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:

Um…

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 soundtrack fame. Doing his standard, goofy pose-for-pics face. Adore him.

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.

Up close for Australian new-wave rockers Dappled Cities… fucking brilliant.

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:

Awwwww…

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

If, by chance your own February blues are still lingering, here’s a few songs that I had on replay last month which gave me solace:

There’s No Love in February by the Orion Experience
I actually found this in the catalog at Pump Audio last year. Talk about a hidden gem. Think Fountains of Wayne if they had a chick on co-lead vocals… in kind of a B-52s sort of way. Superfun! In fact, Cosmicandy is loaded with a ton of great songs and fully worth your dollars. I’m dying to see them live.

Somebody to Love by Jim Boggia
Anyone brave enough to cover Queen and do it this well is 5-stars in my book. You might know Jim from his other band, 4 Way Street (Jim Boggia, Ben Arnold, Joseph Parsons, and Scott Bricklin).

If You Were Here by Cary Brothers
I like to call Cary the “Lamb/Lion.” He’s got this romantic, tempered, passionate thing going that explodes into a one hell of a feral roar, exemplified in this Thompson Twins cover, as the song slowly builds from tender lullaby to all-out rocker. Pure genius. And a throwback to Sixteen Candles is always good. You’ll remember Cary from the Garden State soundtrack and if you haven’t yet seen his Hotel Cafe© Tour, you must, must, must.

Ragdoll by David Geraghty
Irish multi-instrumentalist for Bell X1, David’s solo work is stunning. This song reminds me of equal parts Nick Drake and Ray Lamontagne. March tour dates for Bell X1 are posted here and for added double bonus, try and catch them when The Submarines are scheduled as the opening act.

Save a Little Honey by Peter Himmelman
You know the lovely, legendary Peter. This is off his latest record, The Pigeons Couldn’t Sleep. This song in particular, I just can’t stop listening to it. It makes me happy .

© Outlandos Music^TM 2008