South by Southwest Source > South by Southwest Source > Archives > 2007 > March
March 2007
Seeing isn’t believing
Don’t call him Milli VanIggy.
During the Stooges SXSW set Saturday at Stubb’s, bassist Mike Watt’s amp blew up, and he appeared to stop playing as he talked to his tech. Meanwhile, the bass line to “Skull Rings” kept churning out of the speakers.
It sure seemed like the Stooges were using augmentation — maybe a tape loop — and my review said so.
But Stooges publicist Angelica Cob says that assessment was wrong.
“The Stooges have never used backing tracks and never will,” Cob says. “During ‘Skull Ring,’ the bass amp went out, but that didn’t affect the sound coming through the PA and the monitors.”
I saw what I saw — moments when both hands were off the bass — but who am I to dispute the greatest band to ever play SXSW?
Let me set the record straight: Stooges don’t fudge!
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Thank you and good night!
The perfect absurd conclusion for SXSW — about 4 a.m. Saturday, at the intersection of Oltorf and South First, there was a middle-aged guy in a loud-print shirt walking south while strumming an acoustic guitar with an American flag hanging from the headstock. Crossing against the light, naturally.
Turn up the Pendergrass and life is good
If you think your SXSW was hectic, try working the convenience store in the Littlefield Mall on Sixth Street. But the female clerk on duty Saturday seemed to be enjoying the drama — and the opportunity to show off chandelier-sized earrings, which a customer admired.
“I think I look cute today!” the clerk agreed, and then cried “Hey! No public bathroom here,” to head off three young women in clubwear who’d just strolled in the door, apparently with the look of women on a mission. The clerk then scolded one customer in her line over to the other register — “Cash only here, baby!” and chided the cash customer for handing her a large bill.
“You’re killin’ me with these twenties! I got no pennies in this register, baby!”
A friend of hers stopped by to say hello, and she greeted him warmly but said “Thank you for comin’ in and showin’ me some love, but I’m busy, busy, busy! It’s been bad all week.”
An hour later, things were even more hectic, as beer-sale hours were about to end. The clerk hollered at a customer who was headed to the register with a 12-pack to hand her that beer, quick, so she could ring it up. He deposited it on the counter, and as she rang it up, she ordered him to pick up a can of potato chips from the floor.
“But I didn’t knock it over,” he said, quickly handing her the potato chips.
“Oh, I know that, I just saw them laying there,” the clerk replied.
Thirty seconds later, she spotted her co-worker starting to ring up a six-pack for a customer who had failed to heed her command to hurry up.
“Don’t ring that up!” she exclaimed indignantly. “I told him. You can’t sell that to him, it’s after 1. He didn’t listen to me.”
Her co-worker checked the time on his cell phone, shrugged, and sold the man the beer. The man had the poor sense to grin at the female clerk, who exclaimed “You don’t care if we go to jail because of you!” Then she turned on her co-worker and hissed “I hate you rung that up!” She looked like she wanted to smack him, but instead rolled her eyes and said “One thing is, the music’s too low!” Turning Teddy Pendergrass up to a proper level restored her good humor instantly.
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Lights out for ‘The Upsetter’
“You need a new government!” proclaimed reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry, a.k.a. “The Upsetter.”
He wasn’t protesting the war in Iraq, or U.S. environmental policy, or even Washington influence-peddling scandals.
His issue was with closing time.
“Justice for the people!” Perry cried.
Those would be the people oppressed by the Austin police, who had arrived to shut down Perry’s show at the Flamingo Cantina, which was scheduled for 1 a.m. but didn’t start until 2:45. The crowd had gamely gotten into a long set by Perry’s excellent backing band, Dub Is A Weapon, applauding for the snaky, smokey sax solos (although some fans seated on the risers in the back were dozing on each others’ shoulders) and moving to the music, as much as possible in a tightly packed house (“no cash,” badges and wristbands only, line across Sixth Street). By about 2:15 a.m., with the bar closed and the bartenders dispensing only cups of water, about half the audience had given up and left, but those who remained rejoiced in finally having a dance floor, skanking wildly to the hypnotic beats or snagging a spot closer to the stage.
Finally, with no fanfare, Perry suddenly walked up the steps to the stage, resplendent in a “uniform” of combat books and khakis decorated with rhinestones, mirrors and photographs. His microphone was festooned with charms, gems and even a golfball-sized crystal. Though small in stature, his demeanor was commanding, and the crowd showed no ill-will for the long delay.
After Perry’s first song, a voice came over the loudspeaker and requested that he and the band find a good way to end the show, as if they didn’t, the power would be turned off at the insistence of the police. Perry glowered, made his protest remarks and defiantly started a second song. The crowd sang along with Perry’s chorus: ‘Burn down Babylon.’ The police weren’t playing, however. The power went off. The crowd shouted encouragement, wanting Perry to go on, but he shook his head and pointed at the dead microphone. He walked around the edge of the stage, reaching out to touch some hands as the crowd cheered, and then was gone.
The owner of the club, meanwhile, was arguing with two officers near the front door about the citation they were giving him. Fans took off for their cars, or gathered in little clusters to savor the excitement of having seen Perry, and having participated in an act of rebellion, sort of. One guy laughed and said Perry had been nearby during the whole set by his band — all he’d had to do was walk the short way between buildings.
So did he start late just so he could get away with a two-song set?
Another guy laughed and said “Hey, he’s 70. And he’s the Upsetter!”
Playing on ‘empty’
The “special guest” was scheduled to begin at 12:30 a.m. Sunday at La Zona Rosa, but at 12:50 a.m. no one had graced the stage. The venue’s capacity is 2,000 people, but barely more than 300 were in attendance (and that’s being generous). Word began to spread that SXSW had sent out text messages that former Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell and his new band were the “special guest,” but Farrell certainly did not receive special billing. Most people at La Zona Rosa didn’t seem to know who was about to perform.
“Do you know who is playing next?” four people asked me separately. I was standing at the merch booth with an open laptop, so I suppose I looked as if I might have information.
Later, a text message went out that the show was now free and open to the public.
Let’s expect SXSW organizers to examine why one of the best venues in Austin was basically empty that night. An empty venue means the venue’s bar didn’t make money. An empty venue means the bands were disappointed (imagine traveling hundreds of miles to hear crickets). And the people in attendance were confused about who they were going to see.
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Signs and a celebrity sighting
“NO SPECIAL TREATMENT” was written in big letters on a sign Saturday night outside Beerland. It continued: “Yes, Mr. Old School rad tattoo guy, this means you!”
Meanwhile, actor Jamie Kennedy has been seen around town, taking in his third year at SXSW. He’s heard many a bad impression from the film “Malibu’s Most Wanted.” Yes, Mr. You Crack Up Your Friends Every Time, this means you.
Another cancellation …
Balkan Beat Box, a band out of Tel Aviv, Israel, had to cancel its Saturday night show, set for 1 a.m. at Habana Calle 6 Annex, because of “hellish New York City weather,” according to a sign at the venue. Soulico, the band scheduled to play at midnight, will play two hours.
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You’re welcome to VISIT anytime …
Ian McLagan treated the crowd at the Raji World Party to a prime quip, as well as a killer set of old-school, keyboard-based rock ‘n’ roll. Surveying the assemblage, which included a lot of hipsters obviously not from here, he said, “Welcome to Austin!” Then, after an exquisite pause, he added, “Please don’t move here! There are plenty of people here already! But you can visit anytime you like.” Of course, he admitted with a laugh, he himself is “a foreigner.”
The Hacienda Brothers were also a huge hit at the party. Applause for Chris Gaffney’s soulful vocals bled right into applause for one of Dave Gonzalez’s guitar solos or David Berzansky’s pedal-steel excursions. The rhythm section proved irresistible, too. The accordion-fueled closing cover of the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby” had even the most BlackBerry-dependent industry types smiling and nodding, if not up and dancing.
The party was held at Big Red Sun, which deserves kudos as both the only venue I’ve seen with a recycling container prominently placed next to the garbage can, and for the amazing two-story outhouse with plumbing (every Dwell magazine subscriber will want one).
Cover man
Brit singer Paolo Nutini continued his trend of covering a song by one of the biggest acts in the festival (remember he did a version of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley at last year’s ACL Fest?). At the Esquire showcase Saturday at Stubbs, Nutini covered “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse.
Iggy in traffic and on toast
The horrible traffic this week turned out to be a good thing for fans of the Stooges, about 1,000 of them who couldn’t get into Friday’s in-store appearance at Waterloo Records. Sitting in a black Lincoln Town Car without tinted windows, Iggy Pop was spotted by the hordes, who surrounded the car. A gracious Iggy signed autographs while still stuck in traffic and was very impressed when one fan gave him a painting of Iggy. What made the painting special? It was on a piece of toast. At one point during the four-song in-store, Iggy took his microphone out into the parking lot and sang for the fans who couldn’t get in.
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Another chance to see Perry?
Word from a source is that the unnamed “Special Guest” headlining La Zona Rosa tonight will be Perry Farrell. The guest is scheduled to perform at 12:30 a.m.
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Stooges sold out?
Statesman reporter Patrick Beach reports that at 6:40 p.m., the badge and wristband line for the showcase at Stubb’s headlined by the Stooges was perhaps hundreds long. Stubb’s officials said they would sell 50 GA tickets; that line was around the block. The show is scheduled to start at 12:30 a.m. after sets by Kings of Leon (a big hit at the Spin party Friday) and Austin favorites Spoon.
Let us know if you get in.
Charles Wright cancels
Charles Wright and the 103 have canceled their 8 p.m. show at Antone’s. No reason was given. Word from the club is that long lines are already forming around the block. The scheduled lineup for the rest of the night: Garland Jeffreys (9 p.m.); Kenny Wayne Shepherd with special guests Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin (10 p.m.); Charlie Sexton (11:45 p.m.); and the Tragically Hip (12:45).
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Twice is better
There’s so much going on at SXSW, it seems a little sinful to see the same act(s) more than once, but there were definitely some repeat offenders at the Saturday afternoon Ponderosa Stomp party at Bourbon Rocks. How do you pass up an opportunity to hear the real deal?
Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural and Willie Tee sounded even funkier on keyboards than at their splendid Friday night showcase — can you name a jam band that can jam as hard as these guys? — and had refined their vocal harmonies on Tee’s twisted R&B hit “Teasin’ You.” Folks who had wandered in off Sixth Street, including a couple of party guys in Polo logo shirts and a clean-cut youth in ranch wear, looked pleasantly jolted when Rockie Charles, resplendent in rhinestone-studded shades, picked up his gleaming red Gretsch and whipped through “Johnny B. Goode” with an energy that would put most punk-rock bands to shame. Charles’ R&B material had the bartenders dancing, and one got so giddy he knocked a cap off a beer bottle with enough force to send it whizzing right past a customer’s head. Outside the open windows, a hipster girl all in black slouched by in time to the beat.
Best SXSW T-shirts
Best SXSW T-shirts: Gang of Four — $45 Pixies — $60 Robert Pollard — priceless O’Bama 2008 — in green, with shamrocks serving as the zeroes Get Ready to Stumble — yes, more shamrocks
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Take a turn in the Story Booth
Immortality awaited on Congress Avenue on Saturday afternoon, not in the shape of a recording contract but in the form of the Story Booth, a sort of digital video Photomat on wheels. Proprietor George Morrow, a design student at the University of Texas, said he had been collecting stories on video for two years but just finished building the booth and had towed it to Congress behind his old bicycle. He said he got the trailer under the booth at a farm supply store, “and all these farmers were helping me figure out different ways to hitch it up.” The booth has a black-and-white checkerboard linoleum floor from Home Depot, a stool and a digital video camera.
A group of six twentysomething friends stood on the sidewalk next to the booth, debating whether one of them would be brave enough to tell a story. The guys were all chicken, although one asked, “How long will you be here?” and said he might come by later. “Can we make something up?” another asked. One of the young women decided she’d try it, and her friend joked, “What if he drives off with you in that?” Undaunted, the storyteller entered the booth, pulled the curtain and then emerged about two minutes later.
Morrow said his academic project is exploring the gray area between documentary and fiction, and what he does is select from the stories people tell him, find actors to play the parts and then film them, using the original narration as the audio. In case you have a story for posterity and don’t see him out and about, he said the booth will be displayed at the Creative Research Laboratory on East MLK Boulevard beginning March 31.
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JoHell loves his guitar
And the award for best use of guitar-as-phallus since Prince at the Super Bowl goes to JoHell of JoHell & the Red Roosters, whose extremely testicular show late Friday-early Saturday at Speakeasy covered the Stones, ZZ Top and AC/DC and showed Lenny Kravitz to be the big faker he is.
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Nick Drake Remembered panel
The Nick Drake Remembered panel at the Convention Center held a moderately sized audience captivated Saturday. Nick Drake’s sister and estate trustee Gabrielle Drake revealed an intimate portrait of the clinically depressed singer-songwriter.
Nick Drake was a guitar virtuoso who wrote autumnal songs and released albums on Island Records during the late 1960s and early ’70s, yet his albums never sold, and he never found a large audience.
Several panelists — including musician Robyn Hitchcock, Drake contemporary Sylvie Simmons, Drake producer Joe Boyd and Drake’s sister — spoke about his creative process and his debilitating shyness and depression.
“When his depression took hold, he simply could not communicate with people,” Gabrielle Drake said. “There was a barrier up that you couldn’t get past. You simply could not get through with him.”
Panel speaker and Drake album producer (“Five Leaves Left,” “Bryter Layter”) Joe Boyd noted, “If anyone had ever told me I’d be (in favor of) a commercial with Nick’s music 15 years ago, I’d have thought they were mad.”
Boyd explained that when he and Gabrielle looked at the storyboards for a Volkswagen TV commercial, they could tell that it was going to be a very unique commercial.
“I don’t think there has ever been another commercial like it,” Boyd said referring to the artistic advertising in 2000 that brought Drake’s music out of the underground and into the popular consciousness.
“(Basically) it was a commercial for Nick with a car door slamming at the end,” Boyd said.
Tsunami Entertainment will release a new album of early Drake recordings on June 5 titled “Family Tree.”
Albert Hammond Jr.
Best cover at SXSW this year? Could be “Postal Blowfish” by Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. It was about 3 a.m. at the Blender House, a converted office building at Fourth Street and Congress Avenue, and all I was getting from Hammond was that he was the one responsible for the Strokes sound. All they needed was a wasted singer, and it could’ve been the Strokes in that little 200-capacity room. But then he went “Postal” on the Guided By Voices song, and the set just seemed to catch fire.
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Amy Winehouse Vs. Bobby Patterson
Friday night, two soulsters of different generations performed three blocks away from each other, but I won’t automatically say the vintage version was better. Both were in the pocket, which is what counts most about soul. Amy Winehouse is a star. With her hair piled like a Ronette and her tattoos dancing under the lights, the 23-year-old Brit has certainly got the looks. She’s also got the voice: Her sultry tone at La Zona Rosa, backed by an eight-piece band and backup singers, told Joss Stone to go back to school. W’House, whose biggest song is about blowing off an intervention, is a “Wishing Well” away from becoming the female Terence Trent D’Arby. Keep it together, girl: You’ve got it. Then there was 63-year-old Bobby Patterson of Dallas, who wrote “How Do Spell Love?” and many other great R&B songs, at Opal Divine’s. Patterson made a splash at SXSW 10 years ago when he joined Golden Smog on their rendition of “He Don’t Have To See You (To See Through You).” But as the headliner of a fine Ponderosa Stomp revue that included Barbara Lynn, Dennis Coffey and Archie Bell, Bobby P. gave a much better representation of what he’s about. Opening with “TCB or TYA,” Patterson kept a simmering pace on his short set, which threatened to bubble over at any moment. He’s not a screamer or a yelper but a natural soul singer who’s always in control. Winehouse and Patterson have nothing in common except they’re classified as soul singers. That, and on a Friday night at SXSW, they provided a delightful segue, a break from guitar-guitar-bass-drums.
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Pop Culture Press, Part 2
The last two bands at the Pop Culture Press party, both Australian, showed the good and bad sides of rock ‘n’ roll revivalism. The Hoodoo Gurus, who enjoyed their biggest success on the nascent alternative-rock radio format in the ’80s, proved they didn’t reunite just to get a little more mileage out of hits such as “I Want You Back” and “Dig It Up.” The band played with even more visceral power than back in the day, and the jet-airplane thrust of songs from their best album, “Stoneage Romeos,” had the crowd up on its feet and rocking. A dad grabbed each of his two small sons in turn, tossing them in the air and flipping them upside down, to their great delight. A mom whipped her long blond hair around and around, sharing grins with the toddler daughter in her arms.
Frontman Dave Faulkner’s vocals haven’t lost an iota of impact, and the final notes of the set carried such conviction, they whetted the appetite not just for the band’s official showcase, or for those old albums, but for the new album in the works.
The Saints, unfortunately, were another story. The audience started out eager, crowding up to the stage as equipment was being carried out. When the band launched into its old punk rock hit “I’m Stranded,” fists pumped, beers were hoisted and many sang loudly along. But the group didn’t really have it together; in fact, after a while it almost seemed each member was playing in a different band. There was not only no chemistry but very little interaction. Frontman Chris Bailey joked about being drunk, but a lot of people had to be wondering if he was really joking. Gradually, the enthusiasm drained out of the audience, and some fans drifted away, while others stood with arms folded. I’m not sure how many had the fortitude to stick it out til the end. After six or seven songs, it was time to head out in search of something less dreary.
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Stooges are stooges
Reason No. 1 why you shouldn’t feel bad if you missed the Stooges set at Stubbs: The projection on the side of a building on Red River that said, “The Stooges: Activate your Bluetooth for the latest single.”
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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.
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.
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.
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A good reason for being late
On Thursday afternoon, Minneapolis public radio station 89.3 The Current took over the upstairs rooms in Buffalo Billiards to provide their worldwide streaming listeners with live broadcasts of some of the best of the SXSW musicians.
Running behind schedule, hip-hop rhyme-slayer Brother Ali (Ali Newman) ran into Buffalo Billiards, jumped on stage and grabbed the mike without breaking a sweat while his DJ, BK One, completed one of the fastest turntable set-ups ever.
“My 6-year-old son Faheem thought that my six-week long tour was starting today. He was convinced … and he did not want me to leave. He wasn’t havin’ it,” said Ali after his provocative, super-dope set. Ali spent so much time consoling his son that he ended up missing his Austin-bound plane out of Minneapolis.
Every other flight to Austin was booked, Ali said, so he caught a late flight to Houston and rented a car. “We drove straight to Austin, got out of the car and on to the stage.”
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Some Sugar with that coffee?
“My, how South by Southwest has grown,” former Austinite and indie rock legend Bob Mould told the crowd at Buffalo Billiards on Thursday, before remarking on the traffic. “Is this what the rest of the weekend will be like? At least I got to go to Flightpath and have a civilized cup of coffee.”
After his civilized cup of coffee, Mould gave a characteristically intense solo acoustic set with an uncharacteristic six-string (rather than 12-string) guitar, treating fans to Husker Du and Sugar tunes as well as one new song on a record he promised would be out in August and would be — characteristically — “kinda dark.”
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Buttercup, Buttercup, wherefore art thou?
When Buttercup kicked off their day party set at East Austin’s Hot Mama’s Espresso Bar at the Pedernales Lofts, the quartet was missing a member — lead singer Erik Sanden. Where was Erik?, everyone wondered after the first song sans Sanden. Members of the San Antonio band, playing in the Pedernales courtyard, seemed irritated. Could he be in one of the lofts over the coffee shop, taking a nap? The band urged the audience to shout “Erik! Erik!” Suddenly, the disheveled blond singer appeared from a loft’s third-floor balcony, dressed head to toe in pajamas.
Then he pulled out a microphone and sang along with his bandmates from the balcony, at one point facing Sixth Street and seranading curious drivers. 
After one song, he joined the band back on level ground.
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Because the English are known for their cuisine
In an interview with mtv.com, Lily Allen called Stubb’s barbecue “too gristly.” Truth be told, there’s no great barbecue in Austin: you need to drive to Lockhart, Llano, Luling or Taylor.
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Walking the walk
If only they could do this every day …
You can walk down South Congress Avenue for long stretches before hitting a crosswalk, which means people are always scurrying across the wide street to get to and from places such as the Continental Club and Yard Dog. For a popular pedestrian area, this makes no sense.
Luckily, for partiers and drivers alike, the Austin Police Department set up two temporary crosswalks Thursday night on South Congress: One near Guero’s Taco Bar, where the Mike Galaxy Presents: 8th Annual Day Party wrapped up with the Lovemakers and The Heights; and the other in front of the madhouse that was Hotel San Jose/Jo’s Hot Coffee’s South by San Jose fest, where the last acts of the day, Austin’s Sound Team and David Garza, played to a packed parking lot.
Flashing lights from parked police cars drew drivers’ attention to the orange cones that formed makeshift crosswalks for the hundreds of pedestrians crowding SoCo for the two free shows and many other parties.
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Do you have the fever?
I just got hit by the South By Southwest disease: making too big a deal about something that would be nothing the other 361 days. Someone asked me if I knew anything about Motorhead possibly playing a surprise show Friday at Red 7 and I got all excited about being in on the secret (unconfirmed). I started fantasizing about how cool it would be to hear “Ace Of Spades” live while all the other critics were at the Spin party. Then I realized that Motorhead comes to Austin all the time and I’ve never been. I like them, just not enough to go out and see them. But during SXSW there’s pressure to be an insider, to find the smartest party in the room, and you forget it’s just a band playing somewhere that needs the publicity.
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Bunny, hop on over there
Some poor soul in a giant pink Energizer Bunny costume was being led around the Convention Center by a handler Thursday afternoon — but the bunny’s ideal demographic was elsewhere. Maybe some savvy advertiser will figure out that they could reach a huge contingent of future consumers in the parking lot behind Jo’s Coffee on South Congress, where the under-5’s were out in force at the SX San Jose day party in strollers and Snuglis, drawing on the asphalt with chalk, showing off fancy Day-Glo plastic ear protection that looked like headphones (purchased on e-Bay, their mothers said) and even boogeying down to the Bee Gees’ ‘Jive Talking’ blasting from the P.A. between sets by the likes of the Octopus Project and the Glass Family.
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No wristband? Hit these spots pronto
Additional SXSW Music Festival wristbands will go on sale at 7:30 tonight at 10 locations. Cost is $175 each, cash only. Get in line at:
Bourbon Rocks, 508 E. Sixth St.
Buffalo Billiards, 201 E. Sixth St.
Elysium, 705 Red River St.
Habana Calle 6 Annex, 709 E. Sixth St.
Jovita’s, 1617 S. First St.
Lamberts, 401 W. Second St.
Maggie Mae’s, 512 Trinity St.
Momo’s, 618 W. Sixth St., Suite 200
Opal Divine’s, 700 W. Sixth St.
The Parish II, 214 E. Sixth St.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Music
Welcome back, Cris
A capacity crowd at the Parish cheered on Meat Puppets bassist Cris Kirkwood, who has returned to form after a horrifying drug addiction, chronicled in a Phoenix New Times story several years ago.
This is Kirkwood’s first show since getting sober, and the audience at the Anodyne Records party was clearly elated to welcome him back.
Kirkwood, the brother of Puppets lead singer Curt Kirkwood, has also moved back to Austin.
David Byrne panel report
Did David Byrne miss his calling? Or at any rate, one calling. The singer/songwriter/musician/producer/record-company-owner proved his potential as an archetypal absent-minded professor in his one-man panel titled “Record Companies: Who Needs Them?” He displayed two requisites for academic excellence: extensive knowledge and a wry sense of humor to fill those moments when his agile mind went wandering off on a new tangent, or strayed back to an old one, or was briefly discombobulated as his laptop brought the wrong chart up on the giant screen. The crowd that nearly filled the Convention Center ballroom listened indulgently, and in- between endearing bumblings, Byrne offered up plenty of food for thought on the future of the music industry.
Byrne said “Who Needs Them?” did not really signify a desire for record companies to go away, but rather that the role of the record company is changing as artists are able to reach their audiences in new ways. The labels’ function as “banks,” for instance, is disappearing as some costs go down. Digital downloads don’t have the manufacturing costs of CDs, and with outlets such as YouTube, “the bribery that used to go to MTV doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. Artists don’t necessarily need the labels’ financial clout for achieving airplay, since “radio as it stands won’t exist more than another couple years.” Byrne also showed a photo of a large professional recording studio, followed by a photo of a laptop, and said, “There’s my studio.”
Where record companies used to be essential and could offer take-it-or-leave-it contracts, Byrne said, nowadays there is a whole spectrum of options for using the resources of a record company. A Britney Spears might need the whole panoply of support offered by a traditional record contract, while another artist might want to cherry-pick from offerings such as marketing or distribution support. Byrne said the deal he is currently negotiating with Nonesuch won’t much resemble the type of deal he’d have signed 10 years ago, and he offered Aimee Mann as an example of someone who was dropped by her label “and rose from the ashes and did it all herself.”
Byrne concluded his talk by confessing, “I don’t have a good ending,” to a round of applause. “I hope I wasn’t too vague …” he apologized. The Q&A was prolonged, inevitably, by a few fans fawning for minutes before coming out with something only vaguely resembling a question, but one questioner led Byrne to offer some sharp insights on the decline of sound quality from CDs to digital downloads. “Sound quality probably peaked with vinyl,” Byrne said. “What we’ll have before too long will be about as good as the Edison cylinders. But when you think of it, that will be the best for live music!”
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A tribute to Emmylou
It was a who’s who of Americana music when such acts as Paula Cole, Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison, Buddy Miller, Allison Moorer, Charlie Sexton, the Watson Twins and more paid tribute to Emmylou Harris with the songbird looking on they packed the Driskill Hotel ballroom Thursday afternoon.
How cool was it to see Charlie Louvin, whose Louvin Brothers duo was a huge influence on Harris, singing “When I Stop Dreaming” with Emmylou beaming. Another highlight was Elizabeth Crook’s rendition of “If I Could Only Win Your Love.” Every act did only one song, which kept things moving.
Taking it all in was singer Boz Skaggs, who came all the way to Austin just for the tribute.
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Vice/Scion party outstanding at Stubb’s
Ah, Vice magazine. Encouraging our base urges since 1996.
Now that it’s gone global and multimedia, we can enjoy the so-ironic-it-becomes-sincerity take in a variety of formats, including the amazingly spotty record label, for which mercifully few acts played this fairly outstanding afternoon show.
Having successfully banished the rain in favor of an 80-plus degree Thursday afternoon, Vice and their corporate co-sponsors Scion littered Stubb’s with their propaganda. Vice’s newest is “The Iraq issue,” and yes, it’s as gnarly and depressing as that sounds (from both ends of the irony spectrum, frankly).
Scion published some magazine that tried very hard not to look like a big ad for Scion.
But save Panthers, the startingly dull hard rock at that has ended up on Vice Records, the music was a perfect mix of heavy and heavier. Pelican — whose instrumental thud actually gives the term “post-metal” some vague strain of legitimacy — sounded appropriately triumphant in the Texas sun.
But if Pelcian’s sound was victorious, Boris’ roar spiked the ball and did a Japanese end-zone dance. The power trio — guitar, drums (including gong!), and one of the ugliests bass-guitar doublenecks ever made — turned the air to spraying mud. Part biker rock, part psychedelia, Boris played its first-ever Austin show with a mighty set of bowel-abusing bass, thunderous drums and amps that were a good foot taller than guitarist Wata.
Boris was named after a Melvins song, so it was appropriate that the West Coast thunder-gods closed the show. With a new bassist and a second drummer (who themselves perform galloping noise punk as Big Business), the Melvins have simply taken everything rumbling about themselves and turned it up to 11.
Guitarist King Buzzo, looking dashing in a gothy mumu and enormous, graying Afro, still wrings hideously misshapen solos out of his Les Paul while drummer Dale Crover had almost his every move mimicked by second skin-pounder Coady Willis and bassist Jared Warren amped Buzzo’s vocal whine with his own dynamic bellow. Two new members, two aging vets and one of the best bands of its generation feels like a whole new ballgame.
Scoot Inn kicking despite license snafu
The Scoot Inn’s James Stockbauer was in a good mood Thursday afternoon, considering his alcohol sales were shut down by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission the day before. Stockbauer said he had a deal with the Scoot Inn’s previous owner to use her liquor license for the first three months he was open, but she canceled the permit on Wednesday.
“The TABC guys were saying, ‘Man, you must’ve really (ticked) her off,” said Stockbauer, who said he doesn’t know why the license was canceled. “The good news is that it’s a beautiful day, we’re open and rockin’ and all the beer is free,” he said.
Record labels have paid to rent the Scoot Inn (which reopened at Fourth and Navasota streets in East Austin just two months ago), which Stockbauer said takes some of the misery out of his mood. It also doesn’t hurt that Stockbauer’s Longbranch Inn was jam-slammed all day Wednesday.
Update: 24 hours later he was able to land a licence, and he said it was just a technicality with the TABC.
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Emmylou Harris: Still classy after all these years
Rule No. 1 for interviewers: No matter how famous you think you are, or how humble you think you’re being in front of the big star you’re talking to, please introduce yourself.
Director Jonathan Demme, a longtime F.O.L. B. (Friend of Louis Black), didn’t bother to introduce himself Thursday as he took the stage with victim Emmylou Harris. It took a good five minutes for a nice chunk of the crowd to figure out who the heck he was.
Rule No. 2 for interviewers: It’s an interview, not a conversation. Yet, Demme, in full “I love your work” mode, declared he was having “a conversation” and immediately started talking about the soundcheck that he saw with Harris’ musical partner, the brilliant Buddy Miller. This was potentially interesting to nobody.
Harris surfed it beautifully, noting the pointlessness of soundchecks “Sound changes once people are in the room. A sound check cancels itself out. It’s like a religious thing, your payment to the gods, a sacrament we go through.”
Demme, who shot Harris in the Neil Young film “Heart of Gold,” played the role of fan more than journalist, asking her how her voice worked, getting Harris to demonstrate vocal exercises (“KREEE-KREE!”)
Harris also played a few numbers, Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl” and “Love Hurts,” both of which featured lovely electric soloing from Miller.
The latter song inspired the following exchange:
Demme: “Do you mind if we talk about Gram Parsons?”
Harris: “I’ve been talking about Gram Parsons for 35 years.” Genius!
Her comments about “Love Hurts” were moving, noting that the line “I’m young” might not resonate coming out of the mouth of an older woman.
(She’s wrong; it becomes all the more powerful, but Demme said “ Maybe you could change it to, ‘I’m old.”)
“There’s something to age that deepens your experiece of love,” she said. “Your compassion deepens, and when you’re hurt, it’s deeper. Every major religion tells us that life is suffering, but that’s part of the gift of being alive.”
Amen.
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Final thoughts on the first day
The cold drizzle of Wednesday afternoon was upsetting to one band at the Canadian Blast BBQ at Brush Square Park, next to the Convention Center. “To have driven 30 hours from where the temperature is 30 degrees below zero,” said Young Galaxy singer Stephen Ramsay, “we’re quite disappointed that it’s too cold to wear our matching lime green thongs.”
Cameron McGill’s guitar is defective. It was written on his hollowbody electric: “This machine kills hipsters.” But every one walked away unscathed from Chicago’s Metro party at Emo’s on Wednesday.
“Rome is burning.” That’s what Pete Townshend said a record executive recently told him about the music biz. The Who guitarist talked about this during his keynote conversation Wednesday with Bill Flanagan. But Townshend said current technology bodes well for the future of rock ‘n’ roll. “We’ve got more information, more power, than we’ve ever had before. My generation was driving blind.”
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The SXSW endangered species: The nonsmoker
Is Marlboro the secret sponsor of this year’s SXSW? Are armies of promo people handing lit cigarettes to everyone who gets off a plane?
Signs everywhere warned out-of-towners not to smoke inside, but outdoors, nonsmokers seemed to be an endangered species — in lines, under tents, just trying to walk down the sidewalk without drawing in a lungful of tar and nictone. Forget those coal plants coming online, the more imminent danger to Austin’s air quality comes from those cigarette-waving hordes from Los Angeles or Chicago or wherever it is that people still like to go home at the end of the night smelling like ashtrays.
Sorry, I’m just irritable because my eyes sting.
Welcome back, Ghostland
Only a few days ago, Austin’s DIY electronica sensations Ghostland Observatory were playing shows in Europe for the first time, making new fans in Camden and London. Wednesday afternoon found the dynamic duo — keyboardist Thomas Turner and vocalist/guitarist Aaron Behrens — dusting off the jet lag and performing to old and new fans at Seattle’s KEXP 90.3 live radio broadcast. The station is recording shows with SXSW musicians during the festival at KLRU’s studios, on the same stage where “Austin City Limits” is filmed.
Although almost all the studio’s seats were full, enthusiastic fans arriving minutes before Ghostland Observatory’s 3 p.m. start time were able to walk right in. The KEXP live broadcasts, which continue through Saturday, are free and open to the public, providing music fans who don’t possess wristbands or badges an opportunity to see several high-profile bands.
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Gilberto Gil as smooth as ever
A very gracious Gilberto Gil, world renowned musician and Brazil’s Minister of Culture, spoke eloquently during a panel Wednesday about his civic duties in Brazil as well as his 40-plus year career in the music business. He waxed philosophical about everything from the invention of the Tropicalia music movement to nano technology.
“Silicon Valley is a byproduct of psychedelic culture. It’s not by chance that Silicon Valley is in California, near San Francisco,” Gil jested, inspiring laughs from the audience of more than 200 .
Gil spoke about the implications of Brazil’s international economy and exportation of culture.
“Hip-hop has an international currency in Brazil,” he said. “It’s a language now, recognized as a very important form of expression. It’s giving (young people) an opportunity to express their thoughts and their forms of resistance all over the world, and in Brazil also.”
“Culture is bio-power. It’s the power of life,” he continued. He spoke at length about Tropicalia (the musical form he helped to invent in the late 1960s), jamming with Jimmy Cliff, and his arrest by the dictatorial Brazilian government in the late ’60s, which led to his 2-1/2-year exile in London.
“I picked up the electric guitar for the first time” during the exile, Gil said. “I became a bandleader for the first time, and it was key for the future of music in Brazil. Electric (guitar) music really took off in Brazil. The exile was necessary for me to see Brazil in different ways, and to get (influenced by) the beat generation, the hippie generation and the revolution.”
The final question of the interview was the most compelling: How would Gil feel if all his songs were available online … for free?
“It’s an extreme. It’s a possibility. We can face a situation in 10 to 20 years where the possibility of an archive of my 500 songs or so could be free in a universal online archive. It just depends on the culture … but this is fair. It’s not just a matter of self-will. It’s a whole movement.”
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Street music
If you can’t get into that buzz-band showcase, or you bail on an act that turns out to be a bust and need to kill some time, try checking out the corner of Sixth and Brazos streets, where something always seems to be happening.
Around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, a group of kids played old-timey music in front of the Driskill Hotel with an older mentor on stand-up bass. The kid on banjo was pretty decent, but not as amusing as the little girl in an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt absently strumming a mandolin while chewing her gum with fierce concentration.
An hour or so later, on the opposite corner, a bagpiper in his 20s — who knew twentysomethings played the pipes? — raked in the tips with his fleet, bold playing. Right next to him, a bus driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a wobbly posse of scantily clad young women crossing against the light, and the driver blared his horn in what turned out to be a perfect interval for a long, mournful bleat from the piper.
Just down from the corner is B.D. Riley’s, where the acts play in an open window — no waiting in line, no wristband necessary if you don’t mind watching someone’s back. Australian Andrew Winton drew an outdoor crowd that included a couple of locals just passing by on their way to the bus stop across the street, marveling at his driving, percussive lap steel guitar. Later, the rollicking Blackie and the Rodeo Kings from Toronto had their own indoor-outdoor assemblage.
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Smile!
The Paramount’s “Reign Over Me” premiere drew some of SXSW Film’s biggest celebrities of the week: stars Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. Writer/director (and co-star) Mike Binder, whose “The Search for John Gissing” played the fest in 2002, joined them in introducing the film. Binder and Cheadle yanked cameras from their pockets to photograph all those in the crowd whose cell phone cameras were trained on the stage. Speaking about 10 syllables among them, the men seemed not to want to jinx the crowd’s response to a film whose delicate subject matter, a widower’s difficulty in coping with the 9/11 deaths of his wife and children, seems to have made its studio nervous about releasing it. They needn’t have worried: The moving, funny film is Sandler’s smartest move since “Punch-Drunk Love,” and the audience was with it wholeheartedly.
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Renaissance man, punk-style
Seattle, Wash.’s the Trashies were a no-show for their 10:30 p.m. slot at the Mortville/Super Secret Records showcase at Beerland on Wednesday evening. Al G (algae), guitarist for Austin 1978-style punk rock band the Ends, picked up an acoustic, rigged a mike together and played about 30 minutes of songs off the cuff. Turns out Mr. Al G is not just a crunchy punk rock power chord maestro; he’s also steeped in 1960s psych-pop; he got applause from those in the know when he played a Flamin’ Groovies cover with understated quietude … at a punk rock show!?!
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Van, trailer with gear of Mississippi band stolen in Dallas
DALLAS (AP) — A Mississippi rock band’s road trip to the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin hit a sour note with the theft of their instruments.
Somebody stole the van and trailer containing the instruments and support gear, worth about $50,000, from the indie group Colour Revolt, band members reported Wednesday.
There have been no arrests and no sign of the equipment.
The packed van and trailer were parked in an alley early Tuesday after Colour Revolt finished a show in the Deep Ellum club district. Band member Sean Kirkpatrick says the van had been parked in clear view.
Minutes later it was gone, according to a posting on the band’s Myspace.com site.
Members of the group from Oxford, Miss., say they will still try to make it to Austin for their gig and hopefully borrow some instruments.
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What is Gen Art?
Even folks who got into the invite-only Gen Art party Wednesday afternoon at Beauty Bar weren’t entirely sure what Gen Art was. As one generally informed scenester put it, “Uh, they’re a Web site, maybe?”
Well, here’s info from the site: “Gen Art is the leading arts and entertainment organization dedicated to showcasing emerging fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists.” This means they throw parties, art shows and screenings.
No wonder they set up at the Beauty Bar (and were co-sponsored by Biore, those folks who make the sticky things you clean your pores with). B.B. has become one of the Red River district’s most egregiously fashion-victim-driven bars. This party was no exception. Skinny jeans, detailed hair and sunglasses indoors abounded. DJ Kat NYC spun well-meaning techno to an often empty room for much of the day, but about 4 p.m. things got tighter. Early bands were met with small crowds (which Suffrajett’s generic-ish hard rock sort of deserved) but headliners Menomena packed the house (or, rather “tent”) with quirky indie rock. Indeed, their indie rock is the very definition of quirky (Baritone sax! Weird tempos!), but the kids loved it. Also, it kept them out of the rain.
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SXSW news from around the blogs
— Variety saw “Knocked Up” at SXSW and likes it, like, a lot.
— Lifehacker comes to Austin, improves beer skills.
— Wired on Slacker.
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Austinist, Gothamist and Gorilla Vs Bear Present ‘Gonna Gonna Get, Get Down 2’
On a day so foggy that you can see only what’s in directly front of you, and so muddy that walking down the street proves to be an arduous, slippery quest, it was hard to believe the size of the afternoon crowd gathered at Mohawk, a venue six blocks north of the Convention Center. Lined all the way around the block were loyal fans of the lineup for the day, which included Apes and Androids (pictured), the Hourly Radio, Teitur, Stars of Track and Field, and Peter and the Wolf, bands that packed both inside and outside stages throughout the majority of the seven-hour party.
Apes and Androids
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More wristbands on sale tonight
Additional SXSW Music Festival wristbands will go on sale at 7:30 tonight at 10 locations. Cost is $175 each, cash only. Get in line at:
Bourbon Rocks, 508 E. Sixth St.
Buffalo Billiards, 201 E. Sixth St.
Elysium, 705 Red River St.
Eternal, 418 E. Sixth St.
Habana Calle 6 Annex, 709 E. Sixth St.
Lambert’s, 401 W. Second St.
Maggie Mae’s, 512 Trinity St.
Momo’s, 618 W. Sixth St., Suite 200
The Parish II, 214 E. Sixth St.
The Rio, 301 San Jacinto Blvd.
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In the Twilight’s last screaming
Can’t tell if the stage is loud or the band is loud, but you could hear Glasgow guitar abusers The Twilight Sad at the outdoor Emo’s Annex all the way down to Stubb’s. “It somehow seems louder outside the tent than inside,” Emo’s booker Graham Williams said. Either way, the Twilight Sad seemed ready to explode heads with feedback. There was talk of turning it down, but it seems unlikely. Emo’s Annex does, however, have the single best message written on a tip jar that you will see at SXSW: “‘Cheers Mate’ is not an acceptable tip in Texas.” Cheers!…
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Fest’s first panel is an indie hit
Through a veil of heavy morning fog that occasionally turned into a misting rain, the 2007 SXSW Music Festival and Conference started Wednesday morning. And as with all recent SXSWs, it started with a line. The line for picking up badges ended on the ground floor, where a SXSW volunteer corralled folks before sending them upstairs to the actual line …
Over at the Field Guide to Indie Labels panel, a handful of the industry’s best and brightest indie bigwigs waxed philosophical about a business that seems smaller by the day. Perhaps it was because it was the first panel of the day and the day parties had not started yet, or maybe it was because people were actually interested, but the panel was surprisingly well-attended. Only a handful of seats remained at the start. (Or maybe they just wanted a glimpse of audience member Geoff Travis, one-time head of the legendary British indie Rough Trade. Who knew he was so tall?)
Longtime indie flack Rob Vickers, owner of Proxy Media, moderated the panel. Unsurprisingly, many of the labels had similar origins. Matador Records co-owner, Austin resident and noted sports blogger Gerard Cosloy joined Matador soon after its 1989 launch after time as a zinester, scenester and label manager.
Cosloy noted that his label’s biggest mistake came from taking on too many projects at once. “People tell us, ‘Well, you can put out anything you want,’ which is true, but we can never put out everything we want.” Also, Matador’s flirtation with hip-hop was a stone cold disaster, but that was only alluded to.
New West Records’ Cameron Strang said mistakes are inevitable. The trick is to have enough staff to support the biggest band on the label. “But then you need to know what to do with that staff when you don’t have one of those bands.”
Strang also noted that when dealing with distribution, honesty is the best policy. When he was starting out as one-guy operation, he sought a deal with Red Distribution, which asked him how many records he thought he could sell. “I was like, ‘Man, what do they want to hear?’,” Strang said. He went with his honest gut feeling, telling them he could move 10,000 copies of a good record. Red offered him a deal. “They said when people tell them number like 100,000, 200,000, they know that that label will be out of business very fast.”
Two elephants in the room were acknowledged: the question of digital distribution and - a far touchier subject - labels taking touring revenue. Cosloy noted that if the trend continues, the logical conclusion is that large concert promoters will try to launch label. Charles Attal, are you listening?…
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Interactive panel wrap-ups
Warren Spector, Austin game designer at Junction Point Studios, is an incredibly affable guy and anything he says about the gaming industry should be listened to, intently, if only because of his incredible track record. This is Warren “Deus Ex” Spector, after all. Warren “System Shock” Spector. Warren
In his talk on next-generation storytelling, Spector outlined the ways in which games tell stories (usually badly) and the ways in which he pacing, characters and subtext can influence game design.
Most interesting were his ideas on player restraint (unlimited freedom usually means terrible game design) and the ways in which games like “Deus Ex” introduce moral dilemmas.
The chat dovetailed nicely with Tuesday’s Will Wright keynote. Spector and Wright are on the same page about a lot of storytelling concepts. While Wright’s was a mile-a-second race through his brain, Spector’s was a thoughtful discussion on the kinds of concepts the most talented and ambitious game designers struggle with.
The Future of books was a panel I only caught a whiff of, but I liked what I smelled. Companies like blurb.com are trying to democratize the book publishing process, giving artists and writers the tools to not only publish their work, but also the tools to do book design using their free software.
The results can be beautiful: one example of a musician’s book (with a CD enclosed) showed how artists who are selling their music online can still create tactile products for fans willing to pay a little extra to have something in their hands.
Publishing, one panelist said, is like venture capital for authors. Unfortunately, one local writer who has had a book published before and now wants to put out her magazine articles in book form was told she’s got an incredibly tough road ahead as the most tough area of book publishing is for writers who aren’t indie but aren’t bestsellers. Beware the middle-road.
A panel on writing about dating had an engaging set of panelists with varying experiences writing online and for magazines about their personal lives. Most said they try not write about current relationships, but that ones that crashed and burned are fair games. All agreed that there can be serious consequences for writing about your personal life, and all the writers were sensitive to what readers and online commenters have to say about their work — oftentimes the writers are criticized on a personal level for their work, which makes it that much harder to be personal and to be real.
The Future of TV panel Sarah Lindner mentioned was mind blowing to me. The interface shown off by David Merkoski of San Francisco’s Frog Design, was so slick and instantly desirable, it made me scream in my head, “I want that! Right NOW!” Unfortunately, it’s at least a year away.
Think TiVo, but without all the nested menus. Using a simple directional control brings up picture-in-picture views of live channels, recommendations, time-shifted views of the current show you’re watching and recorded programming.
While I was dubious of Merkoski the moment he said he doesn’t watch TV, the “Mondrian” interface being worked on for OpenTV is pretty mind-blowing, taking the linear approach out of TV watching. While it will be scary to use at first for some general users who live and die by TV grids, it’s nice to see a TV-viewing interface that may actually be the successor to TiVo.
I only got to see a tiny bit of Will Leitch’s panel about Deadspin.com before running into an old colleague I wanted to catch up with. Leitch is a funny guy running a very funny site and I think he underestimates his own influence. I predict lots of mainstream sports sites (espn.com included) are going to offer imitations of his writing style, which is looser and more fun than a lot of what you get about sports online.
The trade show was dominated by film/TV production-related booths. I thought I was going to spent half an afternoon there, but after a mere 15 minutes walking around, I was already bored. Sorry, trade show.
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Visa woes for cancelation
The Dublin, Ireland-based Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela have canceled their SXSW appearance, scheduled for 10 p.m. Thursday at Stubb’s because of Rodrigo’s visa issues, according to their official Web site.
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Interactive wrapup — Tuesday panels
One last day of geeking out:
At “The Future of Television: Super-Modality,” David Merkoski of Frog Design showed a demo of how we could be channel-surfing in the future. It pretty much makes your current on-screen program guide look like a 1975 issue of TV Guide. It’s hard to explain — especially if you’re us, and just learned what GUIs and ZUIs are yesterday — but instead of navigating through programming grids, channel surfing becomes more like choosing options on your Wii.
During “Can Social Networking Build Your Brand”, Jason Schwartz of Robber Baron Music gave the do’s and don’ts of using social networks to build your marketing. A big don’t: Making up a fake MySpace page (or YouTube channel, or Flickr page) to market your brand, without disclosing that the page was created by your company. You’ll be found out, and it’ll all just lead to bad publicity.
A better approach: Using social-networking sites to find out about the preferences of your target audience. This doesn’t just mean, for example, finding out sites by tea fans if you’re trying to sell tea. You also can use sites like del.icio.us to find out about other sites beloved by tea fans. This gives you less-obvious places of selling your product, and more of a chance of your target audience paying attention.
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Slash and burn
If you think you saw Slash in town, you probably did. The Velvet Revolver guitarist was scheduled to be the surprise special guest at Thursday’s party at the Hi-Lo for the Guitar Hero game.
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SXSW film winners
Winning films and videos at SXSW Film 2007 were announced about an hour ago, and here they are:
Jury Awards:
REEL Shorts:
Special Jury Award: “Clear Cut, Simple” (directed by Vineet Dewan)
Winner: “Pop Foul” (Moon Molson)
Animated Shorts:
Special Jury Award: “One Rat Short” (Alex Weil)
Winner: “Tragic Story with a Happy Ending” (Regina Pessoa)
Experimental Shorts:
Special Jury Award: “The Lonely Lights. The Color of Lemons.” (Benjamin M. Piety)
Winner: “27,000 Days” (Naveen Singh)
Music Videos:
Special Jury Award: Constantines, “Working Full-TIme” (Drew Lightfoot)
Winner: Thom Yorke, “Harrowdown Hill” (Chel White)
Texas High School Competition:
Special Jury Award: “Daily Routine” (Adela Escobar)
Winner: “Murder for 9 Points” (Brandon Day)
Documentary Feature:
Special Jury Award: “Cat Dancers” (Harris Fishman)
Special Jury Award: “Audience of One” (Michael Jacobs)
Winner: “Billy the Kid” (Jennifer Venditti)
Narrative Feature:
Special Jury Award: “Frownland” (Ronald Bronstein)
Special Jury Award: “Orphans” (Ry Russo-Young)
Winner: “Itty Bitty Titty Committee” (Jamie Babbit)
Audience Awards:
Emerging Visions:
- Winner: “The Price of Sugar” (Bill Haney)
Documentary Feature:
- Winner: “Run Granny Run” (Marlo Poras)
Narrative Feature:
- Winner: “Skills Like This” (Monty Miranda)
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One-Word Review: Will Wright’s SXSW Interactive Keynote
Genius!
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Paging Perez
Jewish/British R&B/ jazz singer Amy Winehouse has eight shows at SXSW, and don’t be surprised if gossip-monger Perez Hilton is at every one. Mayor McSleeze, whose Perezhilton.com is to celebrity news what Naomi Campbell is to phone etiquette, has confirmed to a source that he’ll be at SXSW and he’s a nearly obsessed follower of notorious party girl Winehouse, who’s been in a bit of a feud with fellow SXSW act Lily Allen. Perez Hilton at SXSW: a new low point in the high life, or is it the other way around?
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Let’s time travel
Spotty wi-fi down at the Convention Center means we never got to talk about a couple of Monday mini-sessions we got to attend.
In “Journalism in the Blogosphere: A Legal Guide to the Internet ‘Press,’ ” presenter Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik could have benefited from a longer session.
She said that there’s still a line between blogging and more mainstream news media, with conventional reporters still afforded more protection, but that line is shifting.
If you want the protections of a reporter, Wasylik said, act like a reporter. Stick to matters of public concern. Stick to fact and informed opinion, not rumor-mongering or innuendo. Even go as far as to describe yourself as “an Internet magazine” instead of a blog.
Our own commentary now: This is admittedly an uniformed opinion, but it seems like the courts’ preference for naming things in terms of mainstream media is a sign of discomfort or at least unfamiliarity with new forms of sharing information — that “blog” automatically signals something unreliable, and that there’s no distinction between different kinds of blogs.
Wasylik gave a rundown of what libel is. More commentary from us: If you blog, you must take it upon yourself to learn about libel. Start by finding a copy of the Associated Press stylebook and reading the libel section.
We wish there had been more time in the session to talk about libel specifically as it applies to blogs. One intriguing area involved the notion of context. For example, she cited the case of a blogger who was sued over his remarks about a company. The court ruled that it was clear that his posts were his opinion and that it wasn’t like they carried the imprimatur of, say, the Wall Street Journal.
So should you present yourself with “I’m a serious magazine” or “Hey, these are just one little guy’s opinions” to give yourself the best legal protection? We don’t know, but would like to find out more about this area.
“The Invisible Blogosphere” took on a topic we wrote about recently in the Austin American-Statesman — the “peak” of blogging as seemingly shown by the recent report from Gartner that the number of blogs would start to level off and decline. (Here’s a link to the story as it ran in another paper. This was the slide shown at the presentation, which we point out because the headline is not very good and misses the larger point of the story — that blogging is not dead but evolving.)
Presenter Jay Allen of Six Apart said he doesn’t believe a single stat he sees about the number of blogs out there. So you can gather that he doesn’t believe this “blogging has peaked” business He says that there’s a vast part of the blogosphere that we aren’t aware of. It includes overlooked blogs (ones that are read by only a couple of people) and blogs that are hidden behind firewalls (like company blogs) or various privacy protections, like the various friends lists you can configure on Six Apart’s LiveJournal. He also cites what he called an explosion of blogs in languages other than English. Russians, we were fascinated to learn, love their LiveJournal. In fact, the Russian term for “blog” is “LJ.”
Allen showed a slide with a quote that essentially said that anyone who would want to blog had already started one. Which, as he points out, seems patently untrue. We think there are groups that aren’t expressing themselves online that could soon head there en masse with the right tools — say, seniors.
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Chamillionaire calls in sick
Houston rapper Chamillionaire has called in sick for his interview/ performance at the George Carver Museum in East Austin. Despite heavy rains, as of 5 p.m., the show was scheduled to go on, with Lil Keke subbing. Also on the bill, under the tent, will be Gutta Gang and Cyril Neville. The 6:30 p.m. show, organized by the National Recording Academy, is a rare Tuesday official showcase.
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Will Wright’s keynote address
After game developer Will Wright spoke to a large audience at the SXSW Interactive Festival on Tuesday, I overhead one audience member ask another what he thought.
“Wow,” was the one-word answer.
Wright is the developer behind “The Sims” and “Sim City.” He is considered a revolutionary game developer, launching the most successful PC franchise ever. So there is a lot of hype behind his latest game, “Spore,” which is expected to be released this year after six years of development.
Wright catered to the SXSW audience, talking about parallels between storytelling in games and movies. His left arm was bandaged from a skiing accident, but that didn’t stop him from talking nonstop for an hour, flipping through a lengthy “Power Point” presentation.
“I had way too much coffee today,” Wright said.
He discussed his favorite movies and why they are like games. “Groundhog Day” and “The Truman Show” are most like games, Wright said. “Groundhog Day” showed what happens when the main character was stuck repeating the same day over and over, with different things happening in each day. That’s very similar to games, Wright said, and, in fact, games should emphasize the repetition less, allowing players to skip ahead to different levels. “The Truman Show” is like a game because it sets up a fictional world for the main character, Truman, to live in.
“I wish games were more like ‘The Truman Show,’” Wright said.
“The Sims,” Wright said, helped generate stories more like traditional movies or books. Players would get so involved in their Sims worlds that they would create stories around them and post them online to share with other players. They wrote about everything from what happens at the local Starbucks to the tragic tale of a woman involved in an abusive relationship.
“Games are being though of as a tool for self-expression,” Wright said.
But by far the most engaging part of his speech was his demonstration of “Spore,” a game he has been working on for six years. His games are called “God games” and for good reason. They put total control in the hands of the players.
“Spore” allows a player to construct his or her own creature, using a “creature editor” to add mouths, feet, hands, legs and arms. If a player is successful, the creature will reproduce, building its own tribe, then a species, and eventually take over an entire planet and the universe, traveling via a spaceship that, of course, the player can build and decorate to his or her taste.
He quickly ran through the beginning single-celled organism phase, where he was eaten by a larger creature. Then he showed us what it looks like when that creature moves on to land, where he was again eaten by a competitor species.
“I wasn’t supposed to die,” Wright said.
Wright thinks of his games as a way to extend a player’s imagination. A big fan of Montessori schools, which he attended as a child, Wright creates games that help a player explore and understand how the world works.
“I want it to bring up interesting issues for the players,” Wright said. “When you look at the effect life can have on the universe, it is philosophically staggering.”
“The entire planet is a toy you can play with,” Wright said.
In one memorable example, Wright showed what happens with there are too many greenhouse gases introduced into an Earth-like planet on Spore. The oceans rise, drowning out the continents. Then several different species start dying off and eventually the heat rises so much that the planet turns into a ball of fire, scorched by those gases.
“Our biggest problem as humans, is we are so bad about long-term thinking,” Wright said. “It’s so hard for us to think about 100 years from now.” His game went from teaching evolution to, as he joked, a “sequel to Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’”
“Games have this perception of being simple, meaningless tools we waste our time with,” Wright said. “But we’re already seeing games that change the way we see our behavior and the way we think about the world.”
He finished up with a quick “Thank you, that’s the end.”
He got a standing ovation and was quickly surrounded by dozens of admiring fans.
Wow.
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Dan Rather panel/HDNet addendum
For the commenter who asked: the “Dan Rather Reports” live special airs 7 tonight (Tuesday, March 13) on HDNet. It’s a one-hour show. The event at the LBJ Library is open to the public.
And not to add insult to injury, but here’s a photo of Monday’s panel. Bear in mind that Dan Rather is still speaking and the panel is still going at this point:
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The creature editor
This morning I got to try out the “creature editor” for Will Wright’s new game “Spore.”
Wright is the creator of “The Sims” and “Sim City” and is a celebrity in the game world. He is also speaking this afternoon in Austin at the SXSW Interactive Festival.
The creature editor is what it sounds like. It allows you to design your own creature for “Spore.” Like a potter molding clay, you decide the shape the creature will take. I was given a menu of different arms and legs, eyes, mouth, feet and hands. Weapons can be tacked on, as can design details. Then, you get to color the animal, adding different colors and textures.
My animal ended up looking like something out of “Shrek” with arms that looked like they were put on backwards. It’s arms dangled to the floor, like a gorilla, and its legs were short and squat. Its body looked like a misshapen cantaloupe and it was green and yellow, with scales on its belly.
It was a goofy-looking creature, I’ll admit, but I loved it just the same. I felt omnipotent, excited that I was able to design something from scratch.
I could see what babies of this creature would look like, and make it do different dances and poses. It was easy to see how addicting it could be, and this was just the creature editor! I didn’t even see the game.
“Spore” was originally called Sim Everything and it takes you from developing a single-celled organism to propagating an entire species and eventually conquering the entire universe.
Look for more updates as I blog about Wright’s keynote speech at 2 p.m.
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How can we help you?
We’re at the “Customer Service Is the New Marketing” panel, hearing from smart folks from places like Flickr and Zappos. All are singing the praises of the forum as a customer service tool, providing a place where customers actually help each other. It’s a shakeup of the usual relationship between business and customer. Also, we keep being struck by how much of this online stuff comes down to the personal level, when, back in the day, we were scared of isolation caused by the Internet (remember Sandra Bullock’s “The Net”?)
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Cuteness rules!
We are happier than a kitten with a new fishing-pole toy that Cute Overload claimed Best American Web Log on Monday at the Bloggies, although still a bit sad that the site’s Meg Frost, doyenenne of all that is cute, did not attend SXSW. Against all hope, we kept imagining that she’d flown in on the Cute Overload private jet (Sugarglider 1) and would alight on the Convention Center with her bodyguards (cats in dark glasses, wearing earpieces).
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Dan Rather goes old-school on SXSW fest goers
Maybe it’ll play better on the Internet …
Dan Rather appeared as a keynote speaker at South by Southwest Interactive on Monday in a nearly full ballroom at the Hilton Austin downtown. Though the room was packed with attentive attendees, things got off to a bad start when interviewer Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com had to repeat her first question twice because of lousy acoustics. The question, in contrast to the forward-looking festival, was about Richard Nixon.
The cozy-chair interview format did not flatter Rather: Though he took partial blame for the mainstream media’s loss of credibility in the past few years (“What we need in journalsm is a spine transplant,” he said to applause), much of the old-school journalism he preached (ethic, accountability, independence) went only so far with the bloggers, programmers and new-media evangelists. Ten minutes before the keynote ended, audience members started streaming out. By the time the last audience question was asked, about half the crowd was gone.
Rather will be in town tonight for a live broadcast from the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library for “Dan Rather Reports” on the HDNet channel. The town-hall meeting will focus on immigration and will include a taped interview with LBJ biographer Robert Caro. Appearing live will be film producer Elizabeth Avellán, Bill Hammond of the Texas Association of Business, Lisa Graybill of the ACLU of Texas and University of Texas professor Ricardo Ainslie.
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The Digital Ethnorati
The lack of Wi-Fi in the conference room (and in quite a few areas of the convention center — what’s up with that?) meant devoting full attention to a panel on how culture and education can develop among the “Digital Ethnorati,” what panelist Liza Sabater of Culturekitchen Media describes as not merely a color or racial affiliation, but also one of social and political identification.
The too-brief 60-minute panel touched on the digital divide (yes, it still exists), the dangers of turning the have-nots into globalized consumers (a notion I disagree with, but I’ll leave that discussion for later in this entry) and how Wiki-style projects can teach students (like high schoolers at Connecticut’s Center for 21st Century Skills) how to collaborate online.
Two students from Crosby High School in Connecticut were present, but the emotional high point of the panel were live tears from a third student now living in Brazil who was Web-cammed in by panelist Stephen Wilmarth. She spoke of how she’s been able to continue her digital collaboration with fellow students online, and when she cried on camera while describing the experience, the half-full room broke into applause.
Much of the discussion focused on access, and my thoughts on the third-world $100 laptop supported this: Give people tools, and they will use them in surprising ways that find ways around barriers the corporate structure might put in place.
Sabater said of the Digital Ethnorati: “We are early adopters of technology, creating rich digital culture all over the world.”
In short, she added, “We are colored, hip and wired.”
A former student from Crosby High School checks in from Brazil via Webcam.
Panelists from the Digital Ethnorati Interactive panel.
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Sunday Interactive wrap-up
First, kilts. More are being sported this year by the men of SXSW Interactive. At least the best we can tell. Discuss.
On to panels. Started the day at “Designing for Convergent Devices,” which, full disclosure, was moderated by Jeff Beckham from AT&T, the only SXSW panelist with whom we exchange Valentines. Among the highlights: Ben Combee from Palm talked about creating the SXSW schedules that have been magically beamed into our Palm Pilots (and which we shamefully admit to being too unsavvy to remove) and the challenges of cramming all that info into such a little digital package. Also enjoyed a look into the design process of Zannel. Overall, a great chance to geek out about the science of communication (hey, beneath our world-weary facade is still the bright-eyed girl who used to adore Comm Theory class back in college). Here’s a link to Jeff’s blog with an overview to the panel and links to more blog coverage of it.
“Blogging Where Speech Isn’t Free” was enough to get you all fired up about what the Net could do beyond disseminate pictures of a shorn Britney Spears. Especially interesting was Shahed Amanullah who talked about altmuslim.com and the role of blogging as a force of moderation and modernity in Islam. Also fascinating to learn from Shava Nerad about the Tor Project. It offers a way to blog without being traced, which comes in handy if you’re a dissident in a country that represses the Web. Kept things international after lunch with “Perspectives on Designing for Global Audiences”, which delved into, among other things, how our culture affects the Web pages we design and how to design for a culture other than your own.
We happened into “Deadlines, Clients and Cashflow: The Business Side of Web Design” but absolutely loved James Archer’s focused, entertaining presentation. He packed tons of info into this mini-session, and also quoted Bell Biv Devoe, both of which we highly encourage. SXSW will be posting podcasts from panels, and if you’re interested in starting your own business, definitely seek out this one.
One of Archer’s points — don’t work for free — was contradicted by the panelists of ” ‘I’m Good, Really!’: Self-Marketing for the Freelance Web Geek,” which we attended mostly because we are such fans of Lifehacker and that site’s editor, Gina Trapani, who was moderator. It was alarming to keep hearing Trapani mention her other work outside Lifehacker — we prefer to think of her devoting all her time to compiling the tips we so love.
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E-mail disasters and how to avoid them
We all have our e-mail disaster stories. Sending embarrasing e-mails to the wrong person. E-mail office wars ignited over a misplaced periods. Never-ending mailing list conversations.
David Shipley, an op-ed editor for The New York Times, and Will Schwalbe, an editor-in-chief at Hyperion Books, regaled us with stories Sunday at SXSW Interactive on e-mail disasters and how to avoid them. They wrote a book on the topic and collected amusing anecdotes along the way.
They documented horror story e-mails, such as this one from former FEMA director Michael Brown: “If you look at my lovely FEMA attire, you’ll really vomit. I’m a fashion god.”
Or the girl who sent a goofy test e-mail to two of her colleagues it ended up sending it to a huge mailing list of 30,000 people.
They boil down their advice to the “eight deadly sins of e-mail.”
The e-mail that’s unbelievably vague. (“Remember to do that thing.”)
The e-mail that insults you so badly you have to get up from your desk. (“HOW COULD YOU HAVE NOT DONE THAT THING?”)
The e-mail that puts you in jail. (“Please tell them that I asked you to sell that thing when it hit $70.)
The e-mail that’s cowardly. (Here’s the thing. You are being let go.)
The e-mail that won’t go away. (Re. re. re. re. re. re.)
The e-mail that’s so sarcastic you have to get up from your desk. (“Smooth move on that thing. Really smooth.”)
The email that’s too casual. (“Hiya! Any word on that admissions thing?”)
The e-mail that’s inappropriate. (Want to discuss that thing in my hotel room?”)
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Capsule review: David Wain’s ‘The Ten’
I got into the swing of SXSW Film with two movies today. My first film of the festival was the absurd new comedy ‘The Ten’ from Stella and The State alum David Wain. Festival producer Matt Dentler explained in his introduction at the Paramount screening that while ”The Ten” may have been a midnight screening at Sundance this winter, it is the type of film that can play any time during SXSW - morning, noon or night.
As the film’s narrator Paul Rudd tells the audience from the outset, the movie is a series of 10 vignettes based on the Ten Commandments. From America’s fascination with idolizing celebrities as false idols, to a prison inmate coveting a fellow inmate’s ”wife,” the stories were not only completely absurd, but also very meta, with tongue-in-cheek irony and self-referential humor sprinkled throughout. Some of the bits achieved much better results than others. I particularly liked a scene in which a delusional Wynona Ryder falls in love with a ventriloquist’s dummy, and another sequence in which a 35 year-old virgin travels to Mexico and loses her virginity to Jesus. Yes, the Jesus. I also enjoyed seeing all of the members of The State, along with a slew of cameos that did not feel too gratuitous, although Jessica Alba’s appearance made me scratch my head.
In between the acts, Rudd’s narrator character engaged the audience with his own moral play, a device that helped break up the pieces nicely. While some of the bits lagged or missed their marks, the movie did not drag as a whole because of the use of the vignettes. Much like long-form improvisation or sketch comedy, if one bit seemed to fail slightly, you could take solace in the fact that another was right around the corner. A few elements and characters reappeared in each story, giving the movie as a whole a bit of a through line. The audience seemed delighted with the absurdist pastiche from the seasoned post-modern sketch comedy veteran.
I guess I will be trite and go ahead and give grades for the films I see this Fest; so, I’ll give ”The Ten” a B. It made me laugh; although there were a few times it just seemed to be trying a little too hard.
As for the venue, I don’t know if it is because the wonderful and friendly ushers at the Paramount are all septuagenarians, but it is always freezing in that place. Like, you could hang meat cold, and I’ve had more leg space on a flight from Dallas to Abilene. Just sayin’.
Additional note: For all of you fans of The State, Wain said production of a DVD of the late great show is in the works.
Random celebrity sighting: members of OK Go, who apparently took in a matinee before opening for Snow Patrol tonight at Stubb’s.
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Austin’s Street Fighter Champion
Hsien Chang may be one of the few people who came to SXSW and made money. Chang is the winner of the Street Fighter tournament at Screenburn Arcade, pocketing a cool $1,000. The tournament is sponsored by Toyota Yaris and is completely free to enter. The quiet 24-year-old brought his own toaster-size joystick and beat out hundreds of other players. He also won a slot at the world Street Fighter championship in Las Vegas. Change became a minor celebrity after winning about 4 p.m. Saturday, surrounded by dozens of young men who wanted to know how he did it. It takes practice, Chang said. He’s been playing since he was about 12, he said, but perfected the Street Fighting art at local hangout Einstein’s Arcade while he was a UT student. He practiced the one-on-one fighting game hours a week with his friends. I asked him if he had any advice for young gamers who want to enter tournaments. ”Don’t do it,” Chang said. ”It takes up too much time.” He now works at IBM in Austin.
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You CAN play video games for a living
The Frag Dolls are a group of girl gamers paid by game company Ubisoft to, yes, play games for a living. I met several of these ladies at SXSW’s (free!) ScreenBurn Arcade. In between photos with their many, er, male fans, Frag Dollers Amy Brady and Brooke Hattabaugh talked about getting more girls interested in video games. While playing “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2” at SXSW, Brady, dressed in a pink and black tight-fitting Frag Dolls T-shirt, said she joined the seven-girl team after responding to an ad on Craigslist. The idea is to get girls interested in gaming, Brady said, although they’ve acquired quite a few male fans along the way. The compete on all-girl teams. “I still get harassed by guys sometimes, and there are those stereotypes still out there,” Brady said. She said online men will ask her to “go cook in the kitchen,” and taunting her about her game skills. But she said the Frag Dolls won a global tournament for “Rainbow Six” last year, beating an all-male team. “They didn’t like to lose to girls,” Brady said. Hattabaugh said she has seen the number of women gamers rise since she was hired by Ubisoft about three years ago. “I used to think, when I was a kid, that it would be so cool if I could play games for a living,” Hattabaugh said. “When I was in college, I just wasted my time away playing video games.” Now Hattabaugh says she gets paid to lie in bed at home and practice playing games. “We’re told from guys sometimes, oh you guys are only paid to do this because you’re women,” Hattabaugh said. “And that’s true, we know we’re hired partly because of how we look. But it’s not like you have to be booth babe material, we’re all different.” She said the reaction from girls and guys has mostly been positive. “The guys tell me, I wish my girlfriend or wife was more like you,” Hattabaugh said, laughing. After 10 minutes of chatting, I was told I needed to leave so the girls could do their job. A line of a dozen men had formed. And they all wanted to try to beat the Frag Dolls.
Permalink | | Categories: interactive
Liveblogging Kathy Sierra opening remarks at Interactive
Notes from her talk:
— The people in the room for the talk make the stuff that makes it unnecessary to be at the talk in person. But yet we’re all here — why? We still like to be with other humans. To make applications more lovable, we have to add “human-ness.”
— That could be helping users get together offline (user groups, “camps” for different interests, low-cost events) or helping interactions with software feel more human.
— Computers can’t read our expressions like humans can. The computer can’t tell if we’re confused by our facial expression and then respond.
— “Our apps. have Asperger’s,” Sierra said. Asperger’s is a disorder on the autism spectrum. “Aspies” are often intelligent but rigid and have trouble with emotional interactions.
— Helping users learn to your use tools quickly will inspire their passion.
— So how can an application know when a person is confused? FAQs and online help aren’t taking care of this. “Help” files assume we’re a lot less stressed and more happy than we are. We’re freaking out, and the Help file doesn’t respond to this.
— The “Canyon of Pain” is the gap between what’s in the Help file and what we need. We can’t say “I don’t know what it’s called, but it does this, and I need it” to a computer, but we can to a human.
— If someone looks confused, we would ask them questions to try to help. So we need a dialogue with the user.
— “Frequently asked questions” aren’t really that frequently asked by real users. We need to give them more options. Goal: Get the user to the right context and then give him an understandable set of questions that don’t assume prior knowledge. Reach the user at the level where she is at that moment. Start by letting the user choose statements like “I’m lost” or “Why did this happen?” to help them get started.
—The bottom line is to give the user a way to express herself to the system in a more human-interactive way.
— What other emotions could the computer “recognize”? Maybe users could click on a face that mirrors their emotions.
— There could also be other ways of the system giving help. Right now, the FAQ might be your only shot. If you don’t understand the FAQ, the answers aren’t available expressed any other way.
— Talk like a human! FAQs often aren’t worded in a natural, conversational way. The tiniest changes in wording can make a big difference. Our brains pay more attention to conversational language.
— We treat people who buy our products worse than the people who haven’t yet. Ads and brochures are slick and beautiful; manuals are dull.
— “The key to passionate users is actually just helping them learn.” Think about the impact of your work and how you can change a user’s experience. If you can help a user into the “flow” state, you’re giving them great happiness. You’re changing the world one user at a time.
Permalink | | Categories: interactive
Interactive: Scenes from Screenburn
We just took a swing through the ScreenBurn Arcade, where highlights included seeing people play “Guitar Hero” on a TV in the trunk of a tricked-out Toyota Yaris.
Another cool, guitar-related highlight: A demo of “Jam Sessions” by Ubisoft for the Nintendo DS. It’s hard to explain, but essentially you strum a guitar using the Touch Screen. “Jam Sessions” is called a game, but it’s very different from “Guitar Hero,” and seems more geared to musicians. It’s touted as giving you the chance to play guitar anywhere, anytime you want — so if the inspiration to write a song hits while you’re riding the bus, you can pull out your DS, put on your headphones and create away.
“Jam Sessions” will be out in June.
If you’re attending Interactive and have a budding young gamer in your life, you can register to send him or her to Austin Community College’s Gamecamp, which will teach kids about the video game industry.
One difference we’re noticing from the last time we were at Interactive a couple of years ago is the strong presence of Twitter. If you go look at the timeline on the home page, you’ll see several updates from Austin.
Permalink | | Categories: interactive
The buzz on Spin party
Nascent punk pop band the Buzzcocks will be playing the Spin party at South by Southwest on March 16 at Stubb’s. Annually one of the most sought after party invites, the “Spindig” will also feature Kings of Leon, Galactic with Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab and Boots Riley, plus Mew, the Fratellis and Ben Jelen. The party starts at 12:30 p.m. and goes to 6 p.m. A party laminate is required.
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More wristbands to go on sale March 14
Another batch of SXSW wristbands will go on sale on Wednesday, March 14, at various locations around town for $175 each. The initial group of 4,000 wristbands, priced at $130 for the first 2,000 and $160 for the remaining 2,000, sold out at Waterloo Records in 24 hours. Just as in that case, fans will be notified of sales locations by text message. Fest director Roland Swenson said organizers won’t decide how many additional wristbands go on sale until after tallying the number of conference registrants.
More money for bands
The 1,300-plus acts scheduled to play SXSW this year are getting a bump in pay, though most will refuse it. In the past, each act — big and small — received a flat fee of $175. That total’s gone up to $225. Bands also have the option to waive the fee and instead accept the much more valuable package of credentials, which includes one badge (value: $650) and wristbands for each member ($160 value each). Usually the only acts who’ll take the money are those who are just in town for a day to play their showcase.
Don’t miss Waterloo’s in-store performances during SXSW
Madhouse of SXSW week is sure to be the Stooges’ free 6 p.m. set March 16 at Waterloo Records, with the 3 p.m. March 15 set by British sensation Lily Allen being a close second. Here’s the entire schedule of Waterloo in-stores during SXSW:
THURSDAY, MARCH 15
- 2 p.m. Sparklehorse
- 3 p.m. Lily Allen
- 4 p.m. Ponys
- 5 p.m. Busdriver
- 6 p.m. Albert Hammond Jr.
FRIDAY, MARCH 16
- 2 p.m. Rwake
- 3 p.m. Peter, Bjorn & John
- 4 p.m. Brett Dennen
- 5 p.m. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
- 6 p.m. Stooges
SATURDAY, MARCH 17
- 2 p.m. Money Mark
- 3 p.m. Amy Winehouse
- 4 p.m. Danava
- 5 p.m. Rosie Thomas
- 6 p.m. Young Knives
Refreshments for all in-stores provided by St. Arnold Brewing Co.
