Sxsw 2007!

Cafe Society
1

It’s just over a month to SXSW, the music industry’s annual shindig in Austin. This will be my second year there.

After much heel-dragging, they’ve finally announced most of this year’s lineup. I note that our very own Birdmonster and his eponymous band (who rock my ass, BTW) will be playing. There don’t seem to be quite as many big names as last year, which is fine since the lesser-known bands are the reason to go.

Anyone else going? Any bands on the list worth looking out for that I might not know?

2

If you’re not familiar with them, you should check out Alabama Thunderpussy, BORIS, Jesu, Mastodon, Pelican and the Village Green. If I had to make choices between seeing them, I’d go for Jesu and Mastodon first.

3

Here are the bands I wouldn’t want to miss, if I were going:

About (really, really fun group)
Asobi Seksu
Badly Drawn Boy
Bloc Party
Blonde Redhead
Datarock
The Dears
The Faint
Fujiya & Miyagi
The Good The Bad & The Queen (Damon Albarn’s new band)
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
The High Strung
Hot Club de Paris
Hot IQs
The Hourly Radio
Imperial Teen
Daniel Johnston & The Nightmares
The Ladybug Transistor
Jon Langford (great live)
Sondre Lerche
Magnet
Jesse Malin
Marit Larsen
Carolyn Mark
Midlake
The Mooney Suzuki
Alexei Murdoch
My Brightest Diamond
Johnette Napolitano
The 1900s
Office
Oh No Oh My
Okkervil River
Oppenheimer
Peaches
Pink Nasty (highly recommended)
The Pipettes
+/-
The Rosebuds (also great live)
Satellite Party
Say Hi To Your Mom
Michael Showalter
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Spoon (awesome awesome awesome)
The Theater Fire
Rocky Votolato
Voxtrot
The Wombats
Oh, man…

4

Yeah, my eyes were glazing over trying to scan that list for artists I like :). It’s so expensive, though, otherwise I would be on it like white on rice (pity me and my graduate student stipend).

5

I don’t know why, but I just can’t get into Mastodon. I’ve tried. I think I like my metal a lot less proggy.

I saw Asobi Seksu last year (with Love Is All), and they were amazing. Daniel Johnston, Datarock, Emily Haines, Oh No Oh My, and The Pipettes are definitely on my preliminary list. I love My Brightest Diamond, but I’ll be seeing her open for the Decemberists next month, so I may skip it. (Tough choices gotta be made, you know.)

The Stooges and Spoon are both on the bill for Saturday night at Stubbs (the biggest venue). If I want to get in, I should probably be in line already.

6

Maybe after being here 28 years, I’ll stumble into a venue.

7

Go see the Mark Bragg Band. Think Tom Waits from Newfoundland with a great drummer!

8

Okay, first, what is Birdmonster’s band, so I can look for them, and second, are there any venues that we can take our kids to? We will be on vacation in Austin, and will have the girls with us.

9

Birdmonster’s band is called Birdmonster. :slight_smile:

There may be some daytime venues that you can take the kids along for, but at nighttime the only option will be the Town Lake Stage, an outdoor venue south of downtown. IIRC, one night they’re having Public Enemy and Ozomatli, and another they’re having Mastodon and Against Me!, and the other nights were to be determined. (Seems like I read about some kid-friendly stuff going on there that weekend, as well.)

It will be an odd time to be in Austin if you’re not involved with SXSW.

10

I may have to find a way to get to see Birdmonster. That would be cool

11

Bumped because the full schedule has been posted.

Over at my blog I have some of my picks for the week.

12

I know you all are probably more interested in the bands, but there’s a film in the film festival you might want to check out.

http://2007.sxsw.com/film/screenings/film/F7643.html

It’s a documentary titled “Fall from Grace”. It’s about the “career” of Fred Phelps. It was made originally as a project assignment by a film student at the University of Kansas, K. Ryan Jones.

The link says “world premiere” but it’s been seen at three showings at least here in Kansas. Once in Lawrence, where the university is. There was a private screening for the Westboro Baptist Church.(shudder) And the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library stepped up to the plate and provided a venue here in Topeka, when the movie theaters didn’t have the guts.

Take my word for it, that kid Jones is going places. His film is really good, and remarkably without bias. He personally can’t stand the Phelps and their actions, but when filming he just put folks in front of the camera and let you draw your own conclusions. Thus, the Phelps like it, and the majority of us who don’t like the WBC also like the film. You see what you want to in it I guess.

When I saw “Fall from Grace” the audience was fairly quiet, with at most a few chuckles when the WBC folks said something extra stupid. But there was one outburst of emotion. The young widow of a soldier killed in Iraq had just got finished explaining how distraught she was when she was informed the WBC would picket her husband’s funeral. Then the film cut to a guy on a Harley, an Army vet himself, who said how his group would “start their own little chant” when the Phelps’ started yelling. They did, and the guys on the Harleys revved it up LOUD, actually forcing some of them to cover their ears.

At that point the audience broke into cheers and applause, myself included.

I know a lot of people are tired of hearing about Fred, but this is the best work on him I’ve ever seen. You learn a lot about his history, through interviews and family pictures.

I really hope copies of this become available. About half the audience wanted one, but it depends on how it’s handled by the film festival.

13

Wow, I thought I was the only one to mention them on these boards ever! Saw them live in Detroit once and three times in Chicago. I hope you’ve gotten to catch one of their amazing shows up there.
If they weren’t playing at 12:45 on a Thursday morning, I’d try like hell to get over there. I once went 27 hours w/o sleep to see them…

14

There’s now a gigantic torrent of mp3s available from showcasing artists available at the SXSW site - look here. This is available to anyone, not just SXSW registrants! Just be sure to seed it!

(Note: I’m having trouble with it right now, but it may just be me.)

15

Is SXSW like E3? What I mean is, is it one of those exclusive thing-a-ma-jigs that only industry personnel can attend? Are the shows only open to people with SXSW badges, or can any old schlub wander in to see some bands perform?

16

A few other bands to consider, if you can fit them in:

The Black Angels
The Fratellis (the song on the current iPod commercial is theirs)
The Good, the Bad and the Queen
West Indian Girl

17

Bumping this puppy back up because it’s only three days away! Any other Dopers joining the party in Texas?

18

I wish I could. I’d like to see again that movie I wrote about. And the music sounds cool.

19

Shit. More traffic. Yankee go home!

20

It just isn’t SXSW without grumpy, dismissive locals! Now all we need is a hipster to talk about how much cooler it used to be, and it’ll feel like I’m there already. :slight_smile:

By the way, I’ll be blogging the hell out of the proceedings at my place.