This week, SXSW dropped their biggest announcement so far of performers for this year’s festival and while I’m sure there will be more to come soon enough, there’s plenty of stuff to get excited about in the current crop of announcements. One of the names that jumped out at me was Duotang. The Winnipeg two-piece is back this year with New Occupation, their first album since 2001, but as “Nostalgia’s A Vice” makes clear, the band’s not really down with being anybody’s nostalgia act, nor do they seem to be crazy about the whole idea of nostalgia in general.
“Are you lost in the digital age and do you distrust people half of your age?” sings Rod Slaughter, presumably to some old curmudgeons who haven’t liked anything new since the turn of the century. As someone with some curmudgeonly tendencies myself, it’s tempting to go down that road, but Slaughter’s prescription for weaning yourself off of nostalgia is a good one and probably also a good motto for anyone heading to Austin in March: “You’ve gotta move on, explore the options and embrace something new. It might be good for you.”