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SXSW 2010
March 9, 2011
SXSW artist of the Day: Collie Buddz
Collie Buddz - Holiday from raised fist propaganda on Vimeo.
From: Hamilton, Bermuda
In 50 words or less: Though his signature hit “Come Around” is a certifiable club banger, showing off the singjay’s hip-hop friendly dancehall toasting, his sound also encompasses more traditional reggae sounds like one-drop and lovers rock.
Could share a bill with: The Melodians, Ziggy or Stephen Marley, Yellowman
Diversify, diversify, diversify: Buddz’ latest EP is available on his web site as a free download. Presumably, he makes up some of the money lost on music sales with the wide array of gear available on his Website which includes branded t-shirts, skateboards and (ahem) scales.
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November 8, 2010
SXSW pumped $113 million into Austin economy in 2010, says report
Bucking a dour year for the economy in general, the South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festival kicked $113 million into the local economy in 2010, according to a report commissioned by SXSW and conducted by consulting firm Greyhill Advisors. The report, released today in a news conference featuring Greyhill’s Ben Loftsgaarden, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and SXSW’s Mike Shea, is the fourth consecutive economic impact study the firm has conducted.
That number is up from $99 million, the total impact calculated for 2009’s SXSW, and the highest yet reported so far. In 2010, SXSW saw more visitors than ever before — with 159,000 registered attendees and 197,000 participants one free events are factored in. That $113 million figure reflects $29 million spent as a result of SXSW operations — year-round and festival-specific — and a further $84 million spent by attendees, including hotels, food and transportation.
The full report is available from Greyhill Advisors’ website.
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April 8, 2010
IFC recaps SXSW tomorrow night
If you’re not thoroughly South by Southwested out, want to relive the memories and have cable television, the Independent Film Channel’s got just the ticket for you.
IFC will air a SXSW wrap-up special tomorrow night, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. The 30-minute special includes interviews and performances captured throughout the festival, including several interviews conducted by Hold Steady front man Craig Finn. Performers include She and Him, Broken Social Scene and Neon Indian, among others. The special also includes highlights from the film festival.
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March 23, 2010
Post-SXSW encounter with someone who could hurt me
A trip to the dentist today and a conversation with the hygienist made me realize that South by Southwest is a mystery to many. Between x-rays she bemoaned missing Smokey Robinson, one of her favorite performers.
“They didn’t advertise that show at all,” she said. “No mention on the radio, no ads in the paper. The organizers did a lousy job of promoting that show.”
I told her that since SXSW is an industry event, they don’t advertise to the general public. But anyone familiar with using the Internet could find stuff to do, whether they were in the music business or not. “Smokey Robinson didn’t come down to Austin to play for free (well, $250) so the public could fill the place. He came to play for booking agents and folks who place songs in movies and promoters, to show them that he still has it.”
The tooth townie wasn’t feeling me. “I don’t think I like that. Everybody should have the same chance to see the show.”
Yeah, when that happens acts from Smokey Robinson to the Tunnel Ape Bunnies won’t play SXSW.
SXSW is unlike any other festival that plays Austin. The misconceptions (“I thought SXSW was for local bands to get signed”) regarding the conference/ festival are starting to get tiresome, but I had to agree with my hygienist. You don’t want to hear “oops” when you’re in the chair of pain.
Enjoying a slow news day.
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March 22, 2010
SXSW video: Swagg presents Perez Hilton's One Night in Austin
Scenes from Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin party on the final night of South by Southwest. Performers included Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Hole and others.
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March 21, 2010
SXSW video: Red Bull Thre3Style party
Matthew Odam reports on the Red Bull Thre3Style party with Mos Def, which took place on the final night of South by Southwest.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Patrick Caldwell
(Raphel Saadiq at the Austin Music Hall. Ricardo B. Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)1. The Cave Singers and Movits at Home Slice Pizza. Playing the local pizzeria’s day party back-to-back Friday, the sharp contrast between Seattle’s Cave Singers and Sweden’s Movits ably demonstrated the beauty of SXSW. What other festival brings together passionate, gritty Americana and kooky, hip-hop-by-way-of-swing grooves?
2. Theophilius London at Peckerheads. Brooklyn’s Theophilius London finds the perfect intersection of hip-hop and soul, with a crowd-stoking swagger, enviable gyrating skills and a command of the audience that few can claim. From his sharp lyricism to his undeniable stage presence, London’s due to blow up any day now.
3. Free Energy at the Beauty Bar Annex. There were at least 100 bands gunning for the ‘best hard-working indie act on the verge of blowing up’ designation this year, and that’s a conservative estimate. But Free Energy mounted the most charming assault, with energetic live shows and an array of dance-eliciting pop rock gems.
4. AOL/Spinner showcase Friday night at the Austin Music Hall. SXSW didn’t pack a more lovingly curated showcase than Friday night at AMH, where neophyte soul sensations like Black Joe Lewis and Mayer Hawthorne opened for experienced players Raphael Saadiq and Sharon Jones — and elder statesman Smokey Robinson. From booty-shaking first note to sweat-inducing last trumpet blast, it was a night of sweet soul vibes.
5. Roky Erickson and Okkervil River. Sure, it makes perfect sense in hindsight — of course one of the smartest and most tuneful personalities in indie rock would find a complement in the psychedelic pioneer and quintessential comeback story of Erickson — but who could have honestly guessed that Okkervil River front man Will Sheff and 13th Floor Elevators founder Erickson would make such a perfect pair? Erickson’s songs are thoughtful and heartbreaking, and Sheff’s production and backing band really make them shine.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Deborah Sengupta Stith
(Nneka at the Parish during SXSW 2010. Ben Sklar FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN) With mobility and stamina seriously impaired (I’m 71/2 months pregnant), I confess it’s been the most low-key SXSW I’ve participated in. The list of artists I wish I’d seen outnumbers the great artists I did manage to catch. Some standout moments:
1. KUT Austin’s taping of Nneka at the Day Stage Cafe on Wednesday afternoon. So much soulful passion packed into such a tiny frame! The Nigerian/German singer-songwriter coaxed the audience to join her in a cry against corruption with the sincere appeal, ‘I believe that when we raise our voices together a spiritual change can occur.’ For a few minutes at least, we all believed it, too.
2. Mochilla Presents A Timeless After Party, Saturday at Malverde. When I showed up at the party Detroit MC Illa J, brother to the late legendary hip-hop producer Jay Dee (J. Dilla), was rocking the mike, paying lyrical homage over jazzy grooves dropped by Mochilla’s DJ Eric Coleman. Coleman kept the vibe flowing setting up Austin’s own DJ Chicken George to completely demolish the dance floor. Seriously. The man put out a mind-blowing mix of soulful dance grooves splicing in shots of funk, rhythmic cuts and sped-up Dirty South refrains. When British/Columbian DJ Quantic took the wheels he dropped the party down a notch slipping into a South American tropical rhythm that started couples spinning. He then took the crowd through a series of changes dropping to a sparse guitar line, layering blasts of horns and playing fast and loose with the tempos. It was an evening of diverse aural collages, a ‘Timeless After Party’ indeed.
3. J. Boogie at the Waxpoetics show at the Scoot Inn on Thursday. It was late, I was tired and ready to go. Then the San Francisco mixer did this crazy Brazilian take on Paul Simon’s ‘Late In The Evening’ and smoothly segued it into Crystal Waters ‘Gypsy Woman.’ ‘La da di, la da da,’ just like that I was ready to go again.
4. Yelawolf. The dude is crazy. A white rapper from rural Alabama who spits a rapid-fire flurry of nasty, grimy, Dirty South rhymes. When I caught him at the Urb Magazine day party he was climbing walls and leaping on tables to get closer to the crowd. He went on to rip mikes all over town.
5. Civilians at the party, a general observation. A few years back SXSW creative director Brent Grulke infuriated Austinites by publicly declaring that the festival was really for industry types, not locals. These days SXSW seems to have softened that stance. The Thursday night showcase at the Scoot Inn had just a $7 cover and the Malverde party appeared to be free. In both venues the crowd was a nice mix of SXSW-ers and local music enthusiasts. In addition, I know people who easily bought tickets to some of the less buzzy showcases that still boasted fantastic national talent. The festival takes over our city in ways that are simultaneously exhilaratingly awesome and irritatingly unavoidable. I’m happy that local music fans are allowed to participate.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Joe Gross
(Courtney Love at the Spin Party at Stubb’s. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)Drunkdriver at Encore. Enormous guitar roar in the service of fast, noisy song-muggings that inspire crowd-members to try to mosh and end up on the floor.
Total Abuse singer Rusty Kelley’s creepy stare at Barbarella. As the band’s hideously nasty punk grinds, Kelley looks like he is moments away from cutting your throat. Well done.
The way that a poor performance at SXSW can destroy a band’s buzz. Broken Bells at Stubb’s, I am glaring at you. And I would like that hour back.
Courtney Love’s jarring face-and-music combination. Her mug has stretched into a Axl Rose-style melting mask and her new songs sound like late-model Guns N’ Roses. Perfect!
Tamaryn’s gothy, sexy post-punk at Klub Krucial, which turned 2010 into 1981.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Parry Gettelman
Susan Cowsill at Hilton Creekside Saturday. Her voice just seems to get stronger and lovelier as the years go by, and she had both terrific new material and some cool additions to her band in the very young-looking multi-instrumentalists Jack and Sam Craft, who are brothers.
Gong Myoung at Copa Friday. The four members of the Korean group are not only phenomenal masters of any number of instruments, from wind to percussion, but their set followed an astonishing arc, from sheer force to sheer delight.
The Unthanks at Emo’s Jr. Wednesday. Exquisite sister harmonies and songs that blend the traditional and the modern in surprising ways.
Unni Lovlid’s voice. Her set at Copa on Saturday was marred by the loudness of partiers in the bar area, but I’ve been playing her meditative album ‘Rite’ ever since as an antidote to SXSW stress.
Grupo Fantasma at Copa on Saturday. Love the new material and the increased cohesion they show as an ensemble. They seemed plenty tight before, but they seemed to be almost sharing a brain at times during this set.
Best SXSW quote: Isidro Lopez, host of Fiesta Musical on KOOP, asked one of the Blazers on Friday ‘How has SXSW affected you so far?’ He replied ‘Well … it’s aged me!’
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Michael Corcoran
(Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Driskill during SXSW 2010. Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN) Carolina Chocolate Drops at Paste party on Wednesday. My first great SXSW moment — discovering this soulful Afro-Appalachian trio from North Carolina — ended up being my best.
Snoop Dogg performs ‘Jump Around’ by House of Pain at the Perez Hilton party on Saturday. The entire crowd was leaping in unison, creating a strobe-like effect with the back lighting.
Hearing Roky Erickson perform ‘Goodbye Sweet Dreams’ live for the first time, followed by him and Okkeril River doing ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ for the millionth time.
The xx performs ‘Crystalized’ at Tequila Mockingbird studio. To see the artful and dramatic next big things create their beautiful tension just feet away in a room with about 20 people was a real treat.
Cherie Currie performing ‘Cherry Bomb’ with Girl In a Coma on Friday. A big passing-the-torch moment in the middle of a great set.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Patrick Beach
(Cheap Trick at Auditorium Shores. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN.)Cheap Trick at Auditorium Shores on Friday: The sound and intimacy might have been better Thursday at the ‘Austin City Limits’ taping, but Friday’s set offered something like a half-dozen songs from the band’s first album, a nice gesture to longtime fans. And even without drummer Bun E. Carlos, whose absence was still something of a mystery after the band’s management released a statement saying he’s still in the band, fans totally brought it. They always do.
Coal Porters at Yard Dog on Saturday: This U.S.-U.K. collective likes to call itself the original alt-bluegrass band. In a genre that is often too staid and not ragged enough, they’re also unafraid to be funny.
Motorhead on Wednesday at Austin Music Hall: Something was missing from my life until Lemmy and mates pulverized my skull with ‘Ace of Spades.’ Their version is even better than the Bad Livers. (Hold those e-mails; it’s a joke, people.)
Junior the Ghost on Saturday at Antone’s: The sound of growing up in a happy family in the suburbs. The guitar-keyboards-drum trio’s songs are just a little too busy and just a little too happy, but there’s no denying the ample musicianship. My boss suggested they be called They Might Be Ben Folds.
Big Star-Alex Chilton tribute Saturday at Antone’s: With Chilton’s passing, the myth and reach of this band will only grow. As the Drive-By Trucker’s Patterson Hood suggested earlier in the week, maybe now their renown will be as big as their name suggested. So much love from so many great musicians and that rarest of things: a tribute show pulled off in haste that didn’t turn into a train wreck.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Peter Mongillo
(Local Natives at the Levi’s Fader Fort. Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)1. Here We Go Magic, Wednesday, Club de Ville. When this indie rock band, led by Luke Temple, stopped at the Parish last year with Grizzly Bear, they were good; this time around, they were great, hitting their notes perfectly.
2. Bowerbirds, Wednesday, Club de Ville. The indie acoustic group delivered a warm, compelling performance that merged folk and Americana sounds, with a hefty dose of accordion.
3. Band of Horses, Thursday, Stubb’s. This was one of the most highly anticipated sets of the week, and the South Carolina-based southern rock band lived up to the hype, wowing the crowd with an impressive combination of ambience and power.
4. Broken Social Scene, Thursday, Stubb’s. The Canadian rock collective led by Kevin Drew showed why they’re such a popular draw, mixing rock, pop and electronic music in service of a sound that is uniquely theirs.
5. Local Natives, Friday, Galaxy Room Backyard. Still relatively new, it was unclear whether this Los Angeles based indie pop group’s live show was going to live up to the promise of their debut album; they exceeded expectations, putting on one of the best sets of the week.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Matthew Odam
(Mos Def at Red Bull Thre3Style. Matthew Odam AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Wednesday: White Denim at the Austinist party at The Mohawk. Though I know there are often better ways to spend SXSW than by checking out local acts, I was happy to kick the fest off with local garage rockers White Denim. The trio has expanded its sound and matured over the past four years, and seemed a fitting and raucous start to four days of music in Austin.
Friday: Tyler Ramsey and Band of Horses at Central Presbyterian Church. Looking like a long-lost son of George Harrision or a rogue Wilson brother, Tyler Ramsey stepped outside his role as guitarist and harmonizer with Band of Horses to perform his sublime and heartfelt tunes that sound like something Neil Young would pen after spending a contemplative autumn in a North Carolina cabin. Following a performance by Company, Band of Horses joined Ramsey on stage and made a case for being one of the best rock bands in the country, treating the packed church to a handful of energetic new tunes along with some goose-flesh-inducing renditions of fan favorites like ‘The Funeral’ and ‘Marry Song’ that left lead singer Ben Bridwell and much of the audience sweatin’ like a …
The Cool Kids and Miike Snow at The Mohawk. The Cool Kids brought an infectious sense of fun with chest-puffing swagger, slick lyricism and beats that felt like they could bring the Mohawk to its knees on Friday night. Before their set, at least half the people at the club were referring to Miike Snow as ‘he,’ but the band is actually a group from Stockholm. Despite their stylistic gimmick of playing the first few songs in creepy, glowing masks, the masterminds behind Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ actually offer quite a bit of substance with their cool, detached electro-pop.
Saturday: Mos Def at Red Bull Thre3Style. Looking right at home amid the skyscrapers of downtown Austin, Brooklyn-born MC Mos Def brought the flavor of a Bed-Stuy block party with him to the last night of the festival, making people forget the cold and likely wish the fest could go on for at least one more day.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: John T. Davis
(Pictured: Smokey Robinson at the Austin Music Hall. Ricardo B. Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)Tuesday: Gary Nicholson is a Nashville songwriter who often works with Delbert McClinton. But he also had a hand in writing ‘Fallin’ and Flyin’,’ one of the signature tunes from the movie ‘Crazy Heart,’ with Stephen Bruton. Bruton, who died last year, was commemorated at the Austin Music Awards, but it was Nicholson’s quietly moving performance of ‘Fallin’ and Flyin’ ’ at Ray Benson’s birthday party bash at La Zona Rosa that proved the most moving tribute.
Wednesday: Jon Dee Graham’s new album is called ‘It’s Not As Bad As It Looks,’ after his first words upon awakening bleeding in a ditch in the aftermath of the car wreck that nearly killed him in 2008. At the Conqueroo/Guitartown day party, Graham told a long, funny, grisly story about his shattered guitars and his own scars from the emergency surgery that saved his life. Noting that he and the guitars had all been salvaged and repaired he exclaimed triumphantly words to the effect of ‘ … and we’re all still going strong!’
Thursday: A Sony Music day party in the back yard of the Clive Bar on a sunny Thursday proved to be a perfect launching pad for the Court Yard Hounds, the new musical offspring of Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, two co-founders of the Dixie Chicks. After the Chicks’ tumultuous rollercoaster ride several years ago, it was great to see the two sisters getting back to the basics of making music again.
Thursday: Overheard standing in line outside Antone’s: ‘My marketing plan is to be the last guy standing.’
Friday: The instantly-recognizable opening notes of ‘Going to A Go-Go’ were literally spine-tingling. Then Smokey Robinson walked out at the Austin Music Hall and 50 years of Motown history strode onstage with him. It was just one of those moments …
Bands I missed in 2010 but want to catch next year (in no particular order): Roky Erickson with Okkervil River, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Raphael Saadiq, Broken Bells and Tommy Reilly.
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SXSW 2010 highlights: Brian T. Atkinson
(John Hiatt plays La Zona Rosa at SXSW 2010. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN) 1. Lucero above El Sol Y La Luna on Saturday. America’s most vital bar band supporting its rock and roll masterpiece (2009’s ‘1372 Overton Park’). Everything worked.
2. John Hiatt interview. Hiatt granted limitless time with little notice on a Saturday afternoon. He was enthusiastic, grateful. Funny. Ditto his new ‘The Open Road.’
3. Leslie and the Badgers interview. Leslie Stevens asked as many questions as she answered. She was kind, thoughtful, interested. Her songwriting reflects all qualities.
4. Tim Easton at Jovita’s on Thursday. This set suggested Easton’s next album might be a career best. Beware intellectual electric blues.
5. The Gourds at Scholz Garten on Friday. Reliever Soulhat showed up late. The Gourds added ‘Gin and Juice’ and ‘Tex-Mex Mile.’ Coors Light and chardonnay crowds both left happy.
New discoveries worth revisiting:Harper Simon, Trampled By Turtles, The Maldives.
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SXSW review: Surfer Blood
Back in November, Palm Beach popsters Surfer Blood played a dazzling (and likely booked far in advance) show at Beerland that just about everyone in attendance knew would be the last time they’d get to see the buzzed-about band in such a small setting. True to form, Saturday’s SXSW show at Mohawk was the fivesome’s 10th (at least) show of the festival, where the band’s name appeared on bills backed by hipster pillars like NPR, Urban Outfitters, Village Voice and Pitchfork.
So yes, Surfer Blood have arrived, looking fresh out of high school (drummer Tyler Schwarz had the only beer in sight) and either shockingly confident or completely unaware of the big stakes being placed on them. That’s for the better, since if anything infringes on this band and its ability to craft stunning power pop that sounds like it’s being projected high speed through a wind tunnel, man… that’d be a shame.
Live, the foursome (touring with an extra keyboard/percussionist) stretch out drum-tight tunes like show opener “Floating Vibes” and “Fast Jabroni,” with guitarist Tom Fekete stomping on a row of effects pedals and piling on feedback when John Paul Pitts (vocals/guitars) wasn’t dropping startlingly developed couplets on the packed crowd.
As is the case of any band touring behind its first album (Kanine Records’ “Astro Coast”) the set list was pretty easy to predict, ending with the knock-me-over perfection of the band’s career-making (to this point) single “Swim,” Pitts’ vocals soaring above the din with such enthusiasm and spirit you’d never guess he’s been singing it several times a day for a week.
There’s a fine but important difference between “happy to be there” and “happy where you are”; the first leading to go-for-broke carelessness and the second embodied by careful precision and professionalism to make sure there are still lots of better days ahead. Right now at this moment, Surfer Blood are in the latter camp, and that’s something we should all be thankful for.
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SXSW review: Death
For all the feel-good backstory of the Hackney brothers’ long-delayed success, there’s still the problem of their name - Death - since there aren’t many bands playing right now that are more full of life and joy. That feeling was unmistakable and contagious Saturday during the trio’s show at The Mohawk, playing the proto hard rock/punk they wrote (with deceased brother/guitarist David Hackney) almost 40 years ago and was rediscovered by the masses last year.
Smiles honestly never left the faces of Dannis Hackney (drums), Bobby Hackney and guitarist Bobby Duncan as the band powered through its short discography, most of it written before punk had even been given a name and the ink on the pages of rock’s rule book was still drying. That’s what’s most fascinating about Death, the trapped-in-amber feel of it all. “Keep On Knocking” merges boogie rock feel-good with the scrappy grit Rocket From the Tombs was crafting in Ohio right around the time Death was banging around the garages of Detroit, and “Politicians In My Eyes” was/is a brainy middle finger to the Vietnam-era (now Afghanistan) strife chafing at the populace.
One of the great questions lingering since Death was scraped from history’s dustbin was “What’s next?” since the songs the band trots out every night are approaching middle age and you can only go so long on nostalgia. Bobby Hackney addressed that issue (while also paying respect to his departed brother on what would have been his birthday), saying a new Death record made of rewritten demos from its early days is on its way soon.
While that’s still not technically new stuff (what will new-millenium Death sound like… hmmm?) it’s gratifying to know there are still more days ahead for the band, and that we’ll all get more chances to see the brothers +1 spreading their infectious love of music and life for a while more to come.
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SXSW video: Anita Tijoux
Chilean hip-hop musician Anita Tijoux talked to Austin360.com’s Deborah Sengupta Stith between South by Southwest gigs.
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SXSW scene report: Mohawk's supporting cast
Since Saturday’s buzzy as hell lineup topped by Death and Surfer Blood carried the possibility of a long line even for badgeholders, yours truly embarked nice and early for The Mohawk and engaged in a SXSW rarity, seeing an entire bill from top to bottom. Reviews of Death and Surfer Blood are on their way, but until then here’s some thoughts on what was, thankfully, a pretty interesting and eclectic (if awfully chilly) night.
Show openers Fruit Bats said they were playing their 14th show of the four-day SXSW stretch, but who’s to say if that’s for real or just a bit of tomfoolery? By the last night of the fest bands are punch drunk and loopy. Either way, they kicked out a danceable brand of indie rock that was like Death Cab For Cutie with a drum machine underneath. I know that Postal Service should be the descriptor of choice for such a sound but unlike the gold-certified Gibbard/Tamborello pair up, Fruit Bats actually had a few ounces of testosterone going on. There, I finally said it. Postal Service are the eunuchs of indie rock. I feel better now.
Turbo Fruits get my discovery of the night honor, a one-time side project (and now main endeavor) of punk band Be Your Own Pet that’s a refreshing loose type of punk rock suggestive of what might have happened if Blink-182 spent their formative years listening to Ween and The Kinks instead of The Descendents. Singer Jonas Klein started out the set by shedding his jacket and asking the crowd, “Is everyone else as hot as I am?” in a preview of the wise guy sensibility he brought to freewheeling tunes like “Mama’s Mad Cos I Fried My Brain,” “Volcano” and “Colt 45.” Ending the night by scaling The Mohawk’s stage scaffolding and hanging upside down while abusing his guitar, Klein made sure his band’s last (and 16th?) show of the week was one to remember.
San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees certainly have a distinct brand of garage rock going on, with male/female vocals that suggest The Kills with more chug and bottom end. Good and worth another look for sure, but not a lot memorable to share.
Funkateer Dam-Funk is like a throwback and a futurist in one. Atop a drum set and laptop/keyboard combo, the Los Angeleno alternated between regular vocals and the thickest Vocoder effect these ears have ever heard, urging the crowd to “keep… on… dan-cing!” for 40 minutes of butt-moving joy. Oh, and a keytar. Can’t ever forget the keytar.
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SXSW review: The Smith Westerns
Just when you thought the bands playing SXSW couldn’t get any younger than buzzy Surfer Blood, along comes Chicago-based garage pop outfit The Smith Westerns, who seem like they wouldn’t have been allowed inside the Scoot Inn Saturday night if they weren’t part of Pitchfork’s closing night showcase. Frontman Cullen Omori looked a bit like Wiley Wiggens in “Dazed and Confused,” with straight black hair covering his face as he sang. He was quite the comedian on stage, too, asking for more warmth in the monitor and saying things like, “we’re from Chicago, or (expletive)-cago, but don’t quote me on that. Ha!”
There was a smallish crowd on hand, which was better than nothing, considering a majority of the people were either inside or huddled around the fire pit in the corner (yes, there was a fire going at a SXSW showcase to keep people warm). The band was understandably a little loose when they started, but things picked up as the set progressed, with the Omori’s glammy vocals complementing Max Kakecek’s catchy guitar hooks. Part of the Smith Westerns’ appeal is their ability to walk a fine line between a sweeter pop sound and edgier material, and it felt like they really found their groove on “Be My Girl,” which unfortunately was also the end of the set.
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SXSW scene report: Saturday notes
- The Whip In scratched the outdoor portion of its SouthBySuds event Saturday because of the horrible weather, but inside, the store was a lovely refuge from the chill wind and the SXSW madness elsewhere.
Around dinnertime, Naga Valli was singing and playing the harmonium, accompanied on percussion by Oliver Rajamani. Her beautiful voice was wonderfully lulling on traditional Indian material, and she gave an original composition in English an interesting melodic twist by using Indian melismatic technique.
Patrons relaxed in the booths of the Parlour Cafe, milled around the front counter deciding what to order or sat at the bar chatting quietly. The barista made me a fabulous chai, foaming the soy milk so expertly that somebody at the next table asked “Is that a Guinness?”
At the Continental Club, by contrast, it was sheer madness. Since so many outdoor events had been canceled, or people just didn’t want to attend them, it seemed half the Friday population of South Congress was jammed into the Continental or trying to get in the back door well before the evening showcases.
Discretion being the better part of valor, I darted back out and went across the street to South by San Jose, where David Garza was undeterred by the wretched return of winter. He entertained a hardy group of bundled-up fans with high-energy material, including a country tune that schnookered people into line dancing, just so that he could throw a devilish Tejano number at them.
A couple of hotel workers walked through the edge of the crowd carrying firewood, a peculiar and sorry sight on the first day of spring.
Garza mocked a band that had canceled, saying “I think they had to blog or something. But we’re here to rock!” He proclaimed that he was going to do a Herman’s Hermits tune, no, it was by Kajagoogoo, but they’re too shy-shy.”
The trouble with having a hit is, you have to do it, and he gleefully careened into his own “Disco Ball World,” which prompted singer Amy Cook to jump on stage and wail in harmony.
- I am not sure how theologians will analyze this, but during SXSW, there was a schism between two downtown Austin denominations. I found this out in the restroom at the Omni Hotel, where I had repaired between sets at Central Presbyterian Church Saturday because concert-goers were not allowed to use whatever facilities the church surely has, but were instead supposed to use the port-a-potties on the sidewalk around the corner. Seriously. With a wind chill in the 30s. Seriously.
Of course this outrage was a topic of conversation in the restroom of refuge, and after I lamented the extreme hardness of the Presbyterian pews as well, the badge-wearer I was talking to said with a note of relief that she wasn’t going back. “We’re going to St. David’s now
for something else. My friend calls them the Good Church and the Bad Church.”
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SXSW review: Susan Cowsill, Watson Twins, Matt Morris, Ian McLagan
- Singer-songwriter Susan Cowsill drew the precarious 8 p.m. slot Saturday at one of the harder-to-find venues, Creekside at Hilton Garden Inn, but she still just about filled the room, and the crowd was quieter and more attentive than at any other show I saw during SXSW.
With her incandescent voice and dark but irrepressible sense of humor, the longtime New Orleanian is always a captivating performer, and she now, finally, has a new album to preview.
“Lighthouse” is the former Continental Drifter’s first release since her solo debut, “Just Believe It,” which came out in the U.S. in 2005, right after Hurricane Katrina.
“Katrina got more press,” Cowsill noted dryly. She explained that it had then taken a good while to get the writing and performing parts of her life together again. “We were having a hard time just forming full sentences for a couple years there.”
“Lighthouse” is haunted by loss, which manifests itself in different ways. The summery, floating chorus of her new song “Dragon Flys” disguised its underlying melancholy. “River of Love” was written by Cowsill’s older brother Barry, who died mysteriously in the wake of Katrina, and although its theme of separation and longed-for reunion now seems sadly prescient, her band’s driving delivery and the beautiful four-part vocal harmonies emphasized the song’s hopeful chorus.
In the ballad “Lighthouse,” on the other hand, Cowsill sang of hope, but her melody was suffused with an acknowledgment of profound sorrow, underlined by the simple, plaintive piano-violin arrangement. Apparently more than one person in the audience started
tearing up, because afterward Cowsill shook her head, laughed reassuringly and said “Everything’s OK now! I’m going to prove it with the next song.” Which was “The Rain, the Park and Other Things,” and its innocent chorus of “happy, happy, happy!” sounded just as effervescent as when it was a hit for her family pop band, the Cowsills, in the 1960s.
Maybe it was the resilience in “Lighthouse,” even more than the sadness, that made people cry.
After Cowsill’s casually cathartic performance, the Watson Twins’ 9 p.m. show at Central Presbyterian Church seemed rather callow and inconsequential. Their sister harmonies were very pretty, and they had a good band, especially the keyboardist, who added some muscle to the R&B leanings they explore on their second full-length album, “Talking To You Talking To Me.”
Chandra and Leigh Watson started out as backing vocalists for Rilo Kiley and others, and they still somehow don’t seem to exist entirely in the foreground, although they were comfortable enough with the audience. They joked about the implications of the stained-glass
window they were facing as they introduced the new song “Devil in You,” which was the cleverest of their numbers, and yet seemed more like a genre exercise than an actual song.
- Matt Morris, in the 10 p.m. slot at the church, sounded utterly at home in the setting, reveling in the way his powerful, reedy tenor soared around in the space. He opened with an a cappella incantation that seemed spontaneous, singing “We are here on holy ground, as all
ground is holy ground. Let us open our hearts and let the music in.”
An industry veteran, Morris has co-written hits with Christina Aguilera, his former Mickey Mouse Club castmate, and his new “When Everything Breaks Open” was produced by another MMC alumnus, Justin Timberlake, along with Austinite Charlie Sexton. The songs displayed
a lot of craftsmanship, and Morris’ emotive R&B vocals invested them with oodles of melodrama, on top of what was already there in his lyrics, and what was supplied by his extremely polished and proficient five-piece rock band.
“Bloodline” lamented the plight of an abandoned teen mother, and in the last verse the narrator was revealed as none other than the sinner who caused her plight. “Don’t You Dare” had some interesting twists in the melody and the lyrics, and Morris cleverly worked a little of the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” into his reggae-light number “Love.” “Eternity” seemed to last nearly that long, with so many biblical references that I got lost somewhere around Corinthians, or maybe it was Timothy.
I suppose it is fairly daring to put so much popcraft in the service of a long spiritual discourse, although I can’t remember what the message was. I think something about love. At any rate, the audience showed Morris plenty of love with a standing ovation at the end of his set. He’s likely to be a big success, with such strong vocal technique and enough hitmaking savvy to get an audience to sit still, on hard pews, yet, for a song that practically required a concordance.
- Singer-songwriter-consummate keyboardist Ian McLagan is definitely more at home in a pub than a church, and he found the acoustics at Central Presbyterian frustrating, as they swallowed most of Scrappy Jud Newcomb’s guitar parts and badly muddied the bass and drums.
Fortunately, McLagan’s vocals came through reasonably well, and although there was no Hammond B-3 on hand, his electric piano was pretty clear, and his playing was especially crisp and energetic.
Despite severe sound challenges, he and his Bump Band carried the day with sheer exuberance on “Little Troublemaker,” “Little Girl,” “Glad and Sorry” and Little Walter’s “Temperature.”
The ballad “Never Say Never,” off his last album, sounded so pretty, I started thinking afterward how many artists would have covered it by now, if it had been released on a Small Faces album back in the day. (I could definitely hear Isaac Hayes, Irma Thomas, Boz
Scaggs …) Although it really deserved a more suitable sonic setting, McLagan’s running litany of complaints was so funny, it was worth enduring the auditory defects. He chafed at the written directive he’d received not to swear, which he said was the hardest thing ever #8212; “That, and no drinks!” At one point, he sighed over the pitcher of margaritas waiting for him at home, and he told his fans “I hope you’ve all had a drink.”
Fortunately, there had been no prohibition on laughter, because a lot of us outright guffawed when McLagan suddenly pointed at the baptismal font and said “Don’t forget the tip jar.”
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SXSW review: Carrie Rodriguez
It never fails. Every year, like clockwork, some highly-regarded songwriter draws a late-night set on the last night of the SXSW music festival in an unsuitable venue and finds himself or herself contending with a few chowderheads who think Prohibition is coming back on the next train.
This year, one of the winners of that unhappy lottery was former homegirl Carrie Rodriguez, who was back in town to tout her new album of lovingly chosen cover songs, “Love and Circumstance,” with a midnight showcase on Saturday at the Amsterdam Cafe.
Make no mistake, I’m certain the Amsterdam Cafe is a fine establishment the other 51 weeks of the year. But someone rigged the temporary stage only about a foot off the ground, which meant that almost no one could see the petite Rodriguez and positioned the speakers at head height, which ensured that the sound broke up before it traveled more than a few feet.
Ah, well. If Rodriguez was frustrated at the production limitations or the folks who were throwing down cocktails with one hand and texting with the other while carrying on shouted conversations, she gave no indication.
And besides, she had volume on her side. She kicked off her set with a bristling, almost martial Celtic-flavored take on Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River To Cross,” from the new album. A siren-like slide guitar punctuated “50’s French Movie” from her first solo album of a couple of years back and her own quicksilver fiddle lit the spark under “Never Gonna Be Your Bride,” one of those breakneck breakdowns when everyone seemingly hits everything they can put their hands on.
Ben Kyle, of the Minneapolis band Romantica, joined her onstage for a duet of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” (a role essayed by Buddy Miller on the album version). “I Made A Lover’s Prayer,” a Gillian Welch cover, featured a rubbery guitar line and an ear-grabbing groove.
Wisely, given the circumstances, she didn’t essay the quieter material on the new album, like her take on Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues.” More’s the pity, but lucky for us locals, Rodriguez returns to her old hometown on a regular basis. Go see her at the Cactus Cafe and then go have an after-show nightcap at the Amsterdam. Everyone goes home happy.
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SXSW review: She and Him
Before one says anything about She and Him’s performance at Auditorium Shores Saturday night, one must say this: M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel and their bandmates all deserve a medal for the grand accomplishment of even showing up.
Plagued by sound problems that would persist throughout the show, Deschanel and Ward didn’t even take to the stage until 9 p.m., 20 minutes after their scheduled start time. The crowd was appreciably large but far smaller than you’d expect for the headliners at the traditionally popular Auditorium Shores stage — which might have had a thing to do with the biting, blistering cold and substantial gusting winds that buffeted the audience. Many were clad in blankets and Snuggies and couples huddled together out of necessity and not just affection.
Those circumstances are less than desirable, and it would have been hard to blame Deschanel and Ward for simply walking away or canceling. And although their forty-five minute performance wasn’t exactly one for the books, it went off about as well it could.
Sound difficulties started early, with Deschanel unable to get reverb on her vocals for a somewhat faltering, disengaged take on “Black Hole,” a problem that continued on a slightly more passionate version of “That Won’t Stop Me Crying.” Deschanel and Ward and their backing band loosened up and grew stronger as the set went on — save for an undercooked take on “Volume Two” single “In The Sun.”
Ultimately, the problem wasn’t with She and Him — given the temperature and wind, so blasting you could hear it through the microphones, it’s a miracle Ward could play the guitar at all. Weather and technical issues conspired to drag down the show, but regardless of who or what natural phenomenon was responsible, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that braving the elements was worth it — even for a chance to hear a peppy version of “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” live.
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March 20, 2010
SXSW review: Kings Go Forth at Galaxy Room Backyard
Remember when Indiana Jones was descending into the forbidden tomb and sees the floor crawling? “Snakes,” he moans. “Why did it have to be snakes?”
I knew just how he felt as I prepared to hoof it across downtown to see the Kings Go Forth at the tent-covered Galaxy Room Backyard: “An outdoor venue…why did it have to be an outdoor venue?”
Fortunately, the adult-strength dose of hot-buttered soul, R&B and funk that the 10-piece band from Milwaukee served up was an ideal remedy for the blue norther that dropped temperatures 40 degrees overnight. To the Wisconsin band members, it probably seemed like a day at the beach.
The band, which featured horns, keyboards, congas and three vocalists, including frontman Black Wolf, went from zero to 60 faster than a runaway Toyota. If they had any ballads, they kept them to themselves, instead serving up a handful of tracks drawn largely from their forthcoming album, “The Outsiders Are Back.”
The instrumental fanfare that brought the vocalists on morphed into the funk-flavored “Get A Feeling.” Shades of Motown, Stax-Volt Memphis-simmered soul, New Orleans horn and percussion grooves and gritty Southern R&B informed tunes like “Paradise Lost,” “You’re the One” and “One Day.” Another track, “I Don’t Love You No More,” sounded like it was lifted from the James Brown playbook, with its fuzz-laden guitars and tight groove.
Black Wolf’s playful falsetto, with its echoes of Curtis Mayfield and Aaron Neville, made an arresting counterpoint to the tongue-in-groove lockstep arrangements and crisp musicianship. Fellow vocalist Don Fernandez also had a couple of impressive solo turns and bassist/band leader Andy Noble kept the bottom locked down.
With a healthy neo-soul scene having arisen in Austin in the past year or two, it’s easy to see how Kings Go Forth could easily become valued additions to the local scene. Now if they’ll just play indoors next time …
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SXSW scene report: Austin Music Awards/Texas Sheiks
The Texas Sheiks play a tribute to Stephen Bruton.
Photos: Scenes from the Austin Music Awards
Austin Music Hall
7:55 p.m. Saturday
The annual Austin Music Awards (aka, the Bob Schneider Canonization Ceremony — he’s up for archbishop this year, I think) kicked off on a new night, but at the same don’t-be-late 7:55 p.m. start time.
The first act, the all-star acoustic music ensemble known as Texas Sheiks, had a special poignance for the local music fans in attendance. The Sheiks represented one of the final projects (the other was the soundtrack to the film “Crazy Heart”) to bear the imprint of singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Stephen Bruton, who died after a long siege of cancer last year.
The Sheiks, helmed by acoustic music veteran Geoff Muldaur, and starring local luminaries like pianist Johnny Nicholas, steel player Cindy Cashdollar, bassist Bruce Hughes, Muldaur’s mentor Jim Kweskin and others, was conceived of as a way for Bruton to stay in touch with his musical lifeline and to distract him from the rigors of radiation and chemo. Sadly, Bruton died before either the Sheiks’ record or the “Crazy Heart” soundtrack saw the light of day.
“What started being a diversion ended up being a tribute,” said emcee Andy Langer.
“We didn’t know we were making a record,” recalled Muldaur from the stage. “We were just getting together to have some fun.”
And so they did on Saturday, launching into a jazzy vintage lament, “The World Is Going Crazy,” with Muldaur on vocals and featuring a hot dobro solo from Cindy Cashdollar. A rousing jump-blues take on “All By Myself,” featuring Johnny Nicholas on vocals and guest pianist Floyd Domino followed.
By way of introducing jug band music godfather Jim Kweskin (who also guested on the album), Muldaur said, “When he was 19 years old, Stephen and a friend left Fort Worth and drove to the Newport Folk Festival just to see this guy.” Kweskin is getting on up there, but his nimble guitar playing and easy vocals belie his years, as he demonstrated on the playfully ribald Bob Wills song, “Fan It.”
After bassist Bruce Hughes essayed one number (whose title I didn’t catch), the group wrapped up their brief set with a swinging blues/gospel-flavored Bruton original, one which the Sheiks did not feature on their record. “Walk By Faith” probably came as close to being Bruton’s personal mantra as anything else he ever read or sang: “You got to walk by faith and not by sight.”
Wherever he’s walking now, Bruton is taking note of the accolades for “Crazy Heart” and the outpouring of affection from fans, friends and peers and he is, make no mistake about it, eating it up with a spoon.
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SXSW scene report: The line at Antone's for Big Star Tribute already down the block
At 7:05 p.m., the line was already down the block (Lavaca) at Antone’s, presumably people lining up for the Big Star - Alex Chilton tribute, scheduled to being at 12:30 a.m. The show is badges only.
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SXSW video: Rachael Ray's Feedback Party
Austin American-Statesman writer Addie Broyles spoke to Rachael Ray at her Feedback Party, where Bob Schneider, Andrew WK, She & Him and others performed on Saturday.
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SXSW panel: 'I Never Travel Far Without a Little Big Star'
12:30 p.m. Saturday
Panelists: Jody Stephens, Big Star/Ardent Music LLC; Andy Hummel, Big Star; Ken Stringellow, Big Star (mach 2); John Auer, Big Star (mach 2); Chris Stamey, Modern Recording; Tommy Keene; moderator Bob Mehr, Memphis Commercial-Appeal; John Fry, Ardent Studios.
Originally intended to discuss the legacy of Big Star, in light of the 2009 box set Keep Your Eye On The Sky, the panel was nearly cancelled in the wake of frontman Alex Chilton’s death on Wednesday, as was Saturday night’s scheduled Big Star concert. However, drummer Jody Stephens decided to forge ahead in tribute to his late bandmate, and the panel carried on with the addition of Ardent Studios founder
John Fry, participating via Skype.
Chilton was never scheduled to appear at the panel, looking back on past glories not being anything he ever willingly indulged in. He was, however, well aware of the long, strange trajectory by which Big Star went from being a music-business casualty to an indie rock icon.
At a latterday Big Star show, after Chilton and Stephens teamed with the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer to reconstitute the band, Fry recalled that Chilton told the crowd that they were about to play some new songs: “If you don’t like ‘em now, don’t worry. You’ll love ‘em in 30 years.”
The 90-minute session was filled with such Alex anecdotes, along with some discussion of his upbringing in a musical and artistic household and a rough outline of his eccentric career path. Fry shared his memory of first meeting a teenage Chilton when he was sitting around waiting to lay vocals on top of Box Tops rhythm tracks. He recalled Chilton’s growing frustration with recording other people’s material in that band as his own songwriting talents developed, while Stephens and original Big Star bassist Andy Hummel reminisced about when they and Chris Bell enlisted Chilton in their group, Ice Water, which mostly played covers at frat parties and department-store openings.
With Fry, they talked about the recording of Big Star’s first album, when everyone was working together enthusiastically toward a common objective and Bell and Chilton were at the peak of their creative collaboration.
“They were both alpha guys, and their talents were along similar lines, but they worked together very seamlessly,” Hummel said.
Fry explained how the downward spiral of Stax Records and the Memphis music scene affected the band, while Chris Stamey made what he called a “revisionist” plea for more careful consideration of the superb musical choices and performances on the third and final Big Star album, recorded after Bell had left the group. He recalled how his dBs bandmate Peter Holsapple used to make Big Star a litmus test for
girlfriends, and once ordered a young lady from his house for showing an utter lack of appreciation. Especially fascinating was Stamey’s account of how Chilton came up to New York to play a Valentine’s Day show in 1977, slept over on a cot in the tiny room Stamey rented with his girlfriend — “and just stayed,” becoming a mentor for Stamey and for a while participating in the fertile scene at CBGBs and Max’s
Kansas City.
The panel spent a fair amount of time elaborating on Chilton’s image as mercurial and curmudgeonly. Fry said over all the years of their friendship, he always enjoyed a cordial relationship with Chilton. Stringfellow recalled: “He let you figure him out. He sort of kept his cool, he didn’t explain himself, but he was very consistent.”
Stamey said Chilton just really didn’t have it in him to maintain the fictions that govern many social relationships, but you could always count on him to be honest — although he did have a smalll set of favorite sentences to salve the feelings of bandmates after a performance didn’t go well, two of them being “It couldn’t have been better” and “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In his sorrow this past week, Stamey said, he’d been trying to think of funny things, and one was perhaps the best and most telling anecdote of the panel. He and Chilton had had a falling out for a while, and then Stamey finally spoke to him by phone in New Orleans, where Chilton lived for the last decades of his life. Chilton had a
job at the time washing dishes, and told Stamey how he had been explaining his theory of the world to a co-worker, who told him “Yeah, Alex. You’re right and the whole world is wrong.”
“You know, Chris,” Chilton said. “I really think he was onto something.”
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SXSW video: Saturday afternoon scene report
Matthew Odam with Austin360.com details South by Southwest happenings on Saturday, while Sydney Wayser of Brooklyn, N.Y., plays Dominican Joe’s.
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In good: Company rides down to SXSW with Band of Horses
One day you’re asking one of your musical heroes if he wants cream with his coffee; six months later you’re asking him if he’s seen your wah pedal lying around. That’s the shorthand version of the story of Brian Hannon, frontman for the band Company, and how he ended up playing at the Central Presbyterian Church with Band of Horses on the Friday night of SXSW.
Following one Company’s shows at a club in Charleston, South Carolina, Hannon, wearing a Band of Horses t-shirt, was approached by David Bridwell, father of Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell. Hannon happily gave a Company CD to the father of the bearded rock star who had become a regular at the restaurant where Hannon worked as a waiter.
Soon after his introduction to the elder Bridwell, the baby-faced (despite the eager beard) singer approached his musical hero at the restaurant and finally worked up the nerve to introduce himself. Bridwell remembered hearing Company from his father and shortly thereafter asked Co. to play a local gig with Band of Horses in December.
“I was just a guy at a restaurant, but he’s still nice enough to talk to me like a normal person,” Hannon said of Bridwell’s kindness and generosity.
The show in December led the big brother Band of Horses to invite Company (whose psych-tinged rock should bring the youngsters some more attention as their playing matures) out West to play two shows in Denver before coming down to Austin for SXSW.
While extremely grateful for the opportunity his young band has been afforded by one of the country’s most critically acclaimed bands, Hannon admits that he hopes the whirlwind of the past six months is only the beginning for him and his friends in Company.
“It’s great. I hope it continues,” Hannon said.
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Todd P's MtyMx festival kicks off in Monterrey, Mexico today
The morning after the South by Southwest Music Festival concluded last year, famed New York-based concert promoter Todd Patrick — who had just thrown his fourth series of free outdoor shows at East Side venue Ms. Bea’s — packed up his bags and ventured with some friends down to Monterrey, Mexico. There, they ate tacos, relaxed and savored the city’s low-key charm. That day, Patrick, concerned that his increasingly high-profile SXSW shindig may come under fire from fest organizers, had the idea to pack up his party and move it south of the border.
That idea — and several long months of working logistics in his New York apartment — culminates today, as Patrick’s MtyMx kicks off in Monterrey. More than 50 bands — including both SXSW bands making the trip south and Mexican bands — will play across two stages from today to Monday, March 22 at an abandoned drive-in carved into a hillside. The site boasts camping and a visual arts display.
Despite the overlap of dates and artists — SXSW artists including Health, DD/MM/YYYY, Liars, Neon Indian, Andrew WK and many others are playing the festival — Patrick insists his festival isn’t intended to be adversarial to SXSW.
“Ideally they wouldn’t overlap at all — but there are people who live there who wouldn’t be happy with it starting on Sunday and running until midweek, and you have to respect that. It’s never been about trying to steal South by Southwest’s thunder,” said Patrick a few days out from MtyMx. “I don’t care about that. It’s about taking advantage of a situation, about taking advantage of what’s in front of you.”
“What’s in front” of Patrick is a wealth of touring bands congregated hours from Austin who face the difficult prospect of booking post-SXSW dates in nearby cities against a horde of competitors. MtyMx offers bands leaving Austin the chance to play better-attended shows against less competition than they might face in other cities in Texas, Oklahoma or New Mexico. That’s how he pitched it to more than 400 bands, with over 200 expressing interest. Patrick said the festival was also an attempt to correct misconceptions about the safety of Mexico and to present the world with images of Mexico’s burgeoning indie rock scene. He said the festival is being thrown largely for Mexican indie fans, who often have to cross the border to see shows — a difficult prospect.
“We have this vision that Mexico has no government and is riddled with crime and has no public health system, and all of these things are either offensive caricature or just out of control sensationalism in the media,” said Patrick. “I’m hoping that a lot of photos get taken, videos get shot, and in doing that we paint the picture of a country that’s not the stereotype. You look at the photos and you’ll see a thousand hip, well-dressed, well-educated brown faces. And that will paint a different, more accurate picture of Mexico.”
One among Mexico’s indie rock community is promoter Pablo Martinez , who threw a similar festival that also poached SXSW talent, Festival NRML, Saturday March 13 in Monterrey. He started the festival to give Mexican indie rock fans the chance to see bands that are often out of reach.
“We grew up seeing MTV and all these American bands, and usually they don’t come play to Monterrey, we have to go see them in San Antonio or Houston or Austin,” said Martinez. “So one of the objectives of the festival was to open this root of touring bands south of the border.”
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SXSW scene report: Yard Dog party
It’s everybody’s favorite old-school SXSW event: Randy opens up his Yard Dog Gallery on S. Congress Ave., bands play in the lot out back and people wander down the alley in search of a cold beer and some free music.
The crowd seemed to be smaller than normal Saturday afternoon, no doubt because of the weather, which didn’t keep one joker (surely a local) from coming out in short shorts and sandals.
“It’s good to be back in Anchorage for North By Northwest,” Coal Porters vocalist-mandolinist told the crowd that was trying to outsmart a chilly wind that went through you no matter where you stood. “I told the band to pack shorts — it’s hot in Texas.”
A genuinely funny (guitarist Neil Robert Herd is actually a comedian of some renown in the U.K.) and irreverent bluegrass band, the Coal Porters got serious long enough to do the weepy “A Soft Place to Fall,” written by Allison Moorer, also known as Shelby Lynne’s little sister. By set’s end the crowd seemed in an agreeable mood, and the $2 pints of Dogfish Head beer no doubt helped.
Franklin said the weather hadn’t caused him any problems except “it’s making me cold. But everything’s on schedule. And we haven’t had bad weather for this in years. But we’ve been doing this 15 years and I don’t ever remember it being this cold.”
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Where to go tonight after last call, y'all
Vice Magazine is taking over the vacant Starr Building at Sixth and Colorado Streets tonight at midnight for a party that should run until 5 a.m. Free cocktails and music from:
Les Savy Fey
Cheeseburger
Happy Birthday
Davilla 666
DJ sets from Mr. Jonathan Toubin
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New schedule for outdoor shows at Auditorium Shores
Following the announcement earlier today that tonight’s free and open-to-the-public shows at Auditorium Shores were going to be shortened to just the daytime hours, SXSW organizers have released a new schedule with modified set times.
Aside from headliners She and Him, most of the performers will be playing 20-minute sets.
Here it is:
- Doors, 5 p.m.
- Kimya Dawson, 6-6:15 p.m.
- Dawes, 6:20-6:40 p.m.
- Deer Tick, 6:50-7:10 p.m.
- Lucero, 7:30-7:50 p.m.
- Justin Townes Earle, 8-8:20 p.m.
- She & Him, 8:40-9:45 p.m.
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SXSW scene report: Rachael Ray party at Stubb's
Our Addie Broyles has the scoop on the just wrapped Rachael Ray party at Stubb’s. Sounds like the cold weather did not affect the good mood of fans, bands or host.
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SXSW interview: YACHT
Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans, aka YACHT, make danceable, Brian Eno-inspired music, but that’s only one aspect of their mission, which extends to visual arts and the written word, most recently in the form of pamphlets about the history of the triangle. They will play a total of six shows at SXSW this year, with their last two on Saturday. We caught up with Bechtolt and Evans in the convention center Saturday as they fretted about the fact that their final shows were at outdoors, as temperatures dropped into the 40’s.
How has the week gone so far?
B: It’s been intense and stressful, really great and fruitful, and a dash of fun has been in there.
E: A pretty small dash of fun.
What’s different this year?
B: This year we brought an extended lineup. We’ve expanded to the Yacht and the Straight Gaze. We were supposed to have three extra members but one got seriously ill, so we now have two extra members. It’s been kind of fun to take people who never been here before and show them around.
E: It’s been nice to get back in the swing of things. Last year we came but didn’t play any shows.
B: We had literature that we were distributing.
E: It was almost more productive then playing. No interference of music, just pure message.
What was the message?
B: We were talking about triangles. Two years ago when we were living in Marfa we became obsessed with triangles, and did a lot of research about the shape and it’s importance throughout human history. So we wrote a primer pamphlet introducing to people why we feel triangles are important to human kind, and we gave those to people directly.
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SXSW scene report: One girl follows her Muse to fest
The trio from the UK isn’t just the kind of band that can draw people from one end of a park to another, it’s the kind of band that compels fans to travel from one city to another (and likely one country to another), even when the chances of seeing their musical demigods is about as good as Billy Murray not showing up on Red River Street during SXSW.
Before the sun went down on Friday, the line to get into Stubb’s already stretched down the block. It had been highly publicized that only badge holders would be getting into the “surprise” Muse show at 10 p.m. but that didn’t keep hundreds from showing up anyway, hoping a badge would fall into their hands (around their necks?). Once the amphitheater reached capacity, dozens lined the roof of the parking garage across the street. But some decided to listen to the show from 9th street, behind the stage, where the band loads and unloads.
Among the devoted lining the sidewalk was 20 year-old Erika Waller and her group of girlfriends. They had already seen Muse in Ft. Worth on Wednesday and Houston on Thursday, but, with appetites not satiated, they made the drive up I-35 from San Antoino to try and get one more glimpse of their musical heroes.
Waller, who has seen the band perform 9 times since her first Muse experience at ACL Fest in 2006, actually had the great fortune of receiving a harmonica from bass player Christopher Wolstenholme — who, according to Waller works the harp as a lead in to “Knights of Cydonia” — at the show in Houston.
She followed Muse to Austin in hopes of meeting the band. And, while a full-on tour of the bus and photo opp. hadn’t occurred at the time we spoke, she did get Wolstenholme’s attention as he was exiting the bus at 9 p.m.., and, recognizing her from the night before in Houston, he graciously autographed the instrument for her. As we talked, she held it in her hand like it was the holy grail.
“They blend classical music with rock, and every song is different … no two songs are the same,” Waller said.
Her pilgrimage continues this spring, as she follows her Muse to California for the Coachella fest.
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Big Star Alex Chilton tribute lineup released
Announced today at the Big Star panel, for the show that has become a tribute to Alex Chilton, who died Wednesday: Evan Dando, John Doe, Chris Stamey, Watson Twins, Sondre Lerche, and MIke Mills are playing. They reached out to Jeff Tweedy but his schedule wouldn’t allow it.
It’s scheduled to begin at 12:30 a.m. at Antone’s.
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SXSW review: Lucero
“This is the last time we’re playing this (expletive) festival. Of course, I’ve been saying that for eight years in a row.”
Welcome to the warped cantina that is the mind of Lucero’s Ben Nichols. The above wry line came roughly an hour and innumerable whisky and Cokes into his roots rock band’s sprawling, epic set Friday at Red Eyed Fly, and was a microcosm of the acerbic open heartedness that dominates Nichols’ lyrics.
The show, which weighed in at nearly two hours - “That clock on the wall better be right, because we’re going to use every single minute,” Nichols chided the sound tech - was a display of the muscular but nuanced sound of “Summer Song,” the open lament of “Wasted” and the singalong glory of “Sweet Little Thing.”
What really stands out live is that as easy to pick apart as Lucero’s sound is - Tom Waits fronting The E Street Band while trying to cover The Band - the ache and world weary joy Nichols pours into every word holds the entire outfit together. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s got a crack band who can just about read his mind (there’s a tremor-inducing thought) behind him.
By the time “What Are You Willing To Lose?” closed things off at 1:59 a.m., with Nichols’ voice sounding like it was emanating from the bottom of the galaxy’s deepest whisky barrel, there was enough beer on the floor and fists in the air to pretty much guarantee that “the Lucero family picnic,” as the singer dubbed it, will probably make its ninth SXSW appearance next year.
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Auditorium Shores show tonight shortened to just evening hours
(She and Him at Lustre Pearl. Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN) Just in from SXSW headquarters:
Please let people know that the outdoor stage show is still happening, but that we have shortened it to just the evening hours. She & Him, Justin Townes Earle and Lucero are still performing. Hopefully, Kimya Dawson, Dawes and Deer Tick will also be able to perform if their schedules permit. Doors are at 5 p.m.; music begins at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public.
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SXSW interivew: J. Roddy Walston and the Business
J. Roddy Walston and the Business snapshot dreams lost (“Brave Man’s Death”) and reclaimed (“I Don’t Wanna Hear It”) with wolverine fury. The Baltimore-based quartet scored a last-minute slot at Mr. & Mrs. T and Rachael Ray’s Stubb’s party on Saturday.
“It was a surprise to us,” lead singer Walston says. “I think they booked the whole party and (someone at Vagrant Records) sent over our demo. Between their reaction and Rachael Ray’s, things got shifted around and we got added.”
American-Statesman: How did your set go at Red Eyed Fly (Thursday afternoon)?
J. Roddy Walston: It went great. We had the exact opposite SXSW experience a couple years ago. We played a pizza parlor that was turned into a club and no one was there. Everything this year is awesome. We played the same way that we played at the pizza parlor in 2008, but everyone seems to be reacting.
Earlier this week, you told us that you wanted to eat at Torchy’s (Tacos).
I haven’t been yet. I got free jeans, though, which nearly brought me to tears. I needed jeans so bad, like I literally would’ve taken anything with a crotch in it. We’re living on the edge right now (laughs). We’ll try to get (to Torchy’s).
You’ve talked about Paul Westerberg’s influence on you.
I heard him and Big Star at the same moment. Something about those two connected. With Westerberg, we were kind of trying to tap into a wild (streak). We were touring and feeling something branching out, and they’re such a dangerous band. They have an entire record where they’re obviously just blasted. Not that I necessarily want to do that.
Now, (Westerberg’s former band) The Replacements’ song ‘Alex Chilton’…
Oh, right. (Chilton’s death earlier this week) is pretty shocking. I’m really, really bummed out. I’ve been so involved in this experience that I haven’t really gotten to dive into what happened. Do you know?
Looks like it was a heart attack.
Man. Big Star’s “#1 Record(/Radio City)” definitely changed my life. I would’ve loved to have actually seen him play. It sucks. I think every single song on “#1 Record” is mind-blowing. I don’t cry too often, but that record will bring a tear to your eye.
Not many would say the same for (Queen’s) ‘Fat Bottomed Girls,’ but you guys do a great cover.
You know, we’re still a band who people don’t know when we roll into a city. That’s the one (cover) that might pop out because people know it, but we don’t want to be stuck playing it for the rest of our lives. We had to pull the plug on it after a couple tours.
How does living Baltimore influence you as a songwriter?
I grew up in southeast Tennessee. There’s no comparison. (Tennessee) is this weird, perfect world, and then we move to Baltimore. It’s like, “Oh, this is different.” Within a week, our bass player was laying out the contents of his wallet for a dude.
Does ‘Brave Man’s Death’ relate to that?
That’s probably the most direct reaction to living in Baltimore. The whole song stems from the core idea that I don’t want to die in a bed or have a heart attack. I want to go out with a bang.
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SXSW review: World Music Expo showcase at Copa
The WOMEX (World Music Expo) showcase at Copa on Friday had to be one of the most diverse events in SXSW history, in terms of genre, style and place of origin, although quality-wise, it only ranged from very good to extraordinary.
Affable South African flautist Wouter Kellerman opened the evening with an appealing set that combined African, classical, Latin and contemporary jazz elements. Backed by acoustic guitar, bass and drum, he played with symphonic technique and a great deal of feeling. Toward the end of the set, he even announced that he was going to prove the theory that white men can’t dance, and donned a pair of rubber rain boots to get up and perform side-by-side moves with his drummer — who was definitely the better dancer, but Kellerman acquitted himself well, leaping, throwing his arms and slapping his boots with enthusiasm.
Almost a polar opposite was the next artist, Norwegian singer Unni Lovlid, who opened with a traditional song that she said she had heard sung by an old man who lived at the very end of a fjord and ate nothing but bread and water day in and day out. No need for a translation of the lyrics — it was pretty much the loneliest song this side of Ralph Stanley’s “O Death.” After that, Lovlid turned to more experimental compositions, accompanied only by drummer Thomas Stronen, who manipulated electronics and added more expressionistic color than propulsion.
Lovlid’s lustrous mezzo soprano is a fantastic instrument for this kind of abstraction, and some of the atmospheric, non-linear compositions sounded like they were waiting for the right filmmaker to seize upon them. Particularly fascinating were a piece where she harmonized with a loop of her own vocals, and another that she said incorporated a recording of the Northern Lights. Both seemed like something adventurous-minded Elizabeth Fraser fans would love. Unfortunately, the Copa is not exactly a listening room, and loud voices from the bar frequently broke the spell. To her credit, Lovlid never seemed to notice, even when a guy hollered to his friend “You buyin’ shots, dude?!?” loudly enough to be heard in the next venue. I was extra glad to snag a promo copy of her gorgeous album “Rite,” so I could listen to her again at the end of the night without the drunken intrusions.
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SXSW review: Sarah Jarosz at Momo's
If you’re a teenage girl in most households in America, perhaps you grow up wanting to be Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift. Or, if your tastes are a little more sophisticated, perhaps Lady Gaga or Beyonce.
If, however, you grow up in the Jarosz household in the small Hill Country town of Wimberley outside Austin, you debut onstage playing the mandolin at age 12 in bluegrass festivals, then move on to guitar and banjo. You write a fistful of songs that are wise beyond your years, sign with Sugar Hill Records, record with the likes of Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien and Ben Sollee, and see your first album nominated for a Grammy. All before you get out of high school.
And then, just to put a cherry on the year, you get to play SXSW and see yourself voted Female Vocalist of the Year, Country/Bluegrass Band of the Year and Folk Band of the Year at the annual Austin Music Awards, to be presented Saturday night.
No doubt about it, it’s good to be Sarah Jarosz.
Jarosz played for a packed room of adoring hometown fans, recent converts and acoustic music aficionados who were just getting the word at Momo’s on Friday. Such a crush of expectations might have wilted any other young woman within shouting distance of 20, but she seemed to take it all in stride. Coolly taking the stage by herself, Jarosz moved through a set that included original material from her first (and so far only) album, “Song Up In Her Head” and cannily chosen covers.
Patty Griffin’s wry yet poignant “Long Ride Home” kicked off her show, followed by a new tune, “Gypsy,” and a lesser-known Bob Dylan song, “Ring Them Bells.”
Jarosz’s confident demeanor and penetrating voice cut through the club chatter with ease, but you could still see the young girl within the assured. “How fun is this?!” she exclaimed at one point, sounding incongruously like a young girl who’d just won a shopping trip to the mall. To a grumpy and dyspeptic old music critic (think the old guy in “Up” with a notebook), it was an endearing moment.
After a solo turn mandolin, performing her Grammy-nominated song “Mansinneedof,” Jarosz brought up her backing band, Black Prairie, which included members of the Decembrists. A cover of Shel Silverstein’s “Queen of the Silver Dollar” preceded the grisly “Shankill Butchers,” a Decembrists song that Jarosz covered to chilling effect on her album.
This writer had to depart at that moment, making a note to check out Jarosz again soon, after the tourists had all gone home. He’s a sour old crank, and he doesn’t play well with others.
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SXSW review: Jail Guitar Doors at Ghost Room
For all I know, lo these many hours later, the Jail Guitar Doors are still rocking onstage at the Ghost Room, one musician/activist after another taking the stage in apparently endless succession. At the shank’s end of Friday night, the loose-knit collective of folkies, rockers and rappers showed no sign whatsoever of relenting as last call inexorably approached.
After taking the stage almost an hour late, ringleaders Billy Bragg and ex-MC-5 guitarist Wayne Kramer set up housekeeping on the tiny corner stage and began ushering one guest star after another in from the outdoor beer garden.
It was a case of hey, look, there’s Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters! There’s Mike Mills from R.E.M. rocking CSNY’s “Ohio!” There’s Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello shredding guitar with funk-rappers Street Sweeper Social Club! There’s Billy Bragg wryly declaiming the origins of Jail Guitar Doors to Wayne Kramer, standing at his side: “I said I named it after a song by the Clash,” said Bragg. And Wayne said, ‘Yeah, I’m in it.’ I said, what? He said, ‘What’s the first line?’ and I realized it was ‘Let me tell you about Wayne and his deals with cocaine.’ I felt about this big.”
Bragg went on to explain that JDG (which Kramer aptly described as “the loudest charity on earth”) was formed in England as a collective of musicians who put the redemptive power of music into action by making instruments and outreach programs available to jail inmates. An ex-con himself, Kramer became an ally with Bragg and helped get the ball rolling on this side of the pond. Their SXSW gig, they said, marked the American debut of Jail Guitar Doors.
Just that morning, said Bragg (a lifelong political activist for a host of social justice causes), the group had played at the Travis County Jail. “This is the after-party,” he said.
And “party” was the operative word. There was folk, hip-hop, scalding rock ‘n’ roll (the anthemic rendition of “Jail Guitar Doors” itself, for instance), passionate advocacy and heartfelt musical camaraderie. Drop by the Ghost Room today — they might still be having at it.
(More on Jail Guitar Doors here.)
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Mos Def to play Red Bull party tonight
Doors open at 8 p.m. for a party tonight in the parking lot at Fourth and Colorado streets hosted by Red Bull. Mos Def is the headliner, with such other acts as DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spider, DJ Klever, J.Rocc, Cut Chemist and DJ Juan McLean.
The invite we received doesn’t say anything about credentials needed, so if you’re in the area (and who won’t be tonight?) it might be worth a shot. Capacity looks to be about 2,000. All ages.
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SXSW scene report: First in line for Band of Horses at Central Presbyterian
I picked up my first SXXpress Pass Friday morning. I wanted to make sure I caught Band of Horses at Central Presbyterian Church around 9 p.m., and given reports of the madhouse that was the Grizzly Bear show there last year, I figured I wouldn’t be the only one. Realizing the church would reach capacity early in the evening, I knew that if I got there before the doors opened, I would be assured a seat. When I arrived, I expected to see at least a small Xpress line, but it was just I. At least I thought it was until I realized the middle-aged gentleman already sitting on the wall was a fellow pass-holder and not a musician.
Stephen Hoad had seen the queue on Wednesday night — one he said was equally long to the 100+ line formed by 6:45 p.m. Friday — and figured he would play it safe by getting an Xpress pass for Saturday night. The Brit from Aylesbury, England said he had been turned onto the South Carolina-based band by his son but had missed them their last time in the UK and he was determined to remedy that.
Attending his fifth SXSW, Hoad said he loved the smaller crowds and venues of the fest because, “it’s the way I like to listen to music.” Having attended the Wednesday night showcase, he was already enchanted with Central Presbyterian, a venue who compared to Union Chapel in London, though he said the church in downtown Austin was nicer.
When I asked the well-versed music lover for any fest highlights of the week, he pointed to California duo El Ten Eleven, a band he said he had been waiting to see for five years after a DJ from the BBC whom he ran into at SXSW turned him onto the band. That’s quite a wait, but Hoad seemed to think it was worth the wait, calling the band “just stunning.” Seems I have a new band to check out.
With that, the doors to the church opened and Hoad and I went our separate ways, with him taking a seat in a pew about 10 rows from the front, just past the soundboard and a perfect distance from the speakers, ensuring a fantastic listening experience. The guy knows his music.
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SXSW scene report: Rachael Ray party at Stubb's
It might only be in the 40s, but a laid-back Matthew McConaughey helped kick off the Rachael Ray feedback party by introducing the first band to play outside, Mishka: “the sun might be up there behind the clouds, but on stage, it’s a warm 72 degrees and s-s-s-sunny.” The bundled up crowd seems to share his sunny disposition; although the free food hasn’t started yet, the free bloody Marys and margaritas are flowing and McConaughey and Ray are jammin’ to the reggae side by side at the front of the stage.
Ray’s first words to the crowd came when she introduced Bob Schneider: “Plenty of food, plenty of drinks and even more bands.” “And one of the best things about Austin, Bob Schneider!” “Believe me, the food is worth the wait.”
And there might be a wait - gigantic lines stretch across entire Stubbs outdoor area.
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SXSW scene report: Mess With Texas, Day 1
Despite being displaced from its normal home by a public works project in Waterloo Park, Transmission Entertainment’s Mess With Texas day party continued to grow in popularity with its new east 6th St. home on Friday.
The move actually makes sense in a way, providing another tentpole day party east of I-35 as the SXSW side party scene continues its spread beyond downtown and toward Chicon Street and onward to Airport Boulevard.
Not that everything went smoothly. Sound issues provided a lot of headaches on the free fest’s south stage, causing Austin’s Hacienda to lose their vocals - and throw an extended cover of the instrumental soul groove “Green Onions’ into the set to kill time - and muted a live trip-hop collaboration by DJ Spooky and local avante classical outfit Golden Hornet Project that would probably be best served by an intimate indoor setting anyway.
The PA issues didn’t much bother new garage punk band Jeff The Brotherhood (who had a distinct high school battle of the bands amateurism going on) and The Jim Jones Revue played with all the power they’d expect from a lo-fi blues punk band in an outdoor setting, but singer Jim Jones did say he was soldiering despite constant electrical shocks from the microphone.
Up on the north side, Austin’s Grupo Fantasma kept the crowd moving and prepared for the release of its next LP, Frightened Rabbit strengthened its case for being this year’s SXSW Band You Hear No Matter Where You Go and Billy Bragg delivered a passionate set of political folk aimed at “all the people without wristbands.”
It was a bit incongruous, Bragg a strident populist taking several breaks from his own songs and Woody Guthrie covers to plead with the crowd to stay politically involved and be conscious of the outright greed of large companies and banks, all delivered on stage at a festival sponsored by more than a dozen companies including Camel cigarettes.
But that’s nitpicking. On a postcard perfect weather day Bragg was a highlight for a party that’s comfortably evolving and firming up its place - along with neighboring shindig the Levi’s/Fader Fort - as a SXSW day side tradition.
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SXSW panel: 'Creating a Music Town'
11 a.m. Saturday.
Panelists: Jared Bailey of AthFest, Bruce Burch of the University of Georgia, Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment Inc., Jocelyn Kane of San Francisco Entertainment Commission, Patrick May of Skyline Music
The gist: Building a music scene in a town can pay big benefits — when police, city officials, citizens, artists and media converge and work together to build a music scene, local economies can be revitalized, careers of local musicians can be advanced and downtown areas can be enlivened and bolstered. Although city governments can’t build local music scenes from scratch — that takes the presence of talented artists — they can encourage it by publicizing the scene, trying to provide for musicians and trying to encourage city policies that are friendly to a music scene, like reasonable sound ordinances.
Takeaways: One of the most fundamental necessities to create a music town is to publicize the issue and make regular citizens aware of the size, scope and impact — people knee-deep in the scene may not realize how invisible music and music issues can be to those outside the scene. Although the economic revitalization and mixed-use development that come about as a result of a thriving downtown culture can be positive, musicians and activists should be careful to make sure those developments don’t result in conflicts between businesses, residents and music venues. Activists need to stay focused on the needs of musicians — affordable housing and health care, for instance — and not just the PR. Forming music commissions, nonprofits and foundations can be helpful to encourage and shepherd a music town, but small groups and driven individuals can make a big difference on their own, and organizing large groups of people can be more trouble than it’s worth. Cities should avoid efforts to brand their city as being home to a specific genre — that can lead to pigeonholing that actually discourages some musicians and fans.
Quotes: “If you live in a community where people support the artists they like by going out and seeing artists, the artists will tell their managers, the managers will tell booking agents, fans will tell the media and word will get about your town’s music.” Ashley Capps.
“As people feel that energy and that community of music they start to look at your town as a place to live. We have people move from outside the city and great businesses starting that support the music community. There are a lot of ripples that can come from this activity and I think the key is telling that story and communicating with the community. It may be self-evident to you if you’re on the front lines how important the music scene is but to a lot of people it’s not.” Ashley Capps.
“We don’t have a music commission in Athens, Ga. I sometimes joke that we’re too indie of a town cause we can’t seem to get all of our musicians in one room, and when we do they complain the entire time. But while the Country Music Association did a lot for Nashville, they discouraged people for a long time by so intimately associating the city’s scene with country that other types of musicians didn’t want to go there.” Bruce Burch.
“If you can organize people and get a group effort going that’s great. It’s very hard to do, it’s like herding cats. But you can make big impacts as an individual or small groups, if you’ve got the vision and strength of will to do certain things.” Jared Bailey.
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A SXSW appreciation: Thurston Moore
To spend Friday night at Red 7 - headquarters of the Ecstatic Peace Records showcase - was to see indie rock hero Thurston Moore pretty much own the joint in every way possible.
In the space of a few hours he:
opened the night(!) solo on an acoustic 12-string guitar, playing multi-layered, dream-like folk rock songs with titles like “Friends,” “Blood”, “Circulation” and “With Out.” The tunes were suggestive of what Sonic Youth (Moore’s day job when not running his label) would sound like sans effects pedals and a back band, and about a half hour in, Moore thanked the crowd for listening to what were essentially a bunch of demos.
watched on like a proud papa while bands from his label like Black Helicopter, Awesome Color and The Entrance Band took over the club’s two stages, all of them doing their own takes on Sonic Youth’s trademark noise rock.
good-naturedly chatted with the few clubgoers who wandered up to pay respects to Moore for his nearly 30 years of music. It can’t be overstated how easy going and down to earth the guy is.
in one of those “Only at SXSW” moments, Moore dipped into his punk past with Demolished Thoughts, a supergroup hardcore cover band featuring J. Mascis, Don Fleming, F—-ed Up bassist Sammy Miranda (subbing for an MIA Andrew W.K.) and Awesome Color drummer Allison Busch. It was as jaw dropping as it sounds, with Moore on vocals, screaming while reading from a stapled-together lyric sheet as a storm of fists and feet grew in front of him. After 40 minutes and a brief encore it was over, with the members walking off stage, Moore returning a moment later to remind the crowd of one more chance to bear witness; “Mohawk, 1:30 tomorrow” and then dropping the microphone. Yep, awesome.
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SXSW review: Cheap Trick at Auditorium Shores
(Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)Let’s talk about how a seasoned band should build a set list: You’ve got to push the new album, of course, but not to the detriment of stuff deep in the catalog that old fans will appreciate. If it’s a big crowd — meaning there will be more than a few casual fans — you’re going to have to play that one song everybody knows, whether you want to or not. Bonus points if you’re playing more than once over a few days in the same town and don’t play the same set over and over.
So it went with Cheap Trick at Auditorium Shores Friday night. With a sizable crowd enjoying quite possibly the last hours of pleasant weather during SXSW 2010, the band opened with “Hello There,” closed with “it’s-the-same-song-but-different “Goodnight,” enthusiastically delivered about a half-dozen songs for their most recent, “The Latest” and, gulp, dutifully performed their monster hit, “The Flame.”
On Thursday night the band taped an upcoming episode of “Austin City Limits” and entirely neglected their first album. On Friday they got re-aquainted with that self-titled 1977 record, one of the weirdest, darkest records cheerfully masquerading as harmless ock ‘n’ roll ever. “The Ballad of TV Violence?” OK! And why we’re at it, how about “Oh Candy,” “Taxman” and “He’s a Whore?”
They had me at “He’s a Whore.”
But let’s say an uncharacteristic word in defense of “The Flame,” or at least singer Robin Zander’s vocal delivery of it. Born in 1953, the guy still sounds like he’s 20, and a lot of the Cheap Trick catalog calls for roaring delivery.
As they did Thursday night, the band dedicated “Sleep Forever,” “Heaven Tonight” and “That ’70s Song” (a reworking of Big Star’s “In The Street) to the memory of Alex Chilton, possibly the most noteworthy SXSW no-show ever. In a town even more full of musicians than usual, it seems everybody is remembering Chilton with a mixture of melancholy and sadness. Kind of like the man’s music.
Speaking of no-shows, the band’s management Friday night released a statement explaining, sort of but not really, the absence of drummer Bun E. Carlos: “Bun E. Carlos is not currently the touring drummer for Cheap Trick. Bun E. remains a band member. Everyone is healthy and Cheap Trick will continue to tour as planned.”
Filling in at both Thursday and Friday’s gigs was guitarist Rick Nielsen’s son, Daxx, and it was quite clear the guy has sat in for Carlos.
Nielsen paraded his collection of guitars around, including his five-neck Hamer, mugged and threw picks, as one would expect. They closed with “Gonna Raise Hell” and that they did indeed.
Cracker and the BoDeans were perfectly fine as the opening acts, and Cracker’s David Lowery was in a better mood than he was with Camper Van Beethoven Thursday night.
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SXSW review: Underground rock along Sixth St and Red River.
By Friday night, one often enters a kind of fugue state at SXSW in which one is willing to give a band about two songs to entertain or one is headed for the door in search of something better.
The WFMU/Aquarius Records showcase at Encore and the Encore Patio is a pretty safe bet for excellent cult acts and Friday was no exception. Brooklyn noise rocker’s Drunkdriver absolutely killed (sorry) in their 9 p.m. slot— the guitar/voice/drums trio created a fast moving juggernaut of impossibly loud amp roar punctuated by Michael Berdan’s scream. They played nothing but new material and everyone who saw them is likely lusting after their new album, which appears in April on Load Records. Probably my favorite SXSW set. (They also play tonight at 1 a.m. at Club 1808.)
Drunkdriver’s set was short and 10 p.m. act Home Blitz went on late, delivering a brief but shambolic shower of power-pop guitar hooks and singer/songwriter Daniel DiMaggio’s bratty bleat. The way fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen internalized 50s rock and 60s pop to create something recombinant yet fresh, DiMaggio purées generations of anti-fi indie rock, bubblegum pop-craft and garage punk. Ragged and fun.
Over at Klub Krucial at the Mexican Summer showcase, the enigmatic Tamaryn moaned and preened like the goth princess she is. Swirly post-punk guitar, fog machines and rolling drums accented her debt to Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cocteau Twins, but none of it was unwelcome. Is there anyone in San Francisco and New York that doesn’t have a crush on this woman yet? If not, what are you thinking? Can’t wait for the new album.
Austin band Follow That Bird! was packed onto the tiny stage at Waves, a bar one thinks none of the rock solid trio had ever been in before SXSW. I stayed for one song, the excellent “The Ghosts That Wake You” from the “Casual Victim Pile” compilation before the bar’s heavy frat-dude-type customer base and extremely packed state drove me out, but the band was absolutely delivering.
Back at Encore Patio, (Expletive) and Shine were not quite the utter force of nature the were back in SXSW 2008 (turn this video ALL THE WAY UP in your headphone to approximate how loud it was). Also, they had some band members sporting bunny masks and that is rarely a good look. But inside, Dallas act True Widow found the space between shoegazer pop and plodding doom metal, a combination so potent you wonder why it isn’t done this well more often. Their recordings err on the light side, but everything about them became much heavier live.
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Statement from Cheap Trick re: Bun E. Carlos
Well, this explains almost nothing. After Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos (known to his mom as Brad Carlson) was absent from the weekend’s SXSW events — a press day, signing at Waterloo Records, “Austin City Limits” taping and headlining a free show at Auditorium Shores Friday night — road manager Carla Dragotti forwarded this statement:
“Bun E. Carlos is not currently the touring drummer for Cheap Trick. Bun E. remains a band member. Everyone is healthy and Cheap Trick will continue to tour as planned.”
Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen’s son, Daxx, has been filling in on drums. And quite capably.
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SXSW review: Suckers
Like the labels “indie” and “garage,” the term “psychedelic” gets thrown around pretty liberally in describing bands, and it’s hard to tell at this point exactly what it means. Brooklyn-based Suckers play what might be categorized as psychedelic music, but that term doesn’t really begin to describe what it is they do. At certain points during their 11 p.m. set at the Galaxy Room Backyard on Friday, the band’s music might have been more accurately described as “circus disco,” a mixture of slightly disturbing atonal notes atop a drum machine. At other times, more traditional pop rock.
Like a lot of other buzzed about bands at the moment, the four-member multi-instrumentalist group layers their music with a good amount of harmony and vocal experimentation. Different members of the band at various points played trumpet, percussion, synthesizers and guitars. Lead singer Quinn Walker, who kind of had a weird Stevie Ray Vaughn thing going on with his black hat, likes to sing falsetto, too. The set contained songs both from last year’s self-titled EP and their forthcoming full-lenght debut, including the catchy “Beach Queen,” “Save Your Love For Me” and “It Gets Your Body Movin’,” the centerpiece of the EP and still one of the band’s best, complete with an epic whistling solo.
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SXSW scene report: More Chilton covers, kebabs and more
Today’s cold and rainy weather is nature’s way of telling SXSWgoers they’ve been having too much fun. Three perfect days of weather out of four ain’t bad, however.
Chuck Prophet really got the crowd going Friday night at Momo’s with a trio of Alex Chilton covers: “Bangkok,” “Boogie Shoes” and “Hey Little Child.”
The food at Kebabalicious on East Seventh Street must be fantastic. Even though two adjoining food trailers had no lines, more than three dozen folks waited for their Turkish wraps Friday night. Gotta try that place after the circus leaves town.
Hacienda made the best of a bad situation, performing the instrumental “Green Onions” by Booker T and the MGs after their p.a. went out Friday. Don’t there seem to be more sound problems this year than in the past?
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SXSW review: Girl In a Coma
Midway through their set Friday night at Buffalo Billiards, Girl In a Coma called Runaways singer Cherie Currie up to sing “Cherry Bomb,” which knocked a solid set into the bleachers.
But the highlight had to be a cover of Selena’s “Si Una Vez,” from the San Antonio trio’s upcoming “Adventures In Coverland” project. When GIAC is in a zone- and you could tell they were Friday from the look in singer/ guitarist Nina Diaz’ eyes- they’re a band that can incorporate different genres into their own seamless, flamboyant style of punk.
Director Robert Rodriguez is a fan, having been at all three SXSW appearances by the group, so maybe we can expect a video of the girls by him in the future.
Earlier in the night, Cruiserweight was having sound problems, with singer Stella Maxwell’s vocals being dominated by the harmonies of her brother Urny. But by the time GIAC hit the stage, the mix was close to perfect. The last three times I’ve seen the group, the sound was swallowed by Jenn Alva’s booming bass. But at SXSW, you could hear all the group’s weird dynamics, as on “El Monte,” a song that doesn’t know if it’s rockabilly or a show tune.
Oh, and Kristen Stewart was also in the crowd.
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SXSW scene report: on-stage with Smokey Robinson
Emily Adame was pulled onstage by Smokey Robinson at the close of Friday night’s performance at the Austin Music Hall.
The stage wasn’t just for professional musicians during Smokey Robinson’s Friday night show at the Austin Music Hall. Two lucky fans got to climb on stage with the Motown legend after Robinson split the audience into two halves for a singing contest on closing song “Cruisin.’” He pulled up a woman from each half of the crowd to act as team captain and encourage their side to sing louder than the other.
One of those women was designer Emily Adame, who represented stage left. After the show concluded, Adame, who was raised on Motown albums, excitedly called her mom to recount the story.
Speaking after the concert, Adame, who gestured animatedly to drum up the audience, described her crowd-encouraging philosophy.
“It was all improv. I wanted my team to win and I really wanted to pep the crowd up and I didn’t want to be frightened about it so I just went for it,” said Adame. “I was like ‘Come on, let’s do this! We want to win!’ I’m a go-getter so I put forth that energy. I wanted to win and take the house down.”
Adame had stars in her eyes speaking about her experience singing alongside Robinson, who hugged her at the end of the performance.
“When I got on-stage I was very calm. I wasn’t shaky at all. Because his energy is amazing and I felt very empowered to be with him, if that makes any sense,” said Adame. “It was unreal. I’m in shock right now.”
But the real question is — which side won?
“I have to say my team won fair and square.”
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SXSW scene report: the Octopus Project's "Hexadecagon"
“Hexadecagon” just might be the trippiest, most elaborate thing the Octopus Project have ever done, and that’s a very tall order.
Remember, this is the band that played an original score for a set of bizarre animated short films from across the world at the Alamo Drafthouse. And is known for bizarre video projections. And once coated an entire stage in aluminum foil.
But “Hexadecagon” is a whole other echelon of weirdness, almost Flaming Lipsian in its combination of whimsy, ambition and unexpectedness. Underneath a tent in the parking lot of Whole Foods, the Austin indietronica favorites set up shop on a stage surrounded on all sides by the audience, with eight speakers surrounding the band and audience and eight video projections (designed by Wiley Wiggins) on the tent above the crowd.
That meant actually seeing the band play was difficult unless you were very close to the center of the crowd, but seeing the band wasn’t the point — the idea was to look overhead as the music played, absorbing sound and imagery at the same time for a unique, multimedia experience. Images generally matched the tone — monochrome on the long, droning, space-y third song, but colorful and fast-moving on the fourth, pop-oriented tune (an anthem fit to compete with Octopus Project classics “Truck” and “Music Is Happiness”) . Recurring imagery ranged from ships to twin blond-haired girls to snow-capped mountains — an homage to “Snow Tip Cap Mountain” off “Hello Avalanche,” presumably?
The performance included five ethereal, intriguing new songs that bode well for future Octopus Project albums — although one has to wonder if, given the uniqueness of “Hexadecagon,” the Octopus Project may be mulling something more elaborate than just another album.
Either way, the vibes were good, the visuals compelling, and the show free and open to the public (although lines were long and many were unable to get in). Overall, surely a pretty good deal?
“You guys (expletive) rock,” cried an audience remember early on in the performance.
Right on, random Octopus Project fan. Right on.
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SXSW review: Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq performs Friday night at the Austin Music Hall.
Soul musicians know how to entertain — perhaps better than those working in any other genre. From titans of old like Sam Cooke, James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone straight through to the revival pleasures of Maxwell or Austin’s own Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, no one knows how to play a crowd like a fiddle — or a bass guitar — quite like a soul man (or woman).
That goes double for Raphael Saadiq, the former Tony! Toni! Tone! member whose emergence as a superhero of neosoul is now thoroughly complete. Appearing before a rapturous crowd at the Austin Music Hall Friday night — as part of one SXSW’s most well-curated showcases — Saadiq boogied onto the stage as a vision in red, garbed in an appropriately passion-evoking red suit with an invigorating performance of “100 Yard Dash,” the addictive single off 2008’s “The Way I See It.”
Ably assisted by a formally attired, crack backing band — including an assistant whose sole job was to gather up the clothes Saadiq removed throughout the show — Saadiq blasted through a half hour of songs off “The Way I See It” and a couple of old numbers. As the songs wore on, “100 Yard Dash” turning to the horn-bolstered swagger of “Keep Marching On” and “Sure Hope You Mean It,” off came the clothes — first the jacket, then the tie, then the glasses. For a bit there midway through the show, it looked like Saadiq might well end up naked.
That would have been appropriate for the rawly sexual swagger of the silk-voiced Saadiq, who milked the opening lines of “Take A Walk” (“I need some sex/Some Sex With You) for all they were worth in audience reaction with ample gesticulations. He even took a sharp left turn into rock star territory, letting his inner axe men loose with an impressive electric guitar solo on “Blind Man.”
The set closed with an inviting rendition of “Staying In Love,” with Saadiq, ever a class act, thanking each member of the band individually — an act particularly savored by the keyboard player, who killed a vocal solo with extreme prejudice. Full of instrumental jams, it was about three times as long as the album version of “Staying In Love,” a perfect piece of pop neosoul that has only one problem: it’s criminally short.
In other words, the exact same problem as Saadiq’s live show.
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SXSW review: Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson performs at the Austin Music Hall Friday night.
How old is Smokey Robinson again?
This is a legitimate question. A cursory glance at Wikipedia — the information source of choice for the music critic in a hurry — says 70 years old.
But that can’t possibly be right. Friday night at the Austin Music Hall, sandwiched between revival artists Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Raphael Saadiq, original soul legend and King of Motown Smokey Robinson showed the world how it’s done with an affectionate, charming, high-energy show. When it comes to elderly gentleman whose enthusiasm, zest for life and boundless energy seems to mock the very concept of aging, only Stan Lee can stand up to Smokey Robinson.
Robinson emerged with an expansive band and two superfluous but moderately impressive dancers — who underwent a half-dozen or so costume changes in an hour and a half — and quickly launched into “I Second That Emotion.” That was followed up by Miracles classic “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me,” and to hear a chorus of a thousand voices singing along in unity was a magical moment. For anyone who cares about the power of pop to bridge gaps in age, gender and social status — and if you’re reading this blog right now, there’s a good chance that’s you — it was impactful and touching.
The convincingly humble Robinson touted his Motown bona fides in a soaring medley of Temptations songs — “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” “Get Ready” and “My Girl.” And he held the crowd in the palm of his hand for “Ooh Baby Baby.”
Calling Robinson a musician does him a bit of a disservice — “entertainer” would be a more broadly accurate term. Whether thrusting his pelvis — a move that no 70-year-old should be able to pull off, yet he finds a way — or recounting amusing stories of Stevie Wonder, he’s a showman whose refined his act with five decades of performance. That strength was displayed most evidently on a lengthy closing rendition of “Cruisin,’” as Robinson split the audience in halves to participate in a contest to see which side could sing louder, complete with one member from each side pulled onstage and designated as team captain.
“We got some singers in here,” quipped the velvet-voiced Smokey early in the set. “I thought you guys were just people who bought tickets or badges or something like that, but I realize now who you are. You’re the South by Southwest choir!”
Maybe so, Smokey, but can’t nobody in the audience — or anywhere — sing like you.
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Uchi cancels East Meets Fest
The threat of cold, wet weather has prompted Uchi to cancel its East Meets Fest event, set to happen Saturday, March 20 in the sushi restaurant’s parking lot.
A number of bands — Curses, Many Birthdays, Dana Falconberry, Woven Bones, the White White Lights, the Red Boys, and the Authors — were set to perform at the daylong party, one of many happening around town during the South by Southwest Music Festival.
“We apologize and are looking forward to great weather and a great event next year,” organizers said in a statement e-mailed late Friday night.
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SXSW video: East Sixth Street
The South by Southwest Music Festival spreads each year, with more and more unofficial shows popping up east of Interstate 35.
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SXSW video: Cheer Up Charlie's
Cheer Up Charlie’s hosted an unofficial South by Southwest party in its parking lot.
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SXSW video: Scoot Inn
Music lovers hit venues throughout town — including Scoot Inn — Friday to take in bands playing as part of the South by Southwest Music Festival.
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Time switch mars Jones Family Singers set
If the Jones Family Singers had gone onstage at the Carver Museum Friday night at their advertised time of 9 p.m., they would’ve played to a packed house, following the Mwangaza Children’s Choir, featured on the front page of the Statesman on Sunday. As it turns out, the great gospel group from Bay City played to 16 people after an act was put on before them, with a day’s notice, and cleared the room. Is this how you treat acts that travel far and wide to play for $250, SXSW?
The disheartened nine-member group drove four hours back home Friday night and cancelled their 6 p.m. set today at the San Jose Hotel, where they might’ve actually played for a lot of people. They’ve had enough of Southby- even if the San Jose party is not affiliated- and I don’t blame them.
Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of the JFS and I actually advised them to play SXSW, when fest booker Craig Stewart asked me about that great gospel group that I knew who had wowed ‘em at SXSW a few years back. I also put them in touch with San Jose owner Liz Lambert, who had seen them before and was a big fan.
I had nothing to gain except helping a band that I feel is amongst the very best, and underappreciated gospel groups performing today. And they’re really wonderful people.
Never again would I tell a band that they should play SXSW.
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SXSW review: An Horse
On the scale of drummer/guitarist rock groups, with Mates of State on one end and the White Stripes on the other, An Horse falls roughly in between. The indie rock duo from Brisbane, Australia made up of guitarist/singer Kate Cooper and drummer Damon Cox (each from other bands) played after Local Natives at 10 p.m. Friday at the Galaxy Room Backyard. They’ve got one album and a new EP under their belts, and have spent time touring with Canadian rock group Tegan and Sarah.
They started the set off on a tough note with a blown-out amp. Fortunately, they replaced it quickly, and got on with their set. Though Cooper handled most of the singing, Cox joined in quite a bit. He’s a talented drummer, and it was fun to see him play and sing at the same time. Cooper wasn’t doing anything particularly interesting on the guitar, but she had great vocal chops and was quite the ham on stage. At one point she had a back and forth with several audience members: Audience: “I like your guitar!” Cooper: “I like you too!” Audience: “Thanks for coming back!” Cooper: “Thanks for having us?”
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SXSW review: Local Natives
Sometimes it’s easy to tell when a band works really hard at what they do. Such is the case with Local Natives, a five piece pop rock band from Los Angeles. During their 9 p.m. set Friday night at the Galaxy Room Backyard, lead singer/guitarist Taylor Rice explained that they were on show number six out of nine they had scheduled for the festival. Despite the heavy load, the band didn’t show any signs of fatigue, as their set was among the best of the week.
With two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer and a keyboardist/percussionist, the band’s sound relies heavily on harmonies combined with choppy piano and drums, all of which sounded incredibly well-rehearsed. They played songs from their newly-released debut album, “Gorilla Manor,” plus an energized cover of the Talking Heads’ “Warning Sign,” which fit in well with the rest of the material. Other highlights included “Camera Talk” and closer “Shape Shifter,” as well as a guest appearance at the end of the set from the band Fool’s Gold, who jumped on stage and whipped themselves into a frenzy of drumming and dancing.
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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.
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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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March 18, 2010
SXSW review: Star & Micey
Memphis trio Star & Micey are proteges of Big Star drummer Jody Stephens and record for Big Star’s old label, Ardent, where Stephens now serves as studio manager. Their 9 p.m. Thursday showcase at Barbarella was billed as “featuring Jody Stephens,” and Stephens came out before them to offer a tribute to his bandmate Alex Chilton, who passed away Wednesday, saying “he’s been part of my creative soul” and thanking everyone for the outpouring of support. The scheduled Big Star show Friday and discussion panel Saturday would go on in tribute to Chilton, he announced.
Big Star is not actually an obvious influence on Star & Micey, although Stephens was one of the guests on their 2009 self-titled debut. Singer-guitarist Joshua Cosby, guitarist-vocalist Nick Redmond and bassist-vocalist Geoff Smith, all in their mid-20s, have more of an indie-pop/Southern rock sound, with a little bit of folk and soul thrown into the mix. Vocal harmonies are their strong suit.
Cosby has a strong tenor, and he and Redmond have a tight blend that makes them often sound like the “two brothers without the same last name” they claim to be in their bio, while Smith frequently adds the third part for an element of the unexpected.
The bluesy “So Much Pain” was the obvious crowd favorite, drawing loud applause when the band announced it. Redmond’s nifty electric solo rode nicely atop Cosby’s acoustic rhythm guitar. The poppy “Carly” could have been a lost ‘70s soft-rock hit, with its catchy, broken-hearted chorus, although Smith’s toy xylophone part, which cleverly shaded into “Frere Jacques” and back, might have been a little much for FM programmers of the day.
Having no regular drummer, the band played most of its set with a drum kit divided between the three of them, working the kick drum, tambourine and cymbals with pedals. That seemed to work fine with the trio’s easy-going sound, but when Stephens joined them on drums for the last song, “Nelson,” the energy level increased exponentially.
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SXSW scene report: German and French parties
Gridlocked traffic and general sensory overload often bring nostalgia for the more laidback SXSWs of yore, but then, in the golden years when you could actually get from the Hole in the Wall to the Austin Opera House, on the other side of the river, in under ten minutes, there was also no free arugula.
The German Musik Initiative hosted a lunch with DJ sets at Parkside on Thursday afternoon, and although I arrived too late for the full spread laid out by Berliner chefs Phillip Patzig and Hayk Seirig, a serving bowl of artfully mixed spring lettuces had not yet been swept away, so I got a big plate of salad, probably the first time ever at SXSW that I have been served a vegetable that is not chopped up in salsa.
While a few people were conducting interviews, consulting smart phones or consuming the remains of the repast downstairs, most of the crowd was upstairs, and out on the deck smoking up a storm and quaffing either St. Pauli Girl beer or some very nice wine, including a lovely 2006 Huber Zeigelt that was another reason to love the growing international presence at SXSW.
DJ Heidi from BBC Radio 1/Get Physical Records spun a cheeky, creative mix of underground house that had hipsters bopping even as they concentrated on their conversations. She is also the first person in history, to my knowledge, who has managed to look cool and edgy with blond braids pinned up around her head. (If only Yulia Tymoshenko had her fashion savvy, she might have won the Ukrainian presidential election.) I was dying to ask one woman why she was wearing a frog mask on the back of her head, but the music was too loud, and I was afraid the answer would not be as exotic as the image.
At the France Rocks Austin party further down Sixth Street, at Klub Krucial, champagne was free but water was $2 a bottle. The electro-punk glam band Dead Sexy Inc. drove plenty of patrons to the patio in back, but although I wouldn’t run out and buy their records, they were super tight and there was a gleeful conviction to their over-the-top posturing and flamboyant mannerisms, as well as their beyond-risque lyrics.
The band’s two frontmen traded off on guitar and vocals (no bassist, but plenty of bass), and there was ample humor in the contrast between the two — panther-like Emmanuel H, bald head gleaming with sweat, traced balletic patterns with his arms while maintaining punk intensity, and Stephane H struck metal-god poses, tossing his Kajagoogoo-esque black hair until it finally started to lose its vertical volume and droop down onto his shoulders. Drummer Alexy G wailed along to the electronics while wearing headphones and an expression that made him look more like he was an engineer off in a sound booth by himself.
The room filled up more for the Bewitched Hands on Top of Our Heads, but their power pop seemed anemic by comparison, and I followed a friend down to BD Riley’s to see Roman Candle, a more focused and driving power-pop band from Nashville via Chapel Hill. Their “Modern Rock Radio is A-OK” is one catchy, clever anti-anthem. Their producer, Chris Stamey of dBs fame, was basking in a spot of sunlight at a table by the window.
Back out on Sixth Street, a Brighton quartet called Doll and the Kicks had drawn a considerable crowd. While the boys in the band sang sweet harmonies, Doll belted out songs in a strong alto. Doll sported a porkpie hat atop a Liza Minnelli-ish haircut, and a yellow polka-dot, puffed sleeved minidress that showed off her long legs, which probably didn’t hurt attendance any.
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SXSW tribute planned for Alex Chilton
Before Smokey Robinson’s keynote address this morning at the Convention Center, SXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke dedicated the festival to the memory Alex Chilton, whose death of a heart attack Wednesday night stunned attendees and musicians. Chilton’s legendary band Big Star was scheduled to play the prime 12:30 a.m. slot at Antone’s on Saturday, as well as appear on a Big Star panel earlier that day.
Big Star’s Jody Stephens told Billboard.com today that he and current members Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer will be the “house band” for a tribute at Antone’s during the Big Star slot. Likely guests include Andy Hummel — the original bassist who’s part of the panel — M. Ward, John Doe, Chris Stamey and R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Stephens said.
All across the festival Wednesday night and Thursday, acts such as Dawes and Tim Easton dedicated or covered Big Star songs, and fans raised glasses/bottles in Chilton’s memory.
Here is the reaction from musicians at SXSW:
‘We’re gonna get breakfast going with some volume today. Too bad there was no sleep last night, but that’s what happens when you listen to a bunch of Big Star records until dawn. That’s just what you do.” — Tim Easton opening Twangfest at Jovita’s at noon Thursday.
‘Now they’ll finally be what their name proclaimed. That’s one of rock’s biggest ironies. They should have been big stars.’ — Patterson Hood of the Drive By Truckers on Thursday at the Waterloo Records signing table.
‘I didn’t know or work with Alex, but I did work with Jim Dickinson. And when Jim died last year, he had a wonderful thing put on his tombstone; it said, ‘I’m not gone, I’m just dead.’ And I think that would fit Alex as well. It’s tough when another great one passes, but that’s the great thing about music — it lives on.’ — John Hiatt
‘….I do remember the first time I heard ‘The Letter.’ It was 1966, I think, and I must have been 13. I remember thinking, where’d THAT voice come from? It sure sounded older than anyone that might be listening to the song. It was a different era, a different time. It sounded like it came from under the world.’ — Buddy Miller
‘We found out right before we hit the stage last night. I used to cover “Thirteen” back in my solo acoustic days. They never got their due. They’re kind of like the Velvet Underground. They never sold any records, but everybody that listened to them decided to be in a band.” — Luke Temple, lead singer/guitarist for Here We Go Magic
‘Alex Chilton is gone. And it hurts. After I read the news about Chilton’s passing, I went onto Facebook to check in with friends I can’t be with here at SXSW in Austin. Many of them are musicians and artists, and never had I seen an entire news feed filled with variations on the same despair.’— Carrie Brownstein, former Sleater-Kinney guitarist, on her blog, Monitor Mix, at NPR.org.
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SXSW scene report: Westside baby! Roaming the Warehouse District day party scene
Yes, the major SXSW day party action goes down on Sixth Street, Red River, South Congress and pretty much the entire east side of the city, but what’s happening in the Warehouse District? That was the question I was pondering on my way to the Nacional Records/Pachanga party at La Condesa this afternoon. Nacional was hosting an invite-only gathering celebrating its excellent roster of artists playing the festival. With beverages flowing freely, they managed to pack the bar area and the small outdoor deck with a lively crowd. I bumped into Pachanga Fest organizer Rich Garza, complimented him on last year’s fantastic event at Fiesta Gardens and wrangled a sneak peak at the flier for this year’s festival. But there was no music at the party, so after sipping down half a Mexican Coke I decided to check out the scene upstairs at Malverde.
There was no wait to get into the df Loft party at Malverde. The outdoor deck was a carefully guarded VIP area, but with the windows open, sun streaming in and a cool breeze rustling the leaves of impressively over-sized potted plants, the main room of the club was light and airy. Dos Equis appeared to be the (free?) beverage of choice and skinny jeans and immaculately highlighted hair was the look du jour for the trendy 20-something crowd. Chicago-based electropop trio Hey Champ took the stage around 3:30 and their set actually seemed pretty upbeat and promising, but unable to shake the overwhelming sense of my own un-hipness I decided to head on down the road.
A few blocks to the north, a blast of sweeping epic rock darkened by more than a hint of violin-induced melancholy lured me out of the sun and into the dark cavernous interior of Republic Live where the Consequence of Sound Day Party was going down. Once again, there was no line and this time a significantly grimier skinny jean clad crowd of twenty-somethings. The band on stage was New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus and after catching the end of their texturally dense set of emotional rock I understand why they’ve been building a fair amount of buzz. The band is playing a mess of parties over the rest of the weekend, and they’re definitely worth a listen. Next on the bill was Of Montreal’s James Husband, but the dark, oddly smoky (fake foggy?) atmosphere was putting a damper on the beautiful afternoon so I decided to head on.
Trekking west on Fourth Street, I wandered past a sleepy Ghost Room and a reasonably bustling Halcyon patio then stumbled directly into the crowd that spilled into the street from Cedar Street Courtyard. I’ve never personally experienced Filter Magazine’s Showdown at Cedar Street, but I’ve heard it’s a perennial fave for SXSW-ers, and the overflow of patrons craning necks and climbing on the iron sculpture outside the club to catch a glimpse of the Norwegian rock showcase certainly seemed to prove the point.
Even with a separate line for badges, getting into that mess was clearly going to be a tedious process. So it was off down the road. Heading toward Congress I caught wind of a clash of hip-hop deck parties with bumpin’ grooves wafting from the upstairs patios of Speakeasy and the Light Bar. A quick check of my Twitter account confirmed that the latter was hosting Urb Magazine’s SXSNext party and I decided to check it out. Again there was no wait and I easily breezed into the narrow wedge of a club. Downstairs the scene was low key. The plush couch by the water wall was practically empty and a group of backpackers clustered around a corner where L.A. rapper Tiron, who oddly enough was rocking a sweatshirt and a red knit hat on a 70 degree day, spit a respectable lyrical flow.
Upstairs the party was on. A crowd crammed the rooftop deck and when Yelawolf, a white rapper from rural Alabama with a steady building buzz, took the stage he rocked them hard. Seriously. Shunning the stage he climbed the walls and leaped over the clubs faded pleather couches to balance precariously on tables in the midst of the crowd while spewing an aggressive flurry of down and dirty Southern rhymes. The audience, an notably urban mix of true hip-hop heads was clearly with him. His set was brief, but long enough to establish why the dude’s prominently positioned on the lineup of a lot of this week’s hottest parties.
After Yelawolf did his thing the sun was starting to go down and the dinner hour was approaching so I decided to head back across the river to my office.
On the way I passed the second longest line I had seen all night, a crowd at least 40 deep, oddly enough outside the Elephant Room which wasn’t hosting any sort of event. I asked one of the girls at the front of the line what she was waiting for. “Kyoto,” she replied
“Really, you’re just waiting to eat?” I asked a little incredulously. I never knew the little sushi joint over the Elephant was so hopping.
“Yeah, and working up an appetite,” she sighed.
Weird.
Turns out the club hosts a regular happy hour that actually only runs for 45 minutes from 6 to 6:45 p.m. With good sushi specials and deals on Japanese drafts it draws a lot of regulars. I never knew.
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Not quite SXSW around town
If you live far east of I-35, you would be excused for thinking it was just a regular Thursday in March. There were few signs that South By Southwest was even going on north of 12th Street and east of Chicon Street.
But various smaller venues east of I-35, the sorts of places that have regular live music when SXSW isn’t going on, are hosting unofficial day and night parties.
A small group gathered at the Parlor on East North Loop for a day show featuring such cult acts as the noise rock band Todd and locals When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.
Spot Long, owner of Trailer Space Records is hosting day and night parties organized by Austin band the Strange Boys. “We had several hundred people here (Wednesday night),” Long said while the band TV Ghost wailed away in front of a good-sized crowd Thursday afternoon. “The crowd carted off all the Vitamin Water I got as a give-away.”
But the closer you got to downtown Austin Thursday evening, the more intense and exhausting the traffic became, with band vans towing trailers navigating tight east side streets and fans looking for parking competing with city buses for space on the road. Downtown streets that feed into I-35 such as 15th and 11th streets came to a virtual standstill during rush hour Thursday.
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SXSW scene report: The Court Yard Hounds at Sony Music party
Except for a couple of songs on KGSR’s live morning broadcast today, the Court Yard Hounds — the new collaboration between the Dixie Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Emily Robison — made their public performance debut at the Sony Music day party at the Clive Bar Thursday afternoon. Though the Dixie Chicks are not disbanded — they will tour with the Eagles and Keith Urban this summer — the two sisters are proceeding with the new, more intimate CYH configuration as a way to stretch their creative muscles and get back in front of folks after a nearly four-year layoff.
The industry party was a laid-back affair on a gorgeous afternoon, and the Hounds’ bluegrass-inspired new original songs proved an ideal soundtrack for a literal back porch gig.
Though Maguire and Robison co-founded the Chicks, they have never made the move to center stage before now. Notwithstanding, they are charismatic and agile performers and blessed with the sort of organic harmonies that nothing but shared DNA can inspire.
Robison took the lion’s share of the vocals and traded between guitar, Dobro and banjo as the duo (abetted by a backing trio) worked their way through “Then Again,” “The Coast,” “Fear of Wasted Time” (the most emotionally-fraught song on the album, according to Robison) and “It Didn’t Make A Sound.”
“This is a song I wrote that Martie made me re-write,” said Robison of the latter tune, proving once again that a sister is the music critic of last resort.
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SXSW scene report: Twangfest party at Jovita's
Tim Easton toasted Alex Chilton straightaway. “We’re gonna get breakfast going with some volume today,” the Joshua Tree resident said at high noon, opening Twangfest’s party at Jovita’s with “Burgundy Red.”
“Too bad there was no sleep last night, but that’s what happens when you listen to a bunch of Big Star records until dawn.” Easton moved forward swiftly, but last night’s news that the Big Star singer died in New Orleans clearly stayed close to heart. His every yowl echoed like a Spencer carbine tribute shot.
The deep-browed folksinger left his acoustic guitar cased throughout his 40-minute set. Today’s Easton was the noisy electric bluesman: Haunted. Restless. Brilliant. He vitally energized recent material (“Stormy,” “Broke My Heart,” “Northbound,” from 2009’s “Porcupine”), but best news was the still unreleased tracks (tentative titles: “What Do You Live For,” “Maid of the Mist,” “Daily Life,” “Did Your Mother Teach You That”). Perhaps Easton’s finest yet.
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SXSW scene report: Muse is badges only
- For the first year, SXSW has implemented the SXXpress program, which allows badgeholders to pick up passes that allow them to cut in front of the line at showcases. Limit is one per day per registrant. The cut-off is at 10% of the venue’s capacity. “We love it,” said Jeff Cripps of Australia, who’s here with his band Mississippi Shakedown. He and his friends had heard they need to see Jim Lauderdale at Antone’s, so they’ll bypass the line that should be a little crazy to see Court Yard Hounds, 2/3 of the Dixie Chicks.
Volunteers manning the SXXpress stations are expecting a long line tomorrow, as the hot ticket is Muse, which is limited to badgeholders only (sorry, wristbands). Thursday’s quickest sellouts were Cedar Street Courtyard (hosting She + Him), Mohawk Patio (the xx) and Latitude 30 (VV Brown). Ms. Brown will also play a pop-up show at Gaspipe (5th and Sabine Streets) at 1 p.m. Friday.
Kendall Clark of Balmorhea was appreciative of SXSW allowing musicians with wristbands to attend all four days of panels. Usually only badges are allowed. “I also have a music production business, so it’s been great,” he said Thursday at the Convention Center. “Many of the panels are geared towards musicians, but most of the badgewearers are not musicians, so it makes sense this way.”
Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, although heartbroken over the death of Alex Chilton, will play tonight’s Memphis Music showcase at Barbarella (615 Red River St.) with his other band Star & Micey.
Beerland is the bar with ‘tude, which is not only snubbing SXSW for the third straight year, but has a sign out front that says “This isn’t a SXSW venue, so spare me the badge and get in line with everyone else.”
A lot of acts are using creative ways to promote their showcases. A Band Called Catch was throwing mini-Frisbees with their logos and showtimes.
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SXSW video: South by San Jose
For the past 11 years, the Hotel San Jose has hosted free music during SXSW.
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SXSW video: Free Energy interview
Buzz band Free Energy kicked off SXSW yesterday with sets at the Galaxy Room for the Paste Magazine party and the Levi’s Fader Fort. Tonight they’ll be playing an official showcase at the Beauty Bar hosted by Rolling Stone, but you’ll also be able to catch them tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at Emo’s for the Pitchfork day party. Below, we caught up with three members of the band at the convention center.
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Man accused of stealing jeans at gunpoint at SXSW event
A man is facing aggravated robbery charges after police say he stole two pairs of jeans at gunpoint from a South by Southwest festival event, according to an arrest affidavit issued Thursday.
Police say Leandre Darryl Campbell, 24, went into the Levi’s/Fader Fort on Monday asking for clothing and food, then pointed a black, semi-automatic handgun at several people, the affidavit said.
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SXSW scene report: Drive-By Truckers at Waterloo Records
One of the best bands in America playing in the parking lot of one of the best record stores in America on a beautiful day in a city that never tires of congratulating itself on being unquestionably the best, most enlightened and hippest town from sea to shining sea. Yeah, sometimes it’s good to live in Austin.
That was the scene Thursday afternoon at Waterloo Records (which has a solar-powered stage for SXSW, with which to shore up its hip/enviro bona fides even more), where the Drive-By Truckers stopped by to showcase new tunes off their two-day-old record, “The Big To-Do.” People die a lot in DBT songs, so it was appropriate that they opened with singer-songwriter-guitarist Patterson Hood singing “Drag the Lake Charlie.” Best lines: “Our best-case scenario is Lester turns up dead/I’m almost out of Valium, courage and self-respect.”
I love this band.
Thirty-five minutes, seven songs and they were done, heading inside to do a signing. The line of fans stretched around the corner and down the block.
DBT plays again tonight at 10:30 at Stubb’s.
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SXSW video: Street performer Emery Carl
Seattle-based street performer Emery Carl rakes in the bucks from Sixth Street passersby.
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MGMT at SXSW?
This oughta squash the persistent rumor that MGMT, who have a new album out in a few weeks, is playing the Levi’s Fader Fort.
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SXSW short shots: Nneka and J. Boogie
Limping onto the stage with a bum leg, Nigerian/German singer-songwriter Nneka enthralled a surprisingly robust audience at a KUT Austin taping on the SXSW Day Stage Cafe at 5 p.m. yesterday. With enormous passion exuding from her tiny frame, she wove tales of love, loss and political corruption that kept the audience rapt, and hungry for more.
Nneka performs tonight at the Parish at 9:30 p.m. and tomorrow at the Beauty Bar at 1 a.m. I highly recommend catching one of these sets.
On the other side of Austin, San Francisco DJ J. Boogie dropped a tasty blend of hip-hop, afrobeat and (a man after my own heart) Indian grooves at the SXSouth Lamar Crawfish Boil at Bird’s Barbershop last night. He’ll be mixing it up in between sets at tonight’s Scoot Inn showcase which is long on the world funk and boasts a solid lineup of artists who will no doubt be dropping hot and heavy grooves to make you move.
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SXSW panel: 'How to Make Money From Vinyl'
12:30 p.m. Thursday
Panelists: Jay Millar, United Record Pressing; Ben Blackwell, Third Man Records; Virgil Dickerson, Suburban Home Records and Vinyl Collective; Billy Fields, WEA; Andy Kotowicz, Sub Pop Records
The gist: The market for vinyl is growing and real, but the CD is probably not going away where for awhile for most major releases. However, boutique labels can absolutely stick to download and vinyl only.
Third Man’s physical sales are 100 percent vinyl. Sub Pop is at about 15 percent vinyl, 45 percent CD, 40 percent digital, with vinyl and digital growing rapidly and CD shrinking slowly, but it’s not viable to not do CDs. For bigger labels, if you’re already sinking $7 or $8 into manufacturing costs, you might as well make the package nice to be able to charge $15 to $25 for an LP.
New plants are starting up, but new presses are not being built, much fo the equipment is 40 years old. (Austin could probably use a local record pressing plant, frankly.) A face to face relationship with a manufacturer is always better than a phone and email relationship.
Sub Pop does not pay mechanical royalties on download coupons with vinyl. Since most majors have to, this is why many majors are unable to offer download coupons with LPs.
The takeaway: You won’t go broke underestimating a pressing amount. If you think you can sell 300, print 300, not 500 unless it costs you nothing to store the extras (Blackwell: “You can never take records back.”). Be creative about packaging. For example, handmade can save you money and be eye-catching. Part of making money on vinyl is knowing when not to do it.
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SXSW scene report: No waiting in line on Wednesday night
9:40 PM — I pop into Maggie Mae’s and catch the last two songs of Infantree from Calabasa, California. Fortunately, I do not realize the precious spelling of the band name, or I would have to double fist Miller Lite, official sponsor of SXSW* (said in either commercial-voiceover-guy voice or that of the bubbly blonde who offered me one, you pick). The young quartet seems grateful to be there, but they sound like the Avett Brothers on quaaludes. The walls lined with casualties of St. Patrick’s Day, the place smells like aftershave wafting off of alcoholics at a public golf course grill.
10:20 PM — The festival’s tent has expanded each year to include more and more comedy, and on Wednesday night, Comedy Central is ensconced at Esther’s Follies for a showcase. At first, I am told that the approximately 300 are all taken (105 of those tickets sold and the other 200 a mix of badges, wristbands and Comedy Central VIPs), so I turn to leave. Then someone decides to swoop me in. I hear something about “he’s with the press,” so I am feeling like this may be breaking my rules. Reluctantly, I follow the manager to an aisle seat in the third row and hear Maria Bamford, her voice alone can make you laugh. But the guy next to me says “my” seat is being saved. So, it seems fated. I leave. Comedy at SXSW seems do be doing just fine.
10:30 PM — Across the street, a long line has formed to get into Emo’s. But … there is no line for badges. I walk to the front and am told by a friendly volunteer that I would be the next badge in. To me, that’s a wait, so I walk over to the sidewalk where a small group is congregating, trying to figure out what to do. Turns out the group of people is actually a group, as I learn from Clova (David Williams), rapper for Huntsville, Alabama hip-hop group G-Side. Clova asks if Nas is playing Emo’s, and when I confirm his suspicions, he seems somewhat curious about attempting to get in. His crew, however, seems tired from the long drive, and they convince Clova that it’s time to crash for the night. G-Side plays NPR’s day show at The Parish at 2:45 PM on Thursday, so the guys need their rest. After talking to the guys, I learned that, according to the Huntsville Times, “At today’s SXSW gig, ST said he and Clova plan to dedicate the show to the families of Discovery Middle School shooting victim Todd Brown and those shot and killed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.” Very solid. These guys definitely seem worthy of checking out.
10:35 PM — Although getting into Nas was just a minute wait away, I decide to head back down the street, true to my mission. Before decamping from the general Emo’s vicinity, I talk to one of the folks standing in line in hopes of buying a ticket. Despite waiting by himself, and with his arm in a cast, Austinite Logan Anderson maintains a positive attitude. It’s his first foray into the SXSW madness, and he realizes that waiting is just the price you pay (in addition to the $20), especially for what he calls “the show of the day.” He says he will wait till about midnight, and I like his chances of getting in, in part due to his good attitude. When I return an hour later, he has creeped closer but is still 40 people or so shy of the entrance. I learn he had been in the club earlier and has the stamp to prove it, but when I go ask the aforementioned volunteer about the rules regarding re-entry for those who don’t have badges, she tells me the stamped and credential-less must return to the back of the ticket line. So, Logan continues to wait. I hope he gets in.
10:39 PM — I deviate from Sixth Street by about 15 feet, as I am lured into Emo’s Annex by a promise to Michael Corcoran and a woman’s voice singing Marvin Gaye’s classic “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).” The keyboard player wears a big watch-style Beck hat, the simple bass line and horn section evoke Morphine and the sexy blonde female lead bounces and writhes on stage. Obviously these folks (The Asteroids Galaxy Tour) are from … Denmark. Sweet. I leave as people are filing in at $5 a head.
10:55 PM — I enter Wave (formerly the Daiquiri Factory) for the first time in my life. The place is starting to fill up, and bar owner Jay Vail tells me that 800 people have confirmed online their intent to attend the night’s showcase. While Vail says his bar (which is in its third year as a SXSW venue) usually draws about 80 percent badges, tonight, the numbers are more like 60 percent badge/wristband and 40 percent covers. The reason for the shift? Headliner Surfer Blood. Vail says the bar made more money when it wasn’t an official venue, but admits that this night is expected to be packed, likely third to only Halloween and New Year’s Eve. He says that the strong headliner seems to be a result of the balance that needs to be struck between the needs of the bar and the festival. The bar’s agenda is to get as many people to stay in their establishment all night, while the fest wants to move people around from venue to venue. The presence of a buzzy band like Surfer Blood seems like it will benefit Wave on this night. Property owner Randy Allen admits that this Wednesday night is much more crowded than previous first nights of the fest, and attributes it in part to the rebounding economy.
11:00 PM — Wave features two stages, one upstairs and one down. I head upstairs and catch some of the slightly whiny alt-country rock of the quartet We Are Country Mice. What the band lacks in harmonizing ability, they attempt to make up for with attitude and they have the crowd modestly engaged, but it seems like most of the 27 year-old due bro demographic is packed in tight in early anticipation of headliner Surfer Blood, who take the stage in two hours.
11:23 PM — Back downstairs, Brooklyn band La Strada (who knew they had bands in Brooklyn?) is finally ready to play after a prolonged period of tuning. The symphonic pop sounds of the international-tinged
band featuring violin, cello and accordion feel like Arcade Fire starter kit. Unfortunately, Arcade Fire has made a few too many bands think they can pull of a yelling sort of singing. Or maybe I am just slightly disoriented by a bands that looks like its from the Catskills being fronted by a Charlie Kaufman lookalike.
11:40 — Exiting to the masses, I find Sixth Street overflowing its banks, a river of dangerously drunk (and mostly happy) people. I check to verify that getting into Nas is still a fool’s errand, and head home.
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SXSW preview: Carolina Chocolate Drops
“In lots of ways, I don’t have any idea what to make of that,” fiddler Justin Robinson said immediately following the band’s Wednesday afternoon gig at the Paste magazine party. “One, we don’t play bluegrass. It’s amazing. I’m sort of flabbergasted.”
(Official showcase: 9 p.m. Friday at the Victorian Room at the Driskill, 604 Brazos St.)
American-Statesman: What’s your impression of SXSW so far?
Justin Robinson: Well, we’ve been here about a total of two hours (laughs). So, not much to go on, other than there’s a (ton) of people here. We just paid for parking. It was about 4,000 degrees onstage, but it turned out pretty good.
Will you be checking out anyone else this week?
You know, we were just trying to figure that out. It’s pretty overwhelming right now. There are like 300 bands here - probably more like 3,000. I don’t think we’re doing anything tonight, maybe chilling in the hotel.
You just released a songbook. Why take time for sheet music in this download age?
We just one day said, “You know, we should have a songbook.” Lots of people have been asking us where they can find our music and how we play it. We wanted to have something to sell, for one, and also to give people who aren’t ear learners access into the music that they wanted.
‘Cornbread and Butterbeans’ is hard to escape. What drew you to that song?
Probably the same thing that draws you to it - it just sounded good (laughs). It’s a cool pop song from the 1940s.
Why do you think there’s been such a resurgence in string band music with younger musicians?
Well, I think “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” had a lot to do with it. That movie exposed this music to a lot of people who otherwise might not have heard it. The other portion of that is just changing tastes. In general, there’s more of a market for acoustic music, whether it’s contemporary folk or traditional string band stuff.
There seems to be a unique sense of fellowship within the acoustic music community. Would you agree?
Yeah, there’s an aspect of that that plays into the fact that essentially anybody can do it. The only restriction is that you have to be able to play. It’s sort of egalitarian in that way - anybody can join in and be a part of that fellowship.
You’ve talked a lot about (fiddler) Joe Thompson’s impact on the band.
We started playing with him and sitting in his living room and playing his tunes, the same tunes that he’d been playing for 60-odd years, maybe more. Playing with him definitely got our sound solidified as a band. Of course, then you can do anything you want with that, play all kinds of stuff and still sound like us.
Many folks don’t seem to know that the banjo’s origins go back to Africa.
Oh, absolutely. The biggest thing to remedy that would be for a band like us, a band that plays the banjo, to go mainstream. That’s how it’d get into the consciousness. Lots of academic people have known that fact for a long time, but academics has nothing to do with popular perception.
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SXSW keynote: Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson wants to be Beethoven. Or perhaps Mozart. Either way, it’s good.
Coming from almost anyone else, such a statement would rank as wildly presumptuous hubris. But when its uttered by the Motown titan whom Bob Dylan once called America’s greatest living poet, one tends to pay heed.
Citing the classical giants as he addressed a crowd at the Austin Convention Center during his SXSW keynote address Thursday morning, Robinson said that his goal was to make music for the ages. Making chart-topping pop music hits was the least of it.
“Lately, I’ve been loving classical music, Mozart and Beethoven,” said the still-devilishly handsome 70-year old hitmaker. “And I think how wonderful that this music is 300 or 400 years old, and we’re still listening to it. I want to be Beethoven, I want to be Mozart—I want people to be listening to those songs (of mine) 300 years form now. That’s my goal.”
As a songwriter, he faces a formidable task: “There are no new ideas, there are no chords, words or notes. Within the framework of what’s already there, I’ve got to try to say it differently. I’ve got to say ‘I love you’ differently than anybody has ever said it.”
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SXSW preview: J. Roddy Walston and the Business
Here are 10 things J. Roddy Walston and the Business say they want to do, see or experience during SXSW.
1. See a Maryland terp win on Friday.
2. An encounter with Billy Murray who was seen at Four Seasons today.
3. Levis laser fitting for jeans at Fader Fort
4. Teach Austin about the Wizard Staff game - a entertaining game taught to us by our friends in the band Murder by Death.
5. Experience late night Austin BBQ at Salt Lick.
6. Party harder than Andrew W.K.
7. Win a “who got the bigger nuts contest.”
8. Go to Torchys trailer park tacos.
9. See a Maryland Terp win on Sunday.
10. Intentionally miss flight due to traffic. Repeat 1-9 on Monday.
J. Roddy’s SXSW shows:
6 p.m. Thursday: Little Radio Austin at Red Eyed Fly (with Jason Collet of Broken Social Scene)
8 p.m. Friday: Vagrant Records Showcase at La Zona Rosa (with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Murder by Death)
11:30 a.m. Saturday: Mr & Mrs. T and Rachael Ray’s feedback festival Party at Stubb’s
3 p.m. Saturday: 40 Watt Party at The Side Bar (with The Whigs, Dead Confederate and Camper van Beethoven)
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Border problems, band break-ups and more ...
Nothing ever goes off exactly as planned at SXSW. But the whole “lineup subject to change” idea was reinforced yesterday,as BrooklynVegan reported on a host of cancellations. In short:
- GZA failed to show at BV’s day party at Emo’s due to travel problems at the Newark airport.
- Human Eye pulled the plug on all Austin shows, including the BrooklynVegan Anso Presents show at Spider House Cafe on Thursday afternoon.
- Canadian band Beast didn’t make it across the border.
- No more shows for Nebula, SXSW or otherwise, as the band has broken up.
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SXSW COVERage
Nothing draws a crowd in like a great cover song. If you hear any interesting versions of old familiar songs song, let us know.
Bernard Vasek of Musicmania sent in the following:
Wanda Jackson performing Amy Winehouse’s ‘You Know I’m No Good’ at her Beauty Bar/Palm Door showcase.
Motorhead did Twisted Sister’s ‘Shoot ‘Em Down’ at the Austin Music Hall.
Carolina Chocolate Drops covered Blu Cantrell’s 2001 single ‘Hit ‘Em Up Style’ at the Paste Party in the Galaxy Room indoor stage.
And thanks to Ihor Gowda for letting us know that Carrie Rodriguez played John Hiatt’s “Big Love” at the Ghost Room Friday.
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SXSW preview: Margaret Cho
“I think Courtney Love is such a tremendous icon,” says Cho, 41. “There’s so much about her legend that people don’t talk about her music. It’s really influential and incredible. I’m thrilled just to get to see them.”
(Official showcase: 10:10 p.m. Saturday at Esther’s Follies, 525 E. 6th St.)
American-Statesman: You recently blogged about John Mayer’s controversial Playboy interview.
Margaret Cho: When you make statements about not being attracted to (certain) women, about how you have a David Duke (expletive), it’s so insulting to women of color. I think I’m lucky because I don’t really know his music at all, and can’t say I’m a fan. I don’t think anyone I’m a fan of would do or say something like that.
Who are you a fan of?
I loved Duran Duran when I was growing up. They helped me understand sexuality, that I like guys. They included women of color as objects of desire in all their videos. In “Hungry Like the Wolf,” I think there’s a black girl that they’re chasing and an Asian girl in other videos. That made me want to be a groupie. A true sign of a really great rock star is that you have an Asian girlfriend (laughs).
What inspired your new video, ‘My Lil’ Wayne’?
I love Lil’ Wayne! When I was working with (Australian singer-songwriter) Ben Lee on my record, we’d always end up talking about Lil’ Wayne. He was like an angel always present in the recording studio (laughs). So, we were talking about him going to prison, and I wanted to write a song with the spirit of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” like, “Let’s break Lil’ Wayne out of prison!” I think it’d be a really good idea for him to do a remix and add some beats to it.
It’s very Weird Al (Yankovic).
What people don’t tend to notice is that Weird Al is an incredible musician. It’s quite difficult to do song parodies because you have to be as good if not better than the original musician, and also write great parody lyrics. Weird Al does it with such style and finesse.
But his songs are so topical. Do they stand the test of time?
He has a really lasting legacy. I think the song “Eat It” is just as well known as the song “Beat It.” “Amish Paradise”! His newer song “Craigslist” might be my favorite. It’s a Doors parody, and he actually has (Doors keyboardist) Ray Manzarek playing on it. It’s so tight. For me as a fan of music and comedy, it’s a perfect marriage.
Other than Hole, will you have time to check out anyone else at SXSW?
I’m coming Friday morning. I’m in a bunch of shows, but that won’t prevent me from going to a bunch of shows, too. The most important one for me is the Broken Social Scene, which is so exciting. (The band’s songwriter) Kevin Drew and I have been talking about collaborating for years. I also want to see B-Real from Cypress Hill and Tom Brosseau. There are so many I’m dying to see!
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SXSW review: Here We Go Magic
Here We Go Magic drew me to their Wednesday night Brooklyn Vegan-sponsored showcase at Club de Ville based on the strength of one track, “Fangela.”
The leap of faith turned out to be absolutely worth navigating the sweaty hoard packed into the hipster environs. Here We Go Magic — artist-turned-full-time-musician Luke Temple and band — meshed five-part vocal harmonies with a drums-heavy, cascading groove that proved inescapable to audience members close enough to be entranced.
Sometimes bands that build a following based on lo-fi, acoustic four-track recordings aren’t able to transition to a full-on rock band. Here We Go Magic absolutely made the transition, muscling up their intimate lo-fi recordings with a high-fidelity, electric live show complete with pop-craft perfectionism reminiscent of the Elephant 6 Recording Co. bands from the previous decade.
I had a little trouble concentrating during the Here We Go Magic set as I was entirely distracted by an email on my phone that confirmed Alex Chilton’s death (vocalist of Big Star, one of my all-time Top 5 favorite bands). But, Here We Go Magic’s rhythm-centric music seemingly hypnotized the entire audience and pulled me out of my melancholic state.
Although the touring line-up of Here We Go Magic formed recently, drummer Peter Hale and bassist Jennifer Turner played with the natural chemistry of old soulmates. Their musical prowess allowed songs to extend past the five minute mark - without feeling too long - while the beat drew the listeners in, allowing Temple’s subtle, poetic lyrics to soar to the forefront.
Grooves started in one lane of traffic and never merged to another. By the time the band played the stand-out new track “Collector,” the music’s transcendental pulse had pushed my heart beyond the sadness of Chilton’s death toward hope. Hope that Chilton might receive the accolades in death that he never received in life.
Look for Here We Go Magic’s sophomore album “Pigeons” to drop on June 8. If their packed-house show and propulsive new lineup are any indication, Here We Go Magic will continue to bubble up from the underground indie rock scene into the consciousness of music fans everywhere.
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SXSW review: Raul Malo
There isn’t a whole lot of dancing at SXSW showcases, and it may well be that there’s some kind of ordinance against it. Raul Malo, however, definitely didn’t get that memo, and his 12:30 a.m. Wednesday (aka Thursday morning) set at the Continental Club had people two-stepping, swing dancing, shimmying, polkaing and indulging in all sorts of similarly outrageous behavior, including smiling ear-to-ear, another thing that’s fairly rare at shows where the wearers of badges congregate. Actually, the badge contingent at the Continental seemed greatly outnumbered by civilians, including a lot of the same folks you’d see there on any Saturday night with a great act on the bill.
Malo’s supple, radiant voice has brought him frequent comparisons to Roy Orbison, but while Orbison is best known for ballads, Malo is equally comfortable with uptempo material. His band Wednesday featured two trumpets as well as accordion, but no matter how rambunctious the group got, Malo’s bright voice rang out effortlessly, and his strong sense of rhythm gave tunes a natural propulsive quality.
Early in the set, it was hard for fans in the crowded front rows to move, but those off to the side were already gyrating during “Lucky One,” the title track from Malo’s last album, and some near-collisions occurred during “Dance the Night Away,” from his old band, the Mavericks. The traditional Mexican number “La Mucura,” with an effervescent accordion solo, had an even more noticeable effect; Malo slowed down the pace to croon the traditional “Sombras Nada Mas” and a lovely Rodney Crowell ballad, which he said will be on his next album, coming out in August. But the giddy “Moonlight Kiss,” a recent original that sounds like a jazz number from a speakeasy in the Casbah, set everyone in motion, and the last number, an extended “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” with two clever false endings, had the place going nuts.
Although he’d already played more than an hour, Malo came back for two more songs, prefaced by his shout-out to owner Steve Wertheimer for having “the coolest club in the world.” A long, stirring “Volver, Volver” and ebullient, even longer “La Bamba” kept the crowd rapt until almost closing time.
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SXSW review: The Coal Porters
“Has anyone taken any strong drink today?” inquired Coal Porters’ Neil Robert Herd near the outset of the band’s set at Opal Divine’s Freehouse at 11 p.m. Wednesday (aka St. Patrick’s Day). “Is there some sort of Irish celebration going on? It’s almost subliminal!”
He continued, “Any song I sing tends to concern itself with drink and regret — not necessarily in that order…” Whereupon the band launched into a spirited (get it?) rendition of “One Is Way Too Many” from their new album, “Durango.”
Yours truly would probably have gone to see the Coal Porters just on the basis of their name (yours truly’s wife wants to have him committed to a punnery).
But their long and winding evolution from an electric ensemble that was the brainchild of ex-Long Ryder frontman Sid Griffin to their current incarnation as an acoustic alt-bluegrass conglomeration of English and Canadian bluegrass fanatics is enough to pique any acoustic music fan’s curiosity.
On record, the group’s repertoire is broad enough to embrace both the English folk standard “Pretty Polly” and Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane” on the same disc. Onstage, with their dark suits and earnest, coiffed — Griffin excepted — look, they appeared as if they stepped out of the director’s cut of “A Mighty Wind.” In both case, they alternate between sweetly melancholy laments like Peter Rowan’s “Moonlight Midnight” (courtesy of will-o’-the-wisp fiddler and vocalist Carly Frey), tongue-in-cheek paeans to public house excess (“Closing Time Genius”) and blistering banjo and fiddle breakdowns (“Sail Away, Ladies!” “No More Chains”).
All in all, the band’s show is a great romp, which fact does nothing to disguise their excellent musicianship. That only a relative handful of folks were on hand to enjoy the show is a pity, because it was, as their semi-namesake might have said, de-lovely.
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SXSW review: The Strange Boys
Austin’s retro-rockers The Strange Boys played a tight, rag-tag set of songs that pleased the full-to-capacity audience at Emo’s inside room (aka Emo’s Jr.) during the opening volley of SXSW’s opening night.
The national and international media and word-of-mouth buzz surrounding the Strange Boys had fans and curiosity seekers gathered in a line that stretched out the front door and across Red River Street before the band even came close to taking the stage.
Led by the Bob Dylan-influenced, frog-voiced guitar-poet Ryan Sambol, the Strange Boys were at their best when they steadied the shambolic looseness of their garage rock influences, brushing them right off their sleeves. Jenna Thornhill-DeWitt (saxophone, backing vocals) really lent the band a unique, classic feel with her jazzy saxophone middle-eight bridges. The band wasted no time before coalescing into a set energized by the homecoming confidence that only months of touring yield.
About midway through their set, the Strange Boys raised the crowd’s collective energy with the title track from their recent album, “Be Brave.” The song possessed a timeless, prosaic feel that most twenty-something musicians can’t come close to touching. Likewise the 1969-ish ballad-meets-railroad steam engine “A Walk On the Beach” appeared to recall such deep emotions in listeners that most would’ve been willing to bet money that it’s a favorite cover song, even though it’s not.
The Strange Boys might not be the most original band, and Sambol’s croaky vocals can be an acquired taste, but they’re one young psychedelic rock band that you will not forget anytime soon.
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SXSW review: The Bowerbirds
In recent years there has been no shortage of indie singer/songwriters and folk bands, many who fade after a successful release or two. Musicians that choose to go down that road need to make sure they don’t sound like every other college kid with an acoustic guitar. Beth Tacular and Phil Moore, the two central players in North Carolina-based group Bowerbirds (on the album, etc., it’s just Bowerbirds, but various members of the band were calling themselves “The Bowerbirds”), distinguish themselves with well-crafted songs, warm vocals and the occasional accordion solo.
There is a fireside feel to the music, and despite a string of unfortunate sound problems Wednesday night at Club de Ville that led to their 11 p.m. set starting about 45 minutes late, the band still managed to convey that during their live set. Moore began by showing off his vocals on “Silver Clouds;” there is an operatic yet laid back quality to his voice, a combination that gives him the air of a seasoned storyteller. His voice also allows him to get away with lyrics like “you can move like a silver cloud through the sky,” something that might sound ridiculous coming from anywhere else.
On House of Diamonds” and “Teeth” and “In Our Talons,” the band jammed a bit, playing with tempo changes and instrumentals, which, again, could have come across as gratuitous had the band not been so good at what they do. Moore lamented the fact that they were having so many problems on stage, but it seemed like he was more aware of the difficulties than the audience. They closed with “Northern Lights,” a lyrical standout, and “Crooked Love,” where a mandolin added yet another layer to an already lovely sound.
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SXSW video: Music by the Slice
Home Slice Pizza serves up more than pizza during SXSW.
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SXSW video: No wristband? No problem!
So you didn’t get a SXSW wristband? No problem … there’s plenty of free music on Sixth Street.
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SXSW video: Free hugs!!!
Free hugs — and free music — on the first day of SXSW.
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SXSW video: Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley and Nas
Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley joined Nas as special guests at the Levi’s Fader Fort.
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SXSW review: Broken Bells
There’s something a little odd about how Broken Bells manages to work far better than you might expect and yet still manages to be a little disappointing.
It’s not hard to imagine the collaboration between mercurial artist-producer Danger Mouse — credited with Broken Bells under real name Brian Burton — and Shins front man James Mercer as a disjointed Frankenstein, a peculiar hybird of the hip-hop, indie folk and electronica worlds. The potential’s there for a fascinating train wreck.
Broken Bells, unsurprisingly given Burton and Mercer’s talent, is decidedly not a train wreck. But nor is it the fascinating hip-hop/indie hybrid you may have hoped for. Instead, it’s an intermittently catchy project, indie rock with just a dash of electronica, imminently accessible and pleasant but largely forgettable. That’s the case live, too.
As Mercer took to the stage at Stubb’s Wednesday night, with Danger Mouse sitting in on drums, backed by appropriately monochromatic visual projections he launched into lead single and self-titled debut album highlight “The High Road.” That’s one of the strongest singles so far this year, a chill four minutes of pop perfection with an easygoing appeal. The band remained tight as they took on the remainder of the songs off “Broken Bells,” from the groove of “Vaporize” to the closer of “The Mail and Misery.” But the performance felt just a bit too studied, a bit too clinical. It was when Mercer stepped furthest outside his comfort zone — from the guitar freakout of “Mongrel Heart” to the sexy, mellow charm of “The Ghost Inside” or the vaguely sinister sound and bone-rattling bass of “Sailing to Nowhere” — that Broken Bells most intrigued.
But too often — as on the ballad-esque “Citizen” or the sunny pop of “October” — Mercer was just a bit too close to Shins mode, lacking that extra Danger Mouse verve and sounding disengaged if musically astute. Although rife with nice moments — dig the trumpet on “Mongrel Heart” — Broken Bells, if they’re to punch up the live show, might have to drag Mercer just a bit more forcefully into a more challenging sound. Mercer’s described their sound as “experimental” in Rolling Stone in January, and perhaps that gets to the root of the problem. All told, Broken Bells could stand to be a bit more experimental.
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SXSW video: Ray Benson plays ABIA
Ray Benson plays at Austin Bergstrom International Airport as musicians make their way into town for SXSW.
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SXSW video: Sixth Street prepares for SXSW
The calm before the SXSW storm on Sixth Street …
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SXSW review: Frightened Rabbit
If you needed further proof that Scotland’s abnormally high number of trendy, fiendishly catchy indie pop bands for a country of five million had struck an abnormally strong chord with U.S. audiences, you needed only to visit the Parish Wednesday night. The Scottish Arts Council commandeered the space for a showcase of Scottish talent, and as headliner Frightened Rabbit followed equally gabbed-about quartet We Were Promised Jetpacks, the line to get in was one in, one out, and the air inside was hot and stuffy.
That turned out to be an appropriate touch for Frightened Rabbit, five dapper gentlemen from Selkirk that enthralled the packed-to-the-rafters audience at the Parish with nearly an hour’s worth of animated alternative rock. The set was heavy on material from this month’s critically praised “The Winter of Mixed Drinks,” with excursions into “Sing the Greys” and “The Midnight Organ Fight.”
The strength of Frightened Rabbit — and it becomes even more apparent live, where the band pushes their rock inclinations further than they do on record — is just how straightforward they are. The band is four guitarists and a drummer, with rare excursions into keyboards. That means songs like the explosive encore “Square 9” are free to be simple, swelling rock songs that build to a cathartic release in the way that all great rock anthems do. With driving energy, relatable lyricism and an unabashed love of the crescendo, songs like “Backwards Walk” go a long way towards establishing Frightened Rabbit as Scotland’s Springsteen — purveyors of heart-pounding, fist-throwing rock ‘n’ roll with an added layer of poignancy.
The band’s real ace in the hole, though, is lead singer Scott Hutchison, who elevates what could be a rote indie rock band into the stratosphere with his anguished, powerful vocals. When Hutchison laments on “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” his voice breaks with emotion, as though he were singing the song — which he’s doubtless performed hundreds of times by this point — as if for the first time. Hutchison’s powerful vocals help raise Frightened Rabbit above the potential tag of pleasant-yet-forgettable, and he’s a consummate showman, involving the crowd at the Parish and leading them along in hand claps and sing-alongs. Frightened Rabbit may not have supplanted Camera Obscura as the indie Scottish band of choice just yet, but they may well be on their way.
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SXSW review: Everybody Was In The French Resistance ... Now!
Eddie Argos of Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! performs Wednesday night at the Galaxy Room.
Eddie Argos is less a singer and more a particularly melodic stand up comedian.
The last time Argos swung through Austin — in October 2009 — he was fronting his regular band, energetic and consistently hilarious British punk rockers Art Brut. He turned 30 that night, and aside from wearing a snappy formal suit, thankfully showed no signs of growing up, leaping into the audience to extol the virtues of DC Comics and riffing on his own drunkenness.
Wednesday night at the Galaxy Room was no different, as Argos returned to Austin with side project Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! (hereafter referred to as EWITFRN, for your sanity and mine), featuring Argos’ girlfriend, Dyan Valdes from the Blood Arm. Where Art Brut slays killer punk rock anthems, EWITFRN slays sugary pop songs. But Argos’ delivery remains unchanged — he generally performs from the audience (“For dramatic effect,” quipped Argos between songs), spurning the stage, and doesn’t sing so much as he banters semi-musically.
Few front men could pull that off, but Argos is so consistently hilarious, charming and deadpan that his brand of cheek rock endears instead of grates. A coffee table book of “The Quotable Eddie Argos” would be a fantastic tome for the truly nerdy. Take, for instance, his thoughts on Bob Dylan: “Bob Dylan is much better than me. Although we both can’t sing and we kind of mumble.” Or how he changed the name of the band, a reference to the armed insurrection against Nazi occupiers during World War II, when touring through Sweden to “Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now, Except For You.”
The actual songs are no more serious. Their debut self-titled album is a high-concept work with each track acting as a response to a famous pop song — a conceit Argos was kind of enough to explain before playing each new tune. Take, for instance, “Superglue” — the song is a response to Elastica’s “Vaseline,” because, as Argos reasons, what better way to pay tribute to Elastica than recording a song that’s the opposite of one of theirs? And what’s the opposite of vaseline? Naturally.
Or, say, “Bille’s Genes,” an entire song about the child abandoned by the protagonist of “Billie Jean.” The concept is a bit strained, but it does make for a fun exploration of the last 50 years of pop music, and the band does a great job channeling the spirit of the songs they parody on each track — “Superglue,” for instance, has a recognizable 90s-alternative grind.
Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that EWITFRN coasts just a bit too much on Argos’ (substantial) charm. Wednesday night saw the band struggle to pick up energy in the early songs, and their use of a drum machine robs the songs of muscle they need to work in a live setting. The high concept writing sometimes veers dangerously close to shtick. To Argos’ credit, when the band drops the ball he seems to pick up on it pretty quickly.
“It’s not going to be like this forever,” said Argos early in the band’s set, addressing sound and tardiness problems. “Just until we get our (expletive) together.”
Hopefully they will. Because EWITFRN shows promise, and if Argos and Valdes can continue to invest time in the project — rather than simply returning to the safer confines of Art Brut — there’s some real promise there. When Argos tearfully sings “You gave yourself away” of an ex-girlfriend on “Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)” you get the sense he’s singing from a place of very genuine regret. And it feels real, and intriguing, and reminds you that all the best comedy has a tinge of tragedy to it.
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SXSW review: The Middle East
Some bands settle on a fairly narrow sound and stick with it, while other dabble in different genres, forging a chameleon-like identity. Queensland, Australia-based band The Middle East falls somewhere in between. While their sound might generally fall into the hopelessly broad category of roots rock, the band is all over the map within that field, pulling from bluegrass, folk, country and blues rock.
At times during their 10 p.m. performance Wednesday at Club de Ville, that flexibility worked in the band’s favor; at other points, not so much. The opener began with noisy distortion and exploded into uptempo, banjo-driven bluegrass, which had the crowd jumping. On “The Darkest Side,” the band put on their folk hat, but they seemed to struggle a bit.
At times it didn’t really seem like the band needed the six members that were contributing on stage, but it is fun to see such a diversity of instruments on stage, including a trumpet, banjo, mandolin, flute and a host of different percussion. Things picked up with a bluesy rock number sung by the band’s female vocalist. The closer, “Blood,” was a striking number which epitomized what works about the group—strong songwriting coupled with a layered, emotional sound.
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SXSW review: Here We Go Magic
The first impression that Here We Go Magic gave off tonight during their 9 p.m. Club de Ville set was one of confidence. The music was powerful and compelling, an early set on the first day of music that flew by before it even seemed to get started.
A year ago, lead vocalist/guitarist Luke Temple released the band’s self-titled debut, which he wrote and recorded himself. The album was innovative but had a purposefully lo-fi production value, something that some music fans enjoy but others vocally do not. Over the last year Temple has assembled a band to work out the material live. They’ve toured with Grizzly Bear and the Walkmen and made an appearance at the Austin City Limits festival last October.
Judging by tonight’s set, touring has been good for the group as they ready the release of their follow-up album, which was recorded with a full band. Unlike the album, the live versions of the songs are not washed over with a layer of fuzz. Opener “Only Pieces,” began with poly-rhythmic percussion that increased in intensity until the bass and drums crashed in until the song fades away with hand claps.
On the new song “Collector,” the band plays with a droning rock sound, which is punctuated by a sort of falsetto call-and-response. Someone unfamiliar with Temple’s music might label him as yet another disciple of David Byrne, and while his vocal styles on that song and another new number, “Casual,” might recall the Talking Heads frontman, he sings with a level of comfort that shows that he owns the material.
The band closed with two of their strongest songs “Fangella” and “Tunnelvision,” which, even if the new album is a hit, will probably remain crowd favorites.
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SXSW review: Motorhead, more metal at Austin Music Hall
Played bass like it was a guitar, did an acoustic blues (kinda!?!), did “I Got Mine” and saved “Ace of Spades” for right near the end…yeah, that was Motorhead at the Austin Music Hall Wednesday night. Strange to say, but it almost made you glad for Blitz during World War II. How else would Lemmy have come up with that sound? It sounds like more than bombs falling, more than the end of the world — more like both of those things, and dinner’s ready and you like it.
For all the talk about what a meathead the guy is (and I haven’t seen the film about him), bassist Lemmy really seems like a disciplined guy in his own way. And, if I may be comically reductive, he basically invented speed metal. (Hold your e-mails, folks, before you say, and yeah, jerk, Bob Marley invented reggae and Buddy Holly rock ‘n’ roll.)
The undercard included Melissa Auf der Maur, late of Hole, doing some pretty melodic crunchy stuff, Voivod, doing, uh, their best to demonstrate, simultaneously, the strengths and limitations of the metal genre and Michael Monroe, bleached, preening, acting like he was shot out of a cannon and making a strong case for the argument that the New York Dolls AND Hanoi Rocks were a couple of the best things that ever happened. If only we could have avoided Poison.
It was a weird place to find out Alex Chilton died. But life and rock go on.
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SXSW review: The Unthanks at Emo's Jr.
9 p.m. Wednesday: Emo’s Jr. is not exactly the ideal venue for a chamber-folk group with a few minimalist tendencies and a love of nuance and restraint, but even with bass and drums pounding through the wall from next door, and a phalanx of chatterers growing ever louder by the bar, the Unthanks made exquisite and enthralling music at their Wednesday showcase. Rachel and Becky Unthank, natives of northeastern England, sing with a Sandy Denny/Linda Thompson clarity and lack of artifice, arresting even when the sisters each sang a few bars over the din during their soundcheck.
They opened with “20 Long Weeks,” a starkly gorgeous song by fellow Northeasterner Alex Glasgow that sounds like an ancient ballad. The sisters’ close harmonies have a lushness that contrasts with the general spareness and somberness of their material. Their arrangements emphasize the cello and violin over the rhythm section, and leave plenty of space for the vocals, Rachel’s voice slightly the rounder, softer and warmer. Becky’s ringing soprano was particularly arresting in a solo turn on a hushed and stunning cover of Nick Drake’s “River Man.” That song appeared on “Cruel Sister,” when the band was still known as Rachel Unthank and Winterset, but much of the setlist was drawn from the Unthanks’ last release, “Here’s the Tender Coming,” named 2009 Folk Album of the Year by the BBC and Mojo magazine.
The percusive, propulsive “Lucky Gilchrist,” by keyboardist-multi-instrumentalist Adrian McNally, particularly recalled Robert Wyatt, a source of inspiration who has in turn sung the Unthanks’ praises. The song was accented by a bit of traditional clogging from the sisters. Becky asked afterward “Do you do much of it in Texas?” while Rachel proclaimed “They’ll all be doin’ it next year.”
As mournful as “Sad February” was, the vocals had such a gentle, floating quality that smiling seemed more appropriate then “crying into your beer,” the response Rachel predicted in her introduction. They closed with the gorgeous and pensive “Here’s the Tender Coming,” a song that certainly deserves a more pristine sonic environment. The sisters didn’t seem bothered, but fans will no doubt be glad that they’re also playing elsewhere during SXSW, including a midnight set at St David’s Bethell Hall Friday.
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March 17, 2010
SXSW scene report: Wanda Jackson
What DOESN’T become a legend most? Try a big honkin’ post in front of center stage at your SXSW showcase. That, at least, was the situation that confronted rockabilly legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Wanda Jackson when she arrived at the Beauty Bar/Palm Door (aka the old City Grill) for her set with her band, the Green Corn Revival. Clad in a scarlet blouse and full of moxie, the original Fujiyama Mama and powerhouse behind “Let’s Have A Party” and “Right Or Wrong” persevered on Wednesday night. Peering at fans around the offending chunk of lumber, Jackson deadpanned, “I just LOVE singing to a pole!”
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SXSW scene report: Random encounters
Clark Parsons is attending for the first time since 1991, when he covered the festival for the Nashville Scene. Now he’s the managing director the Berlin School for Creative Leadership, an “executive education” school. “The last time I came here, I knew a far greater percentage of the bands,” Parsons said. “It’s overwhelming to confront the fact that I’m no longer au courant.” Parsons compares SXSW Music to the Berlin Film Festival. “Both do an amazing job for the people at whom they are aimed.”
Standing at the corner of Sixth and Trinity streets, Victor Ituarte, 23, continued what has become another SXSW tradition: free hugs. This is his second time giving away the arm wraps. He started at 5 p.m. when he got tired of waiting in the Pure Volume Line. “The vibe is that everyone seems really happy, there’s good humor and good energy all around,” he said after about three hours. “Everybody seems relieved that SXSW is finally here. It seems that the wait is longer every year and we start talking about it earlier.” Why the hugs? “It’s all about starting a positive change and making people feel better. Evil begets evil so it makes sense that good would beget good.”
Music badge registrant Bob Somers, from Winnipeg, Canada. is at his fourth SXSW. A former musician turned landscape architect, he comes just for the music. “It seems like it doesn’t seem to change much from year to year, which is something I like about it and why I keep coming, because I feel like I can count on it,” he said. “In Winnipeg, we never get any of the big indie bands and also it’s a size thing. South by gives me the chance to see artists in small venue and clubs that I wouldn’t usually get to.”
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SXSW review: Ten Out of Tenn at Maggie Mae's Gibson Room
9 p.m. Wednesday: Nashville sometimes gets a bad rap, especially in Austin, where some folks like to gaze condescendingly down on Music City from considerable aesthetic heights. And if you think all there is to the Athens of the South is Taylor Swift or Kenny Chesney, then you can understand why.
But Nashville attracts songwriters like blue serge picks up lint and there is a creative community bubbling under the commercial surface that is as robust as any in the country.
A case in point being Ten Out of Tenn, a sort of rolling caravan of songwriters and performers who have traded songs onstage for some five years and three or four albums. Due to the brevity of the SXSW showcase time frame, listeners at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room didn’t get the full-on TooT experience (Seven Out of Tenn, anyone?), but the group’s multifaceted performance was diverse and engaging enough to make you sign on for the full treatment.
Though the narrative traditions of country music are evident enough in the group’s songs, there wasn’t a cheatin’ heart or a tear in the beer to be found. If these guys have any allegiance to country music, it’s more the Neil Young than the Little Jimmy Dickens variety.
Rather, songs like the hook-filled “Rain Or Shine,” “Inside These Lines” and the ebullient “Something To Talk About” boasted a Southern indie vibe that was not in the least in conflict with the polished songcraft that lent a solid spine to each number. Even K.D. Rhoads’ largely improvised “Invincible Fortress,” which utilized electronic vocal and keyboard hooks and a snatch of lyrics, had a distinct interior logic to it.
Despite the diversity of material, none of TooT’s songs evidenced any arty self-indulgence, quite a feat for any six-pack-plus-one of songwriters. But the commercial and the artistic have always run in tandem in Nashville and the songwriter’s art is held in esteem. Ten Out of Tenn are heirs to an honorable tradition.
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SXSW review: Balmorhea at Central Presbyterian Church
7 p.m. Wednesday: “Contemplative” is not the sort of word one ordinarily uses upon plunging into the first night of the SXSW music festival. But that was the prevailing mood, at least on the part of this listener, upon commencing the first night of the festival with the intricate, mind-opening sounds of Austin’s own Balmorhea.
The six-piece group purveys a sort of athletic, classical-based instrumental sound which is at once expansive and inwardly-looking. In songs like “To the Order of Night” and “Coahuila,” tempos and melodies ebb and flow like cloud shadows drifting across the West Texas landscape from which the group take its name.
Folk and jazz inflections color the classical underpinnings of the group’s sounds, with vocalisms, stop-time sections and percussive effects on violin and cello lend nuance and surprise to the group’s supple arrangements. And hey, what other modern classical ensemble can count a banjo among its instrumental repertoire?
The modern yet austere nave of the Central Presbyterian Church made an ideal setting for the band’s complex, organic original material (though the bands playing on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams known as Sixth St. were still faintly audible through the walls). Inside, though, thanks in part to Balmorhea, there reigned an oasis of melody, craft and, yes, contemplation.
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SXSW scene report: WOXY lounge act
Venerable modern rock station WOXY, which broadcasts over the internet at woxy.com, was already settled into the SXSW groove by Wednesday — Day 3 of its 2010 live Lounge Acts broadcasts. The station is audio and video recording a host of artists in its “lounge” soundstage during the festival, including Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Frightened Rabbit and Surfer Blood, and it’s also hosting four day parties and an official showcase. However, everything was functioning smoothly at noon Wednesday, when the Mynabirds played a live set and singer-keyboardist-songwriter Laura Burhenn chatted with music director Matt Shiv.
Burhenn, formerly of DC duo Georgie James, paired with producer-multi-instrumentalist Richard Swift to record the Mynabirds’ forthcoming “What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood,” but she has a proper band for SXSW and future tours. With her dusky, effortlessly dramatic voice and soul-inflected garage rock, she made the airy, modern WOXY studio seem like it was, indeed, a lounge, the kind of place Dusty Springfield might have hung out, listening to Neil Young on the jukebox from a back booth with torn vinyl seats, and the clock seemed to advance to some unspecified hour after midnight.
In previous years, WOXY borrowed a studio in East Austin for its SXSW tapings, but while SXSW is gradually expanding eastward, WOXY is now permanently headquartered on South Congress in the Texas Theater building (“the old porn theater,” to you 78704 residents), where it shares space with ME-TV. Founded in Oxford, Ohio, in 1983, WOXY was one of the pioneers of the alternative/modern rock format. It went off the air in 2004, but got a new lease on life as an internet station, where you can find all kinds of cool performance podcasts and SXSW archives dating back to 2007. Last year, the station moved its base of operations to Austin, although general manager Bryan Miller, who was manning a video camera, confessed to residing in Oakland, Calif., having moved there from the more expensive San Francisco. His job, he said, is “doing anything someone else isn’t doing.”
Burhenn, meanwhile, told Shiv she moved from DC to Omaha. She knew some musicians there, and it’s a much cheaper place to live, allowing her to make music her main gig.
Once the recession is over and Austin rents start soaring again, she can probably start a sideline up there as an apartment locator.
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Alex Chilton, 1950-2010
UPDATE:
Teenage soul savant, power-pop progenitor, indie rock idol and Memphis music legend Alex Chilton has died.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal confirmed the news Wednesday night, but rumors flew through South By Southwest, where Chilton’s influential 1970s band Big Star was scheduled to play Saturday night at Antone’s.
“Chilton, 59, had been complaining of about his health earlier today,” according to the Commercial Appeal. “He was taken by paramedics to the emergency room where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack.”
SXSW director Roland Swenson found out late Wednesday and said he was not sure about the status of Big Star’s showcase, which could become a memorial show. The other members of Big Star are scheduled to be on a panel on the group’s history and legacy Saturday afternoon. (Big Star co-founder Chris Bell died in 1978.)
Chilton’s singular career had a couple of distinct phases; each phase practically had its own fanbase.
Boomers might remember him as the 16-year-old whose gritty-beyond-his-years voice powered songs for the Box Tops such as the smash hit “The Letter” and the Memphis soul classic “Cry Like A Baby.”
When the Box Tops folded in 1970, Chilton joined with songwriter/guitarist Bell, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens to form Big Star. Chilton scrapped his gruff soul voice for a higher, thinner tone, as Big Star’s British pop-rock obsessions demanded Beatles-style harmonies.
Big Star was a commercial failure, but their 1972 debut album, “#1 Record” and the 1974 follow-up “Radio City” aged into cult classics, worshipped as precision-tooled power-pop perfection by bands from the Replacements (who wrote the song “Alex Chilton” about their hero), to R.E.M. to Cheap Trick (who turned Big Star’s “Out in the Street” into the theme song for “That 70s Show”).
The final Big Star album “Third/Sister Lovers,” is essentially a Chilton solo album with Stephens on it. Largely a collaboration with the late Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, it’s a dark, strange album, its fanbase a cult within the Chilton cult. An excellent Big Star box set, “Keep an Eye on the Sky,” was released last year by Rhino Records.
In the mid-’70s Chilton changed again, making tossed off sounding EPs and albums that fascinated some fans and annoyed others - instead of using his sweet Big Star voice, he often mumble-sang like he just fell out of bed.
But for fans, albums such as “Like Flies on Sherbet,” “Bach’s Bottom” and the brilliantly named bootleg “Dusted in Memphis” embodied a falling-apart, spit-and-bailing wire song-style that very few bands could quite master, though Pavement came the closest.
He also dabbled in production, helming brilliant early records by the Cramps and the Gories and playing the sideman in rockabilly weirdos Panther Burns.
Chilton continued to record and tour sporadically throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, his and Big Star’s cult building fan by converted fan.
In the mid-’90s, Big Star reformed with a newly minted line-up including Chilton, Stephens and Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies. That band performed often over the next decade-plus.
In the Replacement’s fastasia “Alex Chilton,” Paul Westerberg sings of a place where “Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes ‘round.” That never happened in the real world, but his cult loved his music with the passion of a million fans.
Chilton is survived by his wife, Laura, and a son Timothy.
— Joe Gross
EARLIER:
Expect to hear a lot more Big Star covers this year than usual. The news shot through SXSW Wednesday evening that Alex Chilton, who was scheduled to appear with Big Star Saturday at Antone’s, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 59.
SXSW director Roland Swenson said he just found out and has not been told the status of Big Star’s showcase, which could possibly become a memorial show. The other members of Big Star are scheduled to be on a panel on the group’s history and legacy Saturday afternoon.
Although Chilton was not well-known aside his cult of followers, he helped create the alternative music that made a festival like SXSW possible, if not inevitable.
— Michael Corcoran
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SXSW panel: 'TV Resurrects the Radio Star'
5 p.m. Wednesday
Panelists: Joel Beckerman, founder of music service company Man Made Music; Keith D’Arcy, Senior VP of Music Strategy for EMI Music Publishing; Gary Calamar, producer, music supervisor and president of GO Music, as well as a KCRW radio personality; RIch Isaacson, co-founder and president of LOUD Records, COO of SRC Recordsand CEO/Owner of R I Entertainment; Alicen Schneider, Vice President of Music Creative Services at NBC Universal Television.
The gist: Licensing music for use in television, film and other media is an increasingly important part of marketing an artist.
Takeaways: Licensing a song to a TV show might not make you an overnight success, but a good placement can cause a “domino effect,” bringing other licensing deals and raising your profile — something record labels have less and less power to do. Although network programs once had more prestige, they can be short-lived nowadays, and cable shows likely offer better opportunities to establish longer relationships with music supervisors (the ones who help find the right song to make a scene work). Film trailers provide “the most bang for the buck,” due to the wide exposure they receive. Licensing fees have gotten smaller, but the number of licenses has increased exponentially. Music supervisors are always looking for great music to use in other media, but they are inundated with submissions, and it’s easier if you have good representation. The Hollywood Reporter has a twice-yearly music issue that lists key music people at the film and television studios. Do your homework and find out what shows music supervisors work with and whether your music would be a good fit for them.
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SXSW interview: We Were Promised Jetpacks
We Were Promised Jetpacks, along with Frightened Rabbit, Codeine Velvet Club and Unicorn Kid and others, are part of a Scottish invasion happening this week during SXSW. WWPJ play stripped-down rock, with pounding bass lines and rough vocals that recall the rock and punk of early-80’s Britain. At last year’s festival they were relative newcomers; this year they’ve matured a bit, with a full length album and a new EP under their belts. We caught up with lead guitarist/vocalist Adam Thompson in the lobby of the Hilton, where the band was getting ready for the Scottish Arts Council showcase Wednesday night at the Parish.
How was your show at Levi’s Fader Fort this afternoon?
It went really well as far as SXSW shows go. We were here last year so we kind of new the deal—turn up, plug in and play. As long as no disasters happen when we play we’re usually pretty happy.
What has changed since the last time you were here for SXSW?
We’ve made the transition from part-time band, not that we’re making any money at it, but this is a full time thing. When we came over last year, three of us were still at university. From the start of September it’s been pretty much non-stop touring. We’re slowly making the transition to being a real band.
We haven’t a a chance to walk down sixth street yet. We played the gig, did an interview, got our jeans from the Fader Fort and then drove over here. Last year it was a bit of a surprise because we didn’t know what was going on, but this year were more prepared for it.
What have you learned being on tour? We’ve learned to look after ourselves on the road, eat well, try to get a good night’s sleep. We’ve learned a bit more about what kind of band we want to be and how we want the next record to sound. When you play the songs all the time, there’s parts of it that you get tired of.
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SXSW preview: The Maldives
At peaks, the Maldives’ muscular alt-country bruises and balms within the same song (“Blood Relations,” “Tequila Sunday”). The Seattle-based nonet, whose “Listen to the Thunder” deeply shades Gram Parsons’ shadows, debuts at SXSW this week.
“I’m looking forward to hanging out with our friends the Moondoggies and getting some barbecue,” lead singer Jason Dodson says. “I really wanted to see that band Death from Detroit, but we’re leaving Sunday morning to play Fort Worth.” (Official showcase: 9 p.m. Friday at the Continental Club)
American-Statesman: ‘Tequila Sunday’ is upbeat for such an introspective song.
Jason Dodson: I’m not the most talented guitarist and usually write three-chord songs, but that’s one of my early forays into making a pop song. There is a string of ideas - a theme, I guess - about wanting to go home. Keep the home fires burning.
Who were you drawing on while writing?
You know, like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” The whole album is joyous and danceable and all that, but the lyrics are pretty dark. It’s heavy stuff. I was trying to figure out how to write a song with darker elements that’s still fun for people to listen to as opposed to making them depressed. It was a good try, I guess (laughs).
What exactly is a ‘tequila Sunday’?
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SXSW tidbits: Steve Martin, Sarah Jarosz to tape 'Austin City Limits'
“Austin City Limits” producer Terry Lickona took a host of journalists on a tour of the upcoming new home of the TV show and let on that Steve Martin and Sarah Jarosz will both make their “ACL” debuts in late April. Spoon and Patty Griffin will also return to the show, with Cheap Trick taping tomorrow.
Suzanna Choffel has signed a management contract with Rainmaker Artists, who also handle Blue October, Bob Schneider and Bowling For Soup.
Actress Sissy Spacek was spotted at the Austin Fleah St. Patrick’s Day Party, digging the Lost Brothers from Ireland. Oisin Leech from the Brothers said it’s “bittersweet to be away from Ireland on St. Paddy’s Day, but we’d rather be in Austin today, to tell you the truth.” The weather back home is cold and freezing, he said.
The Lost Brothers play Bull McCabe’s on Red River Street tomorrow and then perform at an Irish Breakfast Friday at 11 a.m. at B.D. Riley’s.
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SXSW scene report: Beatles Complete on Ukulele Day 1
We walked up to the patio at Jaimie’s Spanish Village just as producer Roger Greenawalt, the Eggmen and others were playing “Happiness is a Warm Gun” with Greenawalt playing uke, as he will do from noon-6 p.m. at Jaimie’s as they play the entire canonical Beatles catalog with Greenawalt front and, well, to the right and sitting in a chair.
We also heard “I Saw Her Standing There,” “From Me to You” and more. Ex-Austinites Chris Masterson (Son Volt, Jack Ingram and soon to be a member of Steve Earle’s Dukes) and wife Eleanor Whitmore did “All You Need is Love” and more, with Masterson playing a beautiful cream-colored Gretch hollow-body with gold hardware.
“Singing those six songs is the most fun I’ll probably have at SXSW,” he said.
“That was a blast,” Whitmore said. “There’s no better music, really, than the Beatles.”
In case you want to see if they do have more fun later in the week, Masterson and Whitmore are playing the Indiesounds showcase at the Hideout Theater, 617 Congress Ave., at 4:35 p.m. Thursday, the Cactus Cafe Songwriter Showcase at 6 p.m. Saturday and elsewhere.
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SXSW scene report: Paste party
Four guys at the urinals at the Galaxy Room working their iPhones: that’s multi-tasking SXSW style.
Lines were pretty long for the badgeless to get into Wednesday’s Paste magazine party, where the Afro- Applalachian string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Roky Erickson and Okkervil River, both killed back to back. But what really showed that SXSW has arrived was the 30-minute waits for free beer and no waiting at the cash bar.
Playing songs they learned from their 91-year-old mentor Joe Thompson, as well as an amazing cover of Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style,” with Rhiannon Giddens proving to be a star in the making, Carolina Chocolate Drops were charming for days. The balance of showmanship with real playing ability had the crowd grinning like loons. My first great discovery at SXSW 2010.
Roky and the River played a heavier set than the material from next month’s “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” opening with a thundering couplet of “John Lawman” and “Two Headed Dog.” The set-closing “You’re Gonna Miss Me” really tore up the jampacked crowd.
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SXSW interview: Lemmy
5 p.m.
Phil Freeman, journalist Lemmy Kilmister, bassist/songwriter, Motorhead, living legend
The gist: An interview with Lemmy. Nuff said.
A quick spin through Lemmy’s history, from his time seeing the Beatles (“The Stones were just dressing up, Beatles were from a hard city”) to his time with Hawkwind (“You couldn’t see us for the lightshow….we had this naked women, 6’2” in her socks, 52 inche breasts, dancing. Lad would paint her before the show”) to forming Motorhead at the age of 30.
On punk: “My first take was ‘That guy can’t sing.’ Then I realized he wasn’t trying to sing, he was trying to be obnoxious. I was OK with that.”
On firing producer Ed Stasium: “He didn’t even ask if (he could put other instruments)> So he was outta there.”
On working with Bill Laswell: “He (expletive) the record anyway. Bad mix. So much for jazzmen….
On rocking vs. producing: “The only thing I ever got offered was free lunch. I’m not in that mold, you wouldn’t look at me and think, ‘there’s a budding producer.’ What advice could a 64-year old give a 20 year old? Make your own mistakes, (expletive).”
On writing: “We never write before we start rehearsing for the next album. I write on the clock. When Mickey joined he was horrified: ‘You can’t write like this?’ ‘Yes, I can. I’ve got a pen.’”
On songs that don’t sound like Motorhead: “A selection of madrigals by Motorhead? I come from Little Richard and Buddy Holly.”
On collecting conventions: “Every industry has these things where they get together and pat each other on the back.” (See also SXSW?)
On 360 deals: “Oh yeah, that’s a good deal, innit? It’s another con.”
On the movie: “I said ‘Just do something we can watch.’”
On having diabetes: “I just take the pills and keep drinking. You’ll pretty much die of something you like anyway.”
On the next record: “I have no idea. We haven’t started rehearsing yet….a month rehearsing, a month in the studio. We’ve got European festivals in the summer, England, Germany,”
And we’re done. About 30 minutes.
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SXSW panel: 'Crowdfunding Music: Raising Money From Your Fans'
Panelists: Yancey Strickler - Kickstarter, Jamin Brophy-Warren - Kill Screen Magazine, Dick Huey - Toolshed, Ian Rogers - Topspin, Allison Weiss
The gist: Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter offer new ways for musicians to not only finance their projects, but to build lasting, enduring personal relationships with their fans that will pay big dividends as they continue their careers. Although the digital music revolution means people are hesitant to pay for just music these days, fans are happy to pay money to help support an artist if they feel like they have a stake in the project. And music fans still appreciate a cool, tactile reward for getting involved. If artists offer incentives and do a good job communicating with their fans through updates - and make an effort to be creative - they’ll find that their fans will frequently support them.
Takeaways: Crowdfunding is not a silver bullet for the financial woes of musicians struggling to fund their albums, tours or other projects - it’s one more tool in the toolbox. Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler argued that bands that operate on multiple fronts, using Kickstarter to pay for some creative projects while still using more traditional means for other goals (noting Shearwater and its companion book to album “The Golden Archipelago” as an example), are most successful. To succeed through crowdfunding, bands and artists such as Allison Weiss need to hone in on connecting with their audience and making them feel like part of an adventure. Ways to do that include creative incentives that people can’t get anywhere else or any other way aside from contributing. Ultimately, the key to a successful crowdfunded project is intimate connection between the artist and their fans. Often, the hardest part of a successfully crowdfunded project is simply getting the news out there - Strickler noted
that if a Kickstarter project reaches 25 percent funding it gets fully funded 92 percent of the time. Cheap incentives also help - projects with incentives costing $15 or less have a 60 percent success rate, compared to the standard 40 percent.
Quotes: “A lot of crowdfunding is about empathy, so instead of buying into a product a backer is buying into the person. Success is about you and who you are and what you’re doing and not market forces.” Yancey Strickler.
“We all know there is no silver bullet for the record industry. Crowdfunding is the not one thing that’s going to solve the industry.” Ian Rogers.
“The age of one-size-fits-all products is over. It’s about fan segmentation now.” Ian Rogers.
“It’s not that people are refusing to pay for music. They’re just refusing to pay for a commodity product that they can have for free. You have to offer them something extra and at a fair value.” Ian Rogers
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SXSW scene report: Nardwuar keeps it bizarre
Fifteen minutes after randomly hearing on the Twitters that Erik Estrada was hanging out at Peckerheads, my journey into surreal SXSW continued when I dipped into a panel called “Nardwuar’s Video Vault” at the convention center. The self-proclaimed “Human Serviette” shared a hysterical set of clips from interviews with everyone from Courtney Love to Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z.
He kept the room rolling.
Nardwuar will be down at a free show at Headhunters with Andrew WK tomorrow at 5:25 p.m.
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SXSW scene report: South Congress
The afternoon of SXSW Wednesday used to feel like the calm before the storm on South Congress. This year, it seemed more like the first small wave of an impending tsunami. Around 1 p.m., the sidewalks weren’t yet busier than a normal Saturday, and there wasn’t much of a wait at Hey Cupcake! or any of the other vendors in the church parking lot destined to one day, after the recession, become a really chi-chi hotel. A couple of hippie chicks sat on the church lawn, one yapping on her cell phone while the other constructed what looked like an arugula and avocado salad in a rectangular plastic grocery-store lettuce box. A Rihanna wannabe with a half-cockatoo hairdo half-stomped, half-wobbled by in her skin-tight black jeans and black lace-up stiletto boots, perhaps heading to CVS to buy a pair of flip-flops. A woman in a red minidress and black tights ran across South Congress, her SXSW badge flapping in her face.
The sidewalk tables at Guero’s were full, but diners still had a leisurely air, and the sidewalk was still passable. The action, for the moment, was down in the parking lot of the Hotel San Jose, where I had apparently just missed the Trishas, but ran into neighbors who had enjoyed them greatly. Easily half the crowd seemed to be people-watching locals, some with babies and dogs, enjoying the free music and the spectacle, including a guy in a Christian Death T-shirt who didn’t know you’re not supposed to tuck your mom jeans into your new cowboy boots, and a woman with an indefinable accent dangling a cigarette with distinctly European disdain. Ethan Azarian’s somewhat tuneless mope-folk didn’t mesmerize many of the adults, who were busy shopping the vintage clothing booths, working on their iBooks at the tables in the back or socializing. However, one tiny girl in pink-and-brown polka dot leggings started gyrating next to the soundboard, waggling her hips as though dancing to the rhythm of a Beyonce song in her head, but making avant-garde shapes with her arms.
Over at the Continental Club, there were still seats to be had, although Greensboro, N.C.’s Holy Ghost Tent Revival captivated the small crowd. They ended their set with a ferocious cover of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” notable not only for including banjo and trombone in the arrangement, but also for the intensity of the vocal harmonies.
By 3 p.m., the oak garden at Guero’s was filling up with margarita drinkers and people checking out Elizabeth McQueen, who actually got some of them to shout along at the appropriate junctures on a cover of Chuck Berry’s “30 Days.” Negotiating the sidewalks was already becoming more difficult, with badge people heading purposefully north, and fliers posted on any spare pole gave notice of the explosion of shows starting Thursday in the parking lot of just about any establishment with a South Congress address, with the possible exception of the tax accountant.
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SXSW interview: Cheap Trick
True story: In 1982, my friend Rob and I — massive Cheap Trick fans both — made a pilgrimage to the band’s hometown of Rockford, Il., where we visited guitarist Rick Nielsen’s parents’ music store and the home of drummer Bun E. Carlos’ mom before getting tickets (and backstage passes!) to the band’s show the next night in Peoria.
I told Nielsen that story Wednesday morning. His reaction: “This guy’s a stalker.”
My goal in doing a sit-down with the greatest power pop band ever was to not be like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney: “Remember when you wrote ‘Surrender?’ That was awesome.” But three-fourths of the band (Carlos was elsewhere) was funny and gracious and generous with their time. The guys are in town for an appearance at Waterloo Records, a taping of “Austin City Limits” and headlining a free show at Auditorium Shores Friday night with the BoDeans and Cracker.
We talked about working once again with producer Julian Raymond on last year’s imaginatively titled “The Latest,” which includes originals, a song written for Robin Zander’s solo album and a killer cover of Slade’s “When the Lights are Out,” with Nielsen quoting himself from “Elo Kiddies” from his own band’s first album. “He’s like a fifth member of the band,” vocalist Zander said. Nielsen added that, unlike some unnamed collaborators the band has hooked up with before, “He doesn’t have us tame down anything.”
They’ve had their share of producers for sure. The band has long had a beef with the sound of their second album, “In Color,” which producer buffed to a poppy sheen. The version of “I Want You to Want Me” was “so wimpy compared to how we did it live,” Nielsen said.
Yeah, there’s a reason the live version from “At Budokan” is the one that became a hit.
More recently, the band did a short stretch performing the entirety of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in Las Vegas and at the Hollywood Bowl. Any chance they’d book a return engagement, or do they not want to turn into Celine Dion.
“We’re up for anything,” bassist Tom Pettersson said. “It meant a lot to us.”
“They’re gonna have to pay us a lot of money,” Zander cracked.
For those of you who’ve lost track of time, the band’s self-titled debut came out in 1977. Since then they’ve sold some 20 million records, racked up about 40 gold and platinum awards and played countless thousands of shows. The only thing not scratched from the to-do list is “ACL,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (rrrrrr) and papal canonization. So what keeps them going?
“This is what we do,” Zander said. “We’re a rock band.”
“All of us are music fans anyhow,” Nielsen said. “I said years ago if I wasn’t in Cheap Trick, I’d be a fan of Cheap Trick.”
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SXSW preview: Trampled by Turtles
Trampled By Turtles’ “Palomino” (due April 13) fortifies nuanced narratives (“Bloodshot Eyes”) with fiery fretwork (“Feet and Bones”). The Minnesota-based bluegrass quintet learned songwriting craft from a revered Texas-born folksinger.
“Townes Van Zandt has been a huge influence,” lead singer Dave Simonett says. “It’s an abstract thing, a feeling that he gives out. I’ve listened to songs of his where I just want to (give up) and break my guitar. I don’t feel worthy to try.” (Official showcase: 8 p.m. Friday at Red Eyed Fly, 715 Red River St.)
American-Statesman: When did the songs on ‘Palomino’ come together?
Dave Simonett: They’re all brand-new songs written within the last year, which is a new thing for our band. Before this, we’d been playing and touring on the songs long before we got into the studio. I can’t really give a point of view for the whole album because each song came from a different place.
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SXSW panel: '1,000 Digital Tools & Strategies: Which 3 Work?'
Panelists: Michael Feferman -C3 Presents, Ryan Matteson — Pabst Theater, Aaron Ray — The Collective, Mike Rosenthal — Rosenthal Consulting (OK Go), Gabriel Levy — UMGD
The gist: As a band your biggest asset is your fans. Relationships with labels come and go and tools are just tools. Whatever tools you are using, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, make sure you own them. Use these tools to connect directly with your fans in a personal way.
Quotes: “Bundling is the future. Anything that can’t be pirated is worth money. Limited editions, personalized photos …(etc.) are things that can be monetized.” Aaron Ray.
Takeaways: Any effective strategy to promote brand awareness must have a viral component. OK Go famously got into a huge dispute over viral distribution of their most recent video “This Too Shall Pass” that contributed to the band leaving their label EMI. That video received 8 1/2 million views in a week and a half.
Personalization is also important. On their last tour OK Go lead singer Damien Kulash took a photo of the crowd from the stage each night then posted it on the band’s Facebook page. This led to hundreds of fans flocking to the page the day after the show to tag themselves and make comments on the pictures.
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SXSW preview: John Hiatt
John Hiatt’s “The Open Road” matches equal parts spirit (“Go Down Swingin’ ”) and sentiment (“Wonder of Love”). The celebrated songwriter, who has been covered by Paula Abdul, Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop, is eager to present new music at South by Southwest. “It’s one of the great music festivals in a great music town,” Hiatt, 57, says. “I’m excited this year that my daughter (Lilly Hiatt) and her band (The Dropped Ponies) are going to open the New West (Records) party (tonight).”
American-Statesman: You sounded great on Letterman (Hiatt performed on ‘Late Night’ last week). How did that song (‘The Open Road’) come together? John Hiatt: Well, how’d I look - old and mean?
No, young and spry. I like the sound of that! ‘The Open Road’ came together like they all do. I pick up a guitar and voilà ! (He laughs.) I took (last year) off from the road and started writing last January and February. I wrote about four or five songs then, but that was the first one that popped out.
Which other songs came out early? It seems we did the first sessions in May. “The Open Road” was the first we cut, and it set the tone for the proceedings. I think two or three songs hit the cutting room floor from that batch, but we had a direction. “Haulin’,” “Go Down Swingin’ ” and “Like a Freight Train” were in that first batch. We had a groove established.
Describe the album’s lyrical theme. The theme always seems to come later. It’s just a group of songs, after all. Once they start hanging together, they start to take on a theme. I guess it’s whatever the open road would suggest to people. Horizons? However you want to interpret that is fine by me (laughs). When I’m on the road, I’m always writing about coming home; when I’m at home I always writing about the road.
The lyrics and melody in ‘Homeland’ work particularly well together. Which is generally most essential to a good song? I think it’s the melody and the feel of the song. If you don’t have that, you don’t really have anything. The way I write, it’s mostly the music coming first. The words - I mean, you have to have something to sing — they come from the feel that the music creates. Music suggests a lyric.
Is there still a mystery in how you discover songs? Nothing but mystery, are you kidding me? I don’t know how the (expletive) that happens! If I did, I could just crank them out and make millions. We could have a hit tomorrow. It never ceases to amaze me when I get one in the boat, so to speak.
Who has covered you best? Do you have a couple hours? There are so many I enjoy. Willie (Nelson)’s take on ‘Most Unoriginal Sin’ is great. Emmylou Harris’ ‘Icy Blue Heart’ was beautiful. B.B. King and Eric Clapton doing ‘Riding with the King’ was great. Buddy Guy’s ‘Feels Like Rain’ was great, so was Rosanne Cash’s ‘The Way We Make a Broken Heart.’ Want me to go on? I have a lot of favorites (laughs).
8:30 p.m. Thursday at La Zona Rosa, 612 W. Fourth St.
If you like John Hiatt, check out:
1. Joe Pug
2. Tim Easton
3. The Mother Truckers
4. Hayes Carll
5. Susan Cowsill
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SXSW preview: Those Darlins'
Those Darlins style hill country melodies with boots made for rocking. The Tennessee-based female trio, whose new self-titled album draws liberally from both Patsy Cline (“Mama’s Heart”) and the Ramones (“Hung Up on Me”), relish the lost highway’s freedom.
“Living out of a van is kind of like being a gypsy,” singer and ukulele player Nikki Darlin says. “It’s an experience. I’d much rather be doing this than being at home with a steady job making money.” (Their official showcase is 11 p.m. Thursday at Billboard.com Bungalow (Habana Bar), 708 Sixth. St.)
American-Statesman: What do you remember from your SXSW shows last year?
Nikki Darlin: Absolutely nothing. I was trashed the whole time. Just kidding! Man, it was jumping from one venue to the next. We have five shows this year, but I’m hoping to check out some friends, too. Our producer (Jeff Curtin) did Small Black, but we’ve never seen them play. We’ve played a couple shows with Shannon and the Clams. We just played with Natural Child, so I’m psyched about seeing them.
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SXSW preview: Harper Simon
Harper Simon spins yarns with equal parts dare (“Shooting Star”) and desire (“Berkeley Girl”). The 37-year-old songwriter, whose self-titled solo debut follows tenure in the London-based indie outfit Menlo Park, returns to SXSW for the second time.
“I played once many, many years ago with Joan Wasser from Joan as Policewoman,” Simon says, “but I imagine the festival is very different now.” The Los Angeles resident showcases at 9 p.m. Friday at live.create.lounge, 503 Neches St.
American-Statesman: Who are you planning to check out this week?
I see that I have a lot of friends who are playing. I’m going to see my friend (Sonic Youth’s) Thurston Moore, my friend Adam Green, Broken Bells and the Chapin Sisters, who are going to sing with me. I have a stripped-down band with my bass player and a character named Farmer Dave (Scher), who will play lap steel and organ.
Steel works especially well on ‘Tennessee.’ Where did you write that song?
I wrote that down in Nashville. It was such a straight-ahead country track that it was hard to know how to approach the song from a lyrical point of view. It turned into one that I wrote with my dad (songwriter Paul Simon), and I think he enjoyed it. We wrote the lyrics from a sort of ironic Randy Newmanesque point of view.
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SXSW scene report: Ray Benson's birthday bash
As the SXSW music festival inexorably expands to inhale an entire week of festivities, a new benchmark for local music fans has emerged as the kickoff to the festival at large — Ray Benson’s annual birthday celebration. Held for the past few years at La Zona Rosa, the event also serves as a fundraiser for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (Benson is on the HAAM board).
Tuesday’s event, like its predecessors, was a conspicuously local gathering of friends and fans and, as in the past Benson and Asleep At the Wheel served as the de facto house band for an array of musicians and singer-songwriters. This year’s crop included the reunited Texas Tornados (whose new album is being released under Benson’s Bismeaux Records marque), Raul Malo, J.D. Souther, Kat Edmonson, Tim Curry (from the cast of the play “Ride With Bob”), Gary Nicholson, Carolyn Wonderland and Shelly King, Dale Watson, Band of Heathens and Radney Foster.
After a short opening set by the Wheel, the Tornados twisted through a hit-laden mini-set that stitched together “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Hey Baby, Que Paso” and “She’s About A Mover,” among others.
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SXSW preview: New Orleans bounce with DJ Jubilee and Katey Red
I first stumbled across New Orleans bounce music back in the late ’90s when DJ Jubilee’s track ‘Get It Ready, Ready’ became a slow-burn urban club hit locally. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, the song strung together a series of chants, snatches of song and shouted refrains over an irresistibly catchy 808 groove. It sounded like a full-force block party captured on tape and it instantly set a club off something fierce. I had never heard anything like it.
‘Bounce was in its full swing at that time,’ DJ Jubilee recalls. ‘We did (that track) in a studio (with) maybe 50-75 people. We brought a big old crowd. It was the first time in our neighborhood that somebody was doing something like that and they were so excited.’
Characterized by the repetitive drum machine grooves and a call-and-response song structure, bounce music sprang from the inner city streets and the projects in New Orleans. It has myriad sub-genres spanning everything from reggae to gansta rap. ‘We just incorporated every different kind of music in New Orleans and put it behind bounce music and it worked,’ Jubilee says. ‘We put Mardi Gras music behind it, a second line band behind it. We put every New Orleans flavor behind it and that’s what made Bounce more widespread.’
Dance was DJ Jubilee’s twist. His music drew on local dance crazes, calling out names of moves, cajoling the crowd to participate. While Jubilee never had a major break that put him on MTV or BET, his music traveled through the U.S. South on the collegiate circuit, and he has toured extensively through Texas and Louisiana. Signed to New Orleans-based Take Fo records, at the height of his popularity he was moving thousands of units through mom-and-pop shops and larger music stores.
Now with 18 years of experience in the music business, Jubilee spends his days as a special education teacher and recreation leader at a New Orleans public high school. The New Orleans crew heading to SXSW used an account on kickstarter.com, a fundraising Web site, to help finance their trip. Jubilee attributes the decline in bounce music’s profitability to changes in technology and the music industry in general as much as anything else. In the age of the Internet it’s hard for anyone to sell records. Nonetheless with a new album in the works he says he believes 2010 will be a special year. ‘The Saints won the 44th Super Bowl, Barack Obama’s the 44th president and I’m 44 years old,’ he explains, noting that his appearance in Austin will be his 793rd live performance. And the audience, he warns, will ‘need to be energetic and ready to dance.’
‘It’s gonna be a party,’ he declares. And his characteristic NOLA drawl has an implicit knowing wink.
‘Sissy’ rappers
New Orleans is a mighty unique place, and in 2000 as the bounce scene was booming, DJ Jubilee did something that would be considered unthinkable in much of the notoriously homophobic national hip-hop community — he persuaded his label to sign an openly gay rapper. Katey Red, the original ‘sissy’ rapper, is a 6-foot-2 transsexual. When Jubilee DJ’ed block parties in the projects, she used to show up with her posse to dance. ‘I didn’t know she was getting into the music business until one day I heard a street tape,’ says Jubilee. ‘I liked it because it was something different. It was going to add on to something to New Orleans. I knew it was gonna be a big hit.’ When he brought the tape to Take Fo the label execs were reluctant to take a chance on it, worried about how a rap outfit that signed a drag queen would be perceived. But Jubilee was persistent. ‘I kept saying man this is something new, something different. Watch, Katey Red she gonna set a new trend and everybody who call themselves a sissy would want to be a rapper. And that’s what happened. She set the whole tone, the whole movement of what’s going on.’
Incongruously, Sissy rappers rapidly became some of the most popular figures in the heterosexual bounce scene. ‘It’s just that the Sissies that are doing the bounce the people in New Orleans like,’ Katey Red explains. ‘Because the Sissies really know how to make you shake. They make the (women) shake like a dog, get on their knees and shake their (derriere) everywhere.’ Katey Red, who performs in full drag, is clear about the impact of her presence on the rap scene.
‘The message that I’m sending out is be yourself no matter who you are, no matter what you are, be yourself and be the best at it,’ she says. ‘I think if the bounce music gets around like it supposed to, like it should, you’ll see a lot more openly gay people (in rap).’
‘This is why bounce is still moving,’ Jubilee says. ‘Because bounce music is so intertwined with so much different flavor.’ — D.S.S.
1 a.m. Saturday at Submerged, 333 E. Second St.
If you like ‘Bounce,’ check out:
1. Bun B
2. Chalie Boy
3. Paul Wall and Chamillionaire
4. Killer Mike
5. League of extraordinary gz
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Live video: Roger Greenawalt plays Beatles tunes with his Ukulele
Ukulele changed Roger Greenawalt’s life. And it might change yours Wednesday and Thursday when he and a passel of friends perform the entire Beatles catalog on uke during the South by Southwest Music Festival. Click here to read more.
We’ll be live-streaming a portion of Greenawalt’s performance outside Jaime’s starting Wednesday, March 17 at noon.
Live streaming video by Ustream
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Bob Schneider and Sarah Jarosz score big at the Austin Music Awards
Hometown hero and local icon Bob Schneider scored big the in Austin Music Awards, announced in today’s Austin Chronicle and available online here. Schneider won Austin musician of the year, male vocals, songwriter, band of the year (with Lonelyland), album of the year (for “Lovely Creatures”) and song of the year (for “40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)”).
That’s a clean sweep that demonstrates ample evidence — as if anyone needed it — that even after all these years, Austin continues to love Bob Schneider. Also scoring an armful of awards was Grammy-nominated sensation Sarah Jarosz, who won country/bluegrass, folk and female vocals.
Other notable winners include Speak for best new Austin band, Los Lonely Boys for best rock band, the Bright Light Social Hour for best indie band, Antone’s for best live music venue and the Ghost Room for new live music venue. Inductees to the Austin Music Hall of Fame this year include David Garza, Ponty Bone, Bruce Robison, Sarah Brown, Brannen Temple and Denny Freeman.
The Austin Music Awards show, traditionally kicking off SXSW on opening night, will instead take place on the last night this year, taking over the Austin Music Hall on Saturday. Performances include a tribute to Stephen Bruton, the Explosives, Sarah Jarosz and best blues band winners Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.
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Time changes for Friday's gospel showcase
A couple acts have been added, so the Jones Family Singers have been pushed back an hour to 10 p.m. for Friday’s SXSW gospel show at the Carver Museum’s Boyd Vance Theater. The show is free and open to all.
New times:
Toni Ringgold - 6:30 p.m. - 6:50 p.m.
Sir Smith - 7:00 p.m. - 7:20 p.m.
Josh Caldwell - 7:30 p.m. - 7:50 p.m.
Mwangaza Childrens Choir - 8 p.m. - 8:40 p.m.
Double Portion - 9 p.m. - 9:40 p.m.
Jones Family Singers - 10:00 - 10:40 p.m.
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SXSW Scene Report: Datapop 3.0 at the Highball
Houston’s Sievert performs as part of Datapop 3.0 at the Highball Tuesday night.
Ary Warnaar, guitarist for the New York chiptunes band Anamanaguchi, famously described 8-bit music as “the punk of electronic music.”
It was hard to dispute that claim as Datapop 3.0 kicked off the first of its two nights Tuesday at the Highball. The third annual event celebrates 8-bit music — a distinct brand of electronic music that’s composed and performed through the use of old computer consoles from the 8-bit era of video games. Imagine techno performed entirely through samples culled from your dusty, trusty old Nintendo Entertainment System and you’ll be in the right ballpark.
8-bit music may not have the rage — or even the lyrics — of punk music, but it does share the same sense of youthful innovation and wild, giddy abandon. Also like punk, it’s the sort of thing that’s likely to be appreciated only by those of or below a certain age — if you’re not young enough to recall just how fiendishly addictive the melodies in, say, “Mega Man 2” were, there’s a solid chance 8-bit music might just sound like so many computerized bleeps and bloops to you.
But the crowd at the Highball clearly appreciated the music as Austin’s the Mysterious H kicked off the event at 8 p.m. with a high-energy set. Houston’s Sievert followed, pumping out jams on a series of heavily sliced and diced Game Boys, taking chugs of Pabst Blue Ribbon — seemingly the beer of choice for Datapop artists — between queuing up samples. The impressive laser light show and video projections added a needed dose of visual energy — without some multimedia accompaniment, the sight of even the most energetic 8-bit performers can grow a bit dull — particularly during the performance of Sweden’s Random, who apologized for his garbled English to a sweaty, constantly animated crowd who likely couldn’t have cared less. Crowd-surfing abounded.
This year represents a breakthrough for Datapop, a with a lineup featuring renowned 8-bit musicians drawn from all over the world, thanks to money raised through crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. Night two goes down Wednesday night and is free and open to the public — if the large-but-manageable crowd Tuesday is any indication, it might be one of SXSW’s easier-to-get-into free nighttime events. If you’ve ever found yourself absentmindedly humming the theme to “Super Mario Bros.,” you’d probably find it worth your time.
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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.
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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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March 15, 2010
Snoop Dogg coming to SXSW for Perez party
That’s right. Perez Hilton has just announced that the Doggfather will be playing his party on Saturday at a warehouse at 3rd and Brazos Streets.
Rumors were also rampant that Snoop Dogg will make a stop at MTV’s soundstage at the former Seaholm Power Plant and perform with Gorillaz, who will be headlining at Coachella next month. Snoop is a guest on Gorillaz new album “Plastic Beach,” but it’s unlikely the G-men would be in Austin. Damon Albarn debuts the new live band in England on March 21, the day after SXSW. That’s jetlag, innit?
Earlier today, Simon Cowell’s likely replacement on “American Idol” confirmed that Marina and the Diamonds and Alphabeat are also playing his party, which is sponsored by Swagg.
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Marina and the Diamonds to play Perez Hilton party
Celeb gossip blogger Perez Hilton announced on his site today that Marina and the Diamonds and Alphabeat will play his closing night party Saturday at a warehouse near the corner of Brazos and Third Streets. More acts will be announced later.
Go here for the chance to win tickets.
One party that is off, according to Shangri-La’s Tyler Van Aken, is Wednesday night’s Woxy/Future Sounds Super Rumble. The invite only party was to feature several official SXSW bands (in violation with an agreement bands sign to not compete with official night time showcases). The Woxy parties during the day at Shangri-La on E. Sixth St. are still on.
Rumors are going crazy, but our fave is Snoop Dogg performing with Gorillaz at Seaholm Power Plant (which MTV is renting from the city for $500 a day.) The cartoon band is the subject of a listening party during SXSW.
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SXSW free round-up: Carniville, record in-stores and 101X live broadcasts
We’re getting down to the wire, with a paltry single day remaining before the South by Southwest Music Festival commandeers Austin for four days of music and mingling. As always, there’s far too many cool free events going down on the side to even begin to touch on them here on the blog, but check out our massive SXSW side parties list and database today and throughout the festival to help plan your festival. But here are a few highlights worth your time:
I Heart Comix, Jelly and Mad Decent will present Carniville at the Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St., Thursday, March 18 through Saturday, March 20, from noon to 8 p.m. each day. The lineup — one of the best when it comes to SXSW day parties — includes Major Lazer, Diplo, the Walkmen, GZA, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Japanther and Sleigh Bells. This is also where you’ll find the American Apparel Flea Market, the one-stop shop for all your Los Angeles-manufactured hipster clothing needs. You can RSVP here.
Meanwhile, Austin’s other favorite record store, End of an Ear, 2209 S. First St., has a mean lineup of in-stores throughout SXSW, including Holly Miranda, Efterklang and Toro Y Moi. Check out the full lineup here.
Finally, 101X DJ Toby Ryan will be parked at Buffalo Billiards, all four days of the festival from 2 to 6 p.m., conducting a series of live on-air interviews including Spoon and Alpha Rev, with more to be announced on 101X’s SXSW page.
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Austin at SXSW: DJ Car Stereo (Wars)
Splicing together some of your favorite (and some of your least favorite — everything’s fair game, after all) pop radio hits is DJ Car Stereo (Wars) forte. The one man show features the once Austin-based Chris Rose, who is known for putting on a unique dance party that gets everyone on the floor moving (and how moved to New York a year or so ago). You can catch his musical mashups at the official SXSW showcase Saturday, March 20 at 12 a.m. at Karma Lounge. Chris answered our SXSW questions via e-mail.
Describe your sound. Sort of like pancakes filled with a bunch of different types of candy. While it doesn’t normally go together, with the right combination it might turn out delicious!
What can SXSW attendees expect at your showcase? A sweaty dance floor and rapid-fire medley of snippets of their favorite guilty pleasure jams!
What other acts are you excited to check out?
I’d like to see Neon Indian. Andrew W.K. seems to be playing everywhere, although according to a lot of web-sites he’s not the original Andrew W.K. so I don’t know… I’m pretty sure The Walkmen are playing and they don’t have any conspiracies surrounding them so maybe that’s a safer bet. Honestly, I haven’t had a chance to see who all is playing. I heard this band called Dam Funk the other day that I think is playing and they were pretty good.
Are you planning to go to any panels? I have actually never been to a panel at SXSW ever. I’d like to sound intelligent and say that this year will be the first, but really I’ll probably just follow the free Lone Star.
What are some Austin must-do or must-sees for out-of-towners? Oh man, I love these questions because I get to talk about Mexican food. Every out-of-towner should eat at: El Chilito / Maria’s Taco Express / Polvo’s / Torchy’s Taco’s / Koriente / Tamale House / Kebabalicious / El Chile / Casino El Camino. All pretty obvious to anyone that lives here, but imagine having never had a Polvo’s margarita?
Where do you like to hear live music, when it’s not SXSW? I love going to The Mohawk, Emo’s and The Parish.
What’s your favorite ‘only in Austin’ thing to do? The Drafthouse. I miss The Drafthouse so much!
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Austin Music Foundation presents "PARTY: SMART" at Momo's
For the thousands of musicians, managers and other industry types in town for the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, the Austin Music Foundation is offering an excellent chance to gain some insights into the business even before SXSW officially kicks off.
Tomorrow night, Tuesday March 16 at Momo’s, 618 W. Sixth St., they’ll present “PARTY: SMART,” featuring Martin Atkins, author of the irreverent, definitive “TOUR: SMART,” alongside Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity and Charlie Cheney of Indie Band Manager. Each will give a 20 minute presentation featuring career advice and will also meet with attendees throughout the evening.
The event will feature free food and music from industrial tribal drummer Chant and China’s AV Okubo. “PARTY: SMART” is free and open to the public and runs from 5 to 8 p.m.
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SXSW 2010: 10 questions for the Bowerbirds
Photo by Derek Anderson/FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Much of the Bowerbirds’ naturalistic, thoughtful indie folk was first composed in an isolated, rural spot in North Carolina, and it sounds like it. After singer and guitarist Phil Moore graduated college with a degree in biology — and “halfheartedly considered life as an organic farmer” — he took a job in the sticks of South Carolina tracking birds. That work eventually dried up, but he found the environment creatively freeing. Years later, Moore and his girlfriend, visual artist and Bowerbirds accordion player Beth Tacular, decided to return to the country, moving into an Airstream and crafting their debut album, 2007’s environmentally themed, critically praised “Hymns for a Dark Horse.” Their second album, the more personal “Upper Air,” was released in July of last year.
Moore spoke with the American-Statesman by phone from the band’s tour van to discuss the North Carolina scene, the frustrations of touring for the eco-conscious and how he recorded much of “Upper Air” in an old mill.
Is this the Bowerbirds’ first time playing SXSW?
No, it’s actually our second. We played in 2008. We’re really looking forward to seeing some of the acts play. I’m excited to see Califone play — they’re doing a fully scored film — and there’s a lot of great North Carolina bands there.
Looking at yourselves and some of the bands you’ve played with — like the Mountain Goats and Lost in the Trees — it seems like there’s a pretty well-developed North Carolina scene. Would you say that’s fair?
It really is, actually. It’s pretty wide and I guess relatively small but for the amount of bands, the quality is pretty amazing. There’s a lot of different sorts of genres. It’s very tight-knight. We play a lot of shows here and take each other out a lot. We try to support each other.
How did the circumstances that informed the recording of “Upper Air” differ from those behind recording “Hymns for a Dark Horse?”
Well, the writing process was very different. We had years and years to figure out what the Bowerbirds songs were going to be like for the first album, and then only a couple of years to write the second album. And the actual recording was done more piece meal. We didn’t really have the songs worked out fully at first, so we kind of added things piece by piece, as opposed to the first album where we just sat in a room and played them and they came together pretty complete. I think the second album is a little more rich for that, maybe.
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Austin at SXSW: Marshall Ford Swing Band
The Marshall Ford Swing Band promises good times and good music at their official SXSW showcase this year — 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 17 at Momo’s. Band members Emily Gimble and Jeremy Wheeless shared their thoughts on this year’s fest with us via e-mail.
Describe your sound: Texas Swing, Country. Authentic yet original.
What can SXSW attendees expect at your showcase? Good times and good music.
What other acts are you excited to check out? Erik Hokkanen, Tue. Flipnotics, Black Red Black, Sun. Lamberts.
Are you planning to go to any panels? I plan on attending any and all management and promotional panels I can.
What are some Austin must-do or must-sees for out-of-towners? Take a Walk Around the Green Belt, visit Barton Springs. Take a walk down South Congress there is always something exciting going on down there.
Where do you like to hear live music, when it’s not SXSW? Momo’s, The Saxon Pub, and the Continental Club.
What’s your favorite ‘only in Austin’ thing to do? The best grocery stores in the world are here, visit them. We also have some great Mexican food.
Finish this sentence: ‘Industry folks and visiting bands, while we love having you as guests of our city, please don’t…’ Leave trash everywhere. Refrain from honking your horns. And don’t forget to tip.
Tracks courtesy of The Marshall Ford Swing Band.
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