SXSW 2014: Twice the fun with Bipolar Sunshine, Ramesh resurfaces and fun with Future Islands

Kevin Bronson on March 12th, 2014

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[Nothing like having to hit the ground running …]

@KRBronson on Tuesday at SXSW:

It wasn’t too many years ago that South by Southwest Music Festival attendees were still packing for their trips to Austin on Tuesdays, not swarming 6th Street in search of music and more decadent forms of entertainment. Alas, things get bigger and bawdier, and the lines to get into venues such as Latitude 30 for the British Music Embassy made it feel like Friday night. Thankfully, U.K. quartet Bipolar Sunshine was worth it, no two ways about it.

The foursome was playing its first-ever show in the U.S. “Somebody needs to take me to some basketball or baseball kind of shit,” singer Adio Marchant said, confessing to curiosity about part of of our culture, anyway. The quartet, with a
couple of EPs to its credit, mixes indie rock with deep grooves and even a little rap. They hail from Manchester, and maybe there’s a whiff of the Hacienda, or maybe the mornings after a night at the Hacienda, in their sound. Among their sloganeering is “Finding joy in misery,” and, after all, any number of Mancunians could’ve adopted that over the years.

Ramesh, in a new light

It’s been almost four years since Voxtrot called it quits, the Austin band’s moment as indie darling passing all too quickly. Now frontman Ramesh Srivastava is doing business as Ramesh, and his showcase at The Main II reminded fans of why Voxtrot was a hot item in the first place. Ramesh’s new music is orchestral indie-rock at a gallop, endearingly emotional with big peaks and valleys. He fronted a seven-piece Tuesday, with a cellist, violinist, keyboardist to go along with guitar-bass-drums, and afterward he allowed that there is a full-length album finished. It includes five songs originally recorded with Jim Eno of Spoon way back when, along with some done with Philadelphian Jeff Zeigler (the War on Drugs, Kurt Vile) and a couple more with Voxtrot drummer Matt Simon. Any of the songs Ramesh played Tuesday could end up in a movie soundtrack, if not on your own indie mixtape.

Fun with Future Islands

If you didn’t believe your eyes when he dazzled on the “Late Show With David Letterman,” Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring means it. The Baltimore disco demons reprised the unbridled energy of that TV appearance on Tuesday at the Spotify House, certifying their place as one of SXSW’s “It” bands. No overnight sensations they, Future Islands first released music in 2006, but baby bands claim no exclusivity when it comes to catchy synth-pop, as Future Islands’ album “Singles” (coming next week via 4AD) shows. Groundbreaking? No? Worthy of your best moves? Absolutely.

And on the local beat . . .

Every year I try to swear off L.A. artists at SXSW, figuring I can see enough of them at home, but the opportunity to hear freshly minted tunes proved too enticing on Tuesday night. There were rewards – like witnessing Holland Greco at the Empire Control Room. Greco, once of a band called the Peak Show, has a two-headed monster of an album coming out in April: one side of originals and one side of Misfits covers. On Tuesday she played the originals in all their playful, soulful, subversive, outlandish glory. There were some hired guns from Austin in her eight-piece band (kudos to the trombonist and trumpeter from the band Brownout), amazing since they had only one rehearsal as a group, and with veteran L.A. pro Scrote adding his tasty guitar licks, it was flavorful indeed. But what was that Ms. Greco was wearing, I asked somebody with more fashion sense than I? “I think it’s a vintage prom dress that’s been chopped in half in downtown L.A.,” I was told. It went very nicely with her ukulele.

Madi Diaz allowed as how she was just emerging from “down the writing tunnel” as she started to play out her new songs, which will emerge on an album for Nettwerk later this year. She has branched out from her folky roots, with some-transcendent results. Fronting a three-piece that included keyboardist Emily Greene (who toured with Passion Pit) and drummer Nick Lotz, Diaz proved a purveyor of sticky electro-pop (“Stay Together”), slow-burning rock (“Pictures”) and, in a solo moment, evocative confessionalist (“Wide”) – all in a span of 30 minutes at Buffalo Billiards. Impressive.

And Newbury Park-bred singer-songwriter RAJ was equally striking, kicking off the Bella Union party at Central Presbyterian Church with a tender, soaring set of atmospheric pop/R&B. Raj Rain is only 20, and he has unveiled only two songs thus far, but he is every bit as poised as his neighborhood pals the Neighbourhood. Fronting a quartet and making only subtle use of samples/backing tracks, RAJ embodied the emotional fragility of youth, as filtered through a voice beyond his years. In other words, you and your kid sister might like this.