New Music Tuesday

Sorry, pulsenation I have been a little busy but here is the releases for the week.   

• Sara Bereilles Little Voice Deluxe Edition - Female pop album with the hit Love Song gets the Deluxe treatment
• Be Your Own Pet Get Awkward - Pop/Rock/Punk - It’s a wild party with female vox & jangly guitars
• Bodeans - Still - Rock/Pop/Americana - Been around since the 80’s with their roots rock and harmonies.  Played with U2 and many others.
• Sera Cahoone - Only As the Day is Long - Acoustic/Country/indie - From Seattle and on Sub Pop Records.
• Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles - Named after She-Ra’s home, 1 boy & 1 girl making smart electro tunes.
• Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams - Lyrical - Daniel Bejar from the New Pornographers on a side project
• Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling - Indie Rock/Polka - Played ACL07 & SXSW08.  Utilize the tuba, violin, acordian, drums, guitar and vocals.  From Denver CO eventhough they sound as if they are from eastern Europe. 
• Adam Green - Sixes & Sevens - Folk/Alternative
• Groove Armada - Soundboy Rock - Electronica. 
• The Hush Sound - Goodbye Blues - Indie/Rock/Pop - Piano light rock with female vocals
• Jucifer - L’autrichienne - Metal/Punk/Grindcore - Male drummer female guitar and vocals
• The Kills - Midnight Boom - Rock/Electronic/Indie - Just played several places for SXSW08 Coming back to Austin on May 24 to the Parish.  Their sound is Pixies-esque.
• Mindless Self Indulgence - Never Wanted to Dance - Punk/Electronica/Metal/Rap
• Yael Naim - Yael Naim - Folk/Pop/Acoustic - Female from Paris 
• Neon Neon - Stainless Style - Electro/Pop/Crunk - with some 80’s thrown in
• Witch - Paralyzed - Psychedelic/Rock/Crunk - Recently played several SXSW shows

SXSW Report For Friday Night

I finally made it out to hear some bands on Friday night.  A friend of mine and I intially decided to go to hear some DJ/electronica but we changed our minds due to Saturday’s tentative plan of going to hear similar music.  Again no wrist band for me so I was looking at free shows.  We hooked up with some other friends who were going to club Orchid on 7th.  Which isn’t called Orchid anymore.  The signage said Black and Tan, we assumed named after the drink (stout and pale beer in the same glass).  But the bar didn’t have the ingredients to make the drink their bar is named after.  That’s just wrong.  They compensated with a drink that was almost the same but come on, that’s a no brainer.  The Viper Room bought it out for the week of SXSW I’m guessing because there was signage in many places.  Here are the bands we heard…

• We Barbarians.  This trio was really good.  They played drums (BTW this guy was a heavy hitter), bass and guitar with a few keyboard hits thrown in on some songs.  The lead guitarist also sang full of emotion.  I recommend checking them out http://www.myspace.com/webarbarians
• The Morning Benders.  IndieRock/Lofi foursome of youngsters.  Quality band.  They are playing Homeslice Pizza at 2pm on Saturday. http://www.myspace.com/themorningbenders
• Nico Vega.  Indie Rock Trio consisting of drums, guitar and female on lead vocals.  Aggressive band who the crowd loved.  http://www.myspace.com/nicovega
• Helmet.  Metal since early 90’s. I used to have several of their cassettes or CDs.  The support members have changed but the heavy guitar grooves they are known for haven’t changed at all.  The packed crowd had their faces melted off and if their ears were still connected to their heads, they are still ringing.  http://www.myspace.com/helmetrocks

Saturday has the potential of being a long one so I’m going to get some sleep. 

SXSW Friday & Flatstock

You now know about the free shows at Auditorium Shores.  Also you know about the free in-stores at various local record stores.  A few posts ago I gave you a link to free shows during the festival.  Here are the picks for Friday night. 

Antone’shas Vampire Weekend, DeVotchKa and Constantines.  Club De Ville on Red River has Bobby Bare Jr., White Rabbits and White Denim.  Emo’s Annex has got a rock lineup of Super Suckers, Blue Cheer, Lions, The Meat Men, Black Earth and Red Fang. MXPX and Story of the Year headline at the Habana Annex Backyard.  Stubb’swill be sold out tonight for N.E.R.D., Sia, MGMT and The Cribs.  If you don’t like these choices there are plenty of other great bands to see/hear tonight.  

Also don’t forget about Flatstock.  This is a free/open to the public poster show where you can purchase screen printed artwork and usually meet the person that created it.  There are a hundred or so booths are set up in the convention center with a wide variety of styles.  The pieces are also pretty cheap.  A typical poster is $10-$25.  Give it a shot if you haven’t been before.   

SXSW FREE Thursday Night

So you got no money, no wrist band, and no connections to get into any music venues.  You do have a job but you can’t leave for half the day to any of the free day shows.  Well you do have a few options. 

At Auditorium Shores: Thursday - Groupo Fantasma (6pm), Del the Funky Homosapien (7pm), Spoon (8pm).

So you’re saying to yourself but I want to drink for free and listen to punk music tonight.  Well, myopenbar.com presents a two stage show at the Texas Garage on 3rd and Guadalupe.  You just need to RSVP, find more info here http://austin.myopenbar.com/ show starts at 9pm.

FREE - Plush on Red River starting at 9pm has a free show with Caspian, Constants, Consider the Source, Jonah Matranga, Whitman.

FREE - The Parlor starting at 7pm has Spain Colored Orange, Monster Sleeps Quiet, Low Red Land

Well, I hope this helps you out in your Thursday quest to escape your 9 to 5 while still getting in on some SXSW. 

No Surprises at the AMAs

Last night was the Austin Music Awards.  For the most part Spoon took all the major awards (Band of the year, Song of the year, etc). Not a big surprise since their album GA GA GA GA GA was on many national top 10 lists.  White Denim won new band. Ghostland Observatory won best electronica band.  I will not list all of them if you want to find the list it is out there to be found.  So congrats to all the winners and continue to support Austin music.

SXSW Band Names: Animals

This will be my last entry on band names at SXSW08.  There are lots of creative and memorable band names that involve animals.  Here are some of my favorites: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Panda, Sea Wolf, Aids Wolf, Fight Like Apes, Buffalo Stance, Mostly Bears, Faux Fox, Tiger Tiger, Pride Tiger, Ocelot, Birds of Wales, Beasts and Superbeasts.  I probably missed some good ones that are on the list.  What is your favorite that is or is not on this list?

New Music Tuesday 3/11

Del The Funky Homosapien - The Eleventh Hour - Rap - FYI All tracks contain explicit lyrics - The rapper on many Gorillaz tracks (Clint Eastwood, Rock the House, etc.) comes with some smooth skills and non-typical beats.  His fifth album in five years sounds good not his best but good.

Fat Joe - Elephant in the Room - Rap- NYC rapper bringin some beats with guests, Lil Wayne, Jackie Rubio and more.  I wonder if he drives the FJ Cruiser by Toyota? 

Kaki King - Dreaming of Revenge - Indie Rock (light)- With over half the songs on her latest album being varied instrumentals and the other rock/pop vocals she created a cool sounding record.   

Meshuggah - obZen - Technical Metal - Sixteenth album from the metal rockers of Sweden. 

Van Morrison - Keep It Simple - Adult Pop/Rock- Music legend from Belfast releases his first new studio record since 05.  No horns or strings on this one. As the title states he’s keeping it simple.  He runs the gambit of sounds (jazz, folk, blues, country, soul and gospel) on this one.  He is playing SXSW, Wednesday 3/12, La Zona Rosa at 7pm.  Get there early!

Presidents of the United States of America - These Art the Good Times People - Punk/Pop/Comedic - On their 6th studio album the PUSA are still full of pop hooks and witty lyrics. They are playing SXSW Thursday 3/13 at The Cedar Door 11:40.

Pride Tiger - The Lucky Ones - Rock- From Vancouver B.C. This guitar driven rock music sounds like a raw Lenny Kravitz or Thin Lizzy (in a good way).  The Lucky Ones sounds like a great album but would be even better live. They are playing SXSW Saturday 3/15, Esters Follies at 10pm.

Snoop Dog - Ego Trippin - West Coast Rap- On his 9th studio release Snoop Dogg busts loose with 21 tracks.  The most I can say is that it sounds like a Snoop album.  Smooth rhymes and good beats.  He even goes a little country on My Medicine.  If you like snoop you’ll like this new one.  Ego Trippin is produced by Pharrell, Ted Riley, and others.

And one I missed last week…

Carl Craig - Sessions - DJ/Electronica - This is a collection that Craig hand-picked out of his vast array of remixes and unreleased music.  This is a 2 disc set or 19 songs if you are downloading.       

SXSW FREE SHOWS

Okay so I have people coming up to me all the time asking, “What is up with the free shows at SXSW? Do I need a wristband?”  Oh My Rockness has compiled a great list (is it comprehensive? maybe) of the various free shows. These are mainly day shows.  http://sxsw.ohmyrockness.com/Showlist.cfm?freeShows=true  Also their site has lists of other shows and recommendations.  Since I do not have a wristband I will be using their list to find some great shows.  Saturday there is a free show called Mess With Texas Party at Waterloo Park that will be going all day. Checkout their lineup here http://messwithtexasparty.com/  More posts coming soon.  

Well, that was my first rodeo.

I had my first experience at a rodeo this weekend at the Travis Expo. Center.  Yes, I saw a monkey riding a border collie. Yes, I ate some good food in the BBQ cook-off area.  Yes, I saw drunk women wearing clothes that were 4 sizes to small for them.  Yes, I saw basketball hoops with bent rims with teen boys trying win a stuffed animal for their girls. Yes, I saw lots of kids and family having a good time on the rides in the carnival.  The actual Rodeo was fun too.  Bull riding, bronco, barrel racing, team calf roping, and a few more.  Then high school kids came out to tackle a calf and then pull them across a line.  I guess it’s harder than it looks because some of them were having some problems.  Also there were 5 year olds holding on to sheep as they sprinted around the arena.  That was funny, I don’t care who you are.  Jack Ingram filled in for the strained vocals of Miranda Lambert.  Many people left expecting to hear her.  The crowds were big and fun was had by most everyone I saw. 

Weekend Music, Comedy and Movies

Tonight, Friday, What Made Milwaukee Famous is having their CD release party at Emo’s outdoor stage.  Lemurs, Loxsly and Black Before Red open the show. Dance, move and sweat to the Latin beats/horns of Groupo Fantasma at the Parish, tickets are $15 (preshow only).  Styx is out at the Star of Texas Rodeo.

Saturday night, jazz super group Blaze is early at Central Market (6:30-9).  The Scabs play their dirty funk at Antone’s.  The Faceless Werewolves have their CD release party at Beerland.  Starting at noon and going throughout the night is Psych Fest at The Red Barn, bands include:  The Black Angels, Spindrift, The Strange Boys, Acid Tomb, Ringo Deathstarr, and many others.  If you are into country Miranda Lambert is at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo on Sunday, Neal McCoy is on Saturday.  There are many bands playing on the grounds of the Travis County Expo Center throughout the rodeo.  Plus, there are carnival rides and a peting zoo for the kids.  For more info http://www.staroftexas.org/default.php .

At the Capcity Comedy Club this weekend, Doug Benson is back.  Check out some of his jokes on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCprlfJ2Mzc . 

SXSW Films are ongoing this weekend.  Don’t be discouraged you can get in, you will just need to get in line early.  For descriptions of the movies go to http://2008.sxsw.com/film/ .  The Bank Job, The Band’s Visit, College Road Trip, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Steep, and 10,000 B.C. open this weekend in local movie theatres.