SXSW09: Scan, Indy Week

SXSW09, Days 3-4: Who designed this iPod, btw? [Grayson Currin]

Grayson Currin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:58:21 -0400

Earlier this year, the Web site furia.com tossed all the votes from the Village Voice’s 2008 Pazz & Jop Poll into a database and determined—of the year-end corral’s 577 voters—which were the most similar in terms of the albums they considered to be the best. Only Brent Burton, a contributing writer for Washington City Paper, shared my 2008 tastes more than Marc Masters, another near-D.C. denizen who was one-sixth of the team this newspaper took to South by Southwest this year.…

SXSW09, Day 4: [Kelly Reid]

Kelly Reid — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:03:13 -0400

After circling the blocks of 6th and 7th streets east of Interstate 35 for about 10 minutes, I finally found a parking space so big that I could squeeze my brother’s pick-up truck—a ’94 GMC, a real Texas ride with straight pipes that emit a gnarly roar even while parallel parking—inside. Jumping from its cab, my heels hit the asphalt hard, and I was reminded that today would likely be my fourth and final 15-hour day of music.…

SXSW09, Day 4: Fantastic Gimmicks [Marc Masters]

Marc Masters — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:53:32 -0400

When it comes to musical performance, there seems to be a thin line between showmanship and gimmickry. I prefer bands who play great music with their heads down, but even with my favorite groups whose unique stage acts approach gimmickry—Wolf Eyes, Boredoms, Prurient, etc.–the difference is that I could close my eyes and still enjoy them.…

SXSW, Day 4: Swollen Ankles and Happy Accidents [Jason Crock]

Jason Crock — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:36:22 -0400

No matter how I tried to pace myself, my Saturday became a gauntlet. By drifting to whatever show seemed semi-interesting and close enough to walk to, I somehow saw more bands than all previous days combined.…

SXSW09, Day 4: We major? No question [Paul Thompson]

Paul Thompson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:11:37 -0400

I hate getting stuck down here. You show up at the spot a little early to get yourself good and situated for whoever's up last and find more often than not that every little thing's been pushed back, so that drought in the back of your throat or the crimsoning of your forearms (If you're me, that is...)…

SXSW09, Day 4: Hot freaks and these things called "Blogs," Vivian Girls and PJ Harvey (no relation) [Eric Harvey]

Eric Harvey — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:14:52 -0400

As Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura were tuning up in advance of a 5 p.m. set, covered from the blazing sun by a huge canopy, lead singer Tracyanne Campbell asked the audience: “Are you hot, and freaky? A bunch of hot freaks?” The crowd yelled in approval, but not because they were anticipating the sort of sweaty dance party that question might imply or from the temperature outside, either.…

SXSW09, Day 3: The local universe [Kelly Reid]

Kelly Reid — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:38:44 -0400

“This is the center of the universe—well, our universe,” said Josh Moore, a folk singer-songwriter from Carrboro, his face was glowing with child-like excitement. Moore caught a ride to Texas with Wilmington band He Is Legend.…

SXSW09, Day 2-3: Beers, bands and bickering about business bullshit [Grayson Currin]

Grayson Currin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:25:43 -0400

O' DRAMA

SCENE I: THURSDAY NIGHT

[Standing in a balcony overlooking a venue beneath the cool Texas night. A stranger approaches a music writer (myself) and a group of friends, all in a band the stranger has just signed]

Band Friend 1: Grayson, [Redacted.], have you two meet?

[Writer extends hand.]

Stranger with Record Label: You're dead to me.

[Writer extends hand again and smiles in what he is sure is the most disarming Southern way ever, right?]

Stranger with Record Label: Nope, we're done.

[Without smiling, Stranger walks away.]

Three Hours Pass.…
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SXSW09, Day 3: Ordinance-free noise, solar power, and other alternative sources of energy [Marc Masters]

Marc Masters — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:42:02 -0400

My favorite surprise about SXSW is that most of the live music booms out of the clubs and onto the streets with no complaining neighbors or disgruntled cops showing up. Apparently, this is somewhat routine in Austin even when SXSW isn’t happening, but it’s a bit of revelation for someone from D.C., where just one instance of noise blaring into the streets would likely result in a law against live music itself.…
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SXSW, Day 3: Same Shit, Different (Perfect) Venue [Jason Crock]

Jason Crock — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:31:18 -0400

As mentioned by my comrades here in Austin, hanging your hat on a few must-see bands at festivals as large as SXSW is preferable to running yourself ragged trying to catch everything. I've done my best to keep my schedule loose and hope the wind takes me toward some new and interesting bands—one of which was the charming weird pop of Woods, who play a warped and loping brand of folk that's still wholly accessible and melodic, and another was Pictureplane, who I describe a little more below.…
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SXSW09, Day 3: Go weird (or go big) or go home...Go Metallica! [Paul Thompson]

Paul Thompson — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:19:00 -0400

If you want to make your mark at SXSW, a high-profile showcase slot will get you a ways, but you can't stop there. Nobody plays just a time or two down here if they know what's best for 'em; if you want to keep the buzz going, you've gotta haul your stuff down 6th Street just as fast as you can get between makeshift stage and cramped backyard.…
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SXSW09, Day 3: Actual Women This Time [Eric Harvey]

Eric Harvey — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:25:36 -0400

[/caption]

Yesterday, while standing in the back of the room at Emo’s watching a typically stunning performance by Brooklyn’s The Dirty Projectors, I noticed out of the corner of my eye an especially short girl standing right behind me, leaning up against the wall. I’m an especially tall guy by most measures, so I quickly turned around to ask her if she’d like to swap places.…
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SXSW09, Day 2: Surprises and masks [Grayson Currin]

Grayson Currin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:31:23 -0400

The first few years I attended South by Southwest, I treated the whole affair mostly as if I were a Boy Scout. I’d bind the official nighttime schedule in a notebook with a few guides to the hundreds of day parties sponsored by magazines, beer companies, Web sites and whatever product you’d imagine might make even a little sense marketing itself here.…
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SXSW09, Day 2: Fake stages and the beast [Kelly Reid]

Grayson Currin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:21:48 -0400

At South by Southwest, the room is often too small for the band booked. Consider buzz band Here We Go Magic, who played the inside stage of The Mohawk during the middle of a hot Texas day. Maybe next year someone will book a show in a closet so it will look super packed.

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SXSW, Day 2: Lies and Repeats [Jason Crock]

Jason Crock — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:07:53 -0400

The barrage of showcases and parties of SXSW are easy to navigate and choose between so long you're not being lied to, which is all the time. Start times for the sets?…
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SXSW09, Day 2: The Real World, Austin [Marc Masters]

Marc Masters — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:34:44 -0400

Traveling can be frustrating: Visiting any place is great, but I want to know what it’s like to live there, and that’s pretty tough to do without spending time with locals. It seems almost an impossible task at SXSW, as daily life in Austin gets masked by layers of bands, filmmakers, industry types and reams of other visitors.…
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SXSW09, Day 2: Another Pretty-Great British Band, The Wrens, Girls and Women (with no actual girls or women), and That Bizarre Feeling of Time-Space Compression [Eric Harvey]

Eric Harvey — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:33:34 -0400

Time and space are both weirdly compressed at South by Southwest, which you don’t realize until you’ve done the festival for two 12+ hour days. You see a dozen shows in a day at a half-dozen bars, and don’t have to walk all that far to see them.…
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SXSW09, Day 2: Taking the piss out of the leak [Paul Thompson]

Paul Thompson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:25:42 -0400

I was sitting in a fourth row pew in a packed Central Presbyterian Church, two songs deep into Grizzly Bear's gorgeous early evening set, and I was confused. I'd been told by a fairly reliable source earlier in the day that at this show they'd be playing their forthcoming third LP, GesundheitVeckatimest, straight through before rolling over some familiar faves from 2006's Yellow House.…
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SXSW09, Day 2: Go see Efterklang Wednesday [Grayson Currin]

Grayson Currin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:52:17 -0400

Not sure what you’re doing on Wednesday, but if you have a chance, I’d recommend going to Chapel Hill’s Local 506 to see Efterklang headline a three-band bill with Lost in the Trees and Canon Blue. On the disclosure tip, I happen to be staying at the same Austin house as the band thanks to a coincidence of mutual friends.…
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SXSW09, Day 1: Ambition vs. I [Kelly Reid]

Kelly Reid — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:22:53 -0400

It’s really easy to start of SXSW like a kid let loose in a candy shop—overcome with excitement, running full force from show to show, stuffing your ears full of bands, snapping pictures, paying no attention to signs that the human body can only take so much… Show after show, band after band, and then it’s one in the morning and you realize you’ve forgotten to eat lunch and dinner.

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SXSW09, Day 1: Who are you? [Marc Masters]

Marc Masters — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:04:57 -0400

This is my first trip to SXSW, and as daunted as I was in advance by who to see, where to go, and how to get there, so far there has been a more frequent question that I didn’t anticipate having to ask: Who the hell is this playing in front of me right now? Unless you’ve seen the band before or heard them say their name (both rarities), chances are you’ll be guessing based on a lineup that may or may not be still in place, or walking up to the artist themselves afterward with the flattering query, “Who are you?”

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SXSW, Day 1: Local Pride and a Rare Treat [Jason Crock]

Jason Crock — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:02:17 -0400

It's hard to imagine what South By Southwest must feel like for the natives of Austin: They probably don't embrace shutting down the streets of downtown and the noise and traffic that results. I don't see anyone without a badge or wristband at any of the showcases, official or otherwise, nor anyone who doesn't look like a tourist here for the weekend.…
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SXSW09, Day 1: Shilpa Ray, Wave Machines, Max Tundra, Akron/Family and A Parallel Universe of Imagined Economics [Eric Harvey]

Eric Harvey — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:04:21 -0400

“South By Southwest is the ultimate middle-finger to the recession!” I’m paraphrasing Shilpa Ray, who gabbed this bit of wisdom between songs during the first of her eponymous four-piece band’s sets at the festival on Wednesday night. And sure, a fiddling-while-Rome-burns perspective (and of course I’m sure, somewhere this week, there literally is fiddling) on this iteration of the yearly throw-down isn’t too tough to swallow: tens of thousands of people—industry rats, artists, critics, pilgrims, townies—blowing money on bands and beer and bbq, instead of burying their cash in the backyard.…
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SXSW09: Introducing our coverage team...

Grayson Currin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:15:30 -0400

Over the next four days, we'll have a team of six music writers—Jason Crock, Grayson Currin, Eric Harvey, Marc Masters, Kelly Reid and Paul Thompson—canvassing Austin, Texas, during this year's annual media-and-music mayhem, South by Southwest. We'll be writing about a strong group of nearly two dozen local acts in Austin this week (from The Rosebuds, Megafaun and The Love Language to Chip Robinson, Terry Anderson and Roman Candle) and many of the several thousand national and international bands crowded down near Red River District and beyond.…
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