Archive for March, 2009
elvis is everywhere: sxsw wrap-up
The full list of bands I wanted to see but missed would make a killer festival all on its own - so let’s not spend too much time in that half-empty world. Friday afternoon I headed to the east side with the intention of catching the unfortunately named Deer Tick at Ms. Bea’s; instead I [...]
Read More..>>my own ode to sunshine: sxsw at the french legation
Even at its present massive size, SXSW can still sometimes feel like a little community picnic, sun-dappled, idyllic, with cold cans of Lone Star and paper plates of food - that type of thing. Or anyway it felt that way up at the French Legation on Thursday afternoon. (It helps to get away from 6th [...]
Read More..>>night one winners: the besties and phosphorescent at sxsw
A frontman is a frontman is a frontman, as I believe Gertrude Stein said, and the Besties have got them a frontman. Rikky Walsh rocks the Billy Crudup-as-Prefontaine 70s ’stache, and he’s comfy onstage, flanked by the two Besties ladies, and backed up by their absurdly happy drummer (even for a drummer, this guy was [...]
Read More..>>yo adrian: let’s kick off sxsw with gurf morlix
Running doesn’t really fit with the musical hipster image, but then neither does changing diapers, (unless they’re skull diapers as designed by Shepard Fairey), and I’ll be doing plenty of that this week, and very little sleeping, so I’m thinking, considering the marathon nature of not only this event but also now this sentence, I [...]
Read More..>>gringo starr vs. ringo deathstarr: best band names of sxsw
SXSW is here, and what you really need, what you can’t get anywhere else, the thing that will put the jam in your jelly roll, is, naturally, a carefully planned schedule of the best SXSW band names.
So: you arrive a little bleary from La Guardia/LAX/Charles De Gaulle; the rough landing put you in the perfect [...]
natalie portman’s shaved head: first glimmer of a sxsw plan
if you really want to see where I plan to be for SXSW, the easiest way to do so, without wading deep into my solipsism, would be to check out sched*2009. i like a physical, tangible schedule, that i can mark up with a pen, but i have to admit even i got my geek [...]
Read More..>>flying nocturnal rodents and okkervil river: sxsw
Gearing up here for South By Southwest, the music festival that may have done more to put Austin on the map than Willie Nelson, UT football, the tower shooter, and flying nocturnal rodents combined.* SXSW, as it is known in shorthand, is a big deal. It is also, to my mind, and to many, many [...]
Read More..>>flash in the bottle: dead heart bloom
Just in case you found the original “Folsom Prison Blues” too peppy, Dead Heart Bloom took it down about seventeen notches for their cover, performed live in Iota Cafe, which is about three blocks from where I grew up. Bryan Street, stand up! Bryan Street, roll over! Good Bryan Street!
Dead Heart Bloom, aka Brian Skalsky [...]
the short list grows long: townes van zandt
Townes Van Zandt! We get older - you, in particular, look old today - and it seems less and less likely that we’ll “discover” a major talent. The basic assumption is that if they were any good, and they already recorded some albums, you’d already know about them. You’re all done, it’s over for you: [...]
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