The Black.
Continuing my selfish self-reference guide to finding some actually good music to watch at SxSW continues with THE BEST LETTER OF THE ALPHABET. Why is ‘B’ the best? Well coz it’s curvy, has the best sound (BUH! for B!) and my initials consist of two of the fuckers. So, it’s with some excitement that I delve into SxSW’s current list of B’s who have been pretty much confirmed as playing that Texan extravaganza of industry excess.
Damn near the last minute I was given a chance to attend this year’s ATP NY (I’ll be covering it for Gothamist all weekend) and I have to say I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a musical weekend in ages! With bands like The Flaming Lips, Deerhunter, and Animal Collective all on tap and crazy concoctions like Bob Mould with No Age (performing as Hüsker Dü) and the Boredoms doing a 9 drum BOADRUM, this is gonna be a crazy weekend! It starts tonight with several legendary performers reprising classic albums and a highly publicized reunion from The Jesus Lizard that we are especially amped for! Here’s what I’ll be catching tonight (full review tomorrow hopefully!) and you should join along. I’m skipping the comedy stage, most of those guys are from the area already.
3:15pm: The Drones
The first act to take the stage this weekend are from Australia and are here to promote their upcoming album (which just happens to be on ATP Recordings). Even though they are promoting a new album they will be performing Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By in its entirety. I’ve honestly never really listened to their music so this will be a new experience for me, but since they are the first band of the weekend they will probably get my undivided attention and a lot of my bubbling energy!
Late last week word came down that Bob Mould had recruited No Age to perform a set of Hüsker Dü tunes it warmed my heart to know that the second best possible version of the band would indeed be hitting a stage. Sure, it may not be Mould, Grant Heart, and Greg Norton, but it will be the first time Hüsker Dü songs are played in a live setting in a few years and I’m excited for the chance to see (so long as I can find the cash to cough up!). It also led me down nostalgia road, listening to the old tunes and discovering them once again like I did somewhere in my teen years.
Poor Scott Kannberg. He’ll forever be “the other one” when it comes to any discussions of Pavement, which is a little unfair given his vital contribution to that band. Malkmus may be the one everybody knows, but it was largely the combination of the two of them that made it work. He’s dabbled around a bit in the ten years since Pavement split, releasing a couple of Preston School of Industry albums. Both were decent, neither were spectacular. Like Malkmus, it seems to be a constant battle to differentiate oneself away from the Pavement connection that seems doomed to failure.
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Read the review of the gig here.
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