Tag: sxsw

My diary and photo galleries from the 2009 South By Southwest Music Conference are now complete. Here’s a list of what’s in the various diary entries. (I marked my favorite acts of the festival with asterisks.)

SXSW Diary Part 1: March 17 — Angie Mattson, Bang Bang Eche, Eddy Highway, Loxsly

SXSW Diary Part 2: Jarvis Cocker Lecture

SXSW Diary Part 3: March 18 — Hyperpotamus, Natalia Lafourcade, *The Marching Band, The Whispertown2000, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Beast, *Sprengjuhöllin, Johnny Goudie and the Little Champions, *Loch Lomond, Grant Hart, *Mark David Ashworth, Mumford & Sons, Los Fancy Free

SXSW Diary Part 4: Quincy Jones speech

SXSW Diary Part 5: March 19 — Jump Back Jake, Abalone Dots, Justin Townes Earle, Esser, *Graham Coxon, Jay Jay Pistolet, All Tiny Creatures, *Bam Bam, The Wailing Wall, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Vivian Girls, Artefacts For Space Travel, Flower Travellin’ Band, Abe Vigoda, The Wrens

SXSW Diary Part 6: March 19 — Talking with one of the Wrens, *The Lost Brothers, Cut Off Your Hands, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, *The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Woods, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Tallest Man on Earth, Echo and the Bunnymen, Nacho Vegas, *Mythical Beast, The Howlies, Fanfarlo, School of Seven Bells, The Golden Dogs, Devo, *Magic Lantern

SXSW Diary Part 7: March 20 — Edie Sedgwick, Head of Skulls, *Hey Marseilles, The Heavenly States, Girls, Delta Spirit, *Fanfarlo, Lemonade, Peelander-Z, *Camera Obscura, Electric Touch, Parachutes, White Lies, Razorlight, *PJ Harvey and John Parish, The Telepathic Butterflies, White Swan Black Swan, The Evaporators, The Black Box Revelation, Division Minuscula

For SXSW pictures, see the index in my photo galleries.

Twitter, 12:05 p.m.: Edie Sedgwick, mustachioed guy in a dress at sxsw: “Could I get more scrambled eggs in the monitor?”

Edie Sedgwick, a transvestite singer who has adopted the stage name of an actress who was in Andy Warhol films, was on my list of acts to see at SXSW. Sedgwick (a.k.a. Justin Moyer of Washington, D.C., a founding member of Dischord bands El Guapo and Antelope), has a really cool track called “Edie Sedgwick II” — carrying on that odd tradition of bands with song titles similar to the band name.

The sxsw Web site has an interesting story about how Moyer developed his latest musical persona after suffering from epileptic seizures. He played a short set around noon at the Radio Room, with some hilarious stage banter (see my tweet above), playing up the incongruities of being a man with a mustache in a blond wig and slinky dress. He grabbed an audience member’s cell phone or camera, lifted up his dress and … well, it looked like he was going to stick the cell phone into the top of his nylon stockings, but I’m not sure if he actually went that far. The music was pretty good, but alas, he did not play that song I was waiting to hear.

I also caught a song by Head of Skulls, which was playing a set out on the Radio Room patio, overlapping with the show by Edie Sedgwick. I didn’t even realize this was a Chicago band until I recognized the bassist as Allison, a bartender at the Empty Bottle. (She’s identified on the Head of Skulls myspace page simply as “The Witch.”) The music was hard rock of the pulverizing punk/metal variety.

12:16 p.m.: I came to the Seattle sxsw [party] for the free food & discovered a cool band, Hey Marseilles. Sounds like Decemberists.

Another group I hadn’t heard of. They weren’t even an official SXSW band this year. But Hey Marseilles made a big impression on me, with some tuneful songs featuring the full complement of assorted instruments that are becoming typical these days in large indie-rock ensembles: tuba, accordion, horns, extra bass drums. They reminded me a lot of the Decemberists, although Hey Marseilles’ singer, Matt Bishop, is lot less mannered in his vocal style than Colin Meloy.

12:48 p.m.: Heavenly States are rocking the convention center cafe. OK, now here is a band I saw and enjoyed, but I can barely remember at this point. Nothing against the Heavenly States — I do think they were quite good — but it’s all becoming a blur. Here’s their song “Lost in the Light.”

1:39 p.m.: Watching a band at sxsw called Girls… which is 4 guys. Singer’s got a classic whine/sneer kinda voice.

SXSW had a band this year called Girls, and another band called The Girls. That’s not to mention Girl in a Coma, Girls in Trouble, Po’ Girl or Garotas Suecas, a Brazilian band whose name means “Swedish Girls.” Plus, there were seven groups with names beginning with the word “Golden,” seven “Hot” bands, five “Magic” acts and four “Crystal” bands. Bears remain popular, too — the festival included Bear Hands, Bearsuit and Angry Vs. the Bear.

Girls and The Girls both had good songs posted on www.sxsw.com, but the one that keeps running through my head is “Lust for Life” by the San Francisco band Girls. (That’s not to be confused with the Iggy Pop song of the same title. Are you still with me here?!?) Girls played this afternoon at the Hot Freaks party at Club Deville, and singer-guitarist Christopher Owens spent the whole show hiding his face behind his long blond hair, leaning down into the microphone and singing catchy songs in the vein of those melodic quasi-punk power-pop tunes once performed by the likes of Wreckless Eric and the Only Ones. Owens does has the classic rock whine and emotional pining of an outsider.

2:19 p.m.: Watching Delta Spirit at the Q magazine party playing a song they wrote this morning.

Delta Spirit put out one of my favorite records last year — well, actually, the record first came out in 2007, but then Rounder Records gave it a wider release in 2008. Now, it’s coming out in the U.K., too. It was nice to hear the band do a new song, and the old ones sounded as strong as ever. They were the only American band playing at the party for Q, a British music magazine.

See Part 1 of my SXSW photos from March 21.

3:16 p.m.: Seeing Fanfarlo 2nd time in 2 days. A band worth seeing many times. Did I mention that the Fanfarlo gig the previous night was almost impossible to photograph because of the dim lighting in that church? Well, this show at the Q party at the Parish was actually lit with a whole variety of colors, and the sound was excellent, and the band got to play a reasonable amount of time. At last, I feel like I’ve seen a real Fanfarlo gig.

Photos of Fanfarlo.

I headed up to the Mohawk for the Hot Freaks party — mostly to see Camera Obscura. But first, I saw the last part of a set by Lemonade, which seemed like pretty solid electronic rock. And then came an outdoor set by the goofballs in Peelander-Z, who call themselves “the Japanese Action Comic Punk Band.” I’m sure this would have been fun to photograph if I could have gotten anywhere near the stage. Listening to Peelander-Z without seeing the guys in their outlandish costumes wasn’t quite as fun. And gosh, what a bizarre lineup, putting this band on the same stage just before the lilting, pretty music of Camera Obscura.

Twitter, 4:44 p.m.: Peelander-Z was on the same stage before Camera Obscura at this sxsw party, w/ painfully loud techno music in between. Bring on the twee Scots, already!

It was a real pleasure to see Camera Obscura, whose 2006 record Let’s Get Out of This Country has stuck with me as an album I return to often. Singer Tracyanne Campbell sounded beautiful as the band played some of my favorite songs from that record as well as tracks from the forthcoming CD My Maudlin Career.

Photos of Camera Obscura.

5:43 p.m.: I am in position to photograph PJ Harvey. Now I’ve just got to make it through the next 4 bands.

OK, so I was being paranoid, but I really did not want to miss an opportunity to see PJ Harvey and to photograph her for the first time. She was scheduled to play with John Parish at 10 p.m. at Stubbs — in the midst of a mostly awful lineup. Before Harvey and Parish played, the scheduled bands were Electric Touch, Parachutes, White Lies and Razorlight. And after they played, the same stage would feature the Indigo Girls and Third Eye Blind. I guess this is the sort of thing that happens when an idiosyncratic artist like Harvey is still on a big label, Island, featuring a lot of considerably more mainstream acts. I was worried some of these bands would draw a big crowd and I would get shut out of the photo pit, so I showed up bright and early and stood through four bands I would have rather missed.

Electric Touch was a bunch of pretty boys making ridiculous poses as they played their completely generic pop music. They looked like actors who’d studied how to become rock musicians by watching bad 1980s MTV clips but without learning anything about the music itself. I could barely stand to watch this set.

Twitter, 6:11 p.m.: First band of the night at sxsw: Electric Touch. These guys are from Austin?!? They seem way more Hollywood, in a bad way. (The lead singer had a British accent, but SXSW identified them as an Austin band. I don’t care to waste any of my time finding out anything more about this group.) 7:01 p.m.: 2nd band of night at sxsw: Parachute. Bland fodder for TV. Marginally less stomach-turning than last band.

The third band, White Lies, was one that actually showed some promise. But they seemed like a corporate record label’s idea of what a “cutting edge” band should sound like. Maybe Interpol fans will like it. White Lies almost broke through all the posing and slick surfaces with the last two songs of their set, almost showing a little spontaneity.

8:34 p.m.: Eighty minutes of Razorlight is all that stands between me and PJ Harvey now… So to speak.

I did not have a very positive impression of Razorlight before this show, based on the little I’d heard. Actually, after the soul-sucking simulacrum of music I’d witnessed earlier in the evening, Razorlight did not seem so bad — just bland. And they didn’t play 80 minutes, more like an hour. By the time they finished, I was in line for the PJ Harvey and John Parish photo pit.

10:31 p.m.: Polly Jean Harvey is as unreal as ever. Great to see her again after such a long absence.

I’ve seen PJ Harvey three times before this, and she never fails to wow me as a live performer or as an artist who always stays on her own eccentric path. She has not played many concerts in the U.S. in the last several years, so this one was a must-see, one of only three American shows she has scheduled so far to promote the new album she recorded with Parish, A Woman A Man Walked By. This was not a typical PJ Harvey solo concert, if there is such a thing, since she did not play any songs from her solo records. Rather, she and Parish stuck with tracks from their new album as well as a couple from the album they recorded together in 1996, Dance Hall at Louse Point.

These records are billed as collaborations where Harvey and Parish are equal partners, but the focus is clearly on Harvey. Parish seems to like it that way, playing guitar alongside her without drawing much attention to himself. How could he compete anyway? Harvey looked as resplendent as ever, wearing a white dress with a bit of a straitjacket look to it.

Some of the songs were moody, almost eerie, and Harvey radiated a strange sense of calm as she intoned the words. Other songs had the loud, stomping quality of Harvey’s early, more punk records. In the 1996 song “Taut,” she pleaded “Jesus save me!” And the new song “Leaving California,” her voice soared way up the scale to beautiful melodic peaks. The set crashed to a climactic end with the new song, “Pig Will Not.” Over loud guitar chords, Harvey wailed, “I will not! I will not! I will not!”

It was another terrific performance by Harvey, although I would preferred to see it somewhere other than Stubbs, where half of the audience seemed to be chatting away as they waited for the Indigo Girls or whatever. And it was teasingly short, just about an hour. Still, it was a great plus to get the chance to shoot some pictures of Polly Jean up-close.

Photos of PJ Harvey and John Parish.

…And, after creating that photo gallery, I posted six additional pictures of PJ Harvey on my flickr stream.

Everything else was bound to seem anticlimactic for me after that. It was simply time to head back out into the streets of Austin, searching for more bands. Maybe I should have gone to see the Monotonix for their SXSW-closing show, which surely would have been thrilling, but I felt like using my final hours to find some new music.

11:06 p.m.: Winnipeg’s Telepathic Butterflies are raving it up with some psychedelic garage rock.

This was part of the showcase at B.D. Riley’s by Rainbow Quartz records, which has some of the best ’60s-style psychedelic and garage-rock bands going these days. The Telepathic Butterflies played a solid set of songs with ringing guitar lines that sounded like the Byrds.

12:06 a.m.: Relaxing in a hotel lobby while NZ folk duo White Swan Black Swan plays. sxsw is almost over. One … more … show…

Now, this was a weird act. A man and woman from Auckland doing semi-humorous folk songs. Sounds like the Flight of the Conchords? Well, it wasn’t that funny. Seemed almost like an act you’d see in a hotel lounge somewhere. Wait a minute, I did see them in a hotel lounge (the Victorian Room at the Driskill). White Swan Black Swan was not great, but I found them fairly charming at times, and I really appreciate the fact that you can see a group like this at SXSW. There’s no way in hell they’d ever get booked at Lollapalooza.

Even though I said “one … more … show” on my tweet, I ended up squeezing pieces of three concerts into my final hour of SXSW.

1:10 a.m.: I’m watching a masked man sing about a butter knife – Vancouver’s Evaporators. … Hmmm, well, that was sort of interesting, but a little too much shtick for me just now.

1:45 a.m.: Hopping around in my last hour of sxsw: Belgium’s Black Box Revelation, Mexico’s Division Minuscula. The Black Box Revelation was a guitar-and-drums duo that reminded me of the Black Keys, though maybe a bit more punk than that band.

I headed across the street to see the last few songs by Division Minuscula, who played some impressive guitar licks. At 2 a.m., the set ends, and for some reason, the house stereo at the Habana Bar Backyard begins blaring Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”

See Part 2 of my SXSW photos from March 21.

2:05 a.m.: The end.

Twitter, 11:07 a.m.: I told 1 of the Wrens: Can’t wait for your new CD. His reply: “Neither can we. You got any songs?”

More on that story: The morning after seeing the Wrens play at Prague, I’m in a crowded elevator at the Hilton. The elevator stops at a floor below mine, and the doors open to reveal the four members of the Wrens standing there. There isn’t enough room for all of them to get on, but Kevin Whelan jumps inside, leaving behind his bandmates. “Well, that’s it,” I say to him. “I guess your band’s broken up.” Whelan, who was smiling and acting as if I were an old buddy of his, laughs. I tell him I enjoyed the Wrens show last night

And then comes that exchange I Twittered about above. I add: “You played a couple of news songs last night, didn’t you?” Whelan says: “Yeah. We were just messing around.” Whatever he says, the band is recording a new CD — finally!

11:45 a.m.: Watching the Lost Brothers. These guys are like a young Irish Everly Bros. Fab voices.

This was over at the Full Irish Breakfast party at B.D. Riley’s. This Liverpool-based Irish duo (according to their sxsw bio, “Mark Mccausland and Oisin leech.- otherwise known as bark and bosh”) sing in sweet harmony. I couldn’t help thinking of the Everly Brothers as I watched them, though their music is on the folkier end of the Everly spectrum. I liked this performance so much that I bought the Lost Brothers’ CD Trails of the Lonely (Parts I & III) from one of the guys as soon as they’d finished singing. The following night, I would run into the Lost Brothers in the audience at another gig. They’d had a fair amount to drink by that point, and when I asked one of them, “You guys aren’t really brothers, are you?” he said, “Sure we are!!!” Here’s the Lost Brothers song “Angry at the Sun.”

I spent the afternoon zipping around to various parties. Over at the SPIN magazine party at Stubbs, New Zealand’s Cut Off Your Hands were sounding loud and aggressive on the Stubbs stage. Not really my thing. When it comes to noisy Kiwis this year, I preferred Bang! Bang! Eche!

Wildbirds and Peacedrums, a duo from Gothenberg, Sweden, was playing in the Sweden Goes SXSW at Habana Calle 6. I enjoyed this group’s album from last year, Heartcore, which has an unusual mix of atmospheric textures and hard-hitting rhythms. They were an interesting band to see live, with nothing other than drums and vocals. Mariam Wallentin has a brassy voice, and she seemed at times to be throwing it up against the clattering drum patterns from her partner, Andreas Werliin, while adding in some of her own percussion. I’m looking forward to hearing the new album by Wildbirds and Peacedrums, The Snake. Here’s the Wildbirds and Peacedrums song “Doubt/Hope.”

Twitter, 2:04 p.m.: Pains of Being Pure at Heart is playing at a day party. Sounds stronger than the record, very catchy.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are one of the indie-rock bands with the most buzz right now. They played at Schubas in Chicago not long ago. Not realizing how much hype they were getting, I failed to get a ticket ahead of time and discovered that night that they’d sold out the show. At SXSW, the Pains seemed to be playing everywhere. I caught them at a party hosted by Pitchfork at Emo’s Jr. Skeptics are calling the Pains “this year’s Vampire Weekend,” to which I say: “No!!!” While I thought Vampire Weekend was last year’s vastly overrated buzz band, the Pains sound nothing like that group.

And while I don’t think the debut CD by the Pains is a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it is pretty enjoyable. And the band was even better as a live out, cranking up the fuzzy feedback and playing those songs with more energy. It’s loud, with a touch of that shoegazer sound, and quite melodic, too. Here’s the Pains of Being Pure at Heart song “Come Saturday.”

See Part 1 of my SXSW photos from March 20.

2:35 p.m.: Band called Woods sounds like Canned Heat + psychedelic tape effects.

Not being too familiar with Woods, I wasn’t sure what to expect at this show, which was in Emo’s main room. I checked out their myspace page and loved the songs I heard, but those ones have a female vocalist. And it’s obvious that singer isn’t part of Woods’ current incarnation, which is all-male. One member of Woods knelt on the stage, taking cassette tapes in and out of a machine and singing background vocals into what looked like headphones, adding a layer of weird effects while the rest of the band played jammy roots rock that sounded like something out of the late ’60s or early ’70s.

The group describes its music as: “lysergic & infectiously bent acidfolk pop grooving with motorik percussion, cracked fuzz, unique vocal gush, and burning psych jams… plus enough sweet hooks to get yr next freakout party moving right.” That’s as good of a description as I could come up with, though I’m not sure when my “next freakout party” is going to happen.

3:59 p.m.: Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: looks like a barbershop quartet, sounds like Modest Mouse.

Playing on the most mundane-looking stage at SXSW, the Convention Center’s café, the members of Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band looked around and asked, “What is this place?” (Or words to that effect.) They then ripped through three or so songs with a lot of passion and energy. And yes, they were wearing matching vests. They did look like they were about to harmonize to some songs from the 1890s or something, but their sound is nothing like their look. The Seattle group’s debut CD is on the Dead Oceans label.

I also saw the tail end of the cafe performance by Dublin’s One Day International before Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band took the stage, but not enough to form much of an opinion.

4:19 p.m.: The Tallest Man On Earth is not *that* tall. Pretty good folk rock by a guy from Sweden. This was another show at the café. The Tallest Man, a.k.a. Kristian Mattson, performed his solo acoustic songs with an intense look on his face. He really seemed to mean what he was singing.

4:56 p.m.: Taking a break from all the new music for eighties flashback Echo & Bunnymen at SPIN party.

Back to Stubbs for the end of the SPIN party. I hadn’t seen Echo and the Bunnymen in more than 20 years. They sounded as good as ever, playing a greatest-hits set with songs including “The Cutter” and “The Killing Moon” alongside a few newer tunes, which fit in pretty well with the classics.

See Part 2 of my SXSW photos from March 20.

The main thing that attracted me to the next party, Sounds of Spain, was the promise of free paella and sangria. I hoped to hear some good music, too, but the singer playing while everyone descended on the food table, the preposterously named Nacho Vegas, sounded to me like a Spaniard trying to sound like a generic American rock musician.

Twitter, 7:13 p.m.: I’m witnessing a weird pagan ritual, also known as Kansas City band Mythical Beast. Apocalyptic, man.

This was one of my favorite finds of SXSW. I love the fact that weird music like is happening in places all over America, cities like Kansas City, and not just the places that have a reputation for being hip. Wearing a flowing, glittery gold dress, vocalist Corinne belted out her songs with dramatic concentration and booming power, pounding on a big kettle drum with fuzzy-tipped mallets, while guitarists Jeremiah and Aaron played moody riffs that sounded like fragments of a hard-rock band removed from the rest of the band. Corinne’s singing was very impressive, reminding me at times of Grace Slick, P.J. Harvey, Carla Bozulich and Nico. Mythical Beast records on the Language of Stone label run by Greg Weeks of the freaky, psychedelic, folk-rock band Espers, and I can see why Weeks would be interested in Mythical Beast. Here’s the Mythical Beast song “Cycle Circle.”

8:17 p.m.: Watching the Howlies stomping to some garage rock. Pretty good, but they could scuzz it up more.

I had high hopes for the Howlies after hearing their song “Chimera” — a cool ’60s-style garage-rock track. The band was decent as a live act, sounding like an oldies cover band except for the fact that their songs are original, but I was hoping for a little bit more.

9:43 p.m.: London’s brilliant Fanfarlo is rocking an Austin church. Sounds sublime!

This was one of the SXSW shows I was anticipating the most. I saw Fanfarlo last year in a gig at the Wave Rooftop that was marred by delays and technical malfunctions, and ever since then, I had enjoyed listening to the free CD the band handed out of its songs from EP’s released only in Britain. Now, Fanfarlo was playing at Central Presbyterian Church. I liked the idea of seeing this six-piece ensemble, which has strings, horns and extra drums in addition to the usual rock-band lineup, in a church. Alas, the set got off to a bad start with some jarring bass feedback permeating the first song.

The sound got better as the set went on, eventually leading me to Twitter that it sounded “sublime.” A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but the songs were great, in any case. The set was far too short for me, but I was able to buy a copy of Fanfarlo’s forthcoming debut CD, Reservoir, at the merch table, and I would get a chance to see Fanfarlo again the next day. Fanfarlo sounds a bit like the Arcade Fire and performs its music with a similar sense of celebration and instrument-swapping. Lead singer Simon Balthazar’s voice reminds me of David Byrne’s. Here’s the Fanfarlo song “Harold T. Wilkins, Or How to Wait for a Very Long Time.”

See Part 3 of my SXSW photos from March 20.

School of Seven Bells seemed to be getting a fair amount of attention at this year’s SXSW. I caught the trio on the Radio Room Patio and enjoyed what I heard. This is Benjamin Curtis of the Secret Machines (a band I never cared for all that much) playing guitar and drum machines while Italian twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza (from the band On-Air Library!) join their voices together. They have that lovely sort of harmony that only seems to come out of sibling voices. Here’s the School of Seven Bells song “Half Asleep.” (Hey, why didn’t I Twitter anything about this band?)

Twitter, 11:13 p.m.: O Canada, you keep sending up such good bands. Toronto’s Golden Dogs are storming through some great power pop.

I realize now that the Golden Dogs have played at SXSW for the past four years, and I’ve accumulated four songs by this Toronto band in my iTunes library. But I did not see them until now. What drew me was a cool song called “Lester.” The band sounded great live, something like late ’60s or early ’70s power pop, with alternating male and female vocals. A bit of the New Pornographers, perhaps. On their last song of the night, the Golden Dogs made a smooth segue into the classic guitar chords and drums of the Beatles’ “The End.” (Someone in the crowd shouted, “Punk rock!” at that moment, somewhat incongruously.)

11:54 p.m.: Now it’s time for a little live Devo. … 12:40 a.m.: After 5 songs in orange safety vests, Devo donned those red flower pot hats. “Whip It.”

The reunited original members of Devo looked older, but just as nerdy. Wearing those Devo outfits as they played songs from “Whip It” to their cover of “(Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” they really looked like utility repairmen out on the job. I noticed several geeky fans wearing those red flower-pot hats, er, “energy domes,” which were for sale at the merch counter for $30. Good times.

Photos of Devo.

I ended the night at the Hideout, the same little theater where I’d begun the evening watching Mythical Beast. The last band of the showcase there was Magic Lantern from Long Beach, Calif. When I was preparing for SXSW by listening to the thousand-plus mp3s posted at www.sxsw.com, I noticed that the Magic Lantern track, “At the Mountains of Madness,” was the longest one in the bunch, clocking in at 14 minutes and 51 seconds. While I skipped through some of the other songs after hearing 30 seconds, I listened to all of this one — a heavy psychedelic jam. The band was great live, too, playing thunderous riffs with a mesmerizing sense of repetition.

See Part 4 of my SXSW photos from March 20.

I started out the day with a panel discussion at the Austin Convention Center called “Indie Labels Keep the Faith,” caught a few minutes of British singer-songwriter Paul Marshall playing in the café, then went across the street to the Memphis barbecue in Brush Square Park. Jump Back Jake was playing bar-band rock as I stood in line for food. Nothing got my attention until a guest star was announced.

Twitter, 1:15 p.m.: Just saw Jody Stephens of Big Star drumming while I was scooping up free baked beans at Memphis music party.

Back to the Convention Center café, I saw another song by Loch Lomond then watched a Swedish country-music quartet. 1:53 p.m.: Abalone Dots: 4 Swedish gals harmonizing, sounds a bit like Alison Krauss.

This group’s sound is probably too traditional or mainstream to appeal much to indie-rockers, but I think they’ll be a hit with Americana lovers. They were giving out copies of their CD, Traveler, which I’ve enjoyed listening to since then. It’s out in Sweden on RCA/Sony/BMG, but Abalone Dots apparently don’t have a U.S. record label. Here’s their song “Craighead County Sky.”

I spent the next 90 minutes at the SXSW keynote address by Quincy Jones, which I wrote about in a separate diary entry. Afterward, I caught a few songs by Justin Townes Earle in the café. I’ll include the standard mention of this singer’s pedigree — yes, he is Steve Earle’s son — before going on to say he’s a really good singer-songwriter in his own right. If anything, he seems to be more firmly rooted in traditional folk and country music than his dad. Even his drawling banter sounded like something you might have heard on a Nashville stage way back when.

Over at Brush Square Park, Esser was playing at the Transgressive Party. This is the stage name of Ben Esser, a young Brit with a pompadour hairdo who was wearing a black jacket covered with shiny buttons. Unfamiliar with Esser’s music, I heard something that sounded like dance pop with a bit of punk thrown in. Esser was given to making extravagant gestures as he performed.

The real reason I was in the tent, however, was to see the next act, which I twittered about a short time later. 5:54 p.m.: Graham Coxon (ex-Blur) is playing solo acoustic in a tent. Impressive finger picking, some nice new songs.

It was just Coxon and an acoustic guitar, and I believe every song he played was from his forthcoming album, The Spinning Top. Song titles were: “Sarah’s Army,” “This House,” “In the Morning,” “Brave the Storm” and “Dead Bees.” It was a strong collection of songs, with some very fast and deft guitar playing.

Coxon seemed a little nervous or ill at ease at a few moments — maybe because of a slight problem with his guitar’s sound going out for a few seconds — but it was a really nice performance, and now I’m looking forward to that new record. Coxon said he was wearing larger sunglasses than he had the day before, when a sound man told him that his other glasses were causing microphone feedback — something Coxon has never heard before in all his years of performing.

On his Twitter feed, Coxon noted, “wearing the biggest specs i can find. just am [sic] experiment…” Earlier in the day, Coxon twittered: “sxsw rolls inexerably on. the dead litter the gutters and verges. theres bits of brain on the brogues. i walk thru the smokin scape to victory!”

This year, I was staying at a hotel, the Hilton, that had its own musical stage, and so I managed to see English folk-rocker Jay Jay Pistolet performing in the lobby while grabbing a quick bite to eat. Pistolet’s voice sounded great, and he seemed like a crooner in the style of recent Nick Lowe records. And then, it was back out onto the streets of Austin for the nighttime showcases…

See more photos of daytime shows I attended on March 19.

Twitter, 7:29 p.m.: Watching All Tiny Creatures: guys from Milwaukee who sound more like ‘7Os German rock. Cool repetitive grooves. As I watched this show at the Habana Bar, I started to think I’d seen this band before, but then I realized I was thinking of another group from Milwaukee, Collections of Colonies of Bees, which includes one of the same musicians, Thomas Wincek. All Tiny Creatures put on a cool performance of instrumental pieces featuring Philip Glass-style minimalism, looping keyboard parts and driving percussion. It reminded me of Krautrock bands such as Neu. Here’s the All Tiny Creatures track “To All Tiny Creatures.”

8:22 p.m.: Awesome rocking set by Bam Bam from Monterrey, Mexico! One of the fest’s best so far.

This set at B.D. Riley’s was one of the SXSW shows I had been looking forward to the most. I missed Bam Bam last year at SXSW, but then when I went back later on and listened to some of the mp3s from 2008 SXSW bands, I really started to dig the Bam Bam song “Hi-Q.” I played it when I was a guest on WBEZ’s Radio M show last summer. Bam Bam’s EP is available for free download at the Nene Records site.

So now was my chance to see this group live after blowing a similar opportunity last year. Bam Bam delivered! I love the energy of the group’s songs, with a strong mix of male and female vocals. (If this set had any flaw, it was a need for the singing to be mixed higher.) Female singer Luxor pounded away on a drum as she sang, giving the songs an extra kick. On Bam Bam’s myspace page, where it lists the members and what they play, a note adds: “and we all sing and dance like fishes.” I’m not sure what fishes dance like, but Bam Bam rocked the house. According to the bio Bam Bam supplied to SXSW, the group is “now locked up in an old pesticide warehouse,” working on a new record.

I headed over to Speakeasy next to see The Wailing Wall. I liked the songs I’d heard by this New York group on myspace. Live, the mix of guitar, viola, keyboards and drums sounded pretty good, but the songs did not make much of an impression on me. Worth hearing again.

I stopped into the Parish long enough to catch a couple of songs by Thao With the Get Down Stay Down. This group, led by Thao Nguyen, seemed to be getting some buzz. I didn’t hear enough to really say what I think. This song by Thao, “Bag of Hammers,” is interesting.

10:32 p.m.: Vivian Girls were pretty good but then they seemed to run out of songs and did a repeat.

A change in the schedule at Aces Lounge allowed me to squeeze in most of the Vivian Girls set there — although I’d vowed never to step foot in the place again after seeing Grant Hart on that stage behind the bar. The Vivian Girls did their thing pretty well, playing primitive rock with a cool attitude, though they did seem a bit short on material.

Photos of the Vivian Girls.

I stopped into another venue I’ve really come to dislike, Wave Rooftop, for a set by Artefacts For Space Travel. Trying to recall what this group sounds like, the name made me think it was going to be psychedelic space rock. And their bio on the SXSW site notes, “Time-out magazine have called us ‘Weirdo Lo-fi Psyche rock.'” As it turned out, the Artefacts sounds something like the melodic punk-pop of bands such as the Arctic Monkeys but with more of the reverbs and effects you’d expect in psychedelic music. They sounded good live. Here’s their song “Recoup.”

11:27 p.m.: Old Japanese prog rockers Flower Travellin’ Band are playing. That’s one weird-looking guitar.

Actually, that wasn’t a guitar I was looking at when I Twittered thus. It was a sitarla, an instrument that has six strings like a guitar but an extra wide neck extending past the high “E” string, allowing for more string bending. I decided to see Flower Travellin’ Band after reading that it was the reunion of an early ’70s prog-rock group from Japan that hadn’t played together in 35 years. I didn’t know the songs, but I could see and hear how talented these guys are — there were some amazing guitar solos and piercing vocals. The music reminded me of classic rock by Deep Purple and Santana. It was strange seeing this band with an audience of devoted fans, who were super excited at the chance to see Flower Travellin’ Band for the first time so many years after their records came out.

Photos of Flower Travellin’ Band.

12:24 a.m.: This band is called Abe Vigoda but they’re all wearing Judy Garland T-shirts.

I rather liked the one song I’d heard by the Los Angeles punk band Abe Vigoda, “Don’t Lie”, but I had a little trouble connecting with the band’s music when I heard it live. It was a noisy set, and I think if I’d known the songs beforehand, I might have enjoyed it.

I capped off the night with a show by the Wrens, an old favorite of mine, at the basement venue called Prague. Unfortunately, the place was so crowded that I couldn’t get anywhere near the stage. When the Wrens finally began, the first song was so quiet that it was hard to tell from the back of the room whether they were performing or doing sound check. But when the chords of “Everyone Choose Sides” rang out, it felt like an electric charge running through the crowd. What followed was a typically great Wrens performance, though the SXSW schedule required the show to be shorter than I would have liked.

Twitter, 2:07 a.m.: Wrens rocked at the end of the night, played a couple of new songs. … 2:32 a.m.: Wrens: “We’ve got 10 minutes and we’re going to play 33 songs, so no clapping.” (They actually only played 2 songs after that.)

See more photos of bands I saw the night of March 19.

I started the day at the café stage in the Austin Convention Center, where Hyperpotamus from Madrid was using looping pedals to create layered, a cappella music, including an elaborate cover of the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields.”

He was followed by one of the Mexican acts I wanted to catch at sxsw… Twitter, 12:51 p.m.: Watching Natalia Lafourcade: nice Mexican folk rock w/touch of tropicalia. She started with a cover of “Blackbird” (what is this, a Beatles tribute stage?) and continued with some cool original songs.

I headed out to the IDOA party at Emo’s Annex.

1:22 p.m.: Sweden’s Marching Band playing bright melodic pop. Definitely worth seeing.

This was one of the bands I’d wanted to see at SXSW. I enjoyed their tuneful record from last year, Spark Large, and they did not disappoint as a live act. Here’s their song “Make No Plans.”

I went down the street to Red-Eyed Fly, where I impatiently waited for a late-starting gig by the Whispertown 2000. The best part: hearing the two female vocalists sing Gillian Welch’s “Miss Ohio” during the sound check. Once the band actually started playing, it seemed like pretty good country rock, but I couldn’t get too excited over it.

I skipped that scene and went back to Emo’s Annex, where I caught a decent show by Brooklyn’s the Phenomenal Handclap Band, two female singers performing dance rock without a lot of the usual electronic sounds that come with dance music. I later saw someone else on Twitter calling this band “unreal.” Hmmm, well, they were fun enough, and they had some good dance grooves, but they’ve got a long way to go before I’d call them unreal.

Twitter, 2:57 p.m.: Taking a break from music to see Jarvis Cocker gab on “Saying the Unsayable.” … Jarvis Cocker was brilliant. Guy could be a pop-music prof… (See Part 2 of my diary for a separate write-up about Cocker’s lecture.)

6:27 p.m.: Montreal’s Beast was intriguing: Shirley Bassey-style vox, hip-hop + rock.

I’m not sure this band, which was playing at the Canadian Blast Barbecue at Brush Square Park, was really my thing, but I liked it for what it was. The vocalist, Betty Bonifassi, sang on the soundtrack for the great French animated film The Triplets of Belleville, and now she’s based in Montreal along with the other members of Beast, which is spearheaded by drummer/composer Jean-Phi Goncalves. She really puts a lot of muscle and passion into her singing. I also heard a couple of songs by Mother Mother when I first walked into the party. And afterward, I caught just a couple of songs by Beach House at another party.

See more photos from the daytime shows I attended March 18.

I started the evening by walking all the way over to the west end of the SXSW scene, the tent behind Opal Divine’s Freehouse, where the Icelandic band Sprengjuhöllin was getting ready to play. This was one of the acts I was anticipating the most, since I really like the mix of pop, folk and psychedelia on the group’s self-titled album, which I discovered through e-music. Plus, this is one of those bands from a distant (and bankrupt) land that may or may not show up again on these shores anytime soon. The band was still playing when I sent a tweet in past tense — 8:39 p.m.: Sprengjuhöllin was really great. And they have that weird Icelandic sense of humor. They really did deliver everything I was hoping.

In addition to playing excellent music, Sprengjuhöllin had some of the most entertaining stage banter I heard all week. The people of Iceland do seem to have an odd sense of humor. Near the end of the show, one of the guys in Sprengjuhöllin said, “We’re going to play a few more numbers.” Another member of the band interjected, “We mean mathematical numbers, not songs.” We also received a lesson in Icelandic pronunciation, as one of the musicians broke down Sprengjuhöllin syllable by syllable and led the audience in a chant of his band’s name. Here’s the Sprengjuhöllin song “Worry Till Spring.”

Photos of Sprengjuhöllin.

9:38 p.m.: My first Melodica sighting of this year’s sxsw: Johnny Goudie.

I didn’t see that one coming. I was keeping an eye open for Melodicas, wondering if those little keyboards you blow into had fallen out of fashion yet in the world of indie rock. Apparently not. But Goudie, who was playing with his backup band, the Little Champions, seemed like an unlikely Melodica guy. He’s a little too adult contemporary for such a twee instrument. I liked the song I’d heard by Goudie, “Battlescar,” but the rest of the songs I heard during his live performance at the Tap at 6 were a little too mundane for my tastes. He’s got a good voice, though.

10:34 p.m.: Loch Lomond is doing a nice set of folk rock: 7 players, violas & such, soft harmonies.

This was one of many large ensembles playing at SXSW this year. I like these groups with lots of fiddles, horns and drumming in addition to the traditional rock instruments. In the case of Loch Lomond, from Portland, Ore., the sound is more toward the mellow folk-rock end of the spectrum. This was beautiful music I plan to listen to more in the future. Here’s the Loch Lomond song “Blue Lead Fences.”

11:02 p.m.: Ugh. A venue where the bar is between the stage and audience: Aces Lounge. Not good. … 11:17 p.m.: Yes, Aces is a horrible venue but worth visiting just now to see Grant Hart.

This was a chance to finally see former Hüsker Dü member Grant Hart, who has been a lot less visible in the music world than his ex-bandmate Bob Mould. Playing alone with an electric guitar in the middle of this hideous bar, as bartenders rang up orders at his feet, Hart performed strong versions of some of his best songs from Hüsker Dü, including “No Promise Have I Made,” “Don’t Want to Know If You’re Lonely” and “Green Eyes” as well as his solo song “2541.” In between songs, Hart tossed out some bitter, sarcastic comments, criticizing BMI, sympathizing with Austinites who have to put up with SXSW and suggesting that the audience should build a bonfire in the middle of Sixth Street.

12:57 a.m.: Mark David Ashworth just played beautiful acoustic music at Austin’s Hideout.

This singer-songwriter from San Francisco (a former Austin resident) has a terrific voice and good songs. I really enjoyed his performance, which I put on my list after hearing his songs at www.myspace.com/markdavidashworth.

2:12 a.m.: Finished the night w/Mumford & Sons, lively bunch of Brit folkies, then a bit of Mexico City’s Los Fancy Free, who seemed a bit nuts.

Mumford & Sons are from London, but they are stepped in the sounds of acoustic American music. As one of the remarked during Wednesday’s show at Friends, “We’re not saying we can play bluegrass better than you, but it’s fun to play.” The jetlagged band was missing its keyboard player (some sort of travel delay), and playing without having slept in 23 hours, but it still sounded sprightly and melodic. And it wasn’t a pure imitation of American folk and country music — I also picked up an English drinking-hall songs vibe.

& Sons finished a little after 1:30 a.m., which gave me enough to time to wander off in search of another band finishing up. I ended up watching a few songs by Los Fancy Free from Mexico City at the Habana Bar Backyard. The band was putting on a very lively show of psychedelic punk rock, prompting a small but enthusiastic crowd to shout “¡Otra!” (Although I did not get to hear it on this occasion, this is the same band that does a 10-minute “psych-out” version of Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” You can hear that on myspace.)

More photos of the shows I saw the night of March 18.

I started out the final day of SXSW at the SX Seattle Party, over at the Palm Door, a cool room I’d never seen before. THROW ME THE STATUE played a strong set of tunes from its debut album Moonbeams, which recently came out on Secretly Canadian. I interviewed the band’s singer-songwriter, Scott Reitherman, for the February issue of Paste magazine. It’s a really good record, but the one thing I was wondering about was how it would translate in concert. Throw Me the Statue started out as a one-man home-recording project, with Reitherman playing almost everything, but now he’s formed an actual band. It was an unqualified success at this show, with a loose, hard-rocking sound that didn’t obscure the lively, smart nature of Reitherman’s songs. PHOTOS / Download “About to Walk.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the French Legation Museum, where the Press Here publicity firm was hosting a “garden party” with a stellar lineup. The first act I caught was NOAH AND THE WHALE, whom I had seen a little bit the other night. Seeing them a second time confirmed my sense that this is a band to watch, with some nice folk influences outside of the usual kind of folk you hear in rock. Lead singer Charlie Fink recounted running into Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. He was amused by the fact that Gibbons carries around a stack of photographs of himself, to hand out to autograph seekers. English singer-songwriter LAURA MARLING sang harmony vocals with Noah and the Whale, and then she played a set of her own. Marling performs with an oddly blank expression and little obvious emotion, but her songs were pretty. PHOTOS

I’m not sure what to make of LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION, aka Dev Hynes, who played next. I do like his debut album better than the music of his old band, Test Icicles (which his press material accurately describes as “aggro-punk/electro-noise thrashings”), but so far, the songs aren’t really sticking with me. In concert, Hynes played his songs with an acoustic guitar, giving them a bit of a folk-pop flavor, but with a meandering quality that sounded more like Stephen Malkmus. It wasn’t bad, but I felt ready for the set to end by the time it did. PHOTOS

Next up was another great set by SONS AND DAUGHTERS (PHOTOS), followed by J MASCIS bending strings and shaking his acoustic guitar with impressive force. (I had the unusual vantage point of watching Mascis over the top of his amplifier, which was facing toward him, with the tubes on the back facing out toward me and the audience.) PHOTOS

The next set was a rare opportunity to hear THURSTON MOORE AND THE NEW WAVE BANDITS play songs from Moore’s excellent 2007 solo album, Trees Outside the Academy. Like the album, this performance showed how strong Moore’s songwriting and guitar playing are even when you turn down the feedback and put it in more of an acoustic format. His band included Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, guitarist Chris Brokaw, violinist Samara Lubelski and bassist Matt Heyner, and Moore showed a good-natured sense of humor as the band set up and he dealt with a drooping microphone stand. He jokingly did an impression of Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmeister, singing up into the mike – “We’re doing this one Lemmy-style.” And he introduced the band as “Bromance,” defining the term as two dudes who really like each other. PHOTOS

I’m a huge fan of M. Ward, so I was looking forward to seeing and hearing his collaboration with actress Zooey Deschanel in the band SHE & HIM, who were next on the Garden Party bill. Deschanel’s good looks and movie-starlet status drew a lot of attention at SXSW. I hadn’t yet heard their album when I saw the show on Saturday, and I came away with the impression that the ballads were a little too simple or sleepy while the more retro-rock numbers featuring more prominent guitar licks from Ward were cool. Deschanel has a good voice, with a crystal-clear tone, not much in the way of vibrato. Now that I’ve listened to She & Him’s Vol. 1 a grand total of one time, I like what I’ve heard. Deschanel’s understated music with Ward reminded me of Dusty Springfield’s classics. It remains to be seen whether this album will merely be a pleasant diversion or something that grows on me with repeated listens, but I’m sure I will be listening. PHOTOS

A singer about as far away from Zooey Deschanel as you can imagine is the legendary JANDEK, who released dozens of homemade recordings in obscurity and built a cult reputation as one of rock’s most reclusive eccentrics. He has played a few concerts in the last few years, but my first time seeing him was this SXSW gig at Central Presbyterian Church, part of a showcase for Signal to Noise, a magazine where I’m a contributor. Standing at an angle from the audience, Jandek took his position in front of a music stand, a tall, thin figure dressed in a dark suit and hat. A group of several musicians (who were apparently given only vague instructions about what to play) built an amorphous and improvised swell of banjo, pedal steel, violin, guitar, drums, upright bass and female backup vocals to accompany Jandek’s singing, which drifted along in quasi-country dirges. I did not realize until after the concert was over that the drummer, who was wearing a straw hat and occasionally using fly swatters for drumsticks, was none other than Will Johnson, the lead singer of Centro-matic. At the end, when the audience gave Jandek a resounding round of applause, he continued facing away from the crowd and after pausing for a moment, disappeared. I walked outside, thinking I might try to see an M. Ward show down the street, only to see that the line was long, and walked back to Central Presbyterian for the next show. While I was out on the street, I overheard a guy talking about the Jandek show he had just witnessed. “That was amazing,” he told his friends. “There were parts where it was like I was on mushrooms.” PHOTOS

The next set at Central Presbyterian was by CHRISTINA CARTER & SHAWN DAVID McMILLEN. Earlier in the day, Thurston Moore had dedicated a song to Carter, an old friend of his who is best known as the singer for Charalambides, and sure enough, Moore and some of his bandmates were in a balcony at the church now, watching Carter play with McMillen. I find Carter’s music mesmerizing, though I can imagine that many listeners would be impatient with its slowly drifting melodies. There’s a stillness at the heart of her music, which I could feel very strongly at this performance, probably the best one I saw Saturday night. But while I normally associate stillness with peace, I also feel something unsettling in Carter’s quiet musical meditations. PHOTOS

I spent the next hour wandering in search of something. I ended up for a time at the Soho Lounge, where the Get Hip showcase featured a lineup of garage bands. I liked the energy of the two bands I saw, MONDO TOPLESS and THE UGLYBEATS, and under other circumstances, I might have stuck around to hear more. PHOTOS Back on the quest, I stopped into the Dirty Dog Bar to see NEVA DINOVA, a band on the Saddle Creek label. Unfortunately, the two or three songs I heard seemed pretty generic (not a quality I normally associate with Saddle Creek) and possibly even boring.

So I ended up in the final part of the hour over at the Park the Van/Daytrotter showcase at Emo’s Annex. I stayed put for the rest of the night, noticing how the last three bands, THE TEETH, THE SPINTO BAND and DR. DOG, all shared a similar sense of joy and energy. All three bands had a tendency to cartwheel around on the stage during their shows. I’m not so familiar with the music of The Teeth, but their performance was pretty impressive. The Spinto Band’s album never really clicked with me, but they have a few outstanding songs, and their set was very lively. PHOTOS OF THE THE TEETH AND THE SPINTO BAND.

Dr. Dog have been one of my favorite live bands since I saw them open for M. Ward a few years ago at Schubas, and they were my top band of SXSW 2006. I still don’t think they’ve released a studio recording that reaches their full potential, but their records are filled with some wonderful songs featuring sophisticated harmonies and chord changes that remind me of late-period Beatles as well as the Faces and Beach Boys. In concert, the band raves it up by cavorting across the stage, but it never loses sight of the little melodic subtleties that make its songs so attractive. Bassist Toby Leaman seemed distracted or even angry at some problems with hearing his monitor, but he never let that get in the way of putting on a smashing performance. The members of Delta Spirit joined them onstage for the clarion call of the final song, “Wake Up.” Singing a song with that title at the end of the night (and end of the festival) may sound paradoxical, but I couldn’t think of a more apt way to end the week. PHOTOS

OK, that wraps up my SXSW recaps – though I’ll probably have some other random thoughts trickling out of my brain. And I do plan to follow up on some of the bands I saw or heard about.

For me, Friday started with a noontime show by MAGIC BULLETS, which I just happened to walk into at the Red Eyed Fly while killing time before the Spin party down the street. The band, from San Francisco, was pretty entertaining, with the gangly lead singer jumping around the stage with unabashedly geeky moves. PHOTOS

The Spin party at Stubb’s had a strong lineup – except for those first two bands. I won’t dwell long on how much I hated SWITCHES and BEN JELEN, other than saying both acts seemed like complete musical dreck as far as I could hear. The free food and beer alleviated my pain somewhat. The rest of the afternoon was excellent, starting with THE WHIGS, whom I’ve written about here before. The Whigs whipped through their songs with all of their usual vigor and closed with “Half a World Away,” a quieter, keyboard-based song that reveals their ’60s influences clearer than the loud rock numbers. Good show. PHOTOS

THE RAVEONETTES followed, playing their trademark feedback-drenched chilly pop. I like the Raveonettes pretty well, but they aren’t the most dynamic band onstage. They do a decent job of duplicating the records, but they don’t elevate the music to a higher level. At least, that’s my experience after seeing them twice. It was nice to actually see them in bright light this time, aiding my photographic efforts, though they are really a band meant for the darkness. PHOTOS

VAMPIRE WEEKEND are one of the buzz bands of the moment. I guess I should have seen them back when they were playing a small venue like Schubas in December, before they landed on the cover of Spin magazine with the headline “THE YEAR’S BEST NEW BAND…ALREADY!?” The answer to that question is clearly no, in my opinion. It’s not that I don’t like Vampire Weekend, but they’re merely a good band getting hype more fitting for a great band. I enjoyed their set at the Spin party, but it just confirmed my feelings from the record. Vampire Weekend is doing some interesting things, taking African-style guitar figures and incorporating them into pop music. That’s not a completely original idea, of course, but it’s refreshing to hear these influences emerging in a new indie-rock band – expanding the palette, so to speak. But Vampire Weekend does not exactly make exciting music. It comes out pleasant, but a little bland. Young musicians often deliver the most impassioned and creative performances, but in this case, these guys seem a little too young and inexperienced to make everything that they could out of this music. There’s just not enough roughness or passion in it. Give them time, and they may eventually become a great band, if the hype doesn’t kill them first. PHOTOS

The Spin party closed with a searing set by L.A. punk-rockers X, who played their classic tunes at full blast and never let up. These oldsters showed the youngsters how it should be done. PHOTOS

PAUL METZGER started the evening at Spiro’s with a mesmerizing set of his experimental banjo music, bowing and plucking a banjo with 12 strings plus who knows how many drone strings. It was unusual and enticing music, and there was something surreal about watching Metzger play while bathed in green light, with sunlight and sidewalk noise coming in from the door just a few feet away. Download “Bright Red Stone.”

KELLEY STOLTZ took the stage after Metzger, playing a terrific set of songs from his superb new Sub Pop album, Circular Sounds, plus at least one older track. Stoltz draws on a lot of influences (Syd Barrett, Kinks, Beach Boys, Thunderclap Newman, to name a few) but puts them together in a style that’s distinctly his own. The songs rocked live, and Stolz demonstrated a sharp sense of humor in his between-song comments. The set (which could have gone on much longer with any protest from me) closed with a Velvet Underground/Feelies-style rave-up. This was another one of my favorite SXSW shows. PHOTOS

The Creekside EMC, a room at the Hilton Garden Inn, was the location for one of the strangest shows I saw at last year’s SXSW (Brute Force and Daughter of Force), and I got a weird feeling as I entered the room again. There were no chairs set up this time, just high tables decorated with candles. It felt more like some corporate meet-and-greet than a SXSW show. Despite the odd atmosphere, the room hosted a good show by the Brooklyn folk-rock duo KAISERCARTEL. Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel switched instruments a few times, with Kaiser handling most of the guitar and Cartel spending most of the set behind drums. Their music felt honest and direct, a little bit like Ida at times. I was thinking that the show was merely pretty good until they got to “Season Song”, the lovely song I’d heard on sxsw.com. And then the two of them closed their set with one of the entire festival’s most remarkable moments. They walked out into the crowd and serenaded us with their last song, unamplified, approaching individual audience members (including me) and looking straight into our eyes as they sang. Other musicians have done this sort of thing before, but there was something so intimate about the way KaiserCartel pulled it off that I felt myself on the verge of crying. PHOTOS

Back at Spiro’s, EVANGELISTA was taking the stage. I admit that I really didn’t do my homework in investigating what I was about to witness. I had merely heard the song “Evangelista I” on sxsw.com and liked it, thinking it reminded me of God Speed You, Black Emperor or Silver Mt. Zion. As it happens, musicians from those bands have played with Evangelista, though I’m not sure who all of the players were at the Spiro’s show. All that really mattered was the woman in the middle of the stage, Carla Bozulich, former member of The Geraldine Fibbers. (Nels Cline used to be her guitarist before he joined Wilco.) The show by Evangelista was more of performance art piece than a rock concert, including Bozulich singing into some sort of toy microphone, Bozulich jumping up and down a lot, and the cellist using his instrument as a drum. There were some good songs, too, but I feel like I did not get the full picture of what Evangelista is capable of. The way Bozulich introduced the last piece was telling: “This is out last thing that is like a song.” PHOTOS

Like the Ruby Suns on Thursday, England’s FANFARLO suffered through difficult conditions Friday night at the Wave Rooftop, earning another medal for performing well in a bad situation. I was drawn to this show by the song “Fire Escape”, and there was a lot of positive buzz in the crowd when I showed up. Some people who had seen Fanfarlo playing at a party earlier in the day said they were one of the festival’s best bands. But at this moment, the band could not get its keyboard to work. It may have been their own equipment failing, or maybe the venue’s, but in any case, the show got started 15 minutes late in a short time slot, and then the band gamely decided to play whatever it could despite the lack of a crucial instrument. It did not help that one of the sound guys continued fiddling with the keyboard throughout most of the set. The lead singer wryly remarked, “We’re getting your keyboard fixed while we’re playing, which is a little like getting your car fixed while you’re driving.” And so the set was a little rough, but thankfully, Fanfarlo’s keyboardist also plays violin. I liked what I heard, and the band was nice enough to hand out free copies of a CD featuring their recordings to date – EPs available only in Britain, I believe. I’ve had a chance to listen to the CD several times since, and it’s growing on me. I don’t know that Fanfarlo is doing anything especially groundbreaking with its music, but it’s great stuff, very melodic and upbeat. And I get the impression that the songs would really take off in concert – if the equipment is working. PHOTOS

A little while later, FLEET FOXES played over at the Sub Pop showcase at Bourbon Rocks. The group’s most distinguishing feature is the four-part harmony vocals. I wouldn’t confuse Fleet Foxes with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but they have a similar theory at work behind the way their songs are arranged. It was nice, and I suspect this is a group that I’m going to like. PHOTOS

I ended the night at the Light Bar, a peculiar venue that seems more like part of the Austin singles scene than a SXSW showcase. Anyway, a cool band from Athens, Georgia, KING OF PRUSSIA, was playing at the back of the room, with violin and female harmonies giving the songs a bright sound that reminded me a bit of Headlights. The band’s own description compares King of Prussia to The Who, Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian and The Lilys. I’ll have to reserve judgment on how valid those comparisons are, but I look forward to hearing more. PHOTOS / Download “Misadventures of the Campaign Kids.”

In between the Lou Reed and Steve Reich interviews at SXSW, I stopped by the day stage, hoping to catch a set by the Barcelona band Les Aus, whose mp3 file on sxsw.com attracted my attention. As it happened, Les Aus was running late because of travel delays, so MAZONI, another one of Spain’s Catalan-language musicians, substituted for the group. He gave a decent solo performance, including a Catalan translation of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” playing electric guitar in a style that was more reminiscent of indie rock than Spanish guitar. PHOTOS

Later in the afternoon, I arrived at the Rhapsody party at the Mohawk Patio in time to hear a few songs by CUT COPY through the fence while I was waiting to get in. Not my cup of tea. The reason I was there was to see SONS AND DAUGHTERS for the first time. I love this Scottish band’s records, and they did not disappoint as a live act. There’s so much tension in every song, with an almost perfect combination of guitar, bass and drums with female and male vocals playing off each other rather than trying to blend together. Vivacious singer Adele Bethel is clearly the star of the show, but all four of these Sons and Daughters make vital contributions to the band’s raw sound. There’s just a smidgen of rockabilly and country (an influence reflected in guitarist Scott Paterson’s pompadour haircut) and a bit of X. In the middle of their song, “Johnny Cash,” the band dropped in a bit of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Sons and Daughters were not a discovery for me at SXSW this year, since I was already familiar with their recordings, but they were probably my favorite band. I caught them again on Saturday at the Press Here Garden Party. PHOTOS

Latitude 30 hosted UK-themed parties all week long, including a show Thursday afternoon featuring New Music From Wales. CATE LE BON sang some nice acoustic songs, including a couple in the Welsh language. And then came THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB, who really kicked out some striking post-punk rock tunes. And, from my viewpoint at least, the female two-thirds of this co-ed trio were pretty hot, which didn’t hurt. The drummer was in a fancy pink dress, hiking the skirt up as she straddled her legs around her bass drum. The bassist had a stunned look on her face much of the time, as if her own pounding bass notes were knocking her out. And, oh yeah, there’s a guy in the band, too, singing and playing guitar. I hadn’t heard anything other than a myspace track from this band before seeing the show, but I’m definitely interested now. PHOTOS

From Wales to New Zealand… The New Zealand Music Commission was hosting a barbecue at Brush Square Park. PIG OUT played some intriguing electronic dance music – intriguing, for me, because of the actual drumming – but I didn’t hear enough to decide what I thought. And then came one of the most disappointing moments of the week, the show by THE RUBY SUNS. The disappointment had nothing to do with this band, which has a wonderful new album, Sea Lion, out on the Sub Pop label. The music from the Japan tent next door was blaring so loud that it was hard to hear the Ruby Suns, even standing right next to the stage. The party was running late, the Ruby Suns didn’t get much time to play, and the delicate layers of their sunny pop were buried under all of the din. I did hear enough to know that I like this band, and I’m looking forward to seeing them give a proper show March 28 at Schubas in Chicago. If nothing else, the Ruby Suns deserve a medal for putting on a serviceable concert under very trying circumstances. PHOTOS

HORSE + DONKEY kicked off Thursday evening at B.D. Riley’s with some cool, drony garage rock anchored by melodic, repeating bass lines. It reminded me of their fellow Austonians, the Black Angels. PHOTOS / Download “dot dot.”

Walking down Sixth Street, I stopped at Friends long enough to hear a few songs by NOAH AND THE WHALE, a folkie band led by London’s Charlie Fink. I later caught a full set by the band, at Saturday’s Press Here party, and I found their music to be pretty charming. PHOTOS / Download “2 Bodies, 1 Heart.”

The Wave Rooftop was crammed for a show by Kansas City rockers THE LIFE AND TIMES, who seemed to be giving it their all, despite the fact that they openly wished they had cooler lighting. PHOTOS

I purposely avoided seeing Chicago bands at SXSW this time, thinking I have plenty of opportunities to see them in Chicago, so why see them in Austin? But I happened upon a show by EZRA FURMAN AND THE HARPOONS at Spiro’s and caught most of their set. Furman was wearing a yellow T-shirt with the slogan “I DID IT FOR THE MONEY” and singing his impassioned folk-rock with full-on fervor. I chatted a bit with Furman’s manager, Mitch Marlow, who told me that Furman had played “Heroin” and “New Age” that afternoon at the Fader Fort’s Lou Reed tribute. Reed himself was at the event, and he snapped some photos of Furman as Furman was performing. PHOTOS That Spanish band, Les Aus, was scheduled to play down the street at the Red Eyed Fly, so I stopped in there but discovered that the schedule had changed. VERACRUZ was playing, and I have to say the band didn’t do much for me. The post-punk guitar sound wasn’t bad, but the vocals were mediocre.

One of the musicians I hoped to see at SXSW was Bon Iver, aka singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, whose new album, For Emma, Forever Ago, is top-notch folk rock (think acoustic Big Star rather than Nick Drake), but I kept missing him. (Oh, well, at least I can see him April 10 at Lakeshore Theatre in Chicago.) While I missed Bon Iver, I did see MEGAFAUN, which includes Vernon’s former bandmates in DeYarmond Edison. I’d heard these guys described as a sort of avant-garde jazz versions of bluegrass. Now, what’s that going to be like? The description turned out to be more accurate than I’d expected. Sure enough, Megafaun plays songs with a strong vein of old-time folk running through them, but they also break out into some bizarre, atonal instrumental breaks. That doesn’t sound like it would work, but it did. They reminded me a bit of Califone, Akron/Family and the more experimental moments of Wilco. But what really won me over were Megafaun’s sing-along choruses, which sounded so old-fashioned that I’m thinking Stephen Foster and Civil War-era music might be the big influence here. The guys in Megafaun stormed up into the crowd from the darkened stage at the Hideout and roused the crowd to join in song – one of my highlights from all week. PHOTOS

NORTHAMPTON WOOLS, an experimental duo consisting of Thurston Moore and Bill Nace, followed Megafaun at the Hideout. This is the sort of music that involves a lot of scraping and tweaking of guitar strings, building from tinkly noise to a wall of feedback. The droning was almost too much to take after a while, but it was certainly intriguing to see these two guitarists experimenting with their instruments without any constraints. PHOTOS

I ended the night back where I began, B.D. Riley’s, with another drony garage-rock band, DARKER MY LOVE. I didn’t realize until later that some of the players in this San Francisco group had played in the past with The Fall. They put on a strong show, a perfect bookend to the earlier set by Horse + Donkey. PHOTOS / Download “Summer Is Here.”

The bleary-eyed SXSW masses (or least the badge holders) dragged themselves from their hotel rooms bright and early Thursday morning to receive words of wisdom from none other than LOU REED, this year’s keynote speaker. Before he took the stage, we heard some interesting music, including a piece by Steve Reich, who would be speaking later in the day, performed by the SOLI CHAMBER ENSEMBLE. It was good morning music, though I wonder how many of the SXSW regulars would like this kind of stuff?

Anyway… Reed came out and spent about ninety minutes taking questions from producer Hal Willner. Like most SXSW keynote speakers, Reed had an ulterior commercial motive for appearing – in his case, the need to promote his new film of the album Berlin being performed in concert. True to his reputation, Reed was somewhat surly. A cell phone in the audience rings. Reed: “What is that? Jesus.”

Asked about the influence that Andy Warhol and other visual artists had on his songwriting, Reed says Warhol’s style inspired its musical equivalent in the Velvet Underground – “repeating a line over and over.”

Can music change the world? “It could change an individual and make them feel not alone in their belief.”

On the subject matter that the Velvet Underground covered with its lyrics: “It was an empty continent.”

On how to write songs: “I never understood how they get written … I don’t even know why it works.”

On his strengths: “I have a B.A. in dope but a Ph.D. in soul … The thing I’ve got is instinct. Thinking won’t get me where I want to go. It’ll get me to the store where it’s sold.”

On deteriorating audio standards, due to the popularity of mp3s: “People have got to demand a high standard … Or the other thing is to say, ‘You’re being elitist. Only people with money can afford the good sound, so fuck you.’”

Reed’s favorite movie of late: The Bourne Ultimatum.

Reed’s favorite new bands: Melt Banana, Holy Fuck (“Or is it Holy Shit?” he says), Dr. Dog, Joan As Policewoman. “One of the things you look for in a young group is that energy, and I just love it.”

On record labels asking musicians to sign over their publishing rights: “They are always going to say they want the publishing, and you are always going to say no.”

PHOTOS

OK, so I’m a little behind on writing about SXSW 2008. That was, like, last week, wasn’t it? I’m finally caught up on editing my photos. As I file this, pictures are uploading.

You can see a complete directory to all of the various galleries of photos I shot at SXSW 2008, at: www.undergroundbee.com/photos.htm#sxsw2008

Or just follow the links below to the band or musician you’re looking for.

The Hard Lessons
The Hands
Portugal The Man
Explorers Club
Curumin
Frightened Rabbit
A.A. Bondy
Akron/Family
Van Morrison
Birds of Wales
Beasts and Superbeasts
Afenginn
Scary Mansion
Okkervil River with Roky Erickson
Monareta
Southeast Engine
Centro-matic
Lou Reed
Mazoni
Steve Reich
Sons and Daughters
Cate Le Bon
The Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club
Pig Out
Ruby Suns
Horse + Donkey
Noah and the Whale
The Life and Times
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
Megafaun
Northampton Wools
Darker My Love
Magic Bullets
The Whigs
The Raveonettes
Vampire Weekend
X
Paul Metzger
Kelley Stoltz
KaiserCartel
Evangelista
Fanfarlo
Fleet Foxes
King of Prussia
Throw Me The Statue
Laura Marling
Lightspeed Champion
J. Mascis
Thurston Moore and the New Wave Bandits
She & Him
Jandek
Christina Carter & Shawn David McMillen
Mondo Topless
The Uglybeats
The Teeth
The Spinto Band
Dr. Dog

I started out the day around noon at the Red Eyed Fly for THE EXPLORERS CLUB from Charleston, S.C. Now, there are bands that try to sound a little bit like the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson or Pet Sounds, but these guys go all out. I’ve heard their new record, coming out in May on Dead Oceans, the new label affiliated with Secretly Canadian, and it sounds exactly like the Beach Boys back in their mid-1960s hey day. And sure enough, that’s what Explorers Club sounded like in concert, too. The group leans a little more towards the early Beach Boys period than the later orchestral-pop stuff. I wonder whether the world really needs a group that mimics the Beach Boys so closely, but I can’t deny that it was a lot of fun seeing these guys, and I am enjoying the CD, too. They closed with a cover of “Johnny B. Goode.” Download “Do You Love Me?”

The mp3 of “Esperanca” on the sxsw.com site from Brazilian singer CURUMIN was one of my favorite discoveries. Just judging from this one track, this singer (aka Luciano Nakata Albuquerque) has the potential to become the next big thing out of Brazil. His afternoon set in the Emo’s Annex tent was a little disappointing, however. Accompanied by an electronics/keyboard player and a bass/keyboard player, Curumin stayed behind him drum kit and sang from there (a miniature four-string guitar was sitting at the front of the stage, and I assume he planned to come up and play that later, but the set was truncated and he never got the chance). I think he tried to hard to get the audience to participate by signing a Portuguese phrase when he should have just concentrated on delivering the goods. The audience was mildly interested but still in that early-afternoon phase where people aren’t ready yet to dance or clap and sing along to a foreign musician they’ve never heard before. Anyway, this short set didn’t amount to much, but I’m really looking forward to hearing more from Curumin.

I didn’t really have anywhere to go after Curumin, so I just stayed in the tent and watched the next band, FRIGHTENED RABBIT, about whom I knew nothing. This Scottish band turned out to be really good, with some very strong and impassioned rock. (Interesting, they had a three guitars and drums lineup, with one of the guitarists doubling on keyboards, but no bass. I think.) The one studio song I’ve heard by Frightened Rabbit isn’t as good as the live show, but this is another one to watch for sure.

Next, I saw A.A. BONDY, who was playing a solo acoustic set on the porch behind Creekside Lounge. Very Dylanesque, Bondy played some excellent folk songs that really drew me in with their strong melodies and lyrics. His song at sxsw.com, “American Hearts,” was one of the tracks that grabbed my attention. Bondy also dealt with a loud and drunken (but good-natured) audience member fairly well, responding with subdued humor. At one point, the boisterous guy yelled out, “If there’s a vote in South By Southwest, vote for this guy. He seems true!” That’s pretty perceptive for a drunk guy.

I rushed over to the Convention Center to see AKRON/FAMILY on the Day Stage, showing up in time to catch the last several gloomy, doomy minutes of the previous band, A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS. Man, those guys were LOUD, especially for a show on the Day Stage, which is a very corporate-looking room with a lunch counter. The band ended its set with a shredding guitar solo and I spotted a few disgruntled people in the room walking away with their hands over their ears. I liked it. I also liked Akron/Family, whom I’ve never seen previously, despite the fact they’ve been around for a while. Despite being way off on the fringes of what’s considered mainstream music, they had a very winning sense of humor on stage, and I think they made some new fans. It was a great mix of meditative bird-call soundscapes, a goofy song supposedly directed at children about a silly bear, experimental noise, and freak folk, with a focus on audience participation. “Sing this note,” they told the crowd, trying to get a drone note going. “You can sing it ironically if you want. … This is a lot more women than we’re using to having at our shows. It’s usually a lot of men with beards.” (Download “Phenomena.”)

See my photos from March 12 day parties including the Explorers Club, Curumin, Frightened Rabbit, A.A. Bondy and Akron/Family.

I hesitated before going to the VAN MORRISON show at 7 p.m. at La Zona Rosa, mostly because I knew it would be jam-packed. And I do try to avoid spending too much of my SXSW watching musical acts I’ve already seen. But hey, it is Van Morrison, after all, and nothing else of note was happening at 7, so why not? There was a long line to get in, but as the Mendoza Line once said in a song title, the line moved quickly. I was at the outside edge of a huge photographers’ pit, struggling to get close enough for a shot during the first three songs (when picture taking was allowed). Luckily, it was bright enough that I was able to see Morrison fairly well through my telephoto lens, and I got a few decent shots. I stayed for the first half hour of this show and liked what I saw and heard. It was nice seeing Morrison at fairly close range after the disappointment of watching him a couple of years ago at the United Center. His voice sounded great, amazingly close to the way it sounded on his old records. He occasionally rears back a little and opens his mouth wide at the side (sort of like Dick Cheney, I hate to say, but I can’t think of another comparison to make for that look). And despite his reputation for being a little sullen, Morrison seemed to be in good spirits, smiling and chuckling at a few points. He played sax at times, and then he even took out a ukulele and played that wee instrument to great effect on a couple of songs. He seemed to be focusing on material from his recent recordings, but I assume he probably played some of the crowd-pleasing classics later in the night.

Maybe I was foolish to rush out of the Van Morrison show and walk quickly across town in search of new music, but I felt that urge to discover something. My next stop was the Wave Rooftop, where BIRDS OF WALES was playing. (Like so many bands these days, this one is from a place other than the one in its name – Toronto.) I loved the Birds of Wales song, “Cinderella (Has Nothing On You),” but unfortunately, the whole band did not make it to SXSW. The drummer’s wife just had a baby and the band is getting ready for a European tour, so Birds of Wales singer-guitarist Morgan Ross (who is apparently of Welsh descent) did the gig as a solo acoustic show. Without the band playing behind him, the songs were a little on the dull side. I still have hopes that Birds of Wales is better as a full band, and I’ll be listening to the CD to find out… I stayed at the Wave for the next band, BEASTS AND SUPERBEASTS from Victoria, British Columbia. This was their first performance outside of Canada, and you’ll get some idea of this band’s standing from their opening remarks: “So, we’re looking for a label and a distributor and a manager … and a band.” The set up was a female singer on keyboards and Melodica, a guy on vocals and guitar, and another guy on keyboards. The sound is naïve, a little amateurish and somewhat precious folk or chamber pop. I thought the show, which was sparsely attended, was pretty good, though some other people left midway through the set, clearly uninterested. As the crowd got even smaller, Beasts and Superbeasts played the nice tune I’d heard on sxsw.com, “If I Was A House,” and the set closed with another strong song.

Now, what is a band from Copenhagen doing playing klezmer music? (Or something resembling klezmer or Gypsy music, at least.) That’s what I was wondering as I stopped into the Mexican restaurant Rio and caught most of the show by AFENGINN, which featured a tall Nordic dude with long dreadlocks on mandolin leaping around a lot as he played and sang, but clarinet, violin, bass and drums. After one song, the singer remarked, “This is how it is in Denmark. You should come.” Several people were dancing to Afenginn’s catchy, bouncy music, and it seemed that even some of the people who were at Rio for a Mexican meal instead of SXSW were getting into it. “This is our first time in Texas,” the singer said at one point. “So I figured we would do this introduction in the beautiful key of A.” (Huh?) Afenginn should be a big hit on the world-music scene. And as much as I had liked Beasts and Superbeasts in the previous time slot, Afenginn reminded me: THIS is how excited you should feel when you’re playing or hearing music.

See my photos of Van Morrison, Birds of Wales, Beasts and Superbeasts and Afenginn.

One of the more intriguing songs posted at sxsw.com was “Sorry We Took All Yr Money” by SCARY MANSION from Brooklyn. This gig at the Hideout turned out to be one of my favorite shows of SXSW. The lead singer, Leah Hayes, plays one of those tiny little strumsticks – which I’ve always thought of as a toy version of the guitar – but cranked up the feedback and volume during solos. And while she reminded me a little bit of Marissa Nadler or a goth folkie, she had a kick-ass rhythm section playing behind her (and a sister who joined her on harmony vocals for a few songs). Definitely a group to watch.

During all my years of going to SXSW, I’ve never attended the Austin Music Awards. Somehow, I pictured a sit-down awards ceremony, which sounds rather dull compared to all of the other things going on. But this year, one of the honorees was ROKY ERICKSON, and he was playing with OKKERVIL RIVER as his backup band. I couldn’t miss that. I showed up as GARY CLARK JR. was playing, then caught about 15 or 20 minutes of awards being doled out, including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top handing a plaque to Erickson. Then came Okkervil playing three of their own songs with all of their trademark intensity, followed by Erickson playing three of his classic tunes backed by Okkervil. Erickson looked and sounded great, and the combination with Okkervil was perfect.

I stopped for just a few minutes at Copa, where a techno band from Bogota, Columbia, called MONARETA was playing – two guys with bicycle wheels on their heads. It seemed potentially interesting, and what I heard was pretty good, but I wasn’t in the mood for dance music just then, so I scooted over to Friends and caught the last several songs by roots-rockers SOUTHEAST ENGINE. Their music seemed OK, but didn’t leave much of an impression on me amid everything else. I’ll give them another chance, though.

The main reason I was at Friends was to see the last act of the night, CENTRO-MATIC, one of my old favorites. They hammered through some of their best songs (not playing much from their forthcoming album), and closed with a great cover of “Save It For Later.” Well, I missed out on seeing the English Beat, who were playing at SXSW this year, but at least I heard someone do this song.

See my photos of Scary Mansion, Okkervil River with Roky Erickson, Monareta, Southeast Engine and Centro-Matic.

South By Southwest was a fabulous experience for me once again. As always, I missed some of the bands I wanted to see, I heard about other noteworthy bands too late, and I went through the usual hectic insanity of running around all over downtown Austin trying to see as much stuff as possible. I think I saved myself from some of the typical sleep deprivation by putting off most of my writing and photo editing until the whole thing was over. I know, in the world of instant blogging, there is a premium on posting reviews and pictures as quickly as possible, but every minute I spent working on the blog would have been a minute I could have spent watching another concert (or getting just a little bit of sleep). Anyway, after listening to 700-some mp3s plus numerous myspace sites in preparation for SXSW, and after four and a half days of live-music immersion, I’m finally ready to look back at it all… (PHOTOS are coming soon, too, but first I’m going to do some writing.)

TUESDAY, MARCH 11
The music portion of SXSW did not officially begin until Wednesday, but I was in town on Tuesday night and caught a few live bands. Playing at Emo’s, THE HARD LESSONS did not impress me too much. A little too classic-rock radio for my tastes. In the smaller room next door, THE HANDS were putting on a pretty decent show. They sounded good when they were rocking out to twin guitar lines during the epic solos, perhaps going for a bit of My Morning Jacket kind of vibe. The songs themselves didn’t strike me as all that original, but I think The Hands are worth a listen. Down the street, Beerland was hosting the THIS IS AMERICAN MUSIC tour, and I stopped in to see solid (but too short) sets by GLOSSARY and GRAND CHAMPEEN. And then I was back down the street at Emo’s one last time for PORTUGAL. THE MAN. As much I’d like to support a band from my home state of Alaska (how many bands are there from Alaska, anyway?), I can’t say I enjoyed Portugal. The Man very much. Too jam-band for me.

Yes, in case anyone is wondering, I am at SXSW… but things are simply too hectic for me to spend time writing blog posts or editing photos right now. A full report will be coming in a couple of days.

In the meantime, look for my first installment of reporting at the Pioneer Press Web site.

And I quickly went through the 4,000-some photos I’ve shot and picked out a few, posting them at flickr.

Briefly, some of the best bands I’ve seen so far are Sons and Daughters, Frightened Rabbit, Megafaun, Scary Mansion, Horse + Donkey, A.A. Bondy, Darker My Love, the Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club, Okkervil River with Roky Erikson… I’m sure I’m forgetting something. OK, that’s all for now…

SATURDAY, MARCH 17

THE TRUCKS at Snocap day party – One of the hyped bands of the moment, The Trucks came off as a gimmicky novelty, but they were fairly fun to watch. What’s with the deliberately ugly look for that one chick with the missing tooth? That’s part of the shtick, I guess. www.thetrucks.net – PHOTOS OF THE TRUCKS

CALLA at Snocap day party – I sort of like Calla’s records, but they never seem to rise above the level of pretty good. I keep waiting for a big breakout chorus or guitar solo, but it never comes. I felt the same way about the live show. www.callamusic.com – PHOTOS OF CALLA

BERMUDA TRIANGLE at Platform day party – I plead another case of SXSW amnesia. They’re from Norway. There’s a girl who sings. There’s a guy who sings, too. I think I liked it. www.myspace.com/norwegianbermuda – PHOTOS OF BERMUDA TRIANGLE

THE SILENT YEARS at Habana Calle 6 Annex day party – I didn’t know anything about this group, but I was blown away by the energy. Will definitely seek them out. www.thesilentyears.com – PHOTOS OF THE SILENT YEARS

BANG GANG at Habana Calle 6 Annex day party – The mp3 by this group from Iceland caught my attention. In concert, they were odd, in a “Sprockets” sort of way. The lead singer, Bardi Johansson, delivered SXSW’s most stilted and strange stage banter, urging audience members to take part in an Icelandic party game of spitting on one another’s shoulders. At one point, he remarked (seemingly as a sort of complaint about SXSW): “Too much notes. Everybody’s jumping on the stage and playing too much notes. I think I’ve never seen anybody running around and jumping in my life.” Another comment: “The music sucks, but you have to be on drugs to know it.” And before playing “Stop in the Name of Love” and “Locomotion,” he announced: “We’re going to play an old American standard which you probably don’t like.” The songs featured a peculiar stop-and-start energy, and Bang Gang came off as a highly promising band, but their set was pretty darn short – just four songs or so. And then they were off.

Bang Gang also had one of the most absurd press releases this year on the SXSW Web site, including this description of Johansson: “He outfits as a producer, a fashion designer, director, musician, singer and composer. In Milan he has a full size statue, in Iceland he is the dark prince who walks the nights alone and in France he is hailed as the next Phil Spector. He depicts the musical side of fashion house Emporio Armani, cosmetics brand Yves Rocher and car make Citroën in there television ads. A renaissance man in the most true form he is obsessive, narcissistic, hung-over, mad and romantic. Oceanic and limitless, his songs sound much too real and much too beautiful. Bardi Johannson is an anomaly that blends together Rock’n’Roll and sadness to create a sound that bellows through your body like a misremembered dream and for that he makes us stop in the name of love.” www.banggang.net (Incidentally, there was another band at SXSW this year called Bang Bang Gang.) – PHOTOS OF BANG GANG

IRINA BJORKLUNDE was playing in the Habana Calle 6 Annex as part of a tribute to Nick Drake as I walked out of the Bang Gang gig. She was playing the saw, an instrument you don’t hear often enough, and she did a lovely Drake song. (Sorry, I’m terrible with his song titles, so I don’t recall which one.) www.irinabjorklund.com – PHOTOS OF IRINA BJORKLUNDE

THOM HELL at Platform day party – I caught a couple of songs by this Americana singer from Norway – well, I guess it isn’t correct to call it Americana if you’re from Norway, but that’s what it sounded like to me. Pretty good stuff, enough to make me want to hear more, but I was in a hurry. Marit Larsen, who was next on the Platform party schedule, was playing in Hell’s backup band, and a couple of Larsen fans in the crowd held up a sign declaring that she’s an addictive drug. – PHOTOS OF THOM HELL

BUZZCOCKS at Snocap day party – During my foray over to see Bang Gang, I missed Apollo Sunshine at the Snocap party, which was reportedly one of the highlights. The Buzzcocks were an excellent way to end the party, though. The Buzzcocks are the Buzzcocks; what more can you say? Those short, punchy songs still stand up amazingly well, and the band was as fun and energetic as ever. I was standing near Steve Diggles when he spat on the speakers, where the glob of saliva remained for the rest of the concert. www.buzzcocks.com – PHOTOS OF BUZZCOCKS

LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY on the SXSW Live stage – This was a rare chance to see one of the legends of reggae and dub music. I’m far from an expert on his music, but I enjoyed it, especially his jabs at the current political situation. A short, wizened guy, he was dressed in an outfit that was glittering with all of the shiny objects that had been pasted and sewed onto it. – PHOTOS OF LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY

WAX FANG at Mohawk Patio – Another band with an mp3 that attracted my attention. And they were playing at the showcase for KEXP, one of my favorite stations to hear on the Web. Wax Fang opened its set with a delicate little piece of guitar playing and singing by the vocalist, with the bassist and drummer patiently watching. And then, in the middle of that song, the rhythm section erupted into a dramatic blast of noise. The pattern repeated with other Wax Fang songs – tunes with an indie-pop sensibility melded with arena rock bombast. The band is from Louisville, Ky., so of course, I thought of My Morning Jacket. The guitarist even played a couple of wailing Theremin solos. www.waxfang.com – PHOTOS OF WAX FANG

BRUTE FORCE AND DAUGHTER OF FORCE at Creekside EMC – I was hoping to see Field Music in this time slot, but the line was long and didn’t seem to be moving, so I bailed on that show. I’d heard a quirky piano song called “Space Mission” by Brute Force and Daughter of Force, which sounded sort of like a demo for the Only Ones, but didn’t know what to expect. This was the strangest thing I saw all week. It felt like I’d stepped out of SXSW into some alternate universe. The act turned out to be an older guy with bushy eyebrows calling himself Brute Force playing piano and singing, with his twenty-something daughter on vocals. They did odd novelty tunes about sandwiches and space travel. It was hard not to get the impression that this was just some guy who played weird songs for his family and somehow persuaded his slightly embarrassed daughter to get up on the stage with him for a lounge act. As I learned later from reading about Brute Force on the SXSW Web site, he used to be a member of the Tokens and he originally recorded some of these songs for Apple Records in the late 1960s (the Beatles were among his fans). It was a refreshing change from everything else. Peculiar but charming. brutesforce.com – PHOTOS OF BRUTE FORCE AND DAUGHTER OF FORCE

ASTEROID #4 at Latitude 30 – Now here’s a band that lives reverb and darkness. The lights were barely on at all as Asteroid #4 played (it was hell to photograph, though I did dig the atmosphere it created) and they never turned off those echoing effects. It was a terrific space-rock jam, complete with a Rain Parade cover. As Asteroid #4 finished, the band announced, “Thanks. We’re the Black Angels.” www.asteroid4.com – PHOTOS OF ASTEROID #4

THE BLACK HOLLIES (with guest appearance by THE DANSETTES) at Uncle Flirty’s Loft – A good ‘60s-style rock band… Other than that, I don’t remember much. www.theblackhollies.com – PHOTOS OF THE BLACK HOLLIES /PHOTOS OF THE DANSETTES

OX at the Ale House – This alt-country band from British Columbia does a great cover of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender,” and that’s what was playing as I walked in the door. Most of their other songs seem to be about cars, including one about the El Camino. It was all pretty good, though it’s fairly typical stuff as far as alt-country bands go, nothing earth-shattering. www.oxmusic.ws – PHOTOS OF OX

THE WHIGS at Blender Bar at the Ritz – I showed up early at this venue to see the Saints in the last time slot. As I walked in, DANIEL JOHNSTON AND THE NIGHTMARES were finishing their set. The last half of the last song (all that I heard) seemed more confident and Modern Lovers-ish than the shaky solo concert I saw by Johnston a couple of years ago. I didn’t know much about the Whigs other than the mp3 I’d heard, but the group had a lot of young female fans in attendance, who sang along with many of the words. They put on a very good show, and something about them reminded me of other bands from their hometown, Athens, Ga. www.thewhigs.com – PHOTOS OF THE WHIGS

THE SAINTS at Blender Bar at the Ritz – These Australian punks were back for a reunion show, which I saw at the same time I could have been watching the Stooges over at Stubbs (but that would have required a long wait in line and no guarantee of getting in). The Saints song I know best, “Stranded,” sounded great. The rest of the set was good, too, but I was starting to lose it by this point; I could feel myself falling asleep even as I stood there. It was a fine concert, though the Saints did not seem to have the same level of excitement as some other bands from that era. www.saintsmusic.com – PHOTOS OF THE SAINTS

CLICK HERE FOR A GUIDE TO ALL OF MY SXSW 2007 PHOTOS.
READ MY OTHER SXSW 2007 BLOG ENTRIES:
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE

FRIDAY, MARCH 16

ANDREW WINTON at Australian Barbecue day party – I heard just a couple of songs by Winton as I took advantage of the free food. It sounded a little too much like mellow pop for my tastes, though the guitar-playing was good. www.andrewwinton.com

THE BUZZCOCKS on the SXSW Live stage – I know it’s considered cool for punk rockers to play short sets, but this concert was ridiculously short. I walked in a few minutes after it started (on a new stage at the Austin Convention Center, where concerts were broadcast for Direct TV) and caught only two and a half songs. Sounded good, though. (See March 17 for my second Buzzcocks experience of SXSW.) www.buzzcocks.com

WINTERKIDS at the Day Stage Cafe – Another case of SXSW amnesia. What I heard sounded pretty good, but don’t ask me to describe it now. www.winterkidsmusic.com – PHOTOS OF WINTERKIDS

SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU, BORIS YELTSIN at the Day Stage Cafe – I liked the record by this band last year, and they came off well in this short acoustic concert, playing strummy guitar songs that were more than a little catchy. And one of them executed a perfect stage dive, which was amusing and ridiculous given the room they were playing it. No damage to the guy’s guitar. www.morawk.com/sslyby – PHOTOS OF SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN

BLACK LIPS at Club DeVille day party – Energetic garage rock. Even when they count off the beat at the beginning of a song, the “1, 2, 3” sounds a little punk. One of the guitarists threw up a little food in the middle of one song and kept playing. www.myspace.com/theblacklips – PHOTOS OF BLACK LIPS

WALTER MEEGO at Club DeVille day party – This Chicago band played electronic pop music overlaid with loud and sometimes atonal guitar lines. The group arrived in Austin for a gig early Thursday afternoon, after playing the night before at Chicago’s Metro nightclub. “It’s a wild ride,” lead singer Justin Sconza told me later. “I got up at 5 in the morning, flew here, and played right away. It just doesn’t stop.” www.waltermeego.com – PHOTOS OF WALTER MEEGO

IGGY POP AND THE STOOGES interview at Austin Convention Center – I walked in a little late (too late to get any photos), but heard most of this fascinating and funny interview. It was just weird to hear Iggy talking with Ron and Scott Asheton about the days when they all lived in a house together (the “fun house” that inspired the album title), a bunch of utopian outcasts. At one point, when they were discussing the food they used to make at the house, Pop noted, “Waffles are good.”

Asked how the Stooges got publicity, Pop recounted: “There was something called 16 magazine, and it was run by a very horny lady. They sent me to her apartment to see if we hit it off.” After a pause, he added, “And I was on the cover.” (Audience laughter.) “It was professionalism only.”

Pop said the song “No Fun” was inspired by a combination of the “no, no, no” in the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and the “fun, fun, fun” attitude of the Beach Boys, with the structure of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

He said his stage antics were inspired by the dancing he saw in Chicago clubs when he was gigging as a blues drummer. “I had never seen such raw sexuality than I saw in the blues dancing,” he said, adding that he was also inspired by Big Bird.

YOU AM I at Habana Calle 6 Annex day party – I keep hearing raves about this Australian band, which recently got a U.S. deal with Yep Roc. When I’ve heard their recordings, I though they were pretty good punk garage-rock, but it didn’t blow me away. I walked into the middle of this show and saw a few songs by You Am I. The energy and antics of the live concert was pretty amazing. I’ll definitely have to dig deeper into You Am I. youami.com.au – PHOTOS OF YOU AM I

NELLIE McKAY at Exodus – This show got started late, and it was uncomfortably crowded in front of the stage. (It was also way too dark for proper photography.) When McKay came out at last, she brought some books of sheet music with her, and sat down at the piano, with all of the informality of someone trying out jazz standards at a friend’s house. It was a charming performance, though a little erratic at times. She closed with a medley of several songs she has recorded about cats and dogs, drawing the biggest audience response of the night. www.nelliemckay.com – PHOTOS OF NELLIE McKAY

DANNY SAUL at the Hideout – This English singer-songwriter played some excellent acoustic guitar, including instrumental passages of epic length. His singing was OK, though nothing remarkable, but his dark songs were intriguing. He seems like a talent worth watching. dannysaul.com – PHOTOS OF DANNY SAUL

AMY WINEHOUSE at La Zona Rosa – Perhaps the one emerging musician at this year’s SXSW who who seems destined for actual commercial stardom. This English soul singer who wouldn’t look out of place alongside Christine Aguilera or Lady Sovereign, but she sounds more like a throwback to the Motown and Stax records of the 1960s. Backed by the talented Dap-Kings, Winehouse showed off a powerful voice Thursday night, as she danced teasingly, reaching down to pull up her low-slung blue jeans. She drank from a rum and coke even as she sang about going into rehab, and closed with a cover of a Zutons song. www.amywinehouse.co.uk – PHOTOS OF AMY WINEHOUSE

BEDROOM WALLS at Club One 15 – One of the main instruments in this band’s lineup is the glockenspiel, so you knew it was going to be a little twee, but the lead singer/guitarist was pretty energetic as he leapt out the stage. I liked this, though I have a partial case of SXSW amnesia about the details. www.bedroomwalls.com – PHOTOS OF BEDROOM WALLS

INSTITUTO MEXICANO DE SONIDO at The Rio – This was a group that intrigued me even though I had only one snippet of an mp3, some 27 seconds, to go on. It was enough to clue me in on the fact that the “Mexican Institute of Sound” (as they’re known in English) samples interesting old records. The duo was also lively on stage, wearing furry tails. I approach techno music and hip-hop with a little skepticism – it takes something special to win me over. And this band was special. www.myspace.com/institutomexicanodelsonido – PHOTOS OF INSTITUTO MEXICANO DE SONIDO

THE WOGGLES at Habana Calle 6 – Wearing uniforms of the sort once worn by Paul Revere and the Raiders and similar 1960s bands, the Woggles played one of the liveliest shows this year at SXSW. The blend of ‘60s garage rock and ‘70s punk was nothing groundbreaking, but man, it was fun. www.thewoggles.com – PHOTOS OF THE WOGGLES

CLICK HERE FOR A GUIDE TO ALL OF MY SXSW 2007 PHOTOS.
READ MY OTHER SXSW 2007 BLOG ENTRIES:
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY FOUR

THURSDAY, MARCH 15

MARIT LARSEN at the Day Stage Cafe – This cute, little folkie from Norway was my first concert of the day. Her music seemed charming on first listen, though I’ll have to hear it more to see if it has staying power. She has some potential to attract alt-country and bluegrass fans in the U.S. – PHOTOS OF MARIT LARSEN

THE STORYS at the Day Stage Cafe – This band from Wales performed some rather bland acoustic pop music that was too adult contemporary for my tastes. Inoffensive but instantly forgettable. www.thestorys.co.uk – PHOTOS OF THE STORYS

FIONN REGAN at the Day Stage Cafe – Fionn Regan put out a good record last year, one of the import CDs I purchased in my year-end shopping frenzy. He impressed me even more in person than he does on record. His delicate finger-style guitar playing was lovely, and so was his voice, and his pensive, sensitive songs seemed ready for a bigger audience. – PHOTOS OF FIONN REGAN

HEADLIGHTS at Flamingo Cantina day party – I talked with the members of Headlights a couple of years ago for a short article, but to be honest, I don’t remember much about their music from that time. It seemed like good but somewhat typical indie pop. The Champaign band sounded damn good this year at SXSW, perhaps a sign of growth (or maybe I just overlooked how good they were before). Like many bands at SXSW 2007, Headlights had a bit of a Broken Social Scene or Arcade Fire vibe, playing multilayered tunes that take on a frenzied emotional intensity during live performances. I liked Headlights a lot. www.headlightsmusic.com – PHOTOS OF HEADLIGHTS

TALLY HALL at Bourbon Rocks day party – I went to this party, hosted by Found Magazine, in the hope of seeing Okkervil River, but the schedule had changed and I arrived just after Okkervil finished playing. The beer was free, so I stuck around for most of the show by Tally Hall, a bunch of nerdy-looking guys in white shirts and ties who played songs reminiscent of Queen, Oingo Boingo and, um, Gentle Giant? I heard some interesting harmonies and musical patterns, fairly sophisticated stuff, though it was all a bit too 1970s kitschy for my tastes. www.tallyhall.com – PHOTOS OF TALLY HALL

THE PIPETTES at Flamingo Cantina day party – One of the most hyped acts at SXSW. Do they deserve the hype? Well, at least they look great. And I thought they sounded pretty good, too. There’s nothing wrong with reviving the 1960s girl group sound and adding some saucy contemporary UK attitude to the lyrics. I haven’t heard their record yet, and I wonder if it has much staying power, but would I see them again in concert? Heck, yeah. ) www.thepipettes.co.uk – PHOTOS OF THE PIPETTES

(One of them mentioned seeing THE DANSETTES the night before, another girl-group revival band. The Dansettes sound great, and I wish I’d seen them beyond the one song they performed with the Black Hollies on Saturday. I wonder how the Dansettes will stack up against the Pipettes? www.thedansettes.com)

ATTIC JAM at La Zona Rosa – I kept wavering on whether to attend this show. Hosted by RACHEL FULLER, who happens to be Pete Townshend’s girlfriend, it was sure to feature an appearance by Townshend, plus some “special guests.” How long would the line be? How much would Townshend actually play? I decided I had to see at least some of it, and I was able to get in fairly easily (it’s a big venue), though I got kicked out of the photo pit. Townshend opened the show with a solo acoustic performance of the Quadrophenia song “Drowned,” which made it more than worthwhile. He was followed by WILLY MASON, who played a few songs, with Townshend playing along on at least one. MIKA, who is big in Britain right now, played a couple of piano ballads, including a cover of “Everybody’s Talkin’” with Townshend joining in a little. Fuller played some of her own piano music, which was pleasant enough but unremarkable. Then came JOE PURDY, doing more soft acoustic music. None of this was bad, exactly, but given the fact that it was a showcase featuring the guitarist for one of the most explosive bands in rock history, it was all a little bit on the boring side. Martha Wainwright was scheduled to come up soon, and I don’t care much for her music, so I decided to head out, even though there was a promise of more Townshend music at the end of the three-hour time slot. (I later read that he came back for a couple of songs.) The concept of these “Attic Jams” is OK, but I’d rather see a full Townshend concert or maybe a Townshend jam with some of the more interesting musicians at SXSW. Imagine if he’d played with Iggy Pop – or Daniel Johnston? Now, that would have been memorable. – PHOTOS OF THE ATTIC JAM with PETE TOWNSHEND, RACHEL FULLER, WILLY MASON and JOE PURDY

I ended up spending the rest of the night at Mohawk and Mohawk Patio, which were hosting the showcase for the Secretly Canadian label. Somehow, because of scheduling changes and confusion, I missed one of the Secretly Canadian bands that I wanted to see the most, the Besnard Lakes, but at least they’re coming to Chicago soon.

DIRTY PROJECTORS at Mohawk – This was a weird one, avant-garde rock with a little math rock thrown into the mix? There were some complex guitar melodies and vocal harmonies, all played with a fair amount of emotional intensity. It’s not the sort of music you can fully absorb right away, so I’m not sure how much I liked it. Challenging, and potentially very good. myspace.com/dirtyprojectors – PHOTOS OF DIRTY PROJECTORS

I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS at Mohawk Patio – I’ve never really gotten into this band, but their music (sounding a lot like the Smiths, as my brother remarked) sounded pretty good this time. I left midway through their show to run indoors and catch… www.chosendarkness.com – PHOTOS OF I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS

FRIDA HYVÖNEN is one of the most interesting new talents to emerge out of Sweden, and I had the pleasure to interview her for the March/April issue of Punk Planet magazine, but I’d missed her two concerts in Chicago. Her piano playing is a little simple, but it suits her songs well enough. The lyrics are starkly personal at times, strange at others. She even played a quirky little song about Shanghai. She exudes her singular personality in concert, and was pretty animated for a piano player, leaning back in odd ways. “I think I love you,” she told the audience, and after a pause: “I know, that’s a cheap shot.” She’s beautiful, too, with the looks of a Swedish movie star. www.fridahyvonen.com – PHOTOS OF FRIDA HYVÖNEN

BISHOP ALLEN – Alas, I have to say that Bishop Allen is one of several bands I saw at SXSW that made only a fleeting impression and then disappeared from my brain. I liked them. I can’t remember what they sound like. I promise to listen again. bishopallen.com – PHOTOS OF BISHOP ALLEN

RICHARD SWIFT is a talented singer-songwriter who switches between piano and guitar. He strikes me as the indie-rock kin of Rufus Wainwright and Edward Harcourt. He makes some of the funniest faces while he plays. His closing song was the catchy “Atlantic Ocean,” featuring backup singing through a Vocoder, giving it an ELO feeling. www.richardswift.us – PHOTOS OF RICHARD SWIFT

While all of that was going on outside, I caught snatches of Catfish Haven and the excellent Chicago rocker DAVID VANDERVELDE in Mohawk’s crowded indoor venue. www.davidvandervelde.com LADYHAWK, who played next in the same room, is an excellent band, but I’ve seen them a few times, so I wasn’t going out of my way to see them again at SXSW. Watching them through the opening in the bar, it was hard not to get excited. (Britt Daniel of Spoon was standing next to me, watching, too.) As the band completed it set, I worked my way into the room. This was one of the most enthusiastic crowd responses I saw at SXSW. After the Ladyhawk guys finished flailing around on the stage, the crowd chanted, “One more song! One more song!” Ladyhawk came back for another tune, though it’s unusual for SXSW acts to do encores unless they’re the last band of the night. Ladyhawk’s record is good, but the music really comes alive in concert, as the band pounds away at those riffs with an abandon that resembles My Morning Jacket’s live shows. A couple of people who had wandered into the bar, unsure of which band was playing, said, “Who are these guys?” www.ladyhawkladyhawk.com – PHOTOS OF LADYHAWK

I caught a few songs as OKKERVIL RIVER began playing outside, then went back inside for EVANGELICALS, a group from Norman, Okla. (Okkervil is great, one of the best live bands around, but I was motivated by the desire to hear something new.) I’ve had trouble figuring out exactly what kind of music Evangelicals plays; their record is diverse, strong and hard to categorize. Evangelicals decorated Mohawk’s small stage with the silvery leaves of fake plants and some green tubes containing electric lights. Lead singer/guitarist Josh Jones was wearing just one shoe, and he had nylon stocking on underneath his torn jeans. The searing set climaxed with the trashing of the drum kit and the smashing of a guitar. Jones held the broken remains of his guitar aloft, and someone yelled, “Encore! Play that thing!” myspace.com/evangelicals It was too late for an encore, but I caught another two songs by Okkervil River out on the patio before heading back to the hotel. – PHOTOS OF OKKERVIL RIVER /PHOTOS OF EVANGELICALS

CLICK HERE FOR A GUIDE TO ALL OF MY SXSW 2007 PHOTOS.
READ MY OTHER SXSW 2007 BLOG ENTRIES:
PRE-SXSW SHOWS
DAY ONE
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14

How in the hell can you prepare for the overwhelming sensory overload that is South By Southwest? The first year I came to Austin for SXSW (2002), I pretty much winged it, looking at the music schedule each day and deciding who to see that night. I was only dimly aware of all the day parties offering up additional chances to see all of those bands. Eventually, I realized advance research was necessary. You see a lot of people down here carrying around folded sheets of paper with their spreadsheets and charts listing possible musical acts to see each hour of each day.

I threw my own list together rather hastily and only noticed belatedly some of the major names playing at SXSW. Donovan played earlier tonight?!? Oops! A couple of weeks before my trip to Austin, I downloaded the SXSW Web site’s bit torrent of 700-some songs by musicians playing at the festival. And with just a couple of days to spare, I managed to listen to at least some of each song and assign a star rating in iTunes. I ended up with about 200 four-star or five-star songs. Mind you, most of these are bands or singers I know little or nothing about. So I’ve got my list of when those bands are playing, plus the more famous ones. Plus the uncertainties about who’s playing at day parties and which conference events will be worth attending. And then, it doesn’t hurt to listen to the buzz or read the Austin papers each morning to see what they recommend for that night’s shows.

The bottom line is that hundreds of bands are playing every hour, so whatever you end up seeing, you are missing a cornucopia of other music, much of it good to great.

Can you hear my head exploding?

My advice for SXSW-goers: Just don’t get too hung up on the fact that you won’t see everything. You’ll see SOMEthing, and it will be cool.

Compared to the grungy environment at most SXSW day parties, the “Day Stage” in the Austin Convention Center is positively antiseptic and generic. It lacks character, but it’s actually a nice little spot to sit down and hear some good music away from all the craziness. I started out my day here, catching the first three bands.

SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME, a Michigan band on Champaign’s Polyvinyl label (identified in the SXSW booklet as a Portland, Ore., band for some reason – have they moved?), kicked things off with some pretty good indie pop. Writing this a couple of days after the fact, Saturday’s sound hasn’t really stuck in my head, but I liked it. The lead singer had a nicely casual air in his singer and his stage banter, introducing one song: “This song is about people.” www.slgtm.com

THE GRAY KID’s hip-hop leaned toward soul and R&B. This kid performed his set with the typical rapper’s moves, prowling around the stage with a handheld mike. He jumped out onto a chair in the audience, and he looked at the sedate crowd with an imploring expression that said, “What’s the matter? Why won’t you dance?” At one point, he leaned down and looked at the string of lights at the front of the stage shaped like little bluebirds and tried to pick one of them up, saying, “Pretty little bird.” There was something raw about the Gray Kid that I liked. He really poured everything into his vocals. He isn’t a great singer, just a good one, but he was so unafraid of making a fool of himself that he came off as a fairly appealing figure. Now, if he just had a backup band instead of prerecorded tracks. graykid.com

SAY HI TO YOUR MOM’s songs did not leave a big impression on me, but their sound was strong – melodic, bright keyboard lines on top of crunchy guitar chords and a steady, propulsive drumbeat. www.sayhitoyourmom.com

PHOTOS OF SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME, THE GRAY KID and SAY HI TO YOUR MOM at the Day Stage Cafe.

I left the Convention Center for my first day party of the day, one of my most anticipated bands this year, THE DAGONS. Apparently, I was one of the few people anticipating them because virtually no one showed up for the Dagons’ show at Creekside Lounge (a little bar, not to be confused with Creekside Lounge EMC at the Hilton Gardens Hotel). I was one of about six people watching, including the band’s manager, as this duo played. It was a very good set, well worth catching, and I hope the Dagons got a bigger crowd for their evening showcase. It’s strong, punk-influenced pop rock, with female vocals, a guitar-drums duo that reminds me at times of Sleater-Kinney (though the Dagons don’t play with a tenth of Sleater-Kinney’s sense of abandon). It doesn’t hurt that singer-guitarist Karie Jacobson is a beautiful woman, and she was elegantly attired in a black dress for this performance, smiling often as I circled around her with my camera. www.dagons.net – PHOTOS OF THE DAGONS.

It’s cool to run into musicians I’ve interviewed at some point, giving me an excuse to say hi. Back at the Convention Center, I encountered Sally Timms, Josh Caterer of the Smoking Popes and Megan of the Last Town Chorus, all within about five minutes.

LIONS IN THE STREET, one of the bands I liked on mp3, was playing at the Canadian barbecue across the street, where the food was free. Lions sound an awful lot like Exile-era Stones, maybe too much so, with a little bit of Allman Brothers in their guitar solos. They’re a fun band, and I predict they’ll do well with the Americana and classic-rock crowds. www.lionsinthestreet.com – PHOTOS OF LIONS IN THE STREET.

Then I caught just one song by PROTOTYPES as I walked back into the Day Stage, but I liked what I heard … and saw. www.prototypesonline.com – PHOTOS OF PROTOTYPES.

Next up on the stage was one of my old favorites and a SXSW perennial, who introduced himself: “Hello, I’m ROBYN HITCHCOCK, and I’m from the ’60s.” After explaining why he was inserting his cable into the “orifice” of his guitar, he said, “The first song anyone played in the 1960s was this,” by way of introducing “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Hitchcock then brought legendary producer JOE BOYD up onto the stage and turned his set into a quasi-interview, asking Boyd to read bits of his book, with Hitchock playing songs referred to in the text. Boyd read his recollection of the famous Dylan performance at the Newport Folk Festival. It’s interesting to note that after Pete Seeger and Alan Lomax sent Boyd to the sound board to turn down Dylan’s volume, it was Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary who insisted on keeping the music loud. The message Yarrow sent back to his fellow folkies via Boyd was a raised middle finger. Anyway, Dylan’s acoustic encore that day was “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” so Hitchcock followed up Boyd’s story by playing the latter song. After a story from Boyd about producing the Incredible String Band, Hitchcock played “Chinese White.” Recalling his own 1960s, Hitchcock said, “I was just 14, working out how to levitate.” He noted that his own initial experiences with drugs in the late 1960s were more than just the pursuit of a high. “To me,” Hitchcock said, “it seemed like more of a sacramental thing … It was a religious experience. It wasn’t just trying to get loaded.” www.robynhitchcock.com – PHOTOS OF ROBYN HITCHCOCK with JOE BOYD.

Over at the Emo’s day party, I caught two Chicago bands, CATFISH HAVEN and THE SMOKING POPES. Now, I would argue against seeing any Chicago bands while I’m in Austin, just because I can see those bands just about anytime in my hometown. But part of my justification for coming to SXSW is writing about the conference for Chicago-area newspapers, including Pioneer Press, the Daily Southtown and the Elgin Courier News, and for those papers, a big part of the story is what local bands are at SXSW. So I do make an effort to see at least a few of the Chicago bands vying for attention at SXSW. I’ve seen Catfish Haven several times as a trio, and I always thought they needed to expand their sound a little, so it was nice to see them playing down here with an additional guitarist and two backup singers. (They’ve been playing with similar expanded lineups at other recent concerts, including last year’s Lollapalooza, but I missed those shows.) It helped the soulful sound come alive, and people at the front of the crowd were dancing wildly. – PHOTOS OF CATFISH HAVEN.

The Smoking Popes are a band I missed out on the first time around, but now that they’re reunited, I can see what the fuss was all about. Their straightforward pop-punk sounded sturdy and tuneful at this gig. www.smokingpopes.net – PHOTOS OF THE SMOKING POPES.

I couldn’t stick around for the whole Popes set, because it was time for…

PETE TOWNSHEND interview at the Hilton – It was fascinating to see Townshend answering questions, even if he did occasionally wander off-topic and his scheme for a Web site called “The Method” was just baffling. The site is supposedly going to create pieces of music individually suited to each person who types in his or her key data… sounds to me like a vague utopian concept. “It could be terrible,” Townshend acknowledged.

And is it revisionist history for Townshend to say that the 1960s generation in England wasn’t actually angry – that they just wanted more information about what was happening in the post-war world? “It was not anger,” he said. “It looked like anger, but it was frustration and a demand for honest answers.” Townshend said he doesn’t think angry guitar-smashing is “valid anymore.”

Like every SXSW keynote speaker in recent years, Townshend had something to say about the sorry state of the music industry. He said an exec with a major label recently summed up the industry’s situation by telling him, “Rome is burning.” Townshend advised younger musicians to work outside the old corporate system. “If you’re a new band today, don’t fuck with it, don’t bother,” he said. – PHOTOS OF PETE TOWNSHEND

BAT FOR LASHES at Dirty Dog – I was the one and only critic who voted for Bat For Lashes in the Pazz & Jop poll fort last year’s album. The fact that her/its album was available only as a U.K. import might explain that. Bat For Lashes is the stage name of Natasha Khan, an Englishwoman of Pakistani descent, though she had a full band at SXSW – an all-female, all-face-painted band. Bat For Lashes’ moody, enchanting music reminds me of P.J. Harvey and My Brightest Diamond. It was several songs before I noticed that she was performing without any drums; the tunes were so rhythmically on that drums were largely unnecessary. Khan jingled chimes for atmospheric effect and pounded a large pole on the stage for the beat of one song. She played an unexpected cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” and made it sound like her own. This was a mesmerizing performance (perhaps more mesmerizing for me than others since I was already familiar with the music), and I have high expectations for Bat For Lashes’ future. www.batforlashes.co.uk – PHOTOS OF BAT FOR LASHES

FERNANDO at Room 710 ­– The music I’ve heard by Fernando was indie rock with a full band, but he was playing solo acoustic at SXSW, including some Spanish songs as well as new tunes that will be on his next record. I found it fairly pleasant, but I wasn’t that familiar with the material. www.fernandoviciconte.com – PHOTOS OF FERNANDO

THE PANDA BAND at Red 7 – One of four bands at this year’s SXSW with the word “panda” in their names, these Aussies played a decent set of typical indie rock, but it didn’t really grab me. www.thepandaband.com – PHOTOS OF THE PANDA BAND

LONEY, DEAR at Emo’s IV – The Swedish singer-songwriter who goes by the unwieldy and frequently misspelled name Loney, Dear seemed to be everywhere at SXSW this year, playing a bunch of parties. His art-folk is mellow yet epic, and his album Loney, Noir is quickly becoming one of my 2007 favorites. The songs sounded great in concert, making this one of my SXSW highlights. loneydear.com – PHOTOS OF LONEY, DEAR

THE 1900s at Habana Calle 6 – I’ve seen the 1900s often enough in Chicago, so I might have skipped this show if I weren’t writing about it for The Daily Southtown, but I won’t complain – it’s always a kick to see these folks. Guitarist-singer Edward Anderson looked a little nervous as the group started playing, but soon enough he was letting loose on some fierce guitar solos. Singers Jeanine O’Toole and Caroline Donovan swayed and shook to the group’s ‘60s-style pop. As the 1900s finished playing, one member of the enthusiastic audience yelled, “You guys rock!” The 1900s have just finished recording their first full-length album, and they’re contemplating whether to stay on the Champaign label Polyvinyl or seek a bigger deal, O’Toole told me in a recent interview, adding that she’d be happy to stay with Polyvinyl, a small label with artistic integrity. “It sounds like a record,” O’Toole said of the new album. “It’s not just a collection of songs. I like listening to records that have that feeling. It’s still pop music, with some psychedelic rock feeling to it.” www.the-1900s.com – PHOTOS OF THE 1900s

MOTHERCOAT at Latitude 30 – This was one of those great SXSW moments when you walk into a club, not knowing what to expect. Mothercoat was on my list of potential bands to see based on the mp3 I’d heard, but I couldn’t remember what it sounded like and I didn’t even know where the band was from. Walking into Latitude 30 mid-set, I saw this Japanese band going nuts on the stage – especially the lead singer/guitarist, who contorted his face as he leaned down into his mike, leapt out into the audience, ran over to the bar, got up onto the stage and watched a little TV with a maniacal expression. Mothercoat combined the odd intensity of Japanese avant-garde groups like Boredoms with a more melodic pop sensibility. While I was watching Mothercoat, they reminded me a little bit of Garbage. Now that I’ve heard more of their recordings, I’d say there’s a Radiohead influence. The crowd loved Mothercoat, and there was a rush for the merch table as soon as the band finished playing. I gave the lead singer my business card and he stared at it as if it were some alien object. www.mothercoat.com – PHOTOS OF MOTHERCOAT

DAYLIGHT FOR THE BIRDS at Latitude 30 ­– These guys played energetic indie rock, but they had a tough act to follow. After Mothercoat, they seemed a little bland. – PHOTOS OF DAYLIGHT FOR THE BIRDS

THE WOMBATS at Friends – After Daylight ended its set fairly early, there was enough time to cram one more concert into the 1-2 a.m. hour, and I managed to catch a good 30 or more minutes by the Wombats. Like so many bands from England these days, the Wombats draw on 1980s new wave for their inspiration. Midway through their set, I realized they sounded a bit like the dancier side of The Cure; they also played a song with lyrics about listening to Joy Division. They were a very likeable bunch of lads, and their music was pretty catchy, so I won’t be surprised if they do well. I noticed an older couple in the middle of the crowd singing along to the lyrics, which seemed a little odd. It turned out to be the drummer’s parents, who had made the trip from Liverpool. Just one instance at this year’s SXSW of parents watching their indie-rock kids.

THE WOMBATS at Friends – After Daylight ended its set fairly early, there was enough time to cram one more concert into the 1-2 a.m. hour, and I managed to catch a good 30 or more minutes by the Wombats. Like so many bands from England these days, the Wombats draw on 1980s new wave for their inspiration. Midway through their set, I realized they sounded a bit like the dancier side of The Cure; they also played a song with lyrics about listening to Joy Division. They were a very likeable bunch of lads, and their music was pretty catchy, so I won’t be surprised if they do well. I noticed an older couple in the middle of the crowd singing along to the lyrics, which seemed a little odd. It turned out to be the drummer’s parents, who had made the trip from Liverpool. Just one instance at this year’s SXSW of parents watching their indie-rock kids. www.thewombats.co.uk – PHOTOS OF THE WOMBATS

CLICK HERE FOR A GUIDE TO ALL OF MY SXSW 2007 PHOTOS.
READ MY OTHER SXSW 2007 BLOG ENTRIES:
DAY ONE
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR

It’s always nice to get into Austin a day before all of the real SXSW music fun starts. Nothing was happening last night of the magnitude of 2006’s Sleater-Kinney concert, but it was still a chance to catch a few bands before the beginning of the official festivities. I stopped into Beerland and enjoyed the opening set by Michael Dean Damron (formerly of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the Room, now playing… either solo or with a new band name – I’m not totally sure). Damron looks like a refugee from Molly Hatchet or some other 1970s hard-rock outfit, and he sings rootsy Southern-style rock, not that far off from the Drive-By Truckers and bands like that. He has a great sense of humor, introducing one song as being about the most evil person who ever lived – Andy Gibb.

Columbus, Ohio’s Two Cow Garage were up next at Beerland, playing a typical set of their loud and slightly twangy bar-band rock, and they were joined by Tim Easton for a few songs, which made for an unexpectedly cool combination of their sounds. Great energy.

Before calling it a night, I caught some of the show by Quien es BOOM! at Emo’s. At least, that’s who I think it was, assuming that they were sticking to their original schedule. I couldn’t really make out what the dude from this band was saying on the stage. Sounded pretty good, though, interesting indie pop. One of the musicians apologized for boring the audience, but I didn’t think it was boring. The crowd was just a little sparse and lethargic.

PHOTOS OF MICHAEL DEAN DAMRON, TWO COW GARAGE AND QUIEN ES BOOM!

CLICK HERE FOR A GUIDE TO ALL OF MY SXSW 2007 PHOTOS.
READ MY OTHER SXSW 2007 BLOG ENTRIES:
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR

See my photos from SXSW 2004.