photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Damien Jurado

Twin Shadow

Catching up a bit. Here's what Dominick saw in Austin on Thursday, March 17, 2011 (St. Patrick's Day)...

Continue reading "SXSW 2011 Day 2 pics"

DOWNLOAD: Sweet Apple - Do You Remember (MP3)

Thurston w/ Sonic Youth @ MHOW in November (more by Lori Baily)

Society's Ills: In 1994 Society's Ills (Moore, Cadena, Watt, Markey) made their world premier with the now coveted "Skins, Brains, and Guts" release - a slab that managed to cram (9) 7 seconds covers onto one 7". In 2010, the band is back and once again fronted by Thurston but he brings with him a new crue of slayers to launch the hardcore fury:

Thurston Moore: Vocals
J Mascis: Guitar
Don Fleming: Guitar [SY producer & Velvet Monkeys/Gumball frontman]
Andrew W.K.: Bass
Awesome Allison: Drums [from Awesome Color]

This set is their first, but don't worry if you miss it cause I'm sure we can put this together again in another 15 years! [Ecstatic Peace]

Society's Ills play in addition to Thurston Moore solo, Talk Normal, The Entrance Band, Violent Soho, the Slits' Viv Albertine, Awesome Color, Jemina Pearl and more at the Ecstatic Peace SXSW Showcase happening Friday, March 19th at Red 7 in Austin. Curious about Society's Ills? Their version of 7 Seconds' "I Hate Sports" is below.

J Mascis will also be playing at SXSW with Sweet Apple, who are playing Mercury Lounge on April 20th. One of their SXSW sets will be at the showcase for TeePee Records, who are putting out the Sweet Apple debut, Love & Desperation, a track from which is above. That show is Thursday, March 18th at Habana Calle 6, and also on the bill are Priestess, Iron Age, Nebula, Naam, Imaad Wasif and more. Full details and a poster are below. Tee Pee Records has also teamed up with BrooklynVegan and Chronic Youth for another day party taking place on Saturday, March 20th in Austin. This is the first we've mentioned it. Stay tuned for more info.

Lou Barlow will also be at SXSW (backed again by The Missingmen) - one of his shows will be the Merge Records showcase at Cedar Street Courtyard on March 18th also featuring Let's Wrestle, She & Him, and others. Full lineup below. For She & Him it's one of two official SXSW shows. They also play Saturday night (March 20th) at Auditorium Shores (with Justin Townes Earle & TBA). Cheap Trick play the same slot at Auditorium Shores one night earlier.

Merge's showcase mentions that one slot will be filled by "Special Guest". We don't know who that is, but we'd have to guess Superchunk is a strong possibility since Mac & Laura have a speaking engagement (in a bookstore) on March 17th, and another one (official SXSW) at the convention center on March 19th (with Michael Azerrad), and the band is on the bill of the Village Voice day party happening at La Zona Rosa the afternoon of March 19th (with the xx, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Surfer Blood). It's definitely not Spoon who play the NPR show at Stubb's on March 17th with Deerhunter (their tour-mates) and The Walkmen.

Society's Ills Bassist Andrew W.K. will also be performing separately (and speaking) at SXSW (and at MtyMx in Mexico).

Kim and Thurston are playing with the Plastic Ono Band in their two-night Brooklyn Academy of Music run. They were at the dress rehearsal (aka the first night) last night (2/16). BV photographer Greg Cristman was in the audience and told us, "One definite highlight was Thurston and Kim played with Yoko as a trio and did a killer version of Mulberry from Unfinished Music No. 2 while the film Fly was projected on a huge screen behind them!" - a (poor quality) video clip of one of the other songs is below.

Full lineups for the showcases and videos are below...

Continue reading "Thurston Moore (& Kim) rehearsed w/ Yoko @ BAM, recreating Society's Ills (w/ Mascis, WK), appearing @ SXSW (like She & Him, Merge Records, Tee Pee...) "

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

"What could have been a Texan spectacular for the last night of South By Southwest was a near-debacle instead. It was a double bill at the Auditorium Shores riverside amphitheater with Erykah Badu and the Cannabinoids, her digitally oriented producers from Dallas, and Explosions in the Sky, Austin's majestic instrumental rock band.

Thousands of people showed up for the free concert. The Cannabinoids started without Ms. Badu, dispensing drumbeats, chords, samples and brief phrases from small digital keyboards. They announced that all the beats were live -- good -- and that what they were playing was unrehearsed. Not so good. And they went on and on, for about a half hour, cycling through variations on two downtempo chords and asking if the crowd was ready for Ms. Badu. The answer was increasingly obvious by the time the Cannabinoids tapered off and someone announced that Ms. Badu had had "travel incidents."

The Cannabinoids left the stage while the audience wondered what was going on, then returned, soon to be joined by Ms. Badu, in a gray T-shirt and a white top hat. Their vamp turned into "The Healer/Hip-Hop," and Ms. Badu sang it with her tangy, playful coo, followed by an older song, "Danger." Afterward she teased, "Let's go into hyperspace and blow up the sky," which did sound promising. But it meant she was ending her set to make way for Explosions in the Sky." [NY Times]

We already posted the EITS portion of this set, as well as Jacob's pics from the Frodus show earlier that day (3/21), not to mention what he captured on Friday, Thursday and Wednesday.

Erykah Badu and the Cannabinoids also performed once or twice with Kanye West while in Austin. The rest of Jacob's Saturday pics, below...

Continue reading "SXSW 2009 - Day 4 in photos by Jacob"