When you hear about SXSW, or even when you’re going and trying to plan your schedule, it feels like forever, since you have to plan to be awake for 76 hours over the 4 days. But when you’re actually there the time flies by so quickly and by the time you get to Friday it’s like, “Hold on, this is halfway over!”.



FRIDAY

MUMFORD AND SONS @ FLAMINGO CANTINA

So for our Friday, we had the earliest morning of any of the days – having to be at Flamingo Cantina at 12pm to see Mumford and Sons.  I know its kind of ridiculous to claim that having a day start at 12pm is early, but when you’re on 4 hours of sleep and two days without a meal, it is.

But anyway, Mumford and Sons. What more can I say about them? They’re great. This was probably the best performance I saw of theirs. It was some big party that Camera Obscura were playing later in the day but Mumford did draw a fair crowd.

Flamingo Cantina might be my new favourite place to see a gig. There’s an amazing wall mural, the stage is tiny and there is lots of sitting room, even like, directly to the right of the stage, so we were able to enjoy Mumford and Sons so relaxed.

They played the same set that they had been playing during their other SXSW gigs, but they were on fire today. They played “Little Lion Man” and “Timshel” and “The Cave” all of which are incredibly melodic and catchy.

They played a really, really short set because of time constraints, but we were glad because we had to get in the car and drive over to a Pizzeria.

WEREWOLVES @ RED HOUSE PIZZERIA

Now by the time we got to Red House Pizzeria, we realized we were way too early for Jay Jay Pistolet but we were able to see this young band from NY called Werewolves.

They had a lot of members, 4 or 5, if I remember correctly, and I probably don’t. They were an awesome little band, who worked really well in the warm Austin sunshine, even if their name would suggest otherwise. Their music was pretty upbeat and poppy, and rhythmically driven. The sound quality at the pizzeria wasn’t the greatest, because OK, it’s a pizza place not a venue – but they were pretty good. I look forward to hearing what they do in the future as they’re quite a young band. Their parting words were “Our myspace is www.myspace.com/amsterdam. Because we like to smoke weed”. Hmm, annoying AND endearing at the same time.

JAY JAY PISTOLET @ RED HOUSE PIZZERIA

Prompt as ever, Jay Jay Pistolet came on looking rather nervous to be alone and out of the comfort of 6th street. However, he put on an amazing show. As I mentioned before, it was an incredibly beautiful, warm day in Austin and even though his throat was sore, Jay Jay put on a lovely show.

He played the same couple of songs that he played at every SXSW show that I saw: the sublime “Happy Birthday You”; the melancholic “Hooked Up On Us”; and the tender “Always on my Way Back Home”. Ever the gentleman, Justin gracefully stopped his set a little early to allow Red House Pizzeria to get back on schedule and so he could make his radio session.

Justin has currently got a single “We are Free” out and he’s also got an EP called “Happy Birthday You – EP”, both of which are available in the UK and the US via iTunes. Justin has got some real lyrical talent – his rhymes seem natural and elegant, and his sense of melody is always spot on – and I won’t even mention his voice (again). I highly recommend checking him out.

JAY JAY PISTOLET @ NOKIA SESSION

Having made friends with Justin’s manager, who I might add is also in a brilliant one man band called ‘Beans on Toast’, we offered to give them a ride to wherever they happened to be going to next as we felt bad that they had to take cabs everywhere. So we drove them to this church that had been renovated into a home studio.

Justin had been brought in to do what he kept referring to as a “Nokia Session” and while I believe him, I’ve not been able to view/hear hide nor hair of this session just yet. The place was really nice – had an open kitchen and a little patio, and the studio was at the bottom of a huge stairwell that forked up into the second story of the house. We were lucky enough to get to sit on the stairs (as quiet as mice) as Justin recorded three songs.

Yes, they were the same three he’d been playing at every SXSW performance that I’d seen but I honestly wasn’t even sick of them. Each performance had some subtle nuance that made the songs sound fresh and exciting. I love Justin’s songs on the recordings when they are fleshed out, but they are really special when it’s just him and an acoustic guitar. It was a wonderful session to sit in on and I really do hope that I find it some day because each song was so wonderful and clear.

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES @ EMO’S MAIN ROOM, PITCHFORK VS WINDISH AGENCY PARTY

After Jay Jay’s set at the church, we hustled back to 6th street and practically jumped out of a moving car to make it over to Emo’s for the Pitchfork vs. Windish Agency party. We were forced to wait a few minutes because the place was packed with people. To be fair, it was the Pitchfork Party so all these bands were either buzz bands or hipster favourites.

We were hardly able to see King Khan and the Shrines because of how insanely packed the place was. They were, of course, amazing, thrilling the crowd with their unique brand of erotic psychedelic soul music.

I doubt you remember but two days ago, I mentioned we hadn’t eaten for ages and how tough it was to carry on through the hunger. Now at this point, which was 4pm on the Friday, we still hadn’t had a warm meal. And so as soon as King Khan and all the Shrines were off stage we rushed out of there to get our first and only warm meal of SXSW at the quaint although fairly expensive Old Pecan St. Café. Highly recommended if you have any hours to kill.

HEY NEGRITA @ FRIENDS, JAIL GUITAR DOORS

After King Khan and our magically filling meal, we decided to kill some time and walk to the river and back before heading into Friends for the Jail Guard Door showcase. We were there originally to see Beans on Toast and head over to Dananananaykroyd who were playing the Scottish showcase at La Zona Rosa. However, like SXSW has a habit of doing – our plans were wrecked due to scheduling.

However, we did get to see a little English country blues band called Hey Negrita. Apparently, they were named after the Rolling Stones. I was impressed because they had a guy playing stand-up bass which I, for one, think needs to be brought back into more live showings. Hey Negrita were exactly what they say they are: a country blues band. They gave a very pleasant, energetic performance, but I just wasn’t too terribly impressed with their sound, nor their songs. It was a little too Americana for my taste. Good but not great.

BEANS ON TOAST @ FRIENDS, JAIL GUITAR DOORS

Now this is a performance that was like three years in the making for me. I was incredibly excited about seeing Beans on Toast and we were up front, which unbeknown to me, was kind of an awkward place to stand. If you don’t know, Beans’ general setup is atop of a chair with the microphone stretched up as high as he is. And although Beans is not a very tall man - he's got an incredible presence about him - an air of mystery and wisdom.

It seemed like kind of a rushed show - especially since he went on quite late, and he proceeded to say that he was only allowed to play a couple of songs which I was not pleased to hear. However, he was able to charm his way into playing about 5. His whole ethos is just something that clicks with me. The man is witty, got a really good ear for rhyming - making it seem natural and flow properly, and his subjects - usually something controversial (global warming), or dealing with social problems (obesity), even topical songs (the smoking ban), or the fall back (drugs) all take on a new light and generally humour when Beans deals with them. He played "Coke" which has got the audience participation of everybody being tricked into raising their hands admitting they're, too, addicted to cocaine. He also played a wonderful song called "MDMAzing" about taking, duh, MDMA at a festival. He also played a political song about Barack Obama, and I forget the other one he did.

What I do remember is being completely in awe of him. His set was absolutely fantastic and I really do think it's an incredible shame that the man hasn't gotten an album out yet. He writes with such a fresh eye to situations that all of us are familiar with and has such a clear voice. Pretty much everything about Beans on Toast gets an A+ in my book. I was really sad that I wasn't able to see him on Saturday when he played a spur of the moment set at Stephen F's bar, but I am incredibly happy to have caught his set at Friends.

AMAZING BABY / JAPANESE MOTORS @ EMO'S MAIN ROOM

After the gloriousness that was Beans on Toast, we headed over to Emo's Main Room to wait for the most amazing/crazy double bill that is Black Lips and King Khan & The Shrines back to back. Not only are they both insane in their own right, but they are friends too which I happen to think is pretty appropriate. After Black Lips were forced to flee India this year, they went to Berlin and apparently formed a supergroup and wrote and recorded an album so definitely keep your eyes peeled for that.

But in the three hours we had to kill, we were forced to see two bands. The first was Amazing Baby. They were just OK. And that's really all I have to say about them. Before I even found out that they were friends with/opened for MGMT, all I could think was "Wow, this band really wants to be MGMT." But they aren't. In my humble opinion, that's really all you need to know. They weren't horrible, they didn't disgust me, they were just totally average.

After the mediocrity showing that was Amazing Baby, we got to see Japanese Motors. Apparently they're from Detroit, but they play LA all the time so I was kind of surprised my first show happened to be at SXSW. They were far better than Amazing Baby. But, at the same time, I wasn't impressed enough to take any photos or to remember any songs. They did have fun songs and some that stuck out a bit to me, but I think SXSW really has a way of forcing bands to let their true colours shine through and Japanese Motors were just a little better than OK.

BLACK LIPS @ EMO'S MAIN ROOM

This was pretty much the show that I was looking forward to so much since the exact minute Black Lips were announced. If you don't know this about me, Black Lips are one of my favourite bands - and definitely my favourite live band. I could go on and on and on and on about them, but I have a million times already so I won't. Also, the first time I ever saw them was in Austin at Emo's, so revisiting that was (I though) going to be amazing.

So they took a long time to set up, but when I know I'm going to experience greatness, I can pretty much wait for about 12 hours. So blah blah, Black Lips came on and then this other guy walks out, who I've literally never seen before in my life and grabs the mic and is like WOO! Now, I had no idea who this dude was and kind of was like, what? But from what I could glean at the time, it was a guy from Wu Tang Clan. Now, I know how much Black Lips like Wu Tang Clan, and they've even played WuTang for me and my friend, so we could tell that this probably was a little dream come true for them - so it was cool for the first 5 minutes. I mean, Black Lips playing backing band to GZA from WTC (although this was info I found out later) is not something you see on a daily basis.

So the first 5 minutes - cool by me. The last 15 minutes? Fucking excruciating! What the hell? This GZA was doing some of the most cracked out rapping I've heard - and from what I could tell by the looks on the Lips faces, they were just as confused as the crowd. Now, we were confused but some people were angry, in fact, the people behind me were shouting "FUCKING ASSHOLES!" and "Get off the stage!". The only two people behind me not yelling at Black Lips? King Khan and Har Mar Superstar. Oh yeah. By the time GZA left, I was dying of hunger and my feet were killing me, so I, too, was cranky. It was a trainwreck, to some a beautiful one, but a trainwreck nonetheless.

However, Black Lips can do no wrong in my book, so then we got a short as hell version of a real Lips gig - quick, a little arrogant, a little sloppy, but amazing nonetheless. They played just about 4 songs, I think it was "Sea of Blasphemy", "Drugs", one more off 200 Million Thousand and then "Bad Kids". Ian himself had to say, "We're tired of people saying they don't like rap music. How about people just like good music." And then he promised their next album would have some rap on it. Or something. Who knows. All I know, is I'm probably gonna like it.

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES @ EMO'S MAIN ROOM

King Khan and the Shrines have never been anything but absolutely on par and totally fantastic. In fact, I don't think I can even imagine an environment that would be too weird for King Khan or a place that he couldn't rock the hell out of. And Emo's Main Room was no different. They were even better this time than the Pitchfork Party they played earlier in the day.

This was basically our only show that began at 1, and I gotta say, I have never felt more exhausted but thank god for King Khan because when he went on - the whole room was just a crazy blur of, well, craziness. Unlike during most day parties, King Khan was in a total 70s throwback suit complete with bigger-than-bootleg, but smaller-than-flare pants.

They started with "Land of the Freak" as usual and proceeded to play mostly the same set as before, but after the first song, I noticed about 10 people / friends had snuck through the stage door and were bopping around accordingly. By the second song, like 15 people were now on stage (mind, that's in addition to the 8 people in the Shrines) including Cole Alexander, picking up any musical instrument they could find to play in time to the music and dance around. It was such an awesome collective of people enjoying the music and having fun.

After 3 or so songs, most of the people got off stage and let King Khan and his merry Shrines take over with their own craziness. Let me take this time to say that the first 5 people or so in the crowd, including myself and my friend, were going fairly wild and the rest of the crowd was really boring and while they seemed like they were enjoying it - their feet were totally still. What gives? I mean, you have King Khan belting the songs out and shimmying. You have Boomberella (or whatever) basically doing a strip-tease on stage (and as my friend said, "You can't tell me she has never stripped before"). You have the bassist jumping up on the amp, pulling his pants down and tucking everything back and wagging his tongue at the crowd. You have the keyboardist, attempting to pick his keyboard up and failing, having the keyboard practically slide into the audience. It was like sensory overload, everywhere you look something's happening. Which is the Brilliance of King Khan and the Shrines. After all the chaos, we went home and ate a sandwich and passed out and died.

SATURDAY

Friday was filled with lots of ups and downs and a fair amount of insanity. I was ready for Saturday to be a little more calm and a lot less standing. Of course, this was completely unrealistic. I've got to say, with the advantage of looking back, I wish I had gone to see more bands on the day. But, c'est la vie, right? Anyway, Saturday morning was really nice as our first show wasn't until about 145, so we actually got to get large coffees and even went as far as to eat breakfast.

MUMFORD AND SONS @ RED HOUSE PIZZERIA

So before heading over to Mumford and Sons at the Pizzeria, we picked up fellow travellers, Justin and Jay and trekked the 1+ mile over to the Pizzeria. Upon entering and realizing that it's just barely 1pm and they don't go on until like 2:30, we're all kind of like oh, great! But then Justin and Jay decided they wanted some good BBQ while they were in Austin, because, if you live in a cave/haven't heard, the BBQ in Austin is GREAT. I personally think Fort Worth BBQ is great, but hey, that's just me.

So we made it back to Red House for the first song by Mumford and Sons, which, of course, was lovely. Unfortunately then, after just one song, we decided to leave the Pizzeria and take Jay and Justin and ourselves to the Q Magazine Party which was being held that afternoon at the Parish. After dropping off the talent, we scurried to find a parking spot and run over to the parish to catch Justin who was supposed to go on at 3:30.

At 3:28, we were nestled into the growing crowd at the Parish, rum and coke in hand, waiting patiently for Justin go to on. We find out that he has just LEFT the stage. In the time (approx. 20 minutes) between dropping him off and finding parking and getting in - he went on, performed 3 songs, and left the stage. Basically, it was a major loss for us. However, Pete & The Pirates were about to go on next, which was great because we had nothing else to do that afternoon.

PETE & THE PIRATES @ THE PARISH, Q MAGAZINE PARTY

There's a couple things that I learned about Pete & The Pirates over the course of the Saturday afternoon. I will now share them.

1) They are fun to photograph. I took many photographs of them.
2) They are a really fun band, complete with super catchy riffs, bold vocals and intelligent lyrics.
3) Pete is the bassist. The lead singer is NOT Pete.
4) They are coming to America to tour very soon. [This could've been a lie, who knows]
5) They don't want anything to do with NME. I found this out even though I couldn't be less affiliated with NME. Don't forget this, ok?
6) They made a tour video of SXSW. I don't look forward to seeing this, though.

Overall, I really enjoyed them. I meant to see them many more times over the course of SXSW, but of course, I wasn't able to. I really enjoyed their set - so did the rest of the crowd. Everyone was bopping along and I've been giving their debut album "Little Death" quite a lot since returning from Austin.



LITTL’ANS @ THE RIO

When I heard Littl'ans were playing this years SXSW, I was pretty damn excited. I've been listening to the many projects of Andrew Aveling for some time now. White Sport - great! Solo Littl'ans "demos" - amazing! Their Way 7" - sublime! Primitive World (debut Littl'ans album) - just beyond! So the prospect of seeing them live was extremely exciting.

They had the early slow, starting at 8pm, and this was actually the only event they played during the entirety of SXSW. The Rio is an odd little venue because it's actually a restaurant and the stage area was like, a roped off area of the dining room with a minuscule little stage. At the start of the set, the carpet/dance floor was fairly empty. However, by the end of the set a good little crowd had formed, obviously they had overhead Littl'ans tender songs and been compelled to come watch.

Another thing you need to know about the Rio is, they have very strong margaritas. This is why my memory of the exact setlist may be fuzzy. It's either that, or I'm writing this 3 weeks late and took practically 0 notes.

Most involved with the post-Libertines scene in London have heard of Littl'ans if for no other reason than their sublime single "Their Way" which featured/was stolen by Pete Doherty. They also supported Babyshambles on some tours where, supposedly, some police activity and silliness occurred. But since then, they've kept themselves on the down-low, recording their low-key debut, "Primitive World" in New York in 2007.

Primitive World has been and continues to be one of my favourite albums of recent years. It's one of those albums that is very good when you first listen to it and keeps getting stronger each after each and every listen. On the surface you have a very tender album, filled with love songs for any occasion - even occasions with no love connection whatsoever. However, I've found that the emotions on this album run the gamut from lust to loneliness, to nostalgia, to friendship and back.

Musically, they're tight. There's not an ounce of fat or excess on the record and that transfers to the live show, as well. Each song is to the point, succinct, and edited to perfection. Not a song on the album hits over 5 minutes, and only two hit over 4 minutes.

Lyrically, I think Andrew Aveling is one of the most clever wordsmiths in a long time. Not since I first discovered the Smiths (um, a long time) have phrases gotten stuck in my head for so long, nor have I called any lyricist brilliant the way I would Aveling. Not only is he insightful but he is clever

Now, Aveling's voice is something I don't want to go into too much depth on just because I think it's so amazing and could go on forever. His voice is really what ties the record together. There's obviously some great guitar work on the album and the rhythm section keep the songs tight, moving like machines, but Aveling's voice is what really sets them apart. It's such a distinctive voice, and what's really special is how many things he's able to convey with his voice. In the same song (one of my favourites) "Don't Call It Love", which by the way might be one of the greatest one night stand songs of all time, he's able to sound needy, callous and caring. In "Everytime" he's able to convey tenderness, and loneliness, with one of my favourite set of lines on the whole album, "And I asked her if she was lonely / and she replied, "Yeah I am a lonely girl / but somebody might suddenly just find that I am worth it all". Amazing. His voice and his lyrical ability are what really set Littl'ans apart from the rest of the East London bands.

I think I've inadvertently reviewed their album when I was meant to write about their show at SXSW. But everything I've mentioned up to this point has gone into the live show and made it one of the best, if not the best, that I was privy to at this years SXSW. I only wish they had played more shows because I'm convinced this album is amazing and their live show was really wonderful as well. Basically, I think the songs are really special and I think they come across really well live and this band definitely have a bright, bright future. They are coming out with a second album this year, that I've been told is totally different but totally brilliant which is something I, of course, really believe.

So after Littl'ans showcase, we made our way over to the Perez Hilton party which was, um, well, I dunno what it was like, I just remember a shit ton of people, drinking awful chemical-tasting drinks, and getting really trashed. The last thing I remember hearing was Beyonce's little sister (I refuse to name her and give her any sort of legitimacy) and thinking, "What the fuck?" before grabbing the people I was with and leaving promptly. We were then dragged downtown to Maggie Maes where, I think, we saw a Leeds band called "Your Vegas" but wasn't terribly impressed with them either so we walked up 6th street a little bit, and said our farewells to Austin before going back to the house we were staying at and drinking more. Then we went to sleep and died. The perfect way to end any SXSW. Minus the fact that I had to spend the two days after driving across Texas, through NM and the worst state in the Union, Arizona to get back to California.

To sum it up succinctly, as I haven't with anything else related to this review, any band I saw, or anything ever that I write about: GO TO SXSW, IT WILL BE THE BEST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE. As for me? I'm already planning where to stay next year.

Words & photos by Brianna Saraceno