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SXSW 2006 Blogary, Part One

You like how I just invented the word Blogary? Heh.

Anyways, it’s gonna be long and detailed, so I hope you enjoy it. Click below to start reading.

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Good to Be Home

Hey all. We’re back from SXSW in one piece, and it was amazing. I’ve already faxed in my early bird hotel request form for next year; I plan to be right downtown in the thick of the action. All in all, we racked up 44 bands (well, 40, since we saw a few bands twice) in just over 4 days. Here’s the list, but a full (and really long) writeup of the trip is forthcoming.

• afrirampo
• apollo sunshine
• art brut (x2)
• blackalicious
• crystal skulls (x2)
• detachment kit
• dungen
• envelopes (x2)
• field music
• golden boys
• hockey night
• holy fuck
• islands (x2)
• jason forrest
• jeff
• jose gonzalez
• love is all
• magneta lane
• mates of state
• mr. lif w/ akrobatik
• phosphorescent
• princess superstar
• richard hawley
• serena maneesh
• sleater-kinney
• spoon
• tapes and tapes
• the bats
• the boy least likely to
• the fiery furnaces
• the flaming lips
• the joggers
• the noisettes
• the owls
• the spinto band
• the young knives
• thunderbirds are now!
• tilly and the wall
• tullycraft
• voxtrot

Word from Austin

I planned to blog every night on this trip, but the reality is that we leave the hotel in the morning and don’t get back until we stumble back out of the cab and into the room at 3am; there isn’t a spare minute around here. Since we’re sleeping in a bit tommorrow, I’m taking the time to write a quick note and let everyone know that SXSW is the greatest thing in the history of the known universe. So far, we’ve seen 23 bands, and we’ve got two very full days ahead. Plus, we’ve got some great stories. I’m keeping track of each show, and I’ll do a full writeup with pics when I get back. For now, be content simply with this video clip I took with my little casio; it’s of a certain band doing a certain song at an unannounced show. Enjoy!!

March is the Month pt. 2: Noisepop’s Revenge

I’ve got so much SXSW on the brain that I forgot one of the major reasons March is gonna rock so hard: Noisepop. Not to be outdone by Austin, San Francisco’s own indie music festival has been steadily growing and while it ain’t exactly twenty-thousand-people-invade-the-whole-friggin-city big, Noisepop 14 is nothing to laugh at. The lineup includes Two Gallants, Feist, The National, The Dirtbombs, Britt Daniel, and to top it all off, a performance at Bimbo’s by the Flaming Lips. That one is sooo sold out, so good freakin’ luck getting in. Check out the official Noisepop 2006 site here for more information, and as always, you can check my concert list for the shows that I’m probably going to attend.

There’s a decent chance this will be my last post before I leave for Austin, but I’m borrowing a laptop to take with and should be posting from there, so keep an eye out for the wild happenings down in Tejas. Rock on.

P.S. I’ve included an image of my Friday project. I think this is about 2.5 months worth of cans (I don’t remember when I started saving them, but it’s 132 cans, to be exact). Assuming around 20 days worked per month (I got sick twice, went on vacation, plus had we had a holidays and such) that’s 2.88 cans per day. Sounds about right.

March is the Month…

…for music, that is! First, thanks to the magic of friends (and a little help from the interweb, shhhh), I currently have a record-breaking 35 albums in rotation. 35. Seriously. There are too many to list, but highlights include the new Flaming Lips, Ghostface, Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Fiery Furnaces, The Pillows, and Mates of State. I’ve been furiously trying to ignore Mates of State for the last few years but they’ve finally made an album that I can’t resist. I’ve given in and I now officially “ha ha ha like them crazy”.

And we’re just getting warmed up, because the real deal is March 15-19, the mother of all music festivals, the one, the only, the South by Southwest. Just to give you an idea of how big this fucker is, even the damn RV parks are full that week in Austin. Think about that for a minute. And to get an idea of how much music is going on, here are some show lists:

• The official Showcase schedule
• Show List Austin (look between Mar 15-19)
• The official SXSW party list

Not to mention, every magazine, label, radio station, blog, tom, dick, and harry (and their mothers) are having parties. Por ejemplo, check out the ones from Vice, Stereogum, and Pitchfork. You so wish you were coming.