popwreckoning

My editor Bethany informed me that acquiring this press pass means I have to actually post some articles. Having thought about this for a few hours (minutes) I’ve determined my angle.

I had three main goals for attending this year’s SXSW: helping to put on the MidCoast Takeover, promoting the band I’m managing (The Grisly Hand), and to see a ton of bands.

Everyone’s covering the bands, so I’m going to cover my attempts at getting The Grisly Hand on the national stage.

Kansas City country-rockers The Grisly Hand performed Saturday, November 20, at Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club in Kansas City, MO to a near-capacity crowd in celebration of their new CD/EP, Safe House. You can purchase Safe House on iTunes, or on CD and Vinyl in Kansas City-area record stores.

On Saturday, Kansas City celebrated the 6th annual Crossroads Music Fest. Unfortunately, Kansas City was celebrating a bajillion other concerts that night including a doozy of a reunion tour with Pavement at the Uptown. Fortunately, that didn’t stop Kansas City from coming out in force to the Crossroads District to support both established and uprising acts in the local scene.

The Crossroads Music Fest featured 24 local bands spread out on six stages in the Crossroads District. Think of it as a mini SXSW, but with air conditioning, space to breathe and just a Kansas City focus. And when the lede said that Kansas City “celebrated” that was not an exaggeration. The patrons of this fest clutched their locally brewed Boulevard pint glasses at some great local venues that many were experiencing for the first time, while listening to local music. For this little venue-hopper, that was especially true. As much as I love local music, every band I opted to watch this particular evening, I was seeing for the first time.

Like many others, I began in the Press Bar at Crosstown Station with Howard Iceberg and the Titanics. For an early set time of 6:30 p.m., the room had a good turn out. Nearly all the seats were taken and others were lining the walls. This early in the game though, no one seemed brave enough to go stand directly front, which worked out better for the alt country, folk rock tunes. The band was all smiles as they plucked away at their guitars, casually talking to their audience inbetween. It was pleasant, but not really my genre-liking, so I ventured off to the Brick in hopes of finding something a little more with a rock edge.

The Press Bar is a new venue with lots of windows that let natural light pour into the venue. The band’s had to created the intimacy in the big room. In stark contrast, the Brick is a boxy venue with Christmas lights draped around the room and behind the stage. Warm, earthy colors cover the walls and the ceiling is decked out in beer pictures. The contrast between the venues was just one of the cool things about this festival – each place was a new atmosphere, a new sound, and it did force you out of your regular bubble to discover something new that didn’t know you liked.

I learned that the Brick is my type of venue. I like the comfortable feeling of a place that has been worn in a little like your go-to pair of Chucks. I returned to this venue probably more so than any other venue of the night. I watched the rock trio Faster Horses (listed in the program as Fater Horses) here and then later, had the pleasure of finally seeing Ad Astra Arkestra with a packed house later in the night. This band is all that’s right with local music. Happy faces, happy audiences, lots of dancing and great vibes. There were six to seven people crammed on the tiny stage hopping around between different percussion instruments. It was tribal at times, but if there was a sound to express the vibe of the entire festival, this was it. Do yourself a favor: go to an Ad Astra show.

Of course, Ad Astra wasn’t until closer to the end of the night. I had the opportunity to discover lots of other local bands that I had never seen before. Nomathmics got me dancing at the Czar Bar, Thee Water Moccasins drew me to a stage set up in the alley with a song that was reverberating off the walls of the Kansas City Star (They sounded like how I wish the Kings of Leon still sounded), and the Grisly Hand taught me that I could even dance to folk rock.

Of course, there were some bands that I had to sadly miss such as The Wires and Hearts of Darkness, who packed Crosstown Station to a one in, one out door policy. I do have to hand it to festival founder, Bill Sundahl (his band The Columns also performed), for putting together such an amazing, relaxed showcase of local talent. The bands were spaced out enough that if you did want to put forth the effort, you could almost make every act on the roster (Of course, if you’re like me you get too hooked on one band and can’t tear yourself away early from a set.) And you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone say that a band was a disappointment. Everything I saw and heard were pleased venue-hoppers.  I can’t wait to see what year seven brings.

Kansas City sextet The Grisly Hand performs live at the All Together Now Showcase at SXSW 2010. The Americana folk also took the time to answer a few questions. Check it out in the video below:

The All Together Now Showcase was made possible with help from ATN Management, Invisible Children, Big Picture Media, PopWreckoning.com, Fox Clothing, Pop Chips, www.borrowlenses.com, www.philipgrey.com, Jacob Mengelkoch, Bayou Lounge, Kelsey Eckberg, Jennifer DaRe and MTV.

It was the only showcase at SXSW where bands could be sure their music would be heard by MTV.

You can learn more about the showcase and other bands featured at www.atnshowcase.com. We’ll also be featuring more bands’ interviews and performances in an ongoing feature at www.PopWreckoning.com.

Were you there? We’d love to hear your memories…

If you’ve ever read the site on a  repetitively regular basis, you’re probably aware of my unquestionable preference for female fronted bands…This is because, in my humble opinion, women in music have a far more difficult time collecting and sustaining respect in the industry for their musicianship.  They often get pushed to the front for all the wrong reasons (i.e. breasts) instead of their musical credibility. However, in rare occasions women in the industry are the exception not the rule.

Here in Kansas City, we have one of those exceptions.  Lauren Krum, the front woman of The Grisly Hand, might honestly possess the most powerful pipes in the Midwest.  She helps propel her extremely talented band to the level of exposure they deserve.

South By Southwest is that level for sure.  Today at the Canvas Bar, as part of the Midwest Music Takeover, they owned their Austin, Texas debut. With a sound concreted in the “Sun Records” sound, the group brings to Austin something outside of the city’s normal style. Their harmony vocals are as strong as I’ve seen on the national circuit. The same can certainly be said of their instrumentation, which is hard to find in a group as large as Hand. But this six piece never steps on each other. They honestly compliment each other very well.

If you haven’t already jumped on the wagon train for this band, you should. Regardless of what city you’re in they should be on your radar, because if (when) a label like Bloodshot Records gets a hold of them, you might not get near them again. I expect big things.

Set List:
Paris
Black Coffee
Distraction
Cherry Mash
Roll On
Pickin’
Losing You

This is just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood blog to see our bands at SXSW today and tomorrow or we’ll stick the green goblin on you.

All bands are at the ATN Showcase at the Bayou Lounge. More information and full-line up here.

TODAY – FRIDAY, MARCH 20

The Grisly Hand play at 1: 40 p.m.

TOMORROW – SATURDAY, MARCH 21

Roman Numerals play at 11 a.m.

Thieves play at 3 p.m.

And for those of stuck at home instead of sunny Austin, perhaps revisiting memories of our Pre-SXSW showcase in Kansas City will warm you up.

We were recently sent these photos by Todd Zimmer:

In my time at Popwreckoning, I’ve been lucky enough to experience some fairly unforgettable events. To compare Bonnaroo to the Beaumont Club would simply be unfair. But last night, standing on the side of the stage watching six of my favorite local bands join forces to put together one of the strongest lineups I’ve ever seen locally, I couldn’t help but feel that the Pre-Sxsw Showcase might honestly outshine the best of our best achievements.

We honestly could not have done this without the help of countless people from the Kansas City music scene. Kcfreepress, The Pitch, Ink, Kansas City Star, Jayplay and Unews have all done a great job of taking care of promoting the show. 96.5 The Buzz was very generous in allowing bands to come on their shows and speak about our concert. We of course couldn’t have done this without the help of Pat Fielder of Velocity Marketing and the Beaumont Club for hosting us. Of course we have to have to thank the six amazing bands who took part in the event. Without them there is no show. Lastly, we have to thank Jeff Tafolla of Saddle Creek Records for judging the event.

At the end of the night, Tafolla cast his votes for the bands he felt would best represent Kansas City at the 5th Annual All Together Now Showcase at the Bayou Lounge in Austin Texas. Those bands that will be joining us in Austin, Texas will be:

Bands Picked By Jeff Tafolla:
The Grisly Hand
Roman Numerals

Previously Picked by Popwreckoning:
Thieves

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us, the show and the Kansas City Music Scene. Last night, our scene looked amazing. Lets take that momentum to Austin and show the world why Kansas City matters.  We look forward to doing this again.

Tonight, March 5, at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, Miss., PopWreckoning is pleased to present a Pre-SXSW battle of the bands. Winners of the evening’s showcase will be given the funds to go to the 2010 SXSW festival where they’ll perform at the ATN showcase. Jeff Tafolla of Saddle Creek Records will judge.

The Grisly Hand are playing tonight’s show at the Beaumont. They go on at 7 p.m.

The  female-fronted Americana act the Grisly Hand features Jimmy Fitzner, Lauren Krum, Chas Snyder, Johnny Nichols, Andy Davis, Mike Tuley & Ben Summers.

“Paris of the Plains”

The Grisly Hand: MySpace

It’s finally here! A few weeks ago, PopWreckoning announced that we would be hosting a battle of the bands competition to help bring local Kansas acts to play at a national showcase at the 2010 SXSW.  That showcase is happening TONIGHT!

These are the bands and set times of the bands playing tonight:

6:00 pm – Dreams are for Rookies
7:00 pm – The Grisly Hand
8:00 pm – Olympic Size
9:00 pm – Capybara
10:00 pm – Roman Numerals
11:00 pm – Thieves

Whether you are in KC and planning on going to the show or elsewhere in the country, click on those links for the above ands. They are all fantastic and we’d bring them all to SXSW if we could.

However this is a competition and to keep things fair, we will have a special guest judge selecting the winner’s of the evenings events. Jeff Tafolla from Saddle Creek Records will have this honor.

The winners of the showcase will then play at SXSW during the ATN Showcase, the only showcase where bands can be sure their music will be heard by MTV. This showcase also helps the great Invisible Children organization.

There are still tickets will be $10 at the door. A $2 minors fee will be added to anyone 18 and above, but under the age of 21. Come on out and support a great night of local music at the Beaumont Club.

We hope to see you there!