@KRBronson on Thursday at SXSW (also see: Jesus and Mary Chain review): Arms makes indie-rock for people who like indie-rock, with sharp guitar and bass lines, sharper lyrics and arresting shifts in tempo and mood that toggle adeptly between nice and gnarly. Mastermind Todd Goldstein once played in Harlem Shakes, who had their 15 minutes […]
@Seraphina_L on Thursday at SXSW: U.K. duo Slow Club opened their set with a couple of intimately twee songs at the Parish, but it didn’t take long for Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor to fill out their alt-folk sound with a full band. Taylor especially showed her versatility as she also took on the guitar […]
@Seraphina_L on Wednesday at SXSW: Kimbra (also known as Kimbra Johnson) is now known as an Australian artist but she was mostly known for being the female New Zealander who lent her vocals to Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Now after the smash hit, she’s moved to Melbourne and is also getting ready […]
[With the Buzz Bands LA staff running on 3 hours of sleep combined, the trek to SXSW was an early one and it made our day that much longer. Then again, coming back to a city where tons of freebies cushioned any of our traveling woes made us glad to be back in the Austin […]
[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 […]
South by Southwest 2012 has become somewhat of a battle between West Coast and East Coast this year. We’re fine with that as the City of Angels has tons to offer for every single type of musical palette, but what about all the L.A. folks heading out there to see something non-local? There are plenty […]
Darren Weiss is no longer one of the Girls – the Encino-reared drummer-songwriter recently departed the celebrated San Francisco indie-rock band to concentrate on his own PAPA, music he has been incubating since his college days in New York City. PAPA’s debut EP “A Good Woman Is Hard to Find” (released in October) was recorded […]
[I decided to see the currently larger-than-life rap group one more time at SXSW — in a smaller setting this time around. Most thought the Odd Future set at MWTX was epic, but then this happened…] “Sound guy, this mic is fucked. Fix this shit.” If those words from Tyler, the Creator didn’t foreshadow the […]
[And so SXSW ends … ] Elephant Stone (at Spill) – Strange that two names on the Saturday night calendar stirred fond memories of Britpop past. The first, Babe Rainbow (the title of a fantastic 1992 album by the House of Love), turned out to be a Vancouver DJ. Not in the mood for that, […]
[Aussies on a rooftop, not a bad way to spend a Saturday:] Cloud Control (at Maggie Mae’s) – The only bad thing that happened to the young quartet at the Sounds Australia showcase was that their banner was felled by the stiff Texas breeze. That didn’t sully the smile of Alister Wright, who led his […]
