Less than a week from now, Pixies will return to the Aragon Ballroom. It’s not clear which band member needs the money this time around, but it is clear that Chicago Pixies fans had enough pent up demand to merit adding a third show.
Now when you listen to albums released in 1989, you are transported — back to wearing cutoff jean shorts with black tights, when old men were Presidents, Norm’s ass was always firmly planted on a Cheers barstool, and phones had cords. Here’s what we were listening to in 1989:
The Replacements - Don’t Tell A Soul
2 Live Crew - As Nasty As They Wanna Be
Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
Madonna - Like A Prayer
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Richard Marx - Repeat Offender (Really??? His agents couldn’t have had some foresight on that one?)
Nirvana - Bleach
Don Henley - The End of The Innocence
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Soundgarden - Louder than Love
Pixies - Doolittle
With the exception of Bleach, maybe, there’s not a single piece of work above other than Doolittle that doesn’t seem dated and entirely of its time, regardless of how good it is.
Doolittle now seems at once legendary and fresh. If it dropped today, music bloggers would lose their collective shit (and wake up from their Animal Collective induced stupors, pun intended) to fall all over this album. It’s got the lo-fi noise pop (Dead), the spacey, airy model dirge (Silver), and devastatingly crushing bookends (Debaser, Gouge Away). In between are the art-pop hooks that the Flaming Lips always wanted to write, but had to build stage cinema around to provide relevance for instead (sorry Lips fans).
Needless to say, I’m excited. You’ll see me on Friday at the Aragon standing in my chinos, shirt pulled off clean.
Amanda Palmer performing in a church (and very subdued by Amanda Palmer standards).
Thinking I liked +/- based on “Steal the Blueprints” but struggling through a whole set to determine they are ultimate dude geek rock - technically tight and amazing, but very low on evoking emotions.
Missing Glasvegas because they were late and we were heading to a panel. Then the panel was an hour late because Quincy Jones‘ namedroppingkeynote ran over by an hour. I guess if you’re Quincy Jones you actually do have two hours worth of names to drop.
Missing Grizzly Bear performing in a church (especially after NPR’s twitter informed my they played their haunting cover of the Crystals’ “He Hit Me”).
Artists I unfortunately missed because they were playing opposite sets I didn’t want to miss: John Wesley Harding, PJ Harvey, Shearwater, St. Vincent, Crystal Stilts, King Khan & the Shrines, Black Lips, the Wrens, Red Red Meat, the Thermals
Artists I unfortunately missed because of flat out poor planning or tough logistics: the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Peggy Sue, Devo, Echo and the Bunnymen, Ra Ra Riot, the Airborne Toxic Event, the Annuals, the Hard Lessons, Exene Cervenka, Camera Obscura, The Proclaimers (no not really) Daniel Johnston (ok that was because it was Saturday at 1am and I just couldn’t stand up any longer) and dozens of others
Artists I deliberately missed in order to avoid the inevitable shitshow: Metallica, Kanye West
The misses are hard to complain about when your trip starts like this:
Note: wherever possible I have linked to the artists’ SXSW pages, which contain free MP3s.
Is there any place other than SXSW where you see both hipsters and frat boys pumping fists to the Hold Steady on one night and hipsters and frat boys pumping fists to French nouveau-disco princess Yelle the next night?
The Hold Steady at the Mohawk patio on Friday night:
Setlist on stage
I have no good video from Yelle at Emo’s, but picture a younger, cooler Celine Dion wrapped in a gold lame minidress, flailing her long limbs non-stop and shouting “Are you ready to get craaaaazyyyy, Austeeeeeen!!!!” Ah, bien sur.
Mais bien sur, SXSW revels in its diversity and the wide variety of musical options offered by nearly 1900 artists over four days. The intoxicating effect of stumbling on a great band by accident is matched only by the joy of unexpected reactions as the crowd basks in the experience and by the dedication of bands playing their hearts out under challenging conditions.
Some of my favorite of these instances follow:
We were crammed like sardines into the Yard Dog Gallery’s tiny tented back alley for the Bloodshot Records day party on Friday (perhaps not coincidentally, this was also one of the few places this year with free beer).
Commemorative cup contained delicious free beer
Justin Townes Earle, armed with his guitar and his harmonica/banjo/mandolin player, was entertaining us with his retro rockabilly. (This guy could star in a wrong side of the tracks version of Pleasantville.) As he turned to the quiet, gorgeous ballad “Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This” from his terrific 2009 release Midnight at the Movies, the din from the free-beer crowd became annoying. A very large dude in front of me, sporting sunglasses with skulls and black nail polish, clearly wanted to hear the sweet tune and shot some nasty looks that went ignored. Finally, he asked the offenders to quiet down or take it to the alley. He was promptly invited by the offenders to “suck a bag of dicks” before they retreated.
Since we could barely hear or see that set at Yard Dog, on Saturday night we rushed over to catch him at the second to last set of the official showcases. This time, we were not disappointed. But it can be a long stretch for these artists:
Before the next song, Earle informed us that his accompaniest had literally woken up an hour before their set, to which he replied “Hey, it’s fucking South By”. Also awesome: Earle’s guitar neck has his full name inlaid in mother-of-pearl.
On Friday night, Atlanta’s Gringo Star was called away from dinner to step in for the Blakes (whose absence was never explained). After their set, I couldn’t have been happier about it. These guys are very entertaining live, playing Kinks-esque catchy numbers while switching instruments, making animated expressions and sharing mics like it was the second British invasion. [Note: this band is not to be confused with Ringo Deathstarr, also playing at SXSW.]
At the Home Slice Pizza day party on Saturday, Canadian new waver Gentleman Reg, playing the tiny side stage filling in between main acts, expanded his set from 15 minutes to nearly 40 minutes as a result of two mishaps. First, Deer Tick failed to show up (apparently the bass player showed right before the set, saying their singer’s voice was shot). No problem, said Home Slice, the Uglysuit will start a bit earlier. Unfortunately they broke the key off in their (awesome) trailer:
Poor Gentleman Reg had only prepared a short set. As the Uglysuit struggled to get set up, Gentleman Reg informed the crowd, “If you were here for our first set, you may want to go to the restroom or grab some coffee, because we have to start over again now.”
Mais bien sur, since this is SXSW, instead of getting angry, the crowd responded generously. A woman with a tambourine and a maraca brought another crowd member out to perform an impromptu dance number that had the crowd clapping and the band smiling ear to ear (they even invited her to play at their official showcase). Finally, mercifully, Gentleman Reg was allowed to quit and the Uglysuit’s long, building, and expansive guitar-driven songs meshed perfectly with the warm breezes and bright sunshine of the Austin afternoon. (Unfortunately I have no video of these guys, who were the hairiest band I saw and banged their heads like they were Metallica instead of updated Skynard.)
Earlier on Saturday, witness the struggle that comes when Scots meet the Texas sun, courtesy of We Were Promised Jetpacks:
Note: wherever possible I’ve linked to the artists’ SXSW pages, including free MP3s.
When you see at least 10 bands a day, the music begins to meld together into one big blob of beats and wails. So the quality of the performance can end up being the distinguishing factor - for better or worse.
The biggest stumper: School of the Seven Bells. Presumably it was their Secret Machines connection that earned their spot on the roster, because it sure wasn’t their performance. This may or may not be (appropriately) “Half Asleep” — all six songs they played sounded the same.
I know, they are beautiful women, so they don’t need to do much other than stand there, right? Not so…witness the drummer for the Ettes:
I know, but the Ettes are playing pure rawk! and not Cocteau Twins meets Chemical Brothers electronica. Electronica acts don’t need to push it like rockers, right? Not so…witness Starfucker:
Hell, even kids and dogs were putting on a better show:
On a side note, the Bird and the Bee was my favorite randomly caught show. They weren’t listed on the original South by San Jose day party list, and while cutting over from Home Slice to grab a coffee, I saw the lovely blues and whites of their dresses and heard their sweet girly-pop and fortunately caught the last half of their set (including what I’d like to see go down in the girl-pop hall of fame: “Be My Fucking Boyfriend”).
Best #1) The weather - thank you baby jesus! Reports earlier in the week called for mid-high 90s. We ended up with gorgeous low 80s. Which lead to…
Best #2) getting a quiet moment on the north end of the park early on Saturday before many people had arrived. I was rushing to get to De Novo Dahl, but missed them completely because of…
Worst #1) city traffic control completely rerouted the way to get to the entrance (presumably in reaction to the long lines that Friday’s sold out crowd created early) which required walking an extra six blocks to get across the street. But even after missing De Novo Dahl, the gorgeous spot on the field I claimed with a cold beer calmed me down pretty quickly. I decided to wait for the next band out of curiosity which led to…
Worst #2) the band was Does It Offend You, Yeah? and the answer is yes, yes it does. When I see teenagers freak out for bands like this and the Black Kids, I feel like this:
You call that music…give me some beans and I’ll play better for you.
Best #3) Seeing great bands like Okkervil River, the National, and Broken Social Scene get prominent pre-headliner spots and use them to convert a ton of new fans.
Best #4) Finding new bands to be impressed by, including Yeasayer, Foals, and the Gutter Twins (if the duo of Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli can be called “new”)
Best #5) Jack White. I don’t need to elaborate, do I?
Best and Worst, simultaneously: Definitely the most creative solution to the issue of Sunday’s elevated temps: after all, who really needs a crotch in his pants?
And of course, there are the obvious bests of Radiohead (better than the 2001 Grant Park show, if only because In Rainbows sounds amazing live); not being at the Rage clusterfuck, seeing an amazingaftershow at Schuba’s featuring Okkervil River and The Octopus Project, and the whole afterglow resulting from three days of music in a beautiful setting where nearly 99% of the people are just happy to be there.
It was a late one the night before. In fact we woke up when last night’s opener The Octopus Project was getting on stage in Grant Park.
We opted for the calming (and ampersand-loving!) sets of Amadou & Miriam and Iron & Wine. Amadou & Mariam are a blind Malian couple who create light Afro-pop. Iron & Wine are a sighted brother-sister team who create light folk-pop. Although they sounded more engrossing and punchy than last year Pitchfork (and were translating better to open air), I left Iron & Wine’s set early because I had to see Saul Williams.
Saul Williams and his band took the stage with what could only be called space-age tribal makeup and fashion. The guitarist sported a shiny silver space suit (like a tailored suit, not a spacesuit) and his mohawked keyboardist was draped in a vampire cape. Williams revved up the crowd with his rap/rock sound and passed out brightly colored feathers, which much of the hipster crowd proceeded to wear like Native American braves in their pointless head/sweatbands. (The hipster crowd was most likely there early for Girl Talk, in my opinion.) I had heard on Sound Opinions that there was a Williams cover of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” floating around, and Williams brought it out, to my delight. That is, until he actually started singing. I had high hopes, but alas, I left to head towards Gnarls Barkley.
The dynamic duo came out in white pants and mustard-colored suit jackets, resembling the guys in country club ball photos from the 60s. They were backed by Molly Shannon as Mary Catherine Gallagher on keys. They quickly got to their standouts “Gone Daddy Gone” and “Going On” but we left to catch a bit of Girl Talk.
This evening brought my biggest conflict of the weekend - the Gnarls/Girl Talk/National timing. All three are great live acts, but for very different reasons. So I was going to attempt to hit a good chunk of all three. And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for that medding…
…portapotty situation. For some reason, Sunday night always seems to have the worst portapotty issues. Long lines, no TP (not that I don’t always have a spare - oh and Girl Talk brought people shooting guns of TP) - I spent a good chunk of my Girl Talk listening time on line.
But I wanted to get to The National. What a perfect way to come down from the weekend. The sun was setting behind the skyline and most of the crowd was gravitating toward the main stage opposite to prepare for Nine Inch Nails. Lollapalooza 2008 ended for me with the soft opening strains of “Fake Empire” building and crashing into “Mr. November”. See you next year!
I got to the park early, but unfortunately missed De Novo Dahl (see here). Also unfortunately caught Does It Offend You, Yeah? (yes, yes it does). With a little time before Gutter Twins started, I explored the new offerings at this year’s more upscale Lollapalooza.
Some friends have told me they wouldn’t set foot at Lolla. The crowds, the trash, the portapotties, the annoying drunks, and the heat all have great potential to create a perfect storm of suckage.
But it doesn’t. The park is huge (one mile from each headliner stage to the other) and doesn’t feel like it has 75,000 people until the late shows. At 1pm on Saturday, it felt like heaven.
video by me
The organizers added a Whole Foods section with tons of healthy foods and a craft section with vendors (perhaps taking the cue from the Pitchfork Festival). There’s also a craft beer section! With $7 Stellas! Okay that’s not so necessary, but the section also has picnic tables and video screens showing the stages, and it was relatively uncrowded each time I passed.
The Gutter Twins are not a band you’d prefer to see at 2pm on a bright sunny day, but it worked anyway. They came on stage to the apocalyptic-scream opening sounds of “Idle Hands” dressed all in black, sporting black sunglasses and spewing black sentiment for the next hour. Give me all the black metal bands in Sweden, and I don’t think any of the their frontmen would intimidate me as much as Mark Lanegan does. I’m buying their album Saturnalia and I plan to listen to it on repeat for all of February, with a flask full of whisky.
On the opposite stage, the hipster/teen crowd had gathered for MGMT. I thought they would be young glam-era types, and they did not disappoint. Their leadman could literally be Marc Bolan reincarnated, with his curls, his voice and his posing. Since I believe the world needs another Marc Bolan, I enjoyed their set which included standouts “Weekend Wars”, “Time To Pretend” and “Pieces of What”.
Also, apparently it was difficult for anyone to stand still during their set.
video by almostfamousgirl via You Tube
I left MGMT early to catch a bit of Devotchka, whom we saw play an impromptu sidewalk set at SXSW. A decent crowd had gathered to sway to their Eastern European-tinged groove. Shortly after, Explosions in the Sky took the opposite stage and their atmospheric guitar-driven instrumental tunes lofted nicely over the park.
Okkervil River, as always, put on an energetic show. For a band whose tunes weave tales of princesses in towers, poets in Minneapolis and being tossed down oubliettes, they perform with a surprising amount of traditional rock antics: drumsticks twirled and tossed, jumps from drum kits and audience participation on hand-clapping rhythms. Their set included standouts from The Stage Names like “Plus Ones” (during which Will Sheff managed to transform a verse-ending line into an instruction for the soundbooth), the most upbeat material from Black Sheep Boy, and concluded with a crowd sing-a-long on the murder ballad “Westfall”.
Broken Social Scene crammed their 800 band members wielding 815 guitars on stage and alternated between proper BSS tunes (including my personal favorite “Cause=Time”) and newer material from Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew and Andrew Whiteman-led Apostle of Hustle. I am always amazed at how they don’t sound like a dissonant cacophony with all they have going on - Canadians are so talented at being nuanced. [And btw I know dissonant cacophony is redundant, but that’s what makes it perfect to use for BSS].
We left after Broken Social Scene to regroup for our aftershow at Schuba’s with Okkervil River and The Octopus Project. I was going to say that Explosions in the Sky is the most interesting and accomplished instrumental quartet out there — they, however, don’t have Yvonne, the queen of the theramin. Somebody’s been working on her aerial fingering!!!
video by hmc1410 via You Tube
Okkervil River played an expanded version of their earlier Lollapalooza set, including new tunes “Lost Coastlines” and “Blue Tulip” from their upcoming release/sequel The Stand Ins. I encourage you all to to treat yourself to that album when it comes out on September 9 - it’s outstanding. Other additions to the set included “Okkervil River Song” and opener “The War Criminal Rises and Speaks”. Also, the band members are very nice and tolerant people. I asked Yvonne and Lauren whether it was rough being the only women in each of the bands - did they have to deal with a lot of farting in the van? Apparently these boys are much more polite than most men I know.
Arrival time of 12:45, enough to catch the end of the Black Lips, who remind me of the White Stripes covering 60s surf rock and who also reportedly hit the stage hard. Unfortunately the line of thousands of people squeezing their hands into the new cloth wristbands caused us to get to Bud Light around 1:10, barely catching any punk rock awesomeness to kick our weekend off. So, naturally, we did the next best thing: beer and airbrush tattoos.
We trekked across to catch a bit of Rogue Wave, who sounded again like Death Cab For Cutie - but that felt great in the breezy dry heat. Yeasayer was up next - we’d missed them at SXSW and were quite excited to catch them. We were not disappointed. Their deceptively loose sounding experimental rock kept our heads bobbing while we watched them switch places and shift instruments.
We took a food break during the Kills to come back to catch Gogol Bordello, the other gypsy pirate polka band. We were dripping in the late afternoon heat but it didn’t suck any of their energy away.
video by jynblueflame via You Tube
We caught a few songs from the husband and wife pop duo Mates of State before heading out to catch Grizzly Bear on the side stage. For some odd reason, the organizers put the side stage directly facing the setting sun, but the Brooklyn quartet kept their cool harmonies and sparse arrangements - they always sound beautiful live.
We schlepped across again to catch some of the Raconteurs before heading back for the headliners. Jack White must have come out of the womb with a pick in his hands. They got some call-and-response crowd participation on “Steady As She Goes” and Brendan Benson stepped up to steer some slower numbers before we tore back across the field to fight the crowd that had parked all day for Radiohead.
Radiohead’s set has been glowed about and panned (as much as Radiohead can ever be panned), but I have no complaints…well only one.
As with last year’s Pearl Jam set, other events in the city seemed to be timed to compliment the headliners. During “Everything In Its Right Place”, fireworks appear to the southeast of the stage. The fireworks appeared almost perfectly coordinated with the climax of “Fake Plastic Trees”, and the below crappy video shows their start:
video by me
…and the talking…lots of talking…
Unless you were parked pretty close, the chatter of casual fans waiting for “Paranoid Android” drowned out the band’s more delicate numbers.
[oh wait…after 7 hours in the hot sun and more liquid meals than solid ones, that was me!]
Overall the set list was wonderful, covering ample old favorites from OK Computer and The Bends while also incorporating most of In Rainbows, which sounds fantastic live — to a song.
Here are the top t-shirts that we captured at Lolla 2008:
(the above appeared during the National’s set, a few songs before “Mr. November”)
And the winner, for its trifecta of reference to music, geek-chic, and overall pun-quality:
As far as quantity of shirts, headliners Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, and Nine Inch Nails (as well as potential headliner Barack Obama) were the clear winners. Coming up close behind them was any t-shirt associated with Dunder Mifflin. Sadly, unlike last year, and even though they were co-headlining, Wilco shirts were pretty scarce.
For a few weeks, I’d been cursing the fates that put Shearwater’s headliner at the newly opened Mansion on the same night as Liz Phair’s live performance of Exile in Guyville.
Through most of 1994, Exile was on constant repeat in my stereo. After years of nice and sweet Lilith Fair vagina music, Liz Phair was like a kangaroo kick to the uterus. Much has been written about her subsequent declawing by the desire (hers or her label’s or both) to go mainstream. Her Exile follow up, Whip Smart, contains a few gems like “Supernova” that augured her move toward more straighforward pop while retaining a slight edge. Lyrics like “I’d never been to Rome until you smiled/You’re about as old and piled” (from bitter breakup song “Cinco de Mayo”) couldn’t approach “I want to be your blowjob queen”. However it’s a far cry from striking a Lita Ford album cover pose and insisting “I am extraordinary/if you’d ever get to know me”.
The experience of seeing Liz in her hometown at the smallish Vic Theatre would likely be very memorable. Even though Shearwater’s, Rook is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums, I’d be able to see them another time, right? I almost made the jump.
