Austin – A personal project for Sam Duckworth, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly was also on the bill for the opening British music night at the Embassy. I had heard his first album The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager a few years back and with strong lyrical themes about teenage angst layered over some guitars. it was definitely as close to emo-indie as you can get. I had not heard much about the band since, but much to my surprise when the show started, GCWCF was just a one man act. Sam went on stage carrying an acoustic guitar and a lap top, a setup I’ve seen a many times through out my days. Looking like a dirtyier version of a young Ben Gibbard (tussled hair, big glasses), GCWCF delivered a pretty intense set of folky singer songwriter material layered over a light bouncey dance beat. I am guessing the set was a combination of songs from his first two albums as I recognized War of the Worlds. I was quite impressed with the intensity of GCWCF’s delivery and it definitely helped deliver some oomph to the show. Another highlight was his acoustic medley of Justice’s DANCE mixed into Hot Chip’s Over and Over. Acoustic medley. You heard me.
Austin, TX – I first heard of Anais Mitchell when she sang at a gig with Bon Iver, a vocal trio that can do a Capella live (which I absolutely love). This being the first show, of the first day of southby, I was understandably slow. Anais was already on the stage and as I walked upstairs Paradise her voice flowed down like a small stream through some Amazonian forest floor complete with moss. Unlike those of other songstress/writer, she sings in a bright yet slightly thin voice. The guitar accompaniment mostly counteracts the singing, rather than the normal tempo-setting strums of folk songs. As I listened, I noticed that her melodies and lyrics don’t lend themselves well to harmonies – and so in short, they sound like lamentation, verses to be delivered solo. But boy what lament – I realized that you don’t usually sing (pardon the pun) praises for mournful lamentations. But these are quite the delight to listen to. Case in point: Eurydice, a dead person’s song about… living husband. I can’t decipher. It would have an immediately calming effect anywhere but Baltimore maybe, where you’d likely panic because said lyrics might come true. Hadestown, which is a collaborative effort between Anais and other artists, have quite a few numbers that would fit well in a cabaret, I thought. I thought each song is distinct with quick turns, but may repeat in different verses, making it fresh to listen to each round. Without the rest of the bands, though, songs from Hadestown take on another feel. Our lady of the underground, for example, originally sounded like Persephone was singing with her cohort in hell enticing you in; but with just Anais and guitar it was like Persephone went and lost her job (that of course wasn’t meant to be derisive at all). Halfway into the set she mentioned that she just wanted to hang out – I felt bad that there weren’t that many people – 15 or so early birds. But I do believe that this was a set that many would have enjoyed – just simply sitting there and flowing downstream.
Austin – Every SXSW, the UK bring over a bunch of bands in order to introduce them to America. Monday night was the start of the UK night series at Latitude. It was a miserable rainy night in Austin, which I guess all the Ex-pats would dub “a pretty normal night in England”. Having been to all sorts of drunken debacle the previous few nights, I decide a nice night in one spot listening to music and not talking to anyone would be ideal. The night started off with a band called Smokey Angle Shades, a London based band featuring also Irish and German band members. I woulda called the band Sauerkraut, Spaghetti and Sausages..but that’s why I’m here and they are there.
I have never heard of this band before tonight and they immediately began to make a mark, mainly because they all looked a bit hippie-ish and were all wearing hats. Not the dapper English hats that Pete Doherty rocks, but country-ish hats. i would even say lead vocalist Fred had some inspiration from one Jack Sparrow. The band performed a 40 minute set consisting of harmonizing vocals with a sound reminiscent of Fleet Foxes/My Morning Jacket/Early Kings of Leons in that it sounds a bit like countryish rock. You know, the kind of stuff people with beards would listen to.
All in all, an enjoyable set. Harmonizing vocals are always nice, especially when it’s done properly and I liked the vocals/country rock vibe. Especially at a music festival in Texas.
Austin – Unexpectedly, my first concert of South By Southwest came on the first night I was there…for SXSW Interactive. For those of you who have never been to South By Southwest Interactive, here’s a quick rundown – There are panels that run from 9:30 to 5:00 pm, but most people go from 11:00 to 3:00, where most of the meaty panels take place At 3:00, open bar starts. By open bar, I mean, once it hits 3:00 in the afternoon, depending on which parties you go to (all sponsored by companies like Google, Microsoft, Mashable, Can I has Cheezburger, etc) you can pretty much drink and eat for free the rest of the night. It just happens that one of the parties I went to was a Ustream party hosted by Pete Wentz and it featured a band called Gym Class Heroes.
I’ll be honest and admit I had absolutely no clue who Gym Class Heroes is. I had a sneaking suspicion that they were some emo band since the night was hosted by Pete Wentz (who is about 4 feet tall and wears sunglasses in a dark room). Not wanting to go in blind, I asked facebook people who they were, and replies were:
V: Bad emo/”punk” band. like fall out boy.
P: Actually, they’re even worse than that … it’s like fall out boy with rappin
You would think this would help, but i’ve never heard Fall Out Boy either. So I was expecting some sort of shitty emo rap band. All instincts told me to leave, but hey, this is South By Southwest. If there was ever a time to be open minded about music, now would be it. Also, there was a lot of free alcohol. So I stayed.
The overall show was kinda meh. I mean, I didn’t love it and I didn’t get offended. It wasn’t super good but also wasn’t super crappy. If anything, they played a lot more chilled set then I had imagined, given I had heard they were of the emo-rap variety. The chilled out rock-rap set they played could almost be on VH1, and maybe some older people will listen to it and then hear the rap and think they have some edge to it or something. The lead singer was pretty energetic and worked hard to get the crowd going, doing a lot of call and responses. I guess its not hard to get a crowd going when it’s an open bar party and people have been drinking for 8 hours already. At one point, he got everyone to stick their hands in the air and then turned it into a middle finger, in an act of defiance or something. I wonder if he knew that most people attending this party were white collar workers all working for giant corporations that sent them to a conference to have fun on their dime. Can’t really hate the establishment when you think about it. Points for effort though.
All in all, it was okay, nothing good, nothing bad. I guess that’s what passes for #4 on Billboard these days.
Oh yah, the picture is of Jamie Lynn Sigler/Meadow Soprano who was also at the party. Had a really hard time resisting asking her where turtle was.
