It’s Kevin Wommack of Loophole Entertainment, the guiding force behind Los Lonely Boys.
Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, wearing that shower cap with mini-dreads, hung out backstage with Roky before the setlet with Okkervil. Word is that Gibbons wants to produce a new Roky record, with material culled from nearly 100 Erickson songs that have never been recorded.
It’s good to see Hollywood legend Kim Fowley (Runaways, um, Runaways) back at SXSW after a few years away. When you think about it, Fowley’s brutally honest assessments at the demo critique sessions ten years ago was a precursor to Simon Cowell.
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When bad names happen to good acts
Restaurant is perhaps the worst band moniker since Goo Goo Dolls, but my how the duo of Troy Murrah on guitar and Jonathan Case on percussion (and Korg) can stomp out the blues. If you saw Murrah offstage you’d think he was in a hardcore band, but at Wednesday’s Little Radio party at Red Eyed Fly he whipped out some atomic bottleneck playing they must’ve heard way back in the Delta. Unfortunately, the guys from Victoria, Tex. followed their most blazing number with something that sounded like “Louie Louie” and momentum was lost. But for about 10 minutes there, Restaurant served up steaming bowls of… I’m sorry, but Restaurant is such a lousy name. Were Deli and Diner already taken?
(Restaurant at the Red Eyed Fly. Photo by Michael Corcoran)
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Dead Confederate good as advertised
The “Athens In Austin” party at Bourbon Rocks Wednesday afternoon was a laid back affair featuring Georgia bands that were anything but laid back. It was cool to see the bands on the bill in the audience for each other’s set. And I actually overheard something that made me laugh, a Southby first. You know those people who go around reading badge names before they look at the face. After one guy did it, the badgewearer said, with a feminine voice and a motion to the face: “I’m up here.”
The most buzzed-about band on the bill, Dead Confederate, was both haunting and frantic, with eerie keyboards keeping the savage guitars at bay. They played only four songs, but in that short time rolled out different styles and textures, sounding at one point like a Mersey Beat band’s hard rock side project.
They’re playing before R.E.M. at Stubb’s tonight, where they’re playing for a full house, albeit one that came to see someone else.
(Photo of Dead Confederate by Michael Corcoran)
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SXSW highlight: Can’t beat Paul Collins
My SXSW peaked a tad early when I happened upon an act that I didn’t know was playing; in fact I didn’t even know the front man was alive. When I saw the name “Paul Collins and the Beat” in marker outside Beerland, which is not an official venue for the first time, I gasped audibly. You see, about 30 years ago I was mainly into two things musically: Bruce Springsteen and power pop, and Collins was the most Springsteenian of the skinny tie gang. His show at the Hullabaloo in Rensselaer, N.Y., in 1980 was as tight, powerful and melodic as any club show I’d seen.
Well, 28 years later and Collins hasn’t lost a thing, besides his hair. Currently living in Madrid, his backing Beat are a trio of Spanish kids that can really play with feeling. And Collins’ vocals were strong as ever. I couldn’t believe my luck as the band churned out some of my old faves like “Work-a-Day World,” “Take Me Back” and “Don’t Wait Up For Me.”
When they ended with “Rock N’ Roll Girl,” a song I’d play 10 times a day in 1980, and “Hangin’ On the Telephone,” from his pre-Beat band the Nerves, I was in heaven. I’m pretty certain I will not have a better SXSW moment this year and it was not even five o’clock on Wednesday.
If the line to get in to see White Denim at Red Eyed Fly wasn’t so long, I might’ve not stopped in at Beerland, which has got a cool scene going during SXSW. It’s free during the day and $5 at night for most shows.
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Perezite party update #2
Cewebrity gossip Perez Hilton has been boasting that the lineup for his party Saturday at the Palm Door is the hottest at SXSW. He must be withholding some big names. His latest confirmed acts are Canadians Kate Perry and Dragonette.
Previously announced were N.E.R.D., Robyn, Eric Hutchinson and Riskay. The Levi’s/ Fader Fort has stronger lineups every day of the week. And no one can touch the talent at the Spin party. But Hilton has five more acts to announce. Step it up, big boy.
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SXSW: It happened last night
SXSW used to officially start on Thursday, then Wednesday. In recent years, however, it kicks off, in earnest, on Tuesday. It’s a lot less crazy, but with lines around the block for the IFC party at the Parish featuring My Morning Jacket and Yo La Tengo, and packed houses at Beauty Bar, Emo’s and Stubb’s, it sure felt like SXSW.
I have to tell you what South By Southwest does to me. It makes me stressed out, turning all the knobs as far up as they can go. It makes me miserable and euphoric. I’ve done some of my best writing during SXSW and certainly some of my worst. I love Wednesday, hate Thursday, love Friday and then I don’t like Saturday much, but then at midnight it hits me: this is it. SXSW is almost over and I want it to go on another day. It all came back to me on Tuesday night. It’s on!
That was especially true of the lobby of the Four Seasons, where Billy Gibbons got up and played a solo on “Come Together” with the house duo, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. huddled with Kurt Cobain biographer Michael Azerrad and the super-amiable Billy Bob Thornton stopped by a few tables to say “hi” and posed for photos. It being Tuesday, you could actually hear the person sitting next to you. Try that the next four nights.
I thank the insight of my ol’ Southby running buddy Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer, who plucked me out of that horrid film fest closing party at Stubb’s and suggested a hang at the 4S. Moby was deejaying at Stubb’s and the bass was so loud Pimp C called from H-town heaven and asked them to turn it down, yo. Stubb’s was about as musical as Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.
Earlier, I had better luck at the Beauty Bar, where the mustached men of Austin’s Black & White Years, soon to step into the studio with Jery Harrison of the Talking Heads played their hummable rockage with the energy of ska. The Hands, from Seattle, were the next band that made me happy SX has arrived, playing a mash-up of “Wade In the Water” and “Dazed and Confused” to the tune of “Hotel California” at Emo’s. Although not booked to a sanctioned showcase, the Hands are playing the Mount Fuji showcase at the Longbranch on Thursday.
“This is the last night to have fun before the heavy petting zoo that is South By Southwest,” the guitarist of Detroit trio Hard Lessons said Tuesday night at Emo’s. The first “bleedat” of SX.
(The Black and White Years rocked the Beauty Bar on Tuesday night, the unofficial start of SXSW. Photo by Michael Corcoran.)
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Austinist pulls anti-Louis Black column
Austinist editor Allen Chen explained the removal of the column, thusly:
“Last night, we published a piece by columnist Ben Reed, entitled ‘Louis Black, We Hardly Knew Ye.’
After discussions with our publisher, we’ve decided to remove the post from the site.
We believe that you, our readers, are better served if we keep our focus on the aspects of SXSW that make it such an enjoyable experience — the showcases, day parties, afterparties, and everything else involving free beer — rather than rehash the negatives that were already discussed ad nauseum last year.”
OK, back to me. If you want to read the censored column Google “Louis Black, We Hardly Knew Ye.” It’s a well-written piece that makes some good points and includes a juicy anecdote about SXSW co-founder Black as bagman for the fest. But the rant is also unneccessarily mean in a few spots. And Chen is right, it rehashes a lot of nastiness from the Factory People controversy last year.
What I don’t get is the “ad nauseum” part. The fight in cyberspace and the perceived persecution brought out the best writing Louis has done in years. You’ve denied us the delicious rebuttal, Austinist, thus disappointing abacus fans everywhere.
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Scarlett Johansson at SXSW?
A flattering, innocuous item about Scarlett Johansson in PerezHilton.com today may just be a flattering, innocuous item. Or, given that Scar-Jo has an album coming out May 20, it could be a hint that the sexy actress is one of the not-yet-named acts to play Hilton’s Saturday night blowout. A stretch? Perhaps, but what better way to build buzz about the album of Tom Waits covers? So far Hilton, soon to be a record exec if talks with Warner Bros pan out, has confirmed only four of his ten acts- Robyn, Riskay, N.E.R.D. and Eric Hutchinson.
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Lou does Lou
Lou Reed will be playing a tribute to himself Thursday at 5:45 p.m. at the Levi’s/ Fader Fort. Other acts doing a Reed song or two will be My Morning Jacket, Moby, Yo La Tengo, Joseph Arthur, Dr. Dog and more.
But unless you’ve got an invite, that show’s a tease. The Fader Fort is known for having the surliest bouncers at SXSW. In other words, “But I’m Mo Tucker’s acupuncturist” ain’t gonna cut it.
A better chance to catch Reed is Thursday night at Stubb’s, where Alejandro Escovedo may know a song or two that Sweet Lou can jam on.
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Smell yo badge
The “Perez Hilton: One Night In Austin” party, to be held Saturday from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. at the SXSW Jumps the Shark Lounge, has added female rapper Riskay to the lineup. The sultry, nasty Floridian made her name with a little ditty about a lo-tech way to tell if your man is cheating — and we’ll leave it at that. The shindig is actually at the former 401 Sabine St. locale of Redrum, dubbed the Palm Door during the fest.
Scoops Hilton, who beat every news source on the exclusive “Castro is dead” story by seven months and counting, is revealing one act per day on his Web site. First confirmed singer Robyn is also an official SXSW act, but Riskay isn’t. Does that make this a Perezite party?
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The next Amy Winehouse (God help her)?
Yeah, yeah, yeah is this year’s no, no, no, as Duffy makes her U.S. debut at SXSW. The 23-year-old ’60s-styled singer from Wales has her official showcase Saturday at 8 p.m. at Stubb’s, but she’s scheduled to play the Mercury Records party the day before. Think I’m gonna tell you where? It’s already going to be tough to get in.
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Perez Hilton’s SXSW party
First Rachael Ray and now Perez Hilton? Remember when only record labels, magazines, publicists and Charles Attal threw SXSW parties? Now we’ve got foodies to go with the hoodies and a guy who got more famous than Clive Davis by scribbling on paparazzi photos.
The “Teflon Queen” -Perez, not Rachael - named so because he’d been able to keep various photo copywright lawsuits from sticking, will partay on Saturday at the old Redrum location (401 Sabine Street), which has been renamed the Palm Door (get it?) for SXSW. Since the Seattle party runs from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, the P-Hil blowout will probably be afterhours.
Reports are that Hilton, who turns 30 the week after SXSW, is in talks with Warner Brothers to create a spinoff label. Such things can happen from doodling on Amy Winehouse photos before anyone had ever heard of her.
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Spin Party turns 21 (though only 13 officially)
Spin magazine has been passed by Blender in ad pages and number of subscribers, and it’s not as current as Maxim, which just panned the Coldplay record currently being mixed. But when it comes to SXSW parties, a Spin laminate is still the hottest piece of plastic.
Spin’s relationship with SXSW goes back to year two, when then-publisher Bob Guccione Jr. was the keynote speaker. When the Gooch and suite mate Bart Bull weren’t showing each other upper body excercises they could do using furniture in their hotel room, they had impromptu parties late at night. This was the first time the words “Spin party” were uttered at SX.
For the next seven years ,give or take a couple, the Spin party was held in a suite at the Hyatt Regency on Saturday night after the clubs had closed. It was usually the only place to get booze after you’d been amped up all night.
The first official Spin party, with sponsors and everything, was in 1996 at the Hyatt, with Money Mark from the Beastie Boys playing records, as well as a keyboard. With Robyn Hitchcock playing the tipsy avant-gardener to perfection, slightly more Dudley Moore than Thurston Moore, it was one of the most entertaining parties I’ve ever been to. The next year, Spin glommed onto the free Iggy Pop show on Brazos Street at Sixth, renting the Governor’s Suite at the Driskill, which overlooked the stage. But only about nine people could see.
Spin started getting serious with their closing party soirees ten years ago, taking over the Naked Grape dance club (currently Spiro’s) to present Old 97’s with guest John Doe and something called Q Bert Abstract Message.
Let’s continue this stumble down memory lane:
1999: Scarborough Building with Built to Spill, Flaming Lips and Juan Atkins. People were having sex in the basement, where the lobby furniture had been moved.
2000: Covert Buick with Meat Puppets & Supersuckers (worst double bill of all time.)
2001: The ARCH with the BellRays, Idlewilde and Brassy.
2002: Strait Music with South and Elbow. The cops busted this party at 3:30 a.m. because it didn’t meet the TABC standards as a private party. Like, why would all these people be lined up to see South and Elbow? (There was no list of invitees, just a bunch of people who showed up with fliers.)
2003: The Spin party moves to Stubb’s on a Friday afternoon and Hot Hot Heat, Black Keys, D4 and Sahara Hotnights played to sparse crowds. The Spin party lost its luster in the sunlight.
2004: Saved by Sweden! The party rebounds with the Hives putting on a great rock show. Also on the bill at Stubbs were the Killers, Von Bondies and the Bronx.
2005: The New York Dolls headlined, giving many scensters under the age of 50 the chance to say, for the first time, “I’m goin’ to see the Dolls.” Hold Steady, Bloc Party, Futureheads and Louis XIV were also on the bill.
2006: Charlatans UK, We Are Scientists, the Stills, the Go! Team and the Cribs played at Stubb’s. Not a great year.
2007: Buzzcocks, Kings of Leon, Galactic, Mew and the Fratellis, with guest Pete Townshend. Leon’s Kings stole the show.
2008: Featuring Vampire Weekend, the biggest SXSW buzz band since Arctic Monkeys, and headlined by punk rock hall of famers X. With the Raveonettes, the Whigs, Ben Jelen, Switches and deejay sets from Diplo and Pandemonium Jones, this looks to be the best Spin party of them all.
And one Austin360 poster will receive two passes via our “Write and Win” contest. Find out Monday who that lucky person is.
