SXSW 2006: Friday

Black Lipstick at Bella Blue Boutique

I hadn't actually seen these guys before and I have to say they totally rocked out. I had heard some of the Octopus Project remix album of their stuff a long time ago and honestly have to say I wasn't too impressed with it. Their performance was lively and the songs were very engaging. I also thought it was totally cool that they have a chick drummer. She was really good, too, although there were a few instances during a song where I kind of had the feeling she was making up the drumline as she went along. I don't know how else to explain it. I liked it, though- I felt like it worked.

During the finale of the performance, the band was joined by Josh Lambert and Toto Miranda of the Octopus Project and so they had like 6 guys with guitars all playing together, facing away from the audience and everytime they hit the end of the chord progression everybody leaned backwards to look at the crowd upside-down. It was pretty funny. I have to give them full marks for being goofy. I think what made it even funnier was that they kept on doing this like 50 times. You kept thinking, ok, this is the grand finale! Then they did it again. Then you're like "Ok, surely these guys are getting sick to their stomachs by now from leaning over like that." Then they did it again! and again! etc, etc. I got a kick out of it.

I bought one of their cds so I may be able to blog more about them once I get to listen to it and refresh my memory about their sound.


Palaxy Tracks at Bella Blue

I think I saw this band once before and I liked their kind of tripped-out space-rock sound. But for some reason I just couldn't get into them this time. I got bored and went into the boutique to look at cute girly stuff and drank a beer.


The Octopus Project at Bella Blue

I had shown up so late that I thought I would only get there in time to see these guys (who were, after all, the main reason for my going to the show at all), but the show was runnign about an hour and a half behind. I thought they sounded as awesome as ever, even being outside like that were the acoustics weren't exactly perfect. There was a fence behind them that probably helped. Everybody in the band seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

The band was augmented by the inclusion of a new guitarist, namely the dude from Palaxy Tracks, Brandon (I got less lazy and actually looked up his name on the web site). Josh's bass licks were as potent as ever, and Toto looked at several moments like his arms were actulaly going to fly off of his body while he played drums.

I've noticed at the last several OctoProj shows I've been to that Yvonne has really gone to town on the theremin. I've only been listening to the band for about 2 and a half years now (since I first arrived in Austin) so I can't say for sure, but it seems to me like her ability on the instrument has vastly increased. On no individual song is this more evident than on "Rorol", a cut off their debut album, Identification Parade. It's clear even from listening to the recorded version that her technical prowess has increased, since she's playing more complicated phrasing and, based on my impressions of the song, her accuracy has increased. Of course, seeing her play is a sight to behold.

They played one new song that I hadn't heard before, while I was waiting in line for the bathroom (unfortunately, the one beer made its presence known and I just couldn't wait until the end of the show...) The girl behind me in line and I agreed that the new song, which is rather upbeat and catchy, made a good "bathroom-dance" song.

They finished the set with a cover of a song I didn't recognize. It paled in comparison to the quality of their originals.


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We were all too lame and tired to go out and see their midnight show that night, so we went home and watched a movie instead.

SXSW- Thursday

Experimental Aircraft at LaunchPad studios

On Thursday, this is the only show I managed to see. I had plans to see other shows, but for various reasons none of those other plans panned out.

Ex-Air played 1 or 2 new songs that I really liked. The guy that does some vocals kind of entertains me. He sounded like he wanted to be a circa-1980s English punk singer or something. I never realized before how good Ex-Air's bassist is. I wish I would have blogged this right after it happened, when my memory of the performance was more up-to-date.

Most of the band members sounded good, but I'm sorry to say that I've never heard Rachel Goldstar's vocals sound so off. She actually sounded really flat to me at quite a few points. I kept wondering if her monitor wasn't working or something. After singing "Symphony," (probably my favorite Experimental Aircraft song) she even said that she totally had botched it. I seriously think she was just off that day, or maybe the monitor wasn't loud enough. I know she is capable of singing much better.

Later on that night we couldn't get in to see Flogging Molly so everybody came over to my place and we hung out for a coupla hours, drank a few beers, eventually watched Napoleon Dynamite.

SXSW 2006: Wednesday

Well Wednesday got off to a really good start for me. I have decided to avoid the crowds this year and go to as many free shows as possible. I'm going to try to get more into blogging again; I've been to a lot of shows and stuff but just haven't felt super inspired.

Day Show: End of an Ear record store on S. First

Rachel Goldstar

Unforunately I couldn't sneak out of work until 3, so I missed the beginning of her show. What I saw impressed me as much as ever, though. Her solo work sounds very much akin to the sounds I've heard from her band, Experimental Aircraft. Playing with a girl bassist whom I'd never seen before (sorry, I forgot her name) and Cheapos-record-store guy Carlos on drums, Rachel produced standing waves of harmonic resonance, with layer upon layer of distortion produced with the aid of a 12-string electirc, at least one acoustic guitar, some kinda old-school synth keyboard and and her sweet-sounding vocals on top.

Tunng

Some weird band I'd never heard of from the UK, consisting of at least 6 people (somehow they all fit into that little corner of the record store) came in and produced a weird mix of folk and techno-tronic sounds that reminded me of Broken Social Scene only more melodic and less annohying. Although they were still a little bit annoying. A lot of weird percussion instruments were used, including fruity twinkling sounds that kind of made me think of that song "Age of Aquarius" or something along those lines and this weird crashing sound effect that Octopus Projec t (aka the Best Band from Austin, EVER) uses on one of their songs. Overall, fairly entertaining.

My Education

My second-favorite band from Austin delivered. They only played 3 songs, (of course, each song is like 6-12 mins) but it was 3 songs worth of pure sonic enthrallment. The drummer seemed more keyed-up than ever to me. I don't even know what else to say. I am pretty sure I recognized all of the songs, even though I actually haven't listened to these guys in quite a while. I'm sure if their "real" SXSW performance lived up to the standard they set at this day show, they are probably going to gain in popularity this year. -Which actually kind of sucks, for us the fans.


SXSW: Hurts to Purr at Caribbean Lights (KUT Songwriter showcase)

I had never heard of this club before, but we finally found it over on 6th street next to Emo's. Going inside it was immediately apparent that this is not the crowd I typically see at shows. Considering that the showcase was hosted by public Radio, I guess that makes sense =)

Lead singer and pianist Liz Pappademos was barely recognizable with her newly-shorn locks (well I'm assuming it was a recent change, anyways, since I saw her perform only like a month ago or something and her hair was shoulder-length-ish). Her drummer (I think his name is Jason or Jeremy? something like that) was really good, but I was disappointed to see that the bassist wasn't there. It looks like, sadly, Hurts to Purr is really already over. Which is really sad becasue they made one really good record, ya know? And Liz is off to California to start anew, so maybe we'll hear from her again.

Liz's ballad about the earthquake she experienced as a child in San Francisco was especially poignant in light of her impending departure. Her voice really shone on "I didn't Mean it" (the opening track off their eponymous album), and the song they opened up the set with, "at 6 months" (well actually i'm just assuming that's the title because i'm too lazy to look it up) was especially catchy and engaging. I was really quite impressed with the drummer and can only hope to see him around town playing with another band, perhaps. Good drummers are always in high demand.

My favorite moment in the set, though, was when Liz made the unwise move of opening it up for requests (they had more time than she'd planned for). Naturally I loudly requested my favoriate song off the cd, "House" (only I asked for it wrong because I did'nt know the real title... what can i say? I know all the lyrics, i just never look at the cd case). That song is just too frickin' awesome. I was intrigued to hear how it would sound with only piano, drums and vocals, and I wasn't disappointed. The set was closed out with a rousing rendition of Paula Abdul's "Straight UP now tell me" (ok, once again i'm too, too lazy to look up the real title. but all of us 20-something hipsters remember that song).

Wow, you know times are changing when early-nineties kitsch becomes hip.

*sigh* I wish I could have seen Hurts to Purr when all 3 band members were still part of it. Ah well. Nevertheless the show was totally worthwhile and I'm sad that Liz is leaving Austin. Her piano skills are unstoppable.

Well, that's my commentary thus far. More to follow.