SXSW '07 : A Hazy Recap

Last year I ventured down to Austin for the very first time. I had no idea what to expect. There I was schedule in hand, and determination in my eyes. I saw 90% of the bands I came down to see, and yet found the experience chaotic, yet fun. This year I hadn't the time or the energy to figure out a schedule beforehand. I rsvp'd to every email I received and went down with one intention: have fun. Any band I want to see will come to New York. I just wanted to relax, see some cool shows, check out some new bands, and catch up with some friends. And luckily, I did it all.

It was exhausting alright, but I wouldn't have changed a thing. I always get flak for seeing bands I've seen a million times already, but that's just how I roll. But most of who I saw was new, and I was glad to get an opportunity to check them out in one place. And thanks to Wes, I got up early and checked out some panels. Had it not been for him, I probably would have slept right through them or started drinking much earlier, but I was happy I didn't.

So as follows, my recap/awards/notes about this year's SXSW.

Best Show By Someone I've Never Seen: I think I have to go with Mika for this one. I know, you all probably hate him or thing he's a flash in the pan or whatever, but seeing this charming little guy up on stage singing with that incredible falsetto brought a smile to my face. He's a born star, in every sense of the word and although he claimed everything to have gone with the show I saw, I thought it was spectacular. I was ready to go home right there and then after that and be completely satisfied. Ah, Mika. What a guy.

Best Show By Someone I've Seen: The Rapture. Hands down the best band and the best performers out there today. It's always remarkable to me that they haven't received more attention, but perhaps its better this way. The longevity this band will have is so apparent; they just keep getting better and better. The crowd loved every minute of this show and I bounced and sang my little heart out. A great start to a fantastic week.

Best Panel: Tie between the A&R one and the Music Supervision for TV & Film. First, I have loved Perry Watts-Russell ever since DIG! and hearing his thoughts on bands out today was incredibly interesting. In fact, although the panel consisted of 6 white dudes, they were all very smart (minus one, I wont name names) and pretty funny too. A lot of talk centered around Arcade Fire and their next moves, which makes sense. The Music Supervision one made me so giddy because Gary Calamar was the moderator. You may remember if you read this blog regularly, I interviewed him two years ago when he was music supervisor for Six Feet Under. Such a cool guy, and since my secret profession of choice is to become a music supervisor for a cool show, I loved every minute of it.

Best Party: Fader Fort. Contrary to what Nora will think it wasn't just for the free So-Co juice mix, although that was so delicious, I could drink it all day. It hosted a great lineup throughout the festival, and I will forgive them for not letting me into The Good Bad And The Queen. Every time I texted anyone I had to use capitals: THE FORT. It was huge, and had great sound and an incredible step up from last year. Kudos Fader. You had me at free So-Co.

Best Venue: Maggie Mae's. It was my favorite last year, so good to know they are keeping things up. Its beautiful inside, they make a slamming margarita and although each band takes forever to set up, it always sounds top-notch.

Worst Venue: Eternal. Was there for the Mika/Amy Winehouse show and felt like I was going to pass out the entire time. Too many people, not enough air, and gross drinks. Plus, for Amy Winehouse I couldn't see a gosh darn thing. Time to make the stage a little higher or slant the floor for goodness sake.

Best Celebrity Sighting: Toss up. Seeing Peter from I'm From Rolling Stone made me totally giddy because I'm one of the 5 people who are in love with the show. He was very nice in person and although he told me he couldn't tell me if he won, I have it on high authority that he did indeed. Other than that? Seeing Michael Pitt on the sidewalk was kinda cool too. Nora and I screeched. It was awesome.

Most Nostalgic Moment: Seeing Birdmonster perform on the same stage that I saw them for the very first time, this time last year. And hearing their new songs and how amazing they are almost brought tears to my eyes. Almost.

Best Food: Iron Cactus. No competition. We ate there with Tally Hall on Saturday night and the fajitas were top-notch. Okay, so I was there every other day as well, but that night stuck out in my head as a favorite. I love those Tally boys. They stayed in their colored (newly skinny!) ties all weekend. What troopers.

Best Cab Driver: I forget his name, but the one we took from the Diesel U Party back to the Pure Volume Loft. Nora decided she wanted to marry him, but he needed to know a few more things. Sampling of questions: Do you like people who major in economics? How do you feel about dishonesty? Don't you think Justin Timberlake's Dick In A Box made a pretty dweeby guy cool? Amazing.

Most Heard Complaint: "My feet are killing." I don't know how those girls in heels lasted more than a minute. Even in sneakers, I was hurting. All that standing around all day really does a number. We all need foot massages, I imagine.

Band I Wanted To See And Didn't:  Peter Bjorn And John. It wasn't gonna happen. Sigh.

Best Afterhours: PureVolume loft. Vodka and Redbull at 1 AM is necessary. So is Nintendo Wii.

Best Band I Didn't Expect To Like: Matt & Kim. All the blog buzz in NYC really turned me off, but they turned out to be a totally fun and awesome band. Matt cracked me up with his in between banter, and the crowd there was having a pretty good time. So sometimes hipsters are right. Who knew?

Best In-Between Banter: Although Matt was funny, nothing will top Malajube. This band put on one of the best shows of the week, and I had never laughed so hard at a show before in my life. First they called everyone "Irish Vegans" (it was St. Patrick’s Day and we were at the Brooklyn Vegan Showcase) and then they called out two kids for smoking pot. "This one is for you slackers." Maybe it was their French accents, but I loved them that much more.

Scariest Moment: Checking out Amy Winehouse's cool tattoos and then realizing she had intense scratches all up and down her arms. It looked like a cat attacked her, but I'm sure that's not the case. For such a talent, she really needs to get some things sorted out. It'd be a shame if she doesn't.

Band I Saw But Shouldn't Have: Badly Drawn Boy. Zzzzzzz.

Best Dressed: Datarock. I want a red jumpsuit. Like now. (Oh and "I Had The Time Of My Life" to close out their set? Genius)

Weirdest Moment: Seeing Golum wish everyone a Mazel-Tov and watching a hora ensue. I felt as though I walked into some hipster bar miztvah. Crazy.

Best Cover: White Rabbits covering The Pogues' "The Old Main Drag" on St. Paddy's day. The frat boys loved it, and I was too. Success!

Band I Didn't Expect To See But Did Twice: The Fratellis. Although both were acoustic sets, they were great. Shows just how good these boys are at songwriting. Wish I could have seen them perform with Pete Townsend, but oh well.

Cutest Girl Band: The Pipettes. Seriously, every boy I was with swooned. I wanted their outfits. A win-win.

Cutest Boy Band: Kristoffer. Mmmm. Swedish Boy with sunglasses and a guitar. Really can't get any better than that.

Thoughts for Next Year: Get a hotel closer. Save more money.

The end.

Checkin' in with Colin | I'm From Rolling Stone Episode 2

I may be the only person really watching I'm From Rolling Stone, but whatever. I've taken it upon myself to comment on this, we'll see if this becomes a weekly effort. I was watching this week's episode (I'm late, whatever) and I couldn't help but (once again) feel for my little hipster boy Colin. He had the task of interviewing We Are Scientists (who, I had to laugh when they called "indie"). If you remember, I interviewed the band last year, about this same time, and understood his frustration. The boys in the band are undeniably nice gentlemen, but I have to say it was one of the hardest interviews I've conducted. And for someone like little Colin, who really has no experience whatsoever, I could tell this was going to be a task.

See, the band likes to be sarcastic. But when you need an angle and have to write an article -- there's only so much sarcasm you can take. Like Colin said, they take control of the interview with is one big no-no in journalism. You always have to be in control. And when your staring at the hottie that is Keith Murray, well that's much harder than it seems. (Maybe not for Colin, but go with me here)

Anyways, it looks like Russell is the main man and a shoe-in to win. He's got the edge and understands the process and what's needed to get a story out of someone. Whatshername, Miss Hip/Hop is already a pain in my ass and if I were El-P, I would have smacked her in the face. I'm glad her piece didn't get published. I bet it was all about her.

No update on Colin's website which is annoying. I was looking forward to some behind-the-scenes info on a weekly basis.

Anyone else watching?

Who's From Rolling Stone?

Every time I tell someone I like the new reality series on MTV, I'm From Rolling Stone, they say one of two things. Either they tell me I am hypocritical and am ruining any chance of true music journalism coming back to the forefront...or they tell me that I should have been on the show. Frankly, it's been my parents or my roommate telling me I should have been part of it, so don't think I'm tooting any horns.

In fact, I actually considered applying when I first heard of the show over a year ago. The opportunity sounded fabulous. But never would I imagine being on television, let alone a reality show on MTV. I still am embarrassed just having a radio show. See, there's a reason people strive to become journalists. It's not to get on TV, it's to hide behind their byline.

Like most things pop culture, I find the show fascinating. There has only been one episode that's aired, but already I've found myself scouring the internet for reviews, backstories, etc. I'm still in the very early stages of a music journalism career, but the more I can see and learn from -- the better. Sure, the experience these six people will have at Rolling Stone is far from realistic. But I'm still going to sit in front of my TV screen each week, with my curiosity heightened.

Given my new obsession, I have found Colin Stutz's personal website. I liked him off the bat once I started watching the first episode, for his indie band posters in the background and his carelessness in speech and appearance. He's got the hipster hair. The stoner personna. Basically he's a typecast of MTV's idea of what is underground. While he's not my frontrunner to win the entire competition, I think I'll end up having a respect for him by the show's end.

With that said, his website as it stands now is just a letter with "What was it like?" as its jumping off point. He's got a good head on his shoulders, this kid. Not taking the show too seriously, but instead using it as what it should be -- a learning experience.

So honestly, what was it like? It was incredible. I got to live out a reality that so many others have only dreamt of. But the truth is that the experience was tainted because I knew damn well that I was not there on my own accord, that I had not earned this chance the way I had always planned on earning it. I was there because of the cameras; I was there because of what I despised. And often this made me-and continues to make me-sick. So consider this as an apology to all you friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers out there, if you see me and ask me what it was like to be a part of "I'm From Rolling Stone" and I respond with a tone of indifference, it is not because your interest is an unappreciated burden, it is because I'm kind of embarrassed. How do you describe something that was at times so euphoric, but still made you sick? How do you give an explanation that tore you apart like this did to me? Maybe "bizarre" doesn't say it all, but I guess it does the job.

The site will document (as much as he is legally allowed to) the experience of the show each week as it runs. I'm curious of his insight as things progress. He says: "think of it as less of an ego trip, and more of a social commentary and we'll be just fine."

Will do. Stay tuned.

Oh and in case you haven't heard of the show? Watch this.

People Are Strange | Echo & The Bunnymen

Today has been a very, very strange day. Perhaps it's the after effects of yesterday's gas leak (?) that blanketed Manhattan. I was a bit loopy most of the day, perhaps it was all in my mind -- that kind of paranoia always exposes the worst of me. And then this morning our internet went down at work which convinced me the end of the world was looming over us. Perhaps that would just be the end of my world, that is, if there were no internet. I think I'm sleeping too much.

In between discussing important world news events, such as when emo boys attack, yelling at gmail, and fawning over the new iPhone (holy crap), I was forced to go home and work the rest of the day from the comfort of my living area (which, I am proud to announce will finally have a couch after almost six months sitting in chairs). On my subway ride home I was so caught up in my book (the latest from the great Augusten Burroughs) that I managed to miss the seat completely. All of a sudden a man with calloused hands was helping me up and my cheeks heated up from embarrassment. The man was nice to pick up my book for me (without losing my place) and quite simply stated: it all moves too quickly sometimes.

Which it does, the subway, and everything else. I found myself repeating that phrase over and over in my head and realizing that it's all of a sudden 2007, I've finished school and have way too many bills to pay. The book I was so transfixed reading just seconds earlier now was backseat to too many questions in my head. I stood up for my stop and thanked the man again. He didn't acknowledge me whatsoever and proceeded to close his eyes. I left, bewildered, and made sure to watch my step.

People are strange.

Echo & The Bunnymen - People Are Strange

P.S. - I watched the first episode of I'm From Rolling Stone last night and I'm totally hooked. Anyone else watching? I'm gunning for the ex-con from San Fran...he seems to be the only one with any writing chops. (Seriously, chick...journalism is not poetry). I should have tried out, except something tells me if I had actually made it I would be drinking with the Aussie every night instead of writing my articles. Hmm.