The theremin was perfect for that high note at the end of the chorus; I was embarrassed that I never thought to do that song!

Did a cow explode?

SXSW Roundup for today:

2 pm Atombombpocketknife at B.D. Riley's - bad-fuckin-ass. Way too loud for that little place. I met Minmae and Ted Leo while there, too.

3:30 pm Western Keys at Caucus Club. Lazy and sweet.

4:30 Deathray Davies at Caucus Club. Quite rockin'.

5:30 The Wrens at Caucus Club. Disappointing. I think they're a little overwhelmed by their success.

10:30 Something Something Family Band at Cedar St. Courtyard. Booooo-ring country-rock.

11 pm Knife in the Water at Cedar St. Courtyard. Excellent show and very, very rockin' by KITW standards. The pedal steel player is playing lead guitar exclusively, which is odd. David Fricke was right behind me. I talked with him a bit. Quite a nice guy. I did not tell him that his magazine sucks.

12:10 pm The Bodines at Austin Music Hall. Embarrassing. Especially for the 40ish people shouting woo and doing the rich white folk boogie.

12:30 pm Big Star at Austin Music Hall. Fuckin' cool. I learned three things about Alex Chilton during this set: 1) he's too cool to practice; 2) he's too cool to tune; and 3) he's way too fuckin' cool to sweat, even though he was wearing a white oxford under a Stax t-shirt under a suit jacket. Chilton was playing nice with the audience, and the Big Star tunes were fun, despite the frequent mistakes and tuning problems. They tried to pull out some half-remembered tune at the end, so I left to go catch the end of the Mekons

1:40 am The Mekons at Antone's. The sound in there sucks, but I still dug the hell out of "Now We Have The Bomb," "Last Dance," a majorly rockin' "Hard To Be Human," and "Dan Dare." They seemed a bit chilled and tired. They were also calling themselves the MEEK-uns, which is how the Dutch guys standing next to me during KITW were pronouncing it, too. Odd.

A bit more about Mission of Burma last night. They opened with "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate," followed by "Max Ernst." The set also included (Jon, tell me if I'm misremembering any of this -- I was both overstimulated and exhausted):

• Trem Two
• This Is Not A Photograph
• Fame and Fortune (which brought a tear to my eye when they changed Roger's middle part lines to "NEW beginning/Happy Endings")
• Train
• Mica
• several new tracks, only one of which rocked mightily
• one of the tracks on Forget, but I don't remember which
• That's When I Reach For My Revolver

First finale: Penelope Houston (pay attention: of the Avengers) came out and sang "American In Me" and DOA's "Class War"

Second finale:

• The Ballad of Johnny Burma
• Academy Fight Song

Thursday Night:

• 8pm - Sound Team - Austin band with an Elephant 6 bent. Two keyboards, guitar, bass, drums. Their recordings are generally short indie-pop songs with odd arrangements, but they were jamming out more tonight.

• 9pm - Bottom of the Hudson - Their CD was one of my faves of 2003 but live they were just OK. A poor-man's GBV. The singer has a deep voice that's Ian Curtis-esque (complete with fake british accent).

• 10pm - Stuck around the club where BotH played and saw a bit of Frog Eyes. Spastic garage band who I might have liked if I were in the right mood, but I wasn't. I left and tried to get in to see Devendra Banhart, but there was a long line and his set had already started so there wasn't much chance of high turnover that would get me in. Gave up and headed to my 11pm appointment.

• 11pm - Irving - Another great elephant 6 inspired band. Think Kinks but with more twists and turns. They had technical problems when setting up, but made up for it from the first song onward. Sexy lyrics too. Highlights were that first song, "The Curious Thing About Leather" (on my "best of 2003" CD), and a song with the chorus "I want to love you in my bed." A woman behind me screamed at the end of every song. I would turn my head slightly and she'd apologize. After the third time, she said, "Sorry -- I have to do that -- I'm their publicist."

• Midnight - Mission of Burma - Surprisingly not sold out when I got there a few songs into the set. The sound could have been better, and the performance was not their best, but like that TV show we all watched, even mediocre MoB is better than most other bands at their best. I think Hayden remembered right with the songs.

one of the tracks on Forget, but I don't remember which

I'll do Friday in a separate post.

Friday afternoon, Pete and I practiced for a while, getting positive feedback from our hosts. Then we went to the convention center where we picked up free swag and watched a few songs by Andrew Bird. He's toured with Clem Snide, so Pete wanted to pay his respects. Then off to an afternoon club show where we saw IQU (worth seeing again!) and had free BBQ. Then to another outdoor club show with the Wrens. Like Hayden, I was underwhelmed, but they won me over a bit near the end. They were between songs, but another band, playing an outdoor show next door were rocking out. The Wrens started listening closely to that other band, and then started playing along with them, finally breaking off and improvising their own song with self-referential lyrics about what was going on. After, we met up with Hayden and some of his friends for dinner. Then, off to the evening's activities!

9pm - Scout Niblet - British woman with a serious Cat Power fetish. Except she smiles and has fun on stage. She plays guitar and drums. The drums songs were interesting since it was just her playing drums and singing. Charming.

10pm - Snow Patrol - Scotland pop band that came highly recommended by a Boston friend of mine, but they were too conventional for my tastes. Left early to get in line for

11pm - TV On The Radio - Band from Brooklyn, described (fairly accurately) by the Austin Chronicle as "the Pixies fronted by Al Green." The club was PACKED, and I was worried that I wouldn't get in. Once in, it was tough to find a good spot to see anything, but halfway through a found a good perch. Definitely worth checking out when they tour. Standing in front of me in line were Jenny Toomey and Rick Karr (NPR guy), but I didn't talk to them except to tell Jenny where another club was (she gave up waiting and headed over there).

Midnight - Metal Urbain - French proto-industrial punk band from the late 70's, supposedly a big influence on Big Black among others. I put a song of theirs, "Lady Coca Cola", on my Buffista mix CD. On record, they combine punk guitars with a drum machine and synth weirdness. Live they were less weird, sounding more like The Ramones with a drum machine. Still, they were fun and I'm glad I saw them.

1am - Calexico - I wanted to see a Polish psychelic folk band called The Magic Carpathians Project, but they couldn't get visas or something. So I saw Calexico. I love them, but I was really tired and was having trouble getting into it. They were at the same club at which TV on the Radio had played, and my perch was still available. I was sitting on a railing on this tiny balcony and I knew it was time to leave when I kept falling asleep. Turns out I should have gone to the club where the Carpathians were supposed to play. Pete went and he told me they were replaced by a cool traditional Uzbekistanian (sp?) outfit. Lots of odd drums and stringed instruments.

Tonight, we play!

I never published my Thursday Night Roundup here, either.

All afternoon: Cherrywood block party The Silos, the guy from Long Winters, & Li'l Cap'n Travis were the bands of note.

Thursday evening, I camped out at La Zona Rosa all night because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get in for Mission of Burma otherwise. LZR has a terrible L shape (bands play in the crook), high ceilings, and the muddiest sound system in Austin. Yuck. The bands were:

9 pm Seachange. Overwrought crap. They sounded like the worst of British alternative rock circa 1986 brought to the lowest common denominator. Urgh.

10 Preston School of Industry. Disappointingly jam-bandish. There was a kernel of goodness in each song, but I really expect more out of an ex-co-leader of Pavement.

11 Pretty Girls Make Graves. Good lord, they rocked. It sounded like the Voidoids with the Gang of Four's rhythm section and Debbie Harry on vocals. But somehow current, too. Wow.

12 Mission of Burma. I felt like I died and went to heaven. Thanks to Jon, I met Clint Conley afterwards, too, and he was quite nice.

Oh yeah, quote of the evening.
Spiral Stairs: "All our songs are about d. boon. Well, me and d. boon."
Guy Behind Me, in all seriousness: "Daniel Boone? Is he kidding?"
His Buddy: "Who else?"

Hey, Jon. What're you planning to hit today?

I'm shooting for The Tillery St. Theater (E. 7th at Tillery) this afternoon for the Pretty Please (which I ain't gonna make), KaitO, maybe a bit of Bedbug, then to Club DeVille for Minmae, then Red Eyed Fly for The Mendoza Line, Centro-Matic, and maybe American Music Club. Ted Leo's playing the Emo's Annex at the same time as AMC.

Tonight I'm shooting for some of the following:
8 Ship & Pilot Antone’s
9 Chris Brokaw Red Eyed Fly
9 Robyn Hitchcock Rockstars (418 E. 6th)
11 Consonant Club Deville
11 Summer Hymns Maggie Mae’s
11 Britt Daniel Red Eyed Fly
12 am Pee Wee Fist Hideout (617 Congress)
12:50 Camber Van Beethoven La Zona Rosa
1 am Decemberists Buffalo Billiards (201 E. 6th)
1 CentroMatic Maggie Mae’s
1 Okkervil River Tambaleo (302 Bowie St)

dead of jealousy

Holy Crap!

Funny that the thing that I might be most jealous of is that hayden talked to David Fricke.

Good luck tonight Jon.

I am home and unemployed (but the folks at work got me a $30 gift cert. to my favorite music store as a going away present so I won't be entirely musicless during my job hunt). Off to catch up on about 7 billion unread posts.

Just got back from The Mendoza Line, Centro-Matic, and the American Music Club. Incredible. Gotta go feed the dogs & myself, then back out.

Ya'll made some great mixes. Just so you know.

SXSW Roundup, Saturday.

10 am. A friend calls. I'm still asleep.

12 noon. Another friend calls. I'm still asleep.

3 pm. I arrive at the Club DeVille, which was supposed to be a brief stopover before hitting Red Eyed Fly AFTER the Tight Spot/Porchlight party. I never made it to the Tight Spot/Porchlight party, unfortunately, because it took me forever to leave today.

3:15. A buddy and I mosey to the Red Eyed Fly. The Mendoza Line is supposed to be playing, but Anders Parker (formerly of Varnaline) is running late. When we come in, he's playing a Rhodes-dominated Sensitive Song, a la Jackson Browne. After cleaning up my puke, we head back inside and find members of the Mendoza Line lounging on the couches indoors. We head back to the door to the outdoor stage, at which point friends from three distinct points in my life converge on me at once in a very odd bit of synchronicity.

4 pm The Mendoza Line at Red Eyed Fly. Oh, they hate each other. Best song was the last one, which is on one of the ML albums I have, but I can't identify right now, because I'm drunk, and they arranged it differently. Anyway, the goateed singer, who was obviously sick as a dog, had lost his voice, but still rasped out a song of pure malevolence at the female singer and completely lost the rhythm on his acoustic. The rest of the band kept the song aloft, even as it teetered on the edge of chaos, and the end result was as raw and beautiful as any live song I've ever seen.

4:45 Centro-Matic at Red Eyed Fly. Goddamn, are these guys talented. The songs are as achingly beautiful as they are well-executed. I loved it.

5:45 American Music Club at Red Eyed Fly. Vudi was decked out like one of Bob Wills' Playboys. Eitzel is sporting a full beard and a bit more weight than the last time I saw him and is, subsequently, the spitting image of Dave Attell. The songs were great, if mostly unfamiliar to me (I only have Mercury and California, and they mostly shied away from those two). I finally realized that I wasn't going to have time to run home and feed the dogs & make it back downtown for Jon Langford's Ship & Pilot if I didn't cut out. Mark Eitzel was announcing the last two songs when I left.

8 pm Ship & Pilot at Antone's. Composed of Jonboy Langford, Tony Maimone (formerly of Pere Ubu), Steve Goulding (the Mekons, Graham Parker & the Rumour), Bill Anderson (the Meat Purveyors), a slight and young Korean woman on fiddle, and the owner of the Yard Dog Art Gallery on mandolin, Ship & Pilot is basically an expanded version of Langford's solo show, Jon & Friends. They played some traditional tunes, a few new ones, and some Waco Bros songs (with Deano Schlabowske, who leapt onstage towards the end, adding a bit of fire to the show). I dunno - Ship & Pilot are kinda disappointing. Langford's best when he has a foil or four, and his friends in S&P let him indulge himself a bit too much. Case in point: when Deano took the stage, the show came alive.

9 pm Dirt Track Brawlers at Sake on 6th. Featuring former Trouble Down South drummer Scott Wiedeman, the DTBs play music that's a bit of an homage to the Sun sound and a bit of a parody. Sake on 6th should never have live music. The patio is just a pit of bad sound, and the management had put tents over everything, which effectively shut out any breeze that might have wormed its way in. The rhythm guitar was howlingly loud and the backing vocals were buried. The sound guy was indifferent. After 15 minutes of this, I finally walked up to the stage and told the rhythm guitar/lead singer guy to turn down and to tell the sound guy to turn up the backing vocals. "You tell him yourself," he said. Pretty rude, but I told the sound guy to work on equalizing the vocals, anyway. I helped Scott unload afterwards, and the lead singer dude gave me a complete brushoff without a word of thanks for the help with their terrible mix. My verdict: the songs aren't as funny as he thinks they are, and the drummer is too good for them.

10 pm someone loud at Club DeVille. I sat in the back and drank beer and rested.

11 pm Consonant at Club DeVille. Aw yeah. I was right up front next to Clint Conley. J. Mascis was standing right next to me (I gave him a High Hat sticker and he looked at me like I was an asshole to even speak to him, which is exactly what I expected). Thank the lord I had remembered to bring my earplugs. Consonant were really fuckin' loud. Chris Brokaw was amazing, and the band rocked like hell. First highlight of the night. When I was getting ready to leave, the guy who owns Tight Spot Records (who I knew by sight, but had never met) came over and hugged me and told me that he wished I'd been at his party. His girlfriend, who's a friend of a friend, came over and we talked about all the famous people we'd met over the last couple of days (she'd met Thalia Zedek and Robyn Hitchcock earlier). Clint Conley joined us briefly, and Chris Brokaw shook my hand when he went by. We made jokes about how esoteric our name-dropping was.

12:15 am The Pee Wee Fist at the Hideout. The Hideout is REALLY FUCKIN' SMALL. I didn't realize that when I came in, I was going to be basically right on stage. I was late, and Pete was in mid-song, without vocal amplification, on the edge of the stage. Yeesh, I felt 2 inches tall. Even though they only had Pete the singer/guitarist and Jon the keyboardist/thereminist, the PWF still did their typical mixture of folky acoustic songs and loud, abrasive experimental noise. Great stuff, and I'm not just saying that because they were using my amps and I know that Jon is going to read this.