Elvis Perkins in Dearland – Loooove me some Elvis Perkins. I went to New Orleans for the Jazz Fest at the beginning of the month, and saw this band both at the fest and in the French Quarter (at One Eyed Jacks) the next evening.

Also that night, MyNameIsJohnMichael, who is gonna be playing ACL this fall. They reminded me of What Made Milwaukee Famous live: fun, energetic, tons of stage presence, and the crowd was totally into it.

Next, Wye Oak and Shearwater at the Parish. I’d never seen Wye Oak before, and so was really effing excited. They totally justified that, and destroyed me with awesome vocals and some impressive rocking out for a two-piece band.

Then Shearwater, who are always nothing less then perfect live.

Then last week, I saw Besnard Lakes and Stardeath and White Dwarfs.

I remember really liking Stardeath, but Besnard Lakes was just utterly gorgeous to hear. Ended up buying the newest album on vinyl because I just couldn’t resist. <3 <3 <3

I was mainly really looking forward to Sea Wolf. I loved 2007’s Leaves in the River – though apparently Pitchfork hated it – and couldn’t wait to see them for the first time. It was also nice to finally catch the Album Leaf, but the music is so chilled out and pretty; it just wasn’t what I wanted last night.

Though A Place to Bury Strangers have been to town quite a few times, somehow I hadn’t seen them before last night. Now that I have, may I say GODDAMN. Have you seen HEALTH live? The aesthetic is very similar: noise rock, wall of sound, thrashing around stage with disorienting strobes. Awesome and insane.

The Big Pink were fun, with sporadic outbreaks of dance party. I was mainly at the show for APTBS, but these guys gave good stage presence. And of course, they exploded the room by ending with Dominos.

Lastly, I gotta say that despite my initial impressions of LCD Soundsystems’s new single (kinda thought it was ‘meh’), I suddenly can’t get it out of my head. Damn James Murphy and his talent at insanely catchy hooks!

So hurry over to the Stubb’s site ASAP to get tickets for both them and MGMT, because that shit is gonna sell out insanely fast, then you’ll be sad at missing the dance party.

Friday, aka tomorrow, aka 3/26: White Denim @ Antones – If you live in Austin, you’ve likely already seen White Denim. And you know they’re worth seeing again. (ask me about the time I caught them 7 times in 5 days at southby a few years back) Also, if you’re in the first 200 to rsvp on Do512, you get in for only $5.

Monday 3/29: Daniel Francis Doyle and YellowFever @ Red 7 – Again, locals, but DFD’s crazy one-man-band intensity and YF’s minimalist pop are always fun.

Wednesday 3/31: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists @ the Parish

Thursday 4/1: Harlem @ Mohawk – It’s their album release shindig, and even though it doesn’t officially drop until the week after, you can get your greedy hands on it then because they love you. They have a habit of putting at least one song on each album that makes it into my top 10 of the year, and this one is no exception.

Friday 4/2: Red Sparrowes @ Red 7 – You saw them at Fun Fun Fun, right?

Elvis vs Dikes of Holland @ Beerland – This should be awesome. I don’t know why DoH aren’t much bigger, because they throw down some awesome tracks. Combine them with the onstage crazy of that Elvis frontman, and it is a no-lose situation.

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.

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.)