Two Things To Tell You Today

First off a big ol' congrats to our dear, dear friends Something Fierce for landing themselves on Dirtnap Records. They'll be doing an LP release of There Are No Answers, so that will be the nation's feel good summer jams for 2009. Read their Hands Up post HERE and tell them how proud you are of them.

The other thing is that Iranian ex-pats Hypernova are playing tomorrow night at The Meridian. You can read a very lovely write-up by my husband HERE. And um, yes, my band is playing, but pay more attention to the part about these guys risking their lives for rock & roll and that The McKenzies are playing as well.

Tuesday in Austin: SXSW Day (-1)

I suppose if you are reading this you are already aware that every year SXSW seems to get bigger and bigger, this year bringing in massive acts like Metallica, Jane's Addiction and Kanye West. (I missed Metallica, but pics of JA and Kanye are forthcoming) The increase in overall scope has led to more shows on the Tuesday before the official music portion of SXSW and at the end of SXSW Interactive, and as such I've been heading to Austin a day early for the last couple years. This year The Western Civilization set my new record for earliest band seen at SXSW, playing @ 4pm @ Gruv as part of the Matthew Wettergreen curated Houston @ SXSW event. I caught a bit of Wayside Drive and Benjamin Wesley before heading off to BMI's Howdy Texas party at Stubb's for some free BBQ and my first free beer of the week.

The Western Civilization

Benjamin Wesley

Next up was Daniel Francis Doyle at NYC DIY show promoter extraordinaire Todd P's Tejas Means Friends party @ Ms. Bea's. Only a few hours in and I had already found one of my favorite surprises of the week. As part of his live show every song seemingly has two parts, the first in which he plays a series of guitar riffs, recording a few moments of each with a delay pedal, and the second in which he plays drums and sings while rapidly triggering the guitar fragments with his left foot. It is truly incredible the way he puts it all together, I suggest you catch him at the FPH Westheimer Block Party on Saturday. While he is from Austin, his sound was much more in line with the stuff coming out of Houston in recent years and I expect many of you will love him.

Daniel Francis Doyle

Not sure if they were security or just enjoying the jams, thankfully this was no Altamont

Next it was back to Gruv for a few songs from a stripped down version of Tha Fucking Transmissions featuring Fat Tony and then off to the IFC Crossroads party for Gomez and The Decemberists.



The venue for the IFC party was Pangaea, a plush Austin nightclub that I doubt I will ever step foot in outside of SXSW, but with a capacity of about 400, a terrific place to see a show like this. I liked Gomez's first few records but haven't followed them since. They did put on a great performance and I'm sure the open bar didn't hurt.




I'm a huge fan of The Decemberists first three records but was a bit afraid they were going to lean towards their new record as they were playing it in its entirety the following night at Stubb's. I was quite happy when Colin Meloy announced at the beginning of the show that they would be playing nothing off the new record. The Decemberists are definitely a band some love and some hate, Colin Meloy's goat-boy wail isn't for everyone, but for those who had stood in line for hours (even over night I heard) at Waterloo Records for the free tickets, the show was superb.



After the show I raced back to Gruv to try to catch B L A C K I E at 1am, but was too late and decided to call it a night early as I knew that option would probably not present itself again for a while.

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: SXSW 2009 Recap - Saturday (April 21)

Well here we are now at the end of our tale. We close with three excellent shows of hallowed awesomeness and one that was just, eh, OK:

King Kahn and the Shrines

First up was King Kahn and The Shrines at Waterloo Park. Now I don't know how but somehow from our Motel to the park it went from chilly and cool to hot as hell. But no matter, we got there just in time for King Kahn to be introduced and watched from the back only to realize very quickly that this was better experienced up front. So we made our way to the front and sure enough the experience was night and day. Instead of distant and pleasant the band ripped up with a Otis Redding inspired craziness. Fun stuff to be sure and aces moves from the guy in the bari sax but in the end I think everyone agreed that the club is the better place to experience this kind of band. Big stages like this just never do the trick.

Rusted Shut

We'd planned on seeing Explosions In the Sky but that was sidetracked along the way. I also missed Tara Jane O'Neil so, like many things, at SXSW you take what you can and don't sweat what you missed. But after a lot of hanging around in Austin, we finally got back on course with Rusted Shut and holy shit the motherfuckers delivered. Kill Kill Kill hell yes! My chimp brain needed some ass whoopin' and Rusted Shut was just the ticket. So after screamign and shouting to Rusted Shut I asked Don what he was on and he replied "On? Motherfucker I haven't touched a gotdang drop all day!" snarled Don. Well, if that don't beat all.

Box Elders

We then headed over to Red 7. The Box Elders were playing. It was nice 60's inspired power pop and the guywas wearing a nice combo of a gold suit and black shorts but while pleasant, not very much to write home about. After all we were there for...

Jack Oblivion

Now the Oblivions are a great band, but while I was aware of the Reigning Sound and Greg Oblivion's solo stuff, I had to plead ignorance to Jack Oblivion's solo stuff. Thankfully from the first ring of his guitar and the rough and energetic sound of the band it was probably the most fun show I saw at SXSW - a perfect way to close up. Dancing our asses off to a fine example of American Rock and Roll with a band that was tight as hell but loose enough to convey all the chaotic energy that many Americana bands often forget is core to rock and roll. That's not to say that these guys were hanging from the rafters to get the crowd riled up. They didn't need to - the music did it for them - well, at least for me and my friends. When SXSW ends with drunken dancing, I think we done good.

Rock and Roll, Motherfuckers.
See you next year. that's a wrap.

My SXSW 2009 Posts:

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part I: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part II: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part III: (Link)

Also,

April's recap (Link)

Suck by Suck Weiners

Ok, I'm going to be forthright and let you know that I am not the biggest fan of SXSW. I had avoided the stress, anxiety, sunburn and shin splits of this music festival for 28 years before finally giving in...and that was to watch the Monocles in front of a comic book store far, far from 6th street. Oh and watching the Night Marchers from on stage was pretty fun, too. I had no idea who else was playing so what you don't know can't bum you out, right?

Yeah, well this year I made this great big itinerary to maximize the fun that Guitars would be having this past weekend. Well, we took a wrong turn on the way (why did we take I-10? we ALWAYS take 290!) so there went our first chance to catch Handsome Furs. SUCK. So we park the car and head out to see The Uglysuit. Google maps gave me directions to WEST Cesar Chavez. Thanks. So by this time we're hungry and thirsty. Well, we don't have time to make it to see Those Darlin's, they start in 10 minutes and they're 20 minutes away from where we are. Oh, and Quinn Walker is playing at Waterloo, so we know that's impossible. And forget about DeVille and the Mohawk. All the good bands are playing there and the line is two blocks long. So Red Eyed Fly it is for Horse Feathers.

Harry Potter is in Horse Feathers. That's all I've got to say about that.

We step out a bit before they're done and optimistically head to the French Legation Museum for Wavves. I'm stoked. I love Wavves. I can't wait to see them. We wait for the previous band to pay their Death Cab fare and let the party begin. Oh but wait, apparently there was some problem and Marnie Stern says "this is take two" and she's playing. Insert frowny emoticon here. I call bullshit on Marnie Stern. Everyone talks about how she's this great guitar player but she plays the lick a couple times through and then loops it. Now, I know I should be all stoked about a female shredder but she's totally cheating, which might be ok if the songs were really kick ass.

So we missed Wavves and were now 5 miles away from where Herman Dune was playing. So I've missed 5 bands that I really really wanted to see, so far. But things definitely took a turn for the better when we went to the Scoot Inn for No Bunny. No Bunny was far and away the highlight of my weekend. He was all New York Dolls (hose and heels) and Ramones (riffs) and Iggy (he picked a scab and rubbed the blood on his chest) and enter-fucking-tainment. And we could smell his balls from the audience. Pretty punk.

Outside at the Scoot Inn were Peelander-Z. Everyone where I work LOVES Peelander-Z and I always feel guilty that I never go see them when they come to Houston. I watched a bit of their set. Sorry. Don't get it. It's kooky. I get that. Maybe I'm too jaded. Oops. And their drummer causes androgyny boners, which I guess is ok.

And even though we were stoked on good times we gave up on the idea of seeing Handsome Furs at Waterloo (BIG MISTAKE, PROBABLY COULD HAVE MADE IT) and headed to the Moose Lodge to definitely catch Kurt Vile. Well, we get there and Ducktails were supposed to be playing. They weren't. They weren't even on the schedule. WTF? Some fake-fur white boy group that think "pimpin' is HI-LARIOUS" hooked up their turntables and we tried to head to Trailer Space, but couldn't remember the cross street. So we head back for Kurt Vile as he played to us, Indian Jewelry and some dorm dudes in "I <3 Ska" t-shirts. Oh, and Pas/Cal was supposed to play afterwards. They weren't even on the schedule either. The highlight of our trip to the Moose Lodge? When we saw Kurt Vile's band loading in I said "Court is now in Hessian" and made people laugh really hard.

At this point we were starving and went to a virtually empty Kerbey Lane and then went to check into the hotel and meet our other two band mates. There was a lot going on Friday night, but after walking forever I was beat. We intended to take naps and find the bridge show, but we decided to rest for our show on Saturday and we would get to see the Vivian Girls with our VIP passes to Don't Mess With Texas. YAY.

So, it's Saturday morning, we do breakfast at Mother's and head over to Co-Lab where our show is going to take place. We find out that everything is running an hour and half late due to a hungover sound man. Um, ok. We go to get coffee at Spider House where I am offended by the over-PCness of Austin presented to me on the flyer for the Spider House shows. It's that famous Lester Bangs picture only they blacked out that last word on his t-shirt (which in the picture only says "igge" pretty much) and then to top it off, compltely blacked out all the words on the smaller flyers and then put that on top of the words on some of the bigger posters. Austin, you are a bunch of hippie dorks. Way to "keep it weird".

Spider House was a bust so we went across the street to Antone's where I called double bullshit on Marnie Stern. Eve and the Exiles we're playing there and were the other great band we saw over the weekend. Eve could play the hell out of the guitar and was like 30 years younger than everyone else in her band. Very nice.

Alright, so we head back to Co-Lab and are told that we've been moved to 5:15. Um, ok. Um, I really wanted to see the bands playing between 3 and 6 at Mess With Texas. And now we're missing ALL OF THEM. VIP BRACELETS BE DAMNED. Oh 5:15 came and went. Our new set time was 6:45, but it was between a band that shares management with the Killers and a big label band. We played at 8:30. And I think this is the order it went in: I twisted my ankle, fell off the stage, busted my knee and kept playing. I didn't even realize how much pain I was in until an hour later. At least we didn't stop the song. Then we watched Gliss, the band after us. And they're very lovely. Oh, and there was a mini pony named Cool Whip that I should have gotten a picture of and I'm sad now that I didn't. Oh and we were paid in bottles of vodka and iced tea.

So, now that I can't walk and we've been waiting around all day with no food we go eat. Cause some scenes, tell SXSW to suck it, having missed every cool thing that we wanted to do and head back to the hotel to get all Brtish rock band about it. Party.

Music with Jameson & Lone Star: SXSW 2009 Recap - Thursday and Friday (April 19 and 20)

Yes, you've probably been wondering where our posts have been over SXSW. Well, first off, only I was supposed to to do daily blogging; Levi and April were going to do theirs this week as recaps. So why no posts? Well, lets just say that the rest of my posse showed up Thursday and when you are in the middle of a hurricane you just try to make it through alive.

See here is the thing about SXSW, sure you have all the issues revolving around this big overblown marketing beast where small independent bands scream to be heard above the fray, but forget that. Put that aside and what you have at SXSW is this crush of humanity descending on our proud state capital every year to hear some great music and have a great time. I mean look at this fellow below.




Chris Gray - Responsible Writer
Yes, that's our dear friend Chris Gray of the Houston Press working hard like the excellent writer he is. He's got his press badges, his wristbands, and he blogged extensively throughout. Well, not us. No sir we are down in the trenches with you plebeians. While Chris was jumping from show to show in the evening, we had to pick our shows*, pay for each one, and drink like fishes at our homebase bar on 7th. While Chris was blogging extensively we were either too hungover to type in the morning or threatened with death for typing too loud at the early hour of 1PM. While Chris was bringing you the latest and greatest bands, we were discovering new uses for Guideon's Bible that probably would fall under sacrilege in most denominations. So, no, you are not going to get the full SXSW musical experience here. Neither will you get a run down of all the silliness, weirdness, drama, and genuine party call me insanity of the weekend - this ain't no personal blog. But here is a quick recap of what I got to see from Thursday and Friday. Blogger is being weird right now so Saturday's recap will have to wait.

Thursday 19 April

Consider this a stand-in for all lame SXSW bands
Let this band take the place of all awful and middling bands of SXSW. Ya see, for all the good that you can find at SXSW, you can find something terrible. Now granted, the "Texas Rock" stage on 7th street is the worst crap you will ever hear at SXSW no matter what year it is and even these guys above couldn't hold candle to that shit but in their own bar band/blues rock tropes kind of way they were pretty unbearable.

The Gary

The reason though I'd gone to Ms. Bee's was to see Austin's The Gary whose little CD I really enjoyed. The set was pretty good but hampered by the sound. I actually picked up one of their CDRs last time they came to Houston and really dug songs like Confusion and Damn Machines so I was able to fill in the gaps where the sound failed them but, hey, you know, it's a free show; outdoor sound is always dodgy but the band still played with some great verve - tossing out aggressive bass and some sweet guitar lines. Fun and good to see these guys again.

Elaine Greer's death metal set at Casa de Gallo
Next stop was Casa De Gallo and when I got there I had JUST missed Giant Princess play. The setting was pretty nice - a small little home in an obscure street on the east side and there was a good representation of all your music friends relaxing while enjoying some food and music. Elaine Greer played a great set with Travis on bass being his usual jovial self and Austin lending his skills on guitar, accordion, and backing vocals. The room sounded great, the band delivered, and Elaine's voice carried all the melody, wit, and intelligence of her songs with a charming grace. Of course, if you've read my columns or blogs, you'd know that this is nothing new. Buxton was to follow Elaine Greer but I had to leave to catch an old friend from Austin. No worries, you know as well as I that it's an easy bet that Buxton would take no prisoners. Need proof? That new single they have coming out KILLS! When it comes out buy a copy, then you will truly know of this band's might.

Lou Barlow and Imaad Wasif - Cool Texas Night Awesomeness

After a short break, Lou Barlow and Imaad Wasif were performing outside at Ms Bees and, unlike the Gary's earlier set, the sound was great. Perhaps the surrounding crowd did a good job of corralling the sounds - I dunno. It's the first time I'd seen Lou play with Imaad and I have to say I really really liked what Imaad brought to the performance with his soft melodic phrasing complimenting Lou's guitar and voice. Throw in a cool cloudless Texas evening and what more could you want? Excellent and worth racing out to see! Indian Jewelry followed but the way they were situated the crowd enveloped them to the point where I could not see them at all. Saturday, Erika told me they DID in fact have the strobes on that night but I didn't see any from the back of the crowd. That right there tells you how packed it was. Still they sounded great so no complaints here.

And finally here is one last image of the evening...

Young Mammals and Ghormeh Sabzi (with Sandwich)

Funny enough this was one of the few times I ran into a Houston Band on the street. In fact, overall I found this year's SXSW to have fewer people roaming the streets in general. Last year it seemed that you couldn't turn around without bumping into another Houston band or scenester and even though this particular night seemed to have a good number of scenesters suddenly appear at our homebase SXSW bar that was more the exception than the rule. For what it's worth, I'm gonna guess from what I saw that SXSW attendance dropped to some degree this year

Friday 20 April

Friday ended up being my Battan Death March. Let's just say, I paid for Thursday all of Friday and leave it at that but, using every possible method available to me, I plugged through. Still we did see some good bands along the way.

Themselves

Themselves were pretty fun. They played a smart-ass electronic white boy hip-hop thing. One of the best songs they did involved using the drum machine (sounding like a typewriter) to type our what he was rapping to hilarious effect. My favorite song though was the third to last song which laid this heavy Kraut rock groove on the chorus. Unfortunately when I asked them what that song was their only response was "Oh sorry we fucked up the set. I have no idea what song that was." Ha! Well fucked up or not it was fun and smart stuff.

Deer Tick
By chance Deer Tick was playing and given Tuesday's show in Houston we figured we'd give them another chance and for me this was more a coming to terms with what Deer Tick has become show than anything else. I will say that the band opened with a version of one of the songs off his Jukebox Whore CDR that I hadn't heard in ages so, for me, that was just one of those Oh man, I havent' heard this in ages - I love this song kind of moments. And they closed with my favorite Deer Tick song which was played with all the ornamented beauty of the original. I think here is the thing about Deer Tick; they've become an Americana band. Gone is the signature subtle melancholy of his earlier work and in its place is a good Americana bar band. The kind of band that plays long aimless 12 bar blues songs and has frat guys high-fiving each other (Oh yes they did!). It's a good band but it's not the band I came to love. I'll bet they get a bigger audience and they'll be fine. So good sailing to you Deer Tick.

Jana Hunter
After that is was a race across town to see Jana Hunter at Domy books. I'd missed her Tuesday so I was glad to find that Domy was running a bit behind schedule. I mean c'mon you know Jana: that singular phrasing, that jangly guitar, the slow spacious emotional songs. Much like Lou Barlow's set the prior night, Jana hailed in the cooler evening weather playing her haunting music as the sun began to fall and birds flew across the sky overhead. I couldn't have asked for better.

Babel Fishh And Evak1

Last for the evening was Babel Fish and Evak1 which easily, hands down had the best banter of any band of SXSW I'd seen. I already dug the Babel Fishh stuff but, together, these guys were this brilliant non sequitur stream of consciousness . The whole routine about the Bono Hot Wings just had me rolling with laughter. It was like those two good friends everyone has who can just riff off each others silliness. Unfortunately, the sound didn't do them many favors (the vocals were way too loud compared to the beats and samples). Nevertheless their music, wit, and nerdy charm was easily more than a match for the crappy sound and the fact that there was no room to dance because of tables and chairs. Fun music, smart guys, go see them!

My SXSW 2009 Posts:
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part I: (Link)

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part II: (Link)

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2009 Part III: (Link)

Also,
April's recap (Link)

*My band didn't apply this year and so I didn't ahve wristbands like I did last year.