Category Archives: Music

SXSW

SXSW Day 2: Hardcore Hoofin’

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Man alive today was all over.  I counted and I saw about15 or so different bands.  Some big and some small, with surprises in between.  So, in the interest of keeping things brief and at the suggestion of my lovely girlfriend, I will bullet blast what I thought was the better stuff of SXSW Music Day 2:

  • The first stop of the day saw us hit up the Canadian party and Dehli 2 Dublin.  What you say?  Dublin, Ireland and Dehli, India from Canada?  Yup, this bouncy world mash up made the day start out tasty.  On top of the egg and tortilla gobblety gook.
  • After they hit the stage, The Soft Pack A.D. rocked the joint big time.  Think of the White Stripes except the genders reversed.  Very bluesy and driving.
  • On the way to one stop, the guys from F@#$ed Up put on an inpromptu show in front of Beer Land.  The hefty, shirtless lead singer guy ran through some Nirvana and Sex Pistols covers, mixing in their original stuff.  I was lucky enough to get some hardcore rock fixins as it was hard for me to find some time to fit it in on the trip.
  • The said stop just happened to be Gordon Gano and the Ryan Brothers at Valhalla.  Gordo, if you don’t know, is the lead singer of the Violent Femmes.  He’s got a new group and he’s sporting a violin.  They played some new songs and reimagined some old ones.  We loved the show and were lucky that we saw them in such a small venue.
  • I bounced around for a bit and made a pit stop at the Zone Lounge for some shwag and yet another Zone Energy Bar.  What I didn’t expect was to catch a great singer songwriter by the name of Danny Malone.  With acoustic guitar in hand and harmonica in mouth, Danny evoked emotion out of everyone in attendance and I’m checking this guy out the next he comes around Kansas City.
  • The Everything, Everything show later on was pretty tight.  They switched between keyboards with laptops and guitars.  The sound was a math rock or intelligent music sense but just a bit off.  Complex structures flowed out but made a quick turn here and there to keep you into the groove.
  • I left before Everything, Everything finished to head on to my big show of the night.  When I got to La Zona Rosa, it was much earlier than expected.    Fortunately, The 88 filled the time nicely.  The lead singer/guitarist had a Buddy Holly look with a much higher pitched voice.  The were consistent in they lovely dovey rock and roll.  I would play this in the car on the way to the hill to make out with my girlfriend.
  • Ray Davies took the stage after The 88.  If you don’t know who he is, you need to have hour face rocked.  Davies was the lead singer of the great classic band, The Kinks.  His songwriting was his strength and he brought out a great showcase of that with him and some other guy on acoustic guitar.  Not soon after, however, he brought out The 88 to join him on stage to rock the joint.  The Kinks rocked back in the day and Davies still pushing forward.  Davies and The 88 even wrote a song for the show the night before.  Very, very cool.

Now not all of the acts were as cool, but it’s all good.  There is just so much to consume here it can get overwhelming.  I’m just lucky enough to dip my toes in and catch some of the stream.  My toes are certainly sore from all the walking.

Concerts, SXSW

SXSW Day 1: Music Blast Off!

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Okay Day 1 of SXSW Music saw myself kick into full swing of the tunes here in Austin.  It also helped that it was St. Patrick’s Day.  Naturally, me and my lovely girlfriend started out the Irish way and then ended up in the good ole nonprofit way.  In between shows, we checked some cool local shops.  But the important thing stuff was the shows.  So let’s get to it.

St. Patrick’s Day is a day celebrated by Irish alcoholics across the world.  So what better way to do so than at the British Music Embassy at Latitude 30.  The only band the caught my eye was And So I Watch From Afar.  Those guys did some instrumental rock riffs that rival that of Kyuss.  I also enjoyed a lovely pint of Guiness in celebration.  Great times indeed.

We hit up the shops and then the convention center to get our SXXpress pass for the NPR Music Showcase.  The lineup was huge and we made our way to Stubb’s BBQ about 2 hours before the show.  The line was already long so we were glad to use the new pass types and be first inside the show!  The outdoor venue is a great place to watch bands and also snack down on some great BBQ, even though it’s not as good Kansas City.

The first two bands were alright.  Visqueen opened up with some rock that didn’t put me to sleep.  The Walkmen stepped on stage next and they rocked out in an almost Coldplay type style.  The lead singer hit the high notes well but really didn’t punch it through on the emotional side of things. The next three bands were the ones we really wanted to see.

Broken Bells is a collaboration of Danger Mouse and James Mercer.  They had a tough act to follow but they mellowed things out for the final performance.  The esoteric nature of their songs led to us jamming out but for some reason it didn’t fit perfectly with the line up.  It seems this is more headphone music than concert music.  That said, I’m anxious to sit down and listen to this album when I get back.

Spoon was the last show of the night and the Austin based rocked out pretty well.  We didn’t stay for the whole show and I missed the one song I really wanted to hear from them.  The show was swinging, however.  The crowd head bobbed pretty well even though they played until after 1am.  All in all good stuff from these guys.

The show of the night was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  The soul funk from Brooklyn had the crowd moving the whole time on stage.  Sharon Jones held the crowd in her hands and pulled strings of funk for the whole set.  If you ever want to get your funk down, check them out.  You won’t regret it.  And you won’t regret tuning in tomorrow for the next update.  Until then, off to more shows!

Concerts, SXSW

SXSW Day 0: What Happened Before Music Was Official

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For those of you coming form my other blog, Hoketronics, welcome!  For the others following along, howdy!  I’m down here in Austin checking out SXSW.  I rocked the Interactive and Film part and now I’m diving down into the Music part.  Now before I talk about the official Music events, there were a couple of bands I checked out in support of the Interactive parties.

The first being the Computer Blip Blop Bull#$%# party.  The Found Footage Festival guys hosted the event but there was also some kick ass music, too.  Mike and Moonpies opened up and my alt country blood was a flowing.  They also did a sweet cover the Beatles “Don’t Let Me Down.”  The rain came and we moved inside.  The Laughing took over and rocked my head off.  You should really check them out.

Next up I headed over to the Interactive Closing Party and stayed just long enough to check out The Sour Notes and Mariachi El Bronx.  The Sour Notes really didn’t do anything for me, but Mariachi El Bronx rocked.  I remember looking at the guy and wondering if he was the lead singer of The Bronx, an LA based rock band I saw open up for The Hives a couple of years ago.  Welp, after I got back and checked it out, it was!  So they decided to do some rocking Mariachi because acoustic rock sucked and I have to say it worked out great.

That was the party leading up to the parties.  Check out this blog to see what happened on the first big SXSW Music day.  Hasta Pasta!

SXSW

SXSW is not an Alfred Hitchcock Movie Sequel

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Some of you may be wondering why it went all quiet around here.  Welp, we were busy getting ready for SXSW (pronunced South by Southwest).  What’s SXSW?  Only the biggest convergence of technology, film, and music this site of the hemisphere!  So this blog started out as an extension of my love for music and only fully realized itself because I needed to keep track of bands I wanted to see down there.

So with that said, I’m heading down there road trip style to cover all that SXSW has to offer.  Being a first timer, I’m no where near sure how things will shake out during and after the conference.  A couple of things I have coming down the pike include my own music, more reviews of SXSW bands, more reviews of mainstream bands, and a few surprises.  Hit me on Twitter if you are heading down to Austin as well or just think I have a kick ass Twitter background.  In the meantime, rock out to some Motorhead.  They are going to be there.

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Music, SXSW

Bo-Peep is not so Sheepish

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In the grand spirit of the land of the rising sun comes Bo-Peep.  Mika Yoshimura and Ryoko Nakano formed a band way back in the day but didn’t have the juice they have now until they hooked up with Junko Himei to for a power trio straight outta Japan.  These lovely ladies call down the thunder at every show and I’ll be bringing my umbrella when I line up to seem the rock out SXSW 2010.

So there are some ginormous barriers to talk about here.  First off, the love for J-Rock that’s building up inside is about puke all over this keyboard in pure liquid rock fury.  Second, garage bands in Japan?  Yeah, the White Stripes caught wind way out east.  Lastly, it’s a power rock trio of ladies.  I’m scared for The Donnas because I think Bo-Peep might not show any mercy.  Here their terror in “B-Level Motion”

[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/Bo-Peep_BLevelMotion.mp3]