Hi again... I'm back. I've missed you. A lot has happened since I last wrote. Lots of life changes. I moved from Austin, TX to Atlanta, GA... big change. Luckily, I left Austin with a bang and got to enjoy SXSW 1 more time as an Austinite.
This years festival was like no other from years past... so many people, more free shows than official ones, and too many rowdy drunks for that city. I think I did it right though and posted up at a few places rather than run around to different venues and try to make every show that I wanted to see.
I didn't see as much as I should have, but that's ok. The beauty of music festivals is, you'll see the bands you missed another time. So I have a few festival favorites, and here they are
-Atlas Sound: (a.k.a Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, a.k.a. my music idol). This show was unbelievable... I walked away feeling like a better person after seeing first hand Braddy work his magic on stage. Every time I listen to him I always wonder how that dude can create such magical harmonies and beats. Atlas Sound is completely different than Deerhunter, but in a good way. It's Bradford at his best, by himself with just a guitar, some weird foot petal thing, and a harmonica. This show really gave me a sense of how he creates his music. Several times during this set he would stand up (while the back beats were going), run off to the drums in the back of the stage (which weren't even his), and just start banging on them. UGH... I could really go on forever about him, but I should stop.
-Small Black: These guys are GREAT! Dance/chill wave music by definition. Prior to seeing them live I wondered how they could perform live... like did they use real instruments or was the band like Washed Out, a guy with his computer singing. Well Small Black was a band, with lots of impressive instruments and they put on a great show. You could tell they were having fun.
-Summer Camp: One of my fav radio bloggers, Gorilla vs Bear, was having a SXSW day party and Summer Camp was there. I heard this band a few months ago on blog radio and really hadn't heard anything like them before. It's hard to describe their sound... Dance/poppy with soul. The band is just a girl singing and playing some weird keyboard and a guy with a guitar. The girl has an incredible voice and they sound even better live. They are awesome and if you don't have their stuff, GET IT.
The Soft Moon: I can't get enough of new wave and it makes me happy when bands these days do it right... and The Soft Moon is one of those bands. There music is complex, instrumental, and they really get it. You can definitely tell they were influenced by Joy Division and I can't help but get lost in the beats when I listen to them. I'm so glad I got to see them at the Gorilla vs Bear party because I would have been disappointed in myself if I didn't. I have to say I wasn't expecting these guys to look the way they did... a bit older than you'd expect for a band that is just now starting out, but it makes perfect sense given their sound. In any case, they were great and I can't get enough of their sound. It's dark, industrial, and chaotic.
Even though I didn't see as many bands this year, the shows I saw were great and the goods shows I was able to get close enough to the stage to see, which is important. Now that I'm not in Austin all I can think about is the next band I get to see live. And I can't wait!
