Friday, March 18 You can’t sit still at SXSW. You have to keep moving. If a shark stops swimming it dies, this is the mentality you need to adhere to. Our 3 o’clock Sonicbids showcase was ridiculously good. We were running on fumes but somehow managed to throw down. By this point I am sweating […]
Thursday, March 17 Day 5? 6? Starting to get blurry. Four shows down. Starting to feel the burn. We are now fueled by booze and hot dogs. We are coated with a sweaty glaze. The Texas winds push ya forward when your feet stop working. The girls wear less clothing as the festival progresses, and […]
Wednesday, March 16 Too tired. Too many shows. This pic sums up our first day at SXSW. Joshua
Brite Futures brought a lot of pink. Linda Perry brought two decades-plus of rock ’n’ roll experience and her brand new band, Deep Dark Robot. Other Lives brought enough gear to stock a music store. And Eastern Conference Champions and Voxhaul Broadcast brought new songs from albums arriving soon. Those were among the highlights Wednesday […]
Tuesday, March 15 My new found love for Fort Stockton, Texas, knows no bounds. Fort Stockton, at first glance, is a broken town. Most stores/restaurants/gas stations in town are boarded up, the gas signs show prices that make you think they have been closed for awhile. At this point we are walking zombies, we have […]
[Tour diary of Eastern Conference Champions’ SXSW sojourn. ] Day 2, Monday, 11:51 p.m. I-10 East, outside Blythe, CA, | 52 Degrees/Clear Something happens as soon as I get behind the wheel to drive – I immediately want to go to sleep. When someone else is driving, I can’t sleep ’cause I feel guilty. Sleep […]
[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 […]
[The second installment of our Los Angeles-goes-to-SXSW preview:] DAEDELUS If you like: Alfred Darlington. And who the hell doesn’t? What’s up with him: Daedelus emerged from the Dublab crew to become one of the most innovative and eclectic producers around, sporting his dandy look and playing gadgets we won’t pretend to understand. His new album […]
Best stuff from tonight’s embarrassment of show riches: ‣ The legendary Gang of Four wind up a 13-date U.S. tour tonight at the Music Box behind their new album “C O N T E N T.” Opening are energetic Canadian pop-rockers Hollerado – their one-take video for “Americanarama,” above, has gotten them a bunch of […]
[Playing a little weekend catch-up …] For a band that hasn’t yet released a full-length album, Red Cortez has a pretty formidable catalog of songs. That much is evident in the sets the L.A. quartet has played the first to weeks of their Satellite residency, and in the free, four-song EPs Harley Prechtel-Cortez (pictured) and […]
