I was very excited for my second day in Austin. Still on fire from the Miike Snow show, I was up and at it early in anticipation of the arrival of my musical partner in crime who was flying in from New York that morning. Not only do my buddy and I have a lot of fun getting into trouble together, but also he has top-notch taste in music, so I knew wherever he pointed me would be the right direction. My list of possible shows to catch for day two included: Dr. Dog, Sharon Von Etten, Peter Wolf Crier, Phantogram, and Marina and the Diamonds. While I may have missed all of the above, my resume for the day ended up being pretty amazing.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure, SXSW is known for its “day parties.” There are literally hundreds of free parties taking place all over the city, all day long, at bars and various makeshift venues, like parking lots and BBQ joints, hosting performances by all of the showcasing artists your heart desires. Did I mention that there’s usually free beer, food, and lots of eye candy? Following a tip from a friend, we started the day at the Pianos (NYC) Showcase at the Kung Fu Saloon just a wee bit outside of downtown. Ok, so we may have had to cross some sort of rainforest-like bridge, a highway, and a dusty path to get there but the King Fu Saloon was well worth the trek. I got to see my guy, Mr. “best album of 2009” (according to yours truly) Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, for the very first time. Hard to believe, I know. Yes, he’s from Brooklyn, but somehow his live show has eluded me until now. Miles played a selection of stripped down tunes from his second album, Summer of Fear Part 2, with just a keyboard and a mic. The songs, fuzzed out and cloaked in reverb, may have barely resembled the Dylan-esque look they owned on the record, but I assure you were no less visceral in person.
The second star of the showcase would have to be Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers, also from my fair city, NYC. To describe Shilpa is a bit of challenge probably because there’s really no comparison. There’s definitely some PJ Harvey in her family tree, but Shilpa is a lot less contained. Imagine pulverizing cymbals and guitars meet vicious jazz explosions and fast and dirty punk – that is my humble attempt at a description. Regardless, the music will give you chills. Pulled by the antique Harmonium to which it’s attached, Shilpa’s body wrenches and gyrates as it breathes in and spits out raging, bluesy tunes like, “Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire” and “Filthy and Free.” Her entire band is flawless but her drummer deserves a special shout out. Dave Grohl meet your son. The boy split his hand open during the set, didn’t flinch, and kept playing. Raw!
After the hanging with Shilpa and enjoying a few of the finest Bloody Marys that Austin has to offer, we headed over to the Central Presbyterian Church on 8th Street to meet the kids from Canadian label, Arts and Crafts. Award-winning singer songwriter and former front woman for New Buffalo, Sally Seltmann offered up a preview of her soon to be released album, Harmony to My Heartbeat. From the title, you can imagine it was a bit more PG than what we had chosen to see up to this point. Saccharine and sunny, Seltmann waxes poetic on pretty things from behind the keys in front of her. If Feist is your thing or your dream world looks like an Anthropologie catalogue, you might want to check her out.
After Seltmann, Timber Timbre (a.k.a. Taylor Kirk) took the stage, er..um…altar. I caught Timber Timbre during CMJ and was absolutely floored. Kirk delivered his authentic brand of dark and stormy blues accompanied by keyboard, lap steel, auto harp, and violin. With unnerving spook, Kirk’s molasses-like baritone brought all of the saints and sinners in the pews to their knees. I guess my dream world looks a little more like an abandoned cabin in the woods. I’m O.K. with that.
Next we tried to see The XX, but failed miserably for the first of many times over the weekend. The lines for this band are just unbelievable…even for press. Love the band, but I’ll wait to see them on my turf. Having come to the realization that we had probably taken in enough official stuff for one day, we decided to roll through the rest of the night looking for a little adventure. A friend knew about a “funk dance party” that was happening somewhere out there behind some abandoned train tracks. We followed him into the dark only to stumble upon a full on, raging indie-rave party behind some roadhouse biker bar. We had no idea who the band was, but they kind of sounded like they could be Passion Pit’s little cousin. It didn’t matter. It was a cool find in the middle of nowhere and we took it in before deciding to head back to the penthouse where we were staying. Did I mention the 31st floor wrap-around view of downtown Austin that we had? I finally felt the festival had hit its stride as we walked along the tracks singing Shanice’s “I Love Your Smile,” arm in arm, at the top of our lungs. The magic of last year was in full force by the end of day two and I was pumped for what was sure to follow.
