Well, after months of combing the internet for rumors & details, making lists & editing schedules, SXSW has finally come & gone. I have spent the last 2 weeks trying to write the most long-winded, overly detailed account of the 9 day festival I could muster, but it's been increasingly difficult since I had to make up a lot of lost time at work, not to mention, take in some much needed rest. So here are some highlights from the Music portion of the festival.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a great day all around, I saw 60's Folk legend Donovan, who was added to the festival line-up a short 2 weeks or so prior. The audience at the show was packed in tightly, and made up of a wide cross-section of old and young people, and apparently a lot of my friends were there, but couldn't find me.
Donovan was an authentic relic of 60's Psychedelia, his wild-man hair, child-like demeanor, and loopy delivery seemed ironic in the context of the Church. He was in fact so authentic that at times, I thought he bordered on parody (I even had images of Will Ferrell in my head at certain moments), but still, it hard to argue with the songs and the audience response, pews of people singing along and clapping to "Mellow Yellow."
I also saw a great show by a band called Oxford Collapse, they are a rock band from Brooklyn that make Post-Punk influenced shout-alongs, fast & funky, all baselines and saxophones, plus, the guys all dressed like yuppies (or David Byrne circa 1978). Their set was really fun and rocking.
Oxford Collapse - "Loser City" (mp3)
The Highlight of the night, and possibly of the whole festival for me was seeing Rosie Thomas again.
Miss Thomas is someone who I have admired ever since I first saw her at SXSW in 2001. I have wrote about that show before on Open House:
"When I walked through the doors that night I had no idea who Rosie Thomas was, but the concert experience that followed would stay stored away in my brain for long after. As anyone who knows me well enough will tell you, there is a part of me that really enjoys a good musical train wreck (that's why I like to go see Mark Eitzel) and her performance was that and more. Sandwiched between 2 punk rock bands, Thomas sat down in a chair with her acoustic guitar in hand and a pair of oversized black thick-rimmed glasses sliding off her nose. When she spoke her voice was squeaky, high-pitched, and child-like, but when she removed her glasses to sing it would morph into the soothingly strong, rich voice of an angel. At the end of every song she would punctuate it with quickly-spoken "thank you very much" reminiscent of Latka Gravas, she would then put her glasses back on and resume a nervous chit-chat with the restless audience. The real derailment occurred when Vancouver's lame glam-punk-revivalist, the Black Halos (a band on the same label as Thomas mind you), began heckling her, she in turn took jabs at their punk rock credibility. All in all it was uncomfortable, beautiful, and slightly confrontational."
Wednesday night at the Presbyterian Church was a different story altogether, the show was beautiful and the experience went even further in endearing Rosie Thomas to me. Snuggled up in the second pew of the church, I sat entranced by the sheer delicacy of her music. She sat on stage wearing her "little bow peep" dress alongside Denison Witmer and another guy who I can't remember the name of. The sorrow in her music still contrasted with the giddy banter she squeezed in between the songs, but they still, remarkable, complemented each other well. My favorite part was when she said "this next song is cover, it's called....'Margaritaville.' No, but wouldn't that be awesome?" During the set, she also spoke of her past SXSW experiences including the show in 2001 with the Black Halos heckling her.
Early that day when I was at End of an Ear, I saw her new CD, "These Friends of Mine," which had came out the day before, but I decided not to buy it then, opting to buy it directly from the artist that night. When I arrived back at the Church for her set, I was surprised to find that she did not have a merchandise table set up.
After her set, I walked up to her and stood patiently for her to finish taking photos with some friends. When she finished she turned to me, and as I began to speak, she put her arm around me. I asked her if she had any copies of her new CD, and she joked that she "wasn't sure if it was okay to set up a merch table, since it was a church and all," giggling at the thought of saying "meet me at the back of the church, and I'll sell you stuff." She then told me that she had some CD's in her van, and I told her that I wouldn't mind waiting. She then informed me that she actually had promotional copies in her van, and that she would just give me one for free.
Shocked, I said something about that being great as she scurried off. After a few minutes she surprised me by sidling up next to me from my left, she exclaimed "here you go guy!" Even though, it was promo, I still tried to offer her money, and she refused. I then told her that I was at the SXSW show in 2001, and her eyes lit up as we discussed how incredibly rude those guys were. "I'm so glad you were at that show, all these years I couldn't tell if I had blown that whole thing out of proportion" she said right before saying her goodbye. Like a friend I have known for years, she said quickly "okay, come here" as she stretched her arms out and gave me hug. Bottom line, I'm celebrity-crushing hard on Rosie Thomas
Rosie Thomas - "Paper Doll" (mp3)
Thursday:
The first half of Thursday was a total bust. I wanted to see Boris play the Vice Party at 2:00, but traffic prevented it, so Mr. Mark & I had lunch instead. I then briefly bounced into see the Melvins, but found myself pretty much bored by them. I then, on a hunch, decided to go see Mika Miko play at Mrs. Bea's, figuring that all of those girls would be there. Unfortunately, like someone who hasn't lived in Austin their entire life, I walked in the completely opposite direction and ended up going to Antones instead to see Blonde Redhead. That show was running late by 45 minutes to an hour, and although I saw Jenny Smith there, the rest of the show was pretty much a total let down. I waited over an hour through what seemed like an unbearably long sound-check period (it still sounded like shit by the way) only to leave 3 songs in due to my immense disappointment with their new material.
On a side note, I really hate Antones.
I then walked around the corner to see Badly Drawn Boy play for free at the Cedar Street Bar, figuring that I might as well since I was in the neighborhood, but guess what, they were running behind as well. It was now nearly 6:00, so I decided that I would walk back toward the highway and try to find Mrs. Bea's again, hoping to catch Marnie Stern play at 6:30. When I finally arrived, I was not surprised to find out that they too were running behind, but for the first time that day it actually worked out in my favor.
As a result, I ended up discovering the Tiny Masters of Today, the Highlight of my Thursday. They are a noisy Garage-Punk band from Brooklyn comprised of a 10 year old girl on bass, a 12 year old boy on guitar, and Russell Simins from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on drums. Their music was simple, sing-songy, and fun, and their apathetic little-kid voices really completed the whole package. The audience started off sort of passive, but when people started dancing, the kids would smile and awkwardly laugh while singing. When they introduced their song "Bushy," the little girl said "this song about how we don't like President Bush," to which the boy replied "Um, no, it's about this big bush in our front yard." They also did a Moldy Peaches cover, and then closed with a cover of "Jump Around" (by House of Pain) that brought the house down.
That night around 2:00am, I talked to someone from work, who was covering my inventory shift for me, and they told me that we were apparently $1500 short for the week. So I went up to the theater around 3:00 and I was there until about 6:30 in the morning. I cut the shortage in half, and then went home and took a shower around 7:00. Unfortunately for me, I had a 9:00am SXSW Volunteer shift to go to, so I didn't go to sleep that night at all.
Friday:
After my shift that morning, I went to the Convention Center and saw Iggy Pop & the Stooges get interviewed, which means that within the course of a year, I have seen Morrissey, David Lynch, & Iggy Pop get interviewed, not bad I'd say. The interview was a lot of reminiscing, not much talk about contemporary things.
One of the Highlights of Friday was seeing the Tiny Master of Today play again at Club De Ville, this time with a tiny backing dancer. I also saw Automusik, which is a local trio that would best be described as Sprockets-esque. They are basically a parody of late 70's/early 80's German Electro-Pop. Very funny and very very silly. They don't play often, but I would recommend seeing them when they do.
I guess the best part of my Friday was seeing 31 Knots from Portland. They are sort of a hard band to peg on record, and I didn't really know what to expect when I saw them. Given the serious demeanor they have on their albums, I certainly wasn't expecting the lead singer to start the show by dressing up in a marching uniform, and blowing a whistle loudly while standing behind the audience. He then charged/stumbled/leaped onto stage and began performing the first song. After the song ended he took off the marching uniform, and was wearing a sort of 1920's farmer-type of outfit, white shirt and black suspenders, coupled with an eerie blue mask (might of been of Asian decent). The best I can tell, he was playing the role of an intense preacher during that song. The slight variations on costumes continued though out most of the set, as did the overall intensity of the lead singer/guitarist performance. Throw in some time spent writhing around on the floor in the middle of the audience, sniffing the chest of one of the guys in the audience. and then pretending to shoot everyone with his guitar, and you would pretty much get the idea of the show, it Rocked.
I was awake for like 37 hours that day, and as I was driving home my eyes were playing serious/dangerous tricks on me. At one point, while driving down Koenig, I thought that I was on Red River driving past Brackenridge Hospital.
Saturday:
Saturday, I saw Rosie Thomas play an instore at Waterloo Records, and then I went to Emo's to go see the Buzzcocks. Saturday was very notable for me since I got to see both the Buzzcocks & the Stooges in one night. The funny thing is that given all of the hoopla about the Stooges playing SXSW, I actually ended up enjoying the Buzzcocks set more.
Don't get me wrong, finally getting to see Iggy perform was amazing, but there is something to be said for the Buzzcocks set. They played a 45 minutes opening slot to a huge crowd packed into Emo's Main. The set was fast and jam-packed, only old material, no new, and all the songs just rolled right into the next. It also helped that I danced, I never dance at shows...ever. Dancing for me is just jumping around a lot, and I'm rarely at a show where the mood strikes me enough to do that, but the Buzzcocks were legitimately awesome. I danced and sang along from beginning to end, what more could I ask for? Oh, and their t-shirts were the vintage designs and dirt-cheap to boot.
Most of what I wrote above could not be said for the Stooge's show. The t-shirts were new, expensive, and ugly, and they only touted the new album. I didn't really dance, which isn't their fault, I wasn't really deep in the crowd, I was further towards the back and on the side, not to mention that it was the last show of SXSW, so I was too tired to dance. As far as the material they played goes, I wasn't shocked that they played new material because that's what they were there for, but I was shocked that, with the exception of the closing song, "No Fun," the latter half of the set was completely dominated by new material. I was expecting them to wind down the show (or wind it up, depending on how you look at it) with "I Want to be Your Dog" or "TV Eye," but both of those songs were shockingly played with in the opening minutes. All of that aside, seeing Iggy was like seeing a really grouchy endearing old friend (one springs to mind right now), and he really is showman, especially when it came to the new songs, it seemed like was doing everything he could to sell those. By the time the last song rolled around, the inevitable end to the whole SXSW experience started to settle in, and it was ushered in by a very memorable finale:
