Posts Tagged ‘SXSW’

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SXSW Preview #7 // Efterklang

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

If it wasn’t for those always working people up at Brooklyn Vegan, I would never had known that Efterklang, one of my favorite Danish bands, was going to make it down to Austin for a handful of dates at SXSW. Last time I checked everyone’s favorite folktronic matadors weren’t on the mega-bill for the festival, but I guess organizers are adding dozens of bands every minute – great news for everyone that’s going.

I caught Efterklang live once when they opened for The National at their second night in Copenhagen and was absolutely entranced by their live set. With a concert line-up that pushes ten members and instrumentation that include flute, horns, and yes, even saw, Efterklang certainly displayed their capacity to create beautifully textured music. The best part of the group’s stage performance however wasn’t the breadth of the odd-ball instruments but their choral arrangements that put front-in-center the beauty of the group’s harmonized whispery voices.

On tracks like “Collecting Shields” (off of their 2004 LP Tripper), the strange combination of electro-pulsed beats in the mid section and soft vocals from the male/female duet offer an interesting and original combination. Putting you more in a Buddhist meditative state than hyped-up energetic mood, tracks like “Frida Found a Friend” and “Mirador” off of their most recent LP Parades does everything that you would expect from a band which, in English, means both remembrance and reverberation.

Most songs are created in a similar vein that will definitely serve as an excellent counter to all those noise-punk bands being showcased at the festival. Calm, soothing, and peaceful would all be appropriate adjectives when describing Efterklang’s music – something that will certainly be unique at the always bustling and bombastic SXSW. So if you are in need of taking an hour to catch your breath, you can check them out on March 19th at 11:00pm at the Habana Bar. No other “official” performances are scheduled, but they will be around Austin for most of the festival so keep your eyes peeled!

Efterklang // Collecting Shields

Efterklang // Polygyne

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SXSW Preview #6 // Delta Spirit

Thursday, February 26th, 2009


Can you feel the excitement in the air? With the countdown ticking until the first bands take the stage at SXSW (20 days!), more blogs are featuring SXSW articles (including rants), more bands are updating their myspace profile, and more non-Texans are getting ready for a hefty diet of BBQ and Mexican food.

With that being said, the next installment on PTM’s SXSW preview is Delta Spirit. The band first made a small splash with their self-released EP I Think I’ve Found It, but because of the difficulty of procuring self-released records (see: Bon Iver) I, like most people, were first introduced to the band through their stellar Daytrotter session from 2007. The band came back in 2008 with Ode to Sunshine, an excellent “proper” release by famed label conglomerate Rounder Records. With a fresh new set of Daytrotter tracks under my belt, I revisited their debut album with the same amount of giddy as a schoolboy in a candy shop.

A modern take on classic Americana, Delta Spirit is definitely rooted in rock & roll and folk music of the past. There’s horns, there’s tambourine, and yes there’s a harmonica here and there, but where most folk rock group nowadays use these instruments as uninspiring highlights (misguidedly thinking unusual instrumentation automatically deserves up front and center attention), Delta Spirit puts them to good use only as accents to their incredibly strong guitar and vocals arrangements.

Although lead singer Matt Vasquez’s voice is often (and rightfully) compared to that of Nathan Willett of the Cold War Kids, there are some tracks where he varies his delivery. For example, the end of “Bleeding Bells” reminds me of a tamer, less raspy Deer Tick and there is a hint of The Tallest Man on Earth on the slower pieces. Hell, I’ll even thrown in a quivering Thom Yorke comparison into the mix as well. And just because he might sound like a particular singer doesn’t mean the band he’s in creates anywhere near the same music – just ask Matt Berninger from The National about his seemingly endless comparisons to Silver Jew’s front man David Berman when they first broke into the scene…

Delta Spirit is gracing Austonians with a pre-SXSW date at Emo’s Lounge on February 28 before heading back for the real deal in March. The dates and locations they are listed as playing are:

March 18 // Radio Room // 1:00am
March 19 // Cedar Street Courtyard // 10:30pm

And here are a couple of tracks to get you excited:

Delta Spirit // Trashcan

Delta Spirit // People, Turn Around

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SXSW Preview #5 // HEALTH

Saturday, February 21st, 2009


HEALTH is a noise rock band hailing from Los Angeles who put more emphasis on “noise” than their fellow noise group contemporaries. Staples at the famed LA venue The Smell, HEALTH has gotten quite a reputation for pushing the boundaries of what music is while still roping in droves of listeners. Unfortunately, most people are aware of HEALTH solely from the remix Crystal Castles did of their song “Crimewave” – digitizing the vocals and pretty much gutting the rest of the song. Although I won’t disagree that the remix sounds good, it is not a fair representation of what the band truly is about.

During my time in Denmark, I caught a couple of minutes of an unexpected HEALTH show. I went to a Man Man concert in the modern day hippie colony smack down in the middle of Copenhagen (otherwise known as Christiania) where, to my surprise, HEALTH was also listed as being on the bill. Due to an unexpected cancellation of their show in Finland, the group decided to change course and play in Denmark, unbeknownst to pretty much everyone in attendance. Unfortunately, they were scheduled as the closing act which most people going to a Man Man show didn’t care to stick around and see. People (including myself – I was with a group) filtered out after a couple of songs which left the whole venue sadly bare.

I was able to catch three songs of theirs before leaving and feel like between that and the countless other videos I’ve watched online, I have a fair understanding on how their live act is. Certainly not meant for the unadventurous concert go-er, seeing HEALTH live shows them doing what they do best: make a lot of racket by twisting and turning distortion knobs, slamming guitar strings, and using the exotic Zoothorn which links the microphone with guitar pedals. It’s not all audio muck though as a lot of songs begin with a fair amount of direction mostly due to the driving drum beats courtesy of BJ Miller. Take the aforementioned “Crimewave” – one would never know from the Crystal Castles mix that such precise and insanely complex drumbeats are present throughout the original song.
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SXSW Preview #4 // Daniel Martin Moore

Sunday, February 8th, 2009


Much has been made of how Daniel Martin Moore became a Sub Pop sensation by sending them a four track demo via snail mail and getting signed shortly thereafter. It’s hard to believe that Sub Pop, the label to bring us such greats as Iron & Wine, The Shins, and a little known band called Nirvana, seems to find time to sort through the countless submissions much less hear and seek out one of the “unknowns”. Regardless, this type of legendary tale has given Daniel Martin Moore some unrealistic expectations to fill which seemed to have disappointed a few.

For a guy who bases his music on simplicity, the fanfare surrounding Moore’s signing must seem like a whirlwind that he wishes could be tamed and toned down so he can carry on with playing his pure folk tunes. Accompanied mostly by just his acoustic guitar or a piano, Daniel Martin Moore’s music is carried by his voice and his laidback songwriting. His singing, closely resembling an American reincarnation of Nick Drake, goes down smooth with every listen. Effortlessly flowing from line to line, Moore’s tenor voice is best described as consistent – never imposing or too challenging for the listener. His songwriting tends to reflect more on his simple singing style than to make any sort of poetic statement. Although most likely written and recorded in an LA studio, it is easy to imagine Moore’s inspiration stemming from countless lazy summer days lounging on the back-porch of some podunk Kentucky town with only a guitar and a glass of lemonade to keep you company. As one might be put off by his conservative nature, I for one can relax and put on this album during the times I need to just take a break from it all.
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SXSW Preview #3 // Casiokids

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009


It seems I’ve fallen into a rut of only covering foreign electronic acts from the massive SXSW lineup, however, I would be remiss not to include one of my most anticipated acts of the whole festival: Casiokids. I was fortunate enough to catch this eccentric Norwegian band when they played the second warm-up day at the Danish Roskilde Festival. Armed with only a handful of listens to their myspace tracks, I didn’t know what to expect from this truly underground act. However, after witnessing the stage littered with homemade props, a multimedia show, and a sea of balloons on stage, I knew I was in for something mindblowingly special.
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SXSW Preview #2 // Deichkind

Friday, January 30th, 2009


It used to be that if you wanted to get a copy of the “What’s Hot in Music” list from other countries, you would have to travel there and scout it out yourself. Nowadays where myspace and youtube are synonymous with “easy access” when it comes to anything musical, you can listen in on African rap to traditional Bulgarian tunes — and anything in between — at the click of a mouse. Unfortunately this easy access does come at a price. International acts are almost forced into speaking English (usually their non-native tongue) in order to become popular or suffer from being categorized under “world music” and shelved at the back of the record shop. Now there are some bands who couldn’t give a shit about pleasing their English speaking audience. Deichkind is certainly one of those acts.

Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, Deichkind is the only non-Berlin act to make their way to Austin this year for SXSW. According to their de.wiki page, they are also known as Die Electric Super Dance Band, which is more of a label of their music than a band name. As a whole, Deichkind offers more of an insight into the German music scene than probably most Germans would like to admit. Always having been known as an electronic music hub since Kraftwerk broke on the scene in the 70s, Germany has a strong slate of digital masters that will be adequately on display at SXSW. Where Deichkind is unique is its ability to interweave these electro-beats with the new genre du jour in their native homeland: hip-hop.

As a language, German is probably one of the easier languages to make rhymes with — hell, it seems every other word ends in a sh sound — and German artists certainly know how to use this to its full potential. I can’t even understand a single phrase being uttered, yet I am always in awe whenever I hear a track from German hip-hop great Bushido (no matter how corny the song title is). Contrary to most typical Deutsch rap, Deichkind eliminates the seriousness and twists it from “bounce your hand in the air” to “go crazy on the dance floor.”

And by go crazy, I mean GO CRAZY. Where there is so much emphasis of minimalist sound in Berlin electronic music, Deichkind isn’t afraid of layering multiple pounding bass beats with some quirky digital lines. You can easily imagine going nuts to the fuzzy bass line on the MTV ready Arbeit Nervt or bumpin’ to the beat of 23 Dohlen. So in the clusterfuck that is SXSW, do yourself a favor and check out their set one night — you’re guaranteed to leave just as happy as you are sweaty.

Deichkind // Arbeit Nervt

Deichkind // Over the Top

Deichkind // 23 Dohlen

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SXSW Preview #1 // Shout Out Out Out Out

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Our first installment of covering some of the better unknown acts listed as playing in the mega-festival that is SXSW highlights Canada’s own Shout Out Out Out. Dishing up some of the best electro-dance music north of 50 degree latitude mark without an å, ö, ø in their name, Shout Out Out Out Out seem to have found the answer to surviving the harsh Edmonton winters — dance, Dance, DANCE!

Similar to most electronic groups, they rely heavily on the Mac Books, analog synths, and robotic vocals (described on their site as “more Kraftwerk than T-Pain”) to produce the necessary bloops-and-bleeps to make you want to finish off your beer as fast as you can so that you can return to the dance floor among the sweaty herd. However, they don’t shed the skin of live instrumentation completely. Equipped with two drummers, FOUR bass players (!), and a line-up of keyboards that would make a Yamaha store jealous, their live set is more spectacle than concert. Fronted by a lead “singer” who has truly mastered the art of performance, you are guaranteed to have fun from start to finish. Even the down time from changing instrumentation is filled with some of the best banter I’ve heard at a show!

Because of the tight space, SOOOO have no problem expanding the stage to include the dance floor, the rafters, and pretty much anything in between. I caught their set at a IHEARTCOMIX party at SXSW two years back, and although they were just the opening act, they produced a more energetic crowd than the later acts of Matt & Kim and the The Presets combined. I guess when you go completely ape-shit and start beating on snare drums after climbing on top of the audio equipment surrounding the stage while still being able to crank out a dance-able tune you’ve earned the right to a raucous audience! So if you see them listed on the bill at anytime or any place, be sure to check them out. To hold you over, here are few mp3s, but keep in mind context is key with this band:

Shout Out Out Out Out // Dude You Feel Electric

Shout Out Out Out Out // Self Loathing Rulez (Malente Remix)

Shout Out Out Out Out // Tiiiired

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Part-Time Music v2.0

Monday, January 19th, 2009

After a period of “self discovery” I finally found a hosting plan that is suitable for the disk space (and bandwidth) needed for playing mp3s. Anyways, a long story short, I will be jump starting the music blog again in the coming days. It seems that there is a little bit of latency that needs to be resolved, but hopefully by the end of the week I will be back to the normal routine:

  • Music Reviews of some of the most anticipated albums of the year as well as some that will be flying under the radar.
  • Concert photos and critiques of some bands that are stopping by Munich in the coming months: Crystal Antlers, Wavves, Neko Case, and Jay Reatard.
  • Interesting music news and tidbits found after scouring the musical blogosphere.

So while I work on getting things working, here are a couple of songs from bands that will be playing at SXSW this year down in Austin, Texas.

Casiokids // Fot i Hose

Woven Hand // Cripplegate

HEALTH // Triceratops (Acid Girls Remix)

Daniel Martin Moore // That’ll Be the Plan

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