Sound Bites

SxSW 2008 Diary: Friday, March 14

Back before the Day Party became the norm, SXSW attendees were forced to either sleep till a civilized hour, go enjoy a relaxing, delicious lunch somewhere in Austin other than near the convention center or, heaven forbid, attend a Panel Discussion. I know what you're thinking. Panel Discussion, what's that? It's where a handful of people in the industry get free food and are then put in front of an audience of their peers to talk about a particular topic like "Merch Table of Contents," "Fans are Suckers," or "I'm OK, You're OK: The Industry's Still Rockin'!"

Despite what the Fader Fort and the Filter Courtyard might have you believe, these panel discussions are still going on at SXSW and people still attend them. Probably as many people as before the day parties. And they're just as dull as they used to be.* I know, I went to one: "The Blog Factor." On the panel were Amrit of Stereogum, Idolator editor Maura Johnston, Matador major domo Gerard Cosloy, Sean Adams of Drowned in Sound, NPR blogger and onetime Sleater Kinney vocalist Carrie Brownstein.

What could have been a potentially interesting discussion  about music blogs -- Gerard Cosloy talked briefly about using the extremely unfriendly Web Sheriff to do their dirty work for them --got hijacked by a lot of marketing types in the audience who asked a bunch of questions that all amounted to "So, if I sent you an MP3 what kind of subject line would work best for you to open it?" I did however use the opportunity afterwards to ask Cosloy when the Matablog was going to fully convert to all food content. (It's almost there as it is.)

After that, I headed over to the Village Voice day party, arriving just in time for the last Black Keys song. If someone had told me it was the Black Crowes I woulda believed it. I was there to see Sweden's neo-classic rockers The Soundtrack of Our Lives who played a set almost entirely comprised of new material from their yet-to-be-released fifth album. Skilled musicians and masters of all the great rock moves (windmills, kicks, stick twirls, etc), TSOOL are always good live but the band's material has suffered with the departure of main songwriter Bjorn Olsson shortly after their 2001 breakthrough, Behind the Music. The new stuff wasn't bad, but paled in comparison when the band launched into the stellar "Sister Surround."

MP3: The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Sister Surround (buy)

From their I headed over to the Fader Fort to catch the debut of UK-Swede combo Fanfarlo (who I've yammered on about before) who have surprisingly little US buzz despite the David Bowie stamp of approval. A lot of these day parties blur the lines as to whether you're attending a show or a commercial, but there's no subtle marketing at the Fader Fort: to get into space you literally have to walk through a Levi's Store specially built just for this. This is what we do for free Stella and SoCo-n-Lime and an excellent lineup of music daily in an admittedly cool space. Fanfarlo are fan-tastic, performing shoeless in the 90-plus degree Friday heat. Again, I've no idea why more people aren't talking about them. Catchy songs that remind me of Belle & Sebastian, though I've read more comparisons to Arcade Fire (they're nowhere near as anthemic). Maybe it's because they're slow to release their debut, trickling out singles instead, like the wonderful "Fire Escape" of which I shot some video:

MP3: Fanfarlo - Fire Escape

Did I mention how hot it was Friday? I compared it to friends back in New York as if the McCarren Pool parties in July took over an entire town. Pretty sure it hit 95. Energy-sucking heat. I headed back to the hotel for a while to cool off, sneak in a nap and shower.

The order of things is a bit confused in my head but at some point in the evening I went to some cheesy subterranean club called Prague (that probably only has music during SXSW) to see Fuck Buttons. Two guys, one with a hoodie pulled over his head, were hunched over either end of a long work table filled with makeshift gear, toy microphones, patch bays, etc. The first ten minutes or so were somewhat torturous, about as exciting as watching two dudes work on home electronics kits as a voluminous nonmelodic sludge was sprayed at the crowd from the soundsystem. But then the bearded one picked up drumsticks and began whacking at a floor com while screaming words into the toy microphone shoved into his mouth, while the hoodied guy jumped into the crowd and began spastically dancing and screaming into a real mike. Fuck Buttons' album, Street Horrrsing, isn't really my cup of tea, but I'd go see them live again. They're currently on tour with Caribou -- a double bill that's highly recommended. As are earplugs.

Most of Friday night was spent at the Sub Pop showcase at Bourbon Rocks: two stages, ten or so bands and most of them were good though it started off a bit shaky with New Zealand's Ruby Suns. I actually really like their new album, Sea Lion, but the many-membered band were only three or four strong here and were forced to trade off onto instruments they don't normally play (from what I could tell). The witch doctor hippy stagewear didn't help either. A disappointment. Much better were Seattle's Grand Archives who traffic in late-'60s / early-'70s rock and do it very well. Highlight of the set for me, though, was a medley of covers comprised of the Beegees' "I Started a Joke," the Zombies' "Care of Cell 44" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown."

MP3: The Grand Archives - Index Moon (buy)

In a similar vein was Kelley Stoltz, though maybe slightly different reference points. I'm a big fan of his, take this with a grain of salt, but this was tied with Fanfarlo for best of the fest. Stoltz is a real charmer, very funny and knows how to tell a good story in between songs. His backing band is pretty ace -- including one of the coolest cats you've ever seen on bass, and a keyboardist who also rocked the theremin. Most of the set came from his great new album, Circular Sounds, but also "Birdies Singing" from 2005's Between the Branches which you might know from a Volvo commercial. I shot video of my favorite song from Circular Sounds, "To Speak to the Girl":

MP3: Kelley Stoltz - To Speak to the Girl (buy)

Sixties Night continued with Fleet Foxes whose impeccable four-part harmonies wowed just about everybody in the room. They were probably one of the most buzzed-about bands of SXSW. Outside, were some of Sub Pop's more raucous acts: Pissed Jeans and No Age, the later of whom provided my favorite quote of the trip.

MP3: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (buy)

To cap the night I headed down the street to see indie legends My Dad is Dead. Main (sole) member Mark Edwards has been doing MDID since the mid-80s and their excellent 1989 album The Taller You Are, The Shorter You Get (among others) does what Interpol made commercially viable, except he did it 14 years too early. (They're all available to download for free from the MDID website.) I had no idea, before SXSW, that Edwards was still performing under the name so it was kind of a thrill, as much as I liked his records back in the day.  The current lineup is a trio, with Edwards on guitar and a tight rhythm section backing him. His setlist was mostly foreign to me, but they didn't really seem too sonically worse for wear. One of the monitors did start smoking three songs in...they've still got heat.

MP3: My Dad is Dead - World on a String

Sound Bites Interview: Gerard Cosloy

Gerard Cosloy is Co-President of Matador Records, and ran Homestead Records before that. (My cassette of Homestead's seminal 1988 compilation Human Music still gets play when I visit the parents.) When he's not busy doing those things, he blogs about baseball. I pulled him aside after the Blog Factor panel at SXSW to talk, ever so briefly, about food. I was a little nervous, as the last time I'd spoken to Cosloy (on the phone as a college radio MD trying to get Matador to send us the Teenage Fanclub record; our station was more mainstream than a lot of college stations) he yelled at me. But it made his Top 10 Highlights of SXSW So Far, apparently, so maybe now would be a good time to hit him up again for A Catholic Education.

Sound Bites: The Matablog seems to be turning into a food blog.

Gerard Cosloy: Yeah, well we get hungry. Patrick [Amory, Matador GM] is a wiz in the kitchen. I do think if you look throughout the years, most people who were degenerate record collectors – as they move on in their lives, the only thing left for them is food. I look forward to the day when we move exclusively to food coverage and can stop putting out records altogether. That's our five year goal.

SB: I know you posted endorsing Torchy's Tacos as the place many may eat every meal during SXSW. Have you managed to eat elsewhere?

GC: I have, as a matter of fact.

SB: So what's the best thing you've eaten this week?

GC: I'd rather not say -- Austin restaurants are overrun this week as it is.

SB: This won't go up till after SXSW.

GC: Well, in that case, Jonathan from Shearwater to me to a Vietnamese place on East Oltorf called Hai Ky which, for better or worse, is probably my favorite place in town these days. Very cheap, the food's awesome, the people who work there are great. Sadly they're closed Sundays, but what can you do?

MP3: The Young Fresh Fellows - Taco Wagon (buy)

Photo courtesy Mr. Cosloy; credit, according to him, "Dick Avedon." Ahem.

SxSW 2008 Diary: Thursday, March 13

My Thursday started fairly early (before 11am) with a trip to the convention center where I picked up my official SXSW bag of stuff and immediately went over to the "discard area" and dumped nearly everything out. I kept the pocket show/panel guide, and the new issue of Mint Records' fanzine, A Fresh Breath of Mint (featuring Nardwuar vs The Klaxons and Cynthia Plaster Caster), and a band guide. I also kept the canvas bag which features art by Thurston Moore.

With that out of the way, I needed food and headed over to Cosloy-approved Torchy's Tacos on 6th. (A quick aside: there is almost nowhere good to eat in the Convention Center / 6th St. vacinity.) Torchy's is probably awesome the rest of the year, but during SXSW they run a streamlined menu that seems designed to get the food out than anything else. Though still amongst the best food during my trip, I've eaten many better tacos in NYC. That's right Texas, you heard me.

From there I headed to the Above the Radar party that Blog Fresh Radio was sponsoring. I made the dumb mistake of assuming the venue would be near everything else and ended up walking a mile or so down South Congress to Trophy's, a road house style joint where the party was happening. Though sparsely attended (location and lack of free alcohol probably had something to do with it) it was a good time with a nice lineup. The rock acts were inside and the backyard was for the more DJ-oriented stuff, like openers Lady Pterodactyl -- two girls (one of whom is still in high school) who were a lot of fun and make serious dance music.

Highlight of the party, for me, had to be The Deathset. Last time I saw them they had no drummer and played with a laptop. They now seem to have two drummers. And they're just as wild even when there's not a pile of crowd-surfing kids they're playing to. Also good: Ume (like the Japanese plum) a local Austin band who are a bit Sonic Youth-ish, and the intense Dead Confederate.

I snuck out of the party for a bit to head downtown where I caught Cardiff, Wales trio Victorian English Gentleman's Club. at Latitudes which had been transformed for the week into the British Music Embassy. VEGC are one of those bands that I've heard of more than I'd actually heard, but they turned out to be one of my favorites of SXSW. Shouty, in a Fall or Gang of Four kind of way, loads of energy, funny, very good looking. I shot video:

Wandering down 6th Street, I happened past Stubbs' Annex where there was one of Brooklyn Vegan's day parties. I ran into the man himself on the way in and he kindly informed me the free booze was running out so I best get some now. With bloody mary in hand, I headed up to the front of the stage having no idea who was on next, but saw Abbey Punk Photo and Cameron Disconap there so I knew it must be someone interesting. Turned out it was Lykke Li, one of the many Scandinavian pop princesses who were in town for the fest. I ended up seeing her play three times, all of which were by accident. Her album is quite good, and I prefer it to other current, similar records by Yelle, Robyn, and the other one's I can't remember. She was also one of many acts I saw who employed a megaphone in their show, those hers wasn't working on this day. Good show, but not great, but she'd get better as the week went on. And "Breaking it Up" is so much better live than on record, total early Madonna fabulousness.

My friend Steve, who lives in Austin and didn't know I was in town till I texted him, met me at the BV party and we went for a drink at some biker bar and hung out there till we couldn't hear each other anymore due to the unironic hair metal band playing at the place.

Abusing his kind nature, I got Steve to drive me back to the hotel and then out to eat at Curra's, a Mexican Place he recommended. We had the requisite chili con queso, and then I had enchiladas. Too much cheese on the latter but very good nonetheless. Steve dropped me off downtown and I started my nighttime batch of shows.

I caught Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at Wave Rooftop. Most people were there to hear "Thou Shalt Always Kill" with it's "...Just a Band" shoutalong part but I thought the whole set was great. Scroobius Pip is very smart, very bearded, very funny and he carried some of the parts where the beats could be better. (Mostly not a problem, actually... le Sac v Pip are definitely more than a one joke wonder.) But the showstopper was inded "Thou Shout" and he was handing out stacks of stickers that said "JUST A BAND," encouraging us to paste them on other band's posters all over town. (Nobody did from what I could tell, but they were probably saving them, as I am, for use at home.

I wonder how people managed before texting. There probably wasn't ten minutes of show-going time during the trip that I didn't either send or receive one. "What's your 8pm?" "Meet me at Wave rftp." "fuck the tough alliance!" etc. An invaluable tool. My friend Chris who works for River to River had texted me about what I was seeing that night... so I hooked up him and his R2R cohorts at Maggie Mae's Rooftop to see Brooklyn. Yes, a band called Brooklyn who are actually from Paris (unlike me, Pearis from Brooklyn). My idea to go, and I got made fun of the rest of the night for it. I never claimed they were going to be any good. In fact, I figured they'd suck but it felt compelled to see a band with such a name. They did, in fact, suck but in a highly competent, commercial, poppy Strokesy kind of way. Offensive to Brooklyn, offensive to France, offensive to Rock. Any Brooklynites who want to go throw tomatoes at them -- you can do so tonight at Piano's or Friday at Fontanas. Cute bassist, though. Check out this promo shot of the band if you're not annoyed enough by this description to be called into vegetable-tossing action. Are they having fun or what?

We left Brooklyn pretty quickly, so to speak, and went to check out a showcase put on by BBC 6Music and hosted by legendary indie loving DJ, Steve Lemacq. The night was mostly British bands, which makes sense, but also MGMT who it turns out aren't yet the big deal they are in NYC area -- we waltz right in as the band was finishing up. Or maybe the rest of the country realizes that, though the album is great, MGMT aren't a very good live band. The reason for us being there is to see I Was a Cub Scout. Well it's the reason I'm there. I get the feeling I dragged Chris and his coworker Steve (different from my friend Steve, mentioned earlier) there, or at least they had no better ideas. The band's single "Pink Squares" is a nice bit of synthpop -- all I'd basically heard -- so I was a bit surprised that live they were a mainly guitar and drums, with some prerecorded backing... and that they really sounded a lot like Keane. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Necessarily.

SxSW 2008 Diary: Wednesday, March 12

These reports might have come during the actual festival if a) my hotel hadn't been out by the airport meaning I was never there apart from sleeping or dropping off stuff occasionally; b) my hotel's definition of "high speed internet" seemed to have been written in 1995; and c) I am lazy.

Wednesday night was kind of a bust anyway. Didn't get into Austin till around 7pm and didn't get downtown till nearly 9pm. Colin from Cubik Musik was nice enough to pick up me and my cohort Dev at the hotel and took us downtown to the convention center to pick up our badges. Within seconds of entering the convention center I run into Courtney and Benjamin of Kaiser Cartel -- which I kind of thought was wild until I later realized almost everyone from my neighborhood was at South by Southwest. (In retrospect, not that surprising considering I live in Williamsburg.)

Heading to SxSW Ground Zero (6th St.) we grabbed a beer and then went to check out electronic musician Eliot Lipp, as recommended by Colin. Not bad at all, though I can never tell if they're actually doing anything up there or just checking their Facebook page.

Didn't stay long, as I was heading over to meet friends Liz and Jack at Maggie May's Gibson Guitar Room to see Pattern is Movement who look kind of like the Jukka Brothers but play that shouty rock that is popular with folks who go to Todd P shows. But they come off as such an anomaly, so genuinely strange it worked.

Could that actually be it for the first night? It would be a long day Thursday and the offer of a free ride back to the airport was for me to call it a day. I know... weak. I made up for it later. Photo above is Pattern is Movement, taken on Wednesday but not at the show I attended -- I took my camera with me but forgot the battery.

SxSW Placeholder

At the Sub Pop showcase Friday night, No Age introduced a song thusly: "Hey, We're Vampire Weekend! This one's called 'College Dickface!'"

Quote of the week so far. More to come eventually....

South by Southwhatever

If you read a lot of music blogs you get the impression that next week everyone is heading to South by Southwest. (And putting on a day party.) Which isn't true. More don't than do, I think. But if you live in NYC you can reap the benefits of a lot of UK/European bands stopping on their way to or from the festival. The bands also tend to play normal length shows in New York, as opposed to 30-minute, wham-bam sets at SxSW. Add a trip to Hill Country or Fette Sau before one of these shows, and it will kind of be like you're in Austin. You can tell yourself that, at least.

March 7 | The Indelicates @ Don Hills CANCELED
Jaunty, jangly UK indiepop that is not entirely different from the Beautiful South what with their trade-off boy and girl vocals and bile-fueled, razor-edge lyrics. I wish I liked the music more. Still, it's only $5 to get in, which is the least you're going to pay for anything at Don Hills that evening. And  Indelicates come highly recommended from Song by Toad, reason enough to go.

They're saying the show's "postponed"... we'll see.

MP3: The Indelicates - Stars


March 7 | MSTRKRFT, LA Riots, Lazaro Casanova, The Bloody Beetroots @ Studio B
Super-hot dance night at Greenpoint's #1 former Polish disco. Canadians MSTRKRFT play here regularly enough, so the real draw are The Bloody Beetroots who are kind of Italy's answer to Justice (I said kind of...lay off!) and are some of the hottest remixers of the moment. Looks like their on first, which as Studio B means 2am.

MP3: The Bloody Beetroots - Butter


March 8 | Lightspeed Champion @ Union Pool
Devonte Hynes is a lot more talented than I ever gave him credit for when he was in Test Icicles. Lightspeed Champion's debut, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, is choc-full of lovely melodies and harmonies, even if he's still got some problems in the lyrics and hair department. A lot of the album's charms come from Emmy the Great's backing vocals. Cross your fingers, it's feasible she could be there as she's playing here three days later. Union Pool, by the way, is a lovely little venue if you've never been.

MP3: Lightspeed Champion - Tell Me What It's Worth


March 8 | School of Language @ Cake Shop
David Brewis, late of Field Music, brings his more muscular solo project to one of my least favorite venues in New York. But I'll take it. I've written about SoL before. He's a great musician and songwriter and he's assembled a pretty good backing band for this US tour (Doug McCombs of Tortise and Ambulette's Ryan Rapsys). Really looking forward to this one.

MP3: School of Language - Poor Boy


March 10 + 11 | South @ Pianos
One of the more under-appreciated UK bands of the decade, South haven't had the best luck the last few years (mainly of the label variety) but if you ask me they've just gotten better with each album. Their last album, Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars, was one of 2006's lost gems. A new album, "You Are Here", is out in April and you can stream a couple tracks from it here. I've seen South a few times over the years (most recently at Union Hall in 2006) and they've always been good. They're playing two nights at the teeny Pianos -- don't miss it.

MP3: South - You Are One


March 11 | The Pigeon Detectives + Emmy the Great @ Bowery Ballroom
This now annual Rock Over London event was more enticing when it included the hotly-tipped and ridiculously named Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. (Nothing will top ROL's 2006 show of Towers of London and The Rakes.) Ten bucks still seems like a lot to spend to see the affable but entirely unremarkable Pigeon Detectives, but it's probably worth it for opener Emmy the Great who is one of the more charming (and cute) performers you're likely to see this year. She has yet to play a New York venue appropriate to her low-key style (Pete's Candy store would be perfection) but she'll do fine on Bowery's stage.

MP3: Emmy the Great - 24 (you can also watch this performance on YouTube)


March 11 | Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip @ Mercury Lounge
You might actually want to just leave Bowery Ballroom after Emmy's done and head up to Mercury Lounge to catch the other Rock Over London event, this one featuring Dan le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip whose "Thou Shalt Always Kill" is kind of the hip hop version of "Formed a Band"... and just as brilliant. Here's the video:

MP3: Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - "Thou Shalt Always Kill" 

London blog Music Like Dirt assures me Scroobius is well worth seeing live. See you there.

There are some shows after SxSW (Mostly on March 17) that I'll address in a separate post.

Photo swiped from Laughing Squid's Flickr.