SXSW 2009 - Saturday (Pt. 2): Going Wild And Turning A Blind Eye

Preparing for the last full night of SXSW is always a little overwhelming, and with this year’s reinstated after-parties and after-after-parties, it sounded like it was going to be a night only 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan could fully enjoy.  I settled in at Stubb’s for the full line-up, starting with White Lies.  Churning out their dark sound magnified by dramatic stage lighting, White Lies played most of their debut album, including “Farewell to the fairground” and “To lose my life,” and unleashed an extraordinary guitar finish on “Fifty on our foreheads.”  When they finally got to their closing anthem, “Death,” it was impossible not to be completely overtaken by the blaring guitars.  This was the moment of the festival that I rocked out the hardest.

Razorlight came out next, offering up a handful of songs told through inflated story-telling; Johnny Borrell shouting “are you really going to do it this time?” over and over on “In the morning.”  When they finished, dropping the Doors’ “Break on through” bass line, they were met with much applause. 

The crowd thickened and awaited the arrival of PJ Harvey, who took the stage in a white tube dress decked out with multiple wide white belts and a three-pronged white piece sticking out of her hair.  Joined by John Parish and a backing band, Harvey spent all her time at the mic or strolling around in a very limited space, crooning or shouting.  There seemed to be a very definite division between old songs and new – the old being full of fiery vocals and the new being more ethereal and whimsical.  While she’s an artist who has continually drawn much praise, let’s just say that I didn’t rush back to my hotel to download her albums. 

Moving underneath Stubb’s porch, I leaned against a staircase and was quickly surrounded by some middle-aged ladies whooping for the arrival of the Indigo Girls.  This was probably the point in the evening where I could have run off to see Janelle Monae or some other brand new act, but it felt nice to relax and listen to “Closer to Fine” and “Love of our lives.”  They played a couple new tracks, bemoaned being on a big label, and generally pleased the crowd with their simple sincere guitar songs.  Not quite Indigo Girls Gone Wild, but nice and gentle. 

When it was close to 1am, the act we’d all been waiting for arrived:  Third Eye Blind.  I’d be lying if I claimed I wasn’t a little excited to be seeing them.  After all, I had once forced my friends to listen to their albums back-to-back-to-back on a long car trip.  Like many people I had nostalgic feelings about their first album, but I also genuinely felt that their follow up albums were full of well-written, shoot-from-the-hip pop gems.  I had been talking with some folks about how 3EB often gets unfairly grouped with lesser ‘90s acts, like Gin Blossoms, Eve 6 and Sugar Ray – though I’d always connected them more with Weezer and Sublime. 

Stephan Jenkins and co. started the set with “Non Dairy Creamer” and filled most of the next hour with new material.  Playing to a crowd that was dying to hear “How’s It Going To Be” and “Deep Inside of You,” it wasn’t quite satisfying to get only a few glimpses of the past – “Never Let You Go,” “Jumper,” and their closer “Crystal Baller.”  The crowd was aching to sing along (and did so to the songs they knew), but it was tough to sell us on new songs like “Why Can’t You Be” (where the female character in the song complains that the narrator is not as good as her shower massager).  For all 3EB’s polish and sheen, the new songs seemed to employ more complicated metaphors that the old stuff, and maybe it was the catchy familiarity that we were longing for.

Eschewing the after and after-after parties, I went to my hotel and did what any Third Eye Blind fan would do – listened to “I Want You” and “Blinded” on repeat a few times and went to bed.  

SXSW 2009 Saturday - Pt. 2

SXSW 2009 - Saturday: Making waves and lifting chairs

During SXSW Austin becomes a hipster mecca, or at the very least a faux hipster mecca – a place where it’s okay to wear short-shorts and cowboy boots or leopard print lycra leggings and denim skirts.  As I stood outside Emo’s, two chicks in vintage dresses and oversized sunglasses chatted about how funny that hipster Olympics video was – and I wondered if they only liked it ironically.  While the music is always at the forefront of the festival, the fashion is certainly worth noting – and with that, the honor of “most ironic t-shirt” must go to the girl wearing a blue tee stating “F*** The Metric System.”  Really?  That’s what you’re worked up about?  All this time I’ve been wondering what hipsters were so ticked off about, now I know.

Trying to get an earlier start on the day, I swung by Cedar Street at 1:30 to see Chairlift at the Filter party.  While the band had obviously created quite a buzz at CMJ, and scored big with “Bruises” thanks to a ubiquitous iPod commercial, their super-short set felt a little lacking. Seeing as most bands are indoor creatures of the night and it was very early and very out-of-doors, I’m willing to cut them a little slack.  Clad in a blue silk nightshirt and spiderweb tights, the Sofia Coppola-looking Caroline Polchek rolled out genuinely beautiful vocals while massaging her keyboard on “Planet Health.”  Playing “Bruises” and one other track, the Brooklyn band left the crowd feeling all too mellow.

In need of a good jolt, I dashed off to the Canvas thinking I was going to see Oakland act Wallpaper.  My schedule had gotten a little confused, and I walked in on Big Stereo DJs throwing down beats to a ragged crowd of about 20.  The place was nearly empty – but that just meant there was more space to dance.  A row of photographers, clearly thinking they would be shooting in a large crowd, decided to take the opportunity to rock out.  With two songs left in the set, the photographers jumped on stage, dancing around, equipment and all.  Eventually, the rhythm is going to get you.

By 2:15 I was at the Fader Fort getting ready for San Diego dude Wavves (Nathan Williams).  Wearing retro Ray-Bans (that he would eventually knock off with his crazy rotary head-spinning), Williams looked the part of a surfer Buddy Holly gone electric.  While the fest was abuzz with news of Rachael Ray and Kanye West, I slid into the Red Eyed Fly to watch LA act Princeton pound out snap-happy tunes like “Calypso Gold.”  Looking like they could be Tokyo Police Club’s younger brothers, the boys played delightful rock with Vampire Weekend-style appeal. 

At 3:30 there was already a line outside Latitude 30 for the British Music party.  Wave Machines warmed things up with their falsetto-tinged upbeat rock, the band members hiding their faces behind odd masks of human faces.  Waiting for the Whip, a seven foot tall dude from Manchester asked if I liked to dance.  I didn’t ask if that was a rhetorical question (mainly because I couldn’t understand his quick and thick English accent), but I was more than happy to move to the Whip’s awesome electro rock.

SXSW 2009 Saturday - Pt. 1

SXSW 2009 - Friday: Get your fingernails done and your windows tinted

At 2pm Emo’s JR was crowded with folks invading the Pitchfork party to see the band with all the buzz, Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. The New York four-piece turned out snappy rock that didn’t disappoint – sounding like Blonde Redhead given the Uma Thurman in “Pulp Fiction” shot-of-adrenaline-to-the-heart treatment. While the guitarlines sounded much the same from song to song, chances are they may have thought they’d already played that song – as they’ve been slated to play some 10 showcases during the weekend.

Pains was followed up by another band inciting a Blonde Redhead reference – School Of Seven Bells, the New York act composed of twin sisters and Benjamin Curtis (from Secret Machines) – the gender reverse of Blonde Redhead. Opening up for M83 last year, SVIIB share that act’s ethereal dreaminess, which, live, you can feel all over. Literally – I can still feel the bass.

At 3:30, I stopped off at the Onion party, where Parenthetical Girls’ Zac Pennington owned the stage (and most of the floor in front of the stage), conducting a symphony in his head and prancing in a brown and green sweater vest. With a sound that’s part Colin Meloy part Jens Lekman, and mostly xylophone, Pennington led the set with Kevin Barnes-like swagger (if you can call it that).

I ducked out hoping to catch White Lies at Cedar Street, but showed up just in time to catch the end of Late Of The Pier, who, during their last song, got involved in a fist fight with security. While punches were being thrown and one of the band members was escorted up the exit stairs, the band continued on, determined to finish. The crowd was baffled, and after some terse words, the band was allowed to finish it off, much to the crowd’s delight.

I jetted over to the industrial-sized Fader Fort, along with a throng of thousands – the fort had moved this year from next to the freeway downtown, to under and across from the freeway south of downtown. At 6pm I caught Hatcham Social, who’d played the SPIN party earlier in the day. The UK group offered some nice keyboard playing, and the lead singer alternated sliding a beer bottle and a drumstick along his guitar strings.

The band I had really come out to see though was Tinted Windows, the super-group composed of – are you ready for this? – James Iha (formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne bassist, and scribe of most of the “Colbert Christmas” songs), and fronted by one of the Hanson brothers (Taylor). Yeah. If there was an award for most unexpected musical collaboration, this might be the winner. Clad in tight red hipster Levi’s and sporting silver framed cat eye-style sunglasses, Taylor Hanson crooned and the girls swooned and sang along to “Kind of a Girl.” Song after song the crowd rocked along, and it dawned on me that as weird as this collaboration seemed – they were cranking out the catchiest songs ever.

After a couple of minor dalliances (including a hip hop party where Mickey Factz was playing), I finished off the night at Club DeVille, watching a bleary-eyed crowd chant along to Asher Roth’s ode to getting wasted on Miller Light, “I Love College.” One of the DJs from Flostradamus mixed up Kayne West’s “Love Lockdown” between sets, and Kid Sister polished off the evening. In a Yankee’s cap and black and white t-shirt she worked her attitude, despite impending laryngitis on “Pro Nails.” It was late and the set was short (three songs), but the fans were pleased – or at least really blitzed.

SXSW 2009 Friday

SXSW 2009 - Thursday: Datarockin' All Night Long

It’s 1am and I’m standing in front of four grown men wearing red tracksuits and huge tinted sunglasses playing mini-guitars singing about Molly Ringwald.  The four men in question are Datarock, and their set at Emo’s Annex was played with such soaring bravado it conjured a coupling of Daft Punk and Flight Of The Conchords.  Between playing a mean saxophone and shaking his tambourine, one of the band members waded through the crowd, encouraging a full-on dance party.  Datarock killed it on “Fa-Fa-Fa,” hoisting the microphone into the crowd so the front row could sing along.

Datarock was preceded by Little Boots – an English chick who looked like Lady Gaga crossed with Sienna Miller and sounded something like Gaga by way of Duffy.  In a tight black strapless dress with a silver sequined triangle appliqué, and five-inch heels, Little Boots shouted “I’m gonna take you out tonight” to a techno beat and had everybody shaking it.

Earlier in the evening I caught an Emo’s triple-feature – Wild Light, Cut Off Your Hands, and Passion Pit. 

The New Hampshire four-piece Wild Light said they were starting their set with a song called “Party,” but it wasn’t until mid-way through their set that the crowd was behind them enough to feel the party vibe.  Playing a collection of relatively upbeat rock songs, the boys found their groove playing their first single “California On My Mind,” jumping up and down and clapping with the crowd.

Wild Light’s energy couldn’t touch that of New Zealanders Cut Off Your Hands who came out swinging – the lead singer banging the tambourine and jumping onto the drum set.  It’s no wonder these boys are so skinny.  Just as the hipster kids in the front rows started dancing, the singer dived into the crowd singing “Happy As Can Be.” Though, when landed on, the hipster kids weren’t quite that happy.

Finally, Passion Pit was met with much anticipation – bringing five keyboards onto the stage and allowing the singer’s crazy vocal squealing to pair with tight elecro rhythms.  Careful not to smear the extra-thick purple hand stamp branded on my wrist by Emo’s, I snuck out the back artists’ exit (by accident) and out to search for more music.

SXSW 2009 Thursday

Songs I Can't Get Out Of My Head: Vol. 11

Lily Allen - "Everyone's At It" 

The first track off her just-released "It's Not Me, It's You" disc, here Allen muses on addiction (specifically in pill form).  

Metric - "Help I'm Alive" 

From the forthcoming album "Fantasies" due out in April, Metric creates a poppy tune that lies somewhere between "Combat Baby" and "Monster Hospital." 

Cut Off Your Hands - "Let's Get Out Of Here"

Already generating pre-SXSW buzz (probably because they're slated to play 10 shows over 4 days), New Zealand act Cut Off Your Hands has a lot on their plate and they're gearing up to tour with Ra Ra Riot and Passion Pit.  With a little tambourine tap, this track, off last year's "You & I" sounds like it was snatched from the Kooks' catalogue.  

MGMT - "Kids (Soulwax Remix)"

There are a ton of MGMT remixes floating around out there (25 of them chronicled by SPIN) -- Soulwax does this one right with some funky breaks usually only reserved for the likes of Hot Chip.  

Volume 11