SXSW 2010 Captain’s Log #4: Because I Got High
Ladies and… ladies of Autostraddle, it’s time for a confession: on the last day of SXSW, I didn’t go to any shows. I have a laundry list of excuses. Here’s some of the ones I feel like sharing:
1. Despite the previous day’s gorgeous summer breeze, it was freezing cold and very windy on Saturday. I hadn’t packed for less-than-perfect weather, and all the big shows that day took place at outdoor venues.
2. All the daytime gigs I wanted to see had lines down the street and around the block by the time I got there.
3. I had access to a cute girl with a car who wanted to take me to see The Runaways movie.
This is not to say I abandoned my responsibilities to you. For every hour I spent in Austin, I had a full schedule loaded with at least three options for every hour, and determined which shows I actually would attend with mathematical precision. I had spent many hours researching and whittling down this schedule, and thus I am ready now to present to you all the bands I would have seen, had I been physically and mentally prepared to do so.
Presenting: The Top 10 Bands I Totally Wanted To See But Missed. Now with cartoons!
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10. Miss Li: for fans of dancing alone in your bedroom and singing into a hairbrush.
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When I first saw Miss Li listed on the SXSW calendar, I assumed this was a strangely formal way of telling me that Lykke Li would be back this year. Although they are both young Swedish singers with rather sweet singing voices, I was incorrect. Miss Li (real name Linda Carlsson) is a particularly adorable new singer whose music is a mix of jazz, cabaret, blues and sweet indie rock’n’roll – a fresh sound made up of many well-known genres. You probably know who she is because her song “Bourgeois Shangri-La” was used in an iPod Nano commercial. I know who she is because I’m a sucker for Swedish pop singers. Check out this insanely cute video for “Dancing the Whole Way Home” if you don’t believe me:
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9. Neon Indian/Neon Trees: for fans of chirpy synthesizers, previous fans of bands called Gold/Deer/Black/Crystal/Bear anything
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It’s so hard when a bunch of hype bands have really similar names, and I can never remember which one of these is the band I actually like. Upon further inspection, it turns out Neon Indian are the guys with the electro-psychedelic songs called things like “Should Have Taken Acid With You” and “Terminally Chill,” so take that for what it’s worth. Neon Trees are a catchy-if-a-little-generic pop band who’ve opened for the Killers and have cute hair. Both of these bands have male lead singers and female musicians, which is a plus.
Don’t make this mistake:
8. Cruel Black Dove: for fans of Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey
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I have a feeling Cruel Black Dove are really tired of people telling them they sound like an electronic PJ Harvey side project, but they really do – and it’s fantastic. I also have a soft spot for this Brooklyn band because they appear to have been named after the tracklisting to Tori Amos’ album From The Choirgirl Hotel. Check out this video for “Love Song.” (more…)
SXSW Captain’s Log #3: Courtney Love and Smokey Robinson Make Dreams Come True
Day 3 of SXSW was a tough one, because it’s so difficult to budget time. On the one hand, the purpose of being here is to see as many new bands as possible, but on the other hand there are incredible major artists performing in small venues all the time. If I had a third hand, it would be drunk and making out with strangers. There was just not enough time to be everywhere I wanted to be.
My first stop was Red Eyed Fly, where a psychedelic indie band called Darker My Love were playing. I first saw those guys when they opened for the Dandy Warhols in New York, and knew I’d really enjoyed their huge, noisy pop songs. I also remembered somewhere in the back of my mind that Andy Granelli from the Distillers had been their drummer, which was an added bonus. However, it had been two years, and Andy Granelli is no longer a part of the band – and it turns out that my Roky Erickson experience Wednesday afternoon was not an isolated incident. I just cannot begin my day properly with psychedelic rock bands. They make me cranky. Perhaps tomorrow I will start my day with a nutritious breakfast instead.
Darker My Love sounded great, and the vocal harmonies were just lovely, but I was anxious about the main event of the day…
Coming for you, @CourtneyLoveUK.
Without getting into it too much, I should note that I have a history with Courtney Love. Last autumn I started a Twitter account called @CLTranslated to help translate the internet ramblings of Courtney Love into plain English for the rest of the world. It got a lot of attention from various major publications around the world, from the Guardian to the Village Voice (2009 Best Of issue!) to an interview in SPIN. It was EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that I attend Hole‘s first American concert in about ten thousand years. Unfortunately, there was a guest list issue, and I ended up arguing with the women at the door. I’ve spent years working the guest list at clubs all over New York City, and I would have found my entitled attitude totally insufferable, but there I was. I needed to see this show.
SXSW Survival Tip #4: Don’t be a dick. The people working at these clubs are already stressed enough.
While I was waiting to get sorted out, a band across the street from Stubb’s were playing “Please Mr. Postman,” one of the best songs ever. Just saying. (more…)
SXSW Captain’s Log #2: Kid Sister, Duchess Says, Ukuleles & Random Acts of Rock ‘n Roll
Good morning/afternoon/evening, my darlings. I apologise for the lateness of this post, but yesterday was a very full day and if not for the glorious Red Bull truck circling the premises, we would surely be dead by now. What were you up to yesterday? I saw bands! Let’s get to it!
i. Kid Sister & Me
Thursday morning, I scraped myself out of bed with one mission in mind: to finally see Kid Sister after three years and about eight or nine failed attempts. For those of you who haven’t heard her, Kid Sister is Melisa Young, a Chicago-based rapper who rhymes over electro beats. She’s best known for her single “Pro Nails” featuring Kanye West:
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Anyway, I’ve loved Kid Sister for years but every time I’ve tried to see her (ie, last night) I’ve been thwarted somehow. I arrived at the outdoor stage early, and was pleased to see that a decent-sized crowd had the same idea. I even spotted British synthesizer chanteuse Little Boots lurking around, commenting loudly to a friend how grateful she was to not be playing 45 times a day like last year. When our hero finally took the stage, she announced “Hello Austin! It is EARLY AS HELL!” Despite it being the crack of dawn (um, a little after 2 PM) and the blazing hot sun beating down upon the stage, Kid Sister gave her performance everything she had. Also, she was wearing possibly the world’s most adorable outfit:
Can’t see her toes, but they’re probably done up much like her fingernails.
The set was energetic enough for us to forget our hangovers, and we were treated to almost every song off Kid Sister‘s debut album Ultraviolet. The highlight for me was “Big n Bad,” which samples Yaz’s “Situation.” At the end of her set, she and her DJ threw lollipops into the crowd, potentially blinding dozens of hip concertgoers. Because I love you, here is Kid Sister’s single “Right Hand Hi.”
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ii. I Find My People at the Ukulele Festival
My next trip was to Jaime’s Spanish Food, where a ukulele festival of sorts was taking place on the patio. The mission of the two-day event was to play every single Beatles song on the uke, with the assistance of various guest vocalists and backing instrumentalists. I am a fan of anything that can be done with the ukulele (ie, I sit at home playing Lady Gaga songs all day and night, much to the chagrin of my housemates), so I stuck around for a few performances. Here is a kid I estimate to be about 11 playing the cello and singing a Beatles song I shamefully do not know the name of:
Anyway the important factor here is that somehow I ended up sitting at a table at the restaurant inside, talking to Nigel Harrison from Blondie while he ate a taco salad. He was very nice, but the conversation was very strange. I was wearing a Stooges t-shirt, and Mr. Harrison told me about the days when he used to play with Iggy (“I call him Jim, of course.”) and how Iggy would slice his chest up with razors on stage. I mentioned that I was a huge fan of everything Joan Jett has ever done, and he casually dropped that he’d played bass on a Runways record. These things are all true (I know because I snuck off to the bathroom and Googled them), but I had nothing constructive to add. SXSW, you are so random and amazing. I love you. Let’s make out.
iii. A-Claud Moves Members of the Audience Around,
Poses Them As if They Are Furniture
I stopped at Club DeVille for about thirty seconds to catch three songs of Vivian Girls‘ set. Everybody loves Vivian Girls! Do you like the Vivian Girls? It was very crowded! Here they are:
Next on the agenda was a French Canadian party on the upper level of the Paradise. I was there to see one of my first unexpected SXSW discoveries, a Montreal band called Duchess Says. Sonically, they’re what would happen if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs never wrote melodic love songs and focused instead on making dissonant noise (in fact, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs took them out on a European tour after Nick Zinner spotted them at last year’s CMJ Music Marathon in New York). Singer A-Claude is notorious for getting the crowd involved in the band’s performances, and she’ll climb sound equipment, barstools or actual members of the audience to make her point. When the boys in the band finally took the stage, the kids in the crowd gave A-Claude a wide berth to do what she does best.
A-Claude didn’t disappoint us for a second. She moved members of the audience around and posed them as though they were furniture. She climbed on top of a table, played with the table cloth, brought a girl up to dance, and then dragged both the girl and the table into the center of the room. At one point, she unlocked a door to the patio and instructed everyone in the room to exit the performance space one by one. We obliged. I have never seen a band make its audience leave the show before, but we all snuck back in through another open door. When she shouted “EVERYONE! We all need to lie down!” we did as we were told.
If I’ll lie on the floor of a bar for you, you’ve gotta be good.
Nobody ever really watches the boys in the band while A-Claude is bossing the room around, but I enjoyed watching them for a few songs. I was surprised to notice that the guy on the Moog plays most of the basslines, while the bass player seemed to play parts I would have assumed were keyboards. I sort of hope Duchess Says stay small, because I always want to see them in tiny rooms and examine them from every possible angle. Their set was completely entertaining. (more…)
SXSW 2010 Captain’s Log #1: Hipster Spring Break Begins
Last year when Autostraddle was only two weeks old, our dear music lover Stef reported live from SXSW for you, and well, you really liked it so you will all be happy to know that Stef is back for SXSW 2010: The Captain’s Log! Live from Austin, Texas, South by Southwest 2010!
Once a year, the music industry gathers from the far corners of the universe to convene in the Live Music Capital of the Universe, sunny Austin, Texas. This event, known as South by Southwest or SXSW for short, is part festival, part showcase, part seminar and many parts ridiculous. The purpose of SXSW is essentially threefold:
1. to discuss new ideas and approaches in various fields of music, from digital distribution to marketing to artist management
2. to showcase new artists and figure out who will be the hot ticket for the upcoming year
3. SPRING BREEEEAAAAAKKKKK!!
As a depraved human being who eats, breathes and lives for rock’n’roll, SXSW has historically been mostly the latter for me. This is my third consecutive year, and each time I find my mission statement focuses slightly less on discovering new music obsessions and slightly more on locating the open bars and making out with cute strangers. That said, this year’s schedule is full of absolutely amazing acts and I’m ready to experience as many of them as possible and share the experience with you, just as I did last year.
i. Lap of Luxury/Back of the Venue
On Wednesday I arrived in Austin feeling a bit frazzled from my 6 AM flight. I met up with my darling friends Jill and Mildred, and thus began our great Texan adventure. After discovering we had accidentally checked into a really swanky hotel complete with a king-sized sleep number bed (hello ladies), we took off almost immediately for the first act of the day, Roky Erickson with Okkerville River at the Galaxy Room. Roky’s hardly a new act – as the brainchild behind the 13th Floor Elevators, Roky was hugely influential on psychedelic rock in the late 1960s – but we figured it would be a mellow start to our day.
SXSW Survival Tip #1: If an amazing artist’s super-intimate set sounds too good to be true, guess what? It also sounded that way to like ten thousand other people who also enjoy that band. Roky sounded great, but we couldn’t see a damn thing. (more…)
Audiostraddle’s 2010 Music Festival Survival Guide
Aside from the $10 bottles of water, 100-degree middle-of-the-desert heat and the worst ‘bathrooms’ on the planet; music festivals are hands-down amazing. You can catch all your favorite artists in the same place, hang out on blankets with old friends, make new friends, and drink a lot!
There are approximately thirty music festivals that will be showcasing music’s best and brightest talent around the USA this year. Leveraging my extensive experience as a music festival attendee, I’ve put together a survival guide to this year’s biggest: SXSW, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lilith Fair, Lollapalooza, and Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.
Whether you’re a first timer who’s popping your festival cherry or a festival crusader, this guide will help you navigate the music fest’s muddy waters and tip you off to some of the artists that we think you should really check out this year.
South By Southwest
March 17 – 22 // Austin, TX
I’ve been attending SxSW since 2004. It’s one of the largest music festivals in the world and follows a Film and Interactive Festival. Fun fact: Twitter was invented for SXSW indie hipsters to keep in touch with each other during the festival! Neat huh?
Literally thousands of bands descend on Austin each year to showcase. For musicians, it’s the holy grail of festivals, the place where new artists are scouted out and signed up to record labels. Austin’s famous 6th Street closes down to accommodate the unimaginable number of fans and music industry folks rushing from venue to venue ’til 4am. The weather is temperate and the venues are all small so you really get up close with bands you wouldn’t be able to in other places. This festival is for the fans.
Next weekend our SxSW warrior Stef will be start bringing us daily reports from the festival. To get a taste, check out her highly entertaining SxSW Captain’s Log from last year.
Also check out Uh Huh… Her?, the winning film from the 2008 Uh Huh Her SXSW Video Contest which just so happens to feature Autostraddle’s Riese and Crystal.
MUST-SEE BANDS & ARTISTS
Wednesday, March 17th:Jenny Owens Young, Melissa Ferrick, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Hesta Prynn, Das Racist, Abe Vigoda, Andrew WK, Fitz and The Tantrums, Paul Wall & Chamillionaire, Suzanne Vega, Spoon
Thursday, March 18th: Chris Pureka, Eisley, Nico Stai, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Stone Temple Pilots, MEN, She & Him, Marina & The Diamonds, The xx, Tom Freund, The Soft Pack, Sondre Leche, The Crystal Method, Rogue Wave, Melissa Ferrick, First Aid Kit, Broken Social Scene, DJ Taryn Manning.
Friday, March 19th: Cheap Trick, Smokey Robinson, Band Of Skulls, Girl In A Coma, Holly Miranda, Ra Ra Riot, Theophilus London, Hole, Sum 41, Dengue Fever, An Horse, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Dum Dum Girls, Rye Rye.
Saturday, March 20th: Daedelus, Bowling For Soup, The Watson Twins, Margaret Cho, Japandroids, The Laughing, Macy Gray, The Drums.
Sunday, March 21st: Set Aflame and Silver Starling.
SURVIVAL TIPS
Plan, plan plan: timetables are time consuming and also a little nerdy, but for SXSW a schedule is a must. There is so much happening at the one time and so if you’re across it, you’re going to miss your favorite acts.
Location: THE place to stay in Austin is along South Congress [SOCO]. I recommend Hotel San Jose, which has a great location and reasonable rates, and is comfortably alluring without being pretentious. (more…)
SXSW Spotlight: First Aid Kit, Swedish Sisters Do Indie Folk
Sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg are the talented young women behind the indie-folk duo, First Aid Kit. The Söderberg’s hail from a small suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, and have been gaining momentum ever since the release of their 2008 Drunken Trees EP.
The maturity of their story-telling and the tight vocal harmonies by these young sisters — only 15 and 17-years old at the time the EP was recorded — is striking.
Watch this performance from a 2008 appearance on Swedish television:
These incredible live performances are not in short supply. Check out a series of performances for Bandstand Busking on YouTube, including videos of “Hard Believer” and “Tangerine”.
The one that brought them the most attention, however, was their 2008 cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.” Many of you have probably heard it. (more…)
SXSW Spotlight: Tanlines, Electronic Duo With Awesome Name
I admit I don’t know a lot about Brooklyn-based duo Tanlines. I do know, however, that their name caught my eye in a long list of SXSW artists and their song “s.a.w.” blew me away.
Put your headphones on for this one.
Tanlines incorporates mainstream club synthesizer with accessible vocals and melodic riffs — think New Order meets Ratatat. (I’m a fan of both.) Guitarist Eric Emm is responsible for the sparse and ethereal vocals. He is joined by Jesse Cohen, producer/drummer/electronic wizard. Before forming Tanlines, both Emm and Cohen played in bands I’ve never heard of: Emm in Don Cabellero and Storm and Stress, and Cohen in Professor Murder. Together, they’ve also done remixes for Tough Alliance, El Guincho, and Telepathe.
Stick with me. The bands listed above might as well be characters from Battlestar Galactica; I won’t pretend to know them (what the frack?!). But Tanlines is damn good, and that’s all you need to know!
Photo by ioulex
Bonus: Tanlines has made a video for almost all of the tracks they have released.They’re composed of found footage, which makes them all the more interesting to watch. Tanlines will be promoting their first album Settings with four shows at SXSW. See their dates and full tour schedule on MySpace.
Favorite Tracks: s.a.w., three trees, “A New Chance” (Remix of The Tough Alliance)
Weekly Music Fix: SXSW, Laura Marling, Sparklehorse, Gaga and Nicki Minaj
After exhausting myself with the small task of churning out daily SXSW posts (it’s not that hard — I know), here’s this week’s Fix!
Laura Marling
Singer-songwriter Laura Marling discusses the title track from her upcoming album I Speak Because I Can and gives an intimate acoustic performance of the song at The Guardian UK. Now, after hearing two tracks from her sophomore release, I’m thinking one thing and one thing only: Will this be a sophomore slump? I hope not. I was a big fan of her debut release, Alas, I Cannot Swim. Revisit Laura Marling’s greatness with a live performance of “Ghosts” below — bonus points if you recognized Mumford & Sons as her backing band.
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Lady Gaga
New stills from Gaga’s “Telephone” video looking very Desperately Seeking Susan/Women Behind Bars. The video will debut Thursday.
Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse
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Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life this past Saturday, just days after the announcement that Dark Night of the Soul — a collaborative project with Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and David Lynch — would finally see physical release. Linkhous was a talented musician and multi-instrumentalist who struggled with personal demons throughout his life. He was 47. Remember Linkhous with his to “It’s A Wonderful Life” by Sparklehorse below.
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SXSW Spotlight: Local Natives Has Five Pieces, Gets Nine Shows
This LA-based band released their debut album, Gorilla Manor, last month in the U.S. and though it’s been floating around in the U.K. for over a year, it’s just starting to gain momentum. At first glance, Local Natives seems like just another nondescript indie rock band. There’s a lot of music to sift through lately, after all. But give their album a listen, and you’ll realize that this band stands out among the rest.
Local Natives features three-part harmonies that I can only liken to the hobochic phenomenon. Unlike the perfectly choreographed voices of a band like Fleet Foxes, Local Natives sound like they’re winging it. Yet their songs’ construction is too elaborate — too unusual — to write off as unplanned. When they’re not busy harmonizing, guitarist Taylor Rice and keyboardist/percussionist Kelcey Ayer trade lead vocals while guitarist Ryan Hahn lends his voice for back-up.
Ayer’s percussion, combined with that of drummer Matt Frazier, is another Local Natives’ hallmark. Their polyrhythyms make each and every track from Gorilla Manor a joy to deconstruct. These guys love snare like Christopher Walken loves cowbell. To those with a less critical ear, don’t be dismayed — this album is accessible to all, and you won’t find yourself skipping any tracks.
Check out their video for “Airplanes” below or click through to listen to my favorite track, “World News.” You won’t be disappointed! (Or if you are, let me know in the comments.)
Local Natives are playing a whopping NINE shows at SXSW, so be sure to catch them at one of them if you’ll be there. You can find dates on MySpace.
SXSW Spotlight: Rye Rye, Baltimore Rapper
Three years ago, with the endorsement of DJ Blaqstarr and M.I.A., teenage rapper Rye Rye was poised to take the hip-hop world by storm. She toured with M.I.A. and was even featured on two of her remixes. Then she got pregnant and was forced to hang up the mic. Now after having her daughter, Kennidi, last September, Rye Rye is back on the horse. She’s playing three SXSW shows, along with an in-store in Austin. Check out her full tour schedule on MySpace and her 2009 album Bang.
More importantly, check out her video for “Shake It To The Ground” featuring DJ Blaqstarr. It will get your fist pumping and your ass shaking. Or maybe it’s just me?Let us know what you think in the comments.
SXSW Spotlight: Jenny Owen Youngs, Tomboy With Guitar
I admit, I initially wrote off “Voice On Tape” by Jenny Owen Youngs as another pleasant indie-pop song by a cute, guitar-playing girl. Don’t get me wrong — I liked it. There just didn’t seem to be anything warranting another look. I was also a little annoyed by the answering machine intro. Random speaking voices have that special ability ruin songs for me (I’m looking at you, “Graveyard Girl” by M83). But then the chorus hit, and I thought, “Ohh, sexy.” Listen for yourself.