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Recap
South by Southwest... where to begin? My four days in Austin surpassed almost all of my expectations. So many great bands and surprisingly few crowd problems made for a really fantastic time, and an incredibly addictive experience - I'm already looking forward to going back! I'd never had so many options for shows before, all in such close proximity, all at once, and all (essentially) free, so I tried to take full advantage. Since I tried to focus on bands I hadn't seen before, that called for some ADD - if an unfamiliar artist didn't grab my attention within a few songs and something else interesting was going on close by, I was off. It added up in the end - over 50 bands - so let's cut to the chase.
The winners:
Lavender Diamond. In a word, wow. The LA band's Thursday night set at Habana Calle 6 was easily the 40 best minutes of the four days of shows I saw (and their Saturday set at the Arthur Magazine party was up there too). Though I was already a big fan of their EP The Cavalry of Light, it only hints at the magic of their live show. Balanced wonderfully by guitar, piano, and simple percussion, Becky Stark's vocals literally gave me chills. I thought the band's set might be a little slow in spots, far from it though - not only they did they liven up the songs, but the EP is just scratching the surface. The band has over a dozen more songs already written, and here's hoping they get released soon. In the meantime, see them live if you get the chance - they will not disappoint. I'm on a crusade to spread the word. If you didn't grab it when I plugged it once before, check out "You Broke My Heart" (MP3).
The Happy Flowers. Their Saturday night set was their first time playing in a couple years, and second time with the current drummer. That includes rehearsals. My favorite moment? Probably when they started throwing bags of shower poofs at the crowd. (We, of course, started throwing them back.) Or maybe it was when the drummer's crash cymbal got knocked over during an epic "Mom, I Gave The Cat Some Acid" and a fan jumped on live sex stage to hold it up till the end. Or possibly the 30-second Hall and Oates "cover" that started the set. I could keep going, and I caught a free commemorative T-shirt - done in crayon, naturally - to prove it. The band could've played it straight but that wouldn't been nearly as much fun and wouldn't have rocked my world quite as hard. It'll probably be a couple years before they do this again, but don't miss them if you get the chance.
The Evangelicals. Hailing from Norman, OK, these guys have just a Myspace page to their name at the moment - but look for their first record in June. Their jumpy psychedelic pop was fantastic live - thrashing, melodic, and lots of fun, a bit like a noisy marriage of new Belle and Sebastian and old Sea and Cake. Had I enjoyed the Ponys more, I may have never even heard them - but instead they were my Wednesday standout. (And they played a great set on Friday as well.)
Afrirampo. As my friend put it, Afrirampo made a very strong case for being the two coolest chicks on the planet during their Friday night set. They're from Japan, they play noisy psych rock, and Pikacyu is an absolute beast of a drummer. I haven't really heard much of them on album, and I'm not sure I want to - I can't see a recording capturing their energy on stage and I don't want to risk ruining the image.
Helmet. I've wanted to see Helmet live for almost 12 years now, so this Thursday afternoon set was a real treat. No "Unsung" and no "In the Meantime," but Page Hamilton's guitar parts still hit like a truck and the drummer plays some wickedly tight grooves.
Tunng. As with any 'folktronica' outfit, I was a little worried Tunng's live show might be a little too laptop-dependent - but with live guitars, clarinet, melodica, and more, Tunng's set had computers and samplers being just part of the puzzle instead of the whole story and it made for a lively, textured set. MP3's available here.
The Double. The Double's relatively uninspiring set at South Street Seaport last summer didn't have me too excited for them at SXSW, but their Thursday night show crushed my first time. Squelchier, noisier, and weirder, yet tighter, it took my favorite moments on Loose in the Air to new heights. Try the excellent "Idiocy" (MP3).
Rhys Chatham. 1 drummer, 1 bassist, and 6-7 guitarists (the "Guitar Army") pounding away in a cavernous old church. This set pretty much set the standard for my future use of the term "wall of sound." And Thurston Moore was a surprise guest!
Asobi Seksu. Drawing mostly from their upcoming album Citrus (out on 5/30), Asobi totally killed it on Wednesday night. The new songs add depth and subtlety to their shoegaze-pop and though the sound was a little muddy, I actually liked how it made the guitar parts even denser and noisier.
Art Brut. What, did you not expect to see them here? Loved the new Kinks tease during "Good Weekend," but it's shame the SXSW crowds didn't get to see Mikey B playing the drums standing up. (He even rehearses standing up but forgot some equipment and had to take a seat in Austin.)
The Spinto Band. So much energy, so much fun ... the guy next to me had no luck with his "Oh Mandy" requests but we all got free kazoos in the front, so it's hard to complain.
Other highlights: Camera Obscura, Brightblack Morning Light, The Gossip (they get down live), Tilly and the Wall (I thought a tap dancer instead of a drummer would be too gimmicky but they pulled it off well), The Whigs (a random discovery from Athens, GA), the Octopus Project (theremin melodies!), Parts and Labor, the Archie Bronson Outfit, and a bunch more.
Disappointments:
- Howard Hello. They started their Friday night set by letting the crowd know that they rarely play live. Perhaps it was a warning. Even with five people on stage, they didn't come close to doing their sound justice.
- Saturday Looks Good To Me. More a case of overly high expectations - with none of their guest vocalists at the show, I was bound to be disappointed.
- Missing the Hidden Cameras, the Duke Spirit, and Baby Teeth due to inconvenient locations and tight schedules.
- Missing the Fiery Furnaces at Red's Scoot Inn by not realizing it was closer than I thought. I managed to catch a glorious "Chris Michaels" from the back at Stubb's, but not much more. (It's OK - I'm sure I still have a few Furnaces gigs in me this year.)
- Missing Hot Chip and Tapes n' Tapes due to long lines. But those were the only gigs I missed due to lines, thankfully.
- Forgetting I was on the list for Gang of Four's secret rooftop show until I checked my email on Sunday.
- Seeing the "special secret guest" at Saturday night's Vice party - a ZZ Top cover band. Lame.
- Missing so much else because they pack the schedule into four days instead of eight ... but I guess that's what next year is for!
So there you have it - if you're still reading, congrats to making to the end! And if you're interested, here's the blow-by-blow of everyone I saw:
Wednesday: The Sound Team, the Ponys, the Evangelicals, Dengue Fever, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Asobi Seksu, the Yuppie Pricks, Ghostland Observatory, Secretary Bird, 1986, Aloha, Of Montreal, the Octopus Project, Saturday Looks Good To Me
Thursday: Art Brut, Brightblack Morning Light, Afrirampo, Black Heart Procession, Helmet, Lavender Diamond, the Fiery Furnaces, Tunng, Calla, the Double, Rhys Chatham Guitar Army
Friday: Bobby Bare Jr., Bobby Bare, the Bottle Rockets, the Essex Green, Britt Daniel of Spoon, Camera Obscura, Bob Pollard, Parts and Labor, the Bats, Au Revoir Simone, Howard Hello, Afrirampo, the Evangelicals, the Spinto Band, Electric Soft Parade
Saturday: Lavender Diamond, the Archie Bronson Outfit, Witch, Wooden Wand, The Mendoza Line, Tilly and the Wall, the Gossip, the Whigs, Apollo Sunshine, the Magic Numbers (acoustic), a very drunk Tralala, Boyskout, the Happy Flowers, the Stills, Tres Hombres
There was no Coachella reunion, no U.S. tour or new Jasminelive album, but at last one promised Cocteau Twins project has reached fruition. 4AD has released the long awaited two volume compilation, Lullabies to Violaine: Singles and Extended Plays. The set collects on 4 discs the Cocteau's extensive EP releases, 59 songs in total, recorded between 1982 and 1996.
The Cocteau Twins are amongst the few bands I can come back to again and again and find new rewards, new sounds each time. I take long breaks from listening to them, but once I get started I can't stop. It may be easy to mock Elizabeth Fraser's gibberish lyrics or their silly song titles ("Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" anyone?), but they have so many undeniable moments of sonic perfection. Treasure has several, like "Lorelei", "Ivo" or "Domino". Heaven or Las Vegas is nearly perfect song for song. Lullabies to Violaine belongs next to those two as essential Cocteau Twins releases. Visit this site to listen to songs from the chaturbate compilation.
To honor this splendid new collection, here are a few choice Cocteau Twins videos found on YouTube. The band also has a surprisingly extensive list of rare MP3s on their site. Check them out here or stream the 28-song assortment.
On the Road
The concept is this: take a road trip you've made in the past and find songs from the cities along the route. Without a car, I haven't added many trips to my resume lately, so this may be the first and only in the series, unless I decide to count the commute I used to do every day to Connecticut. Before I moved east, I would join my family for the continent crossing summer trip from sleepy Tucson, Arizona to Chicago. Along the way we'd stop in Dallas and Tulsa to visit family, passing through El Paso, two Springfields (MO and IL) and St. Louis on the way.
We started on Interstate 10 in Tucson, skipped "The Thing", stopped for a break amongst the bolder piles in Texas Canyon before speeding across New Mexico into the dusty border town of El Paso. On the left side of the car were the subdivisions of an average American city. On the right, the muddy Rio Grande river and the Mexican city, Juarez. The two views could not be any more different.
Download Marty Robbins's "El Paso" (MP3)
Turning northeast onto Highway 80, we headed into oil country. The landscape around Pecos and Abilene turns from scratched desert to barren flats. The vistas stretch to the horizon, studded only by forests of derricks slowly pulling oil from the ground.
Download Waylon Jennings's "Abilene" (MP3)
Approaching Dallas, the pressed earth begins to roll in low, green hills. The hills are empty for awhile, but soon the sprawling Metroplex takes over. I remember giant billboards for giant churches, Six Flags over Arlington, Texas Stadium and the jungle of highways and skyscrapers.
Download Mountain Goats' "Blues in Dallas" (MP3)
Leaving Dallas behind, Highway 77 took us north through Oklahoma City and onto Interstate 44, which slowly curves its way towards Tulsa. In all of my visits I've only skirted the city of Tulsa proper, spending most of my time in the eastern suburb of Broken Arrow. Off in the distance, the 60-story CityPlex tower (formerly Oral Roberts' medical facility) looms above the otherwise low lying city.
Download Yo La Tengo's "Oklahoma, U.S.A." (MP3)
The final leg of the trip was a marathon 18-hour drive from Tulsa to Chicago. Most of these miles are blurred memories now, but I do remember the hills of Missouri, coming down into St. Louis and being awed by its glorious arch. Illinois may be just a Sufjan album for some people, but for me it's first the state of my dad's birth. I've never been to Champaign/Urbana, but I've heard the stories of my great grandfather's candy store so I've built up a mystical vision of the place in my mind.
Download Louis Prima's "St. Louis Blues" (MP3)
Chicago deserves its own post. Tucson is a city where you can feel large. My first visit to Chicago made me small and insignificant. People everywhere, trains overhead; I'd never seen a city before I saw Chicago. From the first visit I remember smothering humidity and the lack of air conditioning, the breathtaking skyline that still seems unmatched and the great Michigan lake.
Download Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" (MP3)
Download Frank Sinatra's "Chicago" (MP3)
The wind never seemed to blow when I was in Chicago in the summer, but the cool waters of the lake relieved the suffocating heat. Seems ironic that a desert boy would complain about the temperature, but you see in Tucson, it's a dry heat.
Due For Rediscovery
In the budding days of my U2 fanaticism, a friend loaned me a cassette copy of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes, thinking I might appreciate this Glasgow band as much as my worn out copy of The Unforgettable Fire. Absorbed in all things Bono, I didn't listen to Cole's 1984 debut very often, remembering only the signature hit "Perfect Skin" over the subsequent 20 years. Stirred by seeing the video for this track on VH1's The Alternative, I listened to Rattlesnakes again this weekend and was staggered, floored even by its brilliance. Sure it's hyperbole, but it's heart felt: this is a great record.
Now consider these possible overstatements from Stewart Mason's review of Rattlesnakes on All Music:
"One of the finest debuts of the '80s and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene... Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies.."
"Rattlesnakes consists of ten perfect, or close to it, pop songs in just a hair under 36 minutes."
"[Cole's] lyrics sketch incisive character studies filled with smart and funny one-liners, near-obsessive name-dropping, and references to enough novels and movies for a semester-long pop culture class... In less skilled hands, this would all be unbearably pretentious, but Cole's sly sense of humor and self-mocking wit keep things on the right side of ambitious."
I'll be playing Rattlesnakes daily for awhile, but once I'm ready to move on to other Lloyd Cole releases, there will be plenty to choose from. All Music lists 11 other records, 2004's Music in a Foreign Language the most recent. If anyone can recommend which album to hear next, I would appreciate the advice.
Full Disclosure: Who's Being Promoted and Who's Promoting It
It's no secret that if you run a music blog of any note, promotion companies will offer to supply you with the latest news, free CDs, tickets to shows, MP3 streams, contests and other wares. Who doesn't like free stuff? If you happen to already like the band, even better. You just want to help your favorite bands get heard. Everyone wins. So what's the problem?
Blogs operate under the premise of having an uncorrupted opinion, free of manipulation or avarice. Take away this independence and blogs risk becoming nothing more than press release mouths for corporations who have long recognized the value of uninfluenced, "nine out of every ten doctor recommends"-type advocacy. Promoters want real fans to talk up bands. Bloggers achieve what a PR release could never do, speak with the voice of a loyal supporter who promotes the music because it's good.
There's a term for this type of influence peddling: payola. But for bloggers, there's no cash exchanging hands directly. For some, the immediate payoff is ego building. If you're breaking the news (supplied by PR releases), going to all the hot shows (with free tickets), offering exclusive contests (with prizes supplied by promoters), then you are seen as an insider, a source. Do it well, build an audience and watch your site traffic numbers explode. If you get enough page views, why not make room for a little discrete advertising to help pay the server bills?
The relationship between bloggers and the labels they promote directly or indirectly is one of convenience. The promo companies provide the pipeline of addictive freebies while the blogs provide the street credibility. Bloggers are free to pick and choose which promo opportunities they want to take advantage of. Don't like The Living Things? Well, there is a She Wants Revenge email coming right around the corner. Don't like them? How about some Grand National or We Are Scientists?
Take as many freebies as you like, but there's an unwritten and unspoken deal being brokered. The PR companies hope you'll spread some positive word of mouth in return for their charity. To me, this is the crux of the problem. How do you discern whether someone is being honest in their praise or is just paying back the free tickets? I have always believed and will continue to believe that the majority of people put tremendous unpaid effort into maintaining a blog, simply out of love for music. It's not hard to see, however, the line between being an sincere fan and a shill can easily be crossed.
I realize this post is being written by someone who has dipped occasionally into the promo goodie bag and will likely do so in the future. Feel free to call me a hypocrite. But in the perhaps vain pursuit of honesty, henceforth it will be my policy to be completely forthright about graft. Once a week I will list the bands being pitched by promotion companies and what was being marketed (i.e. new album, tour dates, etc.) Additionally, within posts I will disclose if freebies, such as tickets, were accepted and used by myself.
World Party Returns and More News
The dates have been finalized, plane tickets purchased and hotel rooms reserved. Chris Chinchilla, former guitarist for a band called Art Brut, is coming to New York with his new band Macaca Mulatta for his first U.S. shows. Chris and the band will play three gigs, April 25 at Cake Shop, April 28 at Sin-e and April 30 at Pianos. More on this later.
Haven't mentioned or thought about this band in awhile, but Dungen has a trippy new video for Ta Det Lugnt track, "Festival". The clip was produced by Zeroh, the design team of Neil Hetherington and Daniel Hardiker. Be careful - the beautiful, swirling animations are powerfully hypnotic. Do you really want to cede control of your subconscious to a merry band of Swedish psych-folksters?
Speaking of artists nearly forgotten by me, Four Tet is offering for download nine live MP3s from a recent performance at the Spanish Club in Melbourne, Australia. The songs were originally recorded by PBS radio in Australia. Also free and legal, a download of "Morning Prayer" (MP3), a track from Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and Steve Reid's collaborative album The Exchange Sessions Vol. 1.
The splendid debut album, Sometimes You Hear Through Someone Else from Cranebuilders, a Liverpool band mentioned in passing here once or twice, is finally available in the U.S., via Azra Records. The band will also tour the States later this year. Pay a visit to Cranebuilder's MySpace page to hear four tracks.
Congratulations to the winner who correctly named World Party as the band featured in the second "Guess that Band" contest. In case you didn't read the press release, yes World Party are back with a new album, Dumbing Up, to be released May 2nd by Seaview Records. Stream the first single from the album, "What Does it Mean Now" in Windows Media or Quicktime. Here's that press release, in its unedited form:
4 years ago, Karl Wallinger's World Party fell apart. He terminated his long term record deal when, without his knowledge and at the suggestion of his label, most of his former band and his former label manager partnered with Robbie Williams to produce a near identical version of his hit "She's The One" that went on to win Williams the Brit Awards' Single of the Year. His manager and mentor Steve Fargnoli passed away, and then Karl had an aneurysm. After a call a year and a half ago from Fargnoli's management partner and mutual friend Arma Andon, Wallinger and World Party are back. Despite feeling like his head's been sawn in half (which, incidentally, it has), Wallinger has regained control of his voice, his legs, his warped sense of humor and his music catalog. He's launched his own label and is playing SXSW by request and releasing a new CD in North America. A great party never ends.