SXSW Music is in full swing. Lots of reviews, pictures, reports, interviews, etc. floating around. Tough to keep up! Tomorrow we're heading into the thick of things ourselves, with plans to hit the Dickies/Filter party, #Offline, and/or Lawn Party. We will check back in afterward with our pictures and thoughts.
Pitchfork has a small army staffing South by Southwest. Amy Phillips, Ryan Dombal and Tom Breihan each are posting SXSW Reports daily. Today, Phillips was lucky enough to catch an impromptu performance by a bus driver and a diddley bow player: "Jack White, solo and acoustic, playing Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away' and the White Stripes' 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground' in a parking lot: A hell of a way to kick off SXSW. ... White's two-song set was friendly and laid-back, prompting smiles and sing-alongs from the crowd, which included Aziz Ansari and both members of the Kills. Afterwards, he introduced Third Man's latest signing, grizzled itinerant folkie Seasick Steve. (White told me that Steve inked his one-album Third Man deal by signing his office desk, rather than a contract.) Steve and his three-string guitar and stomp box only got one song in before a frantic parking lot attendant shut the celebration down." As far as catching White while he's in town, Phillips offers this advice: "[F]ollow the TMRRS Twitter to find out exactly where it's going to be, and get there early." Here's some video of Jack White's and Seasick Steve's sets via NPR.
More from Pitchfork: Tom Breihan's and Ryan Dombal's SXSW Reports for Wednesday. Breihan highlights Gold Panda, Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., EMA and Vaccines; Dombal focuses on James Blake, Antlers, Yuck!, and Matthewdavid. Also, photos from the Altered Zones SXSW Party "featuring John Maus, Puro Instinct, Pictureplane, Sleep Over, Laurel Halo, Matthewdavid, and Grimes, along with eye-popping live visuals from Austin-based multimedia artists Tommyboy and VidKidz on the venue's floor-to-ceiling HD projection wall."
Speaking of NPR, it has lots of SXSW music coverage up on NPR.org. Live concerts, photos, Twitter updates, reviews, etc. Shantel Mitchell covered a performance by Smith Westerns, who apparently played NPR's daytime party last year: "Given that only a year has passed since that show, these guys are still jarringly young — and still the owners of shampoo-commercial-quality hair. But newer songs like 'Tonight' and 'Weekend' feel exceptionally sturdy, built on a foundation that conjures images of both Replacements-style rock and girl-group pop. That mix of brashness and sweetness loses nothing in translation to the live stage." The band plays a few times again this weekend. Downloadthe concert here.
The only people covering SXSW more thoroughly than Pitchfork may be the team over at Austin360. Among other news today is a positive review of the keynote address (remember, this is a conference) given by Boomtown Rat, Band Aid and Live Aid organizer and guy with a good image all around, Bob Geldof. Not only was he witty but funny as well: "Geldof proved to be the most articulate and pointed keynote speaker ever at SXSW, tracing the work of Austin-born Alan Lomax to rock’s ‘racket of democracy.’ The standing ovation he received when he wrapped up, exactly at the hour mark, was genuine. But first came some self-deprecating humor. 'I know what you’re thinking,' he said, with his hair in a freshly shampooed moptop. '(Expletive) me, it’s Justin Bieber.'" Well, what do you think?
Another from Austin360: SXSW wrap - Wednesday's highlights (from various contributors), including nice bit about Japan disaster relief efforts at the festival: "The Red Cross will have booths at Auditorium Shores on Friday and Saturday for fans to donate to Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. Meanwhile, the Japan Nite booth at the Convention Center has collected thousands of dollars from SXSW attendees tossing bills in a basket. The booth has a live stream of Japanese TV so attendees from Japan can keep up with developments. ... SXSW publicist Elizabeth Derczo said only one or two bands from Japan won't make their SXSW appearances in the wake of the natural disasters. The annual SXSW Japan Nite will be Friday at Elysium. And as of Wednesday night, the fundraising site created last week during SXSW Interactive, www.sxsw4japan.org, has raised close to $67,000 between donations on the site and another $5,000 corporate donation. (The URL sxswcares.org also redirects to the site.)" Well done. Keep it up!
How big is this festival? HOW BIG IS THIS FESTIVAL? Consequence of Sound staffers do a good job illustrating that with a rundown of one day -- Wednesday -- at SouthBy, from the Jack White gig at noon to The Dodos at 1:15 AM. Lots in between, including a Stubb's set from MTV golden age idols Duran Duran (from Cap Blackard): "Set highlights included the long-retired 'Friends of Mine' from their first album, the new track 'Being Followed,' an outstanding performance of 'The Chauffer' featuring LeBon on what looked like an ocarina, and their encore rendition of 'Girls on Film' featuring an interlude of the Motown track 'Poppa Was A Rollin’ Stone' and solos from every performer. ... As always, the incomparable Simon LeBon, owned the stage. Whether exuding a profound sexual presence (posturing like a badass, asking the audience who their daddy was), or just being goofy (“flying” around the stage, miming creating a large orb, then shoving the orb in his mouth and growing at the front row) there is no doubt that he is the man, and everyone in the audience had been Simon LeBoned."
Brittaney Shey of Houston Press' Rocks Off blog didn't make it into Duran Duran, but is that the point anyway? "how long should one wait in line for a big name band before cutting your losses and heading on down the road? When Rocks Off saw that the line for Duran Duran at Stubb's wrapped around the block and almost to I-35, we uttered a mental 'Fuck this' and headed for smaller pastures. Which is how we found ourselves at Parish Underground, listening to a band called The Vandelles. With women on drums and bass and dudes on vox and guitar, they sounded like the Beach Boys if the Beach Boys were girls playing through 50-year-old amps. The bar wasn't event packed. It was exactly the kind of vacation-y vibe we needed after braving the thong-clad crowds."
Jeff Weiss of the L.A. Times: "Under the soft lights and smoke of the outdoor venue [Stubb's], [James Blake's] cracked falsetto swooned and soared, twisting and fluttering. It simultaneously managed to be dazzling and dull. Hearing songs such as 'The Wilhelm Scream' ... in person had a poignance and power that triumphed over the large venue and outdoor acoustics. After all, he had a guitarist and drummer with him to help shore up the paper-thin constructions. It was electronic gospel, but it lacked the evangelical fervor of the best of the genre. It was pretty and well-groomed, but more Anglican than Baptist -- veneration but no violence. Slow dance music for unreconstructed Coldplay fans."
Richard Tafoya of SoundSpike: "Yuck is an example of NPR deserving their tastemaker status. The band works from a palette that draws some reasonably dotted lines to Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and even a little Foo Fighters with their ability to work in a well-manicured hook without ruining the rock sauce. But the band climbed highest when they stretched out instrumentally, allowing guitarist Max Bloom to layer, loop and weave fascinating noisescapes from his guitar rig while the rest of the group built out stormy foundations below, drawing the dotted lines out into something close to Mogwai territory."
AV Club Austin runs down some of Wednesday's showcases, including The Antlers, Asobi Seksu, Baths and Braids: "It makes sense that Braids recently wrapped up a tour with L.A. beat auteur Baths. The Montreal four-piece takes a similar approach, carving buoyant but soothing indie pop out of an even split of electronics and acoustics. The comparisons end there, however—this is a bona fide band whose debut, Native Speaker, displays a strong instrumental dynamic led by the vocal stylings of Raphaelle Standell-Preston, who can’t help but channel the playful twitter of Joanna Newsom."
Chris Miller of Red and Black on the end of a long and fruitful Wednesday of music: "As I was stumbling my way towards the bus stop I head some thudding drums over at Emo’s Annex and decided to finish off the night how I started it: hard. But what I got was Horse The Band. Don’t let anyone tell you they’re not metal, they are certainly that. But that’s not all they are… They’ve got synths layering in what sounds like a video game soundtrack right next to guttural growls, and then shredding guitars and chugging rhythms, and then they bust in to little indie pop dance sections. What?! I only saw about two songs, but I left baffled. If you like heavy stuff but want something different, check this band out. Now."
Tim Jonze of The Guardian (UK) reviews Brother: "Musically speaking, Brother may aim to emulate the Gallaghers but the tunes sound - to these ears - more like Mansun (strictly melodically speaking of course - there are no 70 minute prog operas about Dr Who, gender identity and cancer here). But then nobody at SXSW is here expecting to catch the next developments in Witch House. They're here to listen to loud'n'lumpen British rock with some anthemic shout-along bits thrown in. Within that rather limited context, it would be hard to argue that Brother had failed to deliver."
The folks at Clash Music had a busy Wednesday as well: "Emo’s threw up the first joy: Surfer Blood, Clash hot picks of 2010 and they didn’t disappoint. With so many ‘5-piece-leather-jacket-my-drummer-is-a-nutter’ style bands in attendance its easy to get numb to the sound of generic rock. Which is why when the subtle inflections that made Surfer Blood’s ‘Astro Coast’ such a strong debut came hammering through the air the name of Surfer Blood went straight into the notes. There’s something extra acerbic about their melodies and we can’t wait to hear what they do next."
Neon Tommy's Emily Wilson on highlights from the FADER Fort party: "Oh Land! :: The Danish electro-pop artist’s debut album came out on Tuesday, and with the amount of shows she’s playing and the kind of talk she’s generating at SXSW, it should do well. Appearing on stage in a flowing black dress and black Doc Martins, and with her supporting musicians dressed in a matching hue, the dark appearance seemed to, at times, contradict the glowing smile from the singer’s face. She seemed to be truly enjoying herself and also seemed genuinely surprised to hear such a positive and vocal response from the crowd. But it could hardly be helped. The audience’s attraction is easy to break down: Oh Land has incredible stage presence. Dancing, twirling, drumming and singing beautifully over music impossible not to dance to made for an powerful 30 minutes set. Check out songs like 'Son of a Gun' and 'White Nights,' if not the entire album."
photo c/o Deborah Cannon, American-Statesman 
No comments:
Post a Comment