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.

The Magnifique et Splendide 2K8 Musique Review

So yeah, that huge list on yesterdays post of musicians and producers slash disc jockeys I saw this year is astonishing in my eyes. I say, that is the most shows I've ever seen in one year. I just had an itch, and it resulted in all out live music binge. 2K9 will hopefully top 2K8, and this time I will look for a more economical way to do it.

I also hope next year includes more fine art and not just music. I'm slowly getting into the art scene here, so we shall see. Instead of being a barfly or club kid, I wanna be a gallery a go go nut. I think there are alot of outlets and spaces for the arts, and E.A.S.T really opened my eyes to this just like the SXSW festival did for me with live music.

So, what bands did I like the most? I would say Cut Copy, Simian Mobile Disco, and Matt and Kim blew my mind.





I had alot of fun at these shows and I totally rocked out the entire time. I'm not saying the other shows didn't do it for me, I'm just saying Cut Copy and company where very memorable acts which I would want to see again without a doubt.

Honorable mention goes to Crystal Castles, Heartsrevolution, Designer Drugs, Thievery Corp, Ladytron, Health, Le Loupe, Yelle, Times New Viking, NIN, CSS, Hot Chip, Ian Orth, Juan Maclean, Gang Gang Dance, Nite Jewel, Deerhunter and...okay, I could go on forever but Im gonna stop while I'm ahead. For the most part, most of the shows where awesome, no complaints.

Although, I was disappointed with the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's LaZona Rosa show, TV on the Radio's Stubbs show, and Ponytail's SXSW set(and probable others too but I'll let it slide).

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist tried spinning and mixing nothing but 45s(lil-itty-bitty records), and that just started out and ended badly.




Don't get me wrong, I understand its hard and all, but maybe it should not have even been attempted. This was the start of their US tour, so maybe near the end of the tour they where able to work out the bugs.

With TV on the Radio, I had high expectations, but the show and the music just didn't move me like I thought it would. I figured it was going to be phenomenal but it lacked something. Maybe I need to give them a second chance.



Ponytail was just annoying, nuff said.

The funniest act has to go to the Tim and Eric Awesome Show at Fun Fun Fun Festival.




Honorable mention for the funniest act goes to Lord of the Dance for shits and giggles.