For those of you that missed it, John Popper sat in with Surprise Me Mr. Davis at one of their SXSW sets. Our own Mr. Whitperson got this video while he was down in Austin rocking at the show…
SXSW
Sadly I’ve had to miss the last two years of South by Southwest and I don’t plan on doing that again. I’ll be booking a hotel and hope to finally put together a showcase like I’ve been telling myself we’d be doing for years now. If you’re a blogger, band or friend that wants to help out, let’s get brainstorming.
SXSW 2011: “We’re Open For Business” [hypebot]
South By Southwest, the Music and Media Conference and Festival, is now open for business at sxsw.com. This year, SXSW will take place March 16 – 20, 2011 in Austin, TX. Throughout the downtown Austin area, there will likely be well over 1,900 acts showcased. Click here to learn more and to register to attend.
SXSW Music has announced their enormous list of showcasing artists, clocking in at 230 bands/artists that will take the stage in Austin in March 2010.
Fleet Foxes are following up a fantastic spring tour with Blitzen Trapper with dates scheduled across the country, including some festivals like Sasquatch and Lollapalooza. I totally love this band and I’ve gotten a chance to see them a few times now, once at the Independent and then a few weeks back at the Fillmore with the aforementioned openers, Blitzen Trapper. Their opening set has me sold that they’re going to be huge very soon, and one day I will get to say that I smoked a jay with the drummer while upstairs at the Mohawk at the Hot Freaks Party at SXSW 2008. Scandalous!
SO ANYWAY, Fleet Foxes played a fantastic set at the sold-out Fillmore show. They did a couple new songs and really showed that they had progressed as a live band, especially with front-man Robin Pecknold now standing up for the duration of their set. When they played the Indy he was sitting down, which honestly seems a lot more to the vibe of what kind of sound and mood they’re trying to create during their set. It’s not jammy even though you want to dance to some of the grooves, but all of that stops when the band lets their instruments fade and their vocals carry. Nothing can touch it when these guys hit a note together.
The Breeders have announced a few dates on the West Coast still supporting their latest album released earlier this year, Mountain Battles. I saw them in March at SXSW at the Mess with Texas 2 party and didn’t manage to get photos myself (but Prefix Mag has me covered there). I was totally blown away by what I saw, though. The band opened up with “Overglazed” and went right into “Bang On,” which is exactly how the album opens. It was an incredible start to the end of my day before heading over into an absolutely incredible set by Simian Mobile Disco. Which reminds me, why the hell haven’t I written about any of this before?
The Breeders Fall 2008 Tour Dates
November 2008
11 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
12 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
14, 15 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
17 – Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern Theatre
[via LiveDaily]
Whenever I think of Langerado I think of the start of the music festival season, and next year’s festival and unofficial start to the ’09 season will be held March 6-8 the week before South by Southwest which means there’s a slight chance I could try to hit both of these festivals. I mean, I should try to be realistic and understand that I’m going to putting a lot of energy into SXSW this next year (more on that soon, hopefully!). But still, Langerado seems to be upping their game by moving back to a fan-friendly locale in Miami and promising a ton of fresh faces as part of the lineup.
The 2009 edition of Florida’s annual Langerado Music Festival will be held at Bicentennial Park in Miami, marking the event’s fifth venue change since launching seven years ago, according to festival co-producer Ethan Schwartz.
Next year’s Langerado Festival, to be held March 6-8, will feature approximately 60 artists on four stages. A full lineup will be announced in early November. [Billboard]
Happy weekend, folks. I’ve been sitting on a couple great download links for a while without sharing, so it’s only fitting that I roundup a couple for your leisurely weekend downloading pleasure.
- STS9 @ METAMO.07.01, METAMO.07.02 – These two podcasts from STS9 are the uncut sets they performed on their last trek over to Japan. From start to finish, these are an amazing representation of the band’s sound these days, one that is constantly pushing the boundaries of live, electronic music to more than just the Untz. [via STS9's Podcasts]
- Fleet Foxes @ The Hi-Dive, Denver 4/14/08 – If the only criticism I’ve ever read about these guys is that they sound too much like Band of Horses and/or Jim James and My Morning Jacket, well I really have no problem with that at all. [via Ohmpark]
- 2008 Coachella Live Music Downloads & Streams – As always, Largehearted Boy does a fantastic roundup of all the cool stuff you can download from Coachella. I’d nab the Holy Fuck and Animal Collective sets right away. [via Largehearted Boy]
- Animal Collective @ Coachella 2008 – This is a four-song powerhouse from AC, including a solid cover of “Comfy in Nautica,” one of the tracks from the Panda Bear debut, Person Pitch. Even though this stuff is pushing on a year old by now, it still feels new and fresh to me. It’s an approach to music that I hadn’t otherwise considered but it has elements that feel familiar. The whole concept of flowing your songs into one giant concert sound is something you see the jambands do quite regularly, and the indie bands I relate to seem to get this concept as a tenet of performing live. [via Deaf Indie Elephants]
- Holy Fuck @ SXSW 2008, Brooklynvegan party – Sadly, I wasn’t really able to pay as much attention during this set as I would have hoped for. Once I went back and gave this set a listen, I’m absolutely blown away by the sound these guys put out. During a headlining slot at the day party, they got the most room to stretch out and really show the crowd what they’re sound is all about. Download now. [via Lullabyes.net]
On that last one mentioned above, I think my favorite track from the whole show was the third one in.
Give it a sample above or watch this clip from the show. The angle on the video is killer; you can only see a silhouette of the band based on the angle of the sun. And at about 2:00 minutes in, try and stop yourself from pumping your first and rockin’ along with the tunes. So good.
By the time the music portion of the South by Southwest conference began, I was really excited for what I knew the week ahead of me would include. I had already started to plot out the ultimate schedule in my mind and on sched.org, and through the wonders of my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I had a handy mechanism for keeping up on what was going on all across town and what I could possibly see while in attendance. The ultimate schedule was impossible, but I had a good run through the entire fest and started out strong with about 15 bands on day one.
