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Monday, March 9, 2009
Behind the SXSW Buzz: Alaska In Winter
Sure, he gave a video interview in the distinctive accent on his MySpace blog, but Bethancourt, who performs idiosyncratic electronica under the name Alaska in Winter, was merely in Albuquerque and looking to amuse himself when he recorded it. “That’s boredom. It’s what happens in New Mexico,” said Bethancourt by phone from New York City. “You end up doing stuff like that and you have no idea why. I can’t be in New Mexico for too many weeks without going crazy.”
It’s not his first act of desperation inspired by the Land of Enchantment. An Albuquerque resident since fourth grade, Bethancourt ran out of his art school scholarship in 2004 and so he aimlessly set out for an unlikely destination: Alaska. He spent the fall in a cabin on the outskirts of Homer, on the state’s southern coast. The 5,000-person town was childhood home to Jewel and, according to a popular local bumper sticker, “a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.”
“It’s very isolated. A lot of really rugged, burly mountain men live in the homes they’ve built themselves. It was a totally different lifestyle,” said Bethancourt. “You’d look out the window and see nothing but pine trees and glaciers. You’re more likely to run into a moose than a person.”
It was in Homer that Bethancourt crafted “Dance Party in the Balkans,” a concoction of electronica, spare melodies and Eastern European tones and strings. He used a laptop and a keyboard to conjure up the album, which would later be fleshed out with contributions from guest musicians, including Zach Condon, of indie folk band Beirut. Though it wasn’t as loved as 2007’s other breakout recording by a lonely man in a cabin in the middle of nowhere — Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” — music blog cognoscenti stood up and took notice. And just as that paean to lost love was unplanned, so too did Bethancourt make his sojourn north without any intention of writing songs.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, honestly. I didn’t go to make music at all. I was just taking a break from everything I had done in my life prior to that. It was like going to rehab,” recounted Bethancourt. “But once winter started to set in I got a crazy itch and I couldn’t stay away from making music.”
It wasn’t long before Bethancourt’s wanderlust reasserted itself. This time he landed in Berlin, where he absorbed the techno influences of a city with clubs that stay open for 72 straight hours on weekends.
“It’s the craziest city I’ve ever been to. That city never sleeps, ever. It’s common to come home from a club at four in the afternoon,” said Bethancourt. “Being there helped bring out that poppier, dancier stuff that was in my brain, waiting to come out.”
The resulting album, 2008’s “Holiday,” was a danceable, pop-oriented record that drew comparisons to M83 and Daft Punk and praise from Spin and Pitchfork. Then there were the unusual live shows — Bethancourt performs solo alongside a recorded video projection in which he plays the song’s other instruments. As the real deal jams out on a keytar, his doppelgangers behind him, arranged in a Brady Bunch grid, follow along.
Bethancourt insists that his tendency to record albums in exotic locales isn’t purposeful. He has no plans to venture to the moon or the Sahara for his next album, which currently looks like “a mixture of Polyphonic Spree sing-alongs and little hints of 80s metal.”
“I haven’t really made any plans,” he said. “I’ll see where life takes me.”
So long as that’s not New Mexico.
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Metallica at SXSW?
Will James, Lars, Kirk and the other guy play a “surprise” show at Stubb’s ( a la Beastie Boys a few years ago) Friday night March 20? You can pretty much bet on it if my rumor radar is up. The gig will be part of the “Guitar Hero Metallica” showcase. There’s an empty slot of the schedule from 10 p.m. until midnight. Metallica is featured on a special edition of Guitar Hero which comes out later this month.
A higher up at Guitar Hero, when asked if the Metallica gig was happening, would only email back the non-denial “ummmmm.” But an insider at Stubb’s said they’ve been told to expect Metallica. The band recently flew back from Europe one gig short after James Hetfield caught a stomach bug, so they should be well-rested by March 20 and ready to promote their tails off.
Anybody hear any more about this hot rumor, which was first reported on the Brooklyn Vegan blog about six weeks ago?
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Kings of Leon will likely be one ACL headlner
Our friends at Austin Soundcheck first picked up on this - Billboard is reporting that Kings of Leon will be one of the headliners at both Lollapallooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festival this year.
Austin City Limits has six headliners, technically. It seems very unlikely that Kings of Leon are the biggest band on that bill. Very.
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New Austin label launches at SXSW
Kevin Wommack’s Loophole Management will no longer need to shop such artists as Los Lonely Boys, Gary Clark Jr., Sahara Smith and the Steps for record deals. All those are now with Playing In Traffic Records, the new imprint from Wommack and partner Whitaker Elledge.
The label launch will be celebrated with a party from 3-6pm on Thursday, March 19th at GSD&M advertising agency and an official SXSW showcase on Friday, March 20th at Maggie Mae’s Gibson room. Both events will feature performances from the roster of Austin acts.
In a press release, Wommack said, “Whether it’s the change in the business of music, the economy or the growth of all things digital, never before has the independent spirit been so strong in the world of music. With Playing in Traffic, we are embracing this self-starting ingenuity and offering our artists a creative and nurturing safe music haven where they can continue to grow and flourish.”
The label will be distributed nationally by RED.
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