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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Jim Connelly's
Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jesse Steichen's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Friday, January 12, 2007
Bill Bentley's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Anthony Carew's 13 Fave Albums Of 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
SXSW 2006: Finding Some Hope In Austin
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Letter From New Orleans
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums of 2005
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Music For Dwindling Days: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sean Fennessey's 'Best-Of' 2005
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Albums Of 2005
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings of 2005
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Michael Lach - Old Soul Songs For A New World Order
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Found In Translation — Emme Stone's Year In Music 2005
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Dave Allen's 'Best-Of' 2005
Monday, January 2, 2006
Steve Gozdecki's Favorite Albums Of 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Johnny Walker Black's Top 10 Of 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Year In Review
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Jennifer Kelly's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Ben Gook's Beloved Albums Of 2005
Monday, December 5, 2005
Anthony Carew's Fave Albums Of 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Prince, Spoon And The Magic Of The Dead Stop
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Truth About America
Monday, September 5, 2005
Tryin' To Wash Us Away
Monday, August 1, 2005
A Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts
Monday, July 18, 2005
Soggy But Happy At Glastonbury 2005
Monday, April 4, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now
Friday, April 1, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 2: Dr. Dog's Happy Chords
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 1: Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting
Friday, March 25, 2005
Final Day At SXSW's Charnel House
Monday, March 21, 2005
Day Three At SXSW
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Day Two In SXSW's Hall Of Mirrors
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Report #1: SXSW 2005 And Its Hall Of Mirrors
Monday, February 14, 2005
Matt Landry's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
David Howie's 'Moments' From The Year 2004
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Noah Bonaparte's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Kevin John's Fave Albums Of 2004
Friday, January 14, 2005
Music For Those Nights: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Neal Block's Top Ten Of 2004
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 10, 2005
Wayne Robins' Top Ten Of 2004
Friday, January 7, 2005
Brian Orloff's Fave Albums Of 2004
Thursday, January 6, 2005
Johnny Walker (Black)'s Top 10 Of 2004
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Mark Mordue's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 3, 2005
Lee Templeton's Fave Recordings Of 2004
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The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now
Neumu Senior Writer Jenny Tatone writes: Bring together 1,300 musicians and 8,000 South by
Southwest registrants in Austin, Texas, and strange things are bound to
happen.
Sure, it's mostly just a lot of loud bands playing up
and down Sixth Street. And there are loads of
"industry cool" parties. For the most part, it's
pretty run-of-the-mill SXSW junk (really, really fun
junk, that is). But after floating
through four days and nights of overstimulation, immersed in the chaos, only
a handful of memories will define your experience in
the end. Here are mine.
The self-proclaimed "conservative-liberal" cowboy
cab driver: "I'll let you smoke my weed but I'll shoot ya if you
break into my house," says the cabbie, his gruff Texan
drawl convincing you he ain't kidding. "There's no
good music in town right now," he claims a few blocks
later. "Come at any other time of the year and you'll
get the real deal."
Leaving Austin's downtown for the residential Eastside
neighborhood, the cabbie feels it's now safe
to break out the joint. So we drive around stoned and
lost. He shuts off the meter and at one point has to
pull over to look up where we are and where we're
going. We're all laughing hard at something
that, in actuality, is not funny at all. But that's
the way it goes, right? We finally arrive at our
intended destination, the Church of the Friendly Ghost
(I know, perfect!) and, even though we've been
driving around for quite some time, he says: "Just
give me five bucks." I give him 10. This guy may have
a gun, but he's the friendliest cabbie I've ever met.
The Church of the Friendly Ghost is, as the name
implies, an old church-turned-music venue that has
pews outside for seating and a big lawn for relaxing.
Today, it is the location of Chunklet
Magazine's party. I pray for good music but am
too stoned to enter the cramped mess of sweaty people
inside. Instead, I stand in line for free amber ale.
It is quite possibly the longest line I stand in all
weekend. OK, it isn't. But it really, really
feels that way. The line for the bathroom is even
worse.
Rock from the gods above — and it rapped: This one involves unicorns,
MCs, a boulder and a wash
out. Unicorns side-project Th' Corn Gangg play an
outdoor afternoon set under a big white tent at Club
de Ville. At first, I'm disappointed by the boring
indie rock barely leaving the stage. But that all
changes when three MCs rush the stage and, like,
quadruple the energy level. They seem to
come completely out of nowhere, like they're some
sort of saviors of bad shows — and they are. And as
if God above were blessing their arrival, it starts
to pour — and I mean pour — perhaps
the hardest rain I've ever seen, and it lasts
throughout the surprisingly good set, causing a
boulder to fall from the rock wall behind the stage
and land on the PA (!), just in time for the show to
end. How rock is that?!
The only other stuff I remember: No other single show really stands out
for me (other
than my beloved Dr. Dog of course), but here are a few of
the mentionables.
Though I have to wait in the longest line of all of
SXSW (and, no, I am not stoned) to get in, LCD Sound
System (AKA James Murphy of the "we're so anti-hip,
we're hip" production team DFA) is a blast, the only
true dance/mosh party I attend all weekend. Stacks
of keyboards dominate the stage while the witty,
pissy Murphy shares bitter thoughts (calling us
whores, etc.) between mighty dance cuts. He is, after
all, the guy who made a lot of the "I was there first"
hipsters look really stupid (thank you!) in the
excellent track "Losing My Edge."
One of Portland, Oregon's best bands, Menomena, puts on,
and I hate to admit it, a pretty poor show. I think
this is because they — with all their fancy
electronic tinkering and heavy sound collage — are
much more of a studio band whose songs, while
mind-blowing in the headphones, don't translate well
live. Sadly, the oomph is missing.
Buzz band Be Your Own Pet are also a little
disappointing, something I hardly expected given the
incredible punk-rock stamina on their three-song EP.
But you gotta give the kids a break. Their average age is
16 (one member still wears braces) and all of a sudden
they got deals with XL and a slot at
SXSW. It must be overwhelming and, from the looks of
the show, nerve-wrecking. It bothers me slightly
that, while watching their hot lead singer rock out
onstage, the only thing I can think of is the Yeah
Yeah Yeahs, especially Karen O. After all, I saw her
strut the same stage just two years earlier. But
listening to their EP just last night, I'm thinking
I'm old and my ears are bitter. So I stop judging
and pretend I'm in high school again and dance
around. And I love it. They truly have something
amazing going on. Watch out.
The always-entertaining Spin invite-only party
at Stubb's — a large, hilly grassy area with outdoor
bars and picnic tables — is, well, entertaining.
Again. Spin of course always boasts the hottest,
most of-the-moment acts: Bloc Party, Futureheads,
Louis XIV, and one half-alive legend: New York Dolls.
The Futureheads are as fun and tight as ever, racing through their XTC/Jam-influenced
set of
Brit-punk. The perfected '80s dance grooves of Bloc
Party are a bit less fun, but still good in a "good
background music for conversation and free
beer-drinking" kind of way. Louis XIV are what I
expected: a boring rock band trying to get attention
by being sexy slimeballs with long butt rock hair;
it's extremely obvious this band is trying way too
hard. And, if one thing ruins a band, that's it. I
miss the New York Dolls. But they're really only
half there anyway.
Everyone wants to know what's this all about, what's
it all for, this SXSW festival? But I don't think you
really need to dig that deep to figure it out. It is
what it is. It's congregation. It's promotion. It's
celebration. It's a cool kids contest. And an
anti-cool kid's contest. It's all of these things
coming together to make it all look so very
complicated. But, in the end, it's clear. SXSW is the
perfect reminder of why we do what we do all year
long: 'cause we're all in this together.
The InsiderOne Daily Report appears on occasion.
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