Nothing like coming home to 150+ pieces of comment spam. Nosirreebob. No, I did not update the last couple of posts to be more informative or useful. Nor will I, sorry. If you want my SxSW recap, come back in a few days, I will try to coalesce my thoughts into something coherent. I had honestly thought it was going to be easier to update from the road, but not so. I was only gone four days but I have much to do to get my life back in order. My place is a mess. I have no food. I’m an episode behind on Arrested Development. Chaos reigns.

I do have my photos from Thursday up here – there’s not that many of them, I didn’t get shutter-happy until Friday, but there’s shots from most of the day showcases I attended. In order – Wrens at Emo’s Outside, Stars at Emo’s Outisde, Shout Out Louds at Cedar Street Courtyard, Midnight Movies at Emo’s and American Analog Set at Emo’s Outside. Yes, I was at Emo’s a helluva lot.

In the meantime, if you want SxSW scuttlebutt, check out Billboard (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3), Splendid, PopMatters (Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4), or for a Canadian perspective, Chart (Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4) or Pop (All Love). Or for pics, check out Flickr (via BrooklynVegan. Largehearted Boy, who made a special one-day limited engagement appearance at SxSW, has also been collecting a variety of Sx-related links over the last few days. Check out the Shorties from Wednesday or so through today.

More SxSW residuals – Billboard recaps Elvis Costello’s career-reflecting interview at this year’s conference.

I noticed in all the SxSW editions of The Austin Chronicle full page ads inviting the reader to go to Lollapalooza.com on April 1. I’m sorry, how stupid do they think we are? Hey, maybe they’ll get The Who to headline and they can play, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. Dumbasses.

I think I will sepia-tone every picture from now on. I like it.

np – The House Of Love / Days Run Away

okay, I’m writing this from Austin airport, but it’ll be short since it’s not cheap and it’s on dialup. I got to the airport muy early cause I figured everyone and their mother would be fleeing Austin today, but it’s actually quite empty here. I have a few hours to kill yet.

The adrenaline that had kept me going all weekend is now completely gone. I ache, I’m tired, my feet me with a fiery passion. But it was worth it, Saturday was fairly light, relatively speaking, but saw some really good stuff. Just a laundry list for now, I’ll expand later. Saw Laura Cantrell, Doves, the Flatstock concert poster show, The Meeting Places, The Winter Pageant, Stars, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness and Ambulance Ltd. Good stuff all around, but honestly I’m glad it’s done. I need some serious rest.

Expect posting to be erratic for the next few days as I get my head together again. loads of pictures that will be coming in installments. I don’t expect to get it all together until the long weekend, probably. But you understand, you’re patient. I appreciate that.

Okay, the little clock in the corner continues to march away so I’m goign to log off. Maybe I’ll add to this later if I’m bored, but probably not till tomorrow. Or tonight. Or whenever.

Seeya.

np – boarding call for all passengers on American flight 3563 to La Guardia

So I’m writing this one Friday evening, just before the showcases get started. I’m not sure I’ll reach a computer tomorrow, so I’m going to write up today’s day shows and set it to publish sometime tomorrow, then update it with the evening shows when I get a chance.

So starters – hung around downtown Austin for a little while in the AM just enjoying the relaxed time while it lasts. Caught a bus out to Waterloo Music and did a little shopping. Impressive store, but a rather disappointingly small used section. Still, came away with a few things, then hoofed it back to Emo’s (yeah, there again) to catch some of the day shows. They were running behind schedule because I got there just in time to see New York’s Asobi Seksu but caught about 20 minutes of a set from Sutro, out of San Francisco. Not very interesting, but I felt bad for them – it’s hard to pull off the sexy diva/vamp thing when it’s high noon and there’s no one in the audience. Asobi Seksu then came on and played a pretty good set – not overwhelming, but I enjoyed it. I couldn’t stay to the very end as the Experimental Aircraft show was a ways outside of downtown and there were going to be buses involved. Good thing they were all running on time and I made it to Trophy’s in time to see most of their set. The tunes were alright but they were rather deficient in the stage presence department. Maybe playing on an outdoor stage with their backs to a major street bustling with traffic messes up the vibe?

And then back on the bus and back up to Emo’s. En route, I passed no other than Willie Nelson walking down 6th. Neato. I was planning on catching Calexico, but they were running a little behind so I caught the last couple songs of the Frames’ set. They were entertaining if a little hammy in the stage antics. I guess being used to playing stadiums in Ireland will do that to a band. Calexico took a good while setting up, not surprising for a seven-piece band, but when they finally got started, they were amazing as always. They’re always a treat to see perform. If they had been running on time, I had planned to head out early and try and catch Phoenix at the Filter party, but decided to not bother and stuck around for most of Calexico’s set. Turns out it was for the best since when I did get to the Cedar Street Courtyard, I found out that Phoenix cancelled their slot due to sickness. I still managed to get in and get a front-row seat for the Kaiser Chiefs, my one hype-band performance of the fest so far. I had been underwhelmed by the mp3s I’d heard, but their live show was pretty good. The singer was nursing a sprained ankle of some kind, but was still hopping around like a madman. The crowd was absolutely eating them up, too – I’d never seen that many cameras come out of the front row before. I got some good shots too, hooray for outdoor daylight shooting!

That did it for the day shows, and not a minute too soon as my feet hurt something awful and I was walking funny. I did drag my sorry ass over to Stubb’s and got some beef brisket for dinner. Mmm, good eatin’. And now I’m here. I’m not sure what the itinerary for the evening will be, there’s a few options but the only shows that are must-sees for me are Saturday Looks Good To Me at midnight and Centro-Matic at 1. What I do between now and then is anybody’s guess… but of course, by the time you read this, I will have already made up my mind.

Right. Off I go, I will post part 2 to this tomorrow or Sunday.

Okay, found an internet cafe, so let’s do this.

I am amazed at my resiliancy when it’s absolutely necessary. Yesterday was something else – up at 3AM EST, got into Austin around noon local time. In the interim, I took a taxi, a bus, a shuttle bus, a plane, another plane, a taxi, a bus and yet another bus and was at Emo’s in time to catch the end of the Wrens’ set. Right on schedule! Quite a trip, in every sense of the word. But to fast-forward a bit, I was basically up for twenty-four hours straight, with very little napping on the plane. It was like if Jack Bauer had an incredibly non-violent, music-filled day.

Rewind. So yeah, caught the Wrens, met Juan from Achtung Baby!, met up with Joyce and Fred who were so kind as to get me a wristband for the fest, then saw Stars perform. They had some techincal problems to start – I have yet to see them perform “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” without some sort of tech issue – but they were still quite good and the crowd ate them up. Canadians rule – I actually caught a lot of CanCon yesterday, as you’ll see. I dashed out of there early to make it to the Filter party on the other side of downtown where I was hoping to flaunt my guest list-ness, but they didn’t check. Alas. Double disappointing was the fact that Rob Dickinson wasn’t playing as scheduled. In fact, he wasn’t even at the festival. Instead, they had Sweden’s Shout Out Louds play and I stuck around for a few songs. They were alright, but I was getting restless and dashed out.

Back to Emo’s. I caught the end of Pedro The Lion’s set, and listened to some of Clem Snide across the street outdoors. Next full set was LA’s Midnight Movies, again at Emo’s (though the inside stage). Hot girl drummer/singers = thumbs up. Then back to the Emo’s outdoor stage to see Austin’s own American Analog Set perform a nice set including some new songs from a newly-recorded album, hopefully out this year sometime. That was it for day shows and I figured to dash back to the hotel to unload some baggage and regroup for the night.

However, while Austin transit had done me pretty well thus far, it let me down now. My hotel was considerably further out of downtown than I’d really expected so getting back and forth was a bit of a problem. Mainly, I wanted to drop off my camera as the sternly worded signs at all the SxSW venues seemed pretty firm about the no cameras policy. Of course, as I saw that night, it wasn’t enforced at all so there’ll be no more going back to the hotel to be a good boy. I’m a-smuggling tonight and tomorrow. But back to the hotel, I finally got back and into downtown just in time for the evening shows to start, but there wasn’t any time for resting. Or eating, as you may have noticed. I hadn’t eaten hardly anything yet.

So night shows I started off by seeing Toronto’s own Aaron Booth play at Sake On Sixth at the all-Canuck Endearing/Boompa showcase. He played a nice solo acoustic set to a small but appreciative audience. I got to talk to him for a little bit before heading back out into the night. Downtown was chaos by this point, streets closed off, etc. I elected to hit the Blender Bar to see Ulrich Schnauss, though I will be seeing him in a month with M83, I was curious as to what it’d be like. In a nutshell, dude sitting at a laptop, pointing and clicking. Not very engaging at all, to be honest. I stuck around for a couple songs and ditched to grab a slice of pizza. Next was the Co-Op Bar to see Brooklyn’s Dirty On Purpose. I arrived early and saw a bit of Bloom, who were fairly unremarkable rawk, but DOP impressed enough to get me to buy a CD although the sound was kinda dodgy. I guess it’s unavoidable when you’ve got 15 minutes to set up and tear down, never mind a soundcheck.

Next was across the street to The Drink to see Denmark’s EPO-555, who reminded me a bit of The Radio Dept’s older jockier brother. Still unmistakably Scandanavian pop, but with more cajones (as the locals say). Pretty good stuff. I then tried to get in to see Kathleen Edwards at Carribean Lights, but the lineup was pretty long and daunting, and after a few minutes I decided it wasn’t going to happen and ditched to go see Austin’s Experimental Aircraft over at the Hideout. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the times right and they were playing at 1AM, not midnight. So I got there and another local act, Halley. Thankfully, the venue was a theatre set up with padded seats so I grabbed one and rested up for a bit. The band was alright, if unremarkable. Most notable were a couple of identical twins in the band who were really creeping me out once I realized that they did indeed look identical. Mind you, I was probably mildly hallucinatory by this point, so don’t hold that against the band.

Finally, I head back across downtown to where it all began, Sake On Sixth, to see the end of Run Chico Run’s set and then enjoy Vancouver’s Salteens power pop the night away. They’re always fun, and I think they made quite a good impression, drawing in passers-by off the street. They wrapped up just before 2 and though it took me a little while to catch a cab, I was back at the hotel and asleep by 2:30. GAWD what a day.

But I’m feeling much better now (to go back to the resliency thing). Seven hours of sleep and some coffee can do wonders for a body. Having taken a day to get a feel for the town, the transit, the festival, etc, I think I’m in much better shape to take on today. I know how long it takes to get around, where I’m going, and I’ll even make time to eat! Yessir, good times.

As for now, day shows don’t start up for another hour or so so I’m going to just wander a bit. I had a Denny’s breakfast to start things off and I really need to walk that off. Holy shit, the portion sizes in this country. Madness.

I *think* that’s it for now. Will try and check in tomorrow. Finding internet cafes in this town isn’t easy! At least not from where I’ve been looking.

np – There is a guy playing a jazzy acoustic version of Hall & Oates’ “Maneater” in the cafe as I type this. What a town.

Okay, it’s waaaay too goddamn early in the morning. I am guesstimating that I will be up for… 22-23 hours today if I don’t get some sleep on the plane. Which I most certainly will.

I am all packed, travelling light. Gone over my SxSW schedule but am totally prepared to toss most of it out the window if someone convinces me there’s something worth seeing that I haven’t heard about. There’s really no point in travelling 1300 km to see acts that I can and will see at home. This is all about the new, baby. Not necessarily the hyped, but the new. And to that end, I spent last night doing some last-minute mp3 previews, checking out stuff that’s playing at soft spots in the schedule. Indecision, baby.

I will be trying to do some token blogging from Austin while I’m down there, but seeing as how I’m probably the only dude down there without a laptop or wi-fi or any other such hi-tech gubbinry, we’ll have to see about that. Filter is blogging the festival though, so go there for your fix.

If anyone reading this is going to be at the festival and spot me, say hello. And direct me to free food. I don’t have a cellphone or anything with which you could contact me, but if you spot an Asian guy with a Canadjun accent being hauled off by the Austin police, I’d appreciate you posting bail for me. I’m good for it.

…But in the meantime…

Remember how the other day I was wondering who the hell Matthew Vaughn, director of X-Men 3 was? Well The Beat was wondering the same thing. Short answer? He’s Mr Claudia Schiffer. That’s a load off my mind, since he’s obviously someone who can relate to his comic book geekboy audience. Since we’re all married to supermodels as well.

Brooklynvegan proves up to the task of raiding the KVRX vaults and offers up what he considers to be the best of the booty. Booty, in the old pirate sense of the word, not in the Beyonce sense.

Openers for the three-night Arcade Fire stand at the Danforth Music Hall at the end of April will be Wolf Parade and Final Fantasy. Aaah, the buzz! It’s deafening!

…And we’re off.