South By Southwest

SXSW Review: Doug Seegers, March 18, St. David’s Historic Sanctuary

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Gary in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

It’s 12am. St. David’s Historic Sanctuary was emptied after Israel Nash‘s powerful performance. A bewildering-looking man came on-stage. Lanky and utterly out of place, even his hat seems like a brand statement that the wearer would happily do without. “What is he doing here? Should I stay?” Most of the audience asked that question, some audibly, and many left that question to their imaginations.

I guess having been homeless, Doug Seegers could easily shrug off, even be comfortable with that response. I’ve written before about his interesting story, but having actually listened, it made his recent fortunes even more unreal. It is simply baffling how he was not discovered sooner in this age of YouTube. From the moment he stepped onstage, Seegers energetically went through one song after the next. There was banter, but it was simple and effective. He introduced the songs, congratulated old married couples, used 2 lines to summarize his inspirations, rallied the People of the Book, and went on his country music way.

His band (which now includes a fiddle and a bass) was equally intriguing. In appearance, they looked not like musicians, but more like rental apartment managers. And there the cover under-sold the content as well. The fiddler in particular was effective on the violin as well as on harmony. The construction of most of their songs on the album are all very similar. It was only his golden egg “Going Down To The River” that stood out from the rest. In the end, it won’t be the stories in the lyrics, but his voice that you will most likely take away. He sounded even more “round” in person, if that’s even possible. It’s not a twang, nor an accent, but an entire being that can’t (yet) be recorded in hi-def. His whole demeanour puts your mind in the correct, country music speed. And he didn’t seem proud, overly excited, or even like he cared that his career has taken a great upturn. It’s a surprisingly interesting take on fame-and-fortune, and one that you should check out given the chance.

SXSW Review: Ibeyi, March 18

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Ibeyi

Ibeyi will be one of the bands you hear about coming out of SXSW because frankly, they are irresistible. Ibeyi means twins in Yoruba a language spoken by Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz. Their music although minimal, has powerful flare that is rather refreshing in today’s world.

On stage, the pair are captivating and charming. The unique way they handle percussions (one song involves body taps and snapping the finger to replace instruments) was just one of the highlights of their show which put at the forefront all the things that has the internet world buzzing. The duo’s harmonizations were so on point I thought it was because of some supernatural twin thing.

Genuinely beaming at the chance to play in front of a large crowd at Youtube Coppertank (what a venue name), the duo’s enthusiasm easily permeated into the crowd which resulted in some fun call and responses and interactions. The group is touring North America now, make sure you see them if you get the chance.

SXSW: Ghostface Killah and Badbadnotgood, March 21, Mohawk

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2015-03-23 at 11.23.02 PM

Sometimes through some unexplainable cosmic twist of fate, two unconnected forces come together and the results are awesome, like curry and fries. Another example would be that of Toronto’s Badbadnotgood and Wutang’s own Ghostface Killah. I’m not sure Ghostface happened to come upon the jazzy trio, but as his post Wutang career has suggested, Ghostface can draw inspirations from all places. The two paired up and recently released an album, Sour Soul and as luck would have it, they both were at SXSW.

What a show

The pairing makes so much sense live. BBNG are excellent excellent musicians, grew up in the 90s and are huge hip hop fanatics (they first gained some traction covering a Gucci Mane song). As such, their musical talent and hip hop knowledge allowed for the show to become a free flowing live collaboration. Sure, there were tracks played off a lot of new album but for the other half of the show, the group seemed to go with whatever worked.

At one point, Ghostface told the drummer to hit him with something and the group promptly responded with Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” So imagine Ghostface trying to do “I Want You Back” and you have an idea on how fun the show was. Another high point was for the Wu Tang song “Protect Ya Neck.” Ghostface brought up two fans to do the Method Man and ODB parts and one of the fans just crushed it. I’ve seen a lot of fans brought up to sing and it’s never good but this dude just nailed it hard. Click here to view it. The other guy messed up but made up for it by wearing a Wutang belt buckle and two batman shirts.

All in all an exceptionally fun show. Ghostface seems like the chillest cat and really responded to the music of BBNG and together they put on a hip hop show you don’t see very often, one that’s not musically predefined by laptops but rather, the ebb and flow of a concert itself.

SXSW Review: Death By Unga Bunga, March 21, Valhalla

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

death by unga bunga

“We’re Death By Unga Bunga and were from the North Pole! This next song is about underage girls! It’s called Young Girls!” announced Death By Unga Bunga singer Sebastian Ulstad Olsen early on in their set, signalling that they wouldn’t be taking themselves too seriously on this occasion.

Although rock and roll is serious business, it’s also often an inherently silly genre and the band seems to take this to heart with goofy, tongue in cheek stage banter, multiple audience invasions, a band name seemingly inspired by a really terrible old joke and a set delivered with total rock ‘n roll abandon. They reminded me a bit of The Hives at times, but leaned much more heavily on ’60s influences with their organ driven garage rock sound.

Sometimes its fun to just cut loose with some good old fashioned rock n roll and luckily that’s what these Norwegian garage rockers delivered on the last night of SXSW. Death By Unga Bunga are all about the fun times.

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