Shutter Noise

Portugal. the Man, Port O’Brien, the Dig pics

I bought a new camera on Friday. Saving up for it meant not spending Christmas or birthday money, and the sheer rush of anticipatory adrenalin in the days before purchasing was probably a little obscene.

All those months of anticipation were so worth it. You know how in the ridiculous arguments against gay marriage, some crazy always exclaims that “people will end up wanting to marry a goat!” or something equally nonsensical? Never mind the goat, I would marry this camera. Unf.

Canon 7D, 18 megapixels, HD video, 6400 ISO. Gorgeous.

The Dig (who were really awesome live, you should definitely catch them next time they come around. Also, their album drops in April, and it’s a lot of fun)

Port O’Brien

Portugal. the Man

The only thing is, the version of Lightroom I had wasn’t compatible with the file format for the pics, so I had to learn my way around the photoediting software that came with the camera to work on these. I’m still getting used to it… I might redo a few of these; I’m not entirely happy.

As usual, click the pics to see the rest.

Show Announcement – Of Montreal

Transmission Entertainment is bringing Of Montreal to town again! I saw ‘em twice last year, at Monolith and Fun Fun Fun Fest; both times they brought an enormous crowd. In other words, you better buy your tickets ASAP because this is gonna sell out damn quick, and then you’ll be cryin’ ’cause you missed them at an 850-capacity venue.

Mohawk, May 23rd (yeah, that’s a Sunday, so what? Verbose songs about ambiguous sexuality, death, drugs, and etc beckon you!)

Tix here. Noot D’Noot and James Husband (from Of Montreal) open.

Nouvelle Vague at Mohawk

It’s hard to go wrong with French pop. When Yelle came to town a few years ago, you know I was in the middle of that party. And though the differences between their electro-dance and the dreamy, bossa nova cover-heavy pop of Nouvelle Vague are numerous, the draw still stands.

While they didn’t blow my mind, the show was a lot of fun, and their covers were great. They have the equation down pat: recall the original song – exactly duplicate + subsist well on their own.

I dug both of the encores: Love Will Tear Us Apart, and In A Manner of Speaking. Each allowed the two singers an opportunity to showcase her vocals alone on-stage.

The only downsides to the night were their late start (30 minutes after they were supposed to go on, really?), and the fact that going to this show meant missing RJD2 at Emo’s. But hey, the odds of catching a French group again versus an American group I’ve already seen? Totally worth it… and did you see the coat she was wearing? Ridic!

Fashion Freakout Pics

Shooting a runway show is fun, but demanding. With music, you usually have at least three songs to get the shot. For fashion, you get the walk down, maybe a pose to each side, and the walk back – say, 30-45 seconds. If you screw up, too bad, too late, your only other chance is catching them at the very end. Good luck.

Which is why I ended up shooting at least 700 photos (gotta get the shot!). Prototype Vintage, New Bohemia, and Buffalo Exchange showed. Click the pics to see the entire set of 250 at Flickr.

Casual Victim Pile, a Compilation

Austin music is awesome, don’t deny. Garage rock, psychedelic, throwback old-school pop, a burgeoning electro-dance scene, and above all the overarching – and, yes, over-used – ‘indie’ title. After hitting post on this admittedly enamored statement, I’ll likely be hit with a scornful wave of dissent from the haters who delight in saying the local scene is dying. Eff y’all, Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy is totally on my side here.

As proof of how promising he views the Austin (and Denton, our underrated just-head-up-I35 neighbor) talent-pool, his label put together Casual Victim Pile, a killer compilation of the local bands you’ve hopefully already supported for at least a show or two. It has Harlem, who signed to Matador in the fall. It has the drunken growling dirty psych-rock that is Elvis, the face-melting tempo-hounds Dikes of Holland, jaunty punk-leaning indie trio Follow That Bird!, and so much more.

It’s a three-day shindig at Beerland that you better not miss. Only $5 each day, 17 bands total, and if you get there early enough on Thursday you can get your hands on a free limited-edition poster commemorating this awesomeness. Friday and Saturday they’ll be selling the comp at the venue on cd and vinyl.

Thursday, Feb. 4
Follow That Bird!
Dikes Of Holland
KIngdom Of Suicide Lovers
The Distant Seconds
The Persimmons

Friday, Feb. 5
Woven Bones
The Young
Wild America
Flesh Lights
Elvis
The No No No Hopes

Saturday, Feb. 6
Harlem
The Golden Boys
Bad Sports
Love Collector
The Stuffies
Lost Controls

Girls + Magic Kids

Along with quite a few Austinites and the staff of Pitchfork, I really dug last year’s Album from Girls. I listened to it on repeat, especially Lust for Life and Hellhole Retrace, and really, really wanted to see them live. Finding out they were playing the Parish was like a sparkly little gift of great lighting and stellar sound, and of course it sold out.

Live, I really did dig Girls; the two new members of the band did a great job fleshing out the sound of what had originally a two-man collaboration. The only downer was the crowd; there were a few really drunk people acting like fools up front. (hint: please stop screaming “If you were gay, I’d fuck you” at Christopher Owens in my ear… I think he heard it the first time, and I don’t really care.)

There were also a few sidestage shenanigans going on with the opening bands during Girls’ set that were really distracting, but I’m not gonna get into that.

The first band, the Smith Westerns, didn’t seem to have much to them. It could’ve been that I was still trying to wade up front during their set, or that I was drunk as a skunk, but other people seemed to like them so I’m reserving judgement for now.

Magic Kids were hit-and-miss for me; they were really trying to justify themselves to that sold-out crowd, you could tell, but they didn’t quite have it together yet. Every once in a while they’d get it together for a few minutes and you’d think they might be on to something good, but they couldn’t sustain it. Some of it could’ve been nerves, I suppose.

All together, a fun show, and it was over early enough for me to hustle over to the Mohawk for Missions, who are my new favorite local band… I might post pics of that show later.

(Lastly, a huge thank you to Austin Town Hall for getting me in the door! Read their review of the show with more of my photos here.)

Austin Record Store Binge

For the past few weeks I’ve been taking photos for Austin Vinyl, a new website that’ll be up, running, and telling you all you need to know about the local record store scene very soon. It has been great discovering so many stores that I didn’t know about, but the temptation of all that vinyl means my bank account isn’t speaking to me at the moment.

Here’s your own brief tour of the six stores we hit. All these photos + more are here.

First and largest, Waterloo Records. Doubly dangerous in that I went weeks ago, then again for Spoon, and couldn’t resist buying both times.

Record count: Anni Rossi – Rockwell, HEALTH – Get Color, Dengue Fever – Escape From Dragon House

Cheapo, right up the street

Record count: Radiohead – They Might Be Wrong (live recordings)

Brief interlude to say that I have absolutely loved these recordings for years, and am so happy to finally have them on vinyl. The versions of Like Spinning Plates and True Love Waits on here are so, so good.

Backspin Records, my hands-down favorite new find. I actually had to stop looking, because it was getting more and more difficult to choose which albums I should buy and which I could wait on.

Also, they have a Billy Idol wall.

Record count: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Broom, HEALTH – s/t, Spoon – Kill the Moonlight, one more I can’t remember

End of An Ear

Record count: Bedřich Smetana (who had a thoroughly depressing life), the Chariots of Fire soundtrack, the Roadie soundtrack with its awesome classic rock, LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

Friends of Sound, where I stumbled into by accident last sxsw and ended up with some Billie Holiday and Holy Fuck… great location also, right off of South Congress.

Record count: Nina Simone – Best Of Collection, Dirty Dancing Soundtrack (hell yeah!)

Breakaway Records, aka ohmygod so many awesome $1 albums wow.

Record count: Dave Brubeck – Solo Piano Songs, Cindy Lauper, Beatles – 1967-1970

The sad thing is, I probably bought even more that I forgot about… vinyl love is a sickness, I tell you!

Spoon Pics, Waterloo & 101X

So, I got to see Spoon twice yesterday. They played a set for a select group of 101X peeps (and for kgsr before that, but I sadly missed it) before heading down for their hour-long gig at Waterloo. I love me some Spoon, perhaps an inappropriate amount given how many times I’ve actually met Britt, so yesterday was pretty much entirely awesome.

Also, the fact that 101X had Tuaca shots set out at the door for before and after the set didn’t hurt any.

(as usual, there are more pics available if you click through to my Flickr page)

And if you made it this far, you should go listen to the two new Midlake tracks… They are utterly gorgeous and I’m obsessed with them. It looks like they will probably be playing SXSW, but I’m not being greedy to want an Austin date outside of the conference, am I? Come on, they’re practically local!

The Courage of Others comes out Feb. 2, and I can’t effing wait.

Free Week Pics – Day 1 & 2

I love Free Week, but thank god it’s over. 10 days of late nights, jumping between 3, 4, or 5 venues each evening, and taking over 1500 photos in too-damned-cold weather is a recipe for live music burnout. (though it is good prep for the insanity that is SXSW (only 60ish days away!))

As usual, click the pics to see the rest of the set.

Day 1

Amplified Heat

Cartright

Smoke & Feathers

The Ugly Beats

Day 2

Vinhomudeh

LIONS

the inside band after LIONS… can anyone help me out? I don’t think this was In Dudero…

Harlem

New Albums Live

There are some kickass albums coming out this month, and some of your favorite local spots are offering you a chance to listen to them before forking over your hard-earned cash. NPR’s online stream is also out to spoil you (don’t you love those guys?).

Yeasayer’s new album, Odd Blood, is supposedly even trippier than the first, and though it drops February 9th, you can check it out weeks ahead of time this Friday at both Waterloo Records and End of an Ear. And while you’re thinking of them, you should probably buy your tickets for one of their two Parish shows before they sell out.

NPR is streaming Spoon’s new album in its entirety, and what I’ve listened to so far is pretty kickass. You can catch them live for free at a Waterloo Records in-store Monday the 25th at 4pm, but if you want to actually make it in the building, I’d recommend showing up very, very early. They’re also kicking off SXSW with a show that Wednesday at Stubbs.

Vampire Weekend’s Contra is also streaming, and there’s a listening party for it Tuesday night at Scoot Inn. Sadly, I don’t have any pics of them yet, though they are playing Stubbs April 10th so I can maybe remedy that.

Oh yeah, and my Free Week photos will be up asap.