SXSW 2012: The Heavy gets sweaty, Bob Mould’s sweet Sugar and buenas noches with Y La Bamba

Kevin Bronson on March 18th, 2012

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@KRBronson on Saturday’s final fling at SXSW:

“How You Like Me Now?” – the title of the Heavy’s ubiquitous 2009 single – seemed like a relevant question Saturday at SXSW. The improbable emergence of the funk- and fire-breathing sextet from the hinterlands of England is a true underdog story: They nailed the Curtis Mayfield-meets-indie-rock formula on their second album “The House That Dirt Built,” with their rump-shaking calling card turning up in myriad TV, film, advertising and game placements.

“You write a song like that and people think you’re just gonna lie down and take a sh*t,” the band’s fireplug of a frontman, Kelvin Swaby, told the packed crowd at Bar 96. “I’m here to tell you we’re not done.”

With horns blaring, Rhodes surging and guitarist Dan Taylor shredding, the Heavy were tighter than Swaby’s abs as they debuted five new songs from their forthcoming third album “The Glorious Dead” – which, the frontman said, is only days away from completion. That can’t come soon enough for the band’s faithful, who ate up every note of the exceedingly catchy new material, gorged on the call-and-response choruses and delighted in Swaby’s penchant for working the ladies in the audience. Happy-hour soul, dancefloor funk and faint recollections of James Brown, and not a laptop in sight. Imagine that.

Also notable . . .

Middle age is all the rage, or so says a T-shirt my wisecracking kid sister once gave me. That certainly could be the mantra for Bob Mould, the 51-year-old punk-rock icon whose uncompromising music has been embraced by a legion of young followers and who was honored in November with a tribute concert at Disney Hall. He’s not done, either – he recently signed to Merge Records and this autumn will release a new album made with his current live band of drummer Jon Wurster (Superchunk) and bassist Jason Narducy (Telekinesis).

His set at Saturday’s MOG.com party, though, celebrated part of his legacy. The trio performed “Copper Blue,” the 1992 gem by Mould’s band Sugar, from front to back, and the largely male crowd, largely bedecked in St. Patrick’s Day green, seemed not to know whether to rock out or genuflect. Mould’s trio blew through the 45-minute album crisply and without banter, crunching in “Changes” and injecting “Hoover Dam” with just the right tension. Two decades have done nothing to diminish “Copper Blue’s” standing as one of the best guitar rock albums ever, but its subtext has been revealed – Mould was still a closeted gay man when he released it. That the reasons for the fury and angst behind “Copper Blue” are now obvious makes it less of a puzzle, but still a spectacular picture.

As SXSW wound calamitously down late Saturday – the roar from 6th Street was overwhelming, sound bled from one club to another and at least two venues scotched shows because of fistfights – Portland collective Y La Bamba assembled at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room to play music from its striking new album, titled (appropriately for the evening) “Court the Storm” and produced by Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin. Luzelena Mendoza’s serene vocals were in fine form, right down to her Feist-like acrobatics, and her six-piece band executed its Latin-flavored folk beautifully. But both the sound system and its operator seemed to be suffering from festival fatigue, and the songs from “Court the Storm” did not get the airing they deserved. Memo to self: Y La Bamba plays the Hotel Cafe on Thursday and Friday.

Elsewhere: Brooklyn’s Jonny Corndawg made genuine country music look easy in an afternoon set at Club 606, and he did some brisk merch sales afterward. … Brooklyn quartet Chappo – they of the iPod Touch commercial – impressed, even though we were forced to watch them at the crass snack chips [brand name redacted] “vending machine” stage … Portland outfit Radiation City’s retro-pop seemed to blend into the background (of the festival and of the current retro-pop craze) at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room. … And El Ten Eleven, playing at Red 7, continued to display why they are one of the best post-rock bands on the landscape.

Quote of the Week . . .

“We card everyone.”
– Doorman after doorman after doorman, demanding that a gray-haired man pull his driver’s license out of his wallet

Locals only . . .

A nightcap with Voxhaul Broadcast? Sure. The L.A. quartet was playing right around the corner, at the Soho, so it seemed appropriate to end our SXSW with a little home cooking. If the foursome were weary from their festival exploits, it didn’t show. They were downright explosive.