South by Southwest Source > South by Southwest Source > Archives > 2007 > March > 16
Friday, March 16, 2007
A Sunday kind of love
Peter, Bjorn and John were tired but happy at their 9 p.m. show Friday at the Convention Center. Lead singer Peter Moren joked that they were playing the last of their 1 million shows at SXSW, but added that the band had a great time and that he could stay and do 10 shows a day in Austin for the rest of his life.
Moren had another reason to be in good spirits: He said that on Sunday he’ll get to see his girlfriend for the first time in a month.
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More Dunst details
Sfgate.com adds this to your mental image of Kirsten Dunst rocking out at Stubb’s:
As Kings of Leon blasted out their brand of raspy country rock at the Spin Magazine party at Stubb’s BBQ on Friday under Austin’s overcast skies, Kirsten Dunst suddenly appeared on the back of a Harley with her new man Johnny Borrell, floppy-haired singer of the British rock group Razorlight.
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Public Enemy and more
On Auditorium Shores — the banks of the river of the town the president used to call home — Public Enemy livened up “Son of a Bush” with Flavor Flav leading the crowd with invitations to “[expletive]” George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair and the war.
I’m pretty sure I saw Wayne Coyne walking his dog (a big fluffy white one) outside the Hyatt on the trail.
At the Bloodshot party at Yard Dog, the oh-so-cool-two-years-ago free beer (although waters were $2) was cans of Pabst.
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Note to SXSW organizers, Part 2
Rent a better PA system that can produce the middle register for groups such as Public Enemy. This might have been the biggest crowd we’ve seen at Auditorium Shores — and the biggest crowd ever for a hip-hop act in Austin — so it’s a shame the show was marred by bad sound. People were leaving in droves 10 to 15 minutes into the set.
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Iggy’s Austin sibling?
Iggy Pop has an Austin doppelganger, this commenter points out.
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Kings reign over a super Spin party
Being in a band is a ridiculous pursuit. This is what I was thinking when I was driving downtown Friday and a group of guys with moptop hair and skinny black jeans were posing for pictures in front of the bat sculpture on South Congress at Barton Springs. I imagined what they’d all be doing in 10 years, and rocking out wasn’t an option.
Every year at SXSW there are bands that everybody is buzzing about and almost all the members are at this moment selling real estate or working the milk steamer or stewing in their bitterness and checking the mailbox for random residual checks.
The truth is that SXSW is not about discovery, but about recharging. We want the moment, and if a career happens, that’s cool. The Kings Of Leon set at the Spin party Friday afternoon made a rock ‘n’ roll re-believer out of me. They were absolutely amazing, a powerful engine that roared for all of us who want more out of life, at least during these four days when we’re not as hip as everybody else.
Though “Molly’s Chambers” from the first record got fists — and cellphone cameras — in the air, the best stuff was the newer material like “On Call,” “Bucket” and “Charmer.”
Singer/guitarist Caleb Followill seemed genuinely impressed by the crowd’s energy. Playing an industry showcase can, I imagine, be like going on a blind date with a daughter of your parents’ friends. But what if she were Patricia Arquette or Brittany Murphy or Nelly Furtado? Being there at Stubb’s on Friday afternoon was being at the hippest place at SXSW at the moment, which is really what it’s all about.
I’ve been to every Spin party at SXSW since the days when DJs like Money Mark spun in a suite at the Hyatt Regency, and this was the best. Yes, partly that’s because Pete Townshend came out and did “The Seeker” with the Fratellis at about 2 in the afternoon. And the Buzzcocks, whom most people know as Green Day, were OK in the headliner slot, though their timing, not their talent, is their strong point. (Really bad version of “Harmony In My Head.”)
But Kings Of Leon were almost perfect; a rock band that makes us realize that bashing about can be a noble calling. Certainly one of the best sets I’ve seen at 21 years of SXSW.
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Celeb sightings
— Director Jonathan Demme at the Buzzcocks show Friday at the Convention Center.
— Les Claypool of Primus at the Aqueduct show Friday at Emo’s annex.
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SXSW Source: No Satchels!
Don’t bring a satchel to Auditorium Shores — the line for bag inspection is half an hour longer than the one at the regular entry.
Note to SXSW organizers: Hire more security!
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Talking with Iggy
A few tidbits from Friday’s “SXSW Interview: Iggy Pop,” where Iggy and fellow Stooges Ron and Scott Asheton sat down with Rolling Stone’s David Fricke:
— The song “No Fun” drew inspiration from the Beach Boys’ “Fun Fun Fun,” The Rollling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”
— The band is happy to be back together. Playing Stooges songs with other people felt like doing covers.
— And finally, the band’s creative philosophy: They did things they thought were cool.
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SXSW Source: David Byrne fiddles
Only at SXSW, vol. 234: David Byrne spotted fiddling with his laptop at the tables with all the Legos in the Convention Center. Perfect!
On the underground tip: Clockcleaner has finished its next album. It will come out on Load Records later this year. Load has become home to much of the next generation of noise rock, including the almighty Lightning Bolt.
Attention out-of-towners: it’s pronounced Spee-ro’s, not Spy-ro’s …
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Pop Culture Press party
The Figgs and Graham Parker reportedly got the Pop Culture Press party off to a rousing start — for those actually capable of rousting themselves from bed in time to make it through downtown traffic to the Dog & Duck for their midday sets.
It was a surprisingly large contingent, according to one woman still sticking around at 2 p.m., when Austin’s Daylight Titans were playing for a fairly sparse, sleepy-eyed audience dispersed around picnic tables under the big tent.
Then Budapest’s the Moog took the stage and provided a great wake-up jolt of razor-sharp garage rock.
Not everyone obeyed frontman Tonyo’s exhortations to get up and dance, but eyes and smiles widened and the applause grew louder and longer as the band roared through a succession of increasingly tuneful numbers.
The very young quintet’s songs aren’t yet as impressive as its hard-charging rhythm section or the wallop of its twin-guitar (Strat and Les Paul) attack, but Tonyo’s compelling baritone and natural command of the stage made even the simplest melodies engaging. Although his dark hair, alabaster skin and high cheekbones make him serious teen heartthrob material, he displayed a veteran’s dry amusement when he commented on the reluctance of people to get up and dance in the afternoon.
He imitated how fans typically start out a show — arms resolutely crossed — and then how heads start to bob after a few songs. ‘And after a few drinks, like this,’ he said, slender limbs flailing comically. ‘You’re drinking beer, but you are sitting! Another strange thing that happens in the States!’ Afterward, a number of new fans lined up to buy T-shirts, CDs and posters, no doubt anticipating they could serve as props in a year or two for ‘I was there when…’ stories.
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Hot rock
Thursday afternoon, shortly after their 6:30 p.m. start time at the Terrible One skate ramp party, Austin’s heaviest instrumental band, Tia Carrera, gave a performance that was so molten the band literally caught fire.
Tia Carrera (and John Dee Graham) bassist Andrew Duplantis was rocking out during one of the band’s patented extendo-jams when he smelled and saw smoke coming from his Ampeg speakers.
“I’ve always told Jason and Erik that I was going to blow up my amp, but I never thought I’d actually do it,” Duplantis explained with a subtle smile. The speaker’s cover fabric began to burn and then turned to flames in the formation of a perfect circle. Although Duplantis stepped aside to avoid getting burned, drummer Erik Conn and guitarist Jason Morales continued to play without missing a beat for 10 more minutes.
Duplantis said he hopes to borrow a speaker cabinet for Tia Carrera’s official 10 p.m. Saturday SXSW showcase at Red 7, although he understands that fellow musicians might be leery of what he might do to their equipment.
“Hopefully (fellow Austin band) Gorch Fock will let me borrow their amp,” Duplantis continued. “Although I can imagine what they’ll be thinking when I say, ‘I need to borrow an amp because I caught mine on fire.’ “
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Spotted: Kirsten Dunst
… at the Spin Party, watching Kings of Leon and puffing cigarette after cigarette. She was there with boyfriend Johnny Borrell of Razorlight.
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Pete Townshend jams with Fratellis at party
Halfway through the Fratellis’ Spin party gig at Stubb’s on Friday afternoon the crowd, smallish at 2 p.m., pushed up to the front of the stage. Pete Townshend had just joined the band on guitar, thoroughly surprising the drummer. He jammed with the Scottish band on one song and then led the way on the Who’s “The Seeker,” ending the set with a bang.
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The Foot Patrol’s got sole
Around 10 Thursday evening, prolific Austin musicians T. J. Wade and Hung Nguyen slayed the audience at Chaindrive with their newest band incarnation, the super smelly funk band Foot Patrol.
Wade and Nguyen recently released five hip-hop and hardcore rock albums at End of An Ear Records under the band names MC Terroristic and Terroristic, but Foot Patrol is an entirely different musical vision.
“All our songs are about the smell of feet and foot parties,” Wade explained. “Every song we write is exclusively about feet. We are a foot fetish funk band!”
During Thursday’s performance, Wade and Nguyen were accompanied by a Japanese Butoh dancer on one side and a topless male dancer on the other side of the stage. Wade said he and Nguyen are finishing up Foot Patrol’s debut album, “Smellabration.” Look for a release later this spring at End of An Ear Records. The experimental and jazz musicians who work at End of An Ear have championed Wade and Nguyen’s collaborations as “must see” performances.
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The gospel according to Rickie Lee Jones
Attention, SXSW people: Please post all of Rickie Lee Jones’ interview online. At least a transcript. You are not going to get an interview quite like that again. There was song, there was God, there was a joy and humility that are in short supply anywhere, especially someplace as profoundly ego-oriented as SXSW.
Not sure if it was because her interview was at 11 a.m. Friday when most SXSW-goers are sipping coffee or checking e-mails, or that people simply forgot she was in the music business, but Friday’s Rickie Lee Jones interview was sparsely attended - and it was in the largest room for SXSW panels.
This was a shame; Jones’ new album, “The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard,” is her most interesting in years. The experimental, often rambling and somewhat dissonant, is a lyrically improvised look at the teachings of Jesus based on friend and collaborator Lee Cantelon’s music version of his book “The Words.”
KGSR program director Jody Denberg conducted the interview, calling “Sermon on Exposition” “spiritually yearning” before Jones came out with an acoustic guitar. “I’m going to answer everything musically,” Jones said, as to illustrate the improvisational process she used to create “Sermon.” (Well, not everything, but when she did, it lit up the room.)
After Denberg asked her if she was partaking of SXSW, she answered, in song: “I saw/a very raw kind of band/ looked like they was rednecks/ young men with really long beards/ they had no shirts/ the band I want everybody on the same level/ there were very good-looking men in the audience/ who were looking at the man opposite them /looking at themselves/ in another man’s sunglasses/ I said I have wristband /can I get into the gate/ the guy said oh no it’s way too late./ Whoo-Hoo!
The finest moments explored the process of making the new album and its spiritual content. “The Lord’s Prayer is an answer to a question,” Jones said. (“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray,” Luke 11:1, King James Version). “I was intrigued as much or more with the person who asked the question,” Jones said.
Instrumental beds had been created over which bits from the book would be read, but Jones wasn’t happy with her performance. She wanted to do it right.
The work reflected Jones’ exploration of the idea of the Christ in all people. “Nobody recognized him then, and nobody recognizes him among us now,” she said. “Why don’t we see the great light that stands in front of us while we stand and talk I to each other? It stands in front of us all the time.”
Denberg did a solid job keeping up with something that was clearly going to be more than your standard career survey, but never veered into dull navel gazing.
“We’re afraid of this word prayer,” she said. “Often, it’s an indicator that the music won’t be very good and that you have an agenda; you’re going to want something.”
She ended up echoing some of the same themes that Emmylou Harris discussed on Thursday. “Part of it involved tearing out the Christ element of my own life,” Jones said, “That part is our suffering and our hope and our perseverance. My mother is very sick and my father’s dead and my daughter is carving her troubled way into the universe, but then what glory there is. How fantastic it is to be alive.”
She did take issue with those who freeze her in time as the gal who sang “Chuck E.’s in Love.” Like many artists, she didn’t even perform the song for a time before coming to terms with the song’s own fame and its own life.
“We define what a singer-songwriter is by being it,” she said. “It’s my job. You can say I don’t like the way you sing, but you can’t say what the definition is of what I do.”
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The scoop on today’s shot at the Stooges
If you’re determined to see The Stooges do their in-store at Waterloo Records today, here’s the latest, must-read info:
The line starts at 4:30. No one is allowed to line up before then. And don’t think you can go see other bands on today’s lineup just so you can get a prime spot for Iggy. The store will be cleared at 5:30 p.m. after the Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. in-store.
The first 150 people to purchase The Stooges’ “Weirdness” CD in the line today will be admitted to the in-store with one guest. So, one CD equals admission for two people.
And there’s more. The first 50 people of those 150 lucky souls will get a ticket for the autograph signing right after the show. The ticket doesn’t guarantee an autograph, though.
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If the van’s rockin’
What was that little van doing, parked in front of the fountain at Sixth and Colorado streets, its canopy glowing with white Christmas lights? The sign said “Itchy fingers? Stop and play” on one side, and “You’re a musician, aren’t you? Stop and play,” on the other.
The first time I walked by, there were no takers. I asked one of the van’s proprietors, David Weinberg, “Are you in a band?” because clearly, there must be some kind of agenda. “No,” he replied. “We’re in a van.”
When I passed that way half an hour later, one guy was sitting in a folding chair playing the acoustic guitar while Weinberg plunked on a barely audible keyboard. The guitarist took off for a show, leaving the chair and guitar to Austinite Errol Siegel, who accompanied his friend Edison Carter as he sang a fairly impressive rendition of Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend.” Weinberg took up a cheap drum machine at their behest, while the van’s other proprietor, Molly Manewal, provided additional percussion.
Afterward, Weinberg, a Colorado native, said he used to park the van around Seattle and jam with friends, but they’d just started seeking strangers to play with. Weinberg said they’re trying to figure out where to move to next — and naturally, Austin is a possibility.
