Toronto – So for the longest time I wasn’t even sure I was getting into this show. For whatever reason, the wait to get into Lee’s Palace was ridiculously long and slow. The good thing about this was meeting new people and bonding over the general craziness of it all while wondering whether we should cut out and try to get into the Vivian Girls or Fucked Up shows that were alos happening tonight. But I stuck it out and finally made it to the front of the line. The wait made the show itself all that much sweeter.
Once I was inside, the Collett/Bahamas/Zeus supergroup was well into their set. The venue was packed and performers seemed to be having as much fun onstage as we had watching them. And the band was fantastic, switching between each other’s songs with ease. Each individual songwriter had a style that blended well with each other. This is not surprising, seeing as Zeus is Collett’s backing band, and Afie Jurvanen (aka Bahamas) used to be a member of the band. The overall sound was reminiscent of various ’60s and ’70s sounds without really being derivative or unoriginal. I read elsewhere that they did a Kylie Minogue cover for their encore, but I didn’t see that as I left to check out another show. Too bad, that would’ve been pretty cool to see.
I have seen Collett, Bahamas. and Zeus perform seperately in the past and they were undoubtedly good, but somehow tonight, by joining forces, they became even greater than the sum of their parts … like a Canadian indie rock version of Voltron.
Toronto – Neon Indian‘s Pyschic Chasm was a surprise hit last year. It’s laid back, playful vibe eventually got the album compared to other chillwave contemporaries (Toro Y Moi comes to mind). Now Neon Indian is back with a new single, called Sleep Paralysist and you can download it at http://www.greenlabelsound.com . Apparently, that label is created by Mountain Dew…whodda thunk? I think this act would be a great 3:00 afternoon show, as you are sitting in the sun enjoying a mojito.
Neon Indian is everywhere at SXSW. Just walk into a bar randomly and there’s a chance he’ll be playing there, but if you want to be specific, check out the Green Label Sound show at Club De Ville on Friday.
Toronto – Here is an A to Z list of bands playing at SXSW. I’ve even been kind enough to link each band to their respective myspace/website so you can check them out*. Apologies if I missed any letters, English isn’t my first language.
Antlers – I might see these guys again, although it’d be weird to see their depressing music in the clear afternoon light
Broken Bells – Danger Mouse + The guy from the Shins? Yes please. Will this album only kind of change Natalie Portman’s life?
Chew Lips – English dance-pop act has Josh blowing his load with each single they release. Might check them out.
Dr. Dog – Lo-fi folk band keeps on churning out consistently good albums. New album Shame drops sometime in April
Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Shoegazey throwback band played about a billion shows last year, I didn’t catch them then. I won’t make the same mistake again. Maybe.
Quest for Fire – No idea who they are but they are the first band with the letter Q in it I see. Clever marketing yo.
Russian Futurists – Had a blast seeing them at Wavelengths despite short set. Should have equal blast at SXSW despite short set.
Spoon – Austin’s favourite band open SXSW at Stubbs with what undoubtedly will be a great performance.
Toro Y Moi – One of the first big discoveries of 2010, this dude will bring some chilled tunes to Austin.
Ume – Frank from Chromewaves really enjoys this bands live set. Who am I to argue.
VV Brown – Wonderfully talented retro pop sounding VV Brown will bring what is surely a great set to SXSW.
Walkmen – 7 or 8 years later, I still love the song The Rat
Xx – They continually seem to have bad luck, hope these guys make it to SXSW
You Say Party! We Say Die! – BC band looks to build on the success of XXXX here in Austin. Laura Palmer’s Prom..what a song
Zeus – Arts and Craft band is about to hit the stratusphere with their debut (?) album.
Toronto – When we walked into the Wrongbar at 11pm there was already a large, and somewhat weird (in composition) crowd. I thought it was because we had missed Bobby Birdman‘s set (who was interesting on the strength of myspace samples – alas I was delayed by the awesome power of Mass Effect 2). But there was an even weirder girl standing alone on the stage, complete with fuzzy hair and a pair of huge white-rimmed plastic glasses. Being the ignorant snob that I am, my autonomic reflex said: “she’s a stage hand”. And then she stopped playing the intermission dance tunes; brain-churns a bit more: “she’s the DJ”. And then she started to address the crowd, introducing how she’s from Oakland and proceeded to play. Brain bellows: “You pig. She’s the DJ and also MNDR… one of the acts playing tonight. And if you write this into the review everyone will know you are retarded.” Out comes the camera of course for pictures. Let’s put a disclaimer out first: I’m no fan of electro-pop… usually. I really don’t have a lot of reference points to judge her music. To me, it’s very catchy. I’m more impressed with her voice, though, which was bright and dead-on with a synthetic quality. It sounded like we were in the studio listening to the recording just afterward. Ricky reached the conclusion that it took quite some courage to be on that stage alone, dancing to the music before a Toronto crowd that usually nod or foot-tap. So kudos to MNDR for making them exercise a bit, and Wrongbar for covering everything with a London fog at one point. Some of her more recognizable numbers: Fade to black and C.L.U.B.
Bobby Birdman helped on bass for YACHT, who came on around 12:30AM. They were energetic and I guess that was impressive seeing how I am 3 decades old. Jumping around and doing choreographed gestures/moves was a bit fresh compared to most other singing statues. But we’ve seen this type of infectious energy before – Matt and Kim showed us their boundless enthusiasm in a really great lesson in mob psychology last spring at SXSW (where the 6’2″ Texans also check you for guns even though you look like the recoil can snap your arm). YACHT’s Jona Bechtolt has a similar way of buttering up the crowd. On being ask why bandmate Claire is so sexy, the reply goes: “it’s because she’s a mirror, you sexy fiend, you”. Working the 100 or so people like dough, at one point Jona walked to the center of the crowd and asked if everyone would kneel down to his level. Then the band proceeded to run a group healing session… I really want to shout along when he said: “… if you have that professor/boss that you’re working for who’s @#$!#.” If you do not listen to the lyrics, you might find them similar to Matt and Kim. But raise your ear just slightly and words like death, hell, heaven, voodoo, and f*** everything comes into your head. That’s vocabulary that you’d never see holding hands in a park with words like energetic, enthusiastic, and indie-pop music. But maybe that’s the whole point about angst. And also Claire’s Gothic dress code gives it away. It reminds me of when I saw the Nationals – that one song Abel totally did not prepare me for how sorrowful the rest of their music sounds. To bring it back to YACHT, they are lively and coherent on stage and is an interesting band to listen to. Psychic City, the last song at this set, would probably be the definitive sample. But also check out Waste of time (personally the better song) and See a penny pick it up. More pictures following the flickr links above.