Highlights delivered as a bulleted list:
• The Twilight Sad’s two performances (day party at Emo’s Annex with free PBR; night time showcase at Mohawk). The young Scottish band is still cutting their teeth on American soil and are in the midst of a tour with ex-Helium singer Mary Timony. They hit the road with Aereogramme starting in April. While the general excitement level of the performance probably needs a little work, the music didn’t disappoint. It’s hard not to make comparisons to early Snow Patrol simply because the singer has the same accent as Gary Lightbody but the band makes more of a sonic sound ala My Bloody Valentine, Aereogramme, Mogwai. The Emo’s Annex show was particularly loud and the band did a nice job of keeping things short (4 or 5 songs in 25 or so minutes during the daytime performance). I talked to the bass player before the Mohawk show, asking about their travels in the US and he said they still haven’t gotten used to the long stretches of driving. “We can go from a gig in the furthest part of Scotland back home, almost across the country in 8 hours while in the US you can travel across just one state sometimes in 8 hours and still have to drive another 5 or 6 hours to get to the next gig.”
The Twilight Sad @ Emo’s Annex
• Running into Rachel Stolte of my favorite new band – Great Northern – at seemingly every venue throughout the day. I first spotted Rachel and her bandmates at the show put on by the Chicago Metro at Emo’s where we were there to see the Prairie Cartel featuring Blake and Mike of Fig Dish/Caviar and Scott of Local H. While last year’s performance at the American Apparel store was a DJ type gig (Mike manning the iPod with pre-recorded music and Scott singing atop it), this year’s performance was as a full live band. Basically, it’s Caviar with a new band and the addition of a new guitarist/singer (Scott Lucas). Not sure who the drummer was but our SXSW friend, Ryan (who’s going to hook us up today with free shoes), said the drummer was from a band called The New Constitution.
The Prairie Cartel @ Emo’s
• Stopped in at the Fader party where, for the first time in 4 years, I was on the exclusive guest list. Oh what power Donewaiting wields! Caught the last couple songs from the Winterkids, another import from Scotland (I think) and enjoyed their pop sound which reminded me just a tad bit of Idlewild. Free beer at the Fader party was nice and ran into Rachel and Great Northern once again as they left before Kenna came on. Kenna wasn’t bad but I couldn’t help thinking that he’s the kind of guy that college kids who don’t like “alternative” music will like. I can just imagine a sorority girl who listens to top-40 music telling her friends about this “underground” artist she discovered named Kenna. His music isn’t that far removed from the mainstream (I felt a little Peter Gabriel influence).
• At the Wonka Vision party I hooked up with Jason who runs the whole thing and Muriel, the photo editor who I’ve been working with on my upcoming May cover story on Silversun Pickups,
• Took Kevin’s advice to check out Yo Majesty at the Creekside Lounge. Kevin sold me on the trio by describing them as “3 300-pound black women from Tampa, Florida” though we discovered that their collective weight probably was closer to 700 pounds than 900. While sitting on the back porch of the venue waiting for them to start, Kevin mentioned that the woman currently performing indoors sounded like M.I.A. so I went in to check it out and discovered that it was Macromantics from Australia, one of the artists that I was hoping to catch while in Austin. Macromantics is Romy Hoffman who many years ago, in a different time and a different world, was a shy teenage bass player in Ben Lee’s rock band, Noise Addict. Now she’s a spitfire rapper who has come out of her shell and is making a name for herself in the US (her album is being released domestically by Kill Rock Stars and she just wrapped up a tour with Deerhoof).
Yo Majesty @ The Creekside Inn
Macromantics @ The Creekside Inn
• Caught Sea Wolf at the Blender Bar and (sorry Dusty) was a little bored by their set probably because I’m not really familiar with their stuff. Brian from Silversun Pickups sang their praises when I interviewed him a few years ago so maybe I had big expectations. Everybody in the band looked familiar – maybe they all play in other L.A. bands that I’ve seen in the past. While I don’t know Dusty White, the keyboard player, he hails from Columbus, Ohio and can be seen over on the Donewaiting message board using the handle TeenagerTeenagerTeenager.
• Swung by the Great Northern showcase just long enough to say hi to the band for the third time that day. I’ll see them perform today at the Filter party and before the week is over I’ll most likely be posting a short audio interview with them here. On the way out I ran into my favorite publicists, Juliana and Tim from Ink-Tank, who are working the Great Northern and Silversun Pickups CDs. It was nice to finally put a face with a name and I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of each other the next couple of days.
On today’s agenda: Filter party (Great Northern), Fadar party (Queens of the Stone Age listening party), Prairie Cartel (somewhere, I don’t remember where) and then tonight checking out The Shys, Magnolia Summer, Silver Needle (non-SXSW show) and hopefully Mary Weiss.