SxSW Day 7

Panels and Day Stages

Matt Haimovitz & Uccello

This was an interesting opening act, right before the Keynote. A quartet of cellists played a variety of material, including an interpretation of the Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. Comparisons with Kronos quartet, are to be expected.

From what I understand, Haimovitz (on the left) is a Music professor, and the rest of the ensemble is composed of his students. I wish that I would have had time to catch one of their showcases, but that just didn't seem possible.

SxSW Keynote: Bob Geldof

Sir Bob Geldof opened his keynote lamenting the fact that an impressive list of people had given keynotes in previous years. Feeling somewhat inadequate, he wondered if he was up to the task.

Putting modesty aside however, he then went on to talk about why Rock could have only emerged from America, and why it was important to the rest of the world. He got more specific, talking about how Howling Wolf and Elvis changed his entire world, when he first heard them. Rock music was a catalyst for things that would have never emerged otherwise in Ireland.

Bob then went on to say that during his most recent trips to the US, that we as a nation, seemed tired and exhausted. His challenge was that the US needed new voices to emerge, arising to challenge the status quo. He also indicated that perhaps another nation would need to step up, although he wondered who that could possibly be. He was sure however, that somebody needed to.

Golden Ears

This was a State of the Union address for the A&R world. I'm going to have to go back and listen to the audio again, because although I didn't take good notes, there was some very good information and demographics provided during the panel.

Emmylou Harris

Although I fully intended to see Emmylou later in the evening at Antones, I decided to check out this set on the Day Stage, as a precaution. This ended up being a wise decision, as you will read later.

So, Emmylou played a short set of 4 songs, with a little bit of monologue in between songs. She was as fantastic as I would have expected. My only regret was not getting a better picture, but the iPhone doesn't really do too well in dimly lit scenarios.

Still Corners

This was Pop act, who were fortunately still playing after Emmylou. I was able to catch one or two songs. Very listenable, I wish I had had time to hear more.

Josh Ritter

Josh was another recommendation from the Handicapping panel. A solo, singer/songwriter type who was a little more on the Country end of the spectrum. I stayed for the entire set, and found it enjoyable, even if it wasn't my favorite genre of music.

Today's World of Songwriter and Artist Music Licensing Deals

As a proud member of the Austin Music Foundation, I have gotten to know the Brabec brothers (Todd and Jeff) personally. Not only have they spoken at every one of the 7 SxSWm conferences that I've attended, but they have also been brought to town by AMF several times.

Once again, they were top of the licensing game, and their information is invaluable to anyone who holds a publishing copyright. The new information that they discussed this time, was about the mobile App market.

The respect they garner was evidenced by the presence of several big-time, Entertainment lawyers in the audience.

The Head and the Heart

Another recommendation from the Handicapping panel, that was spot on. They were similar in some ways to James Vincent McMorrow. Very enjoyable set, I will most likely buy some music from this band.

Songwriters Explain Everything

This was another fantastic panel featuring songwriters Hayes Carll, Ron Sexsmith, and Hazel Dickens. Of course, all three artists played during the session, making for a very special experience.

I won't lie, I was there to catch Ron play.

Films

The Other F Word

This ended up being my last screening of SxSW 2011. I chose this film because I had heard very good things about it, while waiting in line at the Ritz for Beginners.

The basic story was about several aging West Coast Punk Rock musicians, and how their lives had changed, now that they were in their 40's and had kids. The F word was obviously fatherhood.

The subjects of the film included Jim Linberg of Pennywise, Flea of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, Tony Hawk, Art Alexakis of Everclear, and Ron Reyes (aka Chavo) of Black Flag. The best line of the movie came from Jim Linberg, who said to paraphrase as best I can, "When I perform for audiences that are predominantly 20 years younger than I am, I feel like the clown at kids's birthday party. Maybe I should be up here on stage making balloon animals"

Great documentary.

Additional clips can be found here.

Music

Moody Theater - ACL Live

While waiting to enter the Moody Theater for Bob Geldof, there was Street Marching Band down below the balcony performing arrangements of Rock songs. Of course, here in Austin, this is treated as nothing unusual.

Bob Geldof

The first show of the night was Bob Geldof. He is about to go on tour, and this was one of his first shows with the band. Besides Bob, there was one other member of the Boomtown Rats in this band, bassist, Pete Briquette. Bob mentioned that it had been quite a long time since he last played in Austin, because the venue was Armadillo World Headquarters.

The set went by way too quickly and featured a good mix of his new material and a healthy selection of Rats' songs. On my end, I spent most of the time on the floor in front of the stage, but snuck up to the balcony for the last 10 minutes, just to see things from above.

Francis Mbappe

This was a fantastic afro-jazz trio, led by a bassist from Cameron, named Francis Mbappe, along with Cuban guitarist Richard Padron, and Will Calhoun, best known as the drummer for Living Colour. The show was at the Elephant Room, and all of the usual suspects (various Jazz fans living here in Austin) were present.

Without a question, I will be on the lookout for more music from Francis in the near future.

Abigail Washburn

Abigail is another favorite, and I have seen her a number of times, but always with Bela Fleck and the Sparrow Quartet. This time she was appearing at Antones, with a new band.

This great show went by way too fast. The only bummer being the crowd, because Antones was filled to capacity. I abandoned any plans of returning to Antones a few hours later for Emmylou Harris, since I had already seen her at the Day Stage.

Takashi Kamide

This was my first showcase at St. David's this year. (St. David's is my favorite venue because the acoustics are so fucking great in both the Sanctuary and Bethel Hall. I caught the last song of Takashi Kamide's set, a Japanese accordion player with an avant-garde bent.

G. Love

G. Love is a Blues act from Philadelphia. The Sanctuary was the perfect venue for this group, which features primarily acoustic instruments, particularly the Dobro. Great set, great sound.

Lia Ices

This was an Avant/Experimental act that I also found enjoyable. I need to listen to more from this band, as well.

City and Colour

I'm not sure that this band was on my radar, but the quality of the other acts at St. David's convinced me to just stay put. I'm glad I did, because this was the best band of SxSWm, as far as I'm concerned.

Dallas Green is a Canadian vocalist and guitarist from the band, Alexis on Fire. As a side project, he created City and Colour, sometimes performing solo, other times bringing along 3 other musicians to back him up. On this evening, he started the set with the band, and then finished the last 4 songs by himself.

All I can say is wow. This band knocked me on my ass. I loved the musicianship, the vocals, and the songwriting. Apparently, I was one of the uninformed, because it seemed at times that about 75% of the audience was singing along to their music. They have a following, and it's well deserved if I must say so myself.

I will catch these guys on tour next time they come around. I've already purchased a shitload of their music.

SxSW Day 6

Panels and Day Stages

Handicapping SxSW Showcases

This was great panel to open up SxSWm. It included people that wrote for several music blogs, including Hype Machine, as well as one blogger who had listened to every single audio clip, on the SxSW website.

The end objective was for each panelist to give their list of 10 to 20 bands, that had to be seen. I had some overlap with some of their choices. My own list was generated from a smaller and incomplete sampling. I can say that I adjusted my schedule based upon some of the recommendations.

I should mention also, that for this year, I made a conscious effort to avoid seeing Austin bands if possible. I figure that I can see those acts, any time.

Entrepreneurs in Music

This was a fairly interesting talk, with Eric Garland of Big Champagne, as one of the panelists. I found it interesting, primarily for the demographic information presented in the talk.

Casiokids

This was one of the more interesting bands I saw on the day stage, they were primarily Electronic, but with some acoustic Latin percussion. I found them reminiscent of Oingo Boingo, in their sound.

Unfortunately, I was not able to catch their later showcases.

SxSW Featured Speaker: Andrew W.K.

Figuring this was a Keynote, I decided to see what it was about. I left about 10 minutes into his monologue. I'm not sure why this guy is famous, and I'm pretty sure that I won't be buying any of his music.

Daniel Johnston - The First Fifty Years

I just happened to walk in on this one. Hmm, not sure what to say about this. I didn't really find Johnston's music that enjoyable to listen to. I've read his bio on Wikipedia and learned some more information about him.

Mobile Music Moves to the Cloud

This was the backup panel, after striking out on the other two. Interesting, but no new info. If anything, I'm sure that our Congress will succeed in successfully destroying any new business models that emerge, and the US will continue to be the backwater, with no services like Spotify.

James Vincent McMorrow

James Vincent McMorrow has almost an Irish Tenor quality voice. His band is fantastic. They are extremely competent and tasteful, and then knock you on your ass with their multi-part vocal harmonies.

This was one of the bands recommended during the Handicapping panel, and this selection was spot on. I'm considering buying their CD or a download.

The Future of Music - Is There One?

Unlike earlier panels, I was waiting for this one because it featured Dr. Doom himself, Sandy Pearlman. I love this punker turned McGill University professor because of his no nonsense critiques of the music business, and his insight.

Surprisingly, Sandy has changed his tune a bit, and is enthusiastic about the vinyl resurgence, as precursor for more analog. He talked at length about whether there is something to the perception about the warmth of analog tape. He also said some interesting and provocative things about the truncation of the Harmonic series, by the CD Redbook spec and MP3 CODECs. It turns out that recent research is indicating that there is something to the preference by humans, for analog, and it's tied to our brains.

I had the opportunity to speak with him one on one later (a real treat). I now have a whole list of papers and books that I need to read, as a result of this conversation. Sandy jokingly told me that there will be test at next year's SxSW, and I could hand in my paper then.

How to Keep Your Digital Music Flowing

I sat in on this panel, but was really planning my evening on my iPhone. I'll have to go back and see if the audio was posted.

Parties

Canadian Blast Party - Karkwa

I left the Convention Center and crossed the street to claim my free daily booze ration, and then sneak over next door to the Canadian Blast party. I was able to listen to one set, by a band from Montreal, called Karkwa. I don't know how to label their music, other than with the word Alternative. I did enjoy them, however, and will be looking for more of their music.

I did notice one disturbing trend. Other than the Brush Square tent run by SxSW, none of the booze was free anymore. The Canadian Blast Party had a Cash Bar. I guess this is a sign of the economic situation. However, I think the Cash Bars are here to stay now! Damn it!

Hilton Stage - King Charles

After the Canadian Party, I strolled across the street to the Hilton to see what was going on there. An artist named, King Charles, was there. Backed by a band, he a very strong Reggae, Calypso, and Caribbean feel to his music. I stayed for the entire set.

Showcases

Yuck

This was a multi-national Rock band. I don't remember much about them, even though I was parked at Stubbs all night, and heard their entire set.

James Blake

Although this was recommended by the Handicapping panel this morning, I didn't find much that I enjoyed or was interested in.

Smith Westerns

This was another Rock act that I found somewhat engaging. I used this opportunity to stake a claim up near the front, under the deck. The prime real estate at Stubbs.

Raphael Saadiq

I had seen Raphael at last year's SxSW, and came away very impressed. Raphael hit it out of the park again this year.

He has successfully taken the old Berry Gordy/Motown sound, and brought in to the 21st century. Can't say enough nice things about this act.

Duran Duran

For the last showcase of the night, I chose to release my inner teenage girl, and see Duran Duran. Since they were just kicking off for a tour, there were some minor glitches. They did sound well rehearsed, however.

I enjoyed this 90 minutes show, but am unsure I would ever go to see them again. Now, I can scratch them off of my bucket list.

SxSW Day 5

Panels

Metadata: The Backbone of the Digital Music Commerce

This was a fairly interesting panel for content publishers, and artists. The panel discussed all of the metadata standards available for audio and visual content, and why they were important.

For someone not in this business, it would probably not be too engaging.

A Conversation with Randall Poster

I was anxious to see this talk, because Randall Poster is one of Hollywood's biggest Music Superviors. Originally, the interviewer was supposed to be Austin based, director, Richard Linklater.

Richard was unable to make it, so the substitute just happened to be my friend (and Austin Composer), Graham Reynolds. I will most likely re-listen to the audio for this interview several times.

Practically Funny: How Alternative Comedy Kings Have Learned to Reach the Masses

This panel was a lot of fun, because all of the speakers were comedians. The host was Baratunde Thurston who is a writer and editor for the hilarious newspaper, the Onion.

Writing this now reminds me that I have never managed to catch any of the standup showcases during SxSW, and that in general, I have not been to a comedy club in a long time. I think that I need to remedy that.

Music

My first stop of the night for music, was Momo's. Since I was outside, I had to take a picture of Katz's. I ate there for the last time on 12/28/2010, 6 days before they closed their doors for good. Truly a sad day, and horrible way to bring in the new year!!

Austin and Memphis Music Foundation Party

The reason I was headed to Momo's was to attend an Austin Music Foundation Party. Unfortunately, I could only stay for the first hour, since I had two films that I wanted to catch. I was unable to catch Martin Atkin's talk this time.

The first band up was Star & Micey, an excellent Americana act, with a strong Bluegrass feel.

Films

Both films that a selected tonight were music based.

Love Shines

This film was a documentary about Canadian Singer/Songwriter, Ron Sexsmith. Ron is an exceptional talent, who has never managed to get over the hump. This film documents his latest album and tour.

In order to jumpstart his career, Ron selected famed producer, Bob Rock, to help him on this album. You may recognized Bob Rock more for his work with Heavy Metal Bands, such as Metallica. Surprisingly, I felt Rock was even better at producing an acoustic artist like Sexsmith, than metal bands.

Along the way (and in the documentary), Ron also has received help from Keifer Sutherland, Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, and Sheryl Crow. The screening ended with a Q&A with both the director, and Ron himself. (BTW, Ron was also showcasing at SxSWm).

Sound It Out

This was a wonderful documentary about the last record store in northeast England, Sound It Out Records. Afterwards, the director and the store owner (and subject of the film) were available for Q&A.

All of this talk of vinyl, has me pining to get a new cartridge and break out my old turntable and vinyl collection, again.

SxSW Day 4

Panels

Your Data in the Cloud: Privacy, Ownership, Convenience

The panel discussed cloud storage, and locker technologies like Dropbox. The speaker was also hawking his own service, Pogoplug. I signed up for an account but have been unable to try it, yet.

Thunder in the Clouds

I attended a second cloud panel on this morning. Austin resident, and Drunk and Retired Podcaster, Michael Cote was one of the panel members. I sat through most of the talk, but didn't glean too much new information, from either of the Cloud panels I attended.

Keynote: Felicia Day

Not sure what to say about this Keynote. Felicia is from Austin, went to UT, and was even a SxSW volunteer. In fact, I know several people who worked with her when she volunteered.

I would say that while I admire her for what she has accomplished, this interview was not very engaging or interesting. (Apparently, I wasn't the only person that voiced this opinion).

Ain't it Cools News' 15th Anniversary Panel

This panel was a historical recap of Harry Knowles' AICN, a website that I occasionally read. I think it was perhaps a little too Inside Baseball. I found my interest waning, and cut out early.

Films

Beginners

This was the second screening of this film, so I don't know if the director or any of the cast were present for the first showing. Although an Indie release, it had two big stars, Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer.

This was a very good film about a young man who learns some important life lessons about love, from his father, who had recently died of terminal illness. The acting was exceptional, and I liked the screenplay and cinematography.

I won't post a spoiler, other than to say that I would recommend the film to others. This is exactly the type of film that you will never see come out of one of the Major Studios.

Ain't It Cool News 15th Anniversary Screening - The Dragonslayer

The hot ticket for the last night of the Film Conference, was the surprise AICN screening. There was a fairly long queued up outside the Paramount, when I arrived. Of course, speculation was running rampant about what film Harry had selected.

Harry eventually came out on stage in his wheelchair, and announced that he had a special guest to come out and help him announce the film. As he said this, out walked director, Guillermo del Toro, and they revealed that the movie would be the 1981 release, Dragonslayer.

Guillermo and Harry then went on to say, that this was actually a Disney movie and was rated PG. They talked about how this predated PG-13, and that this PG movie actually had some violence and nudity. Del Toro then went on to say that this would have never made it out the door in today's world, and lamented the changes in standards over the last 30 years. He had the line of the night, when he went on to say, This movie has balls. Big, hairly, wrinkly balls!, while cupping his hands to drive the point home.

They talked a bit about the obvious borrowing from Tolkien's Hobbit storyline, and the fact that the ILM effects still held up after 30 years. I had seen this film during its original theatrical release, but I had forgotten that Peter McNichols (recently Larry on the Numb3rs TV series), was the lead.

This ended up being a really fun and engaging screening, because of del Toro.

SxSW Day 3

Panels

People as Peripherals: The Future of Gesture Interface

Rather than describe this talk, you can take a listen for yourself here.

A Conversation with Paul Reubens

Well it appears that Pee Wee Herman is back, and Rubens will be making a third movie. He talked at length about his career, losing out to Gilbert Gottfried for a slot on SNL, and even addressed his legal problems.

Here is some video from the interview hot off of the presses, over at the SxSW YouTube Channel.

Films

Tired of panels, I had previous decided to see 4 straight films at the Paramount. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for 5 straight, since the first one would have been the Conan O'Brian movie.

The most grueling part of this exercise was the fact that I had to leave the theater after every screening, and get back in line. Fortunately, the time gap between screenings was sufficient to accomplish this.

For the first movie, I managed to secure a place in line right at the corner of Brazos and 8th Street.

With each successive film, I kept dropping further and further back in the line. For example, this was my position for 13 assassins, I am at the corner of 7th and Brazos.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

The first movie up was the latest film from Morgan Spurlock. The basic premise was an examination of product placement in movies. To get the true skinny on the practice, Spurlock actually attempted to obtain sponsorships for the documentary itself. Surprisingly, he succeeded.

Spurlock introduced the film before the screening.

After the screening and a wardrobe change, Spurlock performed a Q&A.

13 Assassins

This was a fantastic film by Takashi Miike covering feudal Japan in the 1840's. It was in Japanese, with English subtitles.

Unfortunately, Takashi was scheduled to be present for Q&A, but he was unable to fly to Texas, because of the situation in Japan. The SxSW staff did say however, that Takashi was alright, and not directly affected by the disaster.

Paul

This was another of the high demand screenings of SxSWf, since it featured the cast from Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The female lead was played by Kristen Wigg. The film will be released very shortly, so there's no need to discuss the plot.

Bridesmaids (Work in Progress)

Last but least, was a second film starring Kristen Wigg, and Saturday Night Live cast member, Maya Rudolph. Although listed as a Work in Progress, the only thing that remained to be finished was some audio editing, according to the director, Paul Feig.

I found this movie to be surprisingly funny. It was much better than I expected. I won't post a spoiler, other than to say that the real star of this movie was Melissa McCarthy. She is the bride's future sister-in-law, and plays a female Chris Farley type of role.

SxSW Day 2

Sxxpress Passes

Two years ago, SxSW introduced the Sxxpress pass. During this rollout, it was not very well advertised. Unfortunately this has changed.

When I arrived on this morning there were several hundred people in line, waiting for the booth to open. In years to come, it will be necessary to arrive early not only for parking, but for Sxxpress passes, too.

Panels

You Don't Have to Move, to Live Better

This was a talk by Majora Carter, a name fairly well known in Lefty circles. No surprises here, I don't see eye to eye with her on any of her political views. Basically, some of the ends proposed were noble, but I have a real problem with the means by which she proposed to attain them.

The Last Broadcast - Entertainment is Social, What's Next?

This was a fairly interesting talk on the future of Entertainment. Among the interesting things discussed were:

• The history of NBC, the first network. It was started by RCA as a vehicle to drive sales of radio hardware. There was some discussion that history is clearly repeating itself.
• An in depth discussion of TV downloading in Australia. Apparently, it doesn't have a great impact on sales of DVDs or digital sales. The downloading seems to be used by fans who are frustrated with Hollywood's propensity to release shows up to a year later in Australia, than they are released in the US.
• Quite a bit of the session was spent discussing the huge impact of Social Networks on Production, Funding, Advertising and Marketing of TV shows, and what new Business Models might emerge, as a result.

I found this session interesting and thought provoking. Clearly, we have reached the Tipping Point

Time Traveling: Interfaces for Geotemporal Visualization

This was a fantastic session, with live demos of a number of utilities for simultaneously displaying geographic changes over time. I walked away from this talk with a fairly long list of websites and software projects to investigate.

A Conversation with Todd Phillips

I really enjoyed this discussion with the director of several comedy blockbusters, including The Hangover and Old School. Todd has a great sense of humor, is a good story teller and is very entertaining. He talked at length about working with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, and his love for setting up comedic situations that are uncomfortable.

The other great thing about this session, was the Interviewer, Elvis Mitchell. After 3 straight years of attending SxSWf, I can attest to the fact that Elvis is a fantastic film critic and writer, and is a very accomplished host.

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Films

Fightville

This film follows two amateur MMA fighters on a small local circuit, in Louisiana. Both fighters have aspirations of making it to the Big Leagues (like UFC or Strike Force). At the film's outset both fighters are headed towards the same goal. By the end of the picture however, their paths diverge.

I won't post any spoilers, but this film is very similar in look and feel, to the Mickey Rourke movie, The Wrestler. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to other people.

It's About You

The film was directed and shot by a father and son duo, Kurt and Ian Markus. The father, Kurt is a photographer and brings those sensibilities to his first film, which was shot primarily on an old, handheld, 8mm camera.

The subject of the film is a recent John Cougar Mellencamp tour (with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan). Kurt and John were long time friends, after some photo sessions back in the 80's. I'm not entirely clear who had the idea for this project (Kurt or John), but clearly Mellencamp endorsed it.

This film worked for me on several levels, and I would easily recommend this film to anyone (even if they weren't a Mellencamp fan). Of course, my favorite director is another photographer turned director. I think I liked Kurt's work because it was definitely Kubrick-esque.

The icing on the cake for this screening however, was the Q&A. Kurt and Ian announced that Mellencamp was in the building, and would be joining them on stage. This was one of the highlights of SxSWf for me.

Super

This film received a lot of buzz because of Rain Wilson. While I found the film generally enjoyable, it seemed like a me too or copycat of Kick Ass, which premiered at last year's festival.

The director James Gunn, and the other star, Ellen Page, joined Rain on stage for the Q&A. Several other cast members were present and in the audience.

SxSW Day 1

Film Recon

Getting to the Convention Center Early to secure parking, I decided to look over the film posters and make adjustments to my schedule, if needed.

I also walked around and took some shots of the downtown area, before the chaos started:

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Panels

Fireside Chat: Tim O'Reilly interviewed by Jason Calacanis

This was one of the best interview sessions that I have ever seen at SxSWi. Tim talked at length about how his publishing empire grew out of a his work as a technical writing contractor. A great talk for entrepreneurs and/or people who aspire to be one.

Google's Marissa Mayer Presents

Unlike the O'Reilly Interview, I found this session boring. The bulk of this talk was the presentation of Google applications that I had already used. Contrary to the TechCrunch claims, the were no Google product announcements, at the conference. I ended up leaving this talk early.

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Film

Page One: Inside the New York Times

This was my first film of the festival, unfortunately I was unable to watch it in its entirety. As luck would turn out, my brother's original flight was cancelled. He ended arriving 9 hours later than originally planned, so I had to go meet him. I am hoping that I will have an opportunity in the near future, to see the whole film.

This documentary is about the role newspapers and journalists in the new Internet world. It specifically covers how the Times broke the story about release of the initial videos from Iraq, by Wikileaks.

Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgorsen and Hipgnosis

This was an excellent documentary about Storm Thorgorsen, and his creative firm, Hipgnosis. This firm is iconic, having been the creative force behind the artwork for a staggering number of Classic Rock albums. His most famous design was for Pink Floyd's, Dark Side of the Moon.

The film covered Storm's entire career, and the eventual demise of Hipgnosis, as the CD replaced the Vinyl records in the 1980's. After the screening, the director, a camera man, and Storm himself were present for Q&A.

Little Deaths

This screening was an Anthology of three films, by three different directors:

• House and Home - Sean Hogan
• Mutant Tool - Andrew Parkinson
• Bitch - Simon Rumley

In hindsight, this screening was an unfortunate choice. Neither myself, my brother, nor his coworker found anything redeeming here. In fact, I look at it as 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Prior to the screening, there was something truly bizarre. The theater manager came out dressed in a Dog suit, and lit a flash pot, while "Who Let the Dogs Out?" was playing. He then announced that in keeping with the theme of the movie, they were going to have a chugging contest, and asked for 4 volunteers in the audience.

When the gathered around the table, it was announced that they would be chugging Beef Stroganoff rather than beer. Afterwards, the general conclusion amongst my group was WTF?

Badge Pickup

For the last 7 years, I usually go downtown and pick my SxSW badge early. This also allows me to gather up the 3 schwag bags you get with a Platinum Badge.

Strangely, this year there was no schwag. Each bag contained a Directory, a Pocket Guide, and an Austin Chronicle. Apparently, they've made a real effort to cut down on the paper.

As always, I was in and out in no time.

Willie Nelson at the Moody Theater (aka. ACL Live)

Although I had recently seen Willie with Asleep at the Wheel, when I saw that he would be opening the new ACL Live venue, the Moody Theater, I had to get a ticket.

I arrived about an hour early, parked under City Hall, and walked across the street to the venue. While waiting for the doors to open, I snapped a few pictures. I must say, this is an impressive facility:

First Set

For the first set, Willie played with a 30 piece Orchestra. I've been unable to find a set list, but do remember the following songs:

• Crazy
• All the things you are
• You are always on my mind
• Georgia

Second Set

For the second set, Willie was accompanied by a 4 piece band. Going from memory, I can remember the following:

• Whiskey River
• Crazy (sans Orchestra)
• Momma don't let your boys grow up to be Cowboys
• Jambalaya (on the Bayou)
• Good Hearted Woman (Wayon Jennings cover)
• Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Williams cover)
• You are always on my mind

Of course, at the end of his show, Willie went around the stage, shaking hands, and signing memorabilia for at least 10 minutes. He is truly loved by the fans.

Post Show

In closing, I found this KVUE video clip on Willie's site.

RIP John Barry

There appears to be a streak underway, hopefully one that will break soon....

Famed movie soundtrack composer John Barry, passed away on January 30th. A quick look at the list on wikipedia or IMDB, gives you an idea of the magnitude of his career.

Of course, he will be remembered most for his iconic scoring of the James Bond movies.

RIP Gary Moore

Well another Rocker left this world much too early. More details here and elsewhere on the Intertubes.

RIP: Don Kirshner

I missed this news during the past week, about Don Kirshner. His resume is as thick as a phone book.

Older people may recognize the name from Saturday Night Live reruns, with Paul Schaffer spoofing him in several skits. Before MTV, and before I was old enough to drive, my first exposure to live music was three late night television shows:

• The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack
• ABC's In Concert
• Don Kirshner's Rock Concert

Kirshner was actually part of the last two, and really brought Rock Music to Television. I look fondly back on that time, and miss that type of programming, which died back in 1990 with Night Music.

Here's a sample of Kirshner's show: Well apparently that video was pulled ;(

RIP: Gerry Rafferty

Damn! In addition to Mick Karn, it appears that well known Stealers Wheel founder, Gerry Rafferty also passed away today. Let's hope that this is last of this type of news for a while.

Although I will always associate his music with my teenage years, I will never forget the infamous scene from Quentin Tarantino's, Reservoir Dogs, where they used Stuck in the Middle with You.

RIP: Mick Karn

Fans of the Art Rock band, Japan, as well as David Sylvian, Kate Bush, David Torn, and Peter Murphy are most likely familiar with Cypriot born bassist, Andonis Michaelides, better know as, Mick Karn. Unfortunately, he finally left this plane today, after a protracted 6 month battle with cancer.

I was fortunate enough to have seen him perform once, during the mid 80's with Bill Bruford and David Torn, in support of the Cloud about Mercury album, at the Bottom Line, in New York. Before anyone comments, I am well aware that Tony Levin was the bassist on the album. Karn however, played at this particular live performance, and was outstanding.

A truly unique artist, he will be missed by many.

RIP: Billy Taylor

Once again during my Christmas vacation, a great Jazz pianist passed away. I missed this news, but Billy Taylor passed away this past Tuesday, at age 89. He was one of those very rare individuals who could both teach and do.

This post over at NPR will perhaps do some justice to a truly great musician, and Jazz's ultimate evangelist.

We knew this day would come, but it is still very sad news.

RIP: Captain Beefheart

Another great musical talent left this plane yesterday, Don Van Vilet. A name familiar to Zappa fans everywhere as Captain Beefheart. Short write-up here in Rolling Stone.