3.27.2007
South By Revisited
SXSW has come and gone. *sniff* It might very well have been my last South By for a while too... I'm going to school in Baltimore next fall, and I probably won't be able to come home save for Christmas and summers. But this year the chance was seized, I had a great time, and now that I'm rested and rejuvenated, it's time for my SXSW RECAP!!!


The first band I saw this year was none other than Dirty On Purpose. I only got to catch "Light Pollution" before being whisked away to catch Lily Allen at Waterloo Records, but it was still a great start to the festival. They sound pretty much identical live as they do on their record, which in and of itself was impressive. Seeing as how I only saw them for about five minutes, this is all I'll really say. "Light Pollution" is posted below.

mp3 Light Pollution
mp3 Monument


Theeen I caught a few bands at Emo's. I arrived when The Ponys were finishing their set, then got to hear a glorious 45 minutes or so of RJD2. They are so much better live than they are recorded. Their music's so pumped up and jam-worthy already, that actually being in front of them as they played made the music ten times better. My favorites by far were "The Horror" and "Ghostwriter" which are two must-haves for any musical library. Each band member switched instruments after almost every song, making me wonder... I should start a one woman guitar/violin/trombone/piano band...

mp3 The Horror
mp3 Ghostwriter



After RJD2, Menomena headed onstage. After their set, I heard a couple crowd members saying the band sounded empty. I wouldn't quite say they were empty -- I mean there was a lot going on what with the bass pedals and saxes and three different sets of xylophones and bells, but out of the four bands I saw that day, they were my least favorite. I love them to death, but their music was a lot more enjoyable to me via headphones. Better luck next season!

mp3 Wet and Rusting



Girl Talk was fucking insane. He definitely had a posse, but unlike those of the better known hip hop artists of our time, his kind of just hung out on the sides of the stage, enjoying the show. They really didn't have to contribute much though, 'cause he was all over the place. Diving into the crowd, knocking my face with his palm, stealing people's sunglasses, rubbing people's hair... I guess he needs to do all that to keep us involved. 'Cause I mean, really, all he had to do was do a little clicky clicky on his laptop. All that was onstage was a table, his laptop, and him. But my god, it was like a fucking dance club. People were bumping and grinding all over the place, screaming at the tops of their lungs once they recognized a cut of a favorite song, throwing previously distributed tissue paper circles into the air for theatrical effect... The best was saved for last, and I must say, Girl Talk rocked my socks off.

mp3 Hold Up
mp3 Bounce That
5 Comments:
Blogger Dany said...
i like your blog, but the pictures would look a lot better without the artwork detracting from them

Blogger Unknown said...
The frames on this post or all posts? I like to think that I tend to place distracting frame pieces in places where there's nothing to focus on anyway...guess I was wrong?

Blogger Alina said...
yea my pictures were shit this time around... thought the frames would do a good job stealing some of the crude spotlight...

Blogger Lawrence Boone said...
Nice work here Alina, and the frames are rad, as always.

You'll dig Baltimore, it's a fine town. It's no Austin, Tx of course, but what is?

=]

Blogger Alina said...
THANKS MR. CURIOSITY.