Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog

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.