The Road to SXSW, Part 1: A tour diary with L.A. trio Eastern Conference Champions

Kevin Bronson on
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[Like dozens of bands from L.A., Eastern Conference Champions are headed east on I-10 toward Austin for shows at this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival. The unsigned L.A. trio is packing an album’s worth of new songs – “SPEAK-AHH” will be out in April – and a bit of momentum, since their tune “Million Miles an Hour” landed in the “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” soundtrack. They’ve agreed to diarize their trip for Buzz Bands. For more of their banter, you can follow them on Twitter @eccmusic]

Day 1, Sunday

I can’t get my girl to read notes I leave on the fridge, so I find it hard to believe that this will in anyway be looked upon as insightful or meaningful. But I will be as honest as I can with this diary, I will not use spellcheck, and please don’t correct my run-on sentences.

Let’s introduce the players:

Joshua Ostrander:  Owen Morris* described him as, “A selfish cu– lacking a heart.” Smoker.
Melissa Dougherty:  Ridiculously talented and attractive guitar player. Vegetarian.
Greg Lyons:  Quite possibly the best drummer in the country. Heart of gold.
The Van:  The most high-maintenance member of the band. Ford.

We left tonight for Austin. We will be deadheading through the night with a stop at a hotel in Fort Stockton, Texas. That will put us roughly 6 hours outside of Austin for a Wednesday arrival. The drive through the night is gonna blow. Mostly because I cant smoke in the van.

We will be playing 7 shows in 4 days. This is the most we have ever played at a SXSW.  We usually do 4 or so, but with the upcoming release we felt obligated to make the most of the festival.

The key to SXSW is to not take it too seriously. For the most part people are tanked, they would prefer to see emotion as opposed to accurate playing. We have rehearsed 17 songs, interchangeable nuggets that will fulfill the obligated time slots of 7 shows. We will only write out a set for the first 2 shows, after that we just play to the room. We will be debuting a couple new songs off “SPEAK-AHH,”, which I am excited about.

All right, that’s good for now. We got a new battery for the van, and then practiced, and daylight savings really screwed my day up. I look forward to seeing your sweater vests in the Texas heat.

Respectfully,
Joshua Ostrander

* producer of ECC’s first album “Ameritown”

Photos: Top, Melissa Dougherty at practice; middle, drawing up setlists; above, The Van.