Man my south by coverage suuuuuuucked.
Sorry about that to anyone who actually cared. The only time I could write anything was once I made it back to my hotel room, and by that time I had been day-drinking for 10 hours, my feet planed flat by lugging around a 60 pound camera bag all day long. To recap, here is a list of the non-work bands I (think I) saw at South By Southwest this year in Austin.
Thursday:
Collections of Colonies of Bees – awesome
jj – needs to do more than just sing over her ipod
SALEM – WHAT?
Holy Fuck – fucking amazing. Most bands should just consult these guys before becoming bands.
Glitch Mob (!) – always great to see edIT doing his “conducting the crowd” dance.
Friday:
Metric – pretty great. gorgeous lead singer, sounded so much better than the first time I saw them.
MUSE – thanks to the almighty Miles for that one
Tobacco – At the Anticon showcase, with all the requisite weirdness. Sounded like if Glitch Mob made beats for Sole or something…the people I was with didn’t really like it.
The Very Best – Who were…the very best, even though I had diabetes and the shakes by then.
Saturday:
Fucked Up – Dude never wears a shirt, and thats cool.
Andrew WK – For the first time since Drew and I saw him at The Quest a billion years ago. He was just as amazing as ever, opening up for Gwar, who I didn’t get to stick around for as it was freezing. Best thing I saw the whole time though.
Vivi Brown – By accident. She was playing the Perez Hilton party, which I somehow, for some reason ended up at, wearing an artist badge. I left after 20 minutes to watch some comedy. She was actually really impressive though. Kind of a swing/soul/gnarls barkley type of vibe.
Black Cobra – Metal!! Even if I only got to see one metal band, I was glad it was those guys, who I had never heard of. Kind of an updated thrash sound…I think… all I could really hear was Lone Star sloshing around my brain at that point. I also ran into MetalSucks Ben for a minute, who is the fucking man. He introduced me to a friend of his who worked at Relapse Records, which is where 15 year old me has wanted to work his entire life. 15 year old me hates 27 year old me.
DJ Quik – Second best thing I saw. He brought out Bone Thugs to do a few songs, which was even more amazing. Bizzie was conspicuously absent, probably somewhere knife-fighting with the public school system or something.
So yeah, all that happened. I spent my entire time in Austin drunk and eating mexican food, bratwurst, hot dogs, barbecue, basically whatever was in front of my face. I almost shit my pants 3 times. Thats 3 times more than my lifetime average. I spent my mornings shooting our bands, and my nights running around like a fool trying to cram as much music in as possible. My feet have never hurt more in my entire life. I’ve never been offered more swag in my entire life. Most every drink or meal was free thanks to the same people who gave out the swag. Swag littered the streets – by Saturday there were cases of energy drinks and CD samplers strewn all over the streets. Our bands are great. Its fantastic to hang out with the new bands who still appreciate their position and don’t take it for granted. I spent a ton of money at Flatstock, the big poster convention there, and at Third Man Records, the store set up by Jack White of the White Stripes. Every dollar I spent there was spent on something great and extremely limited. I tried for three days to get a bacon bloody mary, only to be thwarted by high demand and diminishing supply. When I finally tasted it, there was no bacon-infused vodka and my body was violently rejecting alcohol, so it was underwhelming. I ached when I went to bed, and ached when I woke up. Chairs were sacred spaces and I would have shanked someone for a seat on more than one occasion.
It was awesome. I hope I can go back next year.
I’m in LA now, working out of our offices in Beverly Hills. Its great to be working again, maintaining some normalcy. After this I’m going to Vegas.