The Free Week Experience

This Free Week had me running all over the place on some days, and it really gave me a sense of whats to come with SXSW this year, with all the club hopping and live music. I really can't wait for SXSW if you can't tell. Some of the acts really surprised me and turned out to be as...

Tony the Tiger would say "Grrrreat!"


Especially cause its free.

By the way, Tony is such a hipster(ref diagram #3):



A couple of the bands that I liked or which caught my eye where...

The Great Nostalgic



I read about them on the east austinite blog, and thought I check out on Wednesday at Club De ville. I wanted to also see another band that was playing that same night, their name eludes me now, but I missed'em. I liked The Great Nostalgic's sound because of the lead singer's somber yet passionate voice, and the drummer's enthusiasm in producing cohesive beats with the two keyboardist's complimentary synthetic backdrops.

El Paso Hot Button(EPHB)



This was probably the biggest surprise of the whole week. I was really floored by EPHB. A friend told me to check him out instead of seeing Loxsly at Club De ville. ELHB is just a one man band, and he strips the music down to a basic bass drum, tom tom, and a guitar. He also mixes in other intstruments and pedals to give it a layered sound. The dudes voice is rocking, like that of a 70's rock god(I'm exaggerating of course). If you like Ghostland Observatory, you'll like EPHB.

Ume



The female lead singer, Lauren, of Ume is the reason I like the band. She projects the charisma of a strong front woman because of her stark ironic adorable Goldie Locks look, in contrast with her trashing and the headbanging she does on stage. At one point, she went down on her knees and it seemed that she was gonna light her guitar on fire like Jimmy.

Flash boys



Well, I thought the Flash Boys get banned from Austin venues occasionally, but I guess this is a regular occurrence. During their show at Beerland, the lead singer told the crowd that this was their first show at Beerland since getting banned, and this will be their last show because their banned again. I have no idea what they did to get in trouble, but I royally enjoyed the chaos that night. This is drunk punk at its best. I can't even recount the amount of times the lead singer slipped on spilt beer, or fell on someone in the crowd screaming and spitting. The mic kept getting disconnected, but that didn't ruin the show, it just added more rawness to the "who gives a fuck" attitude and demeanor the the Flash Boys display.

Free

Nothing in life is free...except for this week. Its that time of the year when Emo's throws its annual Free Week. There is alot of things going on because Emo's has some company this year. The entire Red River District is exploding with shows all over the place, so much that I can't figure out much of whats going on cause there is just to much to digest. I'm just going with the flow and I'll see whatever comes my way. Transmission Entertainment is hosting events at four different clubs so you have options this year.

Here is Emo's Line up:



FreEmo’s Returns (Free Week Line-Ups)

All shows are free for 21+ and $5 for under 21.



January 2 (Friday)

Outside: Lemurs / Ringo Deathstarr / Ovenbirds / The Boxing Lesson / The Great Nostalgic

Inside: Pataphysics / Silver Pines / JC and Co. (members of Belaire) / School Police


January 3 (Saturday)

Outside: What Made Milwaukee Famous / Oh No! Oh My! / The Pons / The Mercers / The Georgian Company

Inside: The Ugly Beats / The Jungle Rockers / Amplified Heat / Dans La Lune


January 4 (Sunday)

Outside: The Tunnels / Christian Bland (of The Black Angels) / Woven Bones / The Astronaut Suit / LEVIS (ELVIS Acoustic Set) / DJ Scorpio

Inside: The Always Already / Haunting Oboe Music / Prayer for Animals / j.be


January 5 (Monday)

Outside: Abby Birds / Stereo Is a Lie / Courses and Angles (ex-Gulf of Mexico & Mandon from Lil' Cap'n Travis) / Your Kisses Cause Crashes / New Roman Times

Inside: Zookeeper / Booher and the Turkeyz / Frank Smith / Masonic / Sad Accordions


January 6 (Tuesday)

Outside: The Bremen Riot (Mike Nicolai & Grand Champeen) / Moonlight Towers / Militant Babies / Gleeson

Inside: High Watt Crucifixers / Black Earth / Full Stride / Baby Dick (members of Fuckemos) / Yayo / Shitty Car Wash


January 7 (Wednesday)

Outside: Unit 21 / Iron Age / the Altars / Porkeria (members of B.S.A.)

Inside: When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth / The Diagonals / Eagle Claw / My Education / Black Cock / Selenese


January 8 (Thursday)

Outside: Off With Their Heads / Broken Gold / Deskonocidos / Ghost Knife / Send Help

Inside: El Paso Hot Button / Harlem / Ume / The Blacks


January 9 (Friday)

Outside: Strange Boys / Special Guests / White White Lights / The Teeners / Man Stamps

Inside: ATTAK (iN)FORMATION / This Horn of Africa (ex-Animals of the Bible) / Bee V.S. Moth / Serious Tracers / Che Arthur


January 10 (Saturday)

Outside: Special Guests plus: DJ Remy Mac (Ramesh from Voxtrot) / The Black / International Waters / The Minotaurs (ex-Sound Team) / Corto Maltese / Cry Blood Apache / Bear Claw

Inside: Those Peabodys/ The Crack Pipes / Shapes Have Fangs / Red Leaves / Wine and Revolution / A Giant Dog


January 11 (Sunday)

The Service Industry (Industry Night- 50% Off all drinks with TABC card or pay stub)

Transmission Entertainment's Lineup:





Okay, so not only is Free Week really breaking in the new year very nicely, but there are quite a few different things coming up this month. 101x radio station, which I dont listen to, is bringing some acts to the Parish. The acts are some pretty cool indie bands, Tapes 'n Tapes and Los Campesinos. 101x also just had a show at Emo's last month with the Ting Tings and Black Kids. I get the impression that they don't usually play this kinda of music, but maybe I should listen to station because I might be surprised(probably not).

I'm really really excited about this though; the Learning Secrets outfit is working with DFA records and Toyota to celebrate their 5th yr anniversary. Two parties will happen on sepearate weekends back to back. This is going to be the coolest things happening this month in my opinion, and I can't wait for the these free parties to happen. Juan Maclean will be DJing a week before the anniversary party which will have a member of the band Hercules and Love Affair DJing. I'm sure more surprises will blossom in the next couple of days or weeks.

Fyi-SXSW just put out its call for volunteers...So if your looking to volunteer this SXSW to save a little money, now is the time. Sign up now at http://volunteer.sxsw.com and attend one of the 2009 Volunteer Calls. Email volunter@sxsw for more info.


SXSW Volunterer Call 2009:

Sunday, January 25th, 2:00pm-5:00pm
Monday, January 26th, 6:00pm-9:00pm

Hilton Hotel, 500 E4th St
Governor's Ballroom, 4th Floor