Sound Bites

Crystal Stilts | Le Poisson Rouge | 12.17.2008

 

Though I thought they were great the first time I saw them, Crystal Stilts have gotten so much better over the last six months in which they've gigged almost constantly. I've seen them upwards of ten times since June (which is kind of crazy I know, I know) and it's been interesting to see them come out of their shell. Singer Brad Hargett not only smiled and talked to the audience Wednesday night at Le Poisson Rouge, but he even took the mike off the stand for a couple songs.

Their album, Alight at Night, which will sit in my Top Five of '08 once I get around to finishing my post about it (soon), was apparently recorded four years ago, which is kind of amazing/shocking and also explains why they've got all these great songs that aren't on the record. I grabbed the setlist this time to see what the names of them are. One of them, which they've been playing for a while now, is a Bo Diddly type number, 2/4 time, that is called "Seeds" -- though my friend Toby says it was called "Sycamore Tree" at the show he saw. I shot video of it which is at the bottom of this post. And another Diddly-esque new one, with a killer bassline, doesn't seem to have a real name yet as it was listed as "Poopface."

SETLIST: Through the Floor | Seeds | The Dazzled | Converging in the Quiet | Shattered Shine | Crippled Croon | "Poopface" | Love is a Wave

MP3: Crystal Stilts - Departure (buy Alight of Night)

Hopefully, we'll get a new album or EP with some of those sooner than later. The band are going on an extensive European tour in February, but New Yorkers will get at least a couple more opportunites. They play Saturday (12/21) at Knitting Factory as part of a three-floor extravaganza currated by Quasi that also includes the awesome Sic Alps, Marnie Stern, Jeffrey Lewis and more. Tickets are $20 but the line-up makes it entirely worth it if you ask me. Crystal Stilts also play Market Hotel on January 10 with Tyvek.

Here's that video of "Seeds/Sycamore Tree" that I shot:

Also, there's an official video for the Chills-esque "Prismatic Room":

Crystal Stilts, caUSE co-MOTION Playing Saturday in Brooklyn, Touring Together Later, Putting Out Records, etc etc etc

Brooklynites Crystal Stilts and caUSE co-MOTION will be heading out on tour together in November right after the CMJ Music Marathon here in NYC. Nine dates, which, strangely, is also the number of times Crystal Stilts played in the NY area last week. I kid. But they play here a lot...and I went to most of the shows. They're also playing together this Saturday at Death by Audio for what will surely be a packed show.

Both bands have albums out on the newly-revitalized, newly hot Slumberland Records on October 28. Crystal Stilts will be releasing their much-anticipated debut album, Alight of Night, which I've listened to about 50 times, it's fantastic, and will be on my Best of 2008 list no doubt. With it's spooky, twangy, echo-out-the-wazoo vibe, it will also make the perfect acompanyment to that upcoming Halloween party. (Yet it reminds me of The Chills.) As for caUSE co-MOTION, "It's Time!", collects their five scratchy, blistering 7" singles, including the new "I Lie Awake" onto one CD. Not one of the songs on it reaches the two minute mark. Here's samples from both:

MP3: Crystal Stilts - Shattered Shine (pre-order)

MP3: caUSE co-MOTION - Which Way is Up? (pre-order)

Crystal Stilts/caUSE co-MOTION 2008 US Tour:

Oct. 04 Brooklyn, NY Death By Audio
Oct. 23 New York, NY Pianos (Force Field PR CMJ Showcase)
Nov. 01 San Diego, CA Che Cafe
Nov. 02 Los Angeles, CA The Echo / Part Time Punks
Nov. 03 Oakland, CA House of Nostromo
Nov. 04 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
Nov. 05 Sacramento, CA Luigi's Fun Garden
Nov. 06 Eugene, OR Samurai Duck
Nov. 07 Portland, OR Holocene
Nov. 08 Olympia, WA The Big Room
Nov. 09 Seattle, WA Chop Suey

Young Knives | Mercury Lounge | 6.09.2008

"We're always getting called 'indie schmindie.' Tell me, do the Arctic Monkeys have a song that sounds like that?" Young Knives singer Henry Dartnall was getting just a bit defensive, not at anyone in the Mercury Lounge audience, but at certain critics/bloggers who tend to see them as also-rans. Sure, there's some disco hi-hat and spiky guitars on all the Young Knives albums, but there's a lot more going on there too: odd, distinctive harmonies, more than a little acid folk and mushroom tea psychedelia, consistently good lyrics, and catchy tunes. All of which were in full effect at the show. Plus some hilarious brotherly bickering between Henry and Thomas Darntall.

Henry's little outburst could've just been the heat. Monday was Day Three of upper-90s temperatures which was taking it's toll on the band who were playing their last show of a NYC-Philly offensive. I have a feeling that the "hot summer, hot hot summer" sung about in "Weekends and Bleak Days" is probably only about 80 degrees. (that's 26° C centigrade!) He added, "It's tough for us fat guys. I'm a little squodgy down there I have to admit." They really need to stop going on about their weight -- guy's you're really not fat.

Squodginess aside, this was easily the best of the four Young Knives shows I've seen. (That's right, I've seen them four times.) It was also the first show where there was a full house to see them, with genuine fans besides myself and my friend Heather. When the band lit into "Weekends and Bleak Days" there were cheers from the back of the room and a group of ten or so pushed their way to the front and made one of the politest mosh pits I've ever seen -- after bumping into a girl and spilling her drink, the offending reveler immediatley apologized. Which probably says as much about the Young Knives as does their music.

The set was mostly about their fine new album, Superabundance -- most of it was played, though surprisingly not the single "Up All Night." We also got "The Decision," "Coastguard" and and encore of "She's Attracted To" which really sent the pit into hysterics. Young Knives still aren't getting the respect they deserve, but it seems they're getting closer.

SETLIST: fit 4 u | counters | terra firma | rue the day | coastguard | i can hardly see them | turn tail | dyed in the wool | weekends and bleak days | the decision |  current of the river | she's attracted to

MP3: Young Knives - Fit 4 U

MP3: Young Knives - Up All Night

Buy Superabundance, won't you? And a season-appropriate song from Voices of Animals and Men:

MP3: Young Knives - Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer)

Wire With a View

For me, summer starts with the first Friday show at South Street Seaport... which this year is tomorrow, though there won't be another till July 11. The Seaport Music series is always such a good way to kick off weekends, when it's not raining or the pier is being attacked by swarms of insects. (The latter only happened once, during Camera Obscura last year but it was really freaky.) This year's lineup -- what they've announced so far looks good. It will be interesting to see just how loud A Place to Bury Strangers will be allowed to play, and how much it will scare the tourists.

But tomorrow's kickoff with art punk legends Wire is what I'm most excited about. I am a pretty big Wire fan. having followed them ever since I heard their song "Ahead" on an Enigma Records sampler I bought for $4.99 in 1987. (It also introduced me to Mojo Nixon and Game Theory.)

Reformation and reunion shows can be dicey affairs, but Wire are not nostalgists by nature and have been active since getting back together in 2000 after a 8-year vacation. I saw Wire when they played Irving Plaza back in 2000 around the time of their reformation and, I must admit, my biggest memory of that show is that I sold my extra ticket to a scalper to which I was given a counterfeit $20... of course I didn't realize it till I used it at Irving Plaza's bar. (I didn't get kicked out, and still have that funny money somewhere... and haven't dealt with scalpers since.) My memory of the show is that they didn't do any classics apart from "12xU" and "Drill" but a quick Google search is that it was almost entirely oldies nicely plucked from throughout their career.

This was before they started recording new material, most of which has uniformly good, if not excellent -- and not just "good for a bunch of geezers" either -- including three Read and Burn EPs and an album, 2003's Send. Bassist Bruce Gilbert quit the band in 2004 but, weirdly, they seem to have gotten better. Last year's Read and Burn 03 EP was maybe the best yet of the 00s-era Wire, the highlight of which is the epic "23 Years Too Late" with great vocal interplay between Colin Newman and Graham Lewis:

MP3: Wire - 23 Years Too Late

All of which bodes well for their upcoming 10th album, Object 47, which comes out July 7. To these ears it sounds like update of the kind of songs found on 1987's The Ideal Copy: dark and sinewy, but with bite and melody too. The band were kind enough to give us a taster:

MP3: Wire - One of Us

We'll hear more tomorrow when Wire play the first Seaport show of the 2008 season. Filling Bruce Gilbert's spot on guitar will be Margaret Fielder who was in Moonshake and Laika, the latter of whom did a great version of Wire's "German Shepards" for the 1994 Wire tribute CD, WHORE.

MP3: Laika - German Shepherds

A setlist from Manchester's Futuresonic festival earlier this month looks like mostly new stuff, with some old nuggets ("Boiling Boy," "The 15th," "Lowdown," "12XU," "106 Beats That") thrown in as well, but don't be surprised if they show up in radically reworked versions. Wire aren't much for nostalgia.

MP3: Wire - The 15th

MP3: Wire - 106 Beats That

MP3: Wire Lowdown

MP3: Wire - Boiling Boy

And I know they're not going to play this, but I've always loved "Ambitious" from The Ideal Copy:

MP3: Wire - Ambitious

The essential first three Wire albums were reissued in 2006 on Wire's label, Pink Flag, and sound great. Actually, I recommend just about everything Wire's ever done, even the very synthy 1991 Wir album (no "e" as drummer Robert Gotobed had left the band), The First Letter. Only 1990's Manscape is skippable.

Also worth picking up is Wire on the Box: 1979, a CD/DVD combo of the band's awesome performance on German music TV show, Rockpalast. You can actually see all of it on YouTube. Here's "The 15th" which was still a year away from seeing a recorded version on 154, and was later covered by electroclashers Fischerspooner:

If you're heading down to the Seaport tomorrow and look to drink on the cheap, there's a fish-n-chips place in the back of the top floor Seaport food court that sells 32 oz styrofoam cups of beer for next to nothing. It's definitely the way to go.

For more info, visit the River to River website.

Slaraffenland | Knitting Factory | 5.28.2008

"Ok, now you try!" Slaraffenland were teaching the audience how to pronounce their name, which is Danish for "the land of milk and honey." It's actually a little easier than it looks: "slah-rah-fen-land," with the emphasis on the second syllable.

Slaraffenland are probably just as easy to enjoy as they are to pronounce. Which is to say imposing until you get the hang of it. Very little of their music follows pop conventions, but there is melody and beauty if you stop waiting for the chorus and just let the music wash over you.

Live, Slaraffenland are pretty fascinating to watch, as all the members sing and play at least two instruments... often within the same song. The guitarist played the oboe; the percussionist played a variety of woodwinds; the bassist also played flute; and the keyboardist / sampler was often seen with a trombone. I'm sure the drummer also was a multi-instrumentalist but he was absent at Knitting Factory -- a new father, he had to leave the tour early for daddy duty.

Losing your drummer might seem like a dealbreaker to most groups but Slaraffenland didn't seem to phased by it. There is a lot of live sampling going on in their show -- many songs started with everyone playing horns which would become a backing loop -- so live percussion blended with canned bits, and for a couple songs they were aided by tourmates Efterklang's drummer.

While not quite sold out, Knitting Factory was full with an enthusiastic and boisterous crowd. Slaraffenland seemed psyched too, but in that Danish way that makes exclamations like "we love you!" (which I'm sure was genuine) sound like maybe they're being ironic.

MP3: Slarrafenland - Polaroids

This was actually a Danish double-header with similarly-minded, though larger in numbers, Efterklang, which they dubbed the Danish Dynamite Tour. I must admit they were a little too affected for my tastes, both musically (a lot more precious and grandiose) and visually (they band wore turn-of-the-century garb, including those weird  golf/riding pants that are baggy at the thigh and tight through the calf).

There are still a few dates left on the Danish Dynamite Tour, worth checking out if it come near you:

May 29 TT the Bears | Boston, Massachusetts
May 30 Zoobizarre | Montreal
May 31 El Mocambo | Toronto
Jun 2 Empty Bottle | Chicago, Illinois
Jun 3 Record Bar | Kansas City, Montana

Violens + Savoir Adore + Amazing Baby | Union Pool | 5.10.2008

It pleases me greatly to go into a show mostly blind and come out a fan of every band on the bill. That never happens anymore. Maybe I'm just going to the wrong shows.

I was there primarily to see Violens, the new band from some of the Lansing-Dreiden folks, though I'm not sure exactly which ones. Definitely singer/guitarist Jorge Elbrecht, and probably keyboardist Iddo Arad. Maybe more, but hard to say. L-D were an enigmatic bunch who didn't believe in album credits or band photos... or even playing in the live incarnation of their band.

Violens are more forthcoming about the who's and whats. It's also a more cohesive sound. Lansing-Dreiden incompassed everything from synthpop to metal, but Violens seem more influenced by '80s UK pop, both of the jazzy variety favored by Aztec Camera and Prefab Sprout, and those that prefered delay pedals like A Bell is a Cup-era Wire and The Sound. (In that respect, they also reminded me of '90s Swedish band Eggstone.) And like L-D, they still love the reverb. They also like volume. Why didn't I bring earplugs? The ringing in my ears seems especially prominent today. The best moments of the show combined the jazzy and the delay-ridden rocking out. And my favorites of the night are not to be found on their MySpace, so I think there's a lot to look forward to with these guys.

You can get Violens' song "Violent Sensation Descends" from RCRDLBL. They've also got an EP, which wasn't for sale last night, but you can get it at Insound.

Violens next show is June 5 at the Mercury Lounge where they're playing with Chairlift and Mixel Pixel. Tickets ($10) are on sale.

But as I said, the whole bill at Union Pool last night was very good. All three bands are signed to Cantora Records that is probably best-known at this point for being the label who released MGMT's first EP. Tonight proves they've really got a good ear. The weather was horrible yesterday and I figured between the torrential rain and showing up at 9pm there would be nobody there. But the place was already pretty packed when I got there, and I think as many people were there for opening band Amazing Baby as their were for Violens.

It was Amazing Baby's first-ever show, though you'd never know it. They came prepared and kind of knocked everyone's socks off. Though I'm probably wrong, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Amazing Baby don't sound like any other band in NYC. To draw comparisons... maybe a heavier, more-psychedelic Roxy Music? That sounds about right. Who are they? The band seems to be primarily an offshoot of rawkers Stylofone, but the live permutation, last night at least, also featured ex-Diamond Nights guitarist Rob Laakso and Jane "Spider" Herships on bass. There were also two female backup singers and a keyboardist. (Maybe that's where the Roxy comparisons come from for me.) They're the kind of group you could imagine going the denim-leather/lightshow route but just let the music do the talking. And that came through loud and clear. I'm pretty sure they're my new favorite NYC band and seem ready for domination.

MP3: Amazing Baby - Head Dress

MP3: Amazing Baby - Supreme Being

Amazing Baby's MySpace has these plus three more and you can download all of them.

If you're intrigued, Amazing Baby are playing tomorrow (5/11) at The Annex. Go ahead, bring Mom, it's an early show -- supposedly they're on at 9pm. They're on around 11pm I've just been informed. And if you can't make that, they're playing Glasslands on Thursday (5/15).

In between Amazing Baby and Violens were Savoir Adore who are also making a kind of music that seems scarce these days -- pure pop. This is the sort of stuff that seemed so prevalent in '80s indie music, be it Let's Active or The Go-Betweens or The Reivers. Not that they sound dated in any way -- I don't think this kind of pop ever really goes out of style. (Even though it kind of currently is.) Deidre Muro and Paul Hammer compliment each other so well, both vocally but also the way their guitars intertwine. Keyboards seemed superfluous at times, except when they were set to Melotron, which they usually were.  Apparently most (all?) of Savoir Adore's songs are for a concept album yet-to-be explained involving characters named Mr. P, Dr. Rousseau and a wooded forrest, but you needn't know any of this to dig what they're doing:

MP3: Savoir Adore - We Talk Like Machines

MP3: Savoir Adore - Mr P. Professor of Thought.mp3

Both these songs, plus two more, are available on their Cantora Records page. Savoir Adore are opening for Los Campesinos! this Thursday (5/15) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and then play Lit on May 23.

So to recap last night's show. Three bands, all different, all great. My friend Don was armed with his nice digital SLR and took some photos which you can find here.

Double Bill of the Week

I would be remiss if I didn't mention this Friday's show at Mercury Lounge featuring two of New York's best "dream pop" bands (trying to avoid the S-word). Headliners Dirty on Purpose haven't played, aprart from opening for Band of Horses on Valentine's Day, for five months or so, though they've been plenty busy. January saw the release of their great Like Bees EP while also releasing a free, digital-only EP,Dead Volcanoes, through RCRDLBL.com, albiet in drips and drabs. The latter has been interesting to hear as it really finds the band stretching out and trying new things. I'm told that the final song they've yet to post is unlike anything they've ever done before (and George takes the rare lead vocals). Meanwhile, of the three that are currently available, I really like "The Thing About Getaways" and "Hard to Tell You" which sounds a bit like Luna covering "Crimson and Clover." (Nice spot, Sung Bin.) Friday is also bassist DJ Boudreau's birthday, so be sure to buy him a shot... after the show, please.

Mahogany, meanwhile, have been laying low since releasing the masterful Connectivity! in 2006. I don't think they've played a show since last summer. Their Myspace hasn't really been updated since then either, so who knows what they have in store for us. Maybe some more of Connectivity!, as most of the shows I saw them play for that album were only about five songs deep. But they made up for it with the two-drummer, multiple guitarists and keyboardists and vocalists attack. And "Supervitesse" has yet to get old for me.

This is kind the 2008 equivalent of Ride and the Pale Saints touring together (which they did way back a licensed driver ago). It's just one show, but still a perfect match. Tickets are $10 and will probably sell out before Friday I'd imagine.

In other Dirty on Purpose news, "Audience in the Room" from Like Bees can currently be heard in a Virgin Mobile commercial. (And I still think their cover of "Send Me an Angel" would be perfect for Gossip Girl.) Meanwhile, drummer Doug Marvin (who sings lead on "Getaways") has a solo project, Purse Snatchers, with some help from his wife Annie who plays in Au Revoir Simone when she's not judging potential New York Noise VJs. The Purse Snatchers album, To Feet of Snow, is full of the pretty melodies and gentle singing athat Marvin brings to the songs he pens for Dirty on Purpose. There's just more of them. And one of them is available on RCRDLBL.com.

MP3: Dirty on Purpose - Audience in the Room (from Like Bees)

MP3: Mahogany - Springtime, Save Our Country (from Connectivity!)

Sail the Silver Seas this Week in NYC

Just in time for the Spring temperatures we're supposed to be getting this week, Nashville's lush  Silver Seas are returning to New York for the first time since changing their name from The Bees last summer. When I wrote about them last year, I referred to them as soft rock, which there's not denying that tag fits, but I don't think there's any hipster irony with what they do, which is probably why I'm still listening to their album, High Society, nearly a year later.

That said, there is an air of Steely Dan about them, as these guys are pro musicians whose day jobs are as Nashville session and touring musicians. (Main man Jason Lehning is a bigtime producer with loads of CMAs on his mantle.) So the gorgeous harmonies on the album should be ably reproduced when they play The Living Room (Wednesday, April 2) and Union Hall (Thursday, April 3) this week. If you haven't heard the record, here's a taste:

MP3: The Silver Seas - The Country Life (buy it)

The Living Room show is part of the venue's 10-year Anniversary Extravaganza and The Silver Seas are on a bill with Life in a Blender who I didn't even realize were still together. It's a free show (well, they suggest a $10 donation) so why not stop by? The Union Hall show, which I will be attending, is with locals The Postelles. No advance tickets, the door's $8.

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 there 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 tom 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 hippie 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, so take this with a grain of salt, but his set 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

The Wombats | The Annex | 3.17.2008

Whoa, the Wombats got really popular. Too popular to be at the Annex, where they played to a 3/4 filled room back in August. I'd venture to say the crowd was mostly Brits, mostly drunk out of their St. Patrick's Day minds, and mostly knew all the words to every song. It's pretty easy to do so with the shout-along choruses of UK hits like "Kill the Director," "Let's Dance to Joy Division" and "Lost in the Post."

Ducking out of the Mercury Lounge for a "smoke break" after El Guincho's set, I scrambled over to the Annex to find it packed to the gills, to the point where  you literally had to fight your way through the crowd. Fun show, especially with this ready-for-it audience, but I think maybe the songs are wearing on me after hearing most of them for the last two years. It was so hot in there I couldn't take it anymore and left after six songs, heading back to Mercury for Cut Copy, and the only way people would let me past them was to shout "I need to get past to leave the club!"

The Wombats seemed to be everywhere at SXSW, playing to similarly psyched audiences and word on the street is they just signed to Roadrunner, who will hopefully be putting out their official debut on these shores as soon as possible. There's no doubt in my mind these guys could fill Bowery next time... or maybe somewhere bigger.

MP3: The Wombats - Moving to New York (buy it)