SXSW 2010 Complete!

What I ended up seeing in alphabetical order, repeats noted in parenthesis, newly discovered favorites denoted in bold:

Alex Bleeker and the Freaks
Andrew WK
Awesome Color
The Baths (2)
The Beets
Birthday Suits
Black Angels
Black Cock
The Carrots
Cheap Time
Cheeseburger
Cococoma
Destruction Unit
Eternal Summers
The Fresh and Onlys (3)
The Girls at Dawn (2)
Golden Triangle
Gun Outfit
Gwar
Hunx & His Punx
JEFF the Brotherhood
Magic Kids (2)
Man or Astroman?
Mickey
The Muffs
Pierced Arrows
Puffy Areolas
Rainbow Bridge
Rayon Beach
Reading Rainbow
Shapes Have Fangs
The Spits (2)
Tamaryn
Thee Oh Sees (5)
Thomas Function
Total Slacker (2)
Ty Segall
Tyvek
Vivian Girls
White Mystery
Wizzard Sleeve
Woods (2)
Wounded Lion
Woven Bones

I think I'm forgetting some - but it's all a blur at this point. I made a compilation of some of my favorites. Find it *here.

*(ugh - I'm afraid the files might be a little sloppy (missing artwork) - but I'm too tired to correct it at this point. my apologies.)

SXSW plans: Friday 3/19

PPM & The Smell @ Cheer Up Charlies

12:00 Moment Trigger
12:30 Lovvers
12:55 Devon Williams
1:20 Audacity
1:45 Residual Echos
2:10 Pocahaunted
2:35 Infinite Body
3:00 Tearist
3:30 Randy Randall
3:55 Gun Outfit
4:20 Pearl Harbor
4:45 Total Abuse
5:10 Abe Vigoda

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SXSW plans: Thursday 3/18

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EARLY:
Brooklyn Vegan @ Spiderhouse

1:00 The Beets
2:00 Lovvers
3:00 Golden Triangle
4:00 Thee Oh Sees
5:00 Tyvek

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SXSW plans: Wednesday 3/17

I've listed all the bands playing these shows, but hyperlinked the one's I'm planning on seeing.

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Can’t Stop The Bleeding @ Beerland


The Uptown Bums (1:00 pm)
TV Ghost (1:40 pm)
Cruddy (2:20pm)
Woven Bones (3:00 pm)
Awesome Color (detroit)(3:40 pm)
The Spits (4:20 pm)
The Muffs (5pm)

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BrooklynVegan Day Party @ Emo's

(FREE BREAKFAST TACOS + DAILY JUICE!)
noon YellowFever
12:45 The Rural Alberta Advantage
01:30 The Morning Benders
02:15 Japandroids
03:00 Titus Andronicus
03:45 The Black Angels
04:30 GZA
05:15 Fucked Up

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Escapes IV @ Club 1808

Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt (NY)(5:30pm)
Male Bonding (UK) (6pm)
Peter and the Wolf (6:30pm)
Reverse X Rays (7pm)
Popo (7:30pm)
Prince Rama (8pm)
Quiet Hooves (8:30pm)
Light Pollution (9pm)
Yellow Fever (9:30pm)

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Tormenta Tropical @ Iron Gate Lounge

Lemonade (SF)(7:30pm)
Delorean (spain)(8:30pm)

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Hozac Records Party @ Trailer Space

The Fresh&Onlys (SF)(7pm)
Puffy Areolas (clevlnd)(8pm)
Rayon Beach (ATX)(9pm)
The Girls at Dawn (Bklyn) (10pm)
White Mystery (chicago)(11pm)
Mickey (chicago)(11pm)
Wizzard Sleeve (alabama) (12am)
Woven Bones (atx)(1am)

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Strangest band name of the day: Puffy Areolas
Favorite band name of the day: Wizzard Sleeve

I saw: Woven Bones, Awesome Color, The Spits, The Muffs, Rayon Beach , The Girls at Dawn, White Mystery, Mickey, Wizzard Sleeve, Woven Bones

Smitty's BBQ

If you visit Austin, be sure to let me know and I'll take you to eat the best BBQ you've ever had in your life. Seriously. Everyone in Austin has their own Central Texas favorite, but most will agree Smitty's Market can't be beat for history, atmosphere, and...meat.

Nina Schmidt Sells opened Smitty's in 1999 in the same building that held her father's Kreuz Market for over 50 years. Just like in the olden days, there's no bbq sauce and no forks, but they do serve potato salad, slaw, beans, avocado, onion, cheese and jalapenos.






More photos from our recent excursion can be found here.

SXSW 2008: Right around the corner

I've been doing endless research and planning for the looming sxsw weekend. It's overwhelming - listening to bands on myspace, reading blogs, following pathways to find those secret parties and free shows. whew.
Like with most things, in the end, you just have to leave all the researching and scheduling aside, trust that you know what you're doing and go with the flow.

Even with all that research, until today I hadn't gotten super excited about anything. I stumbled onto a Carbon/Silicon track and I was like, whoa who are these guys?! Yeah, duh. I was hoping to have discovered some new kids. But no, big surprise - I like the Mick Jones' and Tony James' collaboration. It's funny, it's just it sounded like it was recorded on GarageBand or something, so I didn't assume big things. More research needs to be done - but I wonder if they'll record something more polished.

Another one that's not a big surprise as far as what I'm typically drawn to, but at least not already (or ever will be) a "rock legend" is Jeffery Lewis. Not for everyone. Probably not for most. He designed the cover for the Moldy Peaches, and he sounds like Adam Green. Sometimes Daniel Johnston without mental illness comes across as superficial and pretentious, but I think I might like him. He just released "12 Crass Songs" which I thought was maybe just lewd songs, but it's covers of Crass songs. I'm curious.

And then there's my guilty pleasure. MGMT. I can't help it - they're so ridiculously ablaze in watered down Vice magazine hipness and youth. Plus the singer is daarrreamy and is so often found without his shirt. yeow!

For reference, here are some sxsw blogs, tools, etc.:
Schedule
Gorillia vs. Bear Day Party
The Austinist
Detour Magazine
Austin Showlist
Done Waiting

Oh and holy fuck, please don't forget about Rachel Ray's Showcase. I'm planning on being there. The Ettes are playing. Pleaaase let there be cleverly named snacks. Puhleeeez.

I ran into Geoff Peveto of Decoder Ring last night at the White Denim (**1/2)- Nouns Group (***1/2) - Yellow Fever (***1/2)-Tokyo Police Club (** 1/2) - Punk Bunny (***) show.

It reminded me that I hadn't been to their site in awhile. I really like the Decoder Ring's work, but mainly, I really like the way they work. They are genuinely music fans, so they get excited about putting an image to a sound. Lots of down to earth talent in that office.

While at Flatstock last year I felt totally overwhelmed with the plethora of amazing music poster design. The challenge is to find that perfect combination of an artist and a band that you love.

The Decoder Ring's artist series is pretty fantastic too. I was blown away watching the process of the Jay Ryan print. And, apparently I was introduced to someone from Aesthetic Apparatus last night, but he did such a good job playing himself down I didn't realize it until today. So I wasn't able to ask the two artists to discuss their similar take on the Hold Steady:

El Regio

I just had the best lunch today at El Regio on Berkman. For 3 dollars I got a shredded chicken "taco" large enough to feed two day laborers. It came with avocado slices and the most amazing serrano chile sauce. I'll be back.

My Vampire Weekend review (as promised)...

It was awesome. Most fun I've had at a show in a while. There was no crowd - maybe 30-40 people, tops. (Which is one of the things I love about Austin - everyone's so busy keeping austin wierd and supporting local, that touring gems like this get overlooked by the masses. ) Every person in the room was "feelin' it". Even the emo's dreadlock white guy next to me at the bar, who was skeptacle or their oy oy oy ska-ish shouts at first, gave in and leaned over "your're right they're really good." Girls up front were doing this strange chasing each other in a circle / mosh pit type of thing. (Maybe this is a new ritual among the young ones that I just don't know about? ) The singer has got the uniform down perfectly - barefoot, messy hair, lacoste type shirt -capturing the "yuppie new england 80's weekend college party" to a T.
They sounded great. They make you smile. They make you feel like you're on vacation. They make you want to move. They make me wish I was going to be in brooklyn in September for the West Indian Day Parade. (second favorite event in NYC).
They make me want to dance like I did with the old man chef I worked with in brooklyn who was from the dominican republic.
It's not a sound that has been idie-ized yet. Right? It's fun and catchy and carefree and smart. There's nothing to "get". It's not overly ironic. And no one is whining.
Sigh.
New favorite new band.