Sensory Overload: SXSW 2007

Read our full SXSW coverage!

2007-03-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you who stumbled upon this blog from outside of the GW community, check out our full SXSW coverage of the festival for our college press at George Washington University - The GW Hatchet

Includes full-length articles on The Automatic, West Indian Girl, Via Audio, plus the Best of SXSW 2007 and Best Band Names of SXSW 2007, plus a piece on our overall experience in Austin, TX.

-Brendan & Zach

Via Audio at SXSW

2007-03-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Automatic at SXSW

2007-03-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Day 4: If Only I'd Known Then What I Know Now

2007-03-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not one to dwell on regrets, but considering that it is virtually inevitable that I (and Brendan) will wind up at South by Southwest again, I have noted a few things to do differently the second time around.

1.) The hotel must be within one mile of downtown, not 20 miles. Staying too far away will mean that you end up at a Denny's at 5 AM.

2.) Possibly related: the Mega French Toast Slam at Denny's is far superior to the American Slam.

3.) Do not book an outbound flight at 6:00 in the morning. You will wind up dozing off on your computer and drooling on your keyboard, then blogging because it is the only thing that will keep you awake. I won't cop to it, but lets just say that that my 'N' key seems to have some water damage.

Here, have some pictures of The Automatic.

Grace Potter acoustic

2007-03-18T02:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned after last Thursday's post, we caught Grace Potter at Cedar Street Courtyard and instantly fell in love with this girl all over again. Following her set, the crowd demanded an encore performance. While the sound guy wouldn't allow it and soon began unplugging all the mics, Grace came out with her guitarist Scott Tournet and did an acoustic, unplugged number - this girl didn't need no microphone anyhow! She can wail!

The Whigs - Holy Sh*t!

2007-03-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

We closed out our last SXSW night with a show by The Whigs at the Blender Bar at the Ritz, and...wow. The trio from Athens, GA blew us away - in fact, it was very much a religious experience (if your religion happens to be music, like so many of us down here in Austin this week.) We shot a ton of video, but the sound was so intense that the microphone on our camera couldn't handle the audio! (Thank God for earplugs...)

In fact, I was so moved by their performance that I decided to steal their set-list.

For only having three members, The Whigs can certainly deliver a highly energetic and LOUD show, all the while keeping it musical and coherent.

Looking back on the past few days here at SXSW, I could honestly say that this was one of the top 2 or 3 shows that I saw - they are NOT to be missed if coming to a town near you...

One of my main complaints about the festival is that many of the bands don't get enough time to play their sets. Although with some 1,500 bands crammed into four straight days and nights, it would be impossible for bands to play full-length sets. But damn, I would have liked to have seen them play for another 2 hours!

West Indian Girl clips and interview

2007-03-18T01:57:00.000-07:00

Day4: I Needed a Bathroom, and I Found Electro-Pop

2007-03-18T00:55:00.000-07:00

We started the day with a stop at the Liverpool Live showcase, where I was briefly fooled into thinking that I was in the UK. In addition to the entire lineup of bands, I'm fairly sure that we were the only Americans in the place. Consequently, I did not understand a single word that was said the entire time. Usually something about bollocks or quid or something being 'wicked.' For the record, Liverpudlians are the only species of people allowed to use 'wicked' without sounding funny. Highlights included the unique and powerful 28 Costumes, as well as inspired singer/songwriter Eugene McGuinness (video interview).

28 Costumes

With the sole intention of finding a bathroom, we found ourselves inside an extremely small makeshift club with the Austin based quartet Binary Marketing Show setting up to play. The crowd consisted of ourselves, about 10 loyal fans, and what appeared to be the singer's parents; but with a flurry of drum machines and samplers, they whipped their humble crowd into a frenzy. Just another testament to how many underappreciated bands are at this festival.

Binary Marketing Show

We finally caught a full set of Via Audio, the soon-to-blow-up gritty power pop-rockers (I wish I could describe them in fewer words, but I can't) that we mentioned yesterday. Full interview and video clips to follow.

Jess of Via Audio

Then it was off to Opal Devine's Freehouse, an interesting venue on the west side of Downtown. The always impressive West Indian Girl played an airtight set - and you guessed it, full interview and video clips will follow.

LES CLAYPOOL!

In their fourth show of the day, DC-based (and part GWU-alum) Exit Clov played a stellar set that really highlighted the vocal prowess of identical twin singers Emily and Susan.

On another whim, we decided that a particular band was too unique to pass up, based entirely on their name: Lesbians On Ecstasy. Their rapid set drew equally from The Pixies and LCD Soundsystem, and although I cannot attest to whether they were lesbians or they were on ecstasy (or both), I was hooked. You would think that after hearing drum machines during 40% of the shows for three days I would be tired of it, but Lesbians on Ecstasy brought the rock.

As if I had any doubts as to whether I was seeing some quality music, Peaches showed up front and center and danced like we all know she can.

Peaches (in green)

Off to the airport, more to follow.

Eugene McGuinness of Liverpool

2007-03-17T16:30:00.001-07:00

Christian Scott is SIIICK!

2007-03-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, it’s nice to step back from the non-stop Rock and Roll and take in something completely different. Not that there’s anything wrong with tight jeans and long-haired hipsters…
A New Orleans native, Christian Scott is a jazz trumpeter based in New York with a kick-ass band that encompasses an intensive, brooding tone. Scott plays the hell out of his Gillespie-style trumpet, exploding each note into his microphone with ferocious energy. And Scott’s band is just as amazing as their frontman.
It didn’t matter that he was extremely jet-lagged, having flown to Austin all the way from Berlin, Germany where he had just played a show. Scott and his band delivered a hell of a set at Bourbon Rocks on Sixth Street, gaining mad props from a packed house who were most likely expecting some blonde-haired, blue-eyed singer/songwriter from somewhere in the Midwest.

Also, two of the guys from The Automatic caught his set, as they were waiting to see their fellow Welsh friends Super Furry Animals play after Scott.

Watch the video clips of Christian Scott with a short interview by yours truly.

Day Two: Holy Wow This Festival Thing is Exhausting

2007-03-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

For the record, we are currently writing away at Denny’s, which is the only place still open within shooting distance of our hotel (I think that analogy is fitting, given the neighborhood we’re in). I’m going with the All-American Slam, whereas Brendan is going with the Mega French Toast Slam. MEGA. Also worth noting: we split a cab home tonight with half of Idolator, the candid and hilarious music blog that we wish we were candid and hilarious enough to write.

Another day, another 30 bands. I cannot feel my legs from standing for 10 hours, but hell – wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Once we made it downtown (as you may have noticed, I crashed kind of hard last night), we caught the phenomenal five piece band Via Audio from New York City. In a rather impromptu performance at the Pete Townsend tribute show, they played a dark version of Behind Blue Eyes – a ballsy choice, but they pulled it off. Check back Sunday for an in depth interview conducted by our honorary copy editor and resident Texan, Kevin Eskowitz.

El-P rocked the back room at Red Eye Fly, thoroughly confusing the greasy indie-pop kids who were expecting to see something a bit more obscure and/or inaccessible. Sorry guys, he doesn’t give a shit that your Chucks are vintage. Go ride your fixie to the Levi’s showcase.

Then we decided to roam around and find a random club to wander into – and upon asking a bouncer at Emo’s, discovered that none other than Architecture in Helsinki was about to take the stage. Surrounded by the aforementioned greasy indie-pop kids, we were treated to a frenetic drum machine-fueled set that even made tired (and half drunk) Brendan dance. The sound guy wasn’t receptive to the crowd’s demands for “ONE-MORE-SONG! ONE-MORE-SONG!,” and the dance party ended as abruptly as it began.

Architecture in Helsinki would have been my clear choice for the best show of the day, but New Orleans, LA based Mute Math gave them a run for their money. Vocalist Paul Meany flipped over (yes, flipped over) his keyboard so hard that he broke it – and after his poor tech managed to hotwire it back on amongst the on-stage chaos, Meany proceed to jump all over it again. By my count, they broke two microphone stands, one floor tom, at least one microphone, and of course the keyboard. By some stroke of luck, however, the Keytar stayed intact – and he shamelessly rocked it for the rest of the set. The whole band is terrifyingly talented at their respective instruments, but they didn’t let their technical prowess overpower Meany’s hooky songwriting. See them sometime if you get the chance.

The ubiquitous Andrew Bird held his own in front of the curious but unfamiliar Stubbs crowd, and played a wonderful set assisted by Dosh on drums and keys. Admittedly, he is best seen in an intimate club rather than a massive outdoor venue. Didn't disappoint, though.

We closed the night out with my own hometown heroes, the veteran Minneapolis, MN based The Honeydogs. With horn section in tow, they plowed through old favorites and selections from their 2006 release, Amygdala. Thankfully, they brought enough energy to the stage to make up for the lackluster band that preceded them. Had it not been for all of the free vodka & red bulls we had just consumed at the Purevolume party, I would have passed out from boredom. Thanks to The Honeydogs for being the auditory caffeine I needed to prepare me for the obligatory hour long post-closing-time mad dash to find a cab.

Is it 6 AM already? Damn. Tomorrow, we invade the SXSW Conference (talking instead of rocking), where I will geek out over all of the panels and presenters from every corner of the music business. Cheers!

DRUNK'N'TIRED - whadd'a'day

2007-03-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

I'm soo tired. I'm sooo f-cking tired. That's right. So much crazy shit happened today - we've been on our feet (as in NOT SITTING DOWN) from about 1:00pm-3:30am We waited 1 hour for a cab from downtown Austin to North Austin (where our Hotel is.) We're exhausted. We're drunk. We're.....SO THRILLED TO BE HERE! Here's what happened today, with more detail to come tomorrow when we can actually form sentences;

1:00pm - Stubbs BBQ - FOOD!

2:00pm - Boris (Japanese scream metal with hot female guitarist)

2:30pm - Apostle of Hustle (Canadian Latin rock [wtf?] - awesome!)

3:00pm - The Melvins (2 drum sets, crazy hair, woah...)

4:00pm - Drinking (Texas Lone Star - The PBR of Tehaaas!)

5:00pm - Brother Ali (Minneapolis Albino Hip-Hop Superstar)

6:00pm - Interview with The Automatic (Cardiff, Wales UK supa' stars!)

7:oopm - Dinner (Tacos. Disappointing- unfortunately, shitty service.)
9:00pm - WHAaaa??!?
10:00pm - Random bands (no, really...)

11:00pm - Playboy Party (Denied...)

12:00am - Shots of Whiskey

12:30am - Jacks Mannequin

1:00am - Against Me (ROCK!)

1:30am - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (Super-cute chick who plays B3-Hammond organ and sings her ass off...)

2:00am-3:00am - CAB SEARCH!
3:30am - Zach fell asleep.

3:50am - Brendan is blogging, for some reason..

GOODNIGHT! Video and Pics come tomorrow (after breakfast/lunch...)

Overheard at South by Southwest

2007-03-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Featuring our friend Kevin, and Wayne Coyne, frontman of The Flaming Lips.

Kevin: WAYNE!
Wayne Coyne: What's up, man?
Kevin: When are you guys playing?
Wayne Coyne: Oh, we're not playing here.
Kevin: So what are you doing?
Wayne Coyne: Throwing basketballs at indie bands.

Goodmorning.

2007-03-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Not a happy camper. Off to downtown for day two, stay tuned for this and more:

An interview with The Automatic
Doghouse Records Showcase (Army of Me, Say Anything)
Sire Records Showcase (The Shys, Armor for Sleep, Against Me!)
Stax Records Revival (Isaac Hayes!)
and a daytime performance by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

That's hardly the half of it - we'll see where they day takes us. That is, if Brendan ever gets out of bed.

Merge Records Showcase VIDEO!

2007-03-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

Merge Records Showcase: Spoon!

2007-03-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

After a grueling day of travel, Brendan and I met up with Kevin (our resident Texan and guide to all things Austin) and made it out for a solid night of shows, a drink or two, and way too many women who looked 20 inside the dark clubs but in retrospect were probably in their 40's. Nonetheless, it was a great night of music.

To start the night off, we headed to Stubbs BBQ to catch the UK sensation The Automatic. More on them later, though.

Then it was off to the Merge Records showcase at Antone's, a phenomenal little club with a great bar and a dirty-but-not-too-dirty atmosphere.

11PM: The Rosebuds
This Raleigh, NC based indie outfit screamed of early Blondie with a very serious streak of aggressive dance pop. Didn't hurt that singer Kelly Crisp looked (and sounded) like Debbie Harry in her prime, either. Their new album Night of the Furies drops April 10th.

12AM: The Broken West
These Los Angeles natives lived up to their hype, delivering exactly what they're known for: hook and harmony-laden rock. The crowd was pumped, and the band responded by driving through an impressive set, making more than a few fans in the process. I was floored, to say the least.

1AM: "Special Guests from Austin"

So Kevin told us that Spoon would be the night's "special guest," and that was completely too good to be true, so I totally didn't buy it. But despite all of my doubts, Spoon showed up for an unannounced set to close the show. The club had been buzzing the whole night about their alleged appearance, but that didn't stop me from thinking things like "Holy shit, Spoon is three feet in front of me," and "Holy shit, Britt Daniel from Spoon just spit on me," and "Holy shit, getting spit on wasn't that cool, even if it was Britt Daniel." That said, they were in their element and they played their asses off. Definitely was a great way to close day one.

Jim Eno and Britt Daniel (Spoon)

SXSW: Georgia edition

2007-03-14T11:43:00.002-07:00

Being stuck in Atlanta has its downfalls (overpriced airport bars), but the scene at the gate is a pretty hilarious culture clash. The gates around ours are going to Dallas, Pensacola, and West Virginia, respectively, which translates into a whole lot of crying children and cowboy hats and terrifying floral print hawaiian shirts.

Our gate to Austin, on the other hand, is populated by approximately 80 tight-jeaned hipsters with ipods and greasy hair and the occasional guitar case, furiously typing away on their sidekicks/blackberries.

We stare at them, they stare at us. A woman going to Pensacola just gave an extensively tattooed guy at our gate a once over, and herded her three kids back with strict instructions to stay close. I cannot make this shit up. It's like the lower east side just descended on Disney World or something.

Next stop, the moldy hotel. Cheers!

And so it begins...

2007-03-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

It's 4:00am on Wed. morning, and in 2 hours I have to catch the Metro to the airport for my flight to AUSTIN, TX. I should be in around 11:30am, but then I can't check into the hotel until around 3:00pm, and Zach doesn't arrive until about 5:00pm, so we're going to get a bit of a late start on Wednesday, but oh-well - it should be a long night. While on the plane, I get to finalize my makeshift schedule of which bands I'd like to try and see - there's only 1,400 of them, so it should be pretty easy to choose, right?

Oh, and speaking of the hotel, it's most likely going to be SKETCH! We're just college students, and we can't afford expensive hotels in convenient downtown Austin, where the actual festival is taking place. Reviews of our hotel include "Not a nice place to stay..." and "Moldy!" (See reviews...) But, hey, hopefully its better than last years hotel, which included crackheads, prostitutes, cigarette burns in the sheets, and death lurking around every corner... Don't plan on spending too much time there anyway, just a place to crash. Pictures to come, of course. Stay tuned.

Nordic Invasion

2007-02-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

Music Information Centre Norway reports that SXSW 2007 will host a crop of Norwegian talent, including indie press darling Annie whose 2005 North American debut, the aggressively poppy Anniemal (Vice), made a whole stack of best-of lists that year.

The full list includes Ane Brun, Animal Alpha, Annie, Green Carnation, Hurra Torpedo, Leif Inge, Magnet, New Violators, Serena Maneesh, The Jessica Fletchers, The Real Ones, Thomas Dybdahl, and WE.

Source

Class of 2007: Shapes Have Fangs

2007-02-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

Hometown: Austin, TX
Label: Unsigned
Showcase Dates/Times TBD

Native Texans Shapes Have Fangs haven't even reached 5000 hits on their MySpace page, but don't count them out for a spot on 2007's list of SXSW success stories. On top of their indie-pop sheen and comparisons to The Shins, their infusion of garage-rock sensibility and frenetic guitar playing is more agile and explosive than most of their indie-pop compatriots would ever dare put onto tape. They are a little fish in the sea of 1400 acts that will descend onto Austin, but based on their impressive live performances, look out for some serious buzz spurred by their appearances.

Track Highlights: The Spectre, Slumber Party (available on their MySpace page)

Shapes Have Fangs Official MySpace

get ready to get sweaty

2007-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

for all you metal heads (and dillinger escape plan fans, especially), a fresh showcase announcement via blabbermouth:

Relapse Records has announced the details for its 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) label showcase. This showcase, the label's sixth consecutive at SXSW, will be held at Room 710 (710 Red River Street) on Thursday, March 15, and will be open to the public as well as SXSW badge-holders.This year's lineup includes ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY (Richmond, VA), DON CABALLERO (Pittsburgh, PA), MINSK (Peoria/Chicago, IL ), RWAKE (Little Rock, AR), a special appearance by PRADA KILLERS (featuring members of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN; Morris Plains, NJ), and one more band to be announced soon. Running order and show time are forthcoming.
Source

volunteer at sxsw: do it for the sex!

2007-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of the Austin News 8 Morning Show, some information about volunteering at SXSW and what it entails.

You can sign up directly here, too.

They had quite the banter going there for a while, from the looks of it.

Q: And this is a lot of fun. I’ll let both of you from your perspective talk about that. Just, this is inside stuff here, isn’t it?
Stout: Yeah, definitely, you get to see the behind the scenes of this massive event that takes place for 10 days. There’s a lot of people watching, very good people watching and rubbing off this.

Rubbing off this? Either this is some sort of wierd Freudian slip, or they are suggesting that volunteering at SXSW has its rewards in the form of, well, you draw your own conclusions.

Better sign up quick, folks!

Meet your editors.

2007-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Combined, they have:
- (1) job at a major record label group
- (1) job as a music editor for a respectable publication
- (2) cats
- approximately 75% of a B.A. in journalism
- approximately 92% of a B.A. in political science

Stay tuned for completely biased and unofficial coverage of the music conference and festival, March 14th through 18th 2007.