The 2008 version of Ozzfest has them abandoning the touring festival format for a one day event in Dallas, TX with Metallica and Ozzy headlining. I guess that Ozzfest for free last year didn't work out so well.
Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg quit his keyboarding spot in Okkervil River to focus on Shearwater full time.
SXSW Bands are invading my Ipod and CD players now that I am back. There are so many to look into, but a few albums from the bands I managed to catch have stood out as some of the best of 2008 so far:
Kaki King
Originally from Atlanta, Kaki King is singer/songwriter/guitar player Katherine Elizabeth King. Her guitar work is an interesting style that is very percussive using slaps and taps. Her newest album, Dreaming Of Revenge, has been in my heaviest of rotations since catching her in Austin. It is about half instrumental ethereal post-rocky stuff, half fascinating and alluring pop songs. This release seems to be a little under the radar right now in hype-land, but it is too good to stay that way for long:
While doing my 2007 year end research and digging, Plants And Animal's With/Avec EP was one of the best discoveries I came across. One of the things I love about this band is they attempt to make each and every song a monumental event. Their debut LP, Parc Avenue, takes everything great about their short release and expands it on this tremendous album.
Since everyone on the Internet has rightfully fallen for this album and sung its praises for ages now, I won't go on a tirade about, but just make sure to check it out if you haven't because it lives up to the hype:
Yesterday I started my day at Emo's, but it was so crowded and I wasn't really digging the bands I heard so, I dipped out across the street to the Brooklyn Vegan party at Emo's Annex (there are about 700 different Emo's venues) because the BV party the night before was so much fun. I caught a band called WHY? that was pretty good.
After that, I decided to just walk up and down the main strip and listen to the music coming from each bar and try to discover some bands I hadn't heard of. Outside some Irish pub I heard a really intriguing band, so I went inside to check them out. It was a band from Dublin, Ireland called Delorentos. They were total dance-rock, like Bloc Party before they started getting all soft and lame. I got a live video, but Google video is acting hella lame today, so I can't post the plethora of vids i took yesterday until a later date. But I did manage to find their official video(although I don't think it is their best song):
After some more walking around I heard another band that sounded promising from a dive called Agave. The Brooklyn, New York trio Appomattox rocked really hard, doing loud post-punky rock.
After that it was time to head back to the Annex, where I caught Men, members of Le Tigre doing the laptop DJ thing. The day before, me and Biggie C were discussing this new trend where bands go DJ and how most of the time they aren't that good at it, but this was an exception as they rocked the dance floor hard.
After that, it was time for Phosphorescent, one of the artists I was most excited about seeing at SXSW. He put on a great performance, doing much heavier versions of his stuff than I would have guessed considering how soft and low-key the album is.
Near the end of the show, I noticed Matthew Houck kept looking at someone in the crowd and cracking up laughing. I finally heard someone screaming stuff at him and turned around. It turned out to be Miles Seaton of Akron/Family acting like he was an obsessed fan. For the Phosphorescent finale, he came down into the audience and sang to the Akron/Family boys:
After that, we stuck around and caught Holy Fuck. I'm not much of a dancer and these days it takes something really special to get me to throw down, but Holy Fuck is just the perfect combination of dance music and noise for me to get really into it. You ATLiens who will be around town on Monday really need to go down to The Drunken Unicorn and catch them playing with A Place To Bury Strangers and Atlanta's badasses All The Saints.
After a short break in the onslaught of great shows, I went and caught Islands. They played almost nothing but new material, and it sounds great. I took a ton of videos, so expect those to show up here sometime in the next few weeks.
After that, it was on to Mohawk's patio to catch one of then night's best line-ups. I got there just in time to catch the end of another Phosphorescent set, where he closed with a 10 minute vocal looping jam. After that, I discovered another great act from California called Bodies Of Water. Really cool stuff with lots of vocal harmonizations. They will be at The Earl Monday night with Sons And Daughters so there is another hot Atlanta St. Patty's Day show you can catch.
Then it was time for Evangelicals. I have been in total love with their new album, so I had been really hyped up for this show. They did not disappoint. They came out with massive blacklights and a fog machine, dressed in a style that was half goth, half candy-raver, and went through songs off the new record. Again, expect many live videos to pop up around here in the near future.
Next up on the outdoor stage was Bon Iver. They went through a handful of the beautiful songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, and wow did they sound good. If you have yet to pick up this album, you are missing out.
After that, we switched up things entirely by seeing Indian Jewelry. I would describe their sound as Liars meets Atlanta's Subliminator. It was a spectacle of strobe lights and minimalist percussionists that were there more to dance than to make music. Very interesting show.
We closed out the night at Emo's Outside stage. I got there just in time for the end of Islands' set, but this time they closed with the amazing "Swans (Life After Death)". Unfortunately, the one dark moment of the entire festival came as some sound guy walked out on stage with a few minutes left in the song right and the PA shut off. They actually cut off their last song. Nick Thorburn found a microphone that was still hooked into the PA and yelled "Fuck SXSW!" Everyone started booing, it was a crazy scene.
After that debacle, We ended our night with an awesome set from Austin's The Octopus Project.
It's on to more music, so I'll holla at you later.
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