SXSW 2011 Bullets (3/18/11)

Our daily rundown of the prime SXSW coverage out there. Mostly Music today (with an unintentionally retro feel), with a bit of commentary and a video on Interactive thrown in.

• Not surprisingly, the Strokes' free set at Auditorium Shores, which drew between 10 and 25,000 depending on who you ask, is the focus of a lot of today's reviews and wrap-ups. Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork: "At this point, set list selection is a big deal with the Strokes because their arsenal isn't as stacked as it was right after Room on Fire. So it was a relief that they only grazed 2006's justly maligned First Impressions of Earth and, of the five songs from new album Angles, there were three winners ('Gratisfaction', 'Taken for a Fool', and 'Under Cover of Darkness') and two duds ('You're So Right' and 'Life Is Simple in the Moonlight'). The rest of the 80-minute set was made up of the band's towering first two LPs, and songs like 'Hard to Explain', 'I Can't Win', and the gorgeous 'Under Control'-- made even sweeter by a newly stripped-down intro-- went over as fine as ever. The idyllic weather, cool breeze, and picturesque Austin skyline behind them only added to the positive vibes."
• Melissa Locker of Oregon Live: "At Stubbs Bar-B-Q, Portland band Portugal. The Man opened for Brooklyn's TV on the Radio. The group's sonically charged prog rock did not fail to impress the large crowd gathered to hear new songs from the fresh-off-hiatus TV on the Radio. The experimental group managed to create a web of stark atmospherics and not just because of the massive amount of smoke filling the room. Headliners TV on the Radio kept the audience in an uproar with their growling energetic rock songs and surprisingly good effort at churning out crowd-pleasing arena rock. Best part of the show? No green beer in sight." Locker was also at the Strokes gig and gives it a thumbs-up as well.
• There's always more Pitchfork! Amy Phillips: "What I expected from Wise Blood's set: Pittsburgh sample sorcerer Chris Laufman fiddling with a laptop, maybe jumping around a little bit. What I got: Laufman dancing like the hip-hop bad boy in a vintage turn-of-the-millennium boy band, shouting his sing-songy choruses, invading the crowd, tearing his plaid flannel shirt halfway off his chest. ('I wore flannel to SXSW. It was the dumbest thing I've ever done.') Backed by a keyboard player and a drummer who actually tried to mimic the 'When the Levee Breaks' sample on 'B.I.G. E.G.O.', Laufman was free to play the unhinged wildman, a role he inhabited quite comfortably. He was also the most polite performer I've seen at SXSW yet, thanking the crowd profusely multiple times and apologizing for being cranky at the start of his set. Oh, and he had the words 'SLUT BANGER' written on his neck in what I really hope is brown marker and not, um, cigarette burns or something. Quite a surprise, this one."
• Deborah Sengupta Stith of Austin360 on an old band that still can rock a party: "[T]he party heated significantly when Fishbone showed up. Frontman Angelo Moore trounced onto the stage rocking a glossed up page boy get up and an Andy Warhol wig. With surprisingly sharp sound cutting through the echo chamber that is the Austin Music Hall, the group’s characteristic tight vocal and brass harmonies were as solid 20 years later as they were in the early nineties. After a couple midtempo reggae grooves the band kicked in the thrash and speed that made them famous and Angelo tossed himself into the crowd and spent the better part of the set flopping fish-style atop a sea of hands to classics such as 'Alcoholic' and 'Hey Ma and Pa.' The nineties vibe was going so hard a mosh pit broke out in the middle of the crowd, but it is definitely not 1991. The bouncing and shoving proved upsetting to a good portion the crowd and as Fishbone exited the stage security came out and pleaded with the crowd to settle down." Apparently Wu-Tang Clan's later set didn't go so well: "Finally, at around 1 a.m. a roar went through the crowd as the Clan took the stage. Most of the Clan, that is, Method Man, Raekwon and RZA were all missing. The five remaining rappers threw down, ripping through their classic joints with a fury. Unfortunately, the sound that had been intermittently rough all night became almost unforgivably awful. The booming bass created a sludge that swallowed any intricacy in the beats. Every rhyme dropped was accented by relentless feedback squeals from the mics. It was rough going."
• Speaking of sets by half-full 90s hip-hop legends, Chad Swiatecki from the same Austin360 reviewed Hieroglyphics' set: "[W]est coast indie heroes Hieroglyphics were on the bill, but in actuality you were getting members Casual and Opio and a couple supporting hangers on instead of a full-on reunion of the at one time Wu-Tang sized crew. Get past the bait and switch and all was good, though, and there was plenty of fun to be had. The two vets attacked the mic with workman-like gusto and it was obvious they’ve spent so much of their lives on stage that stirring a crowd into a frenzy is something they were pretty much born to do, even if it meant delivering only a couple verses from songs in the groups deep and lyrically rich catalog. Maybe it was too much to expect an appearance by Hiero vets like Del The Funky Homosapien or Toure to make the trip - though Del’s got a new record dropping in April, so why not? - but for what it was there were far worse ways to spend a night."
• Chris Richards of the Washington Post on the increasing hip-factor of public radio: "[T]he fans didn’t come for the swag. They came to see their favorite new bands — bands that swarm SXSW every year with big dreams. One day, with any luck, these groups will be smiling for magazine covers, singing on late-night television shows and ... hearing their music streaming on NPR’s Web site? Forget the totes — NPR has a brand new bag. The Washington-based news outlet has emerged as an influential powerhouse in a splintering music industry thanks to the growing popularity of NPR Music, a Web site that has connected with music fans by premiering new albums, streaming live concerts and landing exclusive interviews."
• James Montgomery of MTV on what sounded like a good set by Wiz Khalifa at Atlantic Records' party at La Zona Rosa: "He snarled through 'Taylor Gang' and 'On My Level,' dropped phrases like 'Time is money so I went and bought a Rolex' and 'We wake up drunk, go to sleep f---ed up,' and made the crowd go bananas with his hit 'Black and Yellow.' But really, perhaps his most lucid moment came toward the end of his set, when he stopped the music and spoke openly about the late Nate Dogg, calling the G-Funk legend 'one of my biggest heroes' and running through an impromptu tribute performance that featured he and the Taylor Gang singing some of Dogg's most memorable verses, including (fittingly enough) his off-the-cuff 'Hey hey hey hey/ Smoke weed every day,' from Dr. Dre's 'The Next Episode.'"
• Exene Cervenka (of X) is blogging her SXSW experience for OC Weekly. She had a good night enjoying the city and finagling her way into a packed Antone's to catch Emmylou Harris and The Old 97s: "Old 97s are super exciting and their new songs were superb. Ken, the guitar player, was really sick with the flu or something, just came down with it. But oh, what a show he played! He was wearing an awesome dark cowboy shirt with long white fringe on the shoulders. I sang 'Four Leaf Clover' with them which I do every time we are all in the same city. The stamina of the audiences here is astounding. People wait in line for hours, get crammed together, etc, but it doesn't matter. I love music warriors, I respect that passion so much! And you just talk to strangers everywhere."
• Paul Cashmere of Undercover: "Yoko Ono says her late husband John Lennon would have loved Twitter. Yoko was speaking today at SXSW in Austin. It was her first time ever to the Texas capital. When asked how John would like the way we communicate today and if he would use Twitter she said, 'of course he would. He would be very excited about the computer age and what we could do.'"
• Blake Eskin of the New Yorker: "Why do I dwell on the deficiencies of the SXSW app? I don’t mean to be an ingrate. (My ticket to the conference was complementary because I moderated a conversation on journalism and technology, and it is unseemly to whine about any business trip that includes bright sun and barbecue.) There is an irony in a technology conference having technology shortcomings, but that wasn’t new; and I appreciate that SXSW made it easier to get a wi-fi signal at the Convention Center than it was last year. A second irony is that a conference where so many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists preach about digital utopia still needs an unwieldy printed booklet to satisfy its corporate sponsors."
• TechCrunch presents "SXSW: Sights and Sounds":