Photos: SXSW Day 4 – 3-15-08 in Austin, TX

Plants & Animals

Dead Confederate

Photos: SXSW Day 3 – 3-13-08 in Austin, TX

Bowerbirds


Click here to read the entire post…

Videos: Islands at SXSW (3/13/2008) Cedar Street Patio

If there is one band that SXSW got me re-obsessed with, it is Islands. Return To The Sea has been back in my rotation and I am eagerly awaiting the new album. Here are some vids from one of my favourite shows in Austin:


Click here to read the entire post…

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

SXSW Bands are invading my Ipod and CD players now that I am back. There are so many to look into, but a few albums from the bands I managed to catch have stood out as some of the best of 2008 so far:

Kaki King

Originally from Atlanta, Kaki King is singer/songwriter/guitar player Katherine Elizabeth King. Her guitar work is an interesting style that is very percussive using slaps and taps. Her newest album, Dreaming Of Revenge, has been in my heaviest of rotations since catching her in Austin. It is about half instrumental ethereal post-rocky stuff, half fascinating and alluring pop songs. This release seems to be a little under the radar right now in hype-land, but it is too good to stay that way for long:

Life Being What It Is

So Much For So Little

Buy Dreaming Of Revenge here

Kaki King Myspace

Plants And Animals


photo by: Caroline Desilets

While doing my 2007 year end research and digging, Plants And Animal‘s With/Avec EP was one of the best discoveries I came across. One of the things I love about this band is they attempt to make each and every song a monumental event. Their debut LP, Parc Avenue, takes everything great about their short release and expands it on this tremendous album.

Mercy

Good Friend

Buy Parc Avenue Here

Plants And Animals Myspace

Bon Iver

Since everyone on the Internet has rightfully fallen for this album and sung its praises for ages now, I won’t go on a tirade about, but just make sure to check it out if you haven’t because it lives up to the hype:

Flume

Lump Sum

Buy For Emma, Forever Ago here

Bon Iver Myspace

Photos: SXSW Day 2 – 3-13-08 in Austin, TX

Genghis Tron

Holy Fuck

Phosphorescent

Evangelicals

Bon Iver

Videos: Ecstatic Peace Party at SXSW (3/14/2008) Thurston Moore, J Mascis (at Mohawk Patio)

I did my review of the party here. I’ve been having a myriad of problems getting my SXSW videos uploaded, but I managed to punch these through. The first is of J Mascis’ final 10 minute jam session of his set. I had to go guerrilla style to get the video, so the visuals are not so great, but the audio is pretty good for a youtube vid, so check it out:

Here’s a better vid someone else got:

Click here to read the entire post…

Photos: SXSW Day 1 – 3-12-08 in Austin, TX

Earlimart


Click here to read the entire post…

SXSW 2008 Day 3: Friday

I started out my Friday trying to catch Bon Iver again because my camera ran out of batteries the night before right after they started and I wanted to get some videos, but I arrived at Emo’s too late to get anywhere near the front, so i just enjoyed some more of their stuff and moved on to the next venue. I caught the end of another Kaki King set, wich was cool because I missed the very end of the set i caught Wednesday night.

After that it was time to catch Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. One of the guitarists had broken his amp, so they played as a 3 piece instead, and it really sounded to me like something was missing, so I left after a few songs.

After getting a great steak and brie sandwich at some weird biker bar, I went to see Evangelicals again. It was hard to hear the vocals in the particular spot I was in the night before, plus I really love this album, so I was very happy to catch them do another stunning show. That is another cool thing about this festival; If I want to see a band I love multiple times, it is no problem. Here is some live videos:

Click here to read the entire post…

Video Of The Day: Phosphorescent “Wolves” Live At SXSW 2008

I’m currently uploading some pics while chilling at the Ecstatic Peace show here in Austin. The folks from Indian Jewelry just sat down next to me and are hanging out. Man I love SXSW. Google video finally allowed one of my vids from yesterday to go through, so here it is:

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.

SXSW 2008 Day 1: Wednesday

The festival season is in full swing here at Ohmpark as we are now in the thick of South By Southwest. This is about the polar opposite of a fest as you can get from Langerado, and so far it has been an amazing experience. After spending many hours traveling yesterday, we finally arrived here in Austin, TX and headed downtown to pick up our passes. We were trying to catch the Akron/Family show at the convention center. We were only able to see the last few minutes, but they were an incredible couple of minutes. Hopefully I can catch them again sometime this weekend.

After that we walked around the city and grabbed some grub and some Fat Tire beers. The downtown scene sort of reminded me if you took Key West or New Orleans downtown and filled it with hipsters and rock stars. It certainly appealed to me. We went back to the convention center to catch Earlimart next. They were playing in some room that was decorated very fancily called the “Bat Bar” that I’m guessing was broadcasting their shows to some Direct TV channel. Everyone had to wait in line outside until they started, and then everyone ran in. They had professional video cameras everywhere and some dude telling us to cheer and stuff. I’m guessing it was similar to what a MTV live broadcast would be like. It felt really fake and weird, and even Earlimart was joking about it. The show was great though, as they played some new stuff from their next forthcoming album.

After some more walking around and taking in the atmosphere, we headed to Orange Twin party, but we got there too early and weren’t really digging what we heard. We decided to check out the Brooklyn Vegan party down the street. We caught the end of Deer Tick, who was pretty cool. We decided to get up close for the next act, Jeffrey Lewis and The Jitters, even though we had no clue what it was. It was a wise decision because i think it was the best show of the day and my first discovery of the fest. Jeffrey Lewis is a very unique singer/songwriter who is the epitome of an artist. In addition to performing awesome songs with extremely clever lyrics, he also had storybook comics he had drawn and to go with some of the songs. Check out these videos:

Click here to read the entire post…

« Newer Posts

Older Posts »