Sun 16 Jan – Andrew Bird

At the start of the show the audience was issued a stern warning against the use of electronics during the show, which I thoroughly appreciate: “We’re not interested in any of that here… if you just *have* to Twitter something, go outside, and if we catch you texting or taking a picture, you’ll be asked to leave!” Much to everyone’s delight, the surprise opener was Zach Galifianakis, who pitched a few new jokes. Apparently Andrew Bird is pretty good friends with Mr. Galifianakis (also Tim and Eric!) and rented out his place in Venice…

I’ve been listening to Elliott Smith a lot lately. No, I haven’t become depressed and addicted to various illicit substances since moving to L.A., but his work has seemed extra poignant to me as of late. I was upset when he died, but I didn’t exactly “miss” him; I was a just a casual fan, and I didn’t “grow up” to his music like so many of his most devoted did. Yet now, strangely enough, I sort of do miss him. Perhaps it’s partly because he was raised in Texas too and it happens to be just a few days…

Well, well, so here we are, a week after May 17, 2008, otherwise known as the day when some of the happiest hours of my life occurred (how’s that for hyperbolic?). I saw the only member of my personal Holy Trinity of Rock that is still alive and active perform songs while 16,000+ folks sang along, and it was sublime. Here’s where I get nostalgic, so be forewarned.

The first Radiohead song I heard where I actually became aware it was this band named Radiohead was “Optimistic”. I was 15 and I heard it on the radio while in…

Alas! Alas! It’s the end of an era, for Jonathan Meiburg is leaving Okkervil River. Sniffle.

Okkervil River is one of my absolute favorite bands. They mean a lot to me for many silly and serious reasons that are too involved (and probably boring) for me to get into here. When I moved to Austin, one of the first local bands I heard folks chatter about was Okkervil River. I listened to a song or two and was immediately put off. It was that voice. So strained, caterwauling and careening up and down, perpetually on the edge of being…

SXSW Music 2008

Now that it’s been more than a month since South by Southwest, I figured I should commit my memories to (e-)paper now or else I’ll never do it. Better late than never I guess, or something.

There’s very passionate love/hate relationship with SXSW here. The festival has truly ballooned to enormous proportions. Just in the time that I’ve been attending (my first being in 2003), the crowds have seemingly doubled every year. There have always been naysayers, but they have been particularly disgruntled/vocal the past two years. Some of the complaints are completely understandable: the crowd, the…

Debuts that caught my attention:

Le Loup- The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly

Attack Formation- We Are Alive in Tune

Miracle Fortress- Five Roses

Fiction- You Will Never

Favorite Songs (In No Particular Order)

Sunset Rubdown- “Mending of the Gown”

Patrick Cleandenim- “Days Without Rain”

Andrew Bird- “Armchairs”

Les Savy Fav- “The Equestrian”

Arcade Fire- “Ocean of Noise”

Beirut- “Nantes”

Blonde Redhead- “Spring and by Summer Fall”

Caribou- “Melody Day”

Jens Lekman- “A Postcard to Nina”

LCD Soundsystem- “All My…

Right then, I realize I'm uber late with this list thing, but, well, here you are.

The Lucky Seven

1) The National- Boxer
For me, this year was full of sneaky music. I mysteriously found myself in love with several albums that I initially dismissed, and there is no better example of this than Boxer. I downloaded the album with no prior knowledge of The National other than previously hearing one song from an acquaintance about a year ago. I came to the band with a fresh ear and empty expectations, an experience that I always enjoy and I…

November 4, 2007: Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 2

I was far more mobile for day 2. I saw, to varying degrees:

Mothfight
Cave Singers
Celebration
The Saints
Don Caballero
Youth Brigade
I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness
Mates of State
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Against Me!
Battles
Diplo
Cat Power

Mothfight, a local band that has been getting a bit of buzz around town, was an interesting act; something of a cross between Animal Collective and Arcade Fire (mostly the former, with a dash of the latter). I only caught the last bit of the Cave Singers…

November 3, 2007: Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 1

So. Yeah. Fun Fun Fun Fest. It was fun. It was a lot of fun actually; like, barrel-of-monkeys-level fun. I liked it more than ACL. There, I said it. Fun Fun Fun Fest is better than ACL. Way to go, Graham Williams/Transmission Entertainment. You set out to create a more intimate festival with more "underground" and local leanings, and you succeeded with flying colors.

Saturday
It didn't really hit me how amazing the line-up was for Saturday until I got to Waterloo Park. As I walked in and grabbed a schedule,…

Sun 16 Sep – Austin City Limits Music Festival 2007

I had planned to pack in as much as I could on the last day, with an act circled on my schedule for nearly every time block. When it finally arrived though I decided to take it easy, partially because the previous day/night had leached away much of my concert-hopping powers, which had not been adequately replenished. My sister and I headed over to the AMD stage for Yo La Tengo, but soon after we parked it we discovered that we were horribly famished and left in search of…