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Friday, March 19, 2010
SXSW scene report: Muse at Stubb’s
The worst-kept “Secret“ show so far was English alternative band Muse at Stubb’s. Folks were lining up by 7:30 for the 10p.m. show, and by show time, the Express Badge line was all the way down Red River Street.
People grabbed spots atop a nearby parking garage to catch a glimpse of the group’s explosive laser show.
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SXSW video: Friday evening scene report
Austin 360.com’s Deborah Sengupta Stith tells you where to go tonight at SXSW.
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SXSW scene report: Friday afternoon
I saw Rolling Stone’s David Fricke in the daylight for the first time ever. I was a little disappointed to realize he is a mere mortal and not a pure creature of the night.
Overheard in the Convention Center: “TWO DOLLARS for a #%!ing BANANA?!?!?!?” Also, “Not you. I don’t mean you, I mean SXSW.” I am still puzzling over what could have preceded that remark. Perhaps in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision, it is possible that conventions, as well as corporations, can now be considered people?
After I walked past it about 20 times, I suddenly noticed there is a Chevy Volt parked outside the Convention Center. It looked cool enough to make me forgive Chevy for all those minivans, and the company even sent an engineer, Lane Rezek, to stand around and talk to people about the electric car. He said they brought it down on a truck, since it’s not yet in production, but they have test-driven it in Death Valley and the frozen north of Canada “to work any bugs out.” Unlike regular batteries, the electric batteries are not supposed to die untimely deaths in Austin summers, a nice feature. Just then, a bizarre tribe of guys in platform boots and gray-brown gargoyle-cum-Road-Warrior costumes stormed up to the Chevy Malibu nearby, and turned around to have their photo taken, showing off their thong underwear and bare backsides. Rezek mischievously took out the remote and made the Malibu’s horn honk before any of them got a booty print on it, and they ran off in the direction of Sixth Street, looking like something from a comic book only South Austin icon Leslie could have dreamed up.
On Sixth Street, some scruffy young guys were sitting on the curb, banging away on plastic bins, hoping to get tips, despite an obvious lack of talent that caused the nearby Best Wurst vendor to call out to a passer-by in frustration “Worst drummers in the world!” I smiled at him in commiseration, and he grimaced and said “They’re killing me. It’s good to express yourself — but go somewhere else.” When I walked by again an hour later, they were gone, and I wondered if he’d been driven to bribe them with wurst, since it seemed unlikely they’d take a hint.
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SXSW panel: ‘Marketing 21st Century African Music’
2 p.m. Friday
Panelists: Ngozi Odita, Society HAE; Toni Blackman, Lyrical Embassy/Rhyme Like A Girl; Benjamin Herson, Nomadic Wax LLC; Esau Mwamwaya, The Very Best; Yolanda Sangweni, AfriPOPmag
The gist: Technology is making it increasingly easy for African artists to reach a global audience, through new connections with fans and colleagues in the West as well as the increasingly DIY aspect of recording and marketing that allows entrepreneurial spirit to flourish.
Takeaways: Africans are increasingly becoming “global citizens,” and their music needs to reflect that. With increasing urbanization and globalization, young artists are exposed to a wider range of influences than ever before, and fusions with Western styles remain an important way of breaking through to a wider audience, while they can also be a gateway for Western listeners to discover traditional styles. Hip hop, with its wide youth appeal, is already playing a critical role in cultural cross-pollination. While new markets are important economically, building connections also builds understanding of other cultures, especially given music’s ability to cross linguistic boundaries and build emotional bridges. Music is also helping to “re-brand” Africa and let Westerners see beyond the negative images that tend to proliferate in the news.
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SXSW video: Cherie Currie: musician, author, chainsaw artist
Cherie Currie, a member of the Runaways and author of ‘Neon Angel,’ showed off her little-known chainsaw artistry skills for crowds at the Levi’s Fader Fort on Friday.
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SXSW scene report: Jakob Dylan
Listening to Jakob Dylan sing “Everybody’s Hurting” at the Convention Center’s Day Stage Cafe on Friday, it suddenly occurred to me that if I didn’t know his name or back story, and somebody told me “That guy’s dad is a famous rock star,” I’d have guessed Bruce Springsteen.
Dylan the Younger sings with a warm, pleasing huskiness in his sturdy, mellifluous baritone, and the mid-tempo songs he debuted from “Women + Country,” due out April 6, have an open-hearted yet clear-eyed tenderness that recalls Springsteen in his non-anthemic mode. “Everybody’s Hurting” ruminates on the nation’s malaise, but the pretty melody made it sound more hopeful than bleak. Even in “Smile When You Call Me That,” singing “I’m drunk and you’re insane, I can’t quit and you won’t change,” Dylan came off as reflective rather than acerbic. (I wondered if there was accordion on the studio version, because it sounded almost as though it could go in a Hacienda Brothers direction.)
The new album is a solo project, but on this occasion, the billing was Jakob Dylan and Three Legs (featuring Neko Case and Kelly Hogan). The two singers had a background role, but their lovely country harmonies were an important ingredient in the rootsy sound. They also performed on the album, which was produced by T-Bone Burnett (who helmed the Wallflowers’ second album). It features guitarist Marc Ribot and other studio notables, but on the road Dylan is well-served by Case’s band, including pedal steel guitarist John Rauhouse and guitarist Paul Rigby, who both seemed to be channeling Ennio Morricone at one point Friday. Rigby played deft mandolin as well.
Dylan joked at the beginning of the set that it was the first time since he got there that he hadn’t heard the bar at the back of the room. The large crowd actually stayed quiet throughout, although some of the people with cameras apparently got a little over-bold. Toward the end, Dylan looked at someone in the front row, cocked his head back and asked drily “How’s that angle look?”
“RIght up the nose; that’s a good one,” Case observed.
It should be interesting to hear how Dylan continues to gel with the fine band on his upcoming tour, and with Case, he has a guaranteed comic foil as well as a terrific singer.
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SXSW scene report: the sounds of Sixth Street
With the weekend looming and the South by Southwest Music Festival crossing the halfway point, crowds on Sixth Street reached epic proportions and by late afternoon entrance to many of the more desirable parties — including Pitchfork’s bash at Emo’s and the Onion AV Club’s annual throwdown at the Mohawk — was something of a pipe dream for the impatient.
Fortunately, SXSW essentially transforms Sixth Street to the street music capital of the world for four days, so, turning my back on the hipper day parties I elected to stroll down a couple of blocks — between Trinity and Red River — and sample the street musicians on display. What I found was an astounding array of great sounds bringing life and verve to Sixth and more than deserving of attention all their own.
On Sixth and Red River, Knoxville, Tenn. experimental pop band joined with their tour mates Dr. Manhattan — the former had no official SXSW showcase, the latter did — for an on-street jam session that attracted large crowds of onlookers. The bands weren’t accepting money, choosing instead to hand out free CDs and get their names out. I Need Sleep’s DL Bergmeier said they started playing street shows after playing to an empty bowling alley in Wisconsin and realized they could get more attention by simply playing for free on the street. They played several hours Friday afternoon, garnering applause and singalongs during a joyous and thundering cover of Daft Punk’s “One More Time.” Earlier in the day, musicians from GWAR joined them on the street to play the cowbell.
Members of I Need Sleep and Dr. Manhattan play for a crowd Friday afternoon on Sixth Street.
“It’s been amazing. Austin is really great,” said Bergmeier. “It seems like a lot of people are out here, and if they can’t get into shows they can at least hear us right out on the street. I’ve been really surprised by how good the reaction has been.
California’s the Sunshine Brothers play on Sixth Street Thursday.
A few paces down, the Sunshine Brothers of California attracted a smaller but still substantial crowd with mellow folk perfectly suited for a sunny afternoon.
Seattle, Wa. musician Emery Carl.
At Trinity St., theatrical one-man band and folk rock troubadour Emery Carl might have been Austin’s hardest working busker. The Seattle musician sings, plays guitar, plays the harmonica, and performs with a hula hoop, and has been sighted across Sixth Street all three days of SXSW and on Red River during the NPR showcase Wednesday night. Perhaps most impressively, Carl, a throaty singer with a keen sense of showmanship, occasionally plays the guitar while it’s balanced on his nose. He said business was good throughout the festival.
“All three days I’ve sold out all my CDs and given away all my business cards,” said Carl. “And the crowds have been really great.”
Bloomington, Indiana Impure Jazz drummer Joshua Morrow.
Between Nueces and Trinity, Bloomington, Indiana’s Impure Jazz drummer Joshua Morrow performed solo, improvising — naturally — for a large circle of onlookers and pounding out catchy notes.
And the greatest surprise of all might have been an impromptu reprise of 8-bit music festival Datapop at the corner of Sixth and Neches streets. Some of the international artists in town for the event took to the street to perform with one amp and a series of modified Game Boys, proving that you don’t need an elaborate light show to throw a good chiptunes show. The U.K.’s Sabrepulse joined with French 8-bit artist Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours and attracted throngs of dancing festivalgoers in minutes. Like I Need Sleep, they weren’t taking money — instead just bringing merriment to strangers.
France’s Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours plays an impromptu show with his modified Game Boy Friday afternoon.
“We’ll be here on Saturday too, if the weather cooperates,” said Michelle Davies, who was touring with Sabrepulse. “We’ve only been out here about 10 minutes and we’ve already got a great crowd.”
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SXSW scene report: Courtney Love and Hole
Photo by Jay Janner/American-Statesman staff
Well, that was a thing than happened.
What drives a couple thousand people to pack Stubb’s to see Courtney Love and the band she insists on calling Hole in 2010? Nostalgia? Morbid curiosity? An appreciation of plastic surgery?
Whatever it was, there we were and there she was, the girl with the most cake who now declares herself “far too elderly” to stage dive, but not too elderly to give everyone two middle fingers as she walked off stage.
Hole 2.0 includes guitarist Miko Larkin, bassist Shawn Dailey and drummer Stu Fischer, but everyone was there to see Love.
So many questions to be answered: Would she show up? (Yes.) Would she play the hits? (More or less.) Would she name drop? (Bret Michaels and Perez Hilton). How is her hair? (Oddly stellar.) Is the chorus for “Violet” still pretty boss? (Yes.) How are the new songs? (Weirdly late-model Guns ‘n’ Roses.)
Opening with a verse from “Pretty On the Inside” (crowd: “yay!!!”) and two from “Sympathy For the Devil” (crowd: “uh….”) it looked for a moment as if Hole would go the medley route, which would have made everything a little awkward. But no, she was her usual charming self, insisting that “We’re Hole whether you like it or not you little (expletive)!” and cranking out full songs
The new single “Skinny Little (Expletive)” sounds like vintage grunge-thump, but the other tunes had a stadium rock cast that seemed to surprise many in the crowd.
She is ready once again for her close-up. We’ll see how this goes.
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SXSW scene report: Austin Record Convention
After a special preview for early-bird shoppers yesterday, the Austin Record Convention’s SXSW edition opened up shop at the Convention Center today. According to the event’s Web site space restrictions at the SXSW version of the convention only allow for about half the dealers who peddle their wax at the fall event at the Crockett Center. Word on the ground from both shoppers and dealers was that it was a much more low key affair.
“At the Crockett Center event you make a lot more money,” confided Gabriel Ayala of Piece You Up. “People there are a lot more focused on what they want to buy. Here, the scene is cooler because you’ve got people from all over, but a lot of them are spending money on hotels and food and all, so they’re not as interested in buying records.”
The Austin Record Convention at SXSW continues tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Convention Center. The event is free and open to the public.
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SXSW interview: Leslie and the Badgers
Leslie and the Badgers at once honor country tradition (“My Tears Are Wasted on You”) and broaden its boundaries (“Americans in Rome”) on “Roomful of Smoke.” The Los Angeles-based septet supports the expansive collection at SXSW.
“I love music for the emotional connection that you get when you see an artist really weave a story,” lead singer Leslie Stevens said Friday morning. “That’s why there’s country influence. We like the guilelessness and the storytelling and craft.”
(They play at 7 p.m. Friday at St. Vincent De Paul Vintage Boutique, 1327 S. Congress Ave.).
American-Statesman: What are your impressions of SXSW?
Leslie Stevens: It’s not my first time here. I came as a fan once, and I did a little backup here one year. This is my first time with Leslie and the Badgers, though. It’s just so inspiring. I know it’s kind of a sacrifice for Austin to let these people come in from all over the world and clog up the streets with traffic, but it’s so wonderful for musicians.
How do you gear up for a day with three gigs?
I don’t know how you do it. We just try to have fun. We played three shows yesterday and have three today, and we just try to keep it informal and go with the flow. Anything can happen (laughs). I’d like to stay the whole weekend, but I have to leave early. I have to go play Mountain Stage (in West Virginia) with Loudon Wainwright III and Patty Loveless on Sunday.
That’s certainly a good enough reason to leave.
Yeah, I’m really honored by the opportunity. Seems like all of a sudden we have all these great things happening. We’re playing with Roky Erickson and Okkervil River at (San Francisco’s) The Fillmore in May. Roky’s a legend everywhere, but especially here in Austin. He’s incredible. It’s a little bit intimidating.
You advanced your showcase yesterday at B.D. Riley’s on Twitter. Do you find that posting there gets people out to gigs?
We do have that happen. It seems like the social networking helps when you’re in a band. Maybe they bring two or three additional people out to the show. I don’t really know what to make of it.
As a musician, what’s the most appealing aspect of the Internet?
You can’t beat not having to leave the house to purchase music. I think being able to digitally obtain music is kind of amazing. It’s still in its infancy, and it’ll take a minute for everything to be sorted out. I mean, you can download to your phone.
What about the flip side? Someone can watch your show on Youtube instead of buying a ticket.
To me, watching something on Youtube and experiencing the actual thing are vastly different. I’ve never felt like one’s a substitute for the other. Who knows, the way things are going, we could have Youtube in 3-D any minute here.
Probably.
We played Noise Pop (in San Francisco) with an artist (Zee Avi) who’s known as a Youtube sensation. I guess her videos have millions of hits, and the show sold out. It seems like it’s a tool that can bring people from all over to see your music. It’s kind of a miraculous thing that somebody in India can be watching music over here.
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SXSW scene report: Pitchfork Party at Emo’s
The line outside of Emo’s for the Pitchfork day party was about 35 minutes long at 3 p.m. on Friday. Inside, the crowd was so thick that it was next to impossible to get past the bar in the outside area the psychedelic pop artist Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, who brought a band along for his live performance.
Best Coast
After Washed Out’s set ended the crowd thinned out a bit as people shifted inside for Dam-Funk. California surf/garage trio Best Coast were up next outside. They don’t have as much buzz as a lot of the other groups that played the party, but the band, led by Bethany Cosentino, has a well-developed sound and were very good live. Consentino’s transitions between her tough punk voice and sweeter, more melodic style was a highlight. “This is our first South by Southwest,” she said. “It’s weird to start drinking at 11 a.m.”
Surfer Blood
Palm Beach, Florida based Surfer Blood, a band that might have a corner on the hype market this SXSW, played after Best Coast on the outside stage. They’re a very young and polite band, as evidenced by lead singer J.P. Pitts’ greeting to start the set: “I’d like to preface the set by saying we’re really honored to share the stage with some of the awesome bands that played here today.”
Other bands scheduled to take the stage later in the afternoon included Neon Indian (inside) and Vancouver garage rock outfit Japandroids.
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SXSW scene report: John Hiatt at Waterloo Records
“It’s great to be at South By Southwest,” John Hiatt said from the outdoor stage at Waterloo Records early Friday afternoon. “All the gigs seem to be in parking lots here. That’s what I love about Austin: people just seem to gather.” Hiatt opened with a live favorite (“Master of Disaster”), but immediately segued into his new album, “The Open Road” (“Homeland,” the title track).
At first, Hiatt seemed weary, his enthusiasm forced. Then he breathed deeply. “We’re gonna slow things down a little bit,” he said, introducing the swampy “Fireball Roberts.” “Well, quite a bit. We’re old.” Underneath the groove, his energy boosted. He finished gloriously: three Hiatt classics (“Slow Turning,” “Tennessee Plates,” “Memphis in the Meantime”) jolted alive both the songwriter and the crowd.
Weather cooperated. Sun and clouds split efforts throughout the 40-minute set, and wind hardly kicked until the end. At one point, Hiatt bought tuning time by acknowledging Waterloo’s stage rear energy panel. “I like this solar panel working here,” he said, then pointed to his thinning hair. “I’ve got a solar panel working here!” He pretended to take flight. The all-ages crowd, favoring bottled water over $4 Shiners, ate it up.
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SXSW video: Friday afternoon scene report
Matthew Odam offers Austin360.com visitors a Friday afternoon SXSW update.
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SXSW scene report: Davies, Hiatt dedicate songs to Chilton
The passing of Alex Chilton on Wednesday is still very much in the minds of SXSWers. Thursday night, Ray Davies dedicated ‘Til the End of the Day’ to his former New Orleans neighbor, whose band Big Star had recorded the song.
Also at La Zona Rosa, John Hiatt dedicated ‘Memphis in the Meantime’ to Alex Chilton and recently departed producer Jim Dickinson.
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Set times for Perez party
WHERE: The Whitley, 301 Brazos St. Invitation only.
SET TIMES:
7:00pm DJ A-Track
7:35pm Soko
8:00pm Sliimy
8:30pm Macy Gray
9:00pm Mike Posner
9:30pm VV Brown
10:10pm Agnes
10:40pm Alphabeat
11:30pm Marina and the Diamonds
12:10am Snoop Dogg
12:50am Estelle
1:20am *Surprise Guest*
*DJ Mia Moretti and JD Samson will take turns DJing in between sets*
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SXSW scene report: The XX at Tequila Mockingbird, sound problems
For the past ten years or so, Santa Monica’s influential radio station KCRW has aired live performances at SXSW, first from the KUT studios and, in recent years from the Tequila Mockingbird jingle factory.
Friday at about 1:30 p.m. the XX, perhaps the buzziest of all SXSW buzz bands, played two 15-minute sets of spooky, sexy, brainy music interspersed with an interview with “Morning Becomes Eclectic” host Jason Bentley.
“There’s a great vibe here,” bassist Oliver Sim said, when asked how Austin’s been treating the band. “It’s been very warm and welcoming.”
Guitarist Romy Madley Crofy concurred, though there was one criticism. “The sound hasn’t been as perfect as we’d like it to be.”
The trio’s Thursday night set at the Mohawk wasn’t a sonic nightmare along the lines of the BellRays’ show at Prague, with mics going out and an overall tinny sound. “You just witnessed our last South by Southwest showcase,” singer Lisa Kekaula announced at the end.
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SXSW scene report: Wax Poetics showcase at the Scoot Inn
It’s worth noting that with a $7 cover the crowd that packed the house at the Scoot Inn on Thursday night skewed towards native Austinites. Yes, there were badge-holders peppered through the audience, but it seemed like that a big part of the scene at the Puma/Funk Aid for Africa/Wax Poetics event was local music lovers taking advantage of the visiting talent and the relatively easy parking at the Eastside hideaway.
The party was hot. I missed Brownout’s opening set, which still had the crowd under the outdoor tent buzzing when I showed up, but caught NYC/Philly DJ Rich Medina dropping turntable science that brought truth to the title Wax Poetics. Grimy Styles did its hometown proud playing the kind of laid back, syrupy dub grooves you could lose yourself in for hours. The band then reconfigured into a solid backing outfit for Jamaican spitfire Jovi Rockwell who schooled the audience on Kingston slang then wove a set of love songs and party grooves that kept the crowd moving.
Meanwhile, inside the club San Francisco mixmaster was wrecking shop on the turntables. He blew my mind when his Afro-groove mix warped into a samba beat that became startlingly effective bed music for Paul Simon’s “Late In The Evening” then segued the whole thing into a ridiculously groovy remix of Crystal Waters “Gypsy Woman.”
I left before the party was over, but as I made it through the door it seemed a fresh posse of locals were turning up and getting loose.
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SXSW scene report: Camper Van Beethoven at Encore Patio
It was supposed to be CVB and guitarist-vocalist David Lowery’s other band, Cracker, but it was pretty much the former, perhaps because the band missed their start time by almost 30 minutes.
The sponsor-a-song gimmick (35 fans chipped in $100 each to help the band build its set list and defray travel costs) actually worked pretty well. A Santa Cruz roller derby girl glided across the stage with the names of sponsors and the tunes they selected. The set was full of classics from an on-again off-again band into its second quarter-century: “Eye of Fatima,” “My Beloved Tania,” “Pictures of Matchstick Men” and, but of course, “Club Med Sucks” and, even more but of course, “Take the Skinheads Bowling.”
Anybody out there know what ticked Lowery off? He ranted from the stage, “Don’t ever come back to this place. Don’t spend a ….dime.” I couldn’t tell if his anger as directed at the club or some equipment rental place.
Cracker plays again tonight, opening for Cheap Trick at Auditorium Shores. Hope Lowery’s mood improves.
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SXSW scene report: Drive-By Truckers at Stubb’s
In front of a packed house, the Drive-By Truckers took the stage to a recording of Big Star’s “September Gurls,” yet another homage to the freshly departed Alex Chilton, who was slated to perform with his seminal pop band Saturday night.
Vocalist-guitarist Patterson Hood also dedicated “Let There Be Rock,” one new song in a set loaded with tunes from the band’s new one, “The Big To-Do,” to Chilton saying, “I’ve been a big, big, big, huge Big Star fan since I was way you…So I want to dedicate this song to Alex Chilton, and this song is about how rock and roll saved my life.”
Highlights: The opener, “The Fourth Night of My Drinking” and “The Flying Wallendas.”
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SXSW review: Broken Social Scene
If any band playing last night at the Stubb’s showcase was going to follow the stellar set from Band of Horses, it was Canadian music collective Broken Social Scene. Led by guitarist/vocalist Kevin Drew, the band variously featured at least six but sometimes many more musicians on stage, including a horn section. The set highlighted the group’s range, from what could be categorized as Stones-influenced, late 70’s classic rock to Donna Summer-infused disco. Also, like Band of Horses, they debuted new material from their forthcoming album.
They opened with crowd favorite “7/4 (Shoreline).” After “Fire Eye’d Boy” they played the new song “Forced to Love,” a pretty straight-forward rock tune; Drew told the crowd that the new album was “about forgiveness.” It was only a slice of a entire night’s worth of stage banter from the singer, which also included a bit of rambling about the American healthcare system and was probably fueled by the Shiners he was double-fisting when he took the stage.
Drummer Justin Peroff was a highlight, as was a big-haired Lisa Lobsinger, who came on stage to sing another new song, a disco number accompanied by a drum machine that, while deviating from the band’s sound, worked really well. Emily Haines and James Shaw from Metric also joined the band at one point for “Anthems For a Seventeen-Year Old Girl.”
Update: As reader Bianca pointed out, BSS opened with “World Sick,” not “7/4 (Shoreline),” as stated above.
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SXSW review: A night of badges, hipsters and a guy who looked like he was going to fall over at Mohawk
There’s something absurdly powerful about seeing an act really go for it at South By Southwest. There’s a packed house, the attention of journalists, fans and taste-makers and the realization that this is a make or break moment that can be electrifying. It’s amazing to see someone feeding off the crowd’s energy and giving it back.
Thursday night at Mohawk, the GZA, was not that man. And I’m pretty sure almost nobody in the crowd cared.
Taking the stage about 40 minutes late at 20 to 1 a.m., the GZA, one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s legendary M.C.s seemed….rickety? Overly relaxed? Barely able to stand up? One of those.
Let me put it this way: He had a hype man, he had a DJ and he had a dude who was essentially a spotter. This gentleman at one point literally put his hand on GXA’s back, perhaps to keep him from tipping over.
GZA stood very still for much of the set and at one point took out a Blackberry (smartphone?) and started texting. To his credit, he didn’t stop rapping. But he also decided to check some messages while on stage performing. Think about that. That’s considered rude when you’re ordering food at McDonald’s.
But again, it was unclear if anyone at Mohawk minded. SXSW crowds are more forgiving that you might think. After midnight, after a hard day of partying, people, to a certain extent, are just happy to still be awake. Mohawk was one of the night’s hotter tickets and as long as the GZA hit highlights from the Wu-Tang catalog (which he did) and rapped a whole bunch of verses from his brilliant debut “Liquid Swords” (ditto) people were going to be happy with it.
(A hype man also yelled, “Bill Murray is in the building,” but ol’ Bill was accused of being about four places at the same time, according to Twitter. Anyone know where he actually was? Are there fake Murrays running around?)
It was an odd evening. Swedish indie folk duo First Aid Kit (a.k.a sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg) opened the showcase. It was lovely stuff, gauzy and sweet, but it translated poorly unless you were right in front of them. This was not a band you could listen to and mill about at the same time and Mohawk is a prime milling spot. JJ (or is it jj?), another Swedish folkie who cuts her oddball song-forms with dub-reggae’s drift and pulse suffered a similar fate.
Salem were a stranger proposition, a Michigan trio with one dude who looked like his New Wave band abandoned him at a Shell station, one guy who mumble-rapped in a basketball outfit and a young lady seemed to hold it all together, blending elements of Southern rap’s muffled boom-bap with goth-keyboard overtones. It’s complicated stuff, a recombinant music that has an extraordinary amount of potential.
It was actually a brilliantly-realized bill musically, guitar motions and electronic vibes knotting up and spilling apart. But the front half would have worked better inside.
Then Holy (Expletive) took the stage and turned the party out. The Canadian quartet’s electro rock, blending live bass, drums and sometimes guitar, with electronic loops and flourishes, nearly doubled the gig’s heart rate. Their sound recalls the moments when Manchester rock fully morphed into “Madchester” dance music.
I wonder if GZA is awake yet.
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SXSW review: Band of Horses
North and South Carolina-based Band of Horses took the stage at Stubb’s Thursday around 11:40, in what was one of the most anticipated sets of the evening. The band recently announced a new album, their first in quite some time. They debuted some new material on stage, much of which indicated that unlike similar indie rock darlings My Morning Jacket, who have embraced a funkier path as of late, BoH is all about the southern rock.
The band’s stage presence advanced a sort of frontier narrative, with a giant projection of old west towns and running deer above them. They opened with “Is There a Ghost,” with lead singer/guitarist Ben Bridwell, neck tattoos and all, crooning “I can sleeeeeep.” It’s a crowd favorite, and it shows off Bridwell’s unique voice, a main component of the band’s dreamlike sound, which is velvety but also desperate in a compelling way.
The new material, including “Confidence,” was decidedly more upbeat and positive than the songs that have made the band semi-famous, including “Funeral.” Of course, the band played that one, with Bridwell joking, “here’s another single, I think.” It’s their biggest hit, and they nailed it, the crowd jumping in unison when the band exploded into the hard rock chorus. If there’s anything negative to say about the set, it’s that it was way two short—they probably could have played for another hour without any complaints from the audience.
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SXSW scene report: Musings on SXXpress Pass line Friday morning
Badge holders can pick up the passes the day of the desired show between 10 AM and 5 PM on the fourth floor of the convention center. Gold badgers get one pass per day and Platinum badgers get two. A volunteer told me this morning that while passes have generally been available until the afternoon on previous days, this morning saw an early rush. Starting at 10 AM people were filing through to get their hands on a pass. Why the rush? Muse. The band is playing at 10 PM at Stubb’s, and I was told a great majority of people requesting Xpress passes this morning were doing so for the former ACL Fest headliner. Doors at Stubb’s open at 7:30 and only badges will be allowed.
The volunteer at Xpress told me that most of the passes for the Muse show were gone, so make haste if you want one. The passes, of which there are only 10 percent of total venue capacity, do not allow entry, only the first spot in line. So don’t get too comfy if you get one.
And, no, I didn’t get one. I saved mine for Central Presbyterian Church and Lustre Pearl.
Two of the brave souls who got up early to grab Xpress passes to Muse on this gloomy day were Paul Latimer of Austin and Todd Porter of San Francisco. Both said they would not be up so early were it not for the chance to jump the line at Muse.
Porter said he was up till 4:30 AM listening to bands from the pedestrian bridge late-night concert. He wasn’t at the bridge but could hear the bands clearly from Latimer’s condo at the 360 tower. Despite the late night, he said he woke up at 7 AM to get some work done before hitting the convention center with Latimer. Coffee in hand after exiting the line, Latimer said, “I pleasantly surprised I feel this good this early.”
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SXSW review: The Court Yard Hounds
Anticipation ran high leading up to the SXSW public debut of the Court Yard Hounds, the new project spearheaded by Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, the two sisters who co-founded the Dixie Chicks, lo these many years ago.
But the anticipation at Antone’s Thursday night was unaccompanied by expectations. The album wasn’t out, only a few snippets of music were available on the CYH Web site, the band had not played in public and, most importantly, for all their years onstage, neither Maguire nor Robison had ever set foot in the center stage spotlight. What to expect?
Those cynics who thought the Court Yard Hounds might be a vanity project designed to breathe some air into careers stuck on high center since their Grammy sweep in 2007 obviously don’t know the Dallas-born sisters. The duo has always been the backbone of the Chicks, which has had three lead singers (Robin Macy, Laura Lynch, Natalie Maines). They have the dogged work ethic of coal miners and the musical chops to enable them to strike out in any direction they choose.
So while the fiddle, Dobro and banjo in evidence at Antone’s on Thursday night might have sounded a familiar chord to Chicks fans, the music was more diverse, and the lyrics more personal than any the duo has essayed in the past. As has been noted, much of the new material, including (one surmises) “Miss You,” “Didn’t Make A Sound,” “Gracefully” and “Then Again” arose as a consequence of Emily Robison’s divorce from singer/songwriter Charlie Robison.
The bluegrass instrumentation notwithstanding, the Hounds’ sound was a full-throated affair, boasting martial rhythms, soul-laden organ riffs and (on “Miss You”) a lissome, sophisticated interplay of keyboards, lead guitar and fiddle. And while neither Robison nor Maguire boast the kind of afterburner pipes that Maines makes full use of, their harmonies are one of those organic wonders that only shared DNA can create.
Apart from the frisson of hearing the new material for the first time, fans got a couple of lagniappe treats: Jakob Dylan (who sang on the album) made a guest appearance for “See You In the Spring,” and the band — Dylan included — tore it up in a ragged-but-right cover of Rod Stewart’s “You Wear It Well.”
Which is, in fact, how Maguire and Robison wear their new roles. The Dixie Chicks are still a going concern — they will tour with the Eagles and Keith Urban this summer —but the Court Yard Hounds are clearly a dog that will hunt.
(For a review of the preceding acts in the Americana showcase, see below)
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SXSW review: The Besnard Lakes
A lot of bands craft their sound after early 90’s alt-rock; Montreal-based band The Besnard Lakes do so as well, but differentiate themselves by throwing in elements of ambient psychedelia and metal. All of these sides were on display during their 8:30 set Thursday at Stubb’s, with lead singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jace Lasek howling above his wife Olga Goreas’ thumping bass.
The two traded vocal duties throughout the set. Lasek’s numbers tended to be slower and more psychedelic, whereas Goreas handled the more melodic numbers, including “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent.” The songs tend to be slow, building affairs that often explode into distorted guitar and bass breakdowns. The upper-register vocal styles gave the music a sublime feel, and tempo changes where the band shifed between odes to Zepplin and surf rock mixed the set up nicely, especially on the closer, “And You Lied To Me.”
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SXSW scene report: Cheap Trick tapes ‘Austin City Limits’
“We are going to make history once again,” “Austin City Limits” producer Terry Lickona said before rolling tape on the first episode of the longtime PBS series’ 36th season. And so they did, with Cheap Trick, the pride of Rockford, Ill., and indisputably one of America’s power pop/hard rock bands, in full roar.
Well, make that three-fourths roar. Disquietingly absent was drummer Bun E. Carlos. Carlos was also absent from an autograph signing at Waterloo Records and a day of press at the Four Seasons. Before the band headlines a free show at Auditorium Shores tonight, Austin is asking, “Where is Bun E. Carlos?” We’ve asked the tour manager for comment and will update this post as soon as we know anything.
Anyway. The show. Filling in on drums was guitarist Rick Nielsen ‘s son, Daxx, a very capable understudy. They opened with “Way of the World” from “Dream Police,” followed by a cover of Slade’s “When the Lights are Out” from their latest, “The Latest.” On the latter, a great glam-y shout-along, Nielsen quotes himself from “Elo Kiddies” off the Trick’s 1977 debut album. By the time they followed up wiith “If You Want My Love” and “I Want You to Want Me” the crowd was enthralled. I was, anyway. Few bands that have been around as long as Cheap Trick work so hard so consistently at entertaining a crowd. I’ve seen them dozens of times and they never phone it in, even when their regular timekeeper’s not there.
With Alex Chilton’s passing on everybody’s mind, the dedicated “Sleep Forever,” “Heaven Tonight” and “That ’70s Song” (otherwise known as “In the Street” by Big Star) to Chilton’s memory.
With about seven of the songs new — or at least new to the crowd — the 17-tune set wasn’t pure nostalgia, but of course you knew they were going to tear up “Surrender,” their “Jumping Jack Flash,” and the encore of “Voices” (Nielsen’s harmonies were a nice counterpoint to vocalist Robin Zander’s leads), “Dream Police” and “Gonna Raise Hell” (a spotlight for Tom Petersson, one of the most inventive bassists in all of rock) was pretty much a KO.
They’re melodic and crunchy, dark and funny. For a band that’s been around roughly as long as “ACL,” they’re surprisingly spry. On Thursday night it didn’t seen to much matter that they’re not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the taping felt like anything but a valedictory. More like a validation.
Set list:
Way of the World When the Lights Are Out If You Want My Love I Want You to Want Me These Days Baby Loves to Rock Sleep Forever Heaven Tonight That ’70s Song Miracle Miss Tomorrow Sick Man of Europe Closer, The Ballad of Burt and Linda Surrender Voices Dream Police Gonna Raise Hell
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SXSW review: Systema Solar and Anita Tijoux
Everything was running late at Flamingo Cantina — surprise, surprise — and Colombian collective Systema Solar was only about midway through its set at midnight Thursday, when Anita Tijoux was supposed to be on stage. For about 20 minutes, the place was as uncomfortably crowded as a subway train at rush hour, but the audience, including a puzzling number of men over 6-foot-3, was definitely digging the group’s bass-heavy fusion of polyrhythmic folkloric music with hip-hop, house, techno and dancehall. In addition to complex, danceable beats, the ensemble has two forceful MCs in Jhon Primera and Indigo, who played well off each other, and Primera danced with compelling abandon, at one point rotating his head and tossing his long hair so violently around that I wondered if one of the many people on stage was a chiropractor standing by.
The group also demonstrated visual panache with artsy, entertaining videos of people dancing, shown on a screen on a side wall of the club, and with their uniforms, which had a faintly military air, although the black backgrounds were decorated with glittering red, gold and green metallic patterns. The costumes looked like something Michael Jackson might have designed if he had decided to sponsor a Caribbean biathlon team. As 12:30 approached, the crowd started to thin a bit, but the large contingent remaining burst into applause and danced enthusiastically when Systema Solar played a kind of cumbia on steroids. A few long numbers later, they finally announced “This is our last song,” but then played a couple more, only quitting when someone in authority apparently finally impressed on them just how far over the time limit they had played. Although the band had outlasted at least half the crowd, many of those remaining begged for more, and a grinning Primera told them to come out to Speakeasy Friday night.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to set up for Tijoux, a Chilean hip-hop artist who works with a stripped-down, old-school setup. Her crew was just a clever DJ, wearing an Adidas track suit, yet, and a male sidekick, and she popped out on stage with little ceremony, wearing jeans shorts and a flowing traditional blouse in a bright shade of light blue. The petite Tijoux looks like she could be a telenovela star, with her sculpted cheekbones and bangs so thick, they would make Zooey Deschanel green with envy. But she’s a serious heavyweight on the mic, her words tumbling forth in a swift, percussive stream. Most of her Spanish was too rapid for me to follow, but her smoky voice and rhythmic phrasing were compelling nevertheless, and she spoke eloquently with her hands. She also knows how to work a chorus, as in “A Veces” and “Sube,” which she dedicated to her fellow Chileans suffering in the wake of the earthquake.
Tijoux closed with her hit “1977,” set to a spooky musical track and boasting a chorus as hooky as any pop song. It was almost 1:15 in the morning as she finished her 25-minute set, but although the crowd had dwindled considerably after Systema Solar, she captivated the diehards, and one tall guy in his 20s was even happily dancing with a slice of pizza on a paper plate in one hand and another slice clutched in his other hand, which waved enthusiastically in the air.
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SXSW COVERage #2
More cover songs heard at SXSW:
Broken Bells did “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells at the C3 party Thursday night.
Court Yard Hounds performed Rod Stewart’s “You Wear It Well,” with Jakob Dylan on backing vocals, Thursday night at Antone’s.
Free Energy covered Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “Hey You” Thursday night at the Beauty Bar Annex
Sharon Jones played her cover of “This Land Is Your Land” from the “Up In The Air” soundtrack, by Woody Guthrie
Deer Tick covered ZZ Top’s “Cheap Sunglasses”
Everybody Was In the French Resistance … Now! covered “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” by the Rubinoos
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SXSW review: Americana showcase
“Americana” can be a slippery genre term, encompassing everyone from Taj Mahal to Bob Wills. But Austin singer-songwriter Hayes Carll may have managed to put a pin in it during the Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s Thursday night. “Ah,” he said, upon receiving a frosty fermented beverage onstage during his set. “That’s how you know you’re at an Americana show — they bring you a beer up before the fifth song. I was at (another showcase) yesterday, and they didn’t bring us nothin’. As my friend Jim Lauderdale would say: ‘That’s…Americana!’”
Lauderdale, the rare Nashville songwriter who straddles the line between hit-making commercial success (he’s penned hits for George Strait) and soulful roots-music cred (Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin both sat in on his set), was in attendance, as were a host of fans, friends and fellow travelers, all united in celebration of the plain-spoken songwriting and genre-scrambling fusion of country, blues, rock and bluegrass that mark the perennial undercurrent of music that flows from Nashville to Austin to L.A.
Lauderdale started his set at a smoking pace with the blistering “Life By Numbers,” before moderating the tempo with a couple of new songs, “The Louisville Road” and “Between Your Heart and Mine,” both featuring guest vocals from Griffin, and winding up with a honky-tonk one-two punch of “King of Broken Hearts” (a hit for Strait) and “Halfway Down.”
Also on the bill was Elizabeth Cook, a sassy performer in a barely-there black miniskirt who sang “Sometime it takes balls to be a woman” and told rueful tales about greasy ex-boyfriends in chopped and channeled cars, but then she hushed the room with a raw, confessional tale whose title says it all — “Heroin Addict Sister.”
Cook is from the Sassy Broad School whose alumni include Miranda Lambert and Gretchen Wilson, but she isn’t above poking fun at herself. While her guitarist took the lead, she kicked off her cowboy boots and cut a rug onstage. After catching her breath, she made a confession: “One, Antone’s has a great stage for clogging. And, two, there’s a reason cloggers don’t wear strapless dresses.”
Cook dressed up for her showcase appearance; Hayes Carll, well, dressed. Carll, an uncannily canny songwriter, likes to portray himself as a walking hard luck case, first cousin to Pigpen in the “Peanuts” cartoons. Like kindred spirits Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry and Todd Snider, he works in what might be called the High Sardonic mode.
Recalling one unfortunate gig, he harkened back to “the Midnight Rodeo in Lampasas on a Tuesday night…the kind of place where they have a mechanical sheep.” One of his song’s characters, addressing the author, sneers, “Boy, you ain’t a poet/You’re just a drunk with a pen.”
All of which might be cause for concern if Carll wasn’t so insightful and self-aware and happy to be among God’s Chosen to stand onstage and sing every night. Songs like “It’s Hard Out Here,” “Drunken Poet’s Dream” and “Bad Liver and A Broken Heart” may sound dire, but Carll still gives you the feeling he’s the kid who’s broken into the candy store.
(The night’s bill also included the Court Yard Hounds — see the review in a separate entry — and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.)
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SXSW review: The Soft Pack
The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) are a four piece garage band from San Diego. Wearing collared shirts and khakis during their 9:30 set at Stubb’s Thursday, it seemed as if they fancied themselves a kind of Vampire Weekend for a garage rock crowd. The band revolved between jumpy punk tunes and slightly more accessible (radio friendly?) pop numbers, with lead singer/guitarist Matt Lamkin jumping and dancing his way around the stage for most of the set.
A lot of the band seemed more at home with the harder, faster numbers. “Come On” worked well, with Lamkin spitting out the lyrics “your town could be the next big thing,” with Matty McLoughlin holding down the guitar part. The more polished “Extinction” and “Mexico,” on the other hand, lacked energy. Perhaps it was because the band’s on-stage persona just seemed a little too nice, even when they were trying to be snarky about SXSW and the music industry, didn’t match the feel of the music. Toward the end of the set things improved, especially when McLoughlin announced that they had found out prior to the show that their album had hit number one in the UK. That piece of information gave closer “Answer to Yourself” a bit more power than the rest of the set.
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SXSW video: On the street with Michael Louis Johnson
Toronto musician Michael Louis Johnson plays his renditions of jazz and blues standards to passersby on Sixth Street at SXSW.
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SXSW video: On the street with Dirty Bourbon River Show
New Orleans’ Dirty Bourbon River Show gives a marching performance on Sixth Street, but got some unexpected guests.
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SXSW video: On the street with Kellen & Me
Chicago musician Kellen Kerwin performs to passersby at SXSW.
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SXSW video: On the street with Battlehooch
San Francisco band Battlehooch plays on Sixth Street on Thursday during SXSW.
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SXSW video: On the street with Silver Thistle
Lori Waters of Austin’s Silver Thistle Pipe and Drums explains that the bagpipe isn’t an easy instrument to learn.
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