SXSW de-briefing

I''m just gonna go at this in the good ole bullet-point form as it's Monday, and my internet connection isn't working.

Great as expected:

• Morrissey - even better energy than the OKC show, though the crowd sucked.
• Editors - can't wait to see a full show of theirs, complete with the slow songs.
• Boy Kill Boy - bring on a full-length album!
• Richard Hawley - a lot more electric guitar goodness than on his albums.
• Nightmare of You - how come their album hasn't gotten more attention?
• The Electric Soft Parade - I need to get my hands on their new EP.
• Margot & The Nuclear So and So's - got to see 'em as the full 8-piece, and also as a 3-piece, be sure to checkout their album.

Dependable as expected:

• The Charlatans - but the played too much from the weak new album.
• The Long Winters - ugliest band in rock?
• The High Dials - I need to re-listen to their album.
• The Tyde - but they played all their great singles in the first 20 mins!
• Guillemots - bring on the proper full-length album.
• Levy - magically his faux-english accent dissapeared.
• Rogue Wave - they're so dependable it's scary.
• The Morning After Girls - outside during the afternoon is not the best enviroment to see 'em in.

Bands who I only knew their singles (which I liked), but their other stuff dissapointed me:

• Battle - too scream-y
• Blackbud - too much blues-wankery
• The Cinematics - too Franz-y
• Jim Noir - too singer-songwriter-y
• Mystery Jets - too prog-y
• The Kooks - too rowdy

Bands I wanted to see, but I missed [did you see 'em?]:

Soft / Duels / Foreign Born / Wintergreen / The Stills / The Organ / The Picture / The Hourly Radio / The Mighty Six Ninety

Comments

[xolondon]

Can't believe you got into Moz! Was there a massive line?

"Nightmare of You" got swallowed with all the Killers/Duran rips (Clear Static, Panic..., Protocol) which is too bad b/c they have some great singles on that record.

I think I will name my group The Morning After Pills.

[Michael]

I got to see the Organ do an instore at Cheapo and it was pretty good. Sounded spot-on, but the band seemed a little tired.

[Pete]

What about Dirty Pretty Things, you didn't see them? Were their gigs available for normal people?

Some tracks from their album have leaked by the way... There's a .zip -file going around with 3 songs...

[Toddc]

The Subways and Nine Black Alps in Dallas on the same night at two different clubs?! What to do? Which one should I see.

[Christian]

I did get to see the Stills, but not until the Vice night party, during the Vice day shows tho I did catch the Mystery Jets and the Guillemots. The Guillemots were great live but it was the Mystery Jets who were one of my two favourite festival discoveries.
The Charlatans new stuff didn’t do too much for me either but that just may have been cos I wasn’t familiar with it, however I thought they were awesome both at the Fader/Levi’s thing (-tho it did suck that they only played fifteen seconds or so of ‘One to Another’ before launching into ‘How High’, what was that all about!) and that great Ny2Lon day-party where they sped up and bassed out ‘My Beautiful Friend.’
Alas I didn’t get to see Morrissey but I did sprint almost a mile or so from Red River when a friend at the Cedar Creek courtyard said he would be on in five minutes, apparently he was there but he canceled, you know anything about that Torr?

[torr]

There was actually no line at all for wristband people like me to see Moz!

There were rumours Moz would play another show, but it didn't happen.

http://www.morrissey-solo.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/19/1633245

How many new songs did The Stills play? How did their (much different) new stuff sit next to the old stuff? The more I hear the new song "In The Beginning", the less I like it. The rest of the album better be good!

Dirty Pretty Things don't interest me.

The Subways and Nine Black Alps don't really interest me much either!

[Christian]

I am not certain, but I think they were pretty much all new stuff. They played six songs, there we're only five songs listed on the set list but they seemed to be having a really good time, either that or they are just always remarkably happy looking. They led with "In the Beginning" a song I checked out after you made those Witness comparisons. They seemed to be embracing their new direction, I suppose it is worth noting that they did NOT play 'Still in Love Song' or anything sounding like it.

Also, people without wristbands or badges got in to see Morrissey too!

[nina]

no Silent League? c'MON!

[john roderick]

Long Winters=ugliest band in rock? Come now. We're not ugly, we're just fat and hairy. And the bass player's not even fat.

[torr]

haha, I was just kidding around John. You guys were good, and very cool that Matthew from Nada Surf came out and played with ya on a song!