SXSW 2014: Wednesday (Part 1)

Coachwhips



There is some irony in the first band I saw at South by Southwest being a reunion band. Coachwhips, John Dwyer’s scrappy, noise-garage band from the mid-00s, had decided for whatever reason to play SXSW. Not to say they weren't great. Setting up on the ground rather than the stage, and plugging into their own amps rather than the venue's, the band immediately clicked into action and started rattling off song after song thanks, no doubt, to each one being usually less than two minutes. It probably wasn't the ideal situation to see them, a grassy & sunny field rather than a dark & dank bar basement, but it was fun and noisy nonetheless, especially when Dwyer got decent portion of the crowd to sing along and throw their hands up into the air when the band closed on “Peanut Butter and Jelly”.

Sophie



Sophie’s performance was an indication that almost every producer/DJ should be seen indoors during SXSW. He was good, actually performing a set, changing and remixing his tracks so they emerged rather than it feeling like he just hit “play” on his rig. Unfortunately, his gooey club tracks didn't mesh with the setting, and his minimal set up and lack of lights/visuals just left everyone to stare at the kid with orange hair onstage. Though props to everyone in the crowd who danced super awkwardly during the whole set; you all very much made the set.

Perfect Pussy



I wound up seeing Perfect Pussy several times over the course of South By, largely because of the standard they hit with their first show. Over the four months since I had first seen them, they had gotten even better; more frantic, more intense in every aspect. Guitarist Ray McAndrew and drummer Garrett Koloski played their instruments with a jubilant but fierce furry, and bassist Greg Ambler & keyboardist Shaun Sutkus just flailed behind their respective gear. Vocalist Meredith Graves easily matched her bandmates intensity; her movements onstage feeling both precise and wounded at the same time while she screamed the lyrics with a menacing desperation that could be felt by everyone, no matter how obstructed they were in the mix. The band was so loud they would up blowing have the speakers on stage three songs in and had to pause for a moment. Not that it mattered; once the power clicked back on they launched right back into the same burst of energy they started with. It was 18 very glorious minutes.

Ex Hex



Springy. If you had to describe Ex Hex in one word, that’s the one I think a lot of people would go for. Which says something, as everyone in this band, particularly frontwoman Mary Timony of Helium and more recently Wild Flag, are practically veterans of the indie music world. Yet here they were, having fun as they played their chewy, power-pop tinted guitar rock, being indulgent as all hell, and loving every minute of it. You could tell how much this band was just friends finally getting together and playing some songs right; it leaked immensely into their songs and their stage craft.

Live: Destruction Unit, Glue, SSLEEPERHOLD @ The North Door 11/22/13

24 hours. That’s how far in advance this Destruction Unit show was announced. $3 dollars, all ages, at a venue on the east side I’ve only been to once before that usually didn’t accommodate this sort of ruckus. Pop-up shows like this rarely ever happen in Austin, and they couldn’t have picked a worse night to call people out; it had dropped to 34 F from the high of 77 from the day before, and it had been raining all day, making the roads damp and dangerous. Despite all this though, the show was sold out when I got there, the usual gang hurdled in triple layers of thick wool coats and scarves, more than ready for the inevitable chaos that was to come this night.

SSLEEPERHOLD



I was worried about seeing SSLEEPERHOLD live. Not in the sense of whether I would enjoy it; I had listened to him a few hours before and thought his murky, dark synth work was excellent. But that sort of thing live usually only works in certain contexts, and is even harder to make engaging for people who’ve never heard it before. So SSLEEPERHOLD didn’t go for atmosphere; he went for straight for absorption. His amp was cracked so high that each beat punctured the body, rattled the skull, and he built & layered effects and cold, piercing synths in a way that only a true master could. Everyone was too scared to dance, even in the venue’s near pitch black lighting, though you could see as more and more people bobbled their heads and swayed their bodies as his set progressed. Rapturous applause erupted after he pulled the plug, and with his set had solidified the tension that would erupt further into the night.

Glue



The last time I had seen Glue was when they were opening for Hoax, playing a short but sweet set of some pretty cool, weirdo hardcore. Here, though, they really got to shine in all their demented glory. The seemed a little tighter, and played even more intensely than they had at the Mohawk. Frontman Harris was truly something, a coil that sprung and writhed across the stage; never pausing for a moment during their fifteen minutes. The crowd responded equally, a pit forming almost instantly, though with only about fifteen of the 120 people there going nuts, moshing in too wide a pit and jumping off the stage into people who instantly threw them onto the ground. My only guess is that people were reserving their energy for what was to come next.

Destruction Unit

This was the last stop on Destruction Unit’s tour, after being on the road for six months, having started with their Choas in Tejas performances back in June. The contrast between seeming them then and seeing them at the North Door was immeasurable. This was as close to the first time I saw them opening for the Men a year and a half ago, where a smoke machine covered the stage and firecrackers went off midway through the show, adding to the chaos of a band thrashing and going insane onstage. There was no smoke machine or fireworks tonight, but the strobe-like lights from the venue served as a good substitution, as the band launched into screeching and noisy songs that could only come into existence from the most demented and vile acid jams imaginable. The crowd wasn’t as violent as during Glue, but there were more people crashing together, and in the dim lighting it felt more dangerous. The band intensified through the night, the dementia leaking out of their songs, which got louder throughout their set, but never lost form or quality (the secret trick of Destruction Unit is the fact that as sprawling and twisted as their songs can get, they’re actually great, damaged psych punk). Two different guitarists fell into the crowd, and by the end of the set, the band was literally banging their instruments against their amps. Under normal circumstances it would have been a band falling apart onstage, but for them it was just another set. Not even the eight minutes one of the guitarist spent rewiring his pedals by the glow of cellphone light could detour their set. The road had broken them, and reshaped them into the psychotic band they once were, and it was a glorious & frightening thing to behold.

Live: Hoax/The Impalers/Kurraka/Glue @ The Mohawk (8/28/13)

I realized after this show ended on that hot August night, how different hardcore is experienced in a festival setting than it is at an actual show. Looking back, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I had only experienced hardcore bands at Fun Fun Fun Fest or Choas in Tejas. Worthy flag-bearers for the genre, but also festivals that always contained the quality that you could slip away when you wanted, to see less intense bands, or some relaxing, peaceful area. A hardcore show though, this one particularly, the intensity and energy couldn't be avoided for a second. You came to experience something brutal, something vital, and no one, especially once Hoax had finished, left without some sense of that being fulfilled.

Glue



It always upsets me when I catch an incredible opening act, only to discover that they are in fact a local band. When incredible music is being made right under your nose, it can make you feel like you're failing as a music writer. Discovering that fact also helps to explain situations, like why the crowd went bonkers right when Glue took the stage. It was this blend of snotty and weirdo hardcore that only kids under 22 can make, every song less two minute blasts of not fury, not rage, but some some evil feeling mix of psychotic and pissed anger that could only expressed through gritted teeth. They only played for about 15 minutes, which is expected, but if there was any band I wished could have gone on longer that night, it was Glue.

Kurraka



Kurraka were definitely the odd band out of the night. They played this very steady but deeply noisy & raw form of post-punk, never moving, and pumping one song after another. While this obviously meant to convey some sense of subdued intensity, instead all the songs wound up blurring together, and their was this unintended lifelessness in the band, especially after Glue had just come off stage. Under different circumstances, Kurraka would be so much better (and their last song was great, the high point of the set), but there, they just felt like a placeholder.

The Impalers



The Impalers set came roaring in as the biggest possible contrast to Kurraka's set. The five piece were the most technically experienced of the night. They unleashed this torrent of blistering and heavy hardcore, the stuff composed of wreaked vocal chords, and music that hovered between trash and d-beat. The problem was that the Impalers kept shoving in these metal aspects; generic, metal guitar solos, and obvious you-could-see-them-a-mile-a-way breakdowns. Even the frontman's constant hair spinning felt put on and unnecessary. There was nothing really bad about The Impalers, just the confusion as to why there had to be so many cliché moments in their songs.

Hoax



I had heard all the stories about how great/brutal Hoax were live. How they always played less than 15 minute shows that managed to be one of the most intense things you've ever experienced. After I saw them, I came to a realization; everything people said about Hoax live was a massive fucking understatement. Hoax fucking destroyed during their brief minutes onstage, even more screwed up and intense than they are on their records. As they set up, you could feel the almost evil tension that the band was going to unleash, something that was triggered by the first notes and a crowd that had laid relatively dormant during Kurraka's & The Impalers' sets. Before the first song, the frontman was already bleeding, self-inflected damage from the microphone or from throwing himself at the crowd, when he wasn't unleashing momentary bursts of torment onstage. By the second song, I'm sure most of the crowd was in similar shape. The show was such a sudden unleashment of fucked up energy, there was even a lull close to the end, of people so whipped out from the night. And then Hoax closed with "Fagget", and the last bits of anger that were reserved in the crowed were undo within that minute of just unbelievable hardcore.  

Live: Ty Segall/Holy Wave/Hidden Ritual @ The Mohawk 8/27/13

I wore my nice, non-trashed shoes to the show, thinking that nothing would happen to them. I mean I had seen Segall four times before, with each time the crowd going absolutely bonkers, but this was Ty Segall's acoustic tour, to support the mainly acoustic Sleeper. How crazy could a crowd go for four guys sitting on stage, singing unplugged songs that were reflections on death? I got my answer clear as they walking back, bruised and with beer on my head, my previously pristine shoes covered in grime, and the laces blacked from white.

Hidden Ritual



However, the night started on less intense note with Hidden Ritual. Local guys who pumped out some very Velvet Underground influenced psych. They were actually pretty good, the songs pleasant for the humidity that filled the air, with dark undercuts that could just be made out. However, any of those positive qualities were lost from the band's actual performance, which looked like four men bored out of their skull standing on a stage, right down to the sunglasses worn by almost every member. The music was not to be highly emotional or anything of that nature, but the band could have done something, anything, to make their music more interesting. Instead it just sat there, feeling empty.

Holy Wave



Thankfully, Holy Wave didn't continue this trend, and showed how an actual psych band is suppose to play. Nice, pretty light projections that weren't distracting and band members that were actually enjoying (dare I say having fun!) playing their songs. Their music was psych filled, sprawling and delayed into oblivion, but with enough of a garage bite underneath to add hooks and energy, to make sure nothing ever felt boring or stale. The fact that the band didn't take it that serious, trading off instruments between members for various songs, but just enough to make sure the set didn't deform or go spiraling out of control. Holy Wave jumped in, played some excellent psych-garage, and jumped out, serving as the perfect pick-me-up for the night.

Ty Segall



I at least have to give credit to the crowd; for a good two-thirds of the set, they remained static and didn't go inappropriately crazy. The set was billed as an acoustic show, and the crowd respected that, despite the palatable sense in the air of everyone wanting to go crazy as soon as they could. Which was a little understandable, Segall and his cohorts were not the least bit boring in their reduced intensity. Two guitars, one bass, and one small drum kit were all that were used that night, and yet Segall made it not only captivating but powerful. The band played through most of Sleeper, it's darker and heartfelt themes truly brought to the front by the band. And if the set was the band just playing that, with more introspective takes on his discography, it would have been a nice and fine show. But even an acoustic set up couldn't restrain Segall, and by the time he played "Caesar" the crowd just went crazy like they always had and had wanted to all night. People were not only moshing, but crowd surfing to an acoustic show, and it made perfect sense. Ty Segall will always have that type of power, unplugged or not.

Live: The Music Tapes Present The Traveling Imaginary

I know time machines aren't real, that they are a science that the world has yet to create, as much as we want them to exist. However, as much as I know that to be true, when the doors opened at the Scottish Rite Theater to let the small crowd in, it was like stepping into another time. The band’s massive circus tent For anyone who has qualms with Kickstarter and what it can actually accomplish needed only see pass through the venue’s door to see how incredible the results can be.



A miniature circus tent was there to greet everyone, decorated with the Music Tapes usual sense of forgotten charm and old big band music playing in the back. Frontman Julian Koster was out in about, directing everyone like a ringleader (with megaphone in hand) to the various games in around the tent that would serve as the night’s opening entertainment. Old school bell ringing games and beanbag tossing were recreated for the crowd to play. There was a small amount of awkwardness from everyone adjusting to having to interact with one another in order to play the games, but that was quickly overcome, especially by the time the massive group games took place like “Paris with Bells” with blindfolded people chasing others who were ringing bells. It evoked this sense of childhood joy and fun that had laid dominant in a lot of the crowd for the longest of times.



And, in a larger sense that Koster and The Music Tapes were trying to do with the entire night. They eventually started to usher people into the tent with singing saws, and once everyone was seated started playing an extremely old and lovely black and white cartoon short on a projector. Then you could hear music being played, the projection sheet was pulled down, and there stood the Music Tapes, the night’s main entertainment at center stage. Now I won’t try to capture everything that happened during those 80 minutes, mainly because that would involve spoiling the magic of the event. Suffice to say that it was completely magical; band members came left throughout the night as the necessary banjos, singing saws, , trombones, horns, and 7-foot Tall Metronome were needed (mostly from Robbie Cucchiaro, the second half of the Music Tapes, who provided some the nights best silent entertainment as a human gramophone and massive circus entertainer). In between Koster who relay old stories his grandfather had told him, a skit was performed to explain the 7-foot Tall Metronome, confetti snow was dropped, and a giant snowman was erected and soon melted. At one point a guy in gorilla outfit came out to play the orchestra chimes, and it didn’t seem out of place.



The finale though was something else, as Koster got little kids in the crowd to lower a present that had been hanging over the crowd, all the while speaking this lovely spoken word piece about finding your childhood in the box. He then finished by playing “Takeshi and Elijah”, a beautifully sparse song that is almost only Koster and his banjo strumming out this nearly haunting tune about someone lost returning that builds into an explosive crescendo with all six people of the band performing. It was, along with the night itself, truly something to behold. The tour was dubbed The Traveling Imaginary, and after the show I'm sure,sure, that everyone in the audience understood why. With such irony and self-awareness attached to every action a band does these days, this concert, if it can be reduced to just that, was the furthest thing from those two things. Seeing The Music Tapes perform was one of the most earnest and completely magical things I've seen in my entire life.

Live: Youth Lagoon/Majical Cloudz @ The Mohawk 4/24/13

The Youth Lagoon/Majical Cloudz show was a testament to the power of intimacy. The different forms it can take, and how one artist can use it in the grandest sense, while another can channel it in its most reduced form. Youth Lagoon and Majical Cloudz operate on opposite sides of the spectrum with their music, so it was a bit of a surprise how well their sets worked together. Their sounds complemented one another in the oddest ways, the straight faced honesty of Majical Cloudz's electronica serving an adequate contrast to Youth Lagoon's blooming neo-psychedlia. All those difference, though lead to a deeply, deeply spellbinding night.

Majical Cloudz



Looking back on it, Majical Cloudz's set should not have worked as well as it did. Majical Cloudz live is just Matthew Otto recreating the band's atmospheric beats with a small amount of electronics, while Devon Welsh sings into a microphone. There are no flourishes to what either of them were doing; it was a completely minimal set up to match their completely minimal music, in a completely outdoor venue. And yet together they pulled off a completely memorizing set, possibly one that was even greater than Youth Lagoon's. Majical Cloudz have this incredible ability to pluck atmosphere and intensity out of thin air and broadcast it out to everyone in attendance, forcing everyone to hush themselves and pay attention. A hush fell over the crowd as Majical Cloudz performed, so much so that by the time "Childhood's End" just three songs in, there was a near silence through out. Just quiet, powerful electronica that echoed in the chest.

Youth Lagoon



At the very least, Youth Lagoon's set Wednesday night showed how much the band has improved with their live performance. Wondrous Bughouse's opening cut "Through Mind and Back" poured out the speakers before anyone was on stage, while tempered neon lighting started going off, both of which set the tone for the night. Right on cue everyone came on stage, and Trevor Power and Co. blasted into "Mute", capturing every musical shade and bleep on stage that they had crafted on record. This was in large part thanks to the full band configuration, which was able to do so much more in comparison to when I saw Youth Lagoon perform as beat-triggering duo more than a year ago. There was little communication with the crowd, with Youth Lagoon instead crafting a set that was made in every sense for the audience to lose themselves in.

At times it was almost too much, with the heavy, pure instrumental sections of Wondrous Bughouse's songs becoming much more pronounced on stage then on record. However, the monetary punctuations of choice cuts from The Year of Hibernation, reworked perfectly as to not lose their intimacy but still work within the set, gave the show life just when it needed it. There was something truly special when the crowd started not only moving, but singing along to the entirety of "17". The length of the new songs made the set fly by, letting them only perform what felt like 10 songs during their 50 minute set. However, when they stepped back on stage for the encore, they elevated the set. They closed with "July", possibly the most intimate song within their discography, and more than likely the first taste anyone had with Youth Lagoon, and turned it into a reverb smothered anthem, one that rang and chimed and eventually drifted into the night.

SXSW 2013: Saturday (Part 2)

The Stargazer Lilies @ The Velveeta Room



The Stargazer Lilies for whatever wonderful reason have decided to fulfill their name, projecting serine video clips of flower filled fields and decorating the stage with their namesake flower. All this was done to enhance the moodiness and atmosphere of their music, which they might have pulled off even better than Experimental Aircraft. Each song built before cascading into pure, swirling, shoegaze bliss. As intact as that atmosphere started out with, the band shattered it as they become progressively noisier and noisier, so much that by the end of it the guitarist was smashing himself into his amp with his guitar to produce the right level of noise. Needless to say, Stargazer Lilies was absolutely wonderful hearing damaging goodness.

Dosh @ The Velveeta Room



Dosh's set should have halted the entire flow of the shoegaze fulled showcase, but instead he sort of served as the perfect palette cleanser. A after bring what looked like the main components of a recording studio onto the stage, Dosh procededs to create some of the loveliest loop music in the world. Augmented by a bassist and guitarist who seemed new to the situation but where nonetheless on point as hell, it was a feat to behold as Dosh jumping from his drum kit, a metal fish skeleton like hammered dulcimer, and switch board to splice everything together as the songs grew and grew. There were only four songs played, but each was still an amazingly captivating sprawl to behold. How music that meticulous could feel so improvised I'll never know.

Nothing @ The Velveeta Room



Death by shoegaze is realm true event that can happen, and I came as close as I've ever come to it when Nothing took the stage. Looking like a bunch of grizzled, hardcore guys who had walked in from an adjacent bar, they proceeded to produce some of the most powerful, intense, ear-bursting, and emotional shoegaze I've heard in a long, LONG time. It was blur, a cyclone of guitar fury that was something akin to the most heavenly piercing demonic screams right in your ear as the rhythm section constantly battered your skull into the ground. When Nothing started to play the void opened up, you fell in, and no one escaped until their 25 minutes had passed. It passed in the blink in the eye, but god if that moment wasn't just unimaginably incredible. And that was it. My hearing was shot, my knees, after four long days, were finally buckling, and I knew nothing would possibly be able to top Nothing. I closed out my South by Southwest 2013 experience with possibly the most intense musical experience of the fest; and it was glorious.

SXSW 2013: Saturday (Part 1)

METZ @ The Mohawk



My last day of SXSW started with the loudest bang possible in the form of METZ. They were one of the top bands I wanted to catch at SXSW above all else, and they did not fucking disappoint. The same monstorous noise rock was in full form at the Mohawk, despite the fact they more than likely had played a billion other shows over the past four days. However, there they stood grinning massively just for getting to play, in between screaming the lyrics until their throats started to shred and pounding their instuments so hard I thought they might shatter at a moment's notice. Frontman Alex Edkins was particularly impressive in his ability flail around and yet create the most headache inducing ruckus I've heard in a long time. No joke, I literally had a headache after METZ's set, and I mean that as the greatest complement possible. The only complaint of the set wasn't with METZ's themselves, but with the audience, who refused to budge an inch during the entire set. I know it was 2:00 P.M. on the last day of SXSW, but it was still doesn't excuse some part of your body should be slamming into someone else's when METZ are on stage. That's just common courtesy.

Toxie @ The Yellow Jacket Social Club



Toxie's set was one of those just pure unlucky circumstances of SXSW. After an hour delay, they got on stage to a tiny crowd and their vocals at a near whisper compared to the rest of the instruments. Worse, the sound guy in charge of it all basically just walked off after their set began, giving the band no chance of repairing their sound or improving their set. Which is a real shame because you could tell Toxie has some wonderful pop tunes under their belt, fully formed for a band that has just one single under their belt. But for anyone who was watching them here, they only got half the experience.

Dreamend @ The Velveeta Room



Dreamend’s records are dense, highly layered pieces of fuzz-folk that swell and burst almost like an orchestra at times. So it was a wonder to me as to how they would recreate that experience in a live setting. And in a possibly very smart move, they didn’t. Reduced to just a guitar and drum duo, the band just bashed on the instruments, with the only allusion to their usual sound being a handmade microphone mask that frontman Ryan Graveface donned to recreate the albums' spooky vocals and semi-creepy vibes. What was still present though, was the amount of catharsis in the music. As distorted as the music and vocals were, the emotions came out crystal clear; anguish, turmoil, sadness, and tiniest hint of rising above all of it. I'll never understand why they decided to only play for 22 minutes; I'm sure they could have gone on for hours.

Experimental Aircraft @ The Velveeta Room



Experimental Aircraft are an old '90s shoegaze band I had never heard of before playing the Graveface showcase. They definitely pulled from the more atmospheric elements of the genre, concentrating on builds and slow songs just as much as the distortion bursts, pushing them more into the post-shoegaze realm. There was a moment near the end of the set where the frontwomen even sat down and started playing an electric autoharp, more than confirming their view on mood vs. intensity. However, they still sound great, especially when they decided to start really utilizing the guitar they had at hand and started blasting int blistering 7 minute sprawls of songs that never let up on their energy. More so, the band set the stage for the dreamy, ear shattering bliss that was going to take over the showcase.

SXSW 2013: Friday (Part 2)

Jim James



Wanting to describe Jim James’ set as weird seems inappropriate, especially after who performed after him, but his solo performance wasn’t anything close to what I was expecting. I hadn’t heard a bit of the My Morning Jacket frontman’s new solo album, so when the beats and electronic hum started pouring out of the speakers, it caught me off guard. Then James himself strolled on stage, and started singing electronic choir songs to the crowd. Everything about the set just felt surreal, from the Sunday church atmosphere the James and his bandmates were trying to create to the Flying V guitar was that placed in the center of the stage for James to unleash a crazy solo on at opportune moments. The unfortunate part being that as tight as the band was on stage (very), and however interesting the performance (captivating to say the least), nothing stuck. It was such a hodpodge of different elements, like a ‘70s rock band layered over a jam band with trip-hop beats going off that it just sounded like a giant mess. As interesting as Jim James was trying to be, it was also self-indulgence at its worst.



The Flaming Lips



I got to Auditorium Shores at 3 to make sure I got the best spot possible to see The Flaming Lips. Gates didn't open until 3:45, dust filled the air & ground, and the sun had decided on that day alone to flip from the start of spring to feeling like mid summer. And it was so, so worth it. I don't care what anyone says, The Flaming Lips put on possibly the best show of SXSW.

The set consisted mostly of the band playing the entirety of their new album The Terror. The tone was set early, as weird circular mirrors were placed all around the stage, along with white tubing layered all around. All of which was nothing compared to Wayne Coyne himself, who had mounds of florescent tubes placed everywhere on his body, while cradling a plastic but eerie looking baby. Then the music began, and it was incredible. The Terror is everything I wanted Embryonic to be; it's a dark but eventually triumphant epic that captures so many bleaker and more powerful emotions that the Lips rarely touch on in this way. The live show matched this exactly; they stripped away many of the customs, there were no confetti cannons, and there were no random dancers on stage. Instead, dark lighting and distorted, epileptic inducing images were projected during the songs, which sounded incredibly noisy, twisted, at times like Gang of Four playing psych music on the most intense acid imaginable. Yet, by the third song "Try To Explain", when the halo like light circle lowered around Coyne, and the lights and song itself just exploded, the potency of the music was undeniable. The Terror will blow minds, I guarantee it. Then, as the best encore imaginable, the band played a solid chunk of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. It was a sort of perfect pallet cleanser, and the pop like emotions of "Fight Test" and the title track finally induced the sing-alongs the crowd had been containing during the entire set. When the closed with "Do You Realize??", bring Jim James onstage to sing it together, it was just pure euphoria. There was nothing quite like it during the entire festival.

SXSW 2013: Friday (Part 1)

Colleen Green @ The North Door



Colleen Green's set was a case of a good artist playing at the wrong time at the wrong venue. The North Door stage was just big enough to make a solo artist like Green look small with just her guitar and drum machine. Not to mention the semi-indifference and chatter of the crowd, along with the pizza the venue kept bringing out for everyone didn't help with the atmosphere at all. Still, Green powered through as much as she could, playing her garage-pop to view people, which in fact was catchy as hell. Beachy, sleepy, and stoner vibes all persisted through the songs, with just enough of a nostalgic bubblegum-punk flair to them to make them stick in your head. Green is probably what would have happened if Dum Dum Girls had stayed a solo project and moved to California. I just wish I had seen it on better terms.

Nü Sensae @ The North Door



There is no other way to say it other than Nü Sensae's set at The North Door was nothing short of absolutely ferocious. They were an 18 minute blast of catchy but crushing post-hardcore fury that never let up and got better with each passing song. They were smart with their ruckus, knowing just the right moments to let up before proceeding to burst ear drums again. Frontwomen Andrea Lukić jumped between an icy monotone and nails on chalkboard screeches within the same songs, with both styles silenced anyone in the crowd and made them stare at the stage, if her thick as mud bass riffs weren't doing that already. Despite the noise they were creating Nü Sensae's six years as a band shined throughout the set, with them playing tight as hell, despite Lukić saying she had caught the SXSW bug (not that you could possibly tell). And it was that combination, fury matched with focus, that made them so great.

Jacuzzi Boys @ The North Door



Hearing Jacuzzi Boys play on Friday, it struck me that they hadn't changed at all since I caught them a little more than a year ago when they opened for King Khan and the Shrines. And that isn't really a bad thing. They still play a very awesome brand of garage rock, touched with bits of sunshine and surf from their native Florida. They debuted a bunch of new songs, which sounded just as good and catchy as their older catalog. And they still rocked on stage, just like they did a year ago. Jacuzzi Boys were just a nice, fun, non-life changing set at SXSW. Sometimes, amid all the chaos of the event, that's OK.

Divine Fits @ Auditorium Shores



I don't know if it was because of all the touring, or the five shows they had played before this one, but the Divine Fits did one of the impossibles and sounded better then when I saw them live at Stubb's. Britt Daniel's and Dan Boeckner's interplay has been updated from tight as hell to flat out impeccable. Sam Brown's drumming, and the band's secret weapon, was just bombast, crashing and ringing through out the dusty fields of Auditorium Shores. The band didn't show an ounce of exhaustion, instead beaming and practically jumping around the stage during every song. As unindie as it is to say, Divine Fits were meant to play gigantic stages like this, and they owned this one. The one possible slight against the set was it being too short due to time constrictions, but that didn't stop closer "Shivers" from still sounding as goosebump inducing as ever.

SXSW 2013: Thursday (Part 2)

Delorean @ 1100 Warehouse



It's always weird to remember that Delorean are an actual band rather than one lone guy manipulating sample tracks and beats on his laptop. Weirder still is seeing those same producer influenced club jams being reproduced live, by the same band member, without a laptop or computer in sight. Delorean haven't released any music since 2010, so it's nice to see they could get a placid of South By Southwest concert goes (at a Pitchfork showcase no less) to dance a little. Delorean's songs tended to blur together after a while, but that's OK because it was a nice soundtrack for the afternoon, and an even better change of pace from the magnitude of guitar bands I had been drenching my ears in for the past day and a half.     

Youth Lagoon @ 1100 Warehouse



Two songs; that's all the outside crowd got of Youth Lagoon for the final performance at the Pitchfork day show. Due to the entire showcase running 20 minutes behind, and a far too long sound check that caused the whole crowd to grow angsty, Youth Lagoon stated 30 minutes later then they should have. To be fair, the songs the band did perform sounded incredible; frontman Trevor Power voice sounded impeccable and had a new confidence that wasn't there when I saw him last year. His bandmates were stellar, and together they managed to reproduce point by point every tone and weird sound that is embedded into Wondrous Bughouse. However, only getting two songs was still horrible, and needless to say the entire crowd almost immediately started booing and begging for just one more song once Powers's announced that their just finished "Attic Doctor" was it. However, the cries feel on deaf ears and the 6:00 P.M. outdoors curfew. The Youth Lagoon set was probably my most disappointing set of SXSW; if just because of circumstance alone.

Night Beds @ Red 7



Night Beds caught me completely by surprise, mainly because I came into their set with one of the worst mindsets imaginable during a SXSW; knowing in advance how a band would sound and what they would be like live. Night Beds are cut from the same cloth as much of their indie folk contemporaries: twangy-falsetto from the frontman, slow-burning and tons of passion in every song, a hints of some sort of a country influence, here courtesy of the lap-steel playing band member onstage. However, Night Beds raised so much higher than those similarities while performing; every track had a soaring quality to it, so even when it just began with Winston Yellen's hushed vocals and quiet strumming, by the end the song closed with crashing drums and all three guitarist ringing thunderously. Even with the five members and all their equipment looking claustrophobic on stage, their energy was never contained, so much so that by the end of the set Yellen smashed his guitar into his mic stand, sending it flying. And it wound up being the most appropriate ending to a set that was just bursting with energy.  

Bleached @ Red 7



I wanted this to be the set that converted me into a Bleached fan. Their sunny garage-pop has been the talk of the blogosphere for nearly a year and a half, and for the life of me I can't get into them like everyone else. And unfortunately, their just cemented the fact for me. There was nothing wrong with the set per se; the Clavin sisters and co. were tight and lively, the band's harmonies never faltering, and the songs were all less than three minutes bursts of pop hooks and pure energy. And I think that was the problem. Nothing about their sound grabs me like it should, as if their music was filling out the "new garage rock band" Madlib, even if this set was filled with brand new material. Their is a soul lacking in their music that stops me from connecting to it like I want to. Although "Searching Through the Past" was awesome live, so maybe there is hope.

SXSW 2013: Thursday (Part 1)

California X @ 1100 Warehouse



California X-I caught the stoner four piece by accident, arriving early to the Pitchfork showcase and braving the 30 minute delay and 300+ person line to get into the 1100 Warehouse. The band looked like they were the metal kids from a ‘80s high school movie, and sounded liked they were pulled out of the alternative rock scene circa exactly 1990. Their guitar fury was less Dinosaur Jr. (though they are definitely there in the mix) than people have been saying, and closer to a more masculine taken on what peers Milk Music are making. Whatever their idols, the band was all crunchy guitar riff glory and battered cymbal crashes during their all too brief set (a trend set for the day for any band playing outside during Pitchfork’s showcase). It was a good 18 minutes of old school indie rock bliss that got the ears ringing properly for the rest of the day.

Waxahatchee @ 1100 Warehouse



Of course, Waxahachee, who performed next, would be the polar, but perfect, opposite to what was just on stage. Katie Crutchfield demonstrated her power over her stage and audience; despite it being 1:30 P.M. with noises bustling all around, anyone within a 40 foot radius was pulled into her world. Even someone like me, who is unfamiliar with Waxahachee's songs themselves, could feel their emotional center (filled with knotty sadness and longing) become present and understood instantly. Whether it was just Crutchfield strumming on her guitar, or backed up by her bassist and drummer, all five songs felt equally sparse, and no less potent.

Shugo Tokumaru @ Kenny Dorham's Back Yard



During every South by Southwest, because of how it is structured, and music pouring out of every orifice around you, you will stumble onto a band you have never heard of before seeing them right then and there, and fall absolutely in love. That is what it was like when I saw Shugo Tokumaru. Getting to the We Listen to You day party (Hi Zack!) early to catch Nerves Junior, and wound up catching most of Tokumaru's set too. And it was marvelous! Not only was the band tight as hell with Tokumaru being a master guitar player, a drummer who played the most irregular patterns yet never missed a beat, and a multi-instrument who jumped between accordion, glockenspiel, and kazoo within the same song, but good god the songs. Some of thee most creative, original, joyous indie-pop songs I have heard in a long time. And the band was crafting them onstage so precisely, they might as well have been playing the record itself on stage. One of my absolute favorite and best discoveries of SXSW.

Nerves Junior @ Kenny Dorham's Back Yard



Nerves Junior were the band I saw bring the most things on stage during SXSW; just heaps of cords, pedals, instruments, and machines that you couldn't quite discern what they were exactly other than to make some sort of sound. It was all worth it though because Nerves Junior sounded great during their 25 minutes on stage. The tension of their songs was an ever present, and everything being precious and mechanical (in the best way possible) in their reconstruction pf their electronica shaded experimental rock. They band fell into their music, just losing themselves while playing, especially evident by their frontman who was trying to contain his body from flailing around while playing. I would have preferred to seem them in a darkened club rather the sunny knoll I was on, but it's a testament to Nerves Junior that they over came any diminish from "atmosphere", and pulled off such a powerful set.