Austin360 blogs > Michael Corcoran's SXSW Journal
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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Latest comments
Okkervil River’s incredible. Coming on after Duffy, they made her seem like a lounge singer.
... read the full comment by Angelina | Comment on Let's hear it for the home team Read Let's hear it for the home team
One fact you didn’t mention in your article, DMX announced the launch of GETUPLAYED as a way to help independent artists gain exposure via retailers. They further exemplified their support of independent artists by hiring local Austin band LOS BAD
... read the full comment by Carolyn | Comment on Ludacris throws dem bows Read Ludacris throws dem bows
Well, we are a one bar sampling, but we’re entirely at odds with the guesstimate on business levels. We set sales records Wed, Thu, Fri & Sat this year. Saturday even beat Sat 3/17/07, which was St Patrick’s Day, traditionally pretty damn
... read the full comment by Steve Basile | Comment on A Letter To Andy Read A Letter To Andy
The event turned out GREAT!!! I loved the bands chosen starting from Los Bad Apples to the british bands to Ludacris. I LOVED the Los Bad Apples! They added the most awesome flare to the event. Thank you for the great show!
... read the full comment by Karla | Comment on Ludacris throws dem bows Read Ludacris throws dem bows
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