I’m on my fourth listen of the freshly released Radiohead album, “The King of Limbs” and I have to say it’s completely different to me. Radiohead popped out doozy earlier this week announcing the album for sale on pre-order. They double-doozyed today by releasing the digital download portion a day early. So I paid my dues, which was different from “In Rainbows,” and downloaded the album. So far, the album branches out two ways for me.
The trick to doing SXSW right is finding the side projects of great bands and/or artists and getting to see them up close. Last year, my girlfriend was skeptical about seeing the Street Sweeper Social Club. After I revealed to her that Tom Morrello of Rage Against The Machine was leading it, she went and had a kick as time. This year, I’m going to provide the same kind of sweet access by checking out the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group. Omar Rodriguez Lopez is, of course, the force behind The Mars Volta. Welp, he formed this group way back in 2005 and have been releasing material under that moniker, or other forms of it like the Quintet, Quartet, etc, since then.
Listening to ‘Un Buitre Amable Me Pico’ off soon to be released “Telesterion,” I can’t help but feel embarrassed. “Telesterion” is a compilation of works spanning Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s entire career and boy is there many an album. I hear Mars Volta all the way in this song and nothing else. Rodriguez Lopez has his own compositional voice and I love jacking into it. That’s why I’m embarrassed. I missed out on so much. I need to go back through all of this mind-blowing and brain-melting material. This may be my number 1 Showcase for SXSW.
[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/Omar_Rodriguez_Lopez_Group-Un_Buitre_Amable_Me_Pico_.mp3]
I can’t count how many times I’ve missed out on some good, heavy, and slow rock music. Clutch happens to be one of my favorite bands but I’ve missed them the last 3 times there were in Kansas City. Hopefully, I’ll fix that later this week but until then I can peg down De Staat to help fill that void. De Staat is a Dutch rock group and will be at SXSW this year. They’ve been around since 2006 and will celebrate their March 4th release ‘Machinery.’
I jammed out hard to ‘Sweatshop.’ I sense a taste of Southern Culture on the Skids, but the Dutch version. Both Clutch and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion makes its way into the song all thanks the lead singer Torre Florim. A good low swaggerin’ voice keeps this song swinging from beginning to end. This is the kind of song that you dance-walk too down the street while everyone around looks at you funny. No ha ha funny, but weird funny.
[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/De_Staat-Sweatshop.mp3]
Belleruche hails from north London, UK and kicks out the beat using a unique blend of turntables, guitars, and soulful lady crooning. Led by the sultry Kathrin deBoer, Belleruche follows in the footsteps of Charlie Christian and Cut Chemist. They also tout the same setup on stage as they have in the studio. The music label Tru Thoughts snatched them up in 2007 and will be at SXSW to support their latest offering, 270 Stories.
Listening to ‘Clockwork,’ the influence of Bellaruche shows itself. Kathrin deBoer does her best Sarah Vaughn impression, while DJ Modest spins like the Cut Chemist himself. Let’s not forget Ricky Fabulous, who keeps it all together with his guitar work. But that didn’t hit me at the beginning. ‘Clockwork’ is the kind of song you hear and then forget, only to have it hummed back through the larnyx in an oh so subtle way. It’s a solid song that bobs the head at just the right motion.
[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/Belleruche-Clockwatching.mp3]
It’s not just local fare, or even national fare, at SXSW. Bands from all over the world come on down to Austin to jam out. I’ve featured a British band already, but we are going all world with world music from Portugal. OliveTreeDance is an outfit that uses traditional Australian instruments like the didgeridoo by way of Portugal. Led by Renato Oliveira, OliveTreeDance advertises ‘organic’ dance music. That’s right, no 4 on the floor with house breaks here. It’s all natural.
“Airport Tunnel” jerks in an out before landing on a comfortable groove. The man focus is of course the didgeridoo and Oliveira wastes no time spitting into its hole on this song. Like with every other song I demoed, the groove builds halfway through before climaxing into a crazy Portuguese release. What seems like monkey screams are actually Oliveira freestyling while making his instrument hum. The build up is perfect and I found my shoulders bouncing unintentionally toward the end of this one.
[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/OLIVETREEdance-AIRPORT_TUNNEL.mp3]