popwreckoning

Sunday started in the same place it would end, at the Vera stage, with a fantastic local band. As I entered the ground, I could hear Land of Pines soundchecking and immediately got excited. Land of Pines are one of the most promising bands I’ve seen lately, and their set was eagerly anticipated. They closed their set with a couple new songs that were especially enticing. These songs were noisier, and less pop orientated than older stuff and sounded excellent.

Following that set was another Main Stage act, My Goodness. They were one of two local bands playing that day I had been meaning to see for a while, but had somehow missed. This duo played bluesy rock reminiscent of The White Stripes, but with much bigger balls. They tore through their songs in a manner that ignited the crowd. It was all very exciting.

After that set I wandered around for a while enjoying the glories of Block Party, before heading to Neumo’s for the other local band I had been meaning to see, Campfire OK. http://campfireok.com/ They play a mix of folk and indie pop that is instantly intriguing. It’s a little dark, very orchestral and incredibly well played. Their new album Strange Like We Are is going to be in heavy rotation for a while. It’s kind of epic.

Headed back into the sun it was time for beloved  instrumental act Battles on the main stage. Battles were furious and noisy, with an electronic precision that the crowd responded well to. This was obviously a day to hear stuff I had ignored. The most recent Battles record Gloss Drop has been talked about quite a bit, and it was good to see why.

Over to the Vera Stage it was time for Lake. Lake sound very precious on their new album Giving and Receiving, and it was hard to gauge how they would sound live. They sound a bit like a less electronic Stereolab, if you need a reference. Luckily, they played well, and I’m convinced that I’ll be listening to their music for a long time.

Closing things out for me, were Grand Hallway, again on the Vera stage. I can’t get enough of this band, and see them every chance. They play fantastic orchestral pop that seems to get better every time I see they play. The hometown crowd was very receptive, and was definitely there for this band.

I walked away with their songs still echoing in my head, sad to see the weekend gone. I was totally exhausted, but filled with joy. I’m already anticipating Block Party next year. It’s only once a year I get to see my neighborhood taken over in such a magnificent way.

Oh, SXSW. Sure it sounds glamorous with all the free tacos and beers, but honestly, this is one of the most tolling festivals you can attend.

This festival lasts a week to two weeks depending whereas most festivals are a mere weekend. Hot Austin days swiftly followed by breezy Austin nights makes it incredibly hard to choose how to dress. Then you have the tiring volume of walking and standing you have to do. With something like Bonnaroo you stay on a central farm and you have the option of grass to sit on. With SXSW you might start in the 6th Street area, but end up forty blocks away at the UT campus. Ohh, the foot blisters! Want somewhere to sit? Good luck unless you’re ok with getting your skinny jeans covered in the red dusty dirt. Finally, there’s the biggest challenge of SXSW: getting your phone charge to last the entire day. Other festivals can get away with a small booklet of the set times and a single map of the location. No phone necessary. But the vastness of SXSW not just with location, but also with where to find information on who is playing where with all the surprise performances, unofficial parties and whatnot, your phone is lucky not to be drained within the first three hours. Heck, something like Lollapalooza is walk in the park by comparison (literally, Lolla is a walk in the [Grant] Park).

So why go to SXSW if it is that brutal? Because the payoff of discovering new and fresh bands surrounded by people as genuinely excited about music as you are is 100 percent worth it.

This was my second time at the festival after first attending during Spring break back in ’09. It’s a huge advantage to already know how things work and to have a rough idea where things are located, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t in for a few surprises.

Our caravan arrived Tuesday night and too late to pick up our wristbands. Fortunately, for those like us wanting to get a jump on the shows, unofficial parties were already happening and they didn’t care about our credentials. We wholed up at the Scoot Inn and eased into the festival with some great psychedelic rockers such as Pujol, Bare Wires and Thee Oh Sees. Pujol was love at first sight with their intense energy and Thee Oh Sees were just as much fun to watch with their crazy expressions as they were to hear. Our group retired early from this Panache Party though so we could get an early start with the first official day of SXSW Music.

Wristband check-in was a smoother process than we anticipated, so we had plenty of time to grab breakfast tacos before checking out our first band day of the day. Breakfast tacos are a must if you’re in Austin. Not only are they tasty, but they give you plenty of energy — something you need to hop from one venue to the next.

From breakfast, my comrade and I set forth for Johnny Mellow’s: a bike shop. Bands will and do play everywhere they can in Texas: actual venues, pizza shops, streets and bike shops. It’s just another part of the SXSW experience. We were planning on checking out Seattle six-piece The Head and the Heart, but along our journey, we got distracted. Though it was only 11 a.m., a large crowd had gathered in a parking lot and our curiosity got the better of us. We edged our way through the crowd until we were just feet from the source of all the attention: Jack White. If for some reason you live under a rock and have no idea why Jack White is so such a big deal, it’s because he is the founder of Third Man Records and he’s the singer and guitarist in bands such as The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs and the former White Stripes. Pretty impressive resume. He was at SXSW for his mobile record store and when we arrived he was just beginning a rendition of “Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground” from his former band, the White Stripes.

SXSW was already off to a strong start, but we were determined to make it to the Head and the Heart’s set and we had several blocks to go. So from Jack White we continued West and finally found ourselves at Johnny Mellow’s. The Head and the Heart was quite possibly one of the (if not the) best bands of the entire week. They played upbeat indie pop rock enhanced with tambourines, piano and violin. The band was all smiles during their performance, so it was hard not to fall in love with their talent and enthusiasm.

Reinvigorated by the Head and the Heart’s set, we returned to the main drag of SXSW. From the Head and the Heart, it was dance time with the cheeky tunes of Auckland’s Kids of 88 and from there to synth-heavy Xylos. We cooled down with some distorted garage rock with Weekend (not to be confused with the extremely different The Weeknd) and later some unknown rock trio that was a bit of a letdown when I was expecting electronic act Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.

I didn’t stay disappointed too long because my musical A.D.D. quickly led us to move on and go up the street to the Mohawk patio where we caught the explosive set of Givers. I had been blasting “Up, Up, Up” in my car for the last year, but never really made it on to checking out more of their songs. Well, I can now affirm that all their songs are just as catchy and fun complete with the guy-girl harmonies, dual percussion and happiness. Moments of the set were clean cut pop, but then other moments bordered on tribal, yet all of it came together to be yet another of the more memorable SXSW sets.

So how do you follow up a band like Givers? You have to pick someone equally awesome, but in a completely different genre. So from their pop tunes at an outdoor patio, we checked out the very crowded bar Peckerheads to see Portland’s Starfucker. Now this band is catchy like Givers and they also have explosive drum parts, but the sound is vastly different. They’re loop-laden electronic rock. Starfucker is one of those bands that most people have probably heard without realizing that this is the band you were listening to all that time. Their music sneaks up on you because it sounds like you’ve been listening to it for ages even though they’ve only been around a few years.

We kept the piano-dance music going by next watching the much buzzed Oh Land at Lipstick 24. Oh Land is the type of female pop music I wish would catch on – not the crap on the radio that is Ke$ha. It’s smart, authentic and entertaining. She had just dropped her album the day before this performance, so there was a song that she hesitated on due its unfamiliarity, but otherwise, this was a flawless performance. Maybe this type of music will takeover yet…

Braids literally drew us in from the street as we were walking out of Oh Land. I didn’t even have this particular performance listed on my schedule, but the music was so warm and the harmonies so simple, yet so beautiful, that we had to stop and listen to a song or two.

Paste had a sweet party going on at the Stage at Sixth Street, so we stopped in for some indie rock from Ezra Furman and his Harpoon, Sondre Lerche and Eisley. We only caught the tale end of Furman, but it was a pretty smooth transition from that set into Sondre Lerche’s, so if you’re a fan of one, you’d probably enjoy the other. Eisley changed things up a bit, but introducing female vocals, but they proved just as entertaining to the Lerche crowd. Also, being Texas-natives, there was a lot of strong local support for Eisley, making the set feel extra intimate and helped it standout just that much more.

At this point, you might be noticing a trend. 1. Pianos/synths and 2. Female vocalists. I always knew I was a piano girl, but usually I’m all about the guy vocals. Is it just that the females were just doing an impressive job representing at the festival this year? Whatever was going on with the girl power, I kept my trend going by watching Gold Motel next. That’s right, girl vocals and piano! The Gold Motel was on my list of bands to check out, but I never got around to it. Back in the day, the Hush Sound awed me with their well-crafted lyrics and piano lines that drove me to the piano to see if I could replicate them. They were the exception to the usual cookie cutter acts that Fueled By Ramen, their label, usually produced in an effort to find the next Fall Out Boy. And as the exception, they were refreshing. But then the Hush Sound broke up. From its ashes, Greta formed the Gold Motel. The Gold Motel even drew members from another Chicago band I loved, This Is Me Smiling, so it’s extra surprising that it took me so long to catch them. The Gold Motel still contains elements of both The Hush Sound and even This Is Me Smiling, but its dialed back a bit and falls more into a jazz and bluesy groove. This genre seems to be a better fit for Greta’s voice, which while it was always lovely in the Hush Sound, it could easily be overpowered by the bigger guitar riffs or her fellow vocalist’s voice in that band.

I was excited for the band immediately taking the the stage after the Gold Motel. The Boxer Rebellion is a band whose album Union really caught my attention when it first came out. Compared to many of the indie pop bands I had been watching for most of the day, the Boxer Rebellion was considerably darker musically. The band has emotional lyrics and lush guitar lines. The music has an epic sort of quality, which is probably what led them to be such a good fit perform in the Drew Barrymore film, “Going the Distance.” This is the band that writes songs for the soundtrack of your life.

Being as that we were in Texas and had driven past the Texas Motor Speedway where racer Dale Earnhardt Jr won his first Nascar Cup, it was only fitting that at some point we listen to the guy’s namesake band: Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr. The band definitely got into the spirit of their name. A big “JR” cutout flashed bright lights in the back of their set up and the guys were dressed like racecar drivers just like their namesake. There’s a wee bit of a stereotype that goes along with the Nascar crowd, so it’s a little shocking to see  these guys in their racer suits open their mouths and belt out harmonies that would make the guys in the hipster-friendly Fleet Foxes envious. If we’re going off stereotypes, the way this band sounds makes it seem like they’d be the type of guys who should be embracing the plaid, not the leather. As if the shock value of the racing theme weren’t enough, the band continued the outfit surprise by breaking out a light up suit jacket. They’re serious when it comes to the music, but they know not to take themselves too seriously.

So up until now, I had been dictating what bands my friend and I should see. What a trooper! She humored my whims and never complained, so I went with her to check out the one band she wanted to see: Idiotape. This Korean trio had one–just one–performance scheduled for the entire festival. Since they were from abroad, Austin was pretty much our only hope of ever seeing them. The guys were pretty expressionless, so it was hard to get a read on them. They looked like they meant business. Then a pre-recorded robotic sounding voice, said, “first you have the drums,” and then it continued out a beat, “1,2,3,4.” As commanded, the drummer started in on a drum pattern. Then it got more complicated. It was tongue-in-cheek and had me eagerly anticipating what the next pattern and command would yield. But then…nothing. The guys just rocked so much that they blew the power in the tiny room. Not sure if they’d be able to get things back and running, my friend and I reluctantly bailed. Hopefully, Idiotape will decide to do an extensive tour so we can complete a set with them. Alas.

With our heads bowed in sadness, we trudged up Sixth Street to our next destination. OK Sweetheart, a band previously featured in a PopWreckoning interview, was about to take the stage and they had some surprises in store, which quickly cheered me up from the Idiotape incident. As frontwoman Erin Austin hinted during our interview, some string players joined for several of the songs. They were a beautiful addition to the smooth vocals of Austin; the instrumentation for these songs were so lush and graceful sounding. The album comes out this April and is worth checking out.

From OK Sweetheart we crossed the street to Buffalo Billiards for Young the Giant. This was a band I was eagerly awaiting SXSW for, but they were perhaps the most disappointing band of my day. They sounded fine, but after all the standout performances I had already seen, they came across as too generic. I thought they’d get us moving more with their radio single sounding like a big anthem, but that big engagement moment just never came.

As I walked out of Young the Giant into the neon-lit streets, I noticed that activity had significantly picked up. Austinites who had gotten off work had now joined the fray of wristbanded and badged out-of-towners. Based on experience, I knew that this was the time of night when venues hit capacity. So it was time to plan ahead to be sure I would see the act I really wanted to see: Alexander. Alexander wasn’t scheduled for another hour and a half, but I decided to trek over to the Phoenix to be sure I got in. I’m glad I got there early – the venue was near capacity and I got there just in time to see another act that would be a top contender for my favorite of the festival: Naked and Famous.

Their radio single, “Young Blood,” had a bit of a Passion Pit sound to me, but their set was a lot more diverse than just that one similar reference. It was hard not to jump up and down or dance to all of their songs, especially “Punching in a Dream.” Though I thought my body was going to die right before their set from sheer exhaustion, they got me re-amped on SXSW. Naked and Famous are poised to be the next big thing, so do yourself a favor and get their new album now.

Alexander was my final act of the night before I could retire to the comforts of my sleeping bag. If I hadn’t been anticipating this performance so much, I probably would have bailed. But for those of you who don’t already know, Alexander, is the new solo project of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros frontman. If you got on the Edward Sharpe bandwagon this past year, you’ll probably enjoy Alexander. Giant tambourines, soulful singing and good vibes continue to abound. Even some of the backing members were the same between the projects. Yet there are some differences. Edward Sharpe songs are more happy family, romance songs. Alexander, as the solo project, features less harmonies and more introspective lyrics.  There was something almost religious about the experience. Maybe it was the way Alex Ebert swayed every time he sang or the revered way the audience looked at him, but it was a very spiritual and uplifting set. Alex Ebert continues to remain one of the nicest people in music and when all was done – they honestly had no more songs left even though the audience was clamoring for an encore – Ebert did his best to appease fans with hugs, high fives and pictures. It was such a happy way to end the night and the first official day of the music festival.

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Check back for more to come from PopWreckoning’s Bethany and her experience at SXSW. You can see more photos from Day 1, Wednesday, March 16 below:

Wednesday marks the first official day of SXSW: Music; however there are plenty of music events happening before this date. Early arrivals can get a jump start on the festivities even before picking up badges and wristbands.

After getting in late Tuesday night, hitting up an unofficial party with Thee Oh Sees, I stumbled out of bed to pick up wristbands at the Austin Convention Center (Wristbands and badges are like magic skip the longer line passes). Though it was around 10 a.m., the streets were already bustling and music could be heard trickling through the air from random places. Most day parties don’t start until around noon, so after wristband pick-up was the perfect time to grab some much needed caffeine and breakfast tacos. If in Austin or even just anywhere in Texas, it is a requirement that you eat breakfast tacos at some point. The delicious little things consist of tortillas with your favorite breakfast combination: scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheese, etc. The beauty about SXSW is that everyone is friendly and talkative. There’s no shyness about talking to strangers. During our breakfast we met four new people and even landed VIP passes to one of our new friends’ showcases. Number 1 SXSW tip: Don’t be shy.

Number 2 SXSW tip: Be curious. Don’t be afraid to just wander into a venue or stop to check out what a random group is watching. From breakfast we began a long walk to Mellow Johnny’s–a bike shop. Bands are playing literally everywhere in this city. During our walk, we saw a large group clustered in a parking lot, which was a curious event for 11 a.m. As we got closer we recognized the music being performed: The White Stripes. Turns out this group had discovered the first stop for Third Man Records Mobile Record Store. As part of the special record store’s debut, Jack White, label founder and member of a zillion projects including the former The White Stripes, was standing out in front of his trailer with a guitar playing “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” and more for a pop-up acoustic set. You couldn’t ask for a better way to start the day.

The Mobile Record Store continues rolling around to new stops daily with unannounced special guests, so there’s a chance that Jack White will repeat the treat.

Seattle five piece Minus the Bear have announced the release of their new album, Omni, set for a May 4th release on their new label Dangerbird Records. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket), Omni showcases the quintet’s remarkable gift to craft visionary and gripping compositions, revealing new layers in their songwriting as they pursue the next level in their inimitable musical style.

Omni is a riveting new album of rich soundscapes illustrated by Minus The Bear’s trademark precision and tremendous growth as artistic lyricists and songwriters.

With deep bass lines, mesmerizing syncopated guitar riffs, provocative lyrics and stimulating keyboards, Omni explodes with a bursting energy and unpredictable experimentation. From lead-off single, “My Time,” which explores the band’s widescreen synth rock, to the punch of dueling guitars and keyboards on “The Thief,” from the intense psychedelic sounds of “Animal Backwards” to the driving rock of “Hold Me Down,” Omni continues Minus The Bear’s shape-shifting evolution and is a culmination of their past influences and present inspirations.

Beginning April 21st, Minus the Bear will embark on a 6-week North American tour premiering these new tracks. Dates, along with the record’s tracklisting, to be announced shortly so check back for details.

Minus the Bear: website | myspace

Photo Credit: David Belisle

If you tuned into the big game on Sunday, did you happen to see the ad for the US Air Force Reserves? The one that apparently uses a re-recorded version of The White Stripes song, “Fell in Love with a Girl” to persuade young men and women to join their troops? I may have missed it because I was too busy watching “Puppy Bowl” during the commercial breaks, (you know you did too…) but it looks like Jack White saw the ad, and well, he’s pissed.

According to the White Stripes label, Third Man Records, the band did not authorize use of the song to the Air Force Reserves and offered the following statement:

“We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of The White Stripes, our publishers, label, or management.”

“The White Stripes take strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserves presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war that we do not support.”

He adds, “The White Stripes support this nation’s military, at home and during times when our country needs and depends on them. We simply don’t want to be a cog in the wheel of the current conflict and hope for a safe and speedy return home for our troops.”

White and his management plan to pursue legal action. Stay tuned.

For anyone who has been a rock n’ roll fan for all their lives, favoring the guitar as their instrument of choice, rocking out on the couch with an air guitar or closely touching stardom as a Guitar Hero, It Might Get Loud offers an exceptional and behind the scenes look at the electric guitar and how it has been held, shaped and molded by three prominent musicians of the past thirty years.

It Might Get Loud is a rock doc showcasing the electric guitar in the hands of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and The White Stripes/The Raconteurs/Dead Weather’s Jack White, and how each has utilized the instrument to shape the sound of their bands and define the use of the instrument as the centerpiece of rock. The title comes from a moment in the film where The Edge is about to shred some licks, warning us that “it might get loud for a second.”

Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim does an excellent job in keeping the story far removed from the history of the bands and their prominence in rock lore; i.e. he avoids the sex, drugs, history, the Robert Plants and the Bonos and focuses solely on the three featured musicians and their personal histories with the guitar, what inspired them and how they came to define their respective signature styles.

The film is centered around a small, unscripted summit that takes place on a sound stage in Los Angeles, where The Edge, White and Page three musicians meet together for the first time for a very cool jam session, showcasing their talents and spontaneity, all the while throwing back and forth chatter about how they develop ideas and discussing how they created guitar riffs for some of their classic songs. Each immediately falls into their appropriates space in history: Jimmy Page is clearly the Rock God and the most proficient, the idol to the other two; The Edge takes his spot as the ever creative sideman; and Jack White is the brash young new comer trying to prove himself, evidenced by an early statement of his in the film, “I’m basically going to trick them into teaching me all their tricks.” The doc also branches out into side chapters, focusing on the story of each musician, their beginnings and growth and how they manipulate the guitar to do what they want it to do.

Jimmy Page is the soft-spoken, English gentleman, distinguished and charming in his dialogue and demeanor. He takes us through his beginnings as an extensive and highly coveted studio guitarist, his start in The Yardbirds and finally his development in Led Zeppelin. We are given insight into his self taught hard rock techniques, a tour of his record collection and the sounds that inspired him as he sings a long to some of his favorite songs and air guitars the licks. We are then blessed with a tour of the country house in which the legendary Led Zeppelin IV was recorded followed by an impromptu version of “The Battle of Evermore” on his mandolin.

The Edge takes us back to U2’s roots through a tour of their old school, the room in which they practiced, and the concrete slab outside where they played one of their first shows. We then visit his studio littered with effects electronics, laptops, showing us just how he is truly a sonic effects architect, as Page describes him. He makes a poignant note in the film that is otherwise lacking in the documentary. He plays an incredible U2 anthem riff, and then unplugs everything to show that the actual riff is in fact bare bones, uninspiring and hardly worth note. It highlights exactly how he is able to turn that basic sound into something incredible, which shows why a guitarist himself is responsible for the sound on his instrument.

Jack White’s story takes us back to his Tennessee roots, how he prefers minimalism and despises the use of technology on such an instrument, all the while showing us that you need not more than a piece of wood, some wire, nails and a coke bottle to make an electric guitar. His intensity is displayed in concert footage whereby he strums the hell out of his guitar so hard that his hands bleed, red pouring all over his six string, while he continues to passionately drive the wires till the end of the tune.

The highlight of the film is the summit where the three meet, discuss and play and we note the personalities of all. Page steals the spotlight with his character and ability to play the guitar as an extension of himself, effortless, as if it’s another arm. The Edge is the modest instrumentalist, while White is the most aggressive bundled with the most attitude and urgency to show his worth. A smile inducing moment is that no matter how successful and prolific The Edge and White may be, when Page starts ripping out “Whole Lotta Love”, the other two grin like little boys, awe inspired by the Guitar God they have always idolized.

The film succeeds aesthetically as well, from featuring old concert footage, photos, and amazing close ups of various guitars, at smooth angles and vibrant colors, dents and bruises of love and use, broken strings and shining perspiration. It Might Get Loud is a light and insightful look at the electric guitar from three of it’s greatest handlers, that any rock aficionado or musician alike will take pleasure in.

Watch the trailer:

It Might Get Loud opens tomorrow, Friday, August 14, 2009.

It Might Get Loud: website | show times