Radio Exile SXSW 2010 Review 3/17/10 (Brooklyn Vegan, The Music Slut, etc)

Radio Exile SXSW 2010 Review 3/17/10 (Brooklyn Vegan, The Music Slut, etc)

By Tom Williams - March 22, 2010 | Email the author

This is my second year at SXSW. I am now a grizzled veteran who looks with jaded eyes at the whole Shiner Bock-loving, future talking but no actual action taking, skinny jean wearing crowds that throng 6th Street and all points North, East, South, and West. I survey the festival, sniff, and say “it was better last year”.

Not really. I do love this place. SXSW is still my idea of heaven.

We rolled into town from New Orleans and the Foberg Festival late Tuesday night. We’d somehow managed to scam an entire house to ourselves for free, which was nice. True, there is no furniture so it sort of looked/felt like a crack house but again, beggars cannot be choosers.

Wednesday morning, we made our way downtown shortly before 12 and headed for Emo’s and the Brooklyn Vegan party.

First band up was a boy girl two piece named Yellow Fever [MySpace] who probably love K Records and the Fiery Furnaces. They bored me.

Next was the Rural Alberta Advantage. You know how a band is on the up and up? When the new material they play gets louder cheers than the older, fan favorite material. I loved this band before but now, each time I hear new material, I get more and more orgasmically excited about this band. They’re gonna be contenders.

Immediately after the RAA we ran over to Mohawks to see mynameisjohnmichael . They, as always, killed it. The crowd damn near doubled it size during their set from so many people hearing them from the street (and, considering how loud the are, probably from two or three streets over) and walking into the venue to check them out.

After mynameisjohnmichael we ran back to Emo’s, missing The Morning Benders [Official] (damn) but getting there in time to see Titus Andronicus [MySpace]. Now, I think their new album is one of the best albums of 2010. I think it’s important and will be loved for generations. I. Love. This. Band. In. Principle. However, in practice, live on stage? They sort of suck.

Frontman Patrick Stickles is hugely talented but the rest of his band is Shaggs-ish. They sort don’t know how to play (and not in a good three chords and attitude way) and they have no stage presence. I can’t help but feel like if Patrick surrounded himself with talented musicians, rather than friends, Titus Andronicus could be a game-changing band.

The Black Angels [MySpace] were next , and were probably very good, but drone-y psych rock just isn’t my thing. The GZA was supposed to play next but he had to cancel due to airplane issues (thanks Newark!) so we walked down down 6th St, stopping in at The Music Slut party to see Drink Up Buttercup [MySpace] (either those guys are getting better or I’m liking them more).

After a dinner of a 1/2 lbs hot dog (only in Texas…), we headed over to Buffalo Billiards with Tim, from the blog I’mABearEtc, to the Time Out New York party. Despite a slightly douchey crowd/douchey bartenders, we had an awesome time.

Keepaway [MySpace], from Brooklyn, seemed like the types of Brooklyn people who drive me nuts but, despite feeling like slight trend following Animal Collective lovers, I sort of liked them. They were catchy which trumps pretty much everything else.

Das Racist [MySpace] were, as always, hilarious and awesome. The crowd loved them. Loved. We have some good pictures of them to post later.

Javelin [MySpace], despite making a type of day-go electronic music that normally does nothing for me, managed to impress. Highly enjoyable.

Japanther [MySpace]? Ja-fucking-retarded. Take No Age and Lightning Bolt then remove everything good about those bands. You have Japanther.

Andrew WK [MySpace]. What can I say? This was his first or second full band show in 5 years, reportedly. I saw it on a whim but I’m so glad I did. He might have been the highlight of the festival. It was less about the music (it is, after all, “party” music) than the performance/entertainment value (not to say that the music wasn’t good, it was great). His band was like a cartoon; it was basically Metalocalypse, or the Gorillaz band, come to life. I cannot emphasize how fucking awesome his band was. You had the burned out looking 80′s hair metal dude playing a sick guitar in an almost crabcore stance, you have the bassist with a scowl, huge mutton chops and a male pattern baldness head, you have the cheer leader in a black unitard dancing around, you have the huge guy who dwarfed his guitar, almost making it look like a toy. The drummer was some 300lbs old sweaty guy in athletic shorts. Then there was Andrew himself, leading this whole madness. It was was so well done. The crowd went apeshit. I thought the floor was going to buckle (dying at an Andrew WK concert…that would be a hell of a way to go). I absolutely want to see him play again.