Good lord, perhaps the longest week of my life. It’s kind of like camp. With no sleep. And lots of drinking.
Predominant thoughts for me this year were:
1. Ach, my back is killing me… who knew that a top-tier hotel like the Driskill would have the worst beds ever. I slept on the floor all week.
2. Where is Glasvegas playing? (I saw them three times. Super-fan alert!)
3. Crap, I forgot to eat AGAIN. Starving.
4. No, I really don’t want another high-quality local microbrew… but twist my arm, they’re FREE.
5. Holy shit I have a lot of work to do next week.
6. Was today worth the $400 it’s costing me daily? As I put it to KEYE-TV (Austin’s CBS affiliate, naturally they misquoted me AND misspelled my name): “Not having a badge is kind of like being on the B-Team,” meaning, if you want to hang with the big dogs and actually get any serious work done, you need to go whole-hog. Duh. Multiple cases in point:
mind if I do a J? Yes, that’s Jeff Dowd, the real-life Dude who does indeed abide. But that night it wasn’t White Russians, it being St. Patrick’s Day. Try Guinness & whiskey. He talked to me for two hours; no idea what the hell he said.
Sweet, sweet Cary Brothers. Of Hotel Café Tour/Garden State
Becky from Slow Club, climbing down from stage to get right into the middle of us for the song “Christmas TV.” Somehow, everyone in the room knew the words. Quite lovely.
Apparently Justin Kirk from Weeds has killer taste in music… met him at the Mark Olsen/Gary Louris show at the Driskill. Hot.
Clearly I’ve got a thing for Scotland, here’s Found at the British Embassy showcase (easily the best venue during the festival — imagine this, a government that actually funds tours!)… was delightful to finally meet Ziggy et al. after e-mailing over the last few months. By the way, that screen behind them, all things that you might lose, things that might be “found.” Genius.
Of the tens of thousands of people in Austin last week who would’ve thunk that I’d meet the Austrian iPhone programmer who purchased my business partner’s badge through eBay? Or that he’d quickly become one of our favorite people to hang out with all week. Serendipity.
SxSW survival kit available at a local pizza joint… vitamin C, Tylenol, condoms, chocolate… all the essentials… for someone?
Damnwells lead-singer and dear friend, Alex Dezen at our showcase. They blew the roof off in spite of missing original lead-guitarist David Chernis. Although clearly, he was missed:
Montréal singer-songwriter, friend, and roommate for the week, Chris Velan (at Threadgills) who raided my closet and appropriated my Havianas all week.
Not the greatest shot I took but Winterpills (also at Threadgills) who I caught up with later for dinner. Margaritas? Pshaw. These guys don’t fuck around and went straight for Tequila Kamikzes. Yikes!
Semi-random. A mermaid carved out of an orange peel spotted en route to the Driskill during a midday pit-stop. Only in Austin.
Glasgow rockers James et al. from Glasvegas. The first time I saw them at Mohawk alongside Blurt editor-in-chief Scott Crawford, sweating my balls off and didn’t care a damn bit. Also the first time all week I was officially having pure fun (work does actually happen at this thing, believe it or not). The place was jammed. 90° day that was.
Our HEROES (Andrew & Dave from JamBase) who helped us score Stubbs/Spin Magazine party badges! Love them! Hello more free beer, free Haviana flip-flops (which, thanks to Chris Velan I desperately needed) and whatever else they were hocking at this party. No matter how much I think Spin is a piece of crap, they threw a good one:
Glasvegas (show #2 for me) at Spin party. Pinch me. Front row baby! Blissed-out of my mind. Pant, pant. Joe Strummer reincarnated anyone? Oh Jesus, James is the epitome of shit-hot.
Same party for Echo and the Bunnymen. Perry Farrell introduced them (he is so weird). Notice that Ian is wearing a fucking wool pea-coat. It’s 90°. Is he out of his mind? And while the Bunnymen were great, Glasvegas outshone them easily. Of course, I’m slightly biased.
Yup, you guessed it, Glasvegas again. Third time for me, twice that day. This go ’round opening for Primal Scream who were pretty freaking spectacular themselves. Again though, I’ve got it bad for the Scots so… no surprise Glasvegas were the stars on this night as well, which included a dreamy, spaced-out version of “You Are My Sunshine.” Mind blowing. And without warning during “Daddy’s Gone,” the audience started singing, sort of taking things over for a moment, one beautiful amazing moment where the crowd was making its own magic. Truly an incredible thing to be a part of. When people know the words to your songs because they too have seen you every chance they could in Austin. Good to know I wasn’t completely alone 
. Did I say mind-blowing? Now that was a $400 day worth every penny.
Whew. Now what? Oh right, back to reality.
See you guys next week. xo
3/23/09 | Comments (7)Tags: Alex Dezen, Blurt, Cary Brothers, Chris Velan, CUT THROUGH THE NOISE, Dappled Cities, David Chernis, Echo and the Bunnymen, Found, Gary Louris, Glasvegas, Hotel Cafe Tour, Jeff Dowd, Joe Strummer, KATE BRADLEY, KEYE-TV, Mark Olsen, OUTLANDOS MUSIC, Perry Farrell, Scott Crawford, Slow Club, Weeds, Winterpills —
Clare Burson, Silver and Ash
Ooooo! New record! No word on official release date. But you can hear tracks here. At first listen, I Will/With You, Everything’s Gone, Losin’ You, likey. She’s sultry, she’s wicked. Dangerously lovely combination. If you haven’t heard any of her older stuff before, buy all of it. Seriously.
Andy Zipf, What’s Going On
Damn, Andy always slays me, especially with covers. Heart him.
Bill Mullins, all of it
Surf guitar rock at its finest. And other stuff too. Straight from Vermont. Hometown boy!
The Cars, Candy-O
Hard to believe I didn’t have a copy of this already and I was desperately missing it. Luckily, Cupid came through on Valentine’s Day, bless his heart. It’s All I Can Do/Let’s Go are perhaps two of my fave songs ever. So happy to have them in my life again whenever I choose. The Cars rule, rule, rule.
The Damnwells (sort of), One Last Century
Sweet Jesus! You know I love me some Damnwells. New record out, download it for free here (annoyingly, it’s through Paste — we being adamant Blurt people around here. But hey, free is free). In any case, good to have the boys back, sort of… Dave and Steve stepped away last year. But still, I fucking adore this band. Lots to dig on this record, still chewing on it. Dandelion stands out. Need to give it a spin in the car. For sure, Alex’s magic scratchy, woo-voice (I know that sounds sappy!) always gets me at the knees. And this one seems made for sync, loaded with ballads, very smart. A little light on the guitar-grit this go around, which, as those of you who know me know… I’ve got a thing for guitars. Speaking of… Chernis has a few new things up his sleeve. In case you missed him . Darjeeling Mail’s my favorite.
xo
2/23/09 | Comments (0)Tags: Andy Zipf, Bill Mullins, Blurt, Clare Burson, CUT THROUGH THE NOISE, KATE BRADLEY, NOW PLAYING, OUTLANDOS MUSIC, The Cars, The Damnwells —
