I am about to start the last day of Austin Psych Fest 2013 and I have a lot to say about that, but I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the show I saw on April 20 at the Swan Dive by Boston bands Jaggery and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys — one of the most psychedelic shows I’ve seen in a long time.
It was an amazing show. My only regret is that there were not more people there to see it.
I enjoyed the hell out of both bands, but the highlight for me was Walter Sickert. He was wearing a kind of feather head dress, big sunglasses, dreadlocks, and a wedding dress. Kind of like a demented Dr. John. He joked several times about being on acid. As the night wore on, I came to the conclusion that it was somewhere between plausible and likely that he really WAS on acid. “Stop fucking with me. I’m on a lot of acid! My home town is blowing up while we’re on the road. Fucking terrorists! But it happens…”
Most surprising thing was how good the music was. Stylistically, it was mostly acoustic, reminding me a bit of the Asylum Street Spankers. It featured a drummer, melodian/accordion, bass violin and viola (played by the musician from Jaggery). There were dark cabaret influences, but at times, they rocked as hard as Jimi Hendrix. At one point the singer from Jaggery joined Walter in a song that included an excerpt from the song, “Love and Marriage.”
One song really got hold of me and brought chills — and end of the world song called “28 Seeds.” Here it is:
It was even better live.
“Devil’s in the Details was another great one”:
One of my friends exclaimed, “I’m in their fan club after that.” I felt the same way. I will definitely be purchasing some of their music online. I got a big kick of of their closing song — the Ghostbusters theme. “I went back in time to the ’80s to write this song,” Walter said. There were a few lyrics I didn’t remember from the movie. “If a ghost tries to fuck you in the eye, who ya gonna call?”
Very unique group. Visit their website and Bandcamp page. Buy some of their music and see them if you ever get a chance.
Jaggery (appropriately named after Indian brown sugar) features Mali, a wonderful singer and pianist with incredible power and range (she kind of reminds me of a less scary Diamanda Galas), harp, viola and string bass.
Their music was powerful and dramatic. reminiscent of acts like Rasputina and the Dresden Dolls.
Some of it is incredibly beautiful.
One song which seemed to be about witchcraft, got kind of screamy (hence the nod to Galas), but it I found it really moving and chill-inducing. Mali joked that it probably scared the country bumpkins in Victoria when they gave a free show earlier. She took back the part about bumpkins, but she was probably right. I grew up in that area and kinda was a bumpkin at one time. It’s good for folks around there to experience something strange and different once in a while.
Check out Jaggery’s website and Bandcamp page. Buy some of their tunes if you feel so inclined and definitely catch them live if you can.
Flamenco Symphony don’t play the kind of music I expected to hear in a Mexican restaurant, but I’m so glad I did. Flamenco guitarist David Massey and classically-trained violinist Christopher Kranyak were performing at Morelia restaurant on Tuesday, Jan. 1 as I ate and visited with family. They weren’t overpowering, but I couldn’t help notice the skill and beauty of their music. They got a steady round of applause in the restaurant, even from people seated far away from them.
I was surprised at some of the covers they pulled off in their flamenco style. The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun,” Dick Dale’s “Miserlou”(made famous in Pulp Fiction) and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” to name a few (They’ve also written some original songs – that always earns my respect).
They left before I could tip them, so I figure the least i can do is give them a mention on this blog. So many times you hear groups like this and they fade into the background, or they’re just a mild annoyance as you try to carry on conversations. Not so Flamenco Symphony. Their music was beautiful, novel and memorable.
Lots of music and several videos on their website, as well as a schedule. They play regularly around Austin. Check them out if you can.
This is one of their original compositions, The Lost Tango:
Einsturzende Neubauten is one of those groups I always put in the category of “respect more than enjoy.” (Also, I never could and probably never will pronounce their name correctly – I finally gave up and took to calling them “Ein” for short).
They were among the pioneers of industrial music – an aesthetic that takes what used to be considered just plain noise – and incorporates it into songs. I have gotten into some of their early stuff, but honestly it comes across as abrasive and hurts my ears after a while. One exception – an old school song that I always enjoyed is “Yu Gung” – very exciting stuff and catchy in its way.
Thanks to my friend Chris Kinney, I recently discovered that there is more to Einsterzende Naubauten than I new – especially recently. The group has left much of the abrasiveness behind and taken a much more melodic approach.
“Sabrina,” from their 2001 album Silence is Sexy, is a pretty good example.
A few weeks ago, I attended a showing of Glasshouse at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, an event co-hosted by The Church of the Friendly Ghost. Glasshouse was a silent film about Danielle de Picciotto’s last night in New York City in 1987. Accompanying the film was an ensemble that included Ein member Alexander Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto (who gave a spoken word performance about her experience) and Algis Kizys (The Swans, Foetus).
It was on a Sunday night and I was a bit drowsy – I had already had a very busy weekend – so the music and scenes drifted in and out of my consciousness, very dreamlike. Some of the sounds were darkly beautiful, others more abrasive and strange. At times it was almost catchy. All in all a very surreal experience.
I can’t find any video of the Glasshouse performance, but here’s an interesting collaboration between Hacke and de Picciotto.
My Education
My Eduction from Psych Fest 4 (where I could’ve seen them, but for some reason didn’t)
As interesting as the main act was, I was most impressed by the live opening act, an Austin-based ensemble called My Education. Chris liked them so much, he bought several of their albums. I will probably buy a couple of them myself.
The group consisted of drums, piano, bass, guitar, slide guitar and violin. They performed a beautiful, flowing postrock that reminded me a lot of another Austin group, Explosions in the Sky.
Hailey Tuck, framed between two hipsters at East Side Showroom.
The first time I heard Austin’s Hailey Tuck, I left wondering if she really was as impressive as she seemed. I turned up late for her set at the Butterfly Bar during SXSW and only got to hear a few songs. A couple of weeks ago I finally got to hear more of her and yes, she is that good. I also got to check out the East Side Showroom, a place I’ve been curious about for a while.
Hailey is a torch singer of sorts. She’s young, beautiful, and has a gorgeous voice (If you liked Amy Winehouse, you should definitely check her out). She also genuinely loves jazz music. She performed jazz standards, as well as some songs I hadn’t heard before – and spent a little time sharing her knowledge with the audience.
Hailey was accompanied by a keyboard player and a drummer – who on this night was her father. I guess that shows where she gets her love for jazz.
The venue added quite a lot to the experience. Like Hailey, East Side Showroom was like a throwback to an older, classier era. The antique decor and lighting makes it resemble a speakeasy from the Prohibition days. The menu is unique – both the food and the cocktails have made the place popular with local hipsters. It’s also rather pricey. (It apparently costs a lot more to be a hipster than it does to be a bohemian.)
I had a tequila-based cocktail called a Devil’s Left Hand. Very tasty. I think I’ll try a Moscow Mule next time though. I hear good things about that one.
I couldn’t help but notice the silent movie playing overhead as Hailey sang. Buster Keaton was a genius. I definitely enjoyed the vibe of the place.
I went with my girlfriend and one of her friends and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Yes, the experience could be described as pretentious (the waitress tried to seat us someplace we didn’t really want to be, but it pretty much went over my head – girlfriend ensured that we got the table we wanted, with a good view of Hailey).
Speaking of my girlfriend, she blogged about her impressions of Hailey and East Side Showroom. Check it out here.
Hailey will perform at the East Side Showroom again on Aug. 14 and 28 and Sept. 11 and 25. I would highly recommend you check her out. Let me me know what you thought of Hailey and what cocktails you tried.
Last week I finally got a chance to see the Dandy Warhols, one of my all-time favorite bands. Avant garde yet catchy, nice and psychedelic. I saw them at Emo’s in Austin in the company of some good friends.
One of my friends referred to them as the coolest-looking band on the planet, and he could be right. They don’t do a lot of jumping around on stage, they just look really cool. As cool as they sound. I sort of get the impression of lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor as someone who’s been around and seen and done pretty much everything, kinda sleazy, druggy and wise.
The Dandy Warhols are still on tour. Check here to see if they’re coming to a town near you.
Didn’t manage to get a decent photo with my cellphone, alas, but check out this video of my favorite Dandy Warhols song. They killed on this one.
They also had some really kickass songs that I hadn’t heard before, many from their new album, This Machine.
On Friday night, May 18, I got a chance to see one of my favorite French musicians – one of my favorite musicians period – Yann Tiersen. I’ve been a huge fan ever since I saw Amelie and heard his gorgeous soundtrack. Later on I discovered Les Retrouvailles and Rue des Cascades, both wonderful albums. I was surprised at how “rock ‘n’ roll” the concert was. There was a full band featuring Yann on keyboard and synth, two other guys on electronics, a bass player, guitarist and drummer. Yann is a multi-instrumentalist, as are several band members. Yann also played guitar, sang, and absolutely tore it up on violin. The best song by far was Yann’s violin solo on “La Vie Quotidienne” from Rue des Cascades. Here is a good overview of Yann’s career from Austinist magazine. Opening for Yann was a one-man band calling himself Piano Chat. Not much piano involved. He played drums and guitar and used a lot of loops. The highlight of his show came at the end, when got into the audience, placed a small harmonium on the floor and sang into a mic, while the crowd sang a chorus. Check out Yann’s website, where you can hear some of his music, watch some videos, and order a copy of his new album, Skyline.
Disappears - awesome performance at Psych Fest 2012. (Cellphone camera couldn't cut the mustard so I nabbed this one off the band's Facebook page.)
Just starting to feel human again after a late night at Psych Fest. As usual, the band I enjoyed most wasn’t the one I expected it to be. Best performance and a definite band to watch, is the Chicago-based band Disappears.
I did enjoy the bands we went to see: Dead Meadow were very good and The Black Angels were great as always, I enjoyed a few other bands as well, both at Emo’s East and the Beauty Ballroom. The thing is, none of that really jumped out at me. It was the kind of fare you expect to hear at a festival devoted to psychedelic music – lots of reverb, lots of Velvet Underground influence.
Disappears stood out from the crowd (kind of an amusing statement now that I think of it). They were very together, every member knowing what the others were doing at all times. Different rhythms, vocals higher in the mix. I got a strong postpunk vibe from them. They made me think of bands like Joy Division, Magazine and The Fall.
Chris, my concert buddy, was so impressed he bought three of their CDs. I would have if I hadn’t been a little strapped after buying a few drinks. We played through a couple of the albums after we got back to Chris’s appartment and their latest – Pre Language – is unquestionably the best. The others were good also, but they had a different sound, reminding me a lot of the Stooges.
Here’s one of their best in my opinion:
BTW, I just found out after a bit of searching that their drummer is Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth.
Disappears will be playing in Dallas tonight and in Memphis, Tenn. tomorrow night. They are also getting ready for a summer tour of Europe. Check out their website for more. Also visit their store. You can get Pre Language for $12. Worth it I would say. And check out their Facebook page.
Bands I look forward to seeing tonight include Pink Mountaintops, Olivia Tremor Control, Telescope and the Black Lips. But who knows? Best show might once again be someone completely off my radar.
Emo’s East
I’ve decided I really like the new Emo’s East location on East Riverside Drive. I will miss the old location on 6th Street. I saw so many great shows there. But this one is big, still homey somehow, and they kept a lot of the art from the old place – like the creepy/weird/trippy painting of the elephant cutting open its third eye and the one of Johnny Cash flipping the bird.
Finally got some free time to finish talking about the rest of my South By Southwest experience… Lots more interesting music on Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17.
Friday, March 18 finds
On Friday I went to the free Eye in the Sky Collective party at Shiner’s Bar at 5th and Congress. I only saw one band there, but it turned out to be pretty impressive. Sorne performed these tribal anthems that really got folks excited. The singer had a high, powerful voice. There were two percussionists in the group. For one song, he got the audience to divide into groups of “Vulcans” vs. “Romulans” and get them to perform a chorus. Sounded pretty cool.
Here’s an example of what they sound like (It’s the song with the Vulcans and Romulans in fact):
By the way, the Eye in the Sky Collective bears looking into. It’s an organization working to establish a new business model that works for both fans and artists. Just off hand, it makes me think of John Pointer’s Patronism. If you give them your e-mail address you can get 28 free tracks. Sounds worth it to me…
After listening to Sorne, I had an inexplicable feeling that I should leave the bar and go wandering outside to see what I could see. (The fact that I had no bars on my cellphone inside Shiner’s may have had something to do with it.) It was a good decision, because I saw the coolest act, playing on the street. Gouda Music – a group featuring Ghanaian xylophone player Kwame Kponyo Wadada. Apparently there are different lineups, but on this night he was accompanied by a cajon drummer and another guy playing a kind of rasp. They were busking at the corner of 6th and Trinity and had drawn quite a crowd.
Here’s a video I made with my cellphone:
I love surprises like that. It’s part of what I like best about SXSW. There was another world music group on the street Saturday night, playing some kind of Caribbean music, but I didn’t get to stick around and wasn’t able to find out more. If anyone got to see more of them and knows their name, let me know.
Saturday, March 18
We started the day at a free party at The Belmont (305 W. 6th), sponsored by an app called Tabbed Out (you got a better place in line if you had it on your phone – lots of us were downloading it while standing in line. Mine didn’t download all the way, but they let me in nevertheless.)
Austin-based Bright Light Social Hour was quite like a throwback to the best music of the ’70s, doing hard rock, funk, and even throwing in some disco. A few times I was reminded of Grand Funk Railroad. Just one of those powerful, balls to the wall rock groups like I grew up with.
Next was a group called Kids These Days from Chicago. They are kind of a jazz-hip hop group, quite young. At first I wasn’t feeling it, but finally they got into a groove and I started digging their sound. They did a song kind of mock-fighting with the crowd, “Shut the Fuck Up,” and put their young female keyboard player on lead vocal for a really kickass blues song. They’re young, but I think they could be going places…
Cuckoo Chaos
Next up was Cuckoo Chaos from San Diego. I actually discovered them while playing a mix on the MySpace music player (might have to give MySpace a second look – they found me some seriously good tunes) and was looking forward to them. They do a kind of African-influenced pop-rock in the same vein as Vampire Weekend. I liked their sound and their tunes. The guitar player had a way of producing harmonics from feedback that reminded me a bit of Gang of Four. Definitely a band to check out further.
Not only did we get to hear free music at The Belmont, we had plenty of free alcohol. I could’ve stayed there all day, but we had another party we wanted to get into later. This was quite a party though. It looked like the party your parents were always afraid you were gonna have whenever they went out of town. Lots of drinking and dancing. And I might as well throw in my bathroom story. By late afternoon, the men’s bathroom looked like it had been hit by a very unsanitary tornado. I went in and there was a very drunk guy standing there with a roll of paper towels, going, “woo, woo,” just swinging it around. He comes up to me and goes, “You think I should get that guy?” pointing to someone taking a leak at a urinal. I said, “That would be totally up to you.” So he went up and wrapped paper towels around the guy’s face. The guy turned around and said “what the fuck?” and drunk guy threw the roll of towels onto the wet floor and left. I decided to use the stall so no one could sneak up on me. I sure feel sorry for the janitor…
Sometimes it’s good to let someone drag you into a place you wouldn’t have gone otherwise, and sometimes it’s good to throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care.
To my surprise, one of the biggest highlights of the evening on March 18 was the Thre3Style show, a free event sponsored by Red Bull including major acts Erykah Badu, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Crystal Method. It turned out to be mainly DJ music and a lot of hip hop. Not something I would’ve expected to enjoy. But enjoy it I did. I decided to give in and get down. It was a hugely popular event – at one point, security guards had to keep people who didn’t get in from pushing the fence down. (The only real downside to the event was actually the Red Bull itself – I hate energy drinks and the only alcoholic beverage choices were Red Bull & Deep Eddy vodka or beer. Also not a huge beer drinker.)
I enjoyed Erykah Badu and The Crystal Method. (I’m gonna have to dig out my copy of Vegas.) I also enjoyed the DJ sets more than I would’ve expected, especially a DJ who called himself Big Once, Dan the Automator, who at one point was accompanied by an excellent singer (and I believe actress as well) named Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Badu did an interesting set, accompanied by a host of producers who refer to themselves as the Cannibinoids. The music was a kind of techno-hip hop, with a lot of rich visuals on the LCD screens. Psychedelia was a major theme, and everyone including Badu had names that sounded like names of illegal substances. The highly rebellious theme, along with the trippy visuals, made me think of cyberpunk. Points to Badu for doing something unique, but frankly I enjoyed it better toward the end of the set, when she performed some of her old songs from the ’90s.
In between sets, there was plenty of music to keep people dancing, a beach ball for people to toss around, and at one point, giant eyeballs. It took a while for me to realize there were cameras in them, flashing views of the crowd on the LCD screen. I only managed to graze a ball once, never got a good solid whack on it, but it was fun trying. There was also enough pot smoke in the crowd to nearly give me a contact high. A community joint came through my part of the crowd in fact – I let it pass me by, but still, thanks to whatever generous person it originated with.
We later went down to check out the madhouse that is 6th Street at the height of SXSW. It’s just barely controlled chaos. They close off the street, which fills completely full of people, desperately trying to cram in as much party as possible before everything ends. From the rooftops were laser beams, some of which fanned out and had smoke billowing through them, making interesting patterns. It’s crazy, all those people crammed together, but kind of an impressive sight.
I never know quite what I will find when I go to shows with really under-the-radar bands. I just know that if I watch enough of them, I will eventually find some that really jump out at me, that I wouldn’t have discovered any other way. That happened again last night as I checked out the Wardenclyffe Gallery for the first time. The venue/practice space is an old house, at 1101 Springdale. They had stages set up in the house and out in the yard. Outside, the house is decorated with cool graffiti art. Like the last music party I went to, this had a nice relaxed Austin vibe. Back to the old bohemian feeling I always loved about the place.
Treasure Mammal
Treasure Mammal, from Phoenix literally “grabbed” my attention – they will make you get involved in their shows whether you want to or not, but pretty soon you will want to. They made me wear a cowboy hat for a while and tried to get me to dance a bit even though I have no moves. The group is very hard to describe. One of the members told me they were “dance, noise, performance art.”
They were mostly just fun, and very funny. Young guys and girls dressed in spandex unitards, a few other accessories like hats and a wizard mask. The music consisted of singing over blippy nerdcore-sounding noises. They danced their crazy dances and grabbed members of the crowd and got them to join in. The songs were quite funny – two that stand out are “Bromance” and “On the Computer.” The tongue-in-cheek humor reminds me a lot of King Missile (who had two great albums and are way bigger than just “Detachable Penis” I’ll have you know). Definitely a group you should check out if you can, especially live. They are playing at 5 p.m. today at Domy Books at 913 E. Cesar Chavez. I was told they have a new album coming out in April.
And here’s a video to let you know how silly/fun their shows are:
Total Unicorn
I vaguely remember seeing Austin’s Total Unicorn last year at Cheer Up Charlie’s, but for some reason they didn’t really jump out at me. This time they did. Three performers, wearing unicorn costumes – one doing the electronic sound board, another controlling the extremely vibrant visual art, and another dancing up a storm (later the dancer took off her costume and turned out to be quite cute – and with very impressive moves). To me what really stood out was the computer animation.
I got to the SXSMonstrosity party last night in time to catch two bands: Austin’s FM Campers and Men in Burka of Denver, Colorado. Too bad I had to work or I would’ve caught a lot more. The party went from noon to 9 p.m. and had a ton of bands.
FM Campers put on their usual good show – very energetic – and gave away copies of their new EP. They will be playing again at 5 p.m. today at the Wardenclyffe Gallery, 1101 Springdale Road.
Men in Burka put on a great show with a backdrop of psychedelic projections. The group consists of three guys using laptops and other equipment, playing dance music with a Middle Eastern twist, strong beats and sampled vocals. One of the members, Kamran Khan, is from another group called Modern Witch. The music went over very well with the ladies, who begged for an encore and then got out and danced up a storm. They have several more shows during SXSW. See this list on their Facebook page.
The party was in the back yard of a really ugly building that apparently has a nice loft apartment inside. It felt like the bohemian Austin I used to know. They had free beer, coffee from Rutamaya, and free pizza rolls. Really nice, relaxed atmosphere.
