Toronto – Despite it being an enjoyable show, I beat a hasty retreat from The Bonfire Ball at Lee’s Palace to check out Adebisi Shank, who initially caught my interest from their name alone. The Irish Band derives their name from Simon Adebisi, an imposing character from HBO’s awesome prison show Oz and a man who is certainly very handy with a shank. It is my firm belief that more bands should name themselves after characters from Oz. A couple that come to mind are Cyril O’Reilly And The Sock Puppets or The Schillinger Escape Plan. Those are yours for free if you want them , band that currently has no name. The Panic Manual offers them up as a public service
Factoring in travel time between venues, I only caught a couple songs by them at the end of their set, but what I heard, I liked. They had a jerky, math rocky sort of sound, maybe a bit like Don Caballero, but more frantic. Also, their bassist wore a scarf/mask kind of thing to cover his face and head, which is kind of cool.
Adebisi Shank are also playing tonight (March 11) at The Hideout at 12:00. Be there or be shanked.
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.