After the house concert last Wednesday, I was invited by Suzanne Oleson's mother to the last house concert in Austin, on Mt. Bonnell. An excellent evening of music once again.
Bert once again had pictures on his blog, as well. I'm glad he posted them, because the last picture I took with Tom, Bert and Suzanne with my iPhone, was too blurry to use. I can't wait to hear Tom and Bert's new CD to be recorded at the end of this tour, and am anxiously awaiting the return of CGT next spring.
Starting on July 31, 2008, I began taking a picture off of my balcony, of the Walnut Park area. To do this, I used the iPhone application, Airme. I have archived this as a stream on Flickr.
As of today, the count is up to 374, so I have more than a year's worth of photos. Looking at the stream, it appears there was an initial period of flux, after which I settled in on framing a consistent shot every morning.
I'm not sure how long I will continue this task, but I am surprised I have been able to keep it up this long. I think I will try to buy one of more of those 802.11g based webcams, since I think some other interesting things could be done with that.
Tonight I was able to see Tom and Bert play at a friend's house concert. Once again, the experience was fantastic. There is something special about seeing music in this context.
The show was further augmented by Suzanne Oleson, a local musician now attending Berklee School of Music, who sings and plays guitar and mandolin. Suzanne joined Tom and Bert for 2 encore numbers, including the Marsh.
Another fantastic evening of music, with some very special moments:
Once again, the show at Ted's house made Bert's blog. You can see a much better picture (with a flash) of Tom, Suzanne, and Bert.
I recently bought my SxSW 2010 badge and was entered into a contest for tickets to the World Premier of Mike Judge's new film, Extract. As luck would have it, I received an email last week that I had won a pair free tickets. (Of course, free ignores the price of the badge, but who's counting?)
The Premier was actually a benefit for the Austin Film Society, and Mike Judge and lead man, Jason Bateman were available afterwards for Q&A. It was held at the Paramount, and even though I was in Row R in the balcony, the screen was still visible.
I found it enjoyable, and would rate it as good, but not a classic like Mike's film, Office Space. I would still recommend it to people because it's certainly much better than the recent Terminator Movie or Harry Potter.
Other things of note were that I thought that I recognized that the exterior of the fictional company, Reynolds Extract, looked remarkably similar to Adams Extract on Rt. 35 south of Austin. Sure enough, one of the after show questions confirmed this. Many of the external scenes were filmed in and around Austin (Hutto), but all of the interior shots were done in LA.
Since I found the movie worthwhile, I won't post any plot spoilers. I will mention that my friend and I found the plot twist at the end with the neighbor, sick and twisted, but hilarious. I won't say any more than that.
Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing California Guitar Trio member, Bert Lams, with Chapman Stick player Tom Griesgraber, alfresco in the FEFC Courtyard. This was the very first show of their mini-tour which will include playing multiple shows here in Austin for the next week, before moving on to a other Southwestern states. At the conclusion of this tour, Bert and Tom will be going into the studio.
When I arrived at 6:30, the duo was performing a sound-check, and the acoustics of the courtyard sounded fantastic. There was room for approximately 50 people, making for a very intimate setting. I knew I was in for a treat, and I was not disappointed.
I estimate that the show ran 90 minutes or so, maybe 2 hours. The show consisted of material contributed by both Tom and Bert, including one of my favorite CGT songs, the Marsh. (I've now seen 3 version of this song with CGT, the UT Percussion Lab, and this duo, all were excellent). Both artists performed solo pieces, along with several new, yet untitled pieces. The highlights for me were Victor's Chase, Tom's tribute to his grandmother entitled, Rebecca, and a rendition of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude, with Bert and Tom playing the right and left hand parts.
After the show, both Bert and Tom were available for a Meet and Greet. I purchased two CDs, and was able to chat with both artists. Tom and I talked at length about the Woodstock area, because both of us had lived in or around there in our past. I am anxious to see them play again later this week, and am considering catching them at the Cactus Cafe, next Monday, as well.
Truly sad news today. Les Paul was one of the great ones, without him we arguably would not have the Electric Guitar or tape overdubbing. I haven't been this bummed out, since Bob Moog passed away.
You see, in the late 70's, I was a punker. Naturally, I loved the Sex Pistols. One of the more outrageous stunts they pulled is on the Swindle album. It features Ronnie Biggs, as vocalist on two tracks.
Ronnie (for those that don't know) was a participant in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, escaped to Brazil, and evaded extradition back to Britain for 31 years. While I don't condone his actions which were clearly criminal, you had to laugh at this stunt.
Ronnie eventually returned to Britain voluntarily in 2001, for medical reasons and was promptly arrested, and incarcerated. What a surprise to see this headline today.
Being 2 years younger than Michael, I have seen every stage of his career. I'm posting because I want to relay one story which I think reveals how far the U.S. has come since 1982, the year Thriller was released.
At that time, I was in a Senior in college, and living in Hoboken, NJ, which is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Radio in NYC was representative of most of the nation. Basically, Rock and Urban music were not to be mixed. It was almost like you had to choose a side.
The two big Rock stations in NYC at that time, were WNEW and WPLJ. When Thriller was released, there was a bit of a conundrum. Beat It was rocketing up the charts and these stations would play it, but did not want to acknowledge that it was daring to cross the line. Of course, no one would ever question why Jimi Hendrix was acceptable, nor ask the even more vexing question about where the Rock genre came from.
In a handful of ridiculous cases, they would just focus on the fact that Beat It featured Eddie Van Halen on guitar, while sometimes neglecting to mention that it was Michael Jackson singing. Incidents like these stand out in your mind because they are so blatant. I think (and hope) we're past that.
In closing, let me say that after seeing Quincy Jones at SxSW this year, and Michael's death, I had to get a digital copy of Thriller, since I'm unable to play my vinyl copy.
First you may be wondering who Joe is, I usually only write about musicians. Joe was my 2nd cousin. By a strange set of circumstances, I have no maternal cousins, but close to a hundred 2nd cousins. My relatives on this side of my family are all descended from Lithuanian immigrants. It's a big extended family and we are all very close.
My cousin was a retired Naval Aviator. He had served as a Navigator in an F4 crew, off of the U.S.S. Midway. A real live Top Gun
graduate. His passing stings, since he was all too young, at 58 years of age. Since he was 10 years my senior, I always looked up to him as I was growing up.
During the past two years, Joe and I had been collaborating on tracing the family genealogy, and to the surprise of many in our family, making good progress. From here on out, like Maverick, I'll have to go on without the Goose. I do hope to be at Arlington National Cemetery when he is interred in late September.
Geneaology Note
For those not genealogically inclined, 2nd cousins share a set of common great grandparents. In this case, our mothers are cousins and our grandmothers were sisters.
I'll use the excuse that it was during SxSW. None the less, Uriel Jones passed away on March 24th of this year. I'm not 100% certain, but I think he was the last remaining Funk Brother.
If you've never seen Standing in the Shadows of Motown,
it's a must!
When I noticed this show, I had to get a ticket. Sonny Rollins is a living Jazz legend. He was there when BeBop was born, and played with Miles, Monk, Max, and Trane (just to name a few). Now at 78 years of age, he is the last man standing
... and still going strong.
The show tonight started promptly at 7PM, and as I entered, I was surprised to see a much denser crowd than the Five Peace Band. My seats were no where near as good as for that show either. I was almost in the last row, and my attempts to capture a picture at that distance were futile.
The band for tonight's show totalled six members:
The first number was an ostinato groove, with Sonny soloing all over the place. For the first 5 or 6 choruses, however, his sound was very low. This was remedied by a microphone replacement mid-song, during the Trombone solo. Sonny was greeted with thunderous applause, when the new microphone made his playing more audible.
I estimate the show lasted approximately 1 hr and 45 minutes, with a single encore. About 8 tunes in all, and two of which were ballads. Unlike Dizzy, Sonny still has the stamina to belt it out. I was particularly impressed with several long sustains, and his ability to draw upon every book of the Jazz Tenor canon.
From the band, the standouts for me were the 2 percussionists, and the Trombone player. I only wish that they had let the Trombonist solo more. I also enjoyed the several occasions, where he and Sonny played in unison.
At the end of the evening, Sonny went to the Mic and mentioned that it was the first time he had played in Austin, since playing Armadillo WHQ. Last but not least, he sang during part of the encore, a straight ahead Blues number.
Do I really need to convince you to try and see him? (I hope not).
After Art City Austin, I attended the later (and latter) of 2 shows featuring Stanley Clarke, at the One World Theater. This was the second time in less than a year for me seeing Stanley play, having seen him before with Return to Forever.
For this show, Stanley was accompanied by 3 younger musicians (younger meaning under the age of 35), pianist, Ruslan Sirota, violinist, Zach Brock, and drummer, Ronald Bruner, Jr. The band was really accomplished and I was very impressed with both Brock's and Bruner's playing, the latter sounding at times, very reminiscent of Tony Williams.
I estimate they played about 6 tunes, for about 90 minutes, with Stanley playing Acoustic Bass throughout the show. For the encore, they did School Days
with Clarke finally switching to Electric Bass. Other than the encore, the numbers were mainly arrangements of RTF tunes, and one song that Stanely wrote as a tribute to John Coltrane.
A very enjoyable show, which put the cap on a very hectic weekend.
Once again, I volunteered to help my friends at AMF, man their booth at Art City Austin. This time around, I was only able to work on Sunday, since the schedule conflicted with CloudCamp.
It was a pleasant, although overcast day, never actually raining. I was able to see several Austin Artists including Nakia and his Southern Cousins, David Garza, the Hudsons, and Brent Allen.
I like this event because it gets to the core
of Austin, and puts it on display. The setting, downtown along 1st Street, next to Town Lake, gives it a certain vibe, as well.
For the past 2 years, one thing that has astounded me, is the way the way they temporarily erect large sculptures on the 1st Street Bridge for the weekend. Last year it was a temporary hedge, this year it was a large metal barracuda. (Just for reference, I estimate that this statue is about 10 ft. tall at the apex, and about 25 ft. long:
Of course, you can see the white dashed lines for a car lane, to get the relative sense of scale. Here's to many more years of attending this event.
I attended my fifth barcamp Saturday. It was held to discuss the specific topic of Cloud Computing, and was thus called, CloudCamp. The venue was the same as the previous startup camp I blogged about (the UT ACTLab), with many of the same people. There were several local Cloud/Cluster/Virtual computing friends here in town however, who although on the attendee list, did not actually show.
Unlike previous barcamps, the topics were chosen through an unpanel
process, where volunteers proposed topics, supplemented by suggestions from the audience. All attendees voted on the best topics, and then they were rearranged to fill all the available time slots in three rooms.
It was an interesting experiment, I think that too much time was consumed in this stage, however.
Most of the information I obtained was valuable in some way, and I did get meet and network with one of the founders of Rackspace/Moosa. (In this economy, you can't have too big of a network!)
I decided to catch two different shows tonight.
Infinite Partials was first up in the evening. I have known the Cellist, Andrew Davis, through a mutual friend and we had corresponded via email and phone, about various aspects of mastering a CD. Seeing an ad for their gig on Facebook, I decided to go check this band out in person, after failing on 3 prior attempts (for various reasons).
The Partials do a mix of originals and covers, in what I guess you would call an Americana style. The venue was great, the acoustics good, and helping the band sound great. Added pluses were an early start, and a family friendly venue. The patrons were really enjoying the band, with some dancing occurring. I enjoyed the music enough I felt compelled to buy their CD.
I have made a mental note to see this band again:
I finished the night catching the second set of a Free Jazz show at the Victory Grill, featuring the Ab Baars (a Sax/Clarinet player) Trio from Amsterdam , and Ken Vandermark (a Tenor Saxophonist). I was already familiar with Ken's work from Powerhouse sound, and his solo efforts. I am a Jazz player, fan and like free
Jazz. I have seen quite a few unusual improvisation shows in my past, the type where you have to be careful who you invite. This show was relatively tame in comparison.
This was also my first trip to the Victory Grill, and I must say that it is a great venue. It looks like it could get hot in the summer. It's nice to know that the Elephant Room isn't the only venue in town for Jazz.
The good parts of this show for me were the interplay between Ken and Ab. They did interesting things with their instruments, pulling out a lot of tricks. Over-blowing, playing harmonics, trading phrases, all coupled with some mutant counterpoint every once and while. I enjoyed the show in general, but I found the rhythm section to be a little mechanical for my tastes. I suspect I would have enjoyed them with a bit more swing (which probably really means that I would have preferred a different rhythm section).
Last night, I had the pleasure to see Five Peace Band, at the newly refurbished Bass Concert Hall. Having been to one of the last concerts there before the remodeling commenced, I was anxious to see what had changed. It seems that other than the acoustic treatments on the wall, and some painting, the changes were was not as dramatic as I had expected.
No matter, lets talk about the important stuff, the music. It seems that shortly after the Return to Forever tour concluded, Chick Corea started working with former bandmate from the Miles Davis Bitches Brew era, John McLaughlin. The original studio and touring line-up of Five Peace consisted of Chick and John, along with saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. Vinnie had to move on to the Jeff Beck tour (which does not appear to be traveling through Texas, damn it), and was replaced by the equally competent and spectacular, Brian Blades.
The band played for 3 hours, in 2 sets, with a 15-20 minute intermission. The acoustics, as always, were spectacular in this hall which used to host the Austin Symphony. My seat was in the 10th row from stage, with Chick almost directly in front of me.
The improvisational playing was spectacular. For me, the stars of the show were Chick, Brian Blades, and Christian McBride. Kenny looked like he might have been a little under the weather (but still played magnificently), and McLaughlin was his normal rock steady self. My friend commented that you really understand what a true MF'er Chick is on the keys, when you sit that close. I wholeheartedly agreed.
The crowd was older, and there were lots of gray ponytails again. None the less, most were attentive and seemed fully engaged in the show. I was surprised however, at the number of empty seats, given the standing room only crowds for RTF, last year.
A set list is available here.
Although supposedly verboten, I managed to sneak a picture with the iPhone at the end of the show
.
If you have the chance to see this show, do it! Next up this month, Stanley Clarke.
The last day, and man are my dogs barking.
I attempted to sit through a bit of both of these panels. I guess I was paneled out.
Apparently Neil Young had been in town for 48 hours, but no secret shows. His manager however, was present to talk about the release of Vol 1 of Neil's Archives (a 10 Blu-ray set).
This is an extremely interesting project. Apparently, Neil and his manager have archives and recordings all the back to Neil's first band, the Squires. In fact, he says that they have recordings of almost every single show or concert for 40 years.
The release of the first volume will also be accompanied by a new documentary by Jonathan Demme. There was a screening at the Paramount for Badge holders, but it seems to me that it would have better to start it during the film festival. The time was inopportune and conflicted with several music shows.
The entire archive is expected to be 4 or 5 volumes in total, and will be probably take 25-30 years to be released. What they showed at the talk was incredible. I'm hoping that it is released on Netflix, because although I want to watch it, I'm not sure I would want to spend the money on the first 10 of what will be approximately 50 discs. I think it's fantastic that they had enough foresight to archive the material.
My buddies Ed Martinez and Dave Johnson (AMA winners for their band, More Cowbell) had their respective fusion bands Proteus and Ugly Elephant at the HiLo again this year. It was a fun time, the windows were open, and the music was great.
This was the first time I had ever seen this band. There were some initial problem with the sound, with a low bass rumble. They eventually squared those away.
They also managed to fit Lips like Sugar
into the set before they finished.
After finishing dinner, I caught one song by this band. It was post-punk, power pop with the singer using a affected British accent. Seemed ok, I probably would have stayed for several songs if I had gotten there earlier.
I had no idea where Prague was, until I arrived and saw that it was another converted Dance Club. No matter, the band was good. They were from LA, and had late 80's pop sound, reminiscent of Tommy Tutone or Greg Kihn. I enjoyed the set and stayed for its entirety.
Kudos to the band for driving from Los Angeles.
Stopped for one song, saw there was no band. Sorry, next.
For the past few years, Latitude 30 has been painted and set up as the UK Music hub during SxSW. What intrigues me is that I'm not sure what the building is used for otherwise. I will have to solve this mystery soon. (Perhaps it's like the old Coppertank Brewpub which was also open this past week).
I caught two songs from this British act which consisted of two females and a mercenary backing band. Interesting pop, not my cup of tea however.
I showed up mainly to see Graham's band. If nothing else, he should get an award for cramming 5 of the 7 people in the Project, up on the tiny stage. The instrumentation included, a spinet piano, violin, cello, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and xylophone.
The start was a little late, but the music was very powerful, and interesting. Typical of one of Graham's shows. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm kicking myself for not catching Golden Hornet earlier. Will have to soon.
This band is a string quartet from NYC that does totally improvised music. Unfortunately, the environment made this performance challenging, with loud dance music leaking through the walls from the club next door. It was not as noticeable when Golden Hornet Project was on the stage, but a string quartet was unable to compete.
My other complaint, I find this type of improvisation (from Classically Trained musicians) much less interesting than what you would hear from a seasoned Jazz player. Perhaps I just need to hear it Swing, I cut out of there before the set was finished.
I returned to Prague to hear the last couple songs of Songwriting Legend, Jimmy Webb's set. There were several friends of mine that parked there all night long. What I heard sounded great.
I had met my friend Rick earlier in the evening, in line for the Echo and the Bunnymen taping. We originally started talking at an Adrian Belew show about 2 years ago. Since then, we have run into each other a lot. In talking at the Prague we both mentioned the 18th floor. As it turns out, we were both there for the infamous Andy Pratt show during SxSW 2007.
I had also mentioned liking Sarah Borges, and being frustrated at not being able to catch her with her band or the Doug Sahm tribute at Antones with Dave Alvin and others. He mentioned that perhaps I would like this band the Bridges, that he had seen at the Belmont for a day party. They were playing the 18th floor to close out the night. So we trekked down there to finish there.
was on the stage when we arrived. He is a solo Dobro player from England. Very accomplished, but since he had no vocals, it became tiring after about 3 minutes. I would like see what this guy could do as a member of a band.
This band is a group of 4 young women (ages 18-24), along with a drummer. It's a family affair with 4 of the band members being siblings, and last woman, a cousin. They apparently have been working with Matthew Sweet.
The band is pop oriented, and the strength their vocals. They were simply amazing singers, and often employ 4 part harmonies. I got a sense that the level of talent displayed, combined with their ages will result in them going very far.
The morning began with a keynote speech by Steve Van Zandt (aka. Sylvio Dante, Little Steven, or Miami Steve). This E-Street Band icon was there to discuss his take on the state of the music industry.
The high points of his talk:
craftof performing. Expect to skip steps, which should include putting in time to play out live. Rough quote,
it takes about 10000 hours of focused work, to achieve greatness.
Lots of sage advice, from someone with the music entrepreneurial spirit deep inside his core. He of course was dressed in his very distinctive garb. Later that day I saw him walking down the sidewalk outside of Latitude 30 still dressed that way, trying to be inconspicuous. This was fairly comical to be honest, I just wish I had gotten a picture.
An interesting panel about several projects being conducted by NPR. I didn't stay for the whole session, but it included a segment with Nellie McKay.
This was a very good Indie band from Britain. I heard them as I was eating and stayed for the entire set. They seemed to draw some attention from many of the passers by. Will have to investigate further.
I heard several bands, but the most interesting was Temper Trap, who drew on guitar ostinatos like Edge from U2, combined with a millennial vocal sound. It seemed to go well with good weather, and a couple of bottles of Dark Wattle Ale.
All I can say about this is that I'm tired of screen actors wanting to do music. This show was about as compelling and interesting as Dog Star.
This was another highlight of the show. The brothers basically did this show by themselves, since their band did not want to make the trip. No matter, they were awesome even without the band.
Although they sing with a thick brogue, their voices are powerful and their lyrics moving. There is a certain weird charisma that these guy have that draws the audience in. Like the Kin, they had everyone eating out of the palm of their hands. They finished with their hit, I'm Gonna Be,
which was a delight.
I felt compelled to buy one of their albums after seeing this show.
This band was listed as TBA on Red Gorilla schedule, most likely because they had SxSW showcases, as well. They were a British band with a female lead vocalist and equally talented woman on backup vocals.
I'm not sure if everything they sang was their own music, but they were very talented. If time constraints were not a factor, I may have attempted to see their showcase.
Karma Lounge is dance club that is temporarily converted into a live music venue for SxSW. My friends Ron, Alissa and I went to check out this band from Singapore.
Unfortunately, they had a late start because of power problems. I'm not sure who was at fault, but Alissa (a former SxSW staff member) said that they used to have people specifically assigned to handle this. I felt really heartbroken to discover that this band had flown 30 hours to get to Austin, and that this was there only showcase. Kudos for the effort.
This band was a power trio having a nu-metal/prog sound, and no vocals. I found the music interesting and actually would have stayed longer to hear more, if possible.
I always try to go and see at least one show at this venue, given the exceptional acoustics of the room. I chose this show at random, and fate came through for me.
Igudesman and Joo are a classical violinist and pianist who have a comedic act in the tradition of Victor Borge. Let me first say they are phenomenal musicians. On top of that, however, they are extremely funny.
My best advice is to direct you to their website or one of the Youtube videos, so you can see for yourself.
I erroneously thought that the Golden Hornet Project was playing in this slot. It turned out being a local Austin band. I happened across my friend Thad, before proceeding elsewhere.
I ended up at the Austin Music Hall early in order to see Devo. As a result, I had to sit through Tricky. Honestly, I don't get this guy's popularity. His band was fairly tight, playing slow grooves. I'm not sure what his talent is however, certainly not much of a singer or performer. Yawn.
This was another highlight of the night. Even though a huge crowd was attempting to see Metallica on the other end of town, at Stubbs, the Austin Music Hall was still packed as well. For me personally, 27 or 28 years had transpired since last seeing them on the New Traditionalists tour on Halloween night, in 1981 or 1982, at Radio City Music Hall. I was one of those weird punkers in high school that went to go see them immediately after they were on SNL in 1979, and was always a big fan of this very innovative band.
The 5 Spuds from Akron came out and played for over an hour covering 2 new songs and a selection of their hits including Jocko Homo, Mongoloid, Gut Feeling, Freedom of Choice, Whip It, Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, Secret Agent man, etc... Even though they are all old men now, it was amazing how much the crowd was into the show.
They are expected to tour this year, I may have to make a point to go.
PS. Boogie Boy did make an appearance for one song, Beautiful World.
Thursday was a busy day early, I'm feeling a little fatigue since this is already day 6, only 2 more to go.
This is the fourth time I've seen the Brabec twins speak, third time at SxSW, and once as an Austin Music Foundation Small Group Session. I have always been impressed with depth of the material they present, and how approachable both gentlemen are. I was able to speak for a few minutes with Jeff afterwards, and it appears that another AMF session is in the works. I always learn something new at their talks.
This was a repeat of a similar session from last year's SxSW. The panel was mainly Music Supervisors, but also included someone from Subpop records, who manages licensing of their catalog. It was very interesting to hear about this process from the Label's or Publisher's perspective.
This was a marathon and went over at least 40 minutes. I found this write up via Twitter. It does a great job recapping the talk.
This was one of the highlights of the show for me, all 5 members of the band were present for an in-depth interview. They talked about all of the highlights of their career starting with the Akron, OH days, Kent State, and moving to LA.
Some interesting comments were made about their rivalry
with the Talking Heads, along with some choice comments about David Byrne. They also told a story about their label trying to convince them to have John Lydon (aka. Johnny Rotten) join the band, giving some fascinating insight into the Music Biz at that time. Also interesting was their discussion of their cover of Working In A Coal Mine,
how it was dropped from their album by their label, yet still went top 40 via the Heavy Metal soundtrack.
While grabbing a bite to eat, I caught this incredible act, 4 women from Sweden playing upright bass, guitar/mandolin, violin, cello. They also did incredible 4 part vocal harmonies. Outstanding, I will probably look for their CD and buy it.
I caught the last 3 songs of this act from Detroit. Well done, but fairly mainstream stuff.
I accompanied friends Ron and Alissa to see the original Goth rocker, Peter Murphy. Pretty much as expected, Peter seems to be good humored and self-deprecating enough to not come off like an asshole. The band was very good, they were obviously all old pros.
I make it point to go to this venue every year because of the consistent quality of the acts I've seen here.
I caught the last song of the set of this very talented Irish act. My only complaint is that I wished I had not dallied along the way, so that I could have heard more
Another highlight of the festival. They are a pair of brothers (?) from Australia, who had a mercenary rhythm section composed of a bass player and drummer from the Austin bands, Wideawake and Vast.
To me, these guys sound reminiscent of Tonic and you could tell that they had the little something extra. They had the crowd in the palms of their hands before coming out and doing one number standing on two chairs, in the middle of the crowd. I think these guys will be stars some day. Kudos to them for handing out download cards of their music.
I caught the first 4 songs of this talented band from Tulsa, OK. I felt sorry for these guys because they had to follow the Kin.
After an extra long setup, Somi managed to do one song. Things quickly derailed by PA/sound problems. After waiting 20 minutes, I left.
This was the last act I saw of the night. Leni is a NY based guitarist, who is married to Mike Stern, another famed guitarist. She was part of a 4 piece band, with her self, an Upright Bassist, Drums, and Bazuki player (who also had Tablas and other percussive nick-knacks)
The music was sort of new age mishmash of Persian/Middle Eastern sounds with a light Jazz twist. In general though, I find her playing a bit understated.
Needing sleep, I headed home a little early.
I managed a fairly early start to the first day of the music segment of SxSW. Of course, the most interesting panels are always the first couple of days.
This was an entertaining panel of Club Owners and Bookers giving their collective horror stories. Nothing surprising here really, and I noticed that the group was predominantly people from the Chicago area. I wish there had been a few Texans on this panel, although I guess there were some universal aspects to what was being said on this panel.
A fantastic panel involving one artist, Rachael Sage (who I had seen at SxSW several years ago), along with Panos Panay (CEO Sonic Bids), Jeff Price (CEO Tunecore), and Derek Sivers (of CD Baby Fame). Jeff and Derek are fountains of information, and seem to really care about their fellow artists. Like Martin's panel later, repeated attendance may be required to catch the gems presented.
A very interesting session with legendary Mastering Engineer, Bob Ludwig. This talk worked on several levels, and was very engaging because he spent considerable time A-B'ing mixes off of his laptop. The whole talk got of to a good start when he chose Frank Zappa's, Dumb All Over, the first listening.
This session was also fun because I ran into old friend, Scott Hull. I recorded a 4 song demo project over in Scott's parent's garage in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1985. He's now one of the giants in the NYC Mastering scene. Scott informed me that he had bought Masterdisk this past year.
This was essentially a repeat of Martin's talk from last year. Regardless, repetition is needed to fully absorb the jewels that Martin leaves on the table. He is truly a champion for the DIY crowd.
I started out the night at the Copa on Congress. I had never been in this club prior to tonight. It apparently is a Latin, Salsa Dansing club having a fairly large dance floor and a stage big enough to hold an 8 or 9 piece band.
A very good local Latin dance band. The dance floor was packed, I'm sure Little Steven would have approved, given what he said during his talk.
The Czars were the main reason I went to this venue. Helping to support my good friend, Josh Robbins, from AMF. Their set was good, but the sound suffered because their Keyboard player is out of commission for a while.
A local Dub band. I listened to the first 3 songs, but was not really that engaged with their material, so I ventured onwards.
I walked up the street to Austin's main Jazz Club, the Elephant Room. There was a local big band with about 14 members. I was impressed that they managed to fit into such a small space. I enjoyed to a degree, however, my preference has always been for my improvisational, small Jazz combos over Big Bands. There is however, a certain sonic strength to Big Bands that you have to like.
I stopped in here to hopefully hear some of the new material from Del Castillo's new album to be released, next month. I believe that I heard two new cuts. As always, they killed. I noticed several people with out of town badges, who appeared to be impressed.
I trekked down to LZR just to see what was going on. Was very disappointed to see button pusher/DJ called Deadmau5. Given the size of some of the temporary venues in town during SxSW, why would you sacrifice a good large stage?
This was the first time I had ever been in this venue either. There was band named Wild Moccasins from Houston. I listened to one song and wondered how the hell they got accepted for a showcase.
