SXSW 2012: Guards vs. the smoke alarms, arriving sleep-deprived and flyer etiquette

Kevin Bronson on March 14th, 2012

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[The South by Southwest Music Festival, now 2,500-plus bands strong and spanning five-plus days, keeps growing and growing – music events started on Tuesday this year. Buzz Bands LA will be covering with “daily diaries.” Here’s an abbreviated one from what we saw after arriving, already sleep-deprived, in Austin:]

@KRBronson on Tuesday at SXSW:

Richie James Follin is 28 now, four albums with the Willowz under his belt, along with a solo record that everybody (including himself) should have liked more. Follin’s new music as Guards feels as if the Orange County-bred singer-guitarist, who also played in his sister Madeline’s hit band Cults, has poured all his experience into a beaker and brought it to a boil.

Under difficult circumstances Tuesday night at the White Iris showcase at Parkside on 6th Street, Guards unleashed a half-hour of stadium-ready psych-rock that recalls a more sober Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or a less ponderous Yuck. It was exhilarating and precise, prickly guitar leads over a sprawling canvas of fuzzy chords (and an omnichord), played in a room with no stage and suspect sound. A younger man might have been flummoxed after his band’s stage effects set off the smoke alarm, but with a what-now? smile Follin played three songs through the ear-splittingly shrill beeps of the smoke alarm until someone, mercifully, found a way to shut the damn thing off.

In December, Guards released a 7-inch single, “Do It Again,” on L.A.-based White Irish, with Lewis Pesacov and Shane Stoneback producing. Follin, who’s collaborated with Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), James Richardson (MGMT) and Loren Shane Humprey (Willowz), has more where that came from, and it’s good.

Also notable …

Show-going was a bit limited on Austin arrival day, but Superhumanoids’ sweet synth-pop sounded strong at the White Iris showcase, and Dawes (in their only appearance at SXSW this year) delivered a sweet set of West Coast folk to a big crowd gathered for the Music Meets Tech party that closed out SXSW Interactive.

Memo to …

Street-teamers and promotions minions: Show a little respect for people who’ve already posted flyers on Austin’s scarce wall space. Two young people working for a major-label band paneled a dozen posters right over the top of other promotions on Tuesday afternoon at the Convention Center, including flyers for events that had not yet happened. (Covering up a flyer for an event that’s already past seems fair game, no?) “We were told to be merciless,” they told me. Noted.

Quote of the Day

“I’m going to try not to drink this week … We’ll see how long that lasts.”
– Zac Carper of FIDLAR, after the first of his band’s 11 scheduled shows at SXSW