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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
SXSW preview: The Watson Twins
To witness Leigh and Chandra Watson perform side by side is to know instantly that the two sisters were born four minutes apart in 1975.
It’s not even the eerie sight of two nearly identical women singing that tips you off — although there’s a definite element of double vision to watching the Watson Twins take to the stage. No, it’s their voices — the duo croon the kind of perfectly matched pastoral harmonies that you could hear only from identical twins, or by cloning Natalie Merchant.
They received their highest profile job backing Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis on her solo debut, 2006’s ‘Rabbit Fur Coat,’ adding a dash of ’70s folk-pop harmonies to Lewis’ country-fried soul. On debut album ‘Fire Songs,’ they evoked Linda Ronstadt and Neil Young across 11 tracks of spare, naked Americana. ‘Fire Songs’ was simple and unadorned. It was pure. It was quiet. It was … a little boring sometimes, actually. Certainly quite good, just a little anemic.
Somewhat surprisingly, Leigh Watson kind of agrees.
‘We were backup singers for 10 years, so we were very confident letting that bolder part of our singing come out in that role. But when we started to move to the forefront and do our own thing, I think there was a sort of timidness,’ she says. ‘And we knew we could tackle that singer-songwriter Americana thing, which was a very comfortable place for us.’
The sisters are substantially less timid now. At South by Southwest, they’re promoting this month’s release of sophomore album ‘Talking To You, Talking To Me,’ a smoky, sexy soul record that unfolds gracefully and seductively, paying homage to R&B greats like Candi Staton and Shirley Brown. If ‘Fire Songs’ was an album for Sunday afternoons spent reclining on the patio after church — and it was — ‘Talking To You, Talking To Me’ is a late-night record, an ideal companion to starlight and Stolichnaya.
The songs are concerned with love and devotion, heartbreak and experience. Muscular instrumentation, from the gospel organ on ‘Devil In You’ to the languid electric guitar on ‘Forever Me,’ comes courtesy of members of Everest and My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster. And the twins largely abandon singing harmonies in favor of having each song’s writer sing lead vocals, with the other twin going to bat as the backing vocalist.
The new direction, Leigh Watson says, is all a result of the confidence that’s come with the Watson Twins’ gradually blooming career.
‘When we started writing these songs we had gained confidence in ourselves and our singing and weren’t afraid to push the boundaries and explore other parts of our ranges and other parts of our voices,’ she says. ‘We felt like this record was a real dialogue between the two of us’ — hence the title — ‘and that we were on the same page and having the same conversation. Whenever we agree on something we know we have the right idea, and we both had these soulful ideas at the same time.’
The Watsons started their singing careers early, joining their church choir at 8 years old. Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, they were singled — doubled? — out by their choir teacher, who recognized their talents. They picked up guitars and songwriting in high school, and started dabbling with playing in bands at the University of Evansville.
But they really found their groove in Los Angeles, where they moved after college and quickly became integrated with the burgeoning Silver Lake music scene. They marveled at an environment where they’d see Beck or Elliott Smith at the grocery store, and performed with other area artists including Slydell, Orphan Train and Rilo Kiley. The Los Angeles environment helped them foster connections, but when it came time to assemble the songs on ‘Talking To You, Talking To Me,’ they had to steal away from its multitude of diversions.
‘Recording in L.A. is sometimes difficult, because it’s all “Oh, we have a meeting,” or “Oh, we’re going to dinner now,” or “Oh, I have to go pick my boyfriend up.” We’re always busy and the people we work with are always busy. So we needed to pick a place and time and not have any of the distractions of our lives.’
So they took a page from the Bon Iver playbook, and departed for a cabin in the Sierra Mountains, just outside Yosemite National Park, with little but some mikes and guitars, a drum kit and a copy of Garage Band. Across four days in a primitive environment, they recorded the demos that formed the backbone of ‘Taking To You, Talking To Me.’
‘There was no phone, no TV, no nothing. It was just us in the middle of the mountains in a cabin that was built in 1900,’ she says. ‘There were bats and squirrels and bugs and us. That was key.’
Not that ‘Talking To Me, Talking To You’ sounds rustic. It’s an atmospheric, warm record, more cosmopolitan than cowboy. But there is a purity to it that reflects those rural sessions, and, more the point, nicely encapsulates the sisters’ straightforward, nigh-biological motivations for playing music.
‘We do it because, like for anyone who plays music hopefully, it’s part of us and we need to do it like we need to eat,’ Leigh Watson says. ‘It’s part of your soul that you feel like you have to feed. For me, I’ve tired to step away from it before and gotten discouraged, but you always come back to it.’
9 p.m. Saturday at Central Presbyterian Church, 200 E. Eighth St.
If you like the Watson Twins, check out:
1. The Living Sisters
2. Dana Falconberry
3. The Chapin Sisters
4. The Trishas
5. Shelby Lynne
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SXSW preview: Man or Astro-Man?
For a rock ‘n’ roll fan of a certain age, interviewing Brian Teasley — also known more fancifully as ‘Birdstuff’ — is a little like interviewing the man who once played your favorite department store Santa Claus.
For years the drummer for the surf rock band Man or Astro-Man maintained in interviews that he — alongside fellow core members Brian ‘Starcrunch’ Causey and Robert ‘Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard’ DelBueno — was an alien life form, stranded on Earth after a crash landing.
The band adhered staunchly to that back-story as other members — with similarly drive-in movie-evoking names like Dr. Deleto and Cap’n Zeno — came and went and Causey departed to spearhead a record label. As Teasley recalls, the band once made a journalist from U.K. music magazine Melody Maker interview some rubber puppets they bought at a truck stop, all in the name of verisimilitude. An actor might call that ‘method publicity.’
‘What appeals to you when you’re 19 doesn’t necessarily appeal to you when you’re 37,’ says Teasley, recalling the moment with a hearty laugh. ‘It’s important to remember that we were literally teenagers when we started the band.’
Teasley speaks openly about his human identity these days. For someone who grew up reading the aforementioned oddball interviews, it’s a little bizarre to peek behind the veil. Unsettling, even.
But then, the essence of Man or Astro-Man these days could be summed up in two words: older and wiser. When the members play the South by Southwest Music Festival — hot on the heels of a colorful Sunday night engagement at the Mohawk — it will be among their first reunion gigs after reforming earlier this year. The band — a longtime cult favorite with a moderately sized but highly dedicated audience — has plans to play a number of dates to raise money for friend and Louisville, Ky., musician Jason Noble, currently undergoing treatment at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
For Teasley, the reunion — aside from a one-off favor to record label Touch and Go in 2006, the first show to feature all three original members since 1998 — has given him an excuse to revisit his band’s legacy.
‘I think for every band there’s a flashpoint where they’re at their best, and when you’re going to do some sort of reunion thing, you have to go back and find out when that flashpoint is,’ says Teasley. ‘For most bands, it’s their first period. You hardly ever go back and say, ‘Oh man, the 17th Belly record, that’s the one to beat.’ But our high period was kind of the midway, about three or four records into our careers.’
Mid-way through Man or Astro-Man’s career found them one of the most prolific, hard-working rock bands of the 1990s. Formed in Auburn, Ala., in 1992, Man or Astro-Man started its life as an instrumental surf guitar throwback outfit, the spawn of three 19-year-olds who clearly spent substantial amounts of time poring over the beach-bum riffs of the Ventures and Dick Dale.
The band slowly garnered a cult following as it perfected a winking, self-effacing B-movie aesthetic intended as a counter to the hopelessly earnest alternative rock that dominated mainstream radio. They incorporated samples and sound bites from forgotten science fiction TV shows and movies into their music, played theatrical live shows featuring costumes, video projections and Tesla coils, and grew ever more adventurous on their albums, using synthesizers and, in one case, a computer printer.
‘We started this band when alternative as a marketing term broke, and you had all these bands like Live taking themselves way too seriously. We started out to take the (mickey) out of all of that,’ says Teasley. ‘So I never thought of our band as high art, but I never thought of any bands as high art. Ninety percent of bands out there are like, “Hey, here’s a new version of four white kids from the suburbs that’s a little different from the other versions!” ‘
But though Man or Astro-Man had a shtick, it was hardly a shtick band. Throughout the ’90s they maintained a work schedule that more closely resembled that of an emergency room doctor or a Manhattan investment banker than a group of musicians. They released eight albums in as many years alongside an impressive slate of singles and played as many as 280 dates a year. By 2001, the inevitable happened — they burned out.
‘Our motto back then was “Twice the effort for half the results,” ’ jokes Teasley. ‘To be honest, we just didn’t know better. I thought every band woke up at 10 a.m., did an interview, then played on college radio, then played an in-store, and then played two shows that night at a small club. And then overnight drove to the next town. I thought that’s what every band did. And come to find out it’s not.’
Perpetually unable to say ‘no’ — Man or Astro-Man gave interviews to every small press zine from coast to coast and even allowed under-21 fans to attend their soundchecks for free — the band eventually packed it in. Teasley went on to play drums for the Polyphonic Spree and St. Vincent.
But while Man or Astro-Man receded into the background, the band’s fan base remained, and grew larger and more fervent as the years ticked by. Requests for a reunion trickled in from time to time, but Teasley, a cynic who felt rock ‘n’ roll reunions were often tiresome affairs, resisted — ‘Like with girlfriends, once you part ways with bands there’s not a whole lot of reason to revisit it,’ he says.
When the opportunity to help a friend in need presented itself, Teasley began to change his tune — and it didn’t hurt that he could look at the indie rock landscape over the last few years and spy a few reunions that were far from embarrassments. Now he’s looking forward to picking up the drumsticks, and while Man or Astro-Man has no plans to record new material, his enthusiasm for the band’s extensive back catalog is almost palpable.
‘This is going to sound awful, and I don’t really mean it, but I was kind of glad Joe Strummer died before the Clash got back together. I always thought it was kind of crazy to say, ‘If you loved us young and energetic and inspired, you’ll love us old and tired and fat!” says Teasley. ‘But Jesus Lizard, Gang of Four, Pixies … they are arguably as great of bands reunited as they were in their heyday. We’ve worked really hard and tried to make sure it’s as good as it was and maybe even better, not to sound totally corny about it.’
12:30 a.m. Thursday at Club de Ville, 900 Red River St.
If you like Man or Astro-Man, check out:
1. Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds
2. The Novas
3. SambaDa
4. Best Coast
5. The Death Set
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SXSW scene report: BMI Howdy Party at Stubb’s
Singer-songwriter Radney Foster (“Angel Flight,” “Nobody Wins”) spotted listening to Caitlin Rose and Rey Fresco in the throng at the annual BMI Howdy Party Tuesday evening at Stubb’s. Crowded scene around the inside stage as Motorhead and their opening act concluded a thunderous soundcheck in the amphitheater outside.
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SXSW preview: Carrie Rodriguez
Carrie Rodriguez’s ‘Love and Circumstance’ (due April 13) effortlessly personalizes a dozen Americana masterworks. The Austin resident, whose career launched with Chip Taylor (‘Wild Thing’) at SXSW a decade ago, found creative inspiration in the vaults. ‘On my last record, there were pressures to write songs that would get played on the radio,’ Rodriguez, 31, says. ‘I thought this was a nice opportunity to take a step back to look at what songs are really important to me and songs like I want to write.’
American-Statesman: Has it been a natural transition from accompanying Chip to being your own bandleader? Carrie Rodriguez: In the beginning, it probably wasn’t that easy, but I’ve been on my own now for about three years. The first year was a little intimidating, being the front and center person who talks a lot more, but now I’m used to it.
Why a covers album after only two solo albums? I had a few covers in my live shows, and every night someone would say, ‘I want an album with that Spanish song on it!’ I tried to put (‘La Punalada Trapera’) on my last record, but it didn’t fit with all original music. A lot of them are tunes that I grew up listening to, that I feel are my roots growing up here in Texas.
There’s a personal tie to the album title, ‘Love and Circumstance.’ Yeah, that came from the song my father (singer-songwriter David Rodriguez) wrote (‘When I Heard Gypsy Davy Sing’). It’s from the last verse: ‘What makes a man forsake his wife and his family and his home? What raging love, what circumstance, what urge to be alone?’ It’s an autobiographical tune about him leaving Texas and moving to Holland. All of the tunes deal with love in its various stages and circumstances.
Is it difficult to sing that story? It’s emotional. The song’s about him leaving his family to follow his own path with music and the repercussions involved. It’s pretty heavy for me to be singing that. I also feel like it’s therapeutic. It’s a beautiful thing that he wrote it and sent it to me.
How did you balance putting your stamp on these songs while staying true to their original spirit? I’d listen to a song, and then throw away the recording. I’d play it until I forgot that I didn’t write it (laughs). Sometimes I’ll drastically change the chords without even realizing. It’s really fun when I hear other people take tunes and make them their own.
What did you learn about the craft of songwriting while recording these songs? I certainly got a lot of inspiration as far as the type of songs I want to write. I’m most drawn to simple lyrics. The Townes Van Zandt song (‘Rex’s Blues’) is so simple, but so profound. I was listening to (Austin disc jockey) Larry Monroe on KUT last summer, and I heard the line, ‘Ain’t no dark ‘til something shines.’ It just leapt out of the radio. I was going through a really tough personal thing, and that line made everything make sense. You’ve got to experience the lows to appreciate the highs.
1 a.m. Wednesday at the Ghost Room, 304 W. Fourth St.
If you like Carrie Rodriguez, check out:
1. Ben Sollee
2. Cary Brothers
3. The Belleville Outfit
3. Jakob Dylan and Three Legs (featuring Neko Case and Kelly Hogan)
5. The Low Anthem.
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SXSW preview: Matt Morris
If any single word summed up Matt Morris, it’d probably have to be ‘honest.’ If any two did the trick, they’d be ‘honest’ and ‘affable’ — much to my own relief.
Ten minutes into my interview with the 30-year-old Denver singer-songwriter, I imply that Morris has spent the better part of his life on the periphery of celebrity. As a member of the cast of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ from 1991 to 1995, he toured the country and performed in front of millions. He kept in touch with former Mousketeers Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, co-writing songs with both, including Kelly Clarkson’s hit ‘Miss Independent.’ Even Morris’ dad, Gary, was a successful, gold-certified country artist in the ’80s, with whom Morris made his singing debut on-stage as a child.
Still, I’m immediately conscious that I might have made a faux pas employing the word ‘periphery,’ as if to demean Morris’ own work. With an amiable chuckle, Morris cuts me off before I can backtrack.
‘It’s OK to say I was on the periphery of celebrity,’ Morris says. ‘To be honest, that’s completely accurate.’
Maybe so, but that’s certainly not the case anymore. Since releasing sophomore album ‘When Everything Breaks Open’ in January — co-produced by longtime friend and creative partner Timberlake and Austin’s own Charlie Sexton — Morris has played ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ and ‘The Late Show with David Letterman.’ And his performance of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ with Timberlake and Sexton on the Hope for Haiti telethon reached an audience of millions — the program drew an estimated 83 millions viewers — and topped the iTunes singles chart.
For Morris, the most tangible sign of all that added success is pretty simple: he’s started selling out shows.
‘That’s the one way I know that things are different. We just sold out a show. That was unexpected for me. Everybody around me was around me was all “You didn’t think was going to happen?” and I was like “I’ve never done it before!” ’ said Morris. ‘That was amazing. To see that many people in a room was evidence that something had changed.’
A self-motivated performer and writer since childhood — auditioning for ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’ he says, was entirely his own idea — Morris is particularly well-qualified to deal with the rigors of musical success. He watched his childhood friends become cultural icons in their teens, even as Morris labored in relative obscurity, releasing an independent album, ‘UnSpoken,’ in 2003.
That changed after Timberlake encouraged Morris to make a concerted effort to get his music — a brand of easy-going, blue-eyed soul — in front of more people. Timberlake signed Morris to his own label, Tenman Records, and found a seemingly unlikely co-producer: Austin’s Sexton. ‘When Everything Breaks Open’ was recorded largely at Public Hi-Fi, the Tarrytown studio founded by Spoon’s Jim Eno. Though the Timberlake/Sexton pairing might seem oddball, Morris says they share similar instincts, and Sexton brought a needed touch of roots-rock sensibility to Timberlake’s glossy production.
‘Charlie is an alchemist, you know? The man’s a bit of magic. He just makes things come into being where you didn’t think there was something. He could take a trash can and make it sound brilliant,’ Morris says. ‘He’s not the kind of producer that goes “I’m gonna make you into this or turn you into this.” He’s not a hit machine kind of guy. He’s what making records is really supposed to be like.’
Which goes back to that aforementioned ‘honesty’ quality — Morris credits his recent success to his openness, and wears his heart quite visibly on his sleeve in his songwriting. Seven years after releasing ‘UnSpoken,’ the openly gay Morris — he married boyfriend Sean Michael Morris during the brief period same-sex couples were able to do so in California — has a higher level of confidence and comfort that’s resonating with his fan base.
‘When I made my independent record I was still piecing together who I was. Now I’m married, I have a family, I’m out. And all of those things, that for some young artists could seem like a hindrance to their success, actually made me stronger,’ Morris says. ‘Making a decision to be out and not make a huge deal out of it, deciding to walk with integrity instead of being secretive about myself — that gave me some freedom to get on stage and be myself and not feel like I had to pretend to be a different guy or artist. And the more natural I am the more it seems to work.’
10 p.m. Saturday, Central Presbyterian Church, 200 E. Eighth St.
If you like Matt Morris, check out:
1. Tom Brosseau
2. OK Sweetheart
3. Dan Dyer
4. Kona
5. Raul Malo
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SXSW preview: Mayer Hawthorne
Mayer Hawthorne has Smokey on the mind.
He puts up a good front at first, saying that a string of dates ahead of his appearance at South by Southwest — where he’ll perform on the same stage as Motown legend Smokey Robinson - are his main concern.
But it doesn’t take much pressing to get the new-school soul wunderkind to admit that, yeah, he’s more than a little on edge about his chance to share a bill and he hopes some face time with perhaps his biggest musical hero.
‘It’s pretty amazing … my knees will definitely be shaking. That’s my No. 1 idol of all time,’ Hawthorne said by phone recently before a concert in Baltimore. ‘I can’t think of another performer I look up to more, and to this day I still tear up when I hear ‘Tears of A Clown.”
Those aren’t light words considering that Hawthorne, 30, has worked and rubbed elbows with soul heavyweights such as members of the Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team, and he’ll share the SXSW showcase at Austin Music Hall with new-school soul stars like Raphael Saadiq, Sharon Jones and Austin’s Black Joe Lewis. It’s Smokey, though, who he seemingly could talk about endlessly.
‘It’s hard to even put into words how much admiration I have for the work he’s done, a lot of it because his songs are all a little strange in the way they’re put together,’ Hawthorne said. ‘I’d absolutely tell him that, too. I don’t have any sort of theory or practice as far as what to do when meeting heroes, but if there’s one dude who I want to pick his brain for an hour, it’d be him. There’s no question to me that he’s at the top.’
Whether Hawthorne ever gets within a country mile of Robinson’s success and credibility is anybody’s guess, but it wouldn’t be much more of a surprise than the direction his career has taken in the past two years.
Starting his career as a member of the Ann Arbor, Mich., rap outfit Athletic Mic League, he made a name for himself as a talented producer in the underground rap world.
Difficulty with clearing soul and R&B samples for songs led him to record his own vocal tracks, which where forgotten for years until Stones Throw Records head Peanut Butter Wolf heard them and urged Hawthorne to make an entire soul record.
The result was ‘A Strange Arrangement’ an album that balances neo soul ambition with pretty much timeless songwriting touches on singles like ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’ and ‘Maybe So, Maybe No.’
The material has been embraced across the musical world, with Hawthorne and the childhood friends in his band the County touring the country relentlessly.
‘It seems like everyday there’s something happening that’s bigger than the day before and I jump out of bed every morning because so much is happening,’ he said. ‘And I’m always writing new songs. Some of them are Mayer Hawthorne songs as most people think of me now, some are new wave, some are these dirty boogie funk songs and then there’s Brazilian style stuff, too.’
There’s also some throwback hip-hop material on the horizon with Stones Throw producer Knots. He admits so much variety might throw his newfound fans for a loop but doesn’t seem too worried about losing them.
‘I’m a studio rat and I just love being in there making every kind of music I can imagine. Lots of people will be scratching their heads when they see what I’ve got coming up up next, but that’s part of the idea. I can’t wait to see what they think of the (no wave/noise legend) James Chance cover I’m working on.’
Given Hawthorne’s respect for is hero Robinson’s use of nontraditional song structures, it seems he’s trying to one-up his idol in terms of avoiding obvious choices and eschewing lowest-common-denominator material.
He won’t cop to that directly, but does plan to twist listeners’ ears in some possibly challenging directions.
‘I want to get people prepared for something new. I’m not trying to flip the script and lose everyone, but I want to get them to a point where they’re ready for me to try anything under the sun.’
7 p.m. Friday at Austin Music Hall
1 a.m. Friday at Mohawk Patio
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SXSW preview: Texas Tornados
It was entirely apropos that the Texas Tornados announced the release of their new album, ‘¡Esta Bueno!’ on March 2. That date, as every proud citizen of the Lone Star State knows, is Texas Independence Day. And the self-proclaimed ‘Tex-Mex Supergroup’ is nothing if not independent; their defiantly, delightfully eclectic mix of conjunto, rock ‘n’ roll, country, Deutsch-Tex polkas and swamp pop could have emerged nowhere other than deep in the heart of Texas.
The album had its official coming out party a few weeks before SXSW at a press conference at ME Studios, where the three reconstituted Tornados — Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers and Shawn Sahm — held forth on their new baby and its long gestation.
Released on Bismeaux, the custom label formed by Asleep At the Wheel’s Ray Benson (which released last year’s Grammy-nominated ‘Willie and the Wheel’) the tracks for ‘¡Esta Bueno!’ were recorded several years ago, before the passing of the fourth Tornado, Freddy Fender, in 2006. Doug Sahm, Shawn’s father and the Tornados’ frontman, died in 1999. The group had not released an album of new material since 1996.
‘You’ve heard of the New Kids On the Block,’ joked Augie Meyers, ‘Well, we’re the Old Farts In the Neighborhood.’
Still, the new album has the heart and the soul of the original quartet (and it’s only appropriate to mention here that the Texas Tornados would not be the Tornados without their longtime sidemen—drummer Ernie Durawa, bassist Speedy Sparks, guitarist Louie Ortega and bajo sexto player Michael Guerra).
‘I’m not competing with my dad,’ said Shawn Sahm, explaining his role in the band as both center-stage vocalist and the album’s producer. ‘I played with dad since I was 13. I’m doing what I’ve done my whole life. I just wish he was here doing it with me. ‘
‘It was very simple to put the puzzle back together,’ said Jiménez of the group’s 2010 lineup. ‘It was the same vibe as when Doug and Freddy were alive. ’ ‘When I close my eyes onstage and hear Shawn singing, the hair rises on my head,’ Meyers said. ‘I think it’s Doug singing.’
Besides playing at SXSW on Friday, the band already has dates booked around the country, including an engagement at Lincoln Center and opening shows for Los Lobos, Sahm said.
Re-introducing the Tornados to a 21st century audience via songs like ‘Who’s To Blame, Señorita?’ (whose joyous roller-rink vibe draws a straight line back to Doug and Augie’s first hit-making band, the Sir Douglas Quintet), a Spanish take on ‘In Heaven There Is No Beer,’ Freddy Fender’s heartfelt ‘If I Could Only’ and even a nod from Doug himself (a ‘lost’ Tornado track, ‘Girl Going Nowhere’ features the Sahm patriarch on vocals) doesn’t seem daunting to the band members.
‘We haven’t lost that punch and feel,’ Jiménez said.
‘You don’t replace a Doug Sahm or a Freddy Fender,’ Shawn said with emphasis. ‘You celebrate them … We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; we just want it to be the best it can be. You just bring your A-game.’
10 p.m. Friday at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, 1106 E. 11th St.
If you like Texas Tornados, check out:
1. Little Joe y La Fmailia
2. The West Side Horns with the Moeller Bros.
3. The Krayolas
4. The Gourds
5. Kenny and the Kasuals
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SXSW preview: Ray Davies
If the idea of reworking “You Really Got Me,” one of the most classic rock songs ever, into a borderline symphonic song with choir sounds suspect, the writer of that song isn’t going to disagree.
Ray Davies, former leader of the The Kinks and author of a staggering number of rock anthems, admits even he didn’t like the idea at first.
“I always said one thing I never wanted to do was rerecord those songs like so many oldies artists, because I think they stand up as they were and don’t need to be done that way again,” Davies said by phone recently. “We tried it out first for a BBC concert with the choir and it was a huge success, so the record company said it’d be good to do a whole album that way. At first I didn’t want to but I saw a chance to kind of reinterpret them in a new way and that seemed interesting, so I gave it a shot.”
The reinterpretation Davies speaks of is the material he composed for “The Kinks Choral Collection,” which finds 15 Kinks tracks — “Waterloo Sunset,” “Picture Book” and “See My Friends” among them — rewritten in the tradition of Andrew Loog Oldham’s symphonic reworking of classic songs from The Rolling Stones.
Davies won’t have a full choir with him when he visits Austin this week for a South By Southwest appearance at La Zona Rosa, playing instead with another guitarist until the end of the show when the pop-rock band The 88 will join him for a run through a handful of Kinks songs as they were originally recorded.
“With this your I can do completely different shows, with another guitar player, sometimes with a drummer in as well and every performance brings out new sides to these songs I thought I knew everything about,” Davies said. “Working in that collaborative way brings about a whole new energy, and that’s been one of the best things about doing this.”
Recordings of shows from the tour, especially those with a full choir, give off a loose and often joyous feeling that Davies said translates to whatever configurations wind up on stage.
“The concerts wind up becoming kind of community events by the end, and we’ve got people calling out songs to us during the shows because they want to hear what we’ve done to them,” Davies said. “And then at the end when we bring out The 88 for a full band, they’re so dedicated to the songs and that material sounds amazing with them playing it.”
As excited as Davies is about the choral album, he said there’s not another one in the works and is instead already at work on an album of collaborations that was sparked in part by “Postcard From London,” his recent duet with Chrissie Hynde. Other artists in the loop for that album include Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and (no kidding) Metallica.
“We just reached out to as many people as we could that there was some sort of relationship with. The song with Chrissie went so well, I wanted to find as many interesting partners to work with as I could.”
10:30 p.m. Thursday at La Zona Rosa, 612 W. Fourth St.
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Spotify founder talks U.S. launch
Our colleague Peter Mongillo interviewed Spotify founder Daniel Ek, who says the music service will launch in the U.S. in 2010. More here.
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SXSW preview: Suckers
Surreal pop band Suckers roll into Austin this week in the same boat as a lot of other bands. They have not released a full-length album yet. Given the Web-centric, single-heavy state of the music industry, an album is not a requirement, but for a band that has been consistently praised by the media, shown up on bands-to-watch lists and has even played the Austin City Limits Festival, they have a lot of momentum for just having released a four-song EP and a handful of singles.
‘In terms of getting the recordings done and having the time and the money, it’s definitely taken a while, so we feel a bit more pressure to put out something worthwhile,’ lead vocalist Quinn Walker said of the band’s full-length debut, ‘Wild Smile,’ which will be released June 8.
Walker and bandmates Austin Fisher, Brian Aiken and Pan (that’s what he goes by) moved to Brooklyn from New Haven, Conn., a few years ago. They released their self-titled EP last year, when they made their first visit to South by Southwest. Both the EP and the live performance wowed fans and critics, leading them to record their debut full-length with producer Chris Zane, who was also at the helm for Passion Pit’s successful ‘Manners.’
Similar to his work with Passion Pit, Zane pushed the band in unexpected directions. ‘Chris leans more toward drum heavy dance music, which is interesting for us to tamper with,’ Walker said.
The little material Suckers has released so far is strong, in some cases comparable to fellow Brooklyn-based psychedelic bands MGMT and Yeasayer. They are associated with both acts; Anand Wilder of Yeasayer produced the EP. And though they might share some common musical influences — Brian Eno and David Byrne’s work with the Talking Heads quickly comes to mind when listening to their songs — Suckers’ sound diverges from their peers.
The standard spacey synth elements are part of their sound, but the band uses vocals to stand apart. Walker wails in his nasally voice as the rest of the band harmonizes, adding a layer to the music that is equally creepy and enthralling. Percussion plays an important role as well, sometimes as the subtle foundation of the songs, and others times as the dominant element.
These aspects of their sound are on display in ‘It Gets Your Body Movin,’ a slow-starting track that crescendos with a tribal drum and horn line (and even some whistling) into a spirited chorus of voices. A highlight of the EP, the track will also appear on the band’s full-length release. In the meantime, the band has released a cover of the Raveonettes’ ‘Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed).’
The band’s live performance is similarly strange and entertaining. During a sludge-filled 11:45 a.m. set on the Sunday of last year’s ACL Fest, the band appeared on stage in a single line, with each member playing various instruments at any given moment. Fifty or so people were on hand for the set. It was probably the best timeslot a mostly under-the-radar band could hope for, but it still felt a bit unfair based on the level of talent on stage.
Their live performances have been well-received, even though the music wasn’t easily adapted for the stage. Walker says that because not all of the members of the band had experience singing in a live setting, it took a while to work out the harmonies. ‘It was kind of challenging but nice to find out that everyone was fully capable of singing,’ he said.
In addition to stronger live vocals, the band developed a group presence after a year on the road, an evolution that Walker said is evident on the album. ‘We’ve gotten a bit faster pace going on a lot of the tracks, and everything was written as a band, as opposed to before everything was written by individual members.’
Now that the debut is finished, Walker is ready to move on. ‘We’ve been getting impatient about putting out the album because we have so much materially that we want to get out publicly,’ he said.
11 p.m. Friday, Galaxy Room Backyard
If you like Suckers, check out:
Local Natives
Wild Yaks
Bear in Heaven
Freelance Whales
Pattern is Movement
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Perez lineup has one big Hole
Perez Hilton says he’s not tellin’ who the surprise guest at his SXSW-closing bash will be. But he drops a huge hint just a few items earlier with a puffy, totally gratuitous item about how wonderful Courtney Love is and how great she looks and how her career is back on track.
Think about it: do you think Ms. Trainwreck Drama Queen is coming to SXSW and missing the chance to play the most notorious, high-profile party of the whole shebang?
Here’s P- Hil’s item, with an updated lineup.
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SXSW preview: Anita Tijoux
Anita Tijoux admits that before recording her latest CD, she knew she wanted a simple and clean sound for her new material. And that’s exactly what the songs on ‘1977’ are: pure respect to early hip-hop.
Even in her promotional photos, the Chilean singer (who was born in Lille, France, after her parents’ political exile from Chile after the military coup of 1973) wears a pair of shoelace-less Adidas, the same kind Run-DMC made so popular in the late ’80s.
‘1977’ is not only homage, but also a return to the golden age of hip-hop.
Nothing — the beats, the lyrics or its themes — in this CD is complicated or experimental.
‘I like writing songs so much, both of what I see and what I live,’ Tijoux says by phone from the beaches of Santiago where she was vacationing. ‘My approach to music is simple.’
Tijoux’s arrival to this simple formula shouldn’t be interpreted as lack of experience. Tijoux has been rapping since the ’90s after meeting members of the Arraya Homie Clan, a group of Chilean youth freestylers. She met the group after she returned to Chile with her family. Later, Tijoux would be one of the founding members of Makiza, with whom she recorded three albums. After leaving Makiza, Tijoux made her first solo album, ‘Kaos,’ which was nominated for three MTV awards.
Though hip-hop is well-represented in the United States, the same is not true in Latina America, and yet Tijoux has been one of the few to reach stardom levels in her native country, as well as surrounding countries and Spain.
‘I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of everyone around me,’ Tijoux says. ‘It was never a question of whether or not I fit in (this genre). Everyone knew this is what I wanted to do, and they supported me.’
Outside Latin America, however, Tijoux was virtually unknown. That changed when her collaboration of with Julieta Venegas, ‘Eres Para Mi,’ hit worldwide. Though the two had collaborated on a project prior to Venegas’ ‘Limón y Sal’ album (2006), this was the first song to achieve international success.
It also gave her the vision to return to a more basic approach to her music.
‘In the end, what I want to do is entertain my audience, and simple is good for me,’ she says, explaining that even her stage wardrobe is a simple pair of jeans and a T. ‘What you see is what you get.’
Midnight Thursday at Flamingo Cantina, 515 E. Sixth St.
1 a.m. Saturday at Maggie Mae’s, 323 E. Sixth St.
If you like Anita Tijoux, check out:
1. Maluca
2. Choc Quib Town
3. Systema Solar
4. Bomba Estereo
5. Huecco
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SXSW preview: Cymbals Eat Guitars
Joseph ‘Ferocious’ D’Agostino is living proof that blog buzz, Pitchfork props and Twitter love doesn’t necessarily translate to living the rock star lifestyle.
Consider this: As the guitarist and lead vocalist for up-and-coming Staten Island rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars, D’Agostino has played high-profile shows across Europe and the United States, including hometown venues the Music Hall of Williamsburg and the Bowery Ballroom. He’s opened up for the Flaming Lips. And his band’s debut album, ‘Why There Are Mountains,’ a spiraling, epic rock record that evokes Pavement and Modest Mouse at their most adventurous and lyrically ornate, has received universal acclaim, including Pitchfork’s coveted ‘Best New Music’ tag. When Cymbals Eat Guitars plays South by Southwest, they’ll be one of the most hyped, well-regarded indie bands in a festival full of hyped, well-regarded indie bands.
All of this, and D’Agostino still lives with his parents.
‘It’s very pleasant, actually,’ the good-humored D’Agostino says with a laugh. ‘You go out on the road and exert yourself every day and you get to come home for these respites. I find it makes the actual life on the road a lot more bearable.’
To be fair, at 21 years old D’Agostino is still a relative youngster. And he has a pair of particularly helpful parents — after all, not every mother and father would support their son’s decision to drop out of Fordham University, where he was a sophomore, and pursue full-time the project he’d started as a Weezer cover band in high school.
‘They have been tremendously supportive. Once I showed them the Pitchfork review — they knew I’d been reading that site since I was, you know, a kid — they saw that this was for real. And they told me I should go for it,’ says D’Agostino. ‘I can’t really imagine having better parents. And they’re not even next to me as I say that!’
D’Agostino first dabbled in the piano at the tender age of 7 years old, and began experimenting with the guitar at 13, though he cheekily claims that he ‘only really got competent around the age of 18 — so, three years ago.’ He began by covering Weezer songs, and met friend and drummer Matt Miller while both were students at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J. While the band’s lineup has shifted since then, Miller and D’Agostino have remained the constants, and grew alongside each other as songwriters.
‘We started playing on these little recordings I was making in my room. When we were around 16 we came up with “Wind Phoenix” and “Living North.” Those are the oldest songs on the record, which is funny, because I feel like they may be the best,’ says D’Agostino. ‘But to tell you truth it’s evolved so much since then. It’s been a constant process of growth.’
Miller and D’Agostino crafted ‘We Are Mountains’ whenever they could find the time. After Miller left for college, D’Agostino continued to work on songs, and Miller laid down drums whenever he was around. They named the band Cymbals Eat Guitars after a Lou Reed quote. Their debut album was initially self-released, before the praise from Pitchfork led to the band getting signed to Sister’s Den Records, which re-released ‘We Are Mountains’ in fall 2009.
D’Agostino candidly confesses to reading all of his band’s press and reviews online — but then, he’s a voracious listener and a longtime music journalism fan who could hardly turn himself off, even if he wanted to. So when he popped out of bed the morning of March 16, 2009 — almost a year to the day before South by Southwest kicks off — he was understandably pleased with his band’s 8.3 review, and partially credits it to the wild ride he’s had in the past 12 months.
‘Without a doubt, it was one of the defining moments of my life waking up in the morning and reading that review,’ says D’Agostino. ‘I can’t even really begin to comment on it. It’s been such a boon to us.’
9 p.m. Thursday at Lustre Pearl, 97 Rainey St.
11 p.m. Friday at Emo’s Annex, 600 Red River St.
If you like Cymbals Eat Guitars, check out:
1. Dr. Dog
2. Here We Go Magic
3. The Morning Benders
4. The Cave Singers
5. Yukon Blonde
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SXSW preview: She and Him
The dream team of Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel played some of their very first shows at South by Southwest in 2008, hot on the heels of the release of their first album as folk rock duo She and Him, ‘Volume One.’ Though Portland musician Ward had musical bona fides to spare — as a solo artist and collaborator to artists ranging from Cat Power to My Morning Jacket — actress Deschanel was a largely unknown quantity, aside from a fetching turn singing in both ‘Elf’ and ‘The Go-Getter.’
It was easy to be cynical about the duo — history is littered with ill-conceived vanity musical projects from actors. Remember Keanu Reeves in Dogstar? Neither does anyone else.
But a funny thing happened — ‘Volume One’ received almost universally positive reviews, landed on the Village Voice’s ‘Pazz and Jop’ poll as one of the year’s best albums and was named the best record of 2008 by Paste Magazine. The album gently rambled through 13 tracks of sun-dappled pop, with a gentle Orbisonian charm and sweet, wistful vocals from Deschanel.
So when the pair return to Austin for a series of shows during SXSW, they’ll be making a much deserved victory lap. Mettle proven, Ward says he’s seen Deschanel come a long way as a performer since those early sets.
‘I remember some of our first shows were during SXSW, and when we played those shows and first started touring she was a little more reserved in her performance,’ Ward says. ‘And you can really tell that she’s now completely comfortable, in front of whatever size audience, playing these songs. It’s a great thing to witness something like that.’
That boost in confidence isn’t confined to Deschanel’s performance in the live show. Appropriately, She and Him will play their second SXSW right before the release of their second album — titled, naturally, ‘Volume Two.’ Their sophomore effort is a bolder, more adventurous effort, replete with production flourishes from the swelling strings of ‘Thieves’ to the soaring background vocals and enthusiastic electric guitar solo of ‘In the Sun.’ And Deschanel’s songs — some written recently in the wake of the success of ‘Volume One’ and some written as long ago as her high school days — hit a broader range of subjects.
‘The new record goes more places emotionally. I feel that the mood swings are wider. The darker sentiments sound a little bit harsher and deeper and the brighter ideas come off brighter and sunnier,’ Ward says. ‘As a songwriter I know that Zooey’s always trying to push herself and as a producer I’m trying to do the same thing, and that comes across. We have a record that deals with those extremes and that’s something my favorite records achieve.’
‘Volume Two’ was crafted with the same approach that benefitted ‘Volume One’ — Deschanel writes and records demos straight to her computer, which are then e-mailed to Ward, who works on production and arrangements until the two can find time in their busy schedules to hit the studio. That piecemeal approach to recording is how the two artists have managed to produce their sophomore album a mere two years after their debut — even as Deschanel has starred in a handful of films in the interim and Ward’s involved himself in a half-dozen disparate musical projects, including last year’s solo album ‘Hold Time’ and the folk-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk.
It also gives the pair time to mull over, process and modify their work — the key advantage, says Ward, of their methodology.
‘We like to record in small chunks of time and give ourselves the luxury of time to go back and listen to and edit — or completely redo the song, if we have to,’ Ward says. ‘My big test for myself for whether or not a song is good is if I can write it today and not mind listening to it six months down the line. If I can, then maybe that song deserves to be recorded properly. And that’s basically how the She and Him project has been working.’
10 p.m. Thursday Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W. Fourth St.
10 p.m. Friday Lustre Pearl, 97 Rainey St.
8 p.m. Saturday Auditorium Shores Stage (Lady Bird Lake)
If you like She and Him, check out:
1. Holly Miranda
2. April Smith and the Great Picture Show
3. Jakob Dylan and Three Legs (featuring Neko Case and Kelly Hogan)
4. Nicole Atkins and the Sea
5. Elizabeth and the Catapult
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SXSW preview: Surfer Blood
Even by the standards of an instant-gratification, download-now world, Surfer Blood’s rise from non-existence to buzz band status has been fast.
The band, which hails from West Palm Beach, Fla., didn’t even really exist about a year ago. Now they’re on a headlining tour and the band’s debut album, ‘Astro Coast,’ released in January on Kanine Records, is one of this year’s catchiest rock records, an amalgamation of every bubble-grunge ’90s guitar hook thirty-somethings remember from college keggers. It’s already moved about 17,000 copies, which is pretty amazing for a debut on an indie.
Except these kids were toddlers or infants when ‘Nevermind’ and Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’ changed lives. Surfer Blood singer/guitarist/mastermind John Paul ‘JP’ Pitts is 23, drummer Tyler Schwarz is 23, guitarist Thomas Fekete is 21. Bassist Brian Black and percussionist Marcos Marchesani are both 20. Remember when rock music was played by young people? These are those young people.
And they are waiting to get to Canada when I catch up with Pitts on the phone. (‘I am also eating a sandwich,’ Pitts says. Ah, the excitement of rock ‘n’ roll.)
Pitts comes by his way with a tune honestly. ‘My dad and his side are the musical ones,’ Pitts says. ‘He’s the sort of guy who can hear any song once or twice or pick it out by ear.’
Growing up, Pitts got the late ’90s/early ’00s version of a classic rock education. Pitts rattles off the names of some of his favorite albums: ‘The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” The Smiths’ “The Queen is Dead,” Dinosaur Jr.’s “You’re Living All Over Me,” Pavement’s “Slanted and Enchanted,” ’ Pitts says. ‘I was in the eighth grade when I heard the Strokes. I thought they were awesome.’
Pitts says Florida’s music scene is small and, as such, inspires serious devotion: ‘You’d get these 14-year-olds who are out of their minds driving up to play house shows (hours away).”
He and Schwarz met in college in 2006 in Orlando, Fla. ‘It didn’t take very long to before we realized we liked a lot of the same music and it felt really natural to play together,’ Pitts says. ‘We’ve been writing songs together since then, mostly about girls. But I try not to be too whiny or too directly emotive.’
At a party, he met Fekete, Black and Marchesani. Thus was formed Surfer Blood.
They headed into the studio with some songs, thinking they would get basic tracking done. ‘But we were kinda broke,’ Pitts says ‘and we felt like we were rushing everything. So we decided to just concentrate on the drum tracks.’
After that they took the project into Pitts’ apartment in Boca Raton, Fla., spending the next six months recording, mixing and overdubbing what became ‘Astro Coast.’ Doing it at home kept costs low. ‘We got a whole ProTools rig for about $200 through the college,’ Pitts says. ‘I would love to do something to analog tape when we actually have, like, a budget and stuff.’
Maybe they don’t need a real studio. Wisely, they started touring nonstop in 2009, building buzz, signing to Brooklyn-based indie Kanine Records. They knocked out 10 shows at last year’s College Music Journal Music Marathon. And people sure as heck loved the single ‘Swim,’ a guitar burner that takes you right back to 1994. The truth is nobody ever gets tired of thinking about the past and it’s time to think about the Clinton years that way. No wonder people are interested.
‘It’s really nutty but it’s also really, really fulfilling,’ Pitts says of this out of the box success. He sounds like he finished his sandwich. Time to conquer Canada.
1 a.m. Wednesday at Wave Rooftop, 408 E. Sixth St.
12:15 a.m. Friday at Lustre Pearl, 97 Rainey St.
11 p.m. Saturday at Mohawk Patio, 912 Red River St.
If you like Surfer Blood, check out:
1. Circa Survive
2. Titus Andronicus
3. The Constellations
4. Best Coast
5. Free Energy
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SXSW preview: Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights
Jonathan Tyler marvels at just how much smarter Epic Records scout Pete Giberga has gotten in the past seven years. In 2003, Tyler figured Giberga didn’t know his expense account from his elbow. After all, regional Epic reps had been all ga-ga over the Dallas-based Tyler, sort of a combination of Steve Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. But when the big man from New York came down, he wasn’t impressed. Giberga told Tyler and the band that they’weren’t there yet’ and that Tyler, then 18, had to do some more living to have more to write about.
‘I took that really hard,’ recalls Tyler.’I think I overcompensated after that to prove him wrong. I wrote songs that I thought might be successful.’ Songs that proved Giberga right, Tyler admits.
He and the band weren’t as good as they thought they were. Wow. Odds?
Now 25, Tyler and his Northern Lights have just recorded an album for Atlantic Records that makes them leading lights in the new Southern rock scene.’Pardon Me’ could make JTNL this generation’s Black Crowes.
But four years ago, a bitter Tyler was burnt out on the biz and bathed his self-doubt in a cascade of drugs and alcohol. When Superman crashed to Earth after a meth high, he hated his music, hated his life. When his roommate died of an overdose, Tyler saw that he was heading the same way. And he wanted to live. He decided to get the band back together with a renewed sense of purpose.
‘I just realized that life is too short to be stuck doing something you don’t want to,’ says Tyler, who has lived in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville since he was 13.’We stopped worrying about what the labels wanted to hear and got back to what we wanted to play.’ Bassist Nick Jay, drummer Jordan Cain and guitarist Brandon Pinckard became Northern Lights, named after a particularly powerful herb.
Before the reformed quartet ever played a gig, they went into the studio and recorded’Hot Trottin’,’ an album Tyler says he can’t listen to.’I didn’t know what I was doing,’ says Tyler, who produced the album.’But I was happy with the songwriting. I was writing about real things.’
Two of the songs from that debut have been re-recorded on’Pardon Me,’ which comes out April 27. Produced by Jay Joyce, whose credits range from Patty Griffin to Iggy Pop, the new album bottles the band’s massive live energy on’Young and Free’ and’Devil’s Basement’ (which nicks Led Zep like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant ripped off old bluesmen), but also presents a sensitive/schmaltzy side on’She Wears a Smile.’
Atlantic will no doubt push the ballads, but it’s the gutbucket rockers that push the band.
The bottom produced by Oklahoma natives Jay and Cain will make your chinos dance. And then there’s the twin guitar attack of Tyler and Pinckard, more prone to meaty chords than flashy fretwork. Off to the side you’ve got the wail of Mo Brown, who Tyler found singing jazz on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas.
Amidst the glorious rumble you can’t take your eyes off Tyler, who moves like electricity is flowing through him. He’s Savoy Brown meets James Brown. The frontman’s shining moment came in the rain of ACL Fest in October, when a crowd of about 150 grew to a few thousand when field-crossers where drawn in by the Southern rock stomp. Tyler was soaking wet at the end, but so was the crowd.
‘We were kinda bummed out before we went on,’ says Tyler.’I mean, it wasn’t just raining, it was pouring buckets.’ When the band started playing, the crowd wasn’t just clapping and cheering, they were going nuts.
Whether it’s in front of thousands at Zilker or a few dozen at an unofficial SXSW showcase, JTNL will shake down inhibitions. The band was signed by Atlantic at SXSW 2008, not at some high profile venue, but at the Whiskey Bar, which booked its own bands.
Less than a year later, they opened for AC/DC, one of their all-time faves. When the regular opening act dropped out at the last minute, JT&NL were on a plane to El Paso.
‘To me, that’s what we’re aiming for,’ says Tyler, who is a sponge for music old and new.’To be like Angus Young, who’s been doing it a long time, but still does what he does better than anyone else.’
That was the best gig; the worst was probably the second night of a Kid Rock cruise last summer, when a badly hungover Tyler played with sunglasses to hide a black eye.’Nick decked me,’ he says with a laugh.’One punch. Out. I don’t remember a thing.’ As a welcome gift, Kid Rock had sent over a case of Jim Beam whiskey and after the first show, the band, crew and hangers-on drank seven bottles.’I was drunk and I guess I was running my mouth,’ Tyler says of the incident. Jay remains his closest mate.
‘We’re all in this together,’ Tyler says of the three friends in his band he’s known since he was 16. When not on the road, the members live together in Lewisville. They’re close as brothers, which means they don’t hold back.
Onstage, that’s a mighty powerful thing.
Midnight Thursday, Maggie Mae’s, 323 E. Sixth. St.
9 p.m. Saturday, the Galaxy Room Backyard, 508 E. Sixth St.
If you like Jonathan Tyler, check out:
1. Dead Confederate
2. Carolyn Wonderland
3. J. Roddy Walston and the Business
4. Michael Monroe
5. Morehead & Arbuckle
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Because it is still a conference: SXSW panel picks
With all the annual excitement over the nighttime showcases and high-profile parties, it’s increasingly easy to lose sight of the fact that the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival is an industry event. And when it comes to doing all those things you’re supposed to be doing at an industry event — you know, educating yourself on the business and gaining valuable insights into your field and what-not — there’s no better place than SXSW’s brilliantly curated panels.
With that in mind, we’ve singled out 10 — well, OK, actually 11, but who’s counting? — of SXSW’s most interesting and intriguing panels, across a variety of subjects. All panels are in the Austin Convention Center and require a music badge or an artist’s wristband to attend. Not interested in what you see here? Check the full schedule at sxsw.com/music.
1.‘Successful SXSW: The Tao of the Conference.’ Kicking off four days of panels with a panel about panels? Very meta! In all seriousness, it takes skill to navigate the choppy waters of SXSW, so let CD Baby founder Derek Shivers impart some wisdom on how to best use your time. 11 a.m. today, Room 12AB.
2. ‘Green Touring: Stupid, Dumb, or Best Idea Ever?’ It can be hard to be eco-conscious when touring — the pursuit is inherently carbon emitting and resource-hungry. There are ways to hit the road while helping the environment. 2 p.m. today, 11A.
3.‘How Will We Listen to Music in 2020?’ If you don’t think the way we listen to music could change substantially in 10 years’ time, consider this: In the year 2000, there were no iPods. Clearly, anything can happen, and that should make for fascinating discussion as we head into a new decade. 3:30 p.m. today, 16B.
4.‘SXSW Interview: Lemmy.’ There are a lot of great interviews taking place during the panels, from GWAR to Cheap Trick, but if you catch only one, it’d have to be Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister. Celebrate the release of the documentary bearing the outrageous, gravelly voiced rock legend’s with an interview conducted by MSN’s Phillip Freeman. Equally likely to be fuel for both your nightmares and your dreams, possibly on the same night. 5 p.m. today, 18ABC.
5. ‘SXSW Keynote: Smokey Robinson.’ It’s unlikely that Motown sound architect Smokey Robinson will bust out anything that will be as memorable as last year’s chant courtesy of Quincy Jones. But Robinson is a fascinating personality and consummate professional who refuses to slow down, even after securing a healthy musical legacy for himself, and should more than be able to command the festival’s most visible panel. 11 a.m. Thursday, 18ABC.
6.‘Case Study: “New Moon.’’ ’ Several panels this year discuss music placement in films and TV and the role it can play as a promotional tool and ancillary revenue stream. But this examination of the ‘New Moon’ soundtrack — a veritable who’s who of hot indie talent that featured Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and St. Vincent, among others — is likely to be the most fascinating. It’s also the only ‘Twilight’-related event in history unlikely to attract throngs of screaming adolescent girls. 12:30 p.m. Thursday, 18ABC.
7. ‘Welcome to the Music Business: You’re (Expletive).’ W Expect the irreverent tone of the panel’s title to carry over to its contents, as Martin Atkins — author of the cheeky, definitive music business guide ‘Tour Smart’ — holds court on the challenges of life in the industry. 12:30 p.m. Thursday, 17AB.
8.‘DIY or Sign with a Label?’ and ‘Rumors of my Demise: Do Artists Need a Label Anymore?’ Amusingly and regrettably, these two panels addressing the exact same question are scheduled at exactly the same time. At any rate, this is one of the big questions on everybody’s lips these days, and one of the big themes at this year’s conference, so it’s worth hitting up one of these two panels. 11 a.m. Friday, 19A and 11AB, respectively.
9.‘Spirituality for Nomads.’ Sex, drugs and general rambunctiousness are common subjects when people talk touring, but the physical, emotional and spiritual costs of the lifestyle are less often addressed. Merrill Wade of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church leads a discussion on the more elusive consequences of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. 3:30 p.m. Friday, 11AB.
10.‘I Never Travel Far Without a Little Big Star.’ If you can’t make it to seminal rock band Big Star’s likely-to-be-packed show at Antone’s, you can settle for this sure-to-be-interesting panel, which will include a performance by band members Jon Auer, Ken Stringfellow and Andy Hummel. For fans and would-be fans of the band — which, really, ought to include everybody — this is sure to be a delight. 12:30 p.m. Saturday 18ABC.
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Jump the line at Rachael Ray party
Mr & Mrs T and Rachael Ray’s Feedback Festival promises to be one of the hottest parties happening during this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival.
The event runs from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, March 20 at Stubb’s, 801 Red River St.
As with any SXSW shindig, expect lines — long lines. But, if you’re lucky enough to win our giveaway, you’ll get to jump right to the front of the line. Yes, that’s right: We’re giving away 10 pairs of “line-skipper” passes.
To enter, send an e-mail to austin360contests@statesman.com. We’ll pick our winners Wednesday, March 17 at 5 p.m. You must be available to pick up your passes at a downtown Austin location on Friday, March 19 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Good luck!
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1987- 2010: A SXSW history
1987
Number of acts: 172
Keynote speaker: Record producer Huey P. Meaux
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Dash Rip Rock, Reivers, True Believers, Buck Pets, Wagoneers, the Rev. Horton Heat
*SXSW organizers can’t get the computers working at registration, so even though the turnout is moderate, waits are as long as two hours. That’s something that the first year has in common with this one. That and Dash Rip Rock.
1988
Number of acts: 415
Keynote speaker: Spin Editor Bob Guccione Jr.
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Poi Dog Pondering, Fleshtones, Material Issue, Gunbunnies, Jayhawks, Hundredth Monkey
*The convention is booked into the spanking new Waller Creek Hotel, but when the hotel goes bankrupt before opening and stalls on construction of a promised ballroom, organizers are forced to scramble. The Crest, which is now the Radisson, turns out to be an ill-fitting concession. The noise from each panel bleeds into the next room and the hotel staff freaks out when a late-night party in the ballroom, featuring Joe Ely, attracts a few thousand drunk and wired party people. Most of the potted plants end up horizontal and the bathrooms are trashed.
Also, first tangible sign of a backlash comes from art rock band Ed Hall, who print ‘SXSW SUX’ T-shirts. Ed Hall applies and is accepted the next year.
1989
Number of acts: 345
Keynote speaker: Music critic Robert Christgau, with an ‘invocation’ from Mojo Nixon
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Lucinda Williams, Gin Blossoms, Wednesday Week, Pato Banton, Bluerunners
SXSW is still fairly unknown outside indie rock circles, when Flock of Seagulls starts the trend of former platinum artists trying to revive their careers at the festival. Thing is, the band doesn’t know it. They have no idea that they’re supposed to play a 40-minute showcase on a bill with four other bands for almost no money. Wanting nothing to do with SXSW, the band and their surly British roadies run off the SXSW volunteers and throw the rest of the bands off the bill.
1990
Number of acts: 424
Keynote speaker: Singer Rosanne Cash, with opening remarks by Gov. Ann Richards Buzz, buzz, buzz: Flat Duo Jets, Trip Shakespeare, Three On a Hill, Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom, Kennedy Rose, Sister Double Happiness, Vulgar Boatmen
The usually dull rock critic panel is dubbed ‘The Chris & Claudia Show’ after Billboard’s Chris Morris and Claudia Perry of the Houston Post (passing around a flask) rip the industry good — to uproarious laughter. The outspoken Morris is the breakout star of the fest, and he returns the love with a column touting SXSW as a blast (even owning up to striking out in the bottom of the ninth of the softball championship game with the bases loaded).
1991
Number of acts: 499
Keynote speaker: Kinky Friedman, with invocation by Exene Cervenka
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Barenaked Ladies, Treat Her Right, Drivin’ N Cryin’, Dixie Chicks, Phranc, Love Tractor
SXSW takes place the week of spring break, when all the students head to South Padre Island and points beyond, every year except this one, which means Sixth Street is swarming with frat boys and the women who can stand them. Alarmed by the crowds, the fire marshals crack down, ridiculously, often making fans exit a half-full club to comply with outdated load card figures. Wristband wearers are livid — another SXSW tradition begins! But a pair of club owners are even madder. The owner of Abratto’s, a Fifth Street disco meat market, who is given an opening night bill of Houston hard-core bands, cancels the rest of his showcases and the shuttled acts, including the Dixie Chicks, play their showcases in quickly converted conference rooms in the host hotel. Then, when the owner of Mexico Carribe announces that the fire marshal will order the show stopped if people don’t voluntarily leave — and nobody does — he pulls out a pistol and fires a shot into the ceiling. To make this the all-time worst year of SXSW, arsonists ignite a stack of Austin Chronicle newspapers outside the SXSW offices, causing extensive smoke and water damage.
1992
Number of acts: 398
Keynote speaker: Michelle Shocked
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Beat Farmers, Holmes Brothers, Junior Brown, Cracker, Blood Oranges, Poster Children, Southern Culture On the Skids, Bruce Hampton & the Aquarius Rescue Unit
Poor Michelle Shocked. Her pathologically unfocused speech on the history of minstrelsy is supposed to be 20 minutes, but when co-keynoter Willie Nelson gets hung up on the border and cancels, organizers tell Shocked to go as long as she likes. Big mistake.
SXSW books Helmet and L7, then red-hot, into a 500-capacity dance club, and when more than 2,000 kids show up, it’s pandemonium. Some fans storm the door, others climb the walls and break windows to try to get in. People are even jumping on the roof from neighboring buildings. 911 is called and exactly two cops show up, which tempers the anarchy only slightly.
1993
Number of acts: 468
Keynote speaker: None, but Gov. Ann Richards gave opening remarks
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Pete Droge, Jill Sobule, Freedy Johnston, Green Day, Robyn Hitchcock, Blue Rodeo, Lisa Loeb, Three Mile Pilot, Tripping Daisy
International news is happening with the Branch Davidian standoff up the road in Waco, and some freelance journalists in town do double duty.
‘If you lived in my neighborhood, you’d be selling your (body) for me!’ Bushwick Bill, the dwarf (a label he embraces) in the Geto Boys, starts a shouting match with a handful of people in the audience of the hip-hop panel. One guy comes up to the dais and flips off Bushwick, who calls him a slur directed at gay people. Suddenly, everyone is screaming and a couple of guys have to be restrained from charging the 3 1/2-foot rapper. Afterward, Bushwick tells the panelist coordinator that he had a good time.
In another bizarre panel, an unknown singer calling himself Marilyn Manson sits on a panel about his namesake Charlie.
1994
Number of acts: 482
Keynote speaker: Johnny Cash
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Beck, Veruca Salt, Presidents of the United States of America, Ben Harper, Mary Cutrufello, Letters To Cleo, Morphine, That Dog, Follow For Now
Cash plays an incredible solo acoustic set at Emo’s, where the stool he sat on later hangs over the bar. Worst booking was putting Lucinda Williams in La Zona Rosa, which is only a fifth as big as it was to become. Co-director Roland Swenson is surrounded by angry fans who couldn’t get in.
After Entertainment Weekly becomes a sponsor, Billboard refuses to recognize SXSW as an industry event. The industry bible will continue to ignore the conference for nearly a decade.
1995
Number of acts: 567
Keynote speaker: Bob Mould
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Elastica, Wilco, Bush, Todd Snider, Toadies, R.L. Burnside, Bettie Serveert, Guided By Voices
The ‘94 folding of New York’s New Music Seminar vaults SXSW as THE major and indie label confab. Boston-based Rounder Records celebrates its 25th anniversary by hosting a free outdoor concert at Sixth and Brazos streets, featuring a New Orleans-heavy lineup of Irma Thomas, Johnny Adama, Beau Jocque and Rebirth Brass Band.
1996
Number of acts: 861
Keynote speaker: Krist Novoselic
Buzz, buzz, buzz: The Fugees, Dandy Warhols, Ben Folds Five, Girls Against Boys, Boo Radleys, Sixteen Deluxe, Guided By Voices
Charles Attal was recently named promoter of the year by Pollstar, but in 1996, the Stubb’s co-owner is so green he pronounces the Fugees, his big second-night headliner, ‘the Fudgies.’ Right when the Fugees start, there’s a downpour and the show is stopped. Attal figures that’s it, but Lauryn Hill gets in his face and says ‘We want to play!’ so after it stops raining, about an hour later, the Fugees play a long set as the empty venue quickly refills.
SXSW co-director Louis Black says Lou Reed ‘is showing disrespect for the Austin music scene’ by playing a concert that competes with the Austin Music Awards.
1997
Number of acts: 788
Keynote speaker:Carl Perkins
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Atari Teenage Riot, 24-7 Spyz, Whiskeytown, Archers of Loaf, Jimmy Eat World, Ron Sexsmith, Ben Lee, Gomez, Less Than Jake
A sign of the times; the most noteworthy panel, hosted by Jon Pareles of The New York Times, is ‘What’s Behind the Drastic Slump In Record Sales?’ Or, more to the point: Where Are All the Big Label Parties This Year?
Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips keeps things interesting with his Parking Lot Symphony, in which 30 cars parked in a garage at Seventh and Brazos streets play 30 cassette tapes simultaneously with the car doors open. More than 2,000 fans show up.
This is also the year Tony Bennett plays the Austin Music Hall, to about half a house because everyone figures it would be a mob scene.
SXSW organizers stubbornly refuse to let their fest compete with the Austin Music Awards, but because most clubs have been jumping the gun, Wednesday is finally added as the official starting night of SXSW.
1998
Number of acts: 1,043
Keynote speaker: Nick Lowe
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Imperial Teen, the Donnas, Dust Brothers, Get Up Kids, Rufus Wainwright, Queens of the Stone Age, Olivia Tremor Control, Plastilina Mosh, Damnations
For some reason, SXSW organizers hate bands flown in by outside entities to play private parties. When they hear that Philadelphia-based Internet retailer CDnow is paying Sonic Youth big money to play a party in a 300-capacity club, they work hard to persuade CDnow to move their party to 1,500-capacity La Zona Rosa and make the Sonic Youth set follow the bash as an official SXSW showcase. Wristband-wearers and fans willing to pay cover are ecstatic at the chance to see the Youth, but few get in, as those attending the party just stick around.
Austin band Breedlove doesn’t get signed, they get served, with a summons for breach of contract charges by manager Jan Mirkin as they step off the stage at Steamboat.
1999
Number of acts: 829
Keynote speaker: Lucinda Williams
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Trail of Dead, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Built To Spill, Patty Griffin, Cibo Matto, the Hives
The magic is so quickly followed by mayhem. The night after Tom Waits plays the Paramount Theatre, one of the all-time highlights of SXSW, his friend and sometime-promoter Don Hyde is savagely beaten by bouncers at La Zona Rosa. The bouncers were trying to clear out the crowd after Alejandro Escovedo’s set, but when Hyde wants to go backstage to get his bag, there is some jostling, and push soon turns to punch, then to kicks in the side. Hyde suffers five broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a separated shoulder. Waits vows to never play Texas again and has stayed true to his word.
A major Thursday night thunderstorm forces cancellation of all outdoor events that night, including a Willie Nelson concert at Stubb’s. Emo’s is flooded with knee-high water, but most of it drains by showtime.
2000
Number of acts: 1,314
Keynote speaker: Steve Earle
Buzz, buzz, buzz: At the Drive In, Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Marah, Blackalicious, Jennyanykind, Backyard Babies, Morphine, Cibo Matto, Bright Eyes, Tenacious D
Friction sparks between SXSW and Revolver magazine after Revolver flies in Guided By Voices, not an official festival act, to play a private party. Revolver charges SXSW with threatening to call in the fire marshals (a charge denied), but the jam-packed party goes off without a stumble. Good food, too.
Neil Young, in town to hawk his new concert film ‘Silver and Gold’ locks himself out of his suite at the Driskill and conducts a news conference, with a handful of critics, in the hallway.
Los Super Seven is born at a party at Las Manitas when members of Los Lobos jam with Raul Malo and Austin’s Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos and Rick Trevino.
A grouchy soundman cuts the magic at Momo’s, just as Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads joins Bernie Worrell onstage for an encore of music from ‘Remain In Light.’ A cooler dude would’ve let the show go past 2 a.m.
2001
Number of acts: 1,159
Keynote speaker: Ray Davies
Buzz, buzz, buzz: White Stripes, the Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, Aterciopelados, Kasey Chambers, Bellrays, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Mogwai, the Shins, New Pornographers
During that small window in which he’s a star, Pete Yorn pulls a star trip, refusing to leave the La Zona Rosa stage after his allotted time. Even after the houselights go up, Yorn continues to play and eventually does leave the stage, ‘not by our own choice.’ The following act, North Mississippi Allstars, finally starts at 2 a.m.
Revolver magazine tries to stick it to the man (SXSW) again, flying in the Cult for a private party, but when staffers show up to register, they discover that their badges have been revoked. ‘The roadrunner would be nothing without the coyote,’ Revolver’s Brad Tolinski says, relishing the controversy.
Ike Turner plays to a crowd lousy with musicians and a few protesters who’d seen ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It.’ By the end of the incredible set, the crowd chants, ‘We like Ike!’
2002
Number of acts: 1,011
Keynote speaker: Robbie Robertson
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Los Lonely Boys, Clinic, Mastodon, Norah Jones, Eels, Drive-By Truckers, Polyphonic Spree, KaitO, Tift Merritt, Mooney Suzuki
The worst SXSW booking of all time puts Norah Jones, who has the No. 1 album in the country, in the upstairs banquet room of the Clay Pit Indian restaurant. Forget, for a moment, that it’s a little rude to put the daughter of Ravi Shankar in an Indian restaurant, but what is the woman about to win six Grammys doing playing any restaurant?
Courtney Love draws the biggest crowd ever for a non-keynote, and her rambling, self-indulgent, ‘one on none’ interview doesn’t disappoint rubberneckers. Love complains of a tequila hangover, but they don’t serve tequila in the men’s room of the Hole In the Wall, where she had locked herself with a couple of unsavory locals for an hour the night before.
Los Angeles rockers the Icarus Line make national news when the singer smashes a display case at the Hard Rock Cafe and tries to play a guitar that once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bouncers chase the singer four blocks before he gets away.
2003
Number of acts: 1,079
Keynote speaker: Daniel Lanois
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Raveonettes, the Rapture, Junior Senior, Granddaddy, the Darkness, Eisley, Petty Booka, the Locust, Tegan & Sara, D4
With the invasion of Iraq imminent, war becomes a big topic in President Bush’s former backyard. First you had the flap over Natalie Maines’ expressed embarrassment that the president was from Texas, which hit the news just as SXSW was starting. Then, 7,000 anti-war protesters flooded the already packed streets near the Capitol.
Several hundred counterfeit wristbands are confiscated on the last night of the fest. The pirate bracelets are traced to a print shop near the UT campus. Four men are charged and plead guilty.
A mini-riot of about 600 disappointed Molotov fans breaks out outside the sold-out show by the Mexican hard rockers. Police on horseback break up the melee.
The Saturday afterhours Spin party, long the hippest invite at SXSW, goes daytime Friday at Stubb’s. The previous year, the bash was halted by TABC officers who claimed it did not fit the guidelines for a private party after hours because names of invitees were not kept on a list. (Apparently, ‘Sia Michel plus 220’ isn’t good enough.)
2004
Number of acts: 1,260
Keynote speaker: Little Richard
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Mindy Smith, Hold Steady, Franz Ferdinand, Dizzie Rascal, Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, N.E.R.D., the Thrills, Scissor Sisters
The year of the Ozomatli bust. Austin police look silly arresting two members of the Latin rock band after a conga line on Sixth Street turns into some roughhousing and a cop claims percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi hit him with a drum. The charges are eventually dropped.
Local breakout band Los Lonely Boys break all attendance records with their free show at Auditorium Shores. If the Town Lake venue holds 10,000 comfortably, there are 25,000 on hand. But the trio also plays in the back of Las Manitas at a party celebrating the making of Alejandro Escovedo tribute album ‘Por Vida.’
2005
Number of acts: 1,326
Keynote speaker: Robert Plant
Buzz, buzz, buzz: M.I.A., the Go! Team, Bloc Party, Giant Drag, Kaiser Chiefs, Futureheads, We Are Scientists, Nine Black Alps, Aqualung, Dogs Die In Hot Cars
SXSW comes to East Austin, the new daytime party hub. But even with so many festgoers venturing on ‘the other side’ of the freeway, downtown is clogged beyond belief and waits outside Sixth Street clubs are the longest ever.
*Those clueless kids from MTV’s ‘Real World: Austin’ drag themselves out of the Dizzy Rooster long enough to film a documentary about SXSW, following around those white-hot buzz bands Halifax and Enon.
*The weather is brutally cold the first day of SXSW, but heats up nicely by the next day. Not so at the huge aircraft hangar Charles Attal rents out for its annual after-hours party. Jessica Simpson is among the freezing guests who come out for Queens of the Stone Age.
*Who knew Robert Plant is so funny and charming? The former Led Zep singer’s ‘keynote conversation’ with Bill Flanagan is the best SXSW opener ever.
2006
Keynote speaker: Neil Young
Number of acts: 1,400
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Arctic Monkeys, the Like, KT Tunstall, Chamillionaire, Dresden Dolls, Subways, Magic Numbers, the Sword
The year of the stowaway. Chicago fashion designer Catherine “Cat” Chow is so intent on getting to SXSW that she stows away in the bathroom on a sold-out flight from St. Louis. Chow is arrested upon arrival in Austin.
Arctic Monkeys play SXSW the week after appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” hitting town with incredible synergy. But there’s not much of a line outside their showcase at La Zona Rosa because everyone figured (a la Tony Bennett) that there’d be no chance of getting in.
In a rare case of SXSW unselfishness, the Invincible Czars invite fellow Austin band Opposite Day, who did not make the SXSW cut, to play a song during the Czars’ showcase at Latitude 30.
2007
Keynote speaker: Pete Townshend
Number of acts: 1,400
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Peter, Bjorn & John, Lily Allen, the Pipettes
Things seemed to have gone swimmingly, but when word gets out that SXSW organizers provided fire marshals with a list of private parties, resulting in three big bashes being shut down, Internet comments sections exploded in rage. In one of his many defensive posts, SXSW co-founder Louis Black uses a truly bizarre analogy concerning an abacus.
Gossip queen Perez Hilton is spotted all over town, christening SXSW as a celebfest.
Some chucklehead newspaper critic accuses the Stooges of using a bass loop on one song and Iggy Pop fires off a letter to the editor saying they would never even consider such a thing.
2008
Keynote speaker: Lou Reed
Number of acts: 1,809
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Vampire Weekend, Duffy, Sons and Daughters, Yeasayer, Bon Iver, Adele, She & Him, Lady Gaga (Perez Hilton party).
*SXSW has apparently forgiven “disrespectful” Reed for the sin of playing on the same night as the Austin Music Awards. The gutter Caruso is everywhere, even playing “Walk On the Wild Side” at a Lou Reed tribute at the Fader Fort.
* Rachael Ray hosts her first SXSW party at the Beauty Bar, which is predictably jampacked. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top jams with the Cringe, whose guitarist John Cuisimano is Mr. Rachael Ray. Perez Hilton also makes the scene for the first time; SXSW has officially jumped the guy in the shark suit handing out fliers.
*MGMT plays at Urban Outfitters.
2009
Keynote speaker: Quincy Jones
Number of acts: 1,987
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Avett Brothers, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Dirty Projectors
* Quincy Jones makes two hours fly by in his keynote speech. Too bad he went on for another 20 minutes and made everyone hold hands while he recited a motivational poem.
* To promote its new “Guitar Hero” game, metal gods Metallica play a “surprise” show at Stubb’s. The other worst-kept secrets were Kanye West’s set at the Levi’s Fader Fort and Jane’s Addiction at the Playboy/ C3 party. We’ve come a long way from Chickasaw Mudpuppies.
* Cops shut down the Red Bull Moontower after hours party on East Cesar Chavez after noise complaints, so Erykah Badu, who had earlier been an hour late for his Auditorium Shores show, doesn’t get to go on.
2010
Keynote speaker: Smokey Robinson
Number of acts: 1,900
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Nneke, The xx, Surfer Blood, Broken Bells, Free Energy, Court Yard Hounds, Anita Tijoux
* The corporate presence at SXSW is getting a little crazy with parties being sponsored by Taco Bell, Harley Davidson, Levi’s and every new energy drink on the market.
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More free parties!
Don’t forget about Rabbit’s Lounge on E. Sixth and Chicon Streets, a beloved dive known for cold beer and pulled pork sandwiches, and now music. Wednesday from 2 p.m. until midnight, Rabbit’s will host a party for “The Citizen Architect” film, with the swampy sounds of Mudphonic, Papa Mali, the Greyhounds and many more.
*Thursday is the “France Rocks Austin” party, free and open to the public, at Klub Krucial (614 E. 6th St.) from noon to 6 p.m. Le lineup:
12:00 - 12:30 p.m. : Cocoon
12:45 - 1:15 p.m. : Soko
1:30 - 2:00 p.m. : Uffie
2:15 - 2:45 p.m. : Dead Sexy Inc.
3:15 - 3:45 p.m. : The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads
4:15 - 5:00 p.m. : General Elektriks
5:15 - 6:00 p.m. : Brodinski
* If you want to keep that French theme going, head over to the French Legation (802 San Marcos St.) Thursday and Friday for a host of great bands including The xx and Dum Dum Girls Thursday and Thurston Moore Friday. And don’t forget about “The Garden Party” Saturday at the Legation. It’s annually one of the best at SXSW.
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