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Saturday, March 15, 2008
SXSW scene report: ‘It’s not a reunion’
Austinites bassist Jeff Copas and multi-instrumentalist Steven Hall were absorbing X’s Direct TV taping in the convention center Bat Cave on Friday evening when they revealed that the former Sixteen Deluxe (Austin’s ruling noise-pop shoegazers during the 1990s) bandmates are recording together again, this time with Copas serving as audio engineer. Hall and Copas haven’t recorded together since the criminally under appreciated final Sixteen Deluxe record, “Vision Take Me Make Me Never Forsake Me.”
Interestingly, the super-secret recording sessions include their former Sixteen Deluxe bandmate, vocalist/space rock guitarist extraodinaire Carrie Clark.
“We are all working toward a common goal: to help each other record each other’s songs,” Copas explained.
Hall continued with a knowing smile, “We’re not sure what (this project) is yet, but we know for sure that it is not a reunion … not yet.”
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SXSW review: Duffy
We’re talking, say, writers and playwrights and whiskey-makers and actors and spies and motorcars and queens and such.
And, oh yeah, they also have a gift for ginning out Anglo-Saxon and Celtic women who seem put on Earth to channel their inner Carla Thomas; Young lasses from the mists and the moors of the Auld Sod who sing like they came of age in Memphis and hung out at the Stax studio. You’ve got your Lulu, your Dusty Springfield, your Joss Stone, your Amy Winehouse and now a young 23-year old from Wales named Duffy.
Virtually unknown on this side of the Pond, she has held down the No. 1 spot on the U.K. charts for the past five weeks. Her performances at SXSW (she played a number of parties before her Stubb’s gig) marked her first U.S. appearances “I’ve never played outdoors before,” she marveled.
With her peaches-and-cream complexion and bouffant blonde hair, dressed to kill in the proverbial Little Black Dress and scarlet stilettos, Duffy was the visual antithesis of Winehouse. But comparisons don’t really do justice to either singer.
Essaying a nine-song set of original material (she writes with a collaborator) Duffy cruised the streets of the soul and R&B ‘hood. There was the velvet-glove Philly/Motown groove of “Delayed Devotion,” the brooding, powerful, anthemic “Rockferry,” the moody soul-noir of “Stepping Stone,” some R-rated funk ‘n’ grind on a song whose title I didn’t catch, and — last and far from least — the insanely catchy single “Mercy,” with its ping-pong hook and impassioned, yearning vocal. It’s a song that Martha Reeves or Aretha herself would have killed for, and Duffy acquitted herself in fine fashion.
As soul divas go, Duffy comes down stylistically on the cool and elegant Dionne Warwick side of the ledger. As good as her set was, if she could manage to add a little Etta James or Bettye LaVette sass and grit to her mix, there might be no stopping her.
(Duffy performs at Stubb’s during her showcase Saturday. Photo by Deborah Cannon/AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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SXSW scene report: Bayonics on Sixth
The drum corps from San Francisco hip hop band Bayonics usurped Direct TV’s street-illuminating production lights and their own infectious musical spirit to turn the intersection of Trinity and Sixth Street into something resembling a hedonistic, Brazilian Carnival dance party. The band’s nationwide tour brought them through Austin for a show last Wednesday at the Unicorn Media launch party in Union Park.
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SXSW review: Fruet e os Cozinheiros
Brazilian rocker Marcelo Fruet called his band “Os Cozinheiros” — “the Cooks” — to indicate their skillful use of many ingredients, and the name is certainly apt. While their configuration at Club 115 at 8 p.m. Saturday was not unusual — a standard twin-guitar rock quartet plus a percussionist — they gave Fruet’s songs a Brazilian tinge that went beyond the warmth of his Portuguese vocals and incorporated international elements including punk, jazz and ska.
Fruet sometimes scatted George Benson-style while playing jazz licks on his guitar, an unusual model that gave new meaning to the term “hollow body.” (It had a fretboard and the empty frame of the body, making it see-through.)
On “Todo Tempo,” second guitarist Nicola Spolidoro scratched out dramatic scraping sounds from his strings that amplified the tension that kept building up in the song through touches of dissonance. Bassist Leonardo Brawl upped the ante considerably with his fierce playing, and was tremendous throughout the set, displaying the technique of a jazz player with the energy of a punk-rocker, often striking a wide-legged stance and seeming to flail at his bass while executing with utmost precision.
This band obviously had a lot more tricks up its sleeve than it could possibly deploy in a short showcase. And Brawl is such a versatile and compelling bassist, I’d go see him in any band without even bothering to ask its genre.
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SXSW review: Quebe Sisters
I don’t know about anyone else, but nothing quite perks up my Saturday night like watching three pretty women with fiddles play Western Swing and cowboy music. Lucky me, the Quebe sisters were on hand to fill the bill at Jovita’s.
The Quebes (rhymes with “babies”) hail from Burleson, which is also, for what it’s worth, home of Kelly Clarkson, the first “American Idol” champion. Burleson is a bland bedroom community south of Fort Worth, but for my money it’s close enough to West Texas to infuse the Quebes with plenty of Panhandle soul.
Between the three young women — Grace, the oldest, Sophia the youngest and middle sister Hulda — they have enough state and national fiddle championship medals and trophies to stock a good-sized pawnshop.
There was something mesmerizing about watching the trio (abetted by rhythm guitarist Joey McKenzie and bassist Drew Phelps) swing into a tune like “Right Or Wrong” or “Air Mail Special,” their fiddle bows sawing in triplicate, silvery solos bouncing from one sister to another. And when they harmonized, a’la the Andrews Sisters on, say, “Along the Navajo Trail” or “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie,” well, the decades fell away. You halfway expected to see GIs queuing up for coffee and donuts over in the corner from the USO volunteers.
It was the kind of homespun gig where one of the band members could crack that their new release was a million seller (“We’ve got a million of ‘em in the cellar”) and there were genuine laughs instead of groans or embarrassed silence.
The Quebe Sisters probably aren’t the Next Big Thing (but then that’s probably what they said about the Dixie Chicks), but they don’t exhibit any pressing need to inhabit that role. Which leaves lots of room for heartfelt music and a twirl on the dancefloor on a Saturday night.
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SXSW review: Mess with Texas
The free-for-all Mess With Texas music festival rocking Waterloo Park all-day Saturday was a welcome respite from the sweaty clubs and the roving hordes that overran downtown Austin during “festival week” (the unofficial name given to SXSW by unaffiliated, independent promoters in order to avoid trademark infringement).
Although there were thousands of people in attendance, by sunset, all three stages had plenty of room to dance and room for some fans to do steady-mobbing head bobs.
Sightlines were excellent, even for shorter attendees, because the stages were all constructed at the bottom of the parks’ slight hills. The moon and the 20th century park lamps were bright enough to cast Impressionist shadows.
The universal problem that audience members shared was the lengthy beer lines; alcohol imbibers had to wait up to 30 minutes for a single drink.
While this reporter was in attendance, Lucero increased its ever-growing fanbase with a loose set of tight alt-country and rockabilly songs. And on an adjacent stage the Breeders started on time, down to the second, playing several new songs that were unrecognizable to even the majority of their fans.
“This is going to be awesome,” said Masonic guitarist John Mason as he waited for the Breeders to bring it. “The light show has been really amazing too.”
Between Fun Fun Fun Festival and the now annual Mess With Texas festival, event producers Transmissions Entertainment have elevated throwing an enormous party in Waterloo Park into an art form.
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SXSW scene report: Nada Surf lines
Badge line for Maggie Mae’s stretches down East Sixth Street 100 people. All for Nada Surf? They say it is full. Weird. Location, location, location. No cash customers are getting in. Wiristbands can line up like badges. One in, one out. This early? Seems strange, especially considering Nada Surf has already played several day shows. Only about a quarter of the fans who get in can get near stage at Maggie Mae’s upstairs. And bathroom line for balcony shows actually goes across the stage. Which is impossible to get to. Ridiculous.
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SXSW review: Carbon/Silicon
Mick Jones made a huge mark on rock as a member of the Clash, and enjoyed a very successful second act with Big Audio Dynamite. He has another winner with Act 3, Carbon/Silicon, a collaboration with his old mate, Tony James of Generation X (and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, but we won’t hold that against him). What started as their recording project in 2002 has morphed into a proper band, now also including B.A.D.’s Leo “Eazykill” [cq] Williams on bass and Domonic Greensmith on drums.
Jones and James used so many samples in early, dance-beat-based Carbon/Silicon recordings that they couldn’t release the music commercially (all those licensing issues), giving it away over the internet instead. At Waterloo Records around 5:30 Saturday, they showed themselves a terrific rock ‘n’ roll band as well as masters at fusing genres. Jones and James have such a great dual guitar mesh that it wasn’t even too big of a disappointment that the vocals were too low to hear a lot of the witty, pointed lyrics to songs such as their new hit “The News,” which simultaneously conjures utopia and underlines the impossibility of achieving it.
The de-emphasis on the vocals gave an opportunity to appreciate even more the quality of their single’s irresistible central guitar riff, as well as a couple of secondary riffs and an insinuating bassline. As in the best dance music, Carbon/Silicon’s appealing themes really stand up to repetition with slight variation. Although they played quite a long version of “The News,” they probably could have let it go on another five minutes and still kept the big crowd jiggling happily along.
“Really the Blues” likewise took an extended form, featuring some succinct guitar solos as well as the sharp-edged interaction between Jones and James.
Jones was characteristically funny and engaging, introducing “Caesar’s Palace” with the explanation that “Although the song is about consumerism, and we’re in a shop, this is a nice shop, and we don’t mean in any way to say anything about this venerable establishment here!” He worked the band introductions into a semi-melodic form in the long final number, “Why Do Men Fight,” and reacted to a switch-up Williams threw in the bassline by singing a quick snatch of Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up” to go over it.
The crowd included a wide range of ages, from little kids and 20-somethings to folks of Jones and James’ vintage. While some rock ‘n’ roll legends keep repeating themselves to please their original audience, Jones and James have remained excited enough about new ways of doing music to pull in new generations of fans.
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SXSW interview: Brad Breek of the Mae Shi
Chances are even the most devout gear geek you know doesn’t know what in the world an Omnichord is. To find out, get a listen to “Run To Your Grave,” the ecstatic sing-along single from Los Angeles noise-pop band the Mae Shi and their new record “HLLLYH”.
Once made by Suzuki, it’s a keyboard/touch screen/drum box hybrid with an out-there sound. And it’s probably one of the most orthodox components of the band, which punctuates its live shows with bouts of chanting, instrument swaps and and wide-eyed revery that makes The Polyphonic Spree seems sedate. After one of its half-dozen shows this week, Mae Shi multi-instrumentalist caught his breath and talked about the results of Omnichord jams, personnel changes and making the great creative leap.
austin360: First thing, where did you guys manage to find an Omnichord?
Brad Breek: I think this one I got on shopatgoodwill.com. It’s like eBay, but with all the Goodwill’s going in together to put surplus things they think they can get more money for online. But they’re on eBay all the time, too.
Did you seek one out or just happen to find it?
I friend of mine had one, I think it was eight years ago and it was obviously a magical instrument, so we stole his steez and got one for ourselves.
So did you use it just for this record?
I think we’ve had it on everything other than the first EP, so there’s at least one Omnichord jam on each record.
This record seems so up from what you done, and takes all the energy and chaos you’ve had and puts it into great pop songs. Was there a decision that basically, “Let’s really go for it?”
There was a member change John joined the band and this guy Ezra Buchla who was part of the core of the band left, and first it was kind of scary but it would up being liberating. We were able to go against the rules of what we were as a band. Things like pop structures and traditional song harmonies with a pop trajectory. We embraced those things and we started really writing.
Well people can actually sing along instead of just yelling. You’ve got to view that as a step.
We don’t necessarily feel like this record is any better than the other records. We’re super proud of the others, but we’ve gotten some reviews with this record that have been like, “Finally they figured out how to write music.” As if we weren’t doing things intentionally before, you know? I have a master’s degree in music, our old singer had a master’s degree in music and is a genius. Not that any of that means anything in the end, but we are a little self-aware about what we do. We just decided to do something different.
Are any ideas brought in at least listened to and given a fair shot?
This record was difficult and there were things that were rejected outright but we’re democratic for the most part and if someone absolutely hates something we get rid of it. A lot of these songs were not well liked in their early stages and it took months sometimes of people resinging it to clarify the idea and convince people.
Is there a particular song where that happened?
Yeah, “Run To Your Grave” was not well liked in the band at first and it took a while for it to become a Mae Shi song because it was very different. We made it into a Mae Shi song by just working on it so everyone could contribute to it.
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SXSW interview: Ice Cube, DJ Pooh and Dave Marsh
Ice Cube and DJ Pooh’s 1:30 p.m. interview with editor and publisher of “Rock & Rap Confidential” Dave Marsh was pretty exciting after DJ Pooh finally showed up.
Marsh would go on to give Pooh a hard time throughout the interview about his late arrival, but Pooh was undaunted by the ribbing as he and Cube explained the concept of their new website, UVNTV.com to fans and music business professionals. Pooh said that UVNTV.com is a broadband social network website — created by Cube and himself — that will stream member-created videos.
“I am looking to have 20 channels myself (on the website),” Cube said. He went on to affirm that “There are no rules or censorship … anyone may create a channel as long as you have the content (initially at least 2 hours) to support it.
“If you’re dope, you’re on,” Cube continued. “We won’t have no crazy standards like B.E.T. and Viacom (MTV’s parent company) have. We wanted to do something to create a synergy so B-boys and Hip hop heads can have (original content) that isn’t watered down by the networks.”
Cube explained that they closely watched the TMZ.com business model and how that website transformed into a commercial television show. He and Pooh expressed hope that young filmmakers and other artists can start original programming on UVNTV.com, which could later be purchased by a network.
“We will have a year long beta process to show advertisers what UVNTV.com can (potentially) be,” Pooh said.
Cube also gave a little advance juice to his new album, “Raw Footage,” to be released independently on June 17.
“During the late ’80s and early ’90s, political Hip hop was king,” Cube said.
“But during the ’90s we got into an escapism kind of rap,” Cube continued. Then he joked, “Blame it on Viacom.”
Cube related that Hip hop fans really want a return to music that carries an uplifting message: “People want that … they yearn for that … what hip hop was back in the day.”
He explained that the flow on his upcoming album will be “dedicated to the brain and not the booty.” The audience followed the pronouncement with extended applause.
Later, when an audience member asked about the potential for Barack Obama to have a channel on UVNTV.com, Cube answered, “We would love for Obama, Hilary and John McCain to do a channel. We’re urging anybody with something to say to come say it with us, worldwide.”
Pooh said that UVNTV.com will utilize Microsoft Corporation’s new Silverlight 1.0 platform. Pooh said that their developers have built “an expensive back-end so that we will know data on how many people are watching” various programs, which can in turn be reported to advertisers and subscribers.
UVNTV.com features exclusive channels such as Snoop Dogg’s Snoopadelic TV, fashion designer Christian Audigier’s Live TV and Ice Cube’s own Hip Hop 24/7 TV. Pooh explained that UVNTV.com’s users can create profile pages to showcase their talent, collaborate and meet like-minded fans (a la Myspace and Facebook).
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SXSW scene: Sound on Sound
Jason “Jug Costanzo, owner of Sound on Sound Records, made a conscious decision regarding this year’s SXSW: He was only going to host one day party and it was going to feature only bands that he personally liked.
“I didn’t want to see anything I had to suffer through,” Costanzo said. After all, he was the only person who was required to be there to watch them.
This was smart. Costanzo was a little concerned that Mess With Texas 2, the free concert in Waterloo Park put together by Transmission Entertainment, not to mention the downtown day parties, would draw all of his potential audience. He need not have worried.
Fortunately, a couple of other businesses in the East North Loop mall were hosting shows. A garage rock show (featuring a terrific set from garage buzz band the Cococomas) was happening at the Parlor a few doors down. Monkeywrench Books was hosting some bands outside their shop. So all three shows made for a strong draw.
Psychedelic Horse(expletive), one of last year’s buzz band’s, put in a short, tight set of fuzzy, muddy pop songs with Pink Reason’s Kevin DeBroux playing bass. So far, so good.
Dead Luke, coming straight outta Wisconsin, play dark new wavey stuff with a gothic tinge. Using a drum machine without looking like a complete doofus is something of a lost art that seems to be coming back into vogue. These dude do an excellent job.
The Electric Bunnies were a revelation. Clearly heavily influenced by Northwestern proto-punk godfathers the Wipers, these Floridians cranked out spare, overdriven power trio rock, the kind the greatness of which seems so stunningly obvious when you hear someone nail it over and over again that you wonder why this stuff isn’t in every town. Someone put out an album by these dudes.
But the jaw-dropper, as it was last Friday night, was Los Llamarada, the quintet of young Mexican folks who sound like two or three classic New York No Wave bands playing at the same time - noise, beat, feedback and friction all pile up without ever getting dull. Judging from comments, I’m pretty sure everyone who has seen them has been floored by their passion, their smarts and their screamy, rumbly noise rock. Singer Sagan occasionally switched to synth, which he often played with his fist as Estrella Ek Sanza took over on vocals, finishing off entire generation of riot grrrl rant-style with her killer moan. Nothing quite like seeing a band hit home runs two days in a row.
Nice job, Jug.
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SXSW review: Chromeo
It’s not a fail-safe measuring stick, but a survey of hairstyles and headwear at a concert can go a ways into revealing how broad an artist’s appeal is. Judging by the crowd collected Saturday at Stubb’s — bandanas, clear visors, B-boy ball hats, trilbys, headwraps, even a couple irony mullets — Benetton could film its ads at Chromeo shows, no problem as its playful, rubbery disco-funk drew from across the SXSW audience spectrum.
Hitting the stage accompanied by a welcome and needed afternoon breeze, the Montreal duo Dave One and Pee Thug took to their guitars and banks of keyboards — resting atop pairs of women’s legs like “A Christmas Story“‘s iconic lamp — and got the crowd moving. The men of Chromeo are unabashed fans of ’80s black pop music groups like Chic and the Jets and they’ve created plenty of converts with uninhibited, pure fun songs like “Tenderoni” and “Bonafied Lovin’ (Tough Guys)” that brought continuous cheers and dancing throughout. For the nearly hour-long set the crowd soaked up Dave One’s perpetual smile and Pee Thug’s vocoder-affected vocals.
If most of the duo’s songs are proudly goofy and thin on lyrical insight, kicking off their encore with the Oedipus-lite quandary of “Momma’s Boy” showed Dave One has earned his literature Ph.D. (really). Of course, that was followed by a medley of Journey songs “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Anyway You want It” and “Your Love” by the Outfield — done so Pee Thug could give the vocoder a workout — to remind the cheering crowd the group’s in no danger of taking itself at all seriously. Which guarantees these songs and this band probably won’t have much in the way of historical staying power, but for a fun-seeking crowd on a sunny afternoon that was more than OK.
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SXSW review: Billy Bragg
If Billy Bragg spied Chicken Man as he played for the UTNE Reader party Saturday afternoon at the Thirsty Nickel, he gave no sign. Maybe he imagined he was hallucinating the whole episode anyway. It was his umpteenth showcase of the week and maybe a guy in a chicken suit could just be chalked up to the god of Why-the-Hell-Not.
Bragg, of course, was his usual ebullient, opinionated self. His political passions permeate his music, but he’s no humorless martinet. Whether going on about the deficiencies of American football (“It’s bollocks!”) or singing an impromptu Shangri-Las cover, Bragg’s wit and great good humor informs his performance at every turn.
Of course, it is songs like “Farm Boy,” “I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night,” a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore,” “O Freedom” and “Sing Their Souls Back Home” that galvanized his audience.
Bragg recalled his life changing irrevocably the day he saw the Clash at a massive Rock Against Racism rally in England in 1978. The sight of so many kindred spirits shocked him out of his complacency and cynicism and into a career singing about human rights and social justice. “It wasn’t the Clash that changed my world, it was the audience,” he recalled. “It’s possible to for music to send the audience away with a very different view of the world.”
That has been Bragg’s mandate ever since, and audiences are the richer for it. Heck, maybe he even converted the guy in the chicken suit.
(One of Billy Bragg’s many appearances this week was Thursday at the Body of War showcase at Stubb’s. Photo by Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
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SXSW Scene: Rachael Ray’s Feedback showcase
Rachael Ray’s Feedback showcase at the Beauty Bar today was a smashing indie success, leaving many waiting in line outside to see bands like the Raveonettes and in a surprise appearance, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.
Ray dismissed the reaction of some on the indie rock scene who balked at her hosting of the SXSW showcase.
“Everyone here is having a great time. These are great bands. This is a great mix of people. And, I brought food! I had one of the burgers. Phenom, phenom, phenom,” Ray said. The menu included SXSW sliders, a burger inspired by seven-layer dip, mac and cheese suiza, and chips and salsa.
Ray, an enthusiastic fan of her husband’s band the Cringe, rocked out to their performance, which included the appearance by Gibbons. Unplanned, the performance came about the day of the showcase as a result of Gibbons being a fan of Ray and the Cringe. They asked him to jam, and he was game.
Regardless of the flak from some on the indie scene, more than a few hipsters lined up for pictures with Ray. Including one of the owners of the Beauty Bar, who put in a special request to get a photo with the Food Network star. “My mom just loves her,” he said.
Before she leaves town, Ray plans to hit Maria’s Taco Xpress and Jo’s for iced coffee. “We are having a fantastic time,” she said. “It’s hot, but we are having a great time.”
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SXSW: No badge? Some problems
(We sent our intern out with $50 and a one-sentence instruction: See how many shows you can get into. Wednesday night was a big success. Friday, not so much. This is his report.)
Lacking the status symbol of a SXSW badge or wristband was not a problem on Wednesday night, when most shows were generally accessible for a price. It even seemed like the sensible thing to not have purchased one Thursday afternoon, when free shows abounded.
Friday, however, was a string of disappointments, culminating in the death of my analog recorder (and tape), which contained interviews for both this piece and another story.
In anticipation of a busier night, I started with a more comprehensive plan than I had on Wednesday. I made a list of bands I wanted to see (by the hour) with a variety of backup showcases listed by genre. If you are coming to the festival with only cash, include second- and third-string backups in your plans.
Starting with the Velveeta Room, every single showcase on my list was restricted to badges and wristbands. Even though most participating venues are relatively close to one another, I learned that walking from one showcase to another loses a lot of valuable time, especially since foot traffic was comparable to peak times during Mardi Gras.
Where a cover could be paid, there was usually a big line. Emo’s was a prime example early in the night. According to a shouting staff member, the wait for the cash line was “at least an hour” before the music even started. It was about 100 to 120 deep.
In one of a small number of free shows, a group of SXSW artists played short sets at Barcelona. Electro act Afrobots performed a hip hop-tinged dance set in matching Members Only jackets. It was more entertaining to look at them than to listen to the lackluster performance. I generally got what I paid for, including another free show at Troubadour with a forgettable first act and a disco group complete with disheartening falsetto singing.
That is not to say the street was not entertaining in its own right. I was hit on by a drunk younger woman, who had smoothed out a strip of skull-and-crossbones tape on my thigh before I knew what happened. I saw a man on a motorized scooter pulling a wooden platform holding a single lawn chair.
I also encountered Afrobots again, this time walking with a microphone behind a bicycle pulling a DJ, large speakers and its own light show. The man kept telling everyone to “take it to the streets.” Whatever that meant.
I even ran into cross-dressing Austin fixture Leslie. As always, he was happy to talk with the crowd and pose for provocative photos.
Though access to most shows was unlikely or impossible, many shows could be seen and heard from the street, including acts at the Ninety Proof Lounge and Habana Annex Backyard. While watching rock band Story of the Year from outside a chain link fence at the latter venue, a staff member opened the gate and let a group of us in right next to the stage for free. Singer Dan Marsala incited the crowd to jumping and pushing and put on a great show. Unfortunately, a mosh pit broke out in my midst and destroyed my tape recorder, which was knocked out of my pocket.
As I left downtown, the amount of litter in the street was unacceptable. This problem could have easily been avoided had trash cans been more available.
The bottom line: On Wednesday, options were already limited for those paying cash at SXSW. By Friday, even wristband holders were finding themselves on the outside of key shows. I won’t even try to get into anything Saturday night as a cash customer.
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SXSW scene: The French Legation party
Matthew Odam reports people are flowing in and out of the French Legation party downtown off Eighth Street - so much for RSVP-ing. It’s a rather small tented stage for such a large area.
Also, the longest line yet for booze, which costs a nominal fee. South by: It’s all about the music, except when it’s about the free or even cheap booze.
(Free ice cream from the “ice cream man,” as well.)
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SXSW breaking update: Liam Finn replaces Lemonheads tonight
An alert from SXSW tells us that Liam Finn will replace the Lemonheads in the 9 p.m. slot tonight at SXSW Live’s Bar Bar in the Austin Convention Center. No word on why the switch was made.
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SXSW scene: ZZ Top jams with the Cringe
The omnipresent Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top played with Rachael Ray’s husband’s band (John Cusimano of the Cringe) Saturday at the Beauty Bar during the Rachael Ray-hosted day party. (How could Rachael Ray’s hubster not be in a band called EVOO?)
They did a cover of John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey.”
The food at the party was delish, by the way: Seven-layer sliders, Mmmmmm.
(Billy Gibbons with the Cringe; photo by Peter Mongillo/American-Statesman)
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Review: Vampire Weekend
OMG! OMG! It’s Vampire Weekend! Otherwise known as The Presidents of the United States of America of SXSW 2008. Every year somebody is insanely hyped and then what happens to them? Oh, right. Amy Winehouse. That was last year? Never mind.
Playing SXSW the week after they were on “Saturday Night Live,” just as Artic Monkeys did a couple of years back, the nuclear-strength buzz (cover of Spin, new parents naming their children Ezra Koenig) could have sunk a band that believed a word of it. But Vampire Weekend simply came out on Antone’s stage Friday night, said nice things about our breakfast tacos and then played pretty much all of their debut album.
It’s a safe bet there’s not a shred of irony at play here. If Paul Simon’s”Graceland” had come out in 1975, this is what “Talking Heads: 77” would have sounded like — the indestructible beat of Soweto as interpreted by kids at a Martha’s Vineyard clambake. It’s ridiculously sunny and strikes me as the perfect disc to replace calliope as the soundtrack to every merry-go-round in the world.
After having already played the Spin party earlier in the day, the band opened with “Mansard Roof” and the place went nuts. “Campus,” with its intimation of faculty-student commingling, was next and then they pretty much plowed through the record, including “A-Punk,” and then the place really went nuts. As a live band they’re plenty capable for an outfit that’s been together all of a couple of years, but neither Koenig nor any of his bandmates yet have that can’t-avert-your-eyes charisma that natural stars have.
As a guitarist, Koenig says a lot while not playing all that much — few bands welcome and incorporate so much air in their arrangements. It is all but impossible to resist. So why do hipsters sound apologetic when they say they like them? Is it the whole cultural imperialism guilt thing or what?
But they seem like such nice boys, the fact that “Oxford Comma” has the F word in the lyric notwithstanding. They’re a fine indie band and if people expect something more, well, like the song says, “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.” (Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend performs Friday at Antone’s. Photo by Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
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Two minutes with Diplo at the Spin party
Friday’s punishing heat and sound problems could have derailed Diplo’s DJ set st Stubb’s during Spin’s afternoon party, but like the superstar tune spinner he is the Philly resident pulled through to keep the people-watching masses entertained, or close to it. The bathrooms at Stubb’s weren’t available, so the sidewalk out front had to work as the venue for Diplo to talk about playing for the beautiful people, his Mad Decent record label and surviving the Texas heat.
360: In so much as you have one, what’s the strategy for DJing a party like this versus an actual show?
Diplo: Nobody even cared when I was playing and from the monitor it seemed like only a bass frequency was coming out of the mixing board, so I figured I’d just play some random stuff. I had to play some psychedelic rock and garage rock but I also screwed around. After Vampire Weekend I was playing the “Coming To America” theme song just to be a (jerk), but nobody heard that one either.
Yeah, the people here were pretty aloof. You’ve got to be looking forward to doing some other parties then.
I’m leaving now to DJ with Santo Gold, play some music for her, then I’m gonna go hang out the rest of the day at the Jelly’s (NYC Texas) Garage where all the bands for my Mad Decent label are playing. Two of them missed their flights today and didn’t make it here but we’ve got Blackstar, Drop The Line, me and related artists like the Death Set and Black Ghosts.
How do you approach those shows versus what you just did here?
Oh, I just totally play the hits of today. All these people come from all different cities and all different scenes, whether it’s here in Austin or L.A. or down from Canada, New York, Baltimore, Philly … my people in Philly are telling me that this house party we did, everyone’s saying it was legendary.
When was that?
We just did it. That was last night till like 5 in the morning.
So how are you doing all this? In this heat you’ve got to be dead.
I’m just drinking water, man. I’m from Florida, this is easy. I’m just happy to be in some sunshine for a change.
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Review: Ponderosa Stomp showcase
It’s one of life’s piquant little mysteries how a myriad collection of has-beens, never-quite-weres and one-hit wonders can deliver such a satisfying package of entertainment at a forward-looking event like South by Southwest.
But for the third year running, the Ponderosa Stomp — the New Orleans-based traveling festival of roots music, soul, R&B, swamp pop and blues — served up a full plate of veteran performers who relished the chance to get onstage once more before a sweaty, dancing, beer-drinking, downright happy crowd. The festival exists, as their Web site says, to “celebrate the unsung heroes of rock ‘n’ roll.” And so they do. The Stomp is “all killer and no filler,” as they used to say.
The event ran all night at the Continental Club (the parent festival goes for a jam-packed two days next month in New Orleans), and I had other obligations around town and so was able to catch only a woefully small fraction of the festivities.
That was enough time, however, to see some sizzling performances from Herbert Wiley, guitarist Herman Hitson and Ralph “Soul” Jackson (“Soul is his name and soul is his game!” raved the overheated emcee). There wasn’t, alas, an opportunity to see the great Philly soul singer Barbara (“Yes, I’m Ready”) Mason or Little Freddie King or the Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indians.
Still, there was enough visual spectacle and charismatic, danceable music for a half dozen SXSW showcases. Between Herbert Wiley’s red zoot suit, Herman Hitson shredding notes on his vintage Strat and Ralph Jackson working the room like a tent-show preacher with the Devil breathing down his neck, it was hard to single out individual moments and performances.
But Hitson helped define the prevailing zeitgeist when he paused in the middle of a song to ponder the ineffable nature of the human heart: “She may look like dried-up hamburger to you, but she’s T-bone steak to someone else!” Even Cole Porter couldn’t have said it better.
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Review: Half Japanese
Jad Fair, the Michigan-native-now-Manor-based musician, is the sole constant member of the band Half Japanese. But the band started back in the mid-’70s as a collaboration between Jad and his brother David Fair. Their earliest material — the “Calling All Girls” 7-inch EP, the chaotic double LP debut “Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts” and the album “Loud” made with an expanded line-up — are considered stone classics of outsider rock art, possessing of a two dorks against the world quality that noise-nicks have been trying to chase ever since. David Fair has been absent from the band for years.
A good percentage of the classic Half Japanese lineup — the Brothers Fair, bassist Mark Jickling, saxophonist John Dreyfuss, drummer Rick Dreyfuss and guitarist John Moremen — played at 11 p.m. at Spiro’s Amphitheater Friday night. There’s always been a childlike quality to Half Japanese’s music, a mix of naive art and skilled musicians who really like naive art.
Jad played a tiny, toy-like electric guitar and David Fair (aging astoundingly well) jumped around like a little kid while the band cranked like the old pros they are (Yo La Tengo guitarist Ira Kaplan sat in on saxophone). The large crowd was, naturally, mighty nerd-heavy — not too many hipsters there to hear the next big thing. Attendees were there to hear the old thing than gave rise to a whole lot of the new things or inspired the band that then gave rise to the old things. It was surreal to hear these songs by these people in 2008 (and a little Half Japanese goes a long way), but it was certainly welcome.
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Review: Shelby Lynne
“I love these songs!”
Thus spoke Shelby Lynne onstage during her 9:30 p.m. show Friday at the Austin Music Hall. Her tone of voice sounded as though she were caught up in the revelatory moment for the first time. In point of fact, she has been living with the songs from her new album, “Just A Little Lovin’,” for some time now.
But the album’s music — songs, for the most part, made famous by Dusty Springfield — seems to still touch Lynne in ways that are as fresh, invigorating and unexpected to her as they are to the audience.
Lynne seems less to cover Springfield — her arrangements and vocal approach differ significantly from Springfield’s recordings — than to channel her. “I decided to make this record as a fun adventure, but I truly think she’s here with us,” Lynne said at one point.
If so, Springfield’s shade must surely have been applauding. Lynne’s rendition of “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” “I Only Want To Be With You,” Randy Newman’s “I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore” and other songs from the late singer’s canon were cool, smoky, sexy marvels.
Hiding mostly behind her mane of blonde hair, backlit through a scrim of artificial smoke until she almost seemed ghostlike herself, Lynne seemed to be singing from some inner landscape of emotion that many musicians never approach.
“I was terrified when I made this record. I thought it would be either the beginning or the end, because these songs were so amazing,” she said. Well, never mind. After voyaging across an ocean of uncertainty, Lynne has arrived on the distant shore safe and sound. Her stellar performance Friday night was proof of that.
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Review: Amy Lavere
There’s something downright diverting about the sight of a diminutive woman playing a big ol’ upright bass, but that’s the least of Amy Lavere’s appeal. Lavere, who performed Friday night as part of the Memphis showcase at Opal Divine’s Freehouse (and seemingly all over town in addition) is also the possessor of a chirping, malleable voice and a songwriter’s sensibility that can range from sunny to downright mordant. The combination can be arresting or even jarring.
Her two albums (the most recent having been produced by Jim Dickinson) don’t really prepare the listener for Lavere’s stage show. There is a patina of stylistic similarity between the album tracks that Lavere and her group mostly set aside onstage.
Her live set varied from crunchy punk/pop (“Washing Machine”) to Americana wistfulness (“Nightingale”) to rockabilly shuffles (her left-of-center cover of Michelle Shocked’s “If Love Was A Train”) and country with a pop sheen (“Take ‘Em or Leave ‘Em”).
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Review: Los Llamarada
By Friday night at SXSW, the serious fatigue begins to set in. Friends tell you, “I’m chilling at the hotel for a few hours” only to fall into a deep and peaceful slumber until the alarm wakes them the next morning. Sixth Street is littered with trash — fliers for shows unseen and plates which formerly carried tacos, hot dogs and pizza and what looks like a billion empty beer cans. Feet hurt, skin has been sunburned, the bands are beginning to blur together. One’s patience is sorely tested; if what you’re watching isn’t fascinating in the first two songs, one leaves. If more than one friends tells you, “You need to see this,” you go.
Such was the case Friday night at 10 p.m. at Spiro’s Amphitheater, the outdoor venue. Evangelista is the name of the current project from Carla Bozulich, whom you might recall from the Geraldine Fibbers. It’s a collaboration with several Montreal musicians associated with the same scene as Godspeed You Black Emperor. It’s smart, challenging music from an artist in whom I am interested.
But enough people said, “You need to see Los Llamarada right now,” a band playing on Spiro’s inside stage, that I headed inside.
Best decision I’ve made all festival.
Los Llamarada hail from Monterrey, Mexico, five middle-class-seeming kids, a few of whom don’t look old enough to drive. The guitar player, whose stage name is Johnny Noise (at least I assume it’s a stage name) has the word “noise!” written on his Strat copy. A gal with braces named Estrella Ek Sanza plays a tiny keyboard and sings now and then. The main vocalist (Sagan) jumps up and down yelling. The second guitarist looks about 15.
Their primitive-sounding punk belied a smart sense of junk culture roots. Keyboards surged and fell as Sagan would lean on them when Ek Sanza sang, then they would switch and Sagan would go back to freaking out. Johnny Noise’s lead guitar has a very specific clang which recalls noisemakers from the Germs to Sonic Youth and back. Why they are not yet national heroes (or at least on the cover of some magazine — Fader, I’m looking at you) is completely beyond me. Everyone’s jaws weres on the floor.
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Review: Flosstradamus and Kid Sister
After equally boisterous and playful sets by Chicago rappers The Cool Kids (“The brand new black Beastie Boys”) and DJ A-Trak (Kid Sister’s love interested) joined by the members of Chromeo, it was time for the commanding young emcee to take over. She didn’t hesitate, sharing the mic with her brother while electro-heavy beats full of keyboards and squiggly bass lines served as the frame for hits like “Control” that feature her Twista-on-estrogen lyrical flow. With a voice that’s either raspy beyond her years or overtaxed from working crowds into a frenzy (we’ll go with the latter), the Kanye West-endorsed rapper worked the stage like a tested veteran while chiding the crowd into more applause or urging them to dance. Not that they needed it. If you weren’t moving at this show it’s a good idea to make sure you still have a pulse.
(Kid Sister performs Saturday at Volume Saturday. Photo by Bret Gerbe/For AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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SXSW review: Moby
New York City DJ Moby has made name for himself by creating beautiful soundscapes that combine disparate musical selections such as Gregorian chants, downtempo beats, and ethereal electronic keyboard textures mixed with blues music samples from the early 20th century. Unfortunately his 12:30 a.m. DJ set late Friday evening at Vice felt slightly dated compared to some of the cutting edge music spinning from flavor of the month DJs appearing at SXSW like Diplo (M.I.A.’s producer) and Austin’s own DJ Chicken George.
After strolling in 15 minutes late, I gave Moby three songs to see if he could hold my attention enough to keep me from going down to check out Lucero’s 1 a.m. set at the Red Eyed Fly. Fifteen minutes passed (which felt like much longer) while Moby just cut up one unfamiliar song over and over, raising his arms to the sky during the song’s breaks. Although the audience definitely appeared to be feelin’ it, a 20-year-old electronic music fan who fed me at Coco’s Restaurant later explained that I may have not been captivated because “Moby is old (news). There are lots of other people out there doing fresh stuff. Better stuff.”
Words of clarity from the youth of America. Indeed, Moby’s show did not have a line stretching around the block, or require any difficulty to get in to see. There was no evidence from outside that just inside the doors of Vice was a little vegan artist — who has sold more than 9 million albums worldwide — spinning records to his adoring fans. Maybe I didn’t stick around long enough to be infected by the rhythm, but I was expecting a little more from the whale of a DJ.
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Review: She and Him, Destroyer
I missed the beginning of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s midnight set at the Parish, getting there just in time to hear their soulful cover of the Miracle’s “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” Ward and Deschanel, otherwise known as She and Him, had a backing band in tow, which joined them on stage for part of the set. Highlights included the toe-tapping “This Is Not A Test,” with the band sounding a lot like they just stepped out of George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass.” Deschanel’s vocals sounded even better live than they do on their new album, “Volume 1.”
Next on was New Pornographer Dan Bejar and his band, Destroyer (which was introduced by the keyboardist as Dan Bejar and the Destroyers). Technical difficulties prevented the band from starting right at 1 a.m., but once they got going Bejar and crew launched into a hard rocking set that had the fairly small crowd dancing along. This was my first time seeing Destroyer perform live, and I was surprised that the feel of the show leaned more toward classic rock (in a good way), without too much of Bejar’s vocals, and less toward the operatic, lyric laden vibe of 2006’s “Destroyer’s Rubies.” Guitars ruled the day, with Bejar often turning his back to the crowd as he conferred with his drummer.
(Zooey Deschanel, one half of She and Him, plays Friday night at the Parish. Photo by Kelly West/American-Statesman)
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Review: David Dondero
Singer-songwriter David Dondero, who just released his new album “Simple Love” on Conor Oberst’s Team Love label, took the stage at the Habana Calle 6 patio at 11 p.m. Friday. Dondero’s emotional and sometimes humorous songs take you from one end of the country to the other, and when he plays live he embodies the spirit of the songs with a quavering voice and understated guitar work.
Singing about everything from relationships gone awry to eating po’ boys in New Orleans, Dondero comes across as a cup-half-empty kind of guy, but one who is going to drink every last drop. Highlights included several songs off of the new record, as well as a backing band (he has appeared by himself in the past) that filled out the set with a solid country rock sound.
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Review: Heloise and the Savoir Faire
Forget for a minute that this is the band that Elijah Wood is in town to promote (their forthcoming album is being released on Wood’s Simian Records label). While Wood was in attendance, Heloise and the Savoir Faire are their own band, from their raucous disco-rock sound to Heloise’s backup singers/dancers, who began the 9 p.m. show at the Ale House donning kimonos and white face paint.
The crowd loved every minute of the highly theatrical performance as the band made its way through a set that ranged in sound from thumping disco to more synth-heavy dance rock tunes. One highlight of the set was what Heloise described as “a song about spring break,” where she and one of her backup singers acted out a comedic encounter between a middle-age man and a college girl visiting Mexico.
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Review: Petty Booka, Ketchup Mania and Girl in a Coma
I only managed to catch the last two songs of Japanese ukulele duo Petty Booka’s midnight set Friday, by the time I negotiated the nerve-wracking downtown traffic, found a place to park and ran to Elysium. But they made it worth the effort of crossing back over the river after earlier shows at Jovita’s, to briefly enjoy some pretty harmonies and a little taste of the surreal.
It was pretty strange hearing two very high soprano voices earnestly singing Richard Thompson’s dark “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight,” but backed by mandolin, guitar, bass and fiddle, Petty Booka sounded quite good, with a nice vocal blend. Thompson, with his dry sense of humor, would probably have been amused.
When the duo announced they had one more song, the audience cried out as one a disappointed “AWWWWWWW,” which was also a little strange, because the crowd was predominantly made up of guys who looked like they would be more prone to yelling at a sporting event than sighing at a ukulele concert. Petty and Booka (that’s what they go by — each is the second woman in the duo’s history to be Petty or Booka) flashed grateful smiles, looking fetching in their matching navy cowgirl outfits with red piping and navy-blue straw cowboy hats. The final number was a light-hearted one that suited their airy voices, although it wasn’t a song I’d expected to hear covered at SXSW: Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime.” The band bounced along cheerily, the mandolin player picked out a sweet solo, and Petty and Booka’s harmonies were like whipped cream and sugary strawberries. The crowd applauded wildly, and Petty and Booka waved and screamed excitedly “We love Austin!,” then exited the stage to more cheers while the band played the final measures.
The crowd dispersed quickly, some to the merchandise table where CDs seemed to be moving quickly. One guy was singing “In the Summertime” as he headed toward the exit, and his friend said “Hey, weren’t you just singing that earlier today?”
Perhaps Mungo Jerry has somehow once again entered the zeitgeist.
The mood was not nearly so festive 15 or 20 minutes later, when Friday’s final Japan Night band, Ketchup Mania, appeared. A respectable-sized audience reassembled in front of the stage, still predominantly male, but the air of gentility had evaporated, perhaps in keeping with the band’s sound. Despite the cute name, Ketchup Mania played monotonous speed-metal-punk, distinguished only by the shrieking vocals of female vocalist Hiro, who looked more fashion-y than punk in a black mini dress covered with dangling metal thingies. Four songs was really all I could take, especially since so many guys were smoking in the airless room that I was starting to feel sick.
It was a lot quicker leaving downtown, fortunately, and I managed to make it back to Jovita’s for four compelling songs by San Antonio alternative-rock trio Girl in a Coma. The median age of the audience seemed to have decreased significantly since earlier in the evening. After 1 a.m., there were a lot of women who looked to be in their 20s, like Girl in a Coma bassist Jenn Alva, drummer Phanie Diaz and singer-guitarist Nina Diaz (Phanie’s sister). They named their band after the Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma,” and had some of the Smiths’ dark, swirling quality, but Nina Diaz’s guitar style showed more of a slashing punk intensity — no wonder Joan Jett became such a fan, she signed them to her label — while Alva’s basslines were moodily melodic. Nina Diaz’s magnificent powerful, murky voice was often more like another instrument, conveying emotion and adding to the melancholy textures rather than delivering lyrics. Her complete involvement in the music made her great to watch, too.
Although the music was full of angst, the three women seemed terribly sweet. Alva thanked the audience sincerely for having come to see them when so many other things were going on. And when she started the audience singing “Happy Birthday” to Nina Diaz, the singer looked like she might be blushing behind her curtain of long bangs.
Having already developed a striking style and presence at such an early stage, Girl in a Coma seems likely to have an interesting career ahead.
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Review: New Bloods
Portland, Ore., punk rock band New Bloods barely had a discernible pulse during their 9 p.m. Friday performance at Emo’s IV Lounge. The band took so much time setting up their gear that they started 15 minutes late. Turns out their late start was just the first in a series of missteps that showed New Bloods has a lot to learn when it comes to being a professional, rock-solid touring entity.
New Bloods — drummer Adee Robeson, violinist Osa Atoe and bassist Cassia Gammill — possessed a spark in their live show that does not come across on their K Records recordings. Their set’s few interesting moments were mainly propelled by Atoe and Robeson’s ability to sing and play with great dexterity. Yet, the tenor and pitch of their vocal delivery was painful at times. The young womens’ take on punk rock was so unique — and their backgrounds so disparate (Gammill was living in New Orleans when Katrina hit) — this writer desperately wanted to root for them to be great. Sadly, the girls’ music never rose up past what felt like an artistic experiment that seemed to have a hard time captivating the handful of people in the audience.
If there had been a song with even one memorable refrain, it would have been detailed here. But there was no aspect of New Bloods’ set that you could take away and long to hear again. Let’s hope the multi-cultural, queer identifying band will improve with age; that they will allow their subcultural experiences to inform their writing even more (punk rock can be patriarchal and monolithic in its culture). With a little work, New Bloods could breath some welcome new life into punk rock. They’ve only been a band for a few years, and it shows.
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Review: Foreign Born
The sometimes moody but reasonably catchy pop of Foreign Born is like playing the most frustrating game of Name That Reference: Echo and the Bunnymen? The Smiths? Fine enough. They did a bunch of new songs Friday, and I was frankly too busy getting jostled by 9,000 impatient Vampire Weekend fans to pay much attention to it. Not their fault. They can always say they opened for Vampire Weekend. Which is better than closing for them.
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Review: Basia Bulat
She’s pretty, she’s got a great voice and a remarkably propulsive groove going for a singer-songwriter with a largely acoustic band — Basia Bulat could be trouble. The young singer from Toronto started a capalla, then brought her band out (including ukulele, fiddle and her brother on drums) for a pretty remarkable set at Antone’s Friday, drawing largely from her Rough Trade album, “Oh, My Darling” but making room for local favorite Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End,” which was cool in more ways than I can describe.
Aforementioned amazing lead vocal voice aside, there were also some pretty great three-part harmonies. “Snakes and Ladders” and the album’s title track were standards, but the whole thing went by much too quickly — partly because Bulat was fussing (politely, ‘cause she’s Canadian) about the mix in the monitors. She might play harpsicord now and then, but this energetic, charismatic and extremely talented woman rocks.
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Review: Bear in Heaven
Brooklyn’s Bear in Heaven, who had a crowd of “probably the most people we’ve played in front of” Friday, according to vocalist-keyboardist-soundscape artist Jon Philpot, have the whole early Floyd/Eno/Joy Division/New Order thing down. And the Antone’s crowd (almost all of whom were there to see Vampire Weekend three hours later) were fairly appreciative of the band’s sound, coming from from two (I think) analog synths and propulsive guitar (one time with an E-bow, an effect that seems to be making something of a comeback).
The grandiose sound spotlights Philpot’s expressive tenor — which was intentionally sodden with reverb in the mix Friday night — but I wanted more ideas completed when it came to songwriting and structure. Just when they got something cool going, it stopped. Maybe that’s a function of the short sets at SXSW, maybe not.
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Review: Portastatic
Portastatic’s 8 p.m. set at the Parish appropriately opened the Merge Records showcase (he is a co-founder of the label) with a 40-minute set of make-out songs for the fragile-hearted, executed as only frontman Mac McCaughan knows how.
McCaughan played a slew of songs from his prolific, 20-plus-year recording career. “San Andreas” melodically circled over its perfectly understated guitar riff. “Impolite Cheers,” “Be Still Please” and “I Wanna Know Girls” reminded fans of just how lyrically clever McCaughan can be. (On the last line of “I Wanna Know Girls” he even lyrically samples Public Enemy’s “My Uzi Weighs A Ton” for one line, increasing the power in his ode to mothers and daughters.)
The set’s song choice was well crafted; it built in the middle while still possessing an air of being off-the-cuff. McCaughan’s crestfallen vocal delivery creaked and cracked in all the right places. The set’s varying degrees of emotion felt as if he’d written the songs especially for you as recovery fuel to get you through your latest heartbreak.
Portastatic is actually McCaughan’s side project to his legendary slack rock underground band, Superchunk. Yet Portastatic has played many more shows and released many more records over the past several years than Superchunk.
Friday evening’s show was evidence of a slight downside: since Superchunk has been on an extended “qui-a-tus” for years now, McCaughan’s short set felt like a teasing appetizer. One diehard McCaughan/Superchunk fan prayed aloud that the three Superchunk bandmates would emerge from the stage wings (one of their last public performances was SXSW a few years ago). But that longed-for Superchunk reunion was a dessert that never got baked.
McCaughan’s set displayed his forte for working happy-sad-happy-sad emotional land mines into his songs the way regular songwriters use the verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Looking at the back-catalog of all of the artists playing at SXSW, McCaughan’s discography and early evening set proved he is one of the strongest and most prolific songwriters in rock ‘n ‘roll.
There must be an alternate, parallel universe where McCaughan is on some kind of wonderful, heavenly “pop” radio station 24/7/365. (If you discover this universe, please e-mail me directions on how I can fold-space to get there.)
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Reviews: Krayolas and Tex-Mex Experience
SXSW helps Austin stake its claim to being the live musical capital of the world, but San Antonio certainly stepped up to show its mettle at Jovita’s Friday night with fantastic sets by the Krayolas at 9 and Shawn Sahm’s Tex-Mex Experience at 10.
Rock ‘n’ roll reunions can be stodgy affairs, but after some two decades out of the limelight, the Krayolas have clearly gotten back together to have themselves a blast and show the audience an equally good time.
Guitarist/lead singer Hector Saldana joked about the Krayolas having started as “a little teeny bop band.” One could only wish that boy bands these days had as much musical talent. Saldana, drummer David Saldana (his brother) and lead guitarist Van Baines harmonized beautifully, showing how they got their reputation as “the Tex-Mex Beatles” in the late ‘70s. A cover of the Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back” was downright gorgeous. Even better was a rocking cover of the Dave Clark Five’s “Any Way You Want It,” although Hector introduced it by jesting “We always like to learn one on stage.”
The Krayolas had plenty of strong material of their own, including “Nolan Street Bridge” and the surf-rock instrumental “Alamo Dragway,” which showed off Baines’ soloing as well as the tight rhythmic mesh between his guitar and Hector Saldana’s, and Joe Sarli’s rumbling bass.
Their friend and mentor Augie Meyers, of Sir Douglas Quintet fame, joined them partway through the set to play keyboards on songs such as his “We’ll Never Tell” and “Little Fox.” Hector Saldana announced proudly that their new bilingual re-recording of “Little Fox” with Meyers has become a “local hit,” and it certainly was irresistible.
The Krayolas seemed to be selling a ton of CDs after the showcase, and female fans converged on Hector as he was trying to take care of equipment and merchandise. He had joked that whenever the band enters a nightclub now, “We raise the median age by 30 years,” but he clearly still has star quality.
Shawn Sahm and the Tex-Mex Experience offered a different kind of time warp, frequently recalling the Sir Douglas Quintet while also making you think history has been changed to allow the accordion to take its rightful place as the lead instrument in ‘70s country-rock. Shawn Sahm, the son of Sir Douglas Quintet great Doug Sahm, is a terrific lead guitarist, but he mostly bashed away on rhythm, grinning like mad, to leave plenty of room for dazzling accordionist Michael Guerra on everything from the power ballad “The One and Only” to rave-ups such as “My Little Groover,” “Why Doncha,” “One Shot” and “Too Little Too Late” (written by Shawn and his late father).
Frontman Nunie Rubio is the kind of powerful vocalist who seems to throw his entire body into his singing. He got terrific harmony support from bassist Neal Walker as well as Sahm and Guerra. Guerra provided beautiful high harmonies on a cover of Freddy Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” that had the crowd swooning and singing along.
SXSW showcases don’t usually generate a lot of singalongs, or a lot of dancing, with so many industry and hipster types in attendance. But the wooden floor in front of the stage at Jovita’s was vibrating from all the moving feet Friday, especially when the Tex-Mex Experience launched into “Open Up Your Heart.”
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Scene: Rachael Ray and John Cusimano
The Food Network’s Rachael Ray may be most well known for her love of things culinary, but she loves music, too. And Ray, who took up drum lessons at 37, and her husband John Cusimano, whose band The Cringe is playing SXSW, both love Austin. So it doesn’t seem so unusual that Ray is hosting the Feedback day party on Saturday, which includes her SXSW Seven-Layer Slider burgers and a band named Holy (expletive).
“We have very eclectic taste. We listen to everything,” Ray said in an interview with the American-Statesman in Austin Friday night. “We are both devout followers of the Foo Fighters. We both love John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, opera and indie rock. That’s what I like about Austin, it’s not just one scene.”
Ray first discovered Austin a number of years ago after she saw Bob Schneider on “Austin City Limits” and decided to make a trip to Texas. “I wanted to come here because it was the live music capital of the world. And, I wanted to see Bob Schneider,” Ray said. “He’s just such a great musician, a great storyteller. We (Ray and Cusimano) were both listening to his music on the plane on the way down.”
Though Schneider will not be playing the Feedback party, a number of emerging bands, including Scissors for Lefty, Autovaughn, the Stills and, of course, The Cringe, will be performing for the invitation-only event at the Beauty Bar on Saturday afternoon. Ray and Cusimano selected the lineup themselves, citing the Sirius “Left of Center” radio source for discovering much of the music.
“We are psyched about the lineup. We were lucky enough to get the Raveonettes, which was great,” Cusimano said. The showcase also features DJ sets from Efrem Ramirez, better known as Pedro from “Napoleon Dynamite.”
A lunch menu by Ray will include the aforementioned SXSW seven-layer sliders (burgers based on seven-layer dip), macaroni and cheese suiza and barbecued ribs.
Ray and Cusimano are looking forward to their first SXSW. They hope to see Vampire Weekend, as well as the Vines and Bob Schneider.
When in Austin, Ray and Cusimano stay at the Hotel San Jose and hit the South Congress shops and restaurants, from the vintage shops to Service Menswear to Jo’s for coffee. Ray also likes the coffee at Cissi’s Market. “We’re going home with a pound of coffee and some peanut butter from there,” Ray said. Both hope to eat at favorite spots including Shady Grove, Iron Works, Home Slice, Guero’s and the Salt Lick.
The September issue of her magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray will feature the visit to Austin on the cover and include recipes from the showcase.
— Meredith Hight
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