my sxsw recap

Here's a recap of who I checked out at SXSW along with a few crappy cell-phone pix!

• The Red Romance @ Volume

• The Republic Tigers @ Cedar Courtyard

• Low vs Diamond @ Cedar Courtyard

• Tacks, The Boy Disaster @ Whisky Bar

• The Duke Spirit @ The Current broadcast

• The Rascals @ The Current broadcast

• South @ Maggie Mae's

• Film School @ Red Eyed Fly tent

• Longwave @ Beauty Bar Tent

• Nada Surf @ Beauty Bar Tent

• Castledoor @ Cedar Courtyard

• The Thirst @ Latitude (so full of energy!)

My top 6 bands of the week were:

• The Red Romance @ Volume
• The Republic Tigers @ Cedar Courtyard
• Castledoor @ Cedar Courtyard
• Nada Surf @ Beauty Bar tent
• MGMT @ Rio Grande Restaurant
• Cut Copy @ Karma Lounge

Other bands I saw:

• The Little Ones @ Cedar Door (bring on the debut album!)
• The Hourly Radio @ Dirty Dog Bar (the new songs sound great)
• Headlights @ Habana Patio (such a fun band to watch)
• Duffy @ Fader tent (a little too adult-contemporary for me)
• The Stills @ Fader tent (the new songs are even worse)
• I Was A Cub Scout @ Rio (surprisingly crap)
• Aloha @ Habana Patio (stoners seem to love this band)
  
• The Helio Sequence @ Flamingo Cantina (please get a backing-band)
• Ed Harcourt @ Smokin Music (always good)
• Fanfarlo @ Emo's Annex Tent
• The Voom Blooms @ Latitude
• The Law @ Smokin Music
• Look See Proof @ Maggie Mae's Rooftop
• The Dykeenies @ Wave Rooftop
• The Answering Machine  @ Lucky Lounge
• Noah and the Whale @ Friends
• Tim Williams @ Jackalope

Here are the bands I didn't get to check out:

• Lightspeed Champion (London, UK)
• Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong (London, UK)
• The People's Revolutionary Choir (London, UK)
• The Wombats (Liverpool, UK)
• The Pigeon Detectives (Leeds, UK)
• Frightened Rabbit (Glasgow, UK)
• Deluka (Birmingham, UK)
• Our Lunar Activities (Stornoway, UK)
• Los Campesinos (Cardiff, Wales)
• Delorentos (Dublin, Ireland)
• Wolfkin (Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Dead Confederate (Athens, GA)
• Via Audio (Brooklyn, NY)
• Plushgun (Brooklyn, NY)
• Eagle Seagull (Lincoln, NE)
• Kate Tucker and The Sons Of Sweden (Ballard, WA)
• Buddy (Los Angeles, CA)
• Goldspot (Los Angeles, CA)
• She and Him (Los Angeles, CA)

This was my 9th year to attend SXSW and for my tastes it was by far the weakest lineup ever. There were just far too many generic post-Libertines bands: The Law, Look See Proof, The Dykeenies, The Answering Machine, The Voom Blooms.

Which is a bummer since there are countless "new" UK bands who should have been there: Ghosts, The Twang, Air Traffic, The Hours, Lucky Soul, GoodBooks, Candie Payne, Tiny Dancers, The Rumble Strips, The Enemy, Apartment, Polytechnic, Reverend & The Makers etc.

Comments

[Brent]

Hey Torr,
Good job at SXSW. Looks like you got to see quite a few acts. So MGMT came through it sounds like? I love that album but I have read mixed reviews of their live show. I am gonna see for myself in April when they swing back through seattle.
Did you see Air Traffic is opening for Elbow on their upcoming US shows?
Now I gotta go check out some of those "new" UK bands for myself.
Brent

[torr]

yeah, I wasn't even a huge fan of MGMT before seeing them, but they were really entertaining live!

I hadn't heard that Air Traffic will be opening for Elbow on some U.S. dates, that's great!

[tr0y]

i always appreciate your brit-ophile musical preferences!! one of the reasons i didnt attend this year was the lack of preferred brit bands. too bad to hear IWACS was "surprisingly crap"!! keep up the great posts torr!

[torr]

yeah, I just cannot stand bands like I Was A Cub Scout and Helio Sequence that play live as a duo with backing tracks. And Cub Scout guy just couldn't sing live either.

[Matt]

Wasn't there a 60's band called "The Rascals"?

[torr]

yes, there was a 60s band called The Rascals:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rascals

Much like their was a 60s band called The Tears.

[johnny lloyd rollins]

hey torr,

You should have gone to see south when they played again at the Thirsty Nickel..it was a much better show. The sound man at Maggie Mae's really had a poor mix. Joel was pretty upset about it.

Anyhoo,

yeah.. too bad about rumblestrips not playing.. maybe next year!

cheers,

johnny

[torr]

It's been my experience over the years that South are simply are not a very good live band. Something about the vocals and music just never sounds quite right.

[woyo]

The Pigeon Detectives had a really good showcase event. I was surprised by how good they were live.

[johnny lloyd rollins]

Yeah, I would agree with you.. I saw them do two acoustic shows.. and I asked them why they didn't do that all the time?

It solves exactly what you say is the problem with their live show.. the vocals and the music really blended perfectly when the band was stripped down.

In any case, I mentioned this to them numerous times last week..

[plusone]

Glad you liked the Republic Tigers, nice to see them getting noticed.