SXSW 2008 Day 2: Thursday

Yesterday I started my day at Emo's, but it was so crowded and I wasn't really digging the bands I heard so, I dipped out across the street to the Brooklyn Vegan party at Emo's Annex (there are about 700 different Emo's venues) because the BV party the night before was so much fun. I caught a band called WHY? that was pretty good.



After that, I decided to just walk up and down the main strip and listen to the music coming from each bar and try to discover some bands I hadn't heard of. Outside some Irish pub I heard a really intriguing band, so I went inside to check them out. It was a band from Dublin, Ireland called Delorentos. They were total dance-rock, like Bloc Party before they started getting all soft and lame. I got a live video, but Google video is acting hella lame today, so I can't post the plethora of vids i took yesterday until a later date. But I did manage to find their official video(although I don't think it is their best song):





After some more walking around I heard another band that sounded promising from a dive called Agave. The Brooklyn, New York trio Appomattox rocked really hard, doing loud post-punky rock.



After that it was time to head back to the Annex, where I caught Men, members of Le Tigre doing the laptop DJ thing. The day before, me and Biggie C were discussing this new trend where bands go DJ and how most of the time they aren't that good at it, but this was an exception as they rocked the dance floor hard.



After that, it was time for Phosphorescent, one of the artists I was most excited about seeing at SXSW. He put on a great performance, doing much heavier versions of his stuff than I would have guessed considering how soft and low-key the album is.







Near the end of the show, I noticed Matthew Houck kept looking at someone in the crowd and cracking up laughing. I finally heard someone screaming stuff at him and turned around. It turned out to be Miles Seaton of Akron/Family acting like he was an obsessed fan. For the Phosphorescent finale, he came down into the audience and sang to the Akron/Family boys:



After that, we stuck around and caught Holy Fuck. I'm not much of a dancer and these days it takes something really special to get me to throw down, but Holy Fuck is just the perfect combination of dance music and noise for me to get really into it. You ATLiens who will be around town on Monday really need to go down to The Drunken Unicorn and catch them playing with A Place To Bury Strangers and Atlanta's badasses All The Saints.





After a short break in the onslaught of great shows, I went and caught Islands. They played almost nothing but new material, and it sounds great. I took a ton of videos, so expect those to show up here sometime in the next few weeks.











After that, it was on to Mohawk's patio to catch one of then night's best line-ups. I got there just in time to catch the end of another Phosphorescent set, where he closed with a 10 minute vocal looping jam. After that, I discovered another great act from California called Bodies Of Water. Really cool stuff with lots of vocal harmonizations. They will be at The Earl Monday night with Sons And Daughters so there is another hot Atlanta St. Patty's Day show you can catch.





Then it was time for Evangelicals. I have been in total love with their new album, so I had been really hyped up for this show. They did not disappoint. They came out with massive blacklights and a fog machine, dressed in a style that was half goth, half candy-raver, and went through songs off the new record. Again, expect many live videos to pop up around here in the near future.



Next up on the outdoor stage was Bon Iver. They went through a handful of the beautiful songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, and wow did they sound good. If you have yet to pick up this album, you are missing out.





After that, we switched up things entirely by seeing Indian Jewelry. I would describe their sound as Liars meets Atlanta's Subliminator. It was a spectacle of strobe lights and minimalist percussionists that were there more to dance than to make music. Very interesting show.



We closed out the night at Emo's Outside stage. I got there just in time for the end of Islands' set, but this time they closed with the amazing "Swans (Life After Death)". Unfortunately, the one dark moment of the entire festival came as some sound guy walked out on stage with a few minutes left in the song right and the PA shut off. They actually cut off their last song. Nick Thorburn found a microphone that was still hooked into the PA and yelled "Fuck SXSW!" Everyone started booing, it was a crazy scene.

After that debacle, We ended our night with an awesome set from Austin's The Octopus Project.



It's on to more music, so I'll holla at you later.

Friday Free-Style

Grizzly Bear, one of my favourite bands these days, is releasing an EP called Friend on November 6th. The ten track EP features a collaboration with Beirut's Zach Condon and Grizzly Bear covers by Band Of Horses, CSS, and Atlanta's own Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter). Here's a The Crystals cover on the EP:

Grizzly Bear : Friends : He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)


Menomena have a new video out:



Led Zeppelin reunion rumours are growing traction.

Creative Loafing reviews the new Black Lips album out on Tuesday. Remember you can still preorder it from Criminal Records and go to the release show that night at MJQ.

A couple of Home Park bands, From Exile and The Lasch, are playing the Faster Moustache's 24 hour urban bicycle race this weekend. Some live FE:



The Pipettes will be at Vinyl on October 16th.

So i just finished the first season of Showtime's Weeds and I like it alot. Here is The Shins' James Mercer covering the Weeds theme song.

Wanna know where hip-hop is these days? 50 cent and Kanye West are going to have a debate on BET about who has a better album with play-by-play from ESPN's Stuart Scott next Tuesday when their albums come out. I'm not making this up.

The Klaxons, after winning some prize that I don't really care about but everyone on the internet seems to, are working on a new album.

Here's Amy Winehouse performing at the Mercury Awards (that prize that the Klaxons won):



Built To Spill are awesome and here's an interview.

More interviews:

• Midlake
• Okkervil River
• The National
• Devendra Banhart
• Akron/Family
• Bloc Party
• The Go! Team

Here's some Queens Of The Stone Age vids to get your weekend rocking:

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 3/Wrap-Up

The final day started with Deerhunter and I was interested to see what they would do on what was probably one of the biggest crowds they've played to. They brought their A game and Bradford Cox shined on stage. They even got some of Grizzly Bear to jam with them at the end. There's something special about seeing two of the best young bands today teaming up like this and gives me even more optimism about the state of music today. We watched The Ponys from far away and they sounded good with the exception of the entire PA system going down for half of it. Seriously, Pitchfork Fest's sound system seemed to get even worse as the days went on and I've never seen anything like that at a music festival. Next up we watched Menomena put on a really good show. They seemed especially loose and maybe over excited or something but that seemed to work favourably for their sound. This is another band that if you haven't got into yet, i strongly urge you to check them out. The next band I went to see was The Sea And Cake. It was hard for me to believe how bad it was considering how much I like this band. In their defense, the sound system did seem to be especially terrible for their set, but I do not like the direction this band has gone in. The show and the new album both seem like their missing the magic this band used to conjure up. I caught a little bit of Stephen Malkmus playing a solo set. It was good but it's just not exactly my thing. The best show of the day for me was Of Montreal. This band combines art with fun like no other. They did a few new songs, Kevin Barnes wore a few outfits, they even played a little football on stage. I waited a really long time to see Klaxons next. They were good but the weak sound system on the third stage made it seem more underwhelming than it should have. We ended the night watching De La Soul do a solid performance.

Overall, the fest was fairly interesting and a good experience. They must do something about the sound system because it was way too amateur for a festival of this size. I know the ticket prices were low, but if I have to pay another ten or twenty bucks to get to listen to more than the band's monitors for half the shows, it might be a good idea. The actual line-up mostly delivered on the hype, but I think Pitchfork could do a little better job scheduling. The venue was nice but if they want this event to get any bigger they're going to need to relocate. I will say that the security was extremely light and well behaved, and I am always a big fan of that. Overall, Pitchfork Fest gets a thumbs up from me but need to improve some things for next year.

Pitchfork Fest Artist Additions

This fest is on its way to having the best line-up of the year for me, here's what they just added:

Deerhunter
Menomena
Klaxons
Fujiya & Miyagi
Oxford Collapse
Beach House
Dan Deacon
Craig Taborn's Junk Magic

In case you don't know, Pitchfork Festival will be held in Chicago July 13-15 and will also include Cat Power, New Pornographers, Clipse, Stephen Malkmus, De La Soul, Iron and Wine, Of Montreal, Girl Talk, Jamie Lidell, Grizzly Bear, Battles, the Ponys, Professor Murder, Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound, and, of course, Sonic Youth performing their landmark 1988 album Daydream Nation (in collaboration with All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back). The best part is the 3-day pass only costs $50! Ill be there, will you?

Pitchfork Music Festival webpage

Live Videos and Review: Menomena, The N.E.C., Midwives (4-3-2007) Drunken Unicorn

Tuesday night I arrived at the Drunken Unicorn at 8:15pm because I thought I read somewhere that doors opened at 8pm. Well, they didn't end opening until about 9:20pm. I spent a good hour at the coffee shop next door playing Super Mario Brothers on the DS and then went in with the large crowd of folks waiting to be let in. First band up was Jeffrey Butzer's Midwives. They came out in masks and and matching suits like a classic ska/surf outfit and then did some fantastic surf rock. I've been getting into this genre a lot lately going back and listening to old stuff so it was great to hear a band doing that style so well. They even had a tiny piano for like kids that they would play on some songs. Really cool:



Next up was this band called the N.E.C. It includes members of Kill Gordon and Snowden's Jordan Jefferes. I like both of those bands but I was disappointed with this project. They sounded like the a watered-down version of the Black Lips with less intensity and less of an edge. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it just felt too much like a cheap ripoff. Near the end, some kids in the crowd came on stage hitting some of the band with vegetables and it just came off very contrived and out of place. Due to Snowden blowing up and Jordan Jefferes not having much extra time, he has left the band since this show and the N.E.C. will continue on as a three-piece:



I had been listening to Menomena's new album all the time lately and I was very excited about the show. I was not let down. Most of the set included songs off of Friend And Foe and they played them beautifully. They made use of an extensive instrumentation for a three-piece including an e-Bow and a Moog Taurus. There's something special about a band where everyone can take on vocal duties and shine. They seemed very appreciative of the crowd response and recalled bad previous trips to Atlanta while talking a lot of smack about Smith's Old Bar. You could tell that they were loving the crowd and were utilizing the energy well. If you have not looked into this band, do so because their album is one of the best to come out this year and they put on a hell of a show. My friend Bobloblaw79 took some videos:

Videos Of the Day: Bands In Atlanta This Week

Menomena will be at the Drunken Unicorn tonight. Looks to be a great show.



Blood Brothers will be at The Masquerade this Saturday night:



Sebadoh (featuring Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr) plays at the variety Playhouse Sunday night:

7 Shows In 7 Days

The Atlanta concert season is scorching hot as there are some great shows coming up this week. I highly recommend you check out all of the linked bands below cuz they are all great. Here's how you should spend the next week:

Wednesday March 28th:

People Noise (ex-VHS or Beta), Spectralux, Pacifico at The Earl ,$7, 21+, 9:00pm

Thursday March 29th:

Deerhunter, Psychic Hearts, Long-Legged Woman at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA, $5, 18+, 9:30pm

Friday March 30th:

Kid Koala, Samadha, Rob Wonder at the Drunken Unicorn, $10, all ages, 9:00pm

Saturday March 31st:

DJ Klever, Snowden, Variac, Julius Airwaves at Lenny's, (Faster Moustache 2 year BirthDay Party and MTV will be filming) $10, 21+, 9:00pm

Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Love Of Diagrams at the Variety Playhouse, $15, all ages, 8:30pm

Monday April 2nd:

Deerhunter in-store performance at Criminal Records, Free, all ages, 7:00pm

Tuesday April 3rd:

Menomena, Jeffrey Butzer/MIDWIVES at the Drunken Unicorn $8, all ages, 9:00pm

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

Some really good stuff:

Menomena


This Portland 3-piece's Friend And Foe is quickly becoming one of my favourites of the year. Describing this band is difficult for me, a little Clouds Taste Metallic era Flaming Lips, maybe a touch of old school Modest Mouse, maybe a touch of Morphine. I don't know. Give these tracks a listen, and if you like, go get the album because every song on this thing is great.

• The Pelican
• Wet And Rusting

Buy Menomena : Friend And Foe


Explosions In The Sky


Their new album, All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, is a great example of a band that just does their thing, and gets better and better. Many may think that this album sounds very much like most of their others, and that's somewhat true, but some bands just do what they do masterfully, and that's all they need to do. Sometimes a band just doesn't have to head off into another direction (Modest Mouse comes to mind). Give a listen to a great band in their prime:

• The Birth and Death Of The Day
  
• It's Natural to Be Afraid
  

Buy Explosions In The Sky : All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone


Do Make Say Think


Another great post-rock album i've been listening to is DMST's You, You're a History In Rust. Part of the Broken Social Scene extended family, these guys are really awesome. Where the new Explosions In The Sky record works to perfect an already "classic" style of post-rock, this album takes alot more liberties and avoids any derivative labels. Enjoy:

• The Universe!
  
• Herstory Of Glory
  

Buy Do Make Say Think : You, You're A History In Rust


Final Fantasy


I knew when I did my top 50 List of 2006, that i would miss some albums that deserved to be on it because I had only a limited amount of time and resources. He Poos Clouds is the first one. Final Fantasy (aka Owen Pallett) is a violinist/vocalist who played with Arcade Fire on tour and even did some of the string arrangements on their new album, Neon Bible. This second full album as Final Fantasy is just simply phenonemal. You really need to get this:

• This Lamb Sells Condos
  
• Song Song Song

Buy Final Fantasy : He Poos Clouds