“Thanks for coming out so early to see us and have a breakfast beer” said Gurr’s Laura Lee during their early afternoon set at Cheer Up Charlie’s for the first day of Stereogum’s Range Life day parties (complete with free packs of Stereogum-branded gum – clever!). It was a very SXSW way to greet a crowd for sure – it’s one of those ‘it’s funny because it’s true’ sort of things. According to Lee, that beer and a banana was all she’d had so far that day, although a poll of her bandmates revealed that they’d all had something at least slightly more substantial for breakfast – respectively, a bagel with avocado, a muffin, and another bagel, this one with cheese and turkey. A band playing SXSW has gotta stay well fed, after all.
Gurr put on a fun show full of scrappy, poppy, garage-y indie rock tunes like “Moby Dick” and “#1985,” but they also took some time during their set to comment on how things had changed in the short time since the Berlin-based band were last in town for SXSW. “We were in Austin two years ago and it’s very different now,” said Andreya Casablanca, explaining that back then “it was sunny all the time and there were no scooters.” It’s true, the weather up to that point had kind of sucked and those damn scooters were pretty unavoidable this year. The band even went on to have a bit of a mini-debate with the crowd about scooter pros and cons (apparently they’re banned in Germany). Regardless of your position on scooters, Gurr are worth a listen.
Preceding Gurr’s set and starting things off for the day on the adjacent indoor stage was Disq, a young band out of Madison, Wisconsin who I knew nothing about but who managed to impress.
With his shaggy hair and glasses, singer Isaac de-Broux-Slone looks a bit like a baby Thurston Moore and while there’s a bit of a Sonic Youth influence to be heard in their music, vocally he bears a slight resemblance to a younger, less bummed out David Bazan. The band just recently released it’s latest single “Communication” as a single via Saddle Creek. Check out the video for “Communication” below: