SXSW

Dispatches from our ambassadors abroad (in Texas)

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South by Southwest is over. Our ambassadors to the Great State of Texas have dropped down 35W into Austin and sprung back like some sort of cross-country yo-yo. The whole time, a message board tethered to the website of Minneapolis label Modern Radio was transmitting dispatches from the expedition.

Band members with user names disguising their identities from all but the message board regulars wrote from the road there and back and from the long days of the festival. Here is a smattering of the chatter:

On the road there:

SCAMP: after the lightrail broke down this morning and i missed my flight, i thought i would never make it. but somehow it all worked out. and it's t-shirt weather. yes.

GERM WAR: We're almost in Texas. Vampire Hands overslept and might miss both of their shows today. Still no sign of Whataburger.

From the festival:

SOAPY KITTENS: Hotel mania. Nappy times. It's so nice out! I don't care about bands anymore.

CHANCE: I clogged my friend Mike's toilet. Poopy water flowed all over the bathroom floor. I'm watching the SXSW channel on their TV.

On the road home:

GERM WAR: We're currently at the slowest gas pump in history, somewhat north of Wichita. We'll be home around 11am or noon. SROBOT: no one should be sad about not making this. It was amazing, and I loved abt everything I saw, but keep in mind everything is happening at the same time, things can be far apart, and you will be so drunk that it's hard to read the little book that tells you where everything is.

Read all of the SXSW dispatches here.

Modern Radio was also the sponsor of the insurgent showcase Minnesota Migration. The label put on a show for Twin Cities bands who were not accepted by the official SXSW planning committee and invited a few who were as well. Sounds like a good time. Here is Minnesota Public Radio's piece on the event.

Welcome home, wayward servants.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at March 17, 2008 2:51 PM | Comments (0)

 

Saturday in the Park-SXSW

Filed under: SXSW

As I was drawing my fake tattoos on before leaving for another day in the field, I was stirred to picture-taking-level excitement by the appearance of a Tapes n Tapes video on television. SXSW played no small part in their ascent and now it is someone else's turn to be Tapes n Tapes. But whose turn is it?

Yeasayer? They sounded so nice I watched them twice. The second time it was at the Mess With Texas party at Waterloo Park. By then, singer Chris Keating's nose was apple-red and he apologized for having a damaged voice. It didn't sound damaged to me, but with all the sampled effects and the vocal contributions by the rest of the band, there's maybe some camouflage going on.

Duffy? She's a UK hottie doing soul, much buzzed-about but ultimately not raved-over. Maybe we are satisfied by what we got from Amy Winehouse and another round doesn't seem like anything to get excited about. Everyone turned out at Stubb's to watch her and puzzle it out. If I saw her in a casino lounge it might raise my eyebrows. Wait, what would I be doing in a casino, gambling is like another form of math as far as I'm concerned. But in that environment her safe, bland packaging might not have seemed like such a downer. You know what makes perfect sense? Wikipedia's assertion that she came in second on the Welsh version of American Idol. She has that kind of vibe exactly. Although she closed with "Mercy," and it was not unhot.

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 15, 2008 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Night Flyin' Robyn

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She's like a cross between Mary Lou Retton and a punk skateboarder boy--it's Swedish sensation Robyn, making a rare US appearance. She had a bit of attention here in the late '90s, with the single "Show Me Love," but at Pangea she had everyone dancing with new material, including a medley of pop hooks from Nenah Cherry, Salt'n'Peppa, and Snoop Dogg. It was an awesomely energized and together performance--she's feisty and commanding but has kind of a pixie bubblegum vibe going on, I think because she's so tiny, it's like she's bouncing up there. And she did "Jack U Off" for her encore!!

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 15, 2008 2:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Darondo at SXSW

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Minnesota's own indie radio station the Current has schlepped gear, support staff, and DJs down to SXSW to put on a live broadcast for all three days. On Friday afternoon, I caught lost '70s funk treasure Darondo performing with Nino Moschella. Back in the day, Darondo may have been a pimp, or he may just have been a regular guy with a white Rolls Royce and a wardrobe which relied heavily on snakeskin. But he dropped out of sight as middle age approached-- got married and worked as a physical therapist. No problem--he got back on that funky groove like it was a bike he'd just ridden yesterday.

I missed the She and Him performance, which was apparently so crowded they were turning people away. Later, Carbon/Silicon performed for a large audience, although the new band of former Clash guitarist Mick Jones didn't pack 'em in the way She and Him apparently had. What gives? Well, the "She" in She and Him (kind of a subliterate name, right?) is Zooey Deschanel. Even at SXSW, starlets provoke more curious gawking than rock legends. Who would you rather be stuck in a street pizza line with, Zooey or Lou Reed (he's here, too)?

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 15, 2008 1:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rock the Rabbit? MGMT at the SXSW Playboy Party

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Playboy's just another brand now, right? I can go to their party without participating in some sort of betrayal of my gender, I think. At Playboy's Rock the Rabbit bash, the brand stayed in the background. There were a handful of Bunnies, complete with ears and tails (and their own security details), circulating. And a few open bars, and a buffet, but mostly it was just a big ol' warehouse where the focus was on socializing rather than music. So when MGMT came on, it was easy to get right in front, where blissed-out fans hugged each other and sang along to their funk-infused synthetic groove. Ooh girl! Shock me like an electric eel. It was lovesexxy.

Photos after the jump.

MGMT at the Playboy Party

A Playboy bunny dressed in culturally sensitive, highly appropriate and not at all offensive gear.

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 14, 2008 10:02 AM | Comments (2)

 

SXSW: Le Loup, Le Loup, Le Loup is on Fire

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Trend report: Bands with six or more members are the new black. Le Loup, a collective from Washington, D.C., roll seven strong. I caught them at Emo's, where they sang "This is the end," with a more prophetic intensity than Jim Morrison, maybe.

They all get in on the vocal action. Nothing breaks up a collective like fighting over the mic, right? Banjo-playing lead Loup Sam Simkoff dances like a spazz shaman and shakes the ass God didn't bother to give him. I dunno how well all these layers would hold up on my home hi-fi, but they gain from the Polyphonic Spree rule of multiples: Mo' members=more stirring live act. And these kids stirred their indie-noodling and multi-percussion soup until it cooked hot, near to boiling.

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 14, 2008 9:18 AM | Comments (0)

 

I'll Be Your Eyes at South By Southwest!

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...but did I mention I'm legally blind? So forgive me if I miss something....I arrived in Austin early Wednesday evening, but the festival for me truly began in Chicago two hours earlier, when my plane received an infusion of New Yorkers making their connecting flight to SXSW. I know hipster culture has become enough of an institution to be a target for satire and disdain, but it still excites me. I want to see how girls in New York are wearing their hair, how boys from Berlin are wearing their jeans, and what kinds of spectacle frames are hot with our nation's DJs. Downtown Austin is a riot of rockers. Even though alt-country, hip hop, and singer-songwriter types rep South-By, the anglo-rocker look is king. Pale skin, tousled boho hair, zero percent body fat, zero percent muscle tone.

Once I get my badge, I head out to the Free Yr Radio party at La Zona Rosa. I don't really understand the concept of Free Yr Radio--my sense is that it's a promotional venture for the Toyota Yaris giftwrapped in paper marked "Congratulations on Existing, Public Radio!"
But I do understand the concept of Yeasayer, the Brooklyn band I missed at the Entry last month (it was my round with the Death Flu of '08): melodies with so many notes they carry the energy of bluegrass, glossed up all rich and lush by unexpected complex vocals. Feral howls, lovely choral harmonies, '70s falsettos are set off by diverse tricks with percussion. Sometimes the lead singer moves his arms like he's a lion tamer cracking a whip. Whik-chaa! .

Before Simian Mobile Disco took the stage, I rushed off to catch as much as was left of the Noisettes at Vice. I'm a sucka for charismatic frontwomen and the wild Shingai Shoniwa from the trio the Noisettes has been a YouTube target of mine in the past year. Now I got to see her IRL! It was no disappointment, son. La Shingai loves the spotlight and it loves her back. She purrs, she howls, makes her eyes wide and curious and then suddenly turns her expression predatory. The band was fierce and fiery, wicked UK rockers who can suddenly switch gears with, "This is a new song" and hit you with an unexpected breather of a light jazzy songbird number. I don't know what was tighter, the band or Shingai's gold lame mini, but the delighted crowd could probably provide valid arguments on both sides.

While walking to the next gig, I happened by a busking duo who were absolutely unapologetically killing it on a streetcorner. Just one dude playing drums and the human equivalent of a tightly coiled spring wailing on a guitar--hey, wait a sec, it's Minneapolis' own Knife World! That the underground two piece would come to SXSW to play a sidewalk at 1:00 am is pretty true to their aesthetic and that people who were being bombarded by traditionally-promoted acts were taken in enough to stand and watch them is a testament to their freaky magic.

My final stop was Spiro's, where I saw Dark Meat fill up a stage with the density of a life raft after the Titantic went down. When I first got there, they were an impressive sextet. How do you give that many guitars to crazy Athens boys who draw preschool-tribal designs on their faces and not have it turn into cacophony? But it wasn't! It was controlled, it was heavy and swirly and drone-y, but not noisy. Then they added a four-piece horn section. As the floorboards of Spiro's parted and the family-sized bucket of Dark Meat started to sink into the ground, I headed back to hotel. I would see every single act I caught tonight if they came to town on tour (which I guess also means I should be going to every damn Knife World show) and that's a hard score to beat for Day Two.....

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 13, 2008 2:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Unofficial SXSW Showcasing Bands Torrent

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For three years in a row, the SXSW mafia would assemble a gigantic amount of free music from all the lucky little princesses chosen to play their precious festival and release it in a torrent. (A torrent is a computer thing one's iPhone-owning brother might use to gather free episodes of Weeds from the internet.) They're not doing one of their own this year, but they still have free downloads of all the music on their website and some enterprising hero assembled a torrent file from 'em. 764 bands. 3.5 GB. Check it out.

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 2, 2008 10:32 PM | Comments (0)