SXSW

SXSW Song of the Day: Thumpers – Unkinder (A Tougher Love)

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

thumper

Not quite sure what this English group was doing when they named their band Thumpers. Did they watch Bambi? Don’t they know Thumper will always be associated with the rabbit? I guess if they are like 20, then maybe they have never seen Bambi, because they grew up with Lion King and maybe Toy Story. That’s actually kind of weird. Kids these days will have grown up strictly on CGI/Pixar movies instead of classic animation. Getting old yo.

Anyways, Thumpers is a band from England featuring Marcus Pepperell and John Hamson Jr, one of them was in the group Pull Tiger Tails while the others has seen stints as background instrumentalist on bands such as Friendly Fires and Noah and the Whale. They recently released their band Galore off Sub Pop (kind of odd for a Brit band). Their music is a shiny type of guitar pop that almost aims to soar but I think rather then go full on anthemic, the band tends to stay in this pleasant semi-soaring pace. It’s interesting. They’ll be at SXSW, check it out.

SXSW Song Of The Day: INVSN – Down In The Shadows

Posted on by Paul in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

On the heels of the recent Refused reunion, frontman Dennis Lyxzén has returned to his main gig in recent years with INVSN, formerly known as Invasionen and before that as The Lost Patrol Band (or, going back even further, as just The Lost Patrol). Was the switch in name made to be more in line with all of the vowel-less bands out there nowadays? Perhaps. Regardless of what they’re calling themselves, the band’s post-punk inspired sound, while far removed from Lyxzén’s hardcore days, is pretty satisfying stuff. Have a listen to “Down In The Shadows,” off of their self-titled album from last year, and as a bonus, check out “Ner i mörkret,” the Swedish language version of the same tune.

SXSW Song of the Day: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Simple and Sure

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

painsofbeingpureatheart

Brooklyn indie pop darlings The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are back with a new album titled Days of Abandon. It comes out in April some time but they have released a song in anticipation of this record. Also, so that blogs like me have a song to attach to a post as we write about how they will be playing SXSW once again this year. The last time I saw them in Austin, they suffered some technical difficulties and a monitor started on fire. It was memorable.

The song Simple and Sure kind of describes itself. Catchy pop harmonies and a few minutes of delight. It seems more a bit more twee then their work on the previous album, but having seen them live, I am fully aware that this song will once again be guitar bliss on stage. Check it out.

SXSW Song of the Day: Sleepy Kitty – Don’t You Start

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

sleepykitty

I don’t read a lot of the PR emails, so I was not sure why I decided to read one that had this in the subject:

“Sleepy Kitty (ex. Harvey Danger)”

Maybe it is because Harvey Danger’s song Flagpole Sitta is the theme show to my favorite comedy of all time (Peep Show). Or maybe it was because that song was also part of this internet famous lip-dub video

This video was the first in a series of work lip-dub videos, I think. All of them were made during the .com boom of a few years ago where people were all like ‘holy, I can make money on the internet?’ and all the 20 somethings joined twitter and became digital strategists/social media/lifestyle gurus. This video was posted in 2007 and at the time, I thought wow what a cool company, until I realized everyone in the office was white. I am now going to dissect this video, because it is me.

vid1

This picture paints what an ideal .com mid 2000’s company would be like – open concept, great location (look at the windows) and cute girls. Two of those three are easy to obtain.

vid2

Behind this girl are your two typical it guys. The first on the left of the girl is probably a hardcore nerd who runs ubuntu on everything and scoffs at the notion of putting effort behind something as shallow as physical appearance while the other guy just subscribed to GQ magazine in order to upgrade his game, but still is young enough to not want to tuck in his dress shirt with leafs into his pants properly and/or groom his facial hair.

I just realized that analyzing this video would take too long/be really pointless so let’s go back to the email.

Sleepy Kitty is a duo featuring Paige Brubeck and Evan Sult. Sult was the drummer for “alt-radio” band Harvey Danger. What does it say about a band when they can only describe the type of radio station it is played on in the PR email. Anyways, the duo is from St. Louis and they have been impressing some people with their record Projection Room. It features some good honest guitar rock arrangements with the sweet harmonies that highlight Paige Brubeck’s vocal work. It sounds like it could of been from the 90’s, but don’t we all love the 90’s anyway? The duo will be playing a bunch of shows at SXSW, so be sure to check them out if you get a chance.

Thurs, March 13 @ 4:30 – Set.fm Showcase – Hyde Park
Thurs, March 13 @ 9pm – Music Saves Lives – Fire House Lounge (605 Brazos Street)
Fri, March 14 @ 4pm – Red Bull Stage – Darwin’s Pub (223 E 6th Street)
Fri, March 14 @ 11pm – Red Gorilla Showcases – Amped (300 E 6th Street)
Sat, March 15 @ 12pm – Midcoast Takeover Showcase – Shangri La (1016 E 6th Street)
Sat, March 15 @ 11pm – Future of Music Showcase – Shiner’s Saloon (422 Congress Ave)