This is my third year here at SXSW and things are a bit different this time - for the first time, I finally have a badge (so I can go to all of the official showcases and panels now), and I finally have a hotel room in downtown Austin. What isn't different, however, is the jampacked list of parties and shows that start even before the music portion of SXSW even officially starts, which was yesterday the 12th. My flight left LA at 6:50 AM to head over to Austin, and having to wake up at 3:30 to catch my shuttle, I had several friends advise me to just stay up the whole night and sleep on the plane, but I reminded them that basically as soon as I got to Austin, I'd have to hit the ground running, and hit the ground running I did.
Checking into my hotel around one or so and picking up my badge got me diving headfirst into my schedule - this year, I tried to be as organized as possible, and I have the seven-page excel sheet to prove it. The first band I went to see was Foreign Born, a favorite LA indie rock quartet of mine. Their live set yesterday seemed to sound a bit "fuzzier" than their recorded material (releasing their debut album on Dim Mak Records last fall), but to an extent also more upbeat, enough to keep the crowd more into it than you would expect, considering the slow pace of many of their songs. They played several new songs, including soon-to-be-a-hit "Vacationing People," which means good things coming up. Walking out of the venue after that and heading over to the Purevolume Ranch, I was enticed to go into the IODA Opening Day Bash down the street by the free beer and food, but I was kept there by the sounds of Frightened Rabbit, a Scottish act on FatCat Records. The band will be releasing their sophomore album in April in the US, recorded with Peter Katis (who produced the first two Interpol albums), and is definitely something I recommend to keep on your radar.
After Frightened Rabbit's set, I continued on my way to Purevolume Ranch, where I wanted to see Wild Light, a band from New Hampshire that I didn't know a ton about except that they had opened for Arcade Fire last year, which made me at least somewhat intrigued to see them. Watching them live, it's easy to see how they would be picked to open for the indie titans, considering their similarity not only in dress (the suspenders, the military-esque jackets, the sharply-dressed-and-yet-raggedy wear) but in moderately epic songs one after another, complete with an almost orchestral use of countless instruments and occasional use of yelping vocals which has worked greatly to Arcade Fire's success but hasn't quite reached its peak with Wild Light yet. While it would have sharply negative connotations to call them a "poor man's Arcade Fire," it's not that far off to call them a lesser Arcade Fire that still needs some more shows and recordings under its belt before it reaches the potential that they seem to have. Not bad, but not great.
A couple hours later was Does It Offend You, Yeah? (all punctuation included as part of their name), a British band that, in all honesty, I didn't realize was an actual band until just fairly recently. They hit my radar last year with the monster track "We Are Rockstars," which was played at every hip club and venue in LA for a while, and for the longest time I assumed they were just DJs or a production team or something similar, how they had a heavy electro sound. Apparently though, they're an actual band, and while they killed it playing "We Are Rockstars," the rest of their set was rather unassuming and all too similar sounding to a lot of other music that I've heard.
Afterwards was Brooklyn experimental pop duo Free Blood, whose sound is hard to compare to many other bands, but whose material should be looked out for very soon, as I'm personally a big fan. I hopped over from their set quickly after though to see electro-pop act The Black Ghosts (disclaimer: TBG are a band on the label that I help run, IAMSOUND), who played at the Modular Records showcase. Obviously, seeing as how they are on my label, I am a huge fan, but even I was pleasantly surprised to see their hybrid DJ/live set (with Theo, formerly of Wiseguys, on the turntables and Simon, formerly of Simian, singing) get the entire crowd into it; I guess more people know about them than I thought, which is a good thing of course.
It'd been a busy day but I thought I'd hit up one more venue, going to La Zona Rosa to catch the last couple of songs from Yeasayer, the indie-rock act from Brooklyn/Baltimore which took the blog world by storm last year with their song "2080." I pretty much only saw them play "2080" and one other song, but their live show, which to me could be compared to Animal Collective or so (live, not recorded, I'm saying), showed that they are one of the few blog-buzzed bands that actually could translate into good physical presence, not just a band that has some songs that sound great only as MP3s. Afterwards was the last performance of the night, by Simian Mobile Disco, the British duo that is at the top of their game of the electronic/dance world. I've seen them play several times before and their live set can be accurately be described, I'd say, as a kind of "Daft Punk Jr.," considering the giant light displays that go along with their energetic live set. Anybody who even remotely likes electronic music should catch a SMD show if it rolls anywhere near you. Considering that I had woken up so early, I had planned on going to bed somewhat early (before 1 AM) the first night, but it was impossible to tear myself away from Simian Mobile, so that didn't really happen. Almost too bad, because there's no way I'll be sleeping before 3 AM or so the next few nights...updates to come when that happens.
Foreign Born - Into Your Dreams
Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper
Wild Light - New Years Eve
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars
The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (Fake Blood Remix)
Yeasayer - 2080
Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation
