I’ve seen a lot of people bemoaning the state of SXSW. Its not as fun as it used to be. Its too crowded. The corporate sponsorships are too intrusive. And, worst of all, the music isn’t that great. Well, ok. Its true. SXSW is way too big for its britches. I mean, this really isn’t surprising. The festival is now old enough to drink, and twenty one year olds are troublesome when they decide to party.
Having never been before, I was overwhelmed by many of the festival’s growing pains. From the desperate search for a hotel room, to the lines for shows, to the lines for after parties, to the bouncers who guarded the brightly colored wristbands that you needed to get into VIP shows (which, once you got into you couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about). Its a bit much to go through just to see a few bands. Except that bands are so promotion crazed they’re after as many shows as possible in four days. I heard some bands had show counts in the double digits. Its like sport fucking for bands! I noticed a lot of shows seemed to be under-attended, so in the end I’m not sure this strategy is really paying off.
Also, there’s the joy of being in Texas. I know, I know, Austin is different but maybe the rest of Texas floods in for the festival to throw beer bottles at you for wearing white pants, or to hang out of their pickup trucks to scream at you that they (correctly) think that you’re a faggot, or cosy up to you on the dance floor to try and chew (literally!) their way into your heart. But the real nail in the coffin for the festival was when the interactive section was added. The geeks are making their desperate grab for cool, and thats usually when you know its time to move on.
All of that aside, we still managed to have a blast. The trick is to go to the ‘unoffical’ events and bypass all the above silliness. These were much more laid back, friendly, and sonically interesting. I wrote a ton about The Smell/Deathbomb Arc showcase already but another fun showcase we hit up was the Social Registry/Cake Shop showcase which is pretty cool if you like some scuzzy modern psych (which I do). Speaking of, I was totally enjoyed Knyfe Hyts, one of the scuzziest, ugliest sounding bands. And they’ve got a look to match. Check out “Smoke The Milk” on their myspace page, it was seriously hypnotic live. Pictures!
Ok, last post about this show, for real. Seriously though, it was super fun and its too bad we couldn’t have all been there together. The Hard Place set was maybe up in the air as they didn’t have, you know, like amps and stuff. But Devon Williams was a total super hero and lent the band, like, everything. Their live show is totally evolving — moving from the territory of birthday party glitter and fake blood theatrics into a full on adult super show. At one point I found Actually Huizenga humping my leg! Being Hard Place’s label I might be biased, but I thought they were super great. If that doesn’t sound objective, just look at the photos!
Magic Johnson taught me something. They taught me that you can be avant punk rock and do an a cappella version of a dolly parton (ironic) classic. When in more punk rock mode, this guy would sing into his guitar pickups, which I found endearing. Sadly, no photos of that but here’s one in more standard mode:
The last band I caught was KIT (sadly, I had to take off before Anavan). This band is a little on the aggro, screamo, nineties post hard core side of things which I’m not as into these days. But these guys were really great. I like bands that mingle with the audience while they’re playing. I was particularly impressed by the guitar which was way catchier and more immediate than I remember it being on record. I wrote to a friend “You know what, I was wrong. They aren’t too nineties sxe underground post hard core.”
Next was Nero’s Day At Disneyland. Its kind of completely backwards that the first time I finally catch this is in Texas because this guy is from Oakland. Anyway, I was kind of reeling from being on my knees between the two drum kits to get photos of Foot Village so the sheer cartoon virtuosity of this music didn’t hit me right away. But once it did I was blown away. This guy plays crazy piano with the flare of a totally insane inbred Germanic prince or something and he embellishes it with some screwed up electronics a la Venetian Snares. Completely hyper,insane and overly indulgent, true to his namesake. I was so into it. Don’t be dumb like me. Nero’s Day at Disneyland is out of Oakland so there is no need to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to catch this, which you should definitely do.
Sadly, I didn’t get any photos of Kevin Shields and her sewing machine of doom. But, it was a pretty neat performance and I kind of loved watching the crowd head banging to her harsh noise thrash in rhythm with her hand motions on that machine. Maybe you had to be there though.
And then, for something completely different, Devon Williams played some seriously gorgeous pop music. Ok, actually first they played a few covers including a messy but totally spot on cover of Alex Chilton. Then they played some seriously gorgeous pop. What I like about the live set up of this band is its so rock ‘n roll. The recorded stuff is pretty and orchestrated and sweet and earnest (in a good way) and melodic and people make comparisons to Nilsson, but live the band is really dynamic, the guitar is assertive, and the songs are bursting with energy. I get excited watching it.
We totally had fun in Austin for SXSW! On Friday we spent most of the day at Deathbomb Arc/The Smell showcase at the The Opera House. This was a free, all ages, unofficial event a bit south of all the action and it was super fun. Bands traded off playing inside the store and out in the parking lot. It was laid back, people were having fun, and unlike official SXSW events there were no wrist bands (more on that later), and there were a ton of great bands.
We got there during the No Age set while they were proclaiming that it was just like playing the smell. By which they meant, I’m sure, they were seeing all of their friends from LA in the audience. Next was Mika Miko whom I’ve heard described as sounding as sounding like the raincoats, riott grrls, and erase errata I suppose there’s truth to all of that but they’re crappy comparisons because I wasn’t going to kill myself to catch this band even though I’ve heard this band is super fun live. I’m glad I caught them though because not only is the band super fun live and doing their own thing with all the elements of those aforementioned bands and not just rehashing them. Because we’re known for being ‘critical’, I will say that these ladies need to get some more dance moves. The photos I got look an awful lot like the photos over at pitchfork.
more more more photos!
Foot Village played at some point after Mika Miko and I was excited to see them because a) I liked the one guy’s t-shirt, it had been bejeweled and b) they had four drum kits, two of which were set up mirror image of each other, one black and one white and c) I continually miss my opportunity to catch this insanity. And when they started it was crazy time! Insane commands were shouted at the audience via megaphone. They telepathically let each other know when to launch into those drum kits (savagely — both in style and technique), and when to run away from the kits and into the crowd (gotta keep everyone on their toes in the foot village!). Sometimes it sounded like an argument with everybody yelling at once, and sometimes they fell into agreement and their voices were in unison. So yeah, drums + screaming, but actually with surprisingly recognizable vocal melodies and ‘hooks’ and an awful lot of panache. I like!
more photos here
photo of Hard Place at The Smell
The Smell/olFactory Records/Deathbomb Arc present:
12:00 p.m. Douglas Ferguson
12:30 p.m. Lisa Cameron
1:00 p.m. The Mae Shi
1:30 p.m. Ima Gymnist
2:00 p.m. No Age
2:30 p.m. Mika Miko
3:00 p.m. Foot Village
3:30 p.m. Kevin Shields
4:00 p.m. Devon Williams
4:30 p.m. Hard Place
5:00 p.m. Magic Johnson
5:30 p.m. Friends Forever
6:00 p.m. KIT
6:30 p.m. Mistress
7:00 p.m. Nero’s Day At Disneyland
7:30 p.m. Anavan
Friday March 14th
Noon to 8:00 p.m.
FREE (donations accepted)
The Opera House
2209 South 1st Street
Austin, TX 78704
