Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

Photo by Stacy Schwartz

Solid Gold looms over Red River St in Austin

​Before I even begin, oh my god, will you LOOK at that billboard? As we careened into downtown Austin yesterday afternoon, Solid Gold's Shon Troth turned to us and sheepishly admitted that Green Label Sound had purchased a billbaord in downtown to feature its artists. "Let's go find it and get embarrassed," Adam Hurlburt laughed. As someone who has been trying to wrap my head around Minnesota's presence at this week's festival, this was a somewhat ridiculous and humerous way to kick off the week.

The music contingent of the South by Southwest festival doesn't officially start until today, but already swarms of music fans, bands, and industry types began filling the main drag in Austin last night in preparation for the festivities. There weren't any official SXSW parties last night, but plenty of corporate sponsors threw their own parties for the growing masses, including a PureVolume party downtown that featured Neko Case and Jakob Dylan, a set by Motorhead at Stubb's, and a SXSW kick-off party at the Fader Fort with headliners Metric.

​Radio K is planning some ambitious coverage of SXSW this year, with six in-studios and 22 interviews scheduled this week. The U of M radio station is sending a whole crew of DJs and producers down to the festival to roam the streets and conduct interviews, in addition to setting up in a remote studio in Austin to tape exclusive performances. Radio K's SXSW broadcasts will air on Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day -- see below for a full schedule, and follow along at 770 AM, 100.7 FM, 104.5 FM, on your iPhone, or online at RadioK.org.

​Danny Sigelman is a Twin Cities native who has spent the past year working as a DJ for a Chinese government radio station in Beijing. In preparation for this year's South by Southwest festival, Sigelman filed this report about a handful of great Chinese bands who are making their way overseas to play in Austin this week.

History surrounds Beijing's Yugong Yishan nightclub. Nestled in the courtyard of early 20th century warlord, Duan Qirui's palace it takes it's name from a children's fable which translates to "the foolish old man who moved the mountain." The idea that persistence overcomes the greatest challenges.

Photo by Stacy Schwartz

​Gimme Noise readers, prepare to be inundated. Starting tomorrow, we'll be heading down to Austin, Texas this week for the South by Southwest, and we can't wait to get on the other end of our impending 18-hour commute and start filing updates from amidst the chaos of the music festival. Unlike most music bloggers, who will likely spend the week singing the praises of up-and-coming hip national indie acts like Neon Indian, Sleigh Bells, Japandroids, etc., we'll be keeping it mostly local, tightening our focus around the 30-plus Twin Cities bands who are scheduled to play and giving you a feel for what it's like to fight for attention over the constant hum of thousands and thousands of other bands.

Keep an eye on the blog starting this Wednesday for daily updates by yours truly and blogger Andrew Flanagan, photos by Gimme Noise contributor Stacy Schwartz, and videos by Anthem Heart.

And for the time being, here are a few tips on surviving the music industry feeding frenzy that is SXSW, whether you'll be journeying down in person or following along.remotely:

​Add Burlesque to the mounting list of local artists and musicians who are making the trek down to Austin, Texas next week to perform at an unofficial day party. In addition to planning their third annual SXSW day party (info in the flyer above), the Burlesque crew is also preparing a new compilation, Do It To It III, which you can sample in the streaming player below.

Photo by Ben Clark

Gay Witch Abortion are one of 17 Minnesota acts to play official SXSW shows

​The South by Southwest music festival announced the lineups for their official showcases this year (which are booked according to an application process that involves somewhere upwards of 10,000 bands), and 17 Minnesota acts have been selected. The local acts playing SXSW-sanctioned showcases are listed below, but keep in mind that this is only a portion of the Minnesota bands who are heading down to SXSW next month. These days, a band can gain just as much traction playing an unofficial showcase or day party as one of these shows, which keeps the streets of Austin flooded with music from morning until... well, morning each and every day of the festival.

The links below will take you to the bands' profile pages on the SXSW site. Showcase times are listed in chronological order, in case you're a nerd like me and are planning on traveling 1,172 miles to watch a bunch of Minnesota bands play SXSW.

Photo by Nick Vlcek

The xx at the Triple Rock

​South by Southwest is about a month and a half away, which means that it's time to start getting inundated with SXSW showcase announcements -- leading off with this one sponsored by our sister paper Village Voice. As the paper announced yesterday, the xx, Superchunk, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Surfer Blood will play a VV showcase on Friday, March 19, at La Zona Rosa in Austin. It's a day party, so festivities will take place between 12 and 5 p.m.

​The first snowfall hit last night, which can mean only one thing to a music nerd like me: Time to start fantasizing about sweating my ass off booking it from show to show down in Austin, Texas in March. And we're not the only ones thinking ahead. The deadline for bands to register for the festival has already passed, and over 200 artists have already been accepted to play official South by Southwest showcases, including five of our own Minnesota artists: Peter Wolf Crier, Romantica, Solid Gold, Jeremy Messersmith, and Gay Witch Abortion.

In addition to the official showcases, the city will be flooded with unofficial lineups and parties, so the list of local bands heading down to Texas this year will undoubtedly be much longer than these initial five.

Photo by Stacy Schwartz

I'll keep this brief, before the entire Gimme Noise readership collectively rolls their eyes at my incessant SXSW chatter and flips this blog upside down. Here's a rundown of my absolutely favorite acts at this year's South by Southwest festival, with links to MySpace and such if you wish to explore the bands further:

Jeremy Ylvisaker, Mark Mallman, and Dosh are really, really, excited about DEVO. Photo by Ben Clark.

6th Street photo by Ben Clark

Day Two of South by Southwest has wound down, and the fatigue is starting to set in. On the Mischke show yesterday, we were talking about South by Southwest as an experience, and it occurred to me that people who have never attended the festival might not understand the magnitude and overwhelming intensity of the festival. At any given moment, on any given street corner, there are at least a handful of bands audible, and the sounds are coming from every direction. The main streets of downtown Austin are blocked off and filled with musicians and music lovers, and everyone is on a mission to get to their next show. Unlike other large-scale festivals like Coachella or Lollapalooza, which take place on separate grounds, SXSW encompasses the entire city of Austin; every bar, every restaurant, every street corner, every inhabitable space becomes a platform for a band who just wants to be heard.

The Hold Steady - "Chips Ahoy" from Stacy Schwartz on Vimeo.

Janelle Monae photo by Stacy Schwartz

Things are starting to gear up today, but before I head out for round two I wanted to post a few quick updates from yesterday's events:

Janelle Monae: The set by Janelle Monae at Stubb's last night was literally like nothing else I have ever seen, and I am finding it difficult to even put it in words. Her first song spanned about 10 minutes, and included an intricate instrumental introduction that sounded like an alien spaceship landing on stage and a grand entrance by Monae, a small, sprightly woman with the most impressive fro-hawk pompadour I have ever seen. Monae moved with the agility of a marionette doll, spinning, kicking, and gesturing wildly as she sang, at times dancing so aggressively that her hair would come undone. The music was a furious combination of souped-up soul, dance, techno, R&B, and pop, and her vocal melodies jumped all over the map.

Heartless Bastards photo by Ben Clark

It's the first official day of South by Southwest (see, David? I'm referring to it by its full name despite the fact that everyone here is calling it "South By") and the first round of day parties are in full swing. Downtown Austin is crawling with sunglass-clad hipsters and the main drag of downtown Austin, 6th Street, has been blocked off with orange barriers to facilitate the massive influx of pedestrians. I've just returned from a Paste and Brooklyn Vegan-sponsored day party that had a lineup of bands ranging across the indie spectrum, including radio-friendly singer-songwriter Greg Laswell; indie pop septuplet Anathallo; grating, vaudevillian pianist Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls; and alt-country bands Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers and Port O'Brien. But none of the bands on the bill came close to the intensity and talent of Dayton, Ohio natives Heartless Bastards.

Tomorrow is the official start of the music portion of South by Southwest, which means that it's time for me to pack my bags, hop a plane to Austin, and prepare to be completely bombarded by music for the next five days straight. Sounds rough, right? 

Thanks. It won't take long. I know we've only been seeing each other a short while. And don't get me wrong, I had a blast at Chino Latino the other night. Well, mostly. And meeting your friends at Too Much Love was pretty sweet, too. And that subscription to Vice magazine you got me for my birthday was really helpful. I think I'm catching on.

But, baby, I really, really need you to stop calling it "South By."

The wholesale decline of Western economies. The crumbling of titanic ice shelves into the arctic sea. The critical success of Ryan Adams' poetry. Depleted uranium. Hoobastank. It's always been a damning, inhospitable planet.

But we're in rain-of-fire, river-of-blood, plague-of-locusts territory now, as Rachel Ray announced last week that the Hold Steady would be headlining her second annual SXSW party.

First things first: If you're not going to South by Southwest this year and have no interest whatsoever in the yearly conference and festival, I'm sorry. This will be the first of many updates regarding the massive annual gathering, the music portion of which is scheduled to take place March 18 through 22.

It's January, it's cold outside, and the chance to bask in the Austin, Texas heat and listen to as many bands as possible is creeping closer every day. So please excuse me if I start to obsess.

The first official SXSW lineup has been released, with only one Minnesota band appearing so far: P.O.S. But the list of local bands making their pilgrimage down to Texas will be much larger, as only a fraction of the bands who play SXSW each year are part of the official showcases.

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.

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?

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!!

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)?

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.

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.

...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.....

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.