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
Posted 4 days, 20 hours ago at 9:02 am. Add a comment
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.)
Posted 6 days, 19 hours ago at 9:08 am. Add a comment
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
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
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!)
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.
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
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago at 9:24 am. Add a comment
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.
Balmorhea was lovely as usual, though the move inside to avoid the weather was regrettable… it was packed, hot as hell indoors at the Mohawk, and the noise from people at the bar interrupted some of the more hushed moments of musical tension.
Ola Podrida was spot-on with every song, professional, and sounded like they’d been touring together for years, despite the fact that two of the band members were really new. Would watch again.
I really dig Brazos’ new album, and Martin Crane’s solo stuff is almost as intriguing. One song, though, he joked about giving to a girl group… he really should. A credit to his songwriting skills, it was catchy and fun, but very odd coming from a guy whose usual offerings include poem adaptations and brooding thoughts on late nights downtown. Anyway, <3 for anything this guy does.
The Duchess and the Duke were drunk, obnoxious, and a complete disappointment. I was looking forward to this show, but my only thoughts after were disgust at them wasting my time. Watching them was like watching an unknown band, and thinking that there was maybe something there, if only they could sober up and take the music they were attempting to play seriously.
Also, the lead singer slurred at me from the stage: “stop doing your job and just have fun!”. I’m sorry, but my job is photographing you. I’m not using flash, I’m not being obtrusive or in your face, so can you please just butt out and try taking your job a bit more seriously?
Amazing guitar-playing skills… I was completely entranced by him, which is a little impressive for just one guy with a guitar who didn’t even sing for most of his set. He brought out a few members from the Duchess and the Duke for a song together at the end, which I enjoyed more than the rest of their following set.
Remembering a name as odd as Fergus & Geronimo may be difficult, but you should try… they were fun, energetic, and really happy to be playing for us. I dug it.
A few more pics… hover over for band name:
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 9:30 am. Add a comment
I took the above photo at the Cursive show a few weeks ago, and really love it. The thing with photography is, the stuff you’re most happy with may not mean anything to someone else…
So, here are a few of my pics I’m really happy with.
Still learning my camera, hadn’t had it for too long, got this shot that is still one of my favorites. I titled it Sun Giant, after the Fleet Foxes song, because I’m a dork.
Fellow photog Cory Ryan (she’s really awesome, and has a ton more experience than me). I somehow mananged to catch this at just the right moment.
Their whole set was thrashing movements, backlight only, or strobe lights going nuts. I was telling a fellow photopit peep that it was going to be the hardest set to shoot of FunFunFun09, and it was. So awesome, though. This was the pic that, when looking through a Flickr FFF photostream, I didn’t recognise as mine for a sec. Very proud of this shot.
Eh, I’ll post more some other time. As usual, click the pic to see more.
OK Go loves confetti. Exibits B & C, with A above:
So of course, their new video has some. Also present: an internet acronym, psychedelic batons, rythm gymnastics, and the inevitable flashback to every acid trip you’ve ever taken.
