I thought a great South-By for small bands. Bazillions bands as always. I think my tally was about 55, though friends tell me there were about 5 more that I just ignored and didn't document due to heinousness. Managed to miss Depeche Mode, Prince, Flaming Lips, Justin Timberlake too...ick. Thanks to Coop, Plag and others for a great time.
A+: Savages @ The Main – an A for them was always going to happen. The plus is for that instant fix of post-punk intensity that I’d been craving since first seeing them a few months back. I think their trick is that each member is incredibly committed and extraordinarily adept at their part of a brilliant cohesive whole.
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A: The Ocean Blue @ Buffalo Billiards – like Savages, this was always going to be a favorite at this SX. The only worry was a new album and the possible threat of playing a bunch of songs that were out of sync with their classics or at the expense of said classics. Neither happened. The new tracks fit seamlessly with the old, and they pleased the super-appreciative audience with Drifting Falling, Between Something and Nothing, and Vanity Fair, which they said they hadn’t performed in a long time. Top musicians. Lovely sound. Great to have been there and chatting up a bunch of old KROQ new wave fans.
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A: Parquet Courts @ Red 7 – as I’ve noted before, for many of their songs, they’re very New York garage, very Television, very Wire, etc. They brought the house down in a ferocious manner. A highlight of the fest and likely the top discovery. The only reason they don’t get a plus is that so many songs are so intensely hard-charging. They’re another band at their best when they throw in some more variation. Whatever, that’s a niggle. Stoned & Starving and Tears O Plenty are modern classics already to me. Kudos to them throwing everything they had into their music.
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A: The Joy Formidable@ Lustre Pearl – shockingly, the only time I saw them at this SX. There was too much going on, and I simply didn’t like their album as much as others. They always put on a great show though. Of course I can say that having watched the gig from right under Ritzy’s mic and being fully enveloped in their sound. Even got to strum her guitar during the chaotic closer, Whirring. Not an A+ though – bit too much playing to the audience? Cloying? Scripted? Corporate? Yeah, maybe a hint.
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A: Savages @ Easy Tiger Patio – you got the vibe that the onslaught that is SX was getting to them. Regardless, after some grousing before the start, each member of this very professional outfit poured every bit of themselves into the gig, somewhat limpid crowd or no. Love this band.
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A: Shout Out Louds @ The Parish – this was the third of three times seeing them, though that wasn’t the intent. As a friend said, it was hard finding a slot when they weren’t playing. It was just opportune they were finishing an intensely busy Thursday at 1am and very near to my bed. It turned out to be their best gig of SX for me and a great reminder of what fine popmeisters they are.
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A: The Thermals @ Peckerheads – a great big ball of frenetic energy and pop rock craft. Massive massive fun with easily the most amped-up crowd at the fest. The whole floor was shaking with their hit Pillar of Salt and other fine songs. Would love to see them again.
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A: Telekinesis @ Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop – I didn’t expect to like them as much as I did. Their 2011 album was a top 20 or so, but I didn’t think that would translate great live. It does however because they’re very tight and very enthusiastic. It also helped that it was for a radio/video show, so the whole gig was executed promptly and met with great crowd enthusiasm. The INXS Don’t Change cover didn’t hurt either. Big fun.
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A-: Shout Out Louds @ Flamingo Cantina – their first SX gig in 5 years and like seeing an old friend. They didn’t fully bring it this first of 3 times, but still showed they’re fine pop craftsmen.
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A-: Residual Kid @ Valhalla – fitting first gig of SX2013 for us, these young punksters ranging from 10-14 yrs revived our hope for humanity. Technically solid and actually pretty melodious under the noise, they only get a minus mark for perhaps exhibiting a bit too much rock posing at such a young age (oh, and for not playing their great Mongoloid cover). Graded for enjoyment, not necessarily talent or potential.
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A-: Palma Violets @ Red 7 – on right after Parquet Courts, this was an exercise in observing two equally intensely engaged bands with different styles. If the latter were imbued with some punk-Television, these guys appropriately had some the better parts of The Arctic Monkeys, which isn’t a compliment to everyone. It is here. Great show. Not quite Parquet Courts IMHO.
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A-: Small Black @ Lustre Pearl – this high a grade simply because they were so fun and imbued with so much New Order. Yeah, I know, some would grade them so low because of the same…but not me! A blast.
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A-: Vinyl Williams @ Hotel Vegas Outside – John Williams’ grandson you say? He’s certainly got some musical chops. I hate to be clichéd and say there was plenty of cool MBV in them, but there really was. Combined with the perfect weather and free drinks, it was a fine way to spend a bit of time in the afternoon.
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B+: Shout Out Louds @ Stages on 6th – the second of three gigs, because we were simply in the neighborhood. Toward a lull in a long day of too much drink, so the slight ding may reflect me more than the band…or the nagging fact that the newer songs really aren’t as good.
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B+: Diiv @ Flamingo Cantina – in isolation, each of their songs are catchy and well-executed. However, their set lulls at times because of a certain sameyness to their songs, live at least. A charismatic and talented lead for sure who I almost dare to say has some Cobain-ness to him. Two albums in, I’m not sure where they’re headed.
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B+: Gold-Bears @ Iron Bear – solid album last year (or before?). Live, I would have loved to hear some more pace and variation. Still, some fine driving indie rock. Others liked them more.
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B+: Fear of Men @ The Volstead – they benefitted from being at the ultra pleasant Hotel Vegas triplex of stages. We were in a good mood already, and the sight of lovely popster lasses didn’t dampen the mood at all. Not throwaway indie pop by any means but not too serious. Enough hints of The Cure or New Order here and there to grab the attention of this Old Waver.
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B+: Wampire @ Hotel Vegas – almost tempted to give them an A- for their fabulous cover of Kraftwerk’s The Model…in German no less. Alas, there was just enough of the poor man’s Arcade Fire about them to ding them just a bit. They could/should develop more.
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B+: No Ceremony @ Lattitude 30 – fronted by this year’s most charming lead, I couldn’t help liking them. Not much meat here at all but fun enough late at night.
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B+: The Specials @ Hype Hotel – they played everything you’d want them to have played. The cold venue and Terry Hall’s dour visage sucked some life out but not enough to prevent a great time. Not really The Specials of course – don’t recall them looking so white.
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B+: The Rocketboys @ Buffalo Billiards – only saw them because they opened for The Ocean Blue, but these Austinites had a really tight sound. Their high-chorded, shimmering strumming falls right into my wheelhouse of likes. Great voice too, and the TFF cover Head Over Heels was fun. They’re let down (for me) by some overly direct lyrics and a bit too Americana sound, which be right in the wheelhouse of some others. Good effort.
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B: Paws @ Thrasher Death Match – the venue is a bit of an east-side legend for metal heads. There’s always a sprinkling of genre-bending bands that play here too, drawing me and my distinctly un-death metal garb there. Paws are another driving punky band that I personally think are at their best when they slow it down just a bit, like on the excellent Sore Tummy single. The rest was too punk for me.
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B: Mike Scott (of Waterboys) @ St. David’s Episcopal Church – a mix of reading from his autobiography and acoustic duet of both Waterboy’s classics and new songs. The reading was actually at least as entertaining as the music – very funny. I lost patience with the songs, but still very worthwhile.
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B: Ume @ Holy Mountain – they’ve drifted far from the original melodiousness they had. Still very solid but not really for me on a regular basis.
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B: Diiv @ Lustre Pearl – sandwiched between Small Black and The Joy Formidable, they were a bonus. This second gig suffered from having seen their material before, which already risked being too samey in places. They compounded that with too much slagging of the sponsors. Uh, don’t play for them??
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B: Crooked Bangs @ Headhunters Lounge – girl-led punk sung in French. The natural thought of course would be that they’re French…but they’re from Austin?? I don’t get it, but female anger sounds cool in French.
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B: Big Black Delta @ Flamingo Cantina – their lead played synths and looked like Neil Tennant’s son. Double drums were nifty. Some good doses of nice heavy synth pads but could use more presence.
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B: Caveman @ The Main – fun enough synth and guitar band that tics off some of my favorite checkboxes but not all that well. Entertaining enough if you’re there.
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B: Cloud Nothings @ Easy Tiger Patio – couldn’t help but be a letdown after Savages. Funny playing of MacDonald’s “I’m lovin it” riff before the gig. Probably another allusion to the notably heightened corporate onslaught at this SX. They kinda mailed it in unfortunately, or maybe I’m just not that into them after an initially interesting album a couple of years ago.
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B: Fort Lean @ Hype Hotel – good big sound that I might slag off as being a bit over-righteous if they didn’t execute so well. Not something to seek out but good enough. Nice single in The Mall.
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B: Maserati @ The Main – as a mostly instrumental, fairly heavy rock band with essentially a drummer lead, I was prepared to immediately dislike them, but their do what they do very well.
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B-: Skeleton Coast @ 512 Downstairs – a truly horrible venue did this band no favors. I thought from a few samples like fine single Sludge that they had the chance to be a better Whirr. Well that isn’t much of a challenge given how far the latter have fallen in my opinion (more later). It’s an interesting if not completely compelling mix of post-rock trip-out with (sorry) MBV shoegazing. I’d see them again to better judge, but execution was left a little wanting or maybe it was the venue.
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B-: Toy @ Cedar St. Courtyard – I’ve rarely done as big an about-face as I have with this band. I thought I really liked last year’s album. It had all the pieces of stuff I usually like. Listening to it more and more, I liked the band less and less, feeling they just weren’t taking these songs to enough cool places. The gig was much the same. Very charismatic crew, but they just didn’t take me anywhere.
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B-: Caveman @ Flamingo Cantina – the minus is only because I had to see a band twice that I wasn’t really up for while awaiting another.
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B-: Beach Fossils @ Hype Hotel – they started with “Let’s hear it for the corporate sponsors! Who here loves cancer? Hell yeah Taco Bell!” Or something to that effect. It was a similar sentiment echoed by some other bands this year in higher frequency than I’d ever heard before. I think it was mostly because of a few obscene venues like this, Viceland, Pitchfork’s 1100 Warehouse and Justin Timberlake’s MySpace, um Space. Thing is, if you feel that way then don’t freaking play to those sponsors.
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C+: Suburban Lives @ Esther’s Follies – it’s always risky going to a gig based on one sampled song. Yup. Just about every song started off like it was going to be a Love Will Tear Us Apart cover. They should have just done such covers since they borrowed so heavily from the JD/NO sound. Vocals were atrocious, leaving them as just a novelty with maybe a couple of interesting tracks.
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C+: Y Niwl @ Lattitude 30 – essentially a Brit surf band who were pleasant enough, but I’m not sure what new angles or lasting hooks are in them to have anyone take more than a passing note.
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C+: Bleached @ Easy Tiger Patio – girl surfy pop rock…ish…band. I guess? One day later, and I can’t remember much about their songs. A plus for being charming.
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C+: Trails and Ways @ Hype Hotel – very light indie pop with a sometimes tropical feel that you wouldn’t ever mind having a pina colada to on a sandy beach. But it’s SXSW and just doesn’t have any meat.
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C+: Hunters @ Cedar St. Courtyard – a great venue worth getting to early to enjoy its lounge, we were there for Toy and came upon a glorified pop bar band. However, the lead singer was very alluring and thus the passing grade with a plus even. I have no other excuse.
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C: Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun @ Blackheart – caught them while waiting for Frank Turner, who they’re somewhat similar to. I loved Turner the one time I caught him in Manchester. Lockey was just okay for me – fine musician but just doesn’t do it. I got too tired to even stick around for Turner afterwards – shame on me.
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C-: Dead Leaf Echo @ Buffalo Billiards – this was another band whose shimmering guitar work plus solid keyboard and bass lines should have ticked my checkboxes, but their godawful lead singer had me cringing. How could a band put that much effort into their sound and allow them to suffer from such bad singing? Shame.
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C-: Islet @ BD Riley’s – frankly a bit of a disaster for this small but ambitious Brit band. I’d really liked their challenging 2012 album. Their synth had blown up the day before, and they didn’t know how to use their new one (party foul). Without that core to build their stage shenanigans around, they left the crowd to wonder what these guys were on. It wasn’t pretty.
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C-: Widowspeak @ Red 7 – on the plus side, not bothersome in any way. On the down side, not bothersome in any way.
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C-: The Darcys @ Flamingo Cantina – I think I said a less-good Brit version of The National. Zzzzzzz….
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C-: Diana @ Flamingo Cantina – I don’t have a remote recollection of what they sounded like, which means they can’t have been very good but weren’t so awful that they didn’t draw my ire. This is therefore probably the right grade.
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D: Whirr @ Velveeta Room – the biggest letdown of SX made even more crushing that it was also the very last gig of the fest for me at 1am Saturday. These guys have fallen dramatically in my estimation. They’ve seemingly gone from a hopefully solid shoegaze revival band to some sort of noise-core drek. They continue to bury their talented lead guitar in too much noise. They’ve parted with their original, very charming singer and gotten rid of her keyboard altogether. Her replacement has a voice that is no better, and her charisma is much worse. Get your act together kids!
D: Ivan and Alyousha @ Hype Hotel – that ever-annoying mainstreamy band with an over-proud sense of themselves. Could be worse but at least technically adept.
D: Pool @ 512 Downstairs – a German skinhead-looking pop rock band that seemed to have the worst of Justin Bieber and Eminem combined, they were really just in the way of another band I wanted to see. A slight plus for showmanship and attracting an avid crowd of gorgeous African-American girls. I have NO idea what that connection is. Friend Greg: “South by…confused.”
D: Emily Bell @ Holy Mountain – some sort of indie country cabaret. They avoid an F with a very alluring singer who knew exactly what her offerings were.
D: Io Echo @ Red 7 – I’d forgotten that I’d seen them last year. Boo to them for reminding me. They avoid an F for actually having improved by ditching their stupid and worthless acrylic synthesizer and doing a bit less dancing, though even less would have been appreciated.
D: Reverend and the Makers @ Peckerheads – super annoying lead singer demanding clapping and hopping even before he’d even played anything. Incredibly annoying. Charming keyboarding who was nice to Coop is the only thing that prevented these numbskulls from getting an F.
D-: Merchandise @ Viceland – pretty much the epitome of the sort of cloying mainstream pop rock that’s just bland and annoying enough to get some airplay. The cold and excessively commercial venue didn’t help. Everything that’s wrong with SX today.
F+: Moon King @ The Jr – when a band sucks the life out of you so much that you leave before another set that you’d tabbed (Parenthetical Girls), it’s a fail. The plus is for being slightly less offensive than…
F: Austra @ Viceland – I didn’t even see them, but I’m giving them the biggest fail of the festival. I’d seen them before and disliked them then. This time, they were sat on stage, sound-checking and running way late with zero urgency in the most detestable of venues. I got so angry at the whole scene that I left before The Joy Formidable. This was a combo effort of Viceland, Austra, and SXSW.
More to come on misses and links to new wavey stuff people here might like.