SXSW Wrap Up Pt. 2

Some more of my favorite happenings at SxSW:

Pangaea Sitch: My buddy was helping sound at this swanky new club Pangaea, and when I got there, Richard Julian was having a laid back acoustic set, which was pretty good. He was really relaxed, telling a lot of jokes about the fact that nobody was there, which was kind of true. Pretty much just sound guys and people who knew him personally. That probably made the show that much better though.

Anyway, after that we were treated to Ben Harper and Tom Freund, both of whom I was very impressed by. At this point, the place started crowding up. Ben Harper was killing it on slide pedal and it was one of those shows that should be recorded, the vibe was very fresh. It felt great being part of it. Brett Dennen came out and joined them on a couple before his set, and he was pretty good as well.

Then came the late night sets with Men with Johanna Fateman and JD Samson from Le Tigre. They were all right. Playing pretty good dance music. Good enough for Sia (who had just finished a showcase of her own) to come by and let loose. What a crazy woman!! Then Perry Farrell came out and kind of DJed for a while (basically just played Justice and MGMT from his laptop while Tom Morello looked on) before he started doing Jane's Addiction covers with a guitar player and some strippers. It was a fun night.

The following day I was mostly sleep catching, which was definitely needed. That night we attended a bridge party briefly (literally just some people having fun on a bridge), just as No Age was packing up. But that was fine because we ended up seeing them the next day at the Mess With Texas event.
The Mess With Texas event at Waterloo Park was basically a micro-festival inside of the black hole that is South By, and it was the best way to bang out the remaining day of the week for me. First of all, we got to see No Age again, who were straight up rocking. They seemed like one of the adopted darlings of the festival, as they played like 6 or 7 shows. I only caught a couple of tracks from Atlas Sound, but it was sounding real good. I could hear Black Mountain slaughtering their stoner constituency from like a mile away, they were so bombastic. Islands put on an amazing performance, I was very impressed with the instrumentation (and his voice didn't bother me like it does on the last album!). Subtitle came out for his second badass surprise appearance, performing the rap segment of "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone." Then The Breeders came out and blew everyone away. The old stuff sounded great, the new stuff sounded great, and Kim Deal was in great spirits throughout the duration of the performance. Kelley Deal was hilarious too, she filled in some banter while they were brushing up on some German for their mini-encore. I almost enjoyed it more than when I saw the Pixies at Austin City Limits a couple of years ago. Even though I fuckin dug that show, The Breeders were just having more fun, seeming less mechanic and more organic.

All in all, a great week! The best part is I know that I didn't see nearly half of what I could have, I'm still incredibly satisfied with trip. Thanks again to Jared for the stay!

SXSW Wrap Up Pt. 1

Last week I attended SXSW in Austin, which was fantastic. I stayed with my buddy Jared, who was incidentally fired from SXSW for providing me a fake badge. (First UT student ever to be fired from South By!) Either way, we saw some fantastic bands and movies, ate some amazing food, had a great spread!

Here were my highlights from the event:Lou Reed: Seeing his concert film Berlin followed by a relatively coherent (for Lou Reed) Q&A. I can't wait to get this on DVD, Antony from Antony and the Johnsons as well as Sharon Jones sing back up, and Antony does an incredibly moving version of "Candy Says."

Bananaz: Documentary about Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewitt, and the incarnation of Gorillaz. The film basically documented the inception of the idea all the way to the follow through of Demon Days. Over 5 years worth of footage, or something ridiculous like that. The director was very cool, is good friends with both artists and presented a very intimate portrait of the inside of the operation.Cadence Weapon: Straight from Canada, Cadence Weapon put on an awesome live set, complete with DJ Weasel, who I was watching most of the show. I have a newfound appreciation for scratching since this particular festival, there were so many awesome DJs who were working hard and you could tell. Great surprise guest Subtitle followed through, for one of his 2 great sneak appearances that I caught this week!
Dizzee Rascal: Holy shit, what an awesome free show with the Newham Generals. Tons of free stuff going on too, notably the Steamworks Beer tent!

I also caught a couple of bands at a free Emo's show, which is impressive that they manage to pull that off every year. I was pleasantly surprised by the Shout Out Louds, who were really fun to watch. Apparently a lot of the free corporate events at the festival are not sanctioned by Roland Swenson and C3, the people who put on South By, and so this is upsetting the festival investors. These events have been discouraged by C3, and there are even some instances of the organizers trying to shut down these non-south-by shows.

Check out The Heavy

This band, The Heavy, is great. They're from the UK and have that old British rhythm and soul to them that is incredibly pure.

They're like a grittier Gnarles Barkley without the shiny whistles and ego (yet), but still manages to bring home some confident movers that will encourage your dance steps.

"Set me Free" grooves a lot like The Roots and Cody Chesnutt's "Seed 2.0," but has more of a Jamie Lidell aura to it to send it along.

"Coleen" has some solid marching horns, but still manages to swing you out.

The rest of the album is great too! Let me know what you think.

Food For Animals

Food For Animals is definitely worth a check. It sounds like Blackalicious on crystal meth, or Tech 9 getting violently electrocuted. Whichever way you want to paint it, the beats feel like trudging through a neon swamp of molasses, carrying a burlap sack full pieces of jagged glass and metal (definitely protruding through). It's coarse, but definitely rich.

And for some reason, ever since The Wire started, Maryland has this reputation of being hardass. I still haven't seen it, which is my own damn fault. (These guys are from Maryland, that's why I mention it.)

Either way, give this a try.

Bulk Gummies (mp3)
Swampy (Summer Jam) (mp3)

There Will Be Buhlud

I love the Pixies, and I love Sonic Youth. But do you get this, that you harbor a certain brand of disdain for bands who cite them as influences? Maybe it's a subconscious effort to protect the original band by preventing focus to wander elsewhere. But more commonly, it's usually just because these "influenced" bands sound insipid and flat, no matter how loud they are. Although this tends to be a foolproof theory, something clicked for me with Blood on the Wall.

This band is like the quintessential opening band, banging the shit out of anything that's around just to prove that that, though probably not as talented as the headliner, at least they're more badass. OK, they make use of a tried (tired) and true idea. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to see these guys live. They somehow take that idea of straight up plagiarism and make it appealing, and I give them kudos for doing so. Unfortunately they were just in Boston and I missed it, but hopefully I'll catch them next time.

Sorry Sorry Sarah (mp3)

Bing Ji Ling

If you're in the mood for something light, fresh and funky, check out Bing Ji Ling's June Degrees in December EP. It's soulful, but also kind of glossy, so if you're in a Hall and Oates/Jamiroquai kind of mood, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Lots of pseudo-world sounds, like he's going for the Moreno Veloso +2/Jovanotti hip style; but as soon as he opens his mouth, it's way too Californian to sound exotic. There's nothing deep or difficult to decipher in the lyrics, it's just a light treat to open up the day. Still fun though!

Just a few things to watch out for: This guy's whole career is based on ice cream, as you can check out at his myspace. (Bing Ji Ling means "Ice Cream" in Mandarin.) He's also pretty ridiculous looking for a soul/pop singer, and his bio claims that as a baby he was writing pop jingles for (duh) ice cream companies. It's all absurd.

June Degrees in the December (mp3)

STAX Covering All Bases

Very cool treatment of both Motown and Beatles songs done by Stax artists:

• Soulsville Sings Hitsville
• STAX Does The Beatles
  

Why these compilations are so under the radar, I'm not so sure, but a lot of takes on both of these albums are great. They include Stax staples like Booker T and the MGs, the Staple Singers, David Porter, and more. (Isaac Hayes does a 12 minute rendition of George Harrison's "Something." Wow!)

The best part about Stax Recording artists is that they do the funk thing and the pop thing at the same time; so to take some of the best pop music of the 60s, only to funkify it, that's a recipe for a great spread!

Isaac Hayes - Something (mp3)
John Gary Williams - My Sweet Lord (mp3)