Click the photo for an audio slideshow of The Horrors at the Village Voice Media Party at South By Southwest. The Horrors just played a three-and-a-half song set at La Zona Rosa. Frontman Feris Badwan was in top form showcasing his ticks. He wrapped himself in some kind of paper…
Like playing Guitar Hero, only REAL: Slash, Tom Morello, Les Claypool onstage early this morning at the Parish. Click on this shit for the full effect. Holy double motherfuck. I have so much to tell you about this thing they call South By Southwest, but this comes first. I saw…
Click the photo for an audio slideshow of Cold War Kids, featuring live audio from their set, Thursday evening, at South By Southwest. Check out SXSW: The Daily Podcast for more live audio from the Cold War Kids, and a few words on Pete Townshend’s lackluster surprise appearance at girlfriend…
“Move here! You guys can stay with me!” Such was the offer of an Austin native to Seattle synth-pop band The Trucks, who rocked the stage at Tap Room @ Six on Thursday, March 15. The four-piece all-female band definitely looked like the grooviest potential houseguests ever, wearing dark green…
Names: Mike (left), Jimmie (right) “spelled with ie.” Spotted: 6th and Brazos, Austin. You live in Austin? How do you like it? It’s kind of overrated. I’m thinking about moving. Jimmie, what’s that a nickname for? Jimmie: That’s it. James is my name, but I’m not Jemima or anything. I’m…
While much of the music action goes down with the sun at SXSW — when fans fill the streets and hustle from bar to bar, bathed in the light of neon signs — there are plenty of afternoon gigs and showcases in the sun, too, and some are well worth…
Click the photo for an audio slideshow of Oakley Hall. I’d love to sit around and talk about how great of a sunny afternoon dance band Oakley Hall was, but I just got word that Pete Townshend’s gonna play an acoustic set across town in a few minutes. Hopefully I…
Click the photo for an audio slideshow featuring Oxford Collapse, Tiny Vipers and Loney, Dear. The City of Austin is full of greasy hair, backbeats and sticky fingers. You can’t throw a rock down the street without hitting a bass player or his/her handler pimping a set later this week…
South by Southwest is like sex or pizza—even when it’s bad, it’s good, but it often leaves an unseemly taste in your mouth. I’ve written about it before, so let’s not overwork it, but here’s a brief synopsis of the thesis shared by the cynical/grumpy/over-it types (that would be, uh,…
Love ’em or hate ’em, the Scissor Sisters aren’t going anywhere—well, except for Japan, and then probably more Europe tour dates and even more U.K. shows. Actually, let me revise: the Scissor Sisters are blowing up everywhere. Except for the U.S. Perhaps it’s snarling, self-conscious purists still smarting over the…
Dave Faulkner, singer-songwriter for Australia’s legendary punk-pop combo the Hoodoo Gurus, sips coffee in his home in Sydney and talks about the band’s decision to regroup and their first trip to the United States in more than a decade. “We played a festival date in Australia, and we discovered we…
OK, we know all of you out there in newspaper-reading land (you know, the three of you who prefer the printed word to rapidly blogged scuttlebutt) depend on us to provide the most accurate information as possible. But hey, music writers are 1) lazy and 2) often drunk, so mistakes…
“I don’t chase trends, categories or genres,” says Walter Salas-Humera, leader of the Silos. Speaking from the tour van as the band makes its way to SXSW, Salas-Humera talks about quietly becoming the elder statesman of alt-country/Americana, even though he’d disagree that the music he makes fits neatly under any…
Blimey, lads, St. Patrick’s Day is upon us again—that one time of year when making fun of our Irish friends is perfectly acceptable (like using condescending terms such as “blimey”). We thought it would be more interesting to let the Irish do it to themselves, particularly U2, but, well, they…
On “Trollin’,” The Weirdness’ first cut, Iggy Pop declares, “Rock critics wouldn’t like this at all,” and if he’s right, the Stooges’ improbable comeback will collapse on the starting line. In the end, though, most reviewers are apt to view the disc as an honorable miss, not a flat-out disaster…
Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Tragically Hip continue their brand of off-kilter power rock on the substantial World Container. Released almost exactly 20 years since their debut, the new effort finds the band sticking to a formula of straddling the line between collegiate and…
Where !!!’s last release, Louden Up Now, sounded like a Ph.D. student’s disconnected deconstructions of Klymaxx and post-punk, Myth Takes hews much closer to extended, almost mechanical grooves, give or take the occasional overwrought freakout of diarrhetic songs such as “Bend Over Beethoven.” The act’s range on Myth succeeds in…
Unless you want to spend megabucks on the massive Complete Stax-Volt Singles box set released 15 years ago, this double disc distillation should do just fine. Featuring many of the artists who defined soul music throughout the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, this dose of history is nearly perfect. Beginning with…
The members of Menomena will freely admit that they start each composition with a drum loop. We’re all relieved that they cop to it, because the percussive assault of each and every song on their 2007 release Friend and Foe is jarring and undeniable and provides the momentum for a…
If Norway has been a right bitch to Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes, then America has surely been Sondre Lerche’s femme fatale. Blessed with a poetic command of the English language that could make Cole Porter sweat, the 24-year-old Norwegian songwriter has yet to crack America’s VIP list, despite releasing three…
With roots in North Texas (singer Aurelio Valle and percussionist Wayne Magruder were in Denton’s the Factory Press way back in 1993 before relocating to New York), this moody quartet has grown considerably over the course of five releases. Calla’s newly released effort, Strength in Numbers, may well be their…
Daily special! There are some diverse and tasty pop delicacies on the menu at ellum:Onstage this week. It’s a four-course orgy of synthesizers, violins, guitars, percussion, banjos and really adorable —legal and low-fat, promise!—pristine-voiced indie rockers. Savor each act: Great Glass Elevator blend the driving, anthemic energy of punk guitar…
