With this year’s soggy CMF now in the books, the truly fortunate ones are heading to warmer climates for a Texas-size music festival like no other. Yes it’s time for barbeques, bands and barfing in the streets, as South by Southwest Music 2010 officially kicks off in beautifully weird Austin.
There’s something like 2,000 bands making the Lone Star pilgrimage.
From a Japanese noise rock band playing in your hotel lobby to a shredding metal unit on the back of a flatbed truck driving down Red River Street, live music seemingly occupies every corner of this eccentric college town for four days. It’s overwhelming to say the least, but in a most pleasurable way.
Well NOW’s here to help cut through the schedule clutter and guide you to some of the hotter acts slated to throw down at SXSW. Let’s get started:
As hard as it might be to swallow for some, the Hole reunion is going to be one of the biggest show at this year’s fest. Crazy-ass C. Love will drag her band on to an American stage for the first time in over a decade at Stubb’s on Friday. And although this might not have been a big deal several years ago, there’s a strange undercurrent of 90s revivalism going on these days (see Stone Temple Pilots reunion at the Austin Music Hall).
Of course there will be a train-wreck value to Love’s appearance, but maybe just maybe the music will triumph. Have you checked Hole’s venomous new single Skinny Little Bitch? It’s straight up Live Through This quality.
Jack White followers are drooling over his upcoming project with rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, but so far there’s only been an Amy Winehouse cover to give us a taste of what they’re cookin’ up.
Jackson is playing Beauty Bar with an Oklahoma backing group called the Green Corn Revival. Could this be a preview of what to expect from her collab with White? It seems very likely he’ll make an appearance, considering his wife, Karen Elson, is in town playing new tunes from her upcoming White-produced album. He can’t be far behind.
And speaking of artists with a penchant for two-tone aesthetics, the XX are kicking of a North American tour with several dates at SXSW. The austere young Londoners played a handful of shows last fall opening for the Friendly Fires, but their star has meteorically risen since and this will be one of the must-see shows because their small club days are going going gone. Check GZA opening for them at Mohawks patio on Thursday.
And speaking of weird rap/rock billings, Nas and Damian Marley are sandwiched between metal screamcore vets Dillinger Escape Plan and Cali mod rockers She Wants Revenge at Emo’s main room Wednesday. Should be an interesting crowd.
Another pack of precocious youth on the cusp of greater things is Miami-based Surfer’s Blood, who have gained heavy traction with their hook-filled debut Astro Coast, which is getting compared Weezer’s blue album. They say they want to put Florida on the map for more than just old people, and we believe them.
Let’s just flat out ignore Brooklyn this year. Yeah that’s right, fuck them, they had a whole decade of time in the spotlight, mostly undeserved. The scene in Los Angeles is way more exciting right now anyways, and they’re not all trust fund kids with expensive computers. Noisy lo-fi punk ladies of LA will be in full force at this year’s festival, led by Bethany Cosentino’s Best Coast, Kristin Gundred’s raucous Dum Dum Girls and Piper Kaplan’s Smell scene favourites Pearl Harbor, all worth a gander.
He hasn’t had “buzz” since the late 60s but psych rock pioneer Roky Erickson of 13th Floor Elevators is like the patron saint of Austin and worth seeing to understand the essence of the city’s somewhat wacky psychology. He’s playing with Okkervil River and Ray Davies is opening the show at La Zona Rosa, so you really can’t go wrong with this bill.
So there you go, a small swath of recommendations for this year’s festivities. Just remember, despite your best efforts, you can’t be everywhere at once. So just chill and let Southby come to you. It has a way of doing that.[rssbreak]
