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What's going on in Austin?

Three years ago, which was about five months into my “professional” music writing career, I personally put a manila folder of clips into Rob Tannenbaum’s inter-office mailbox at Blender. A few days later he emailed me some nice comments, and also a little critique: You’re writing within the

What's going on in Austin?

Three years ago, which was about five months into my “professional” music writing career, I personally put a manila folder of clips into Rob Tannenbaum’s inter-office mailbox at Blender. A few days later he emailed me some nice comments, and also a little critique:

You’re writing within the biosphere of your enthusiasms and subjects; the reviews communicate in a code that’s shared by a coterie that only feels large when you’re in a rock club.1

Now imagine that club is 20 clubs, and imagine they all line a couple of connected streets.

There’s been some mention of how the recession doesn’t seem to exist down in Austin right now; parties are just as huge, gift bags just as gross, bands just as plentiful. And while there’s something sweet and anachronistic about that, part of me thinks that it only proves that this, smaller world, is still in the business of making itself feel large, talking to itself at the exclusion of everyone else, no matter what it costs. A lot of time is spent laughing at bonehead moves made by major labels, but I wonder if these labels/publications/bands are making the same moves.

CMJ, as poorly run as it is, still has a clear purpose to me: it’s a way for small-town college radio kids to visit New York and see bands that would never make it to their city.

I don’t see that with SXSW. I think it should be the reverse: big city publicists/labels/writers come down to check out the bands that can’t afford to do big tours, so everyone can come back with something new to followup on. Right now, I’m digging through Twitters and blog posts to find those recommendations and observations. But 90% of coverage I’ve read online has been devoted to bands that have already been covered heavily in the past.2

So this is what I want to see from SXSW coverage: What’s new and what’s good? And from the panels: What’s going to change, or what has to change to keep people reading about and buying music? Hiring one less photographer or skipping the free t-shirts in your gift bags this year isn’t going to save your label or website or magazine. It seems silly to me that anyone would know where the best tacos are found, but couldn’t tell me where their industry will be in a year.

Or maybe I’m reading the wrong sites. Can anyone point me in the right direction?


  1. Besides that lesson, Rob told me to never use the word “anthemic” in a review ever again. I think I’ve used it twice since then.↩
  2. I’m guilty of this too; though the one time I covered SXSW and in my CMJ coverage I tried to pick at least one band a night that I thought deserved more attention.↩

 

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Pitchfork Music Festival

Mark and I’s trip to Pitchfork Festival started out terrible, got worse, then got better, then got worse, then ended great. Thanks for the memories: 1-Arriving tired and with bags still in hand just in time to miss Man Man (making a liar out of me), Destroyer, Art Brut

Pitchfork Music Festival

Mark and I’s trip to Pitchfork Festival started out terrible, got worse, then got better, then got worse, then ended great. Thanks for the memories:

1-Arriving tired and with bags still in hand just in time to miss Man Man (making a liar out of me), Destroyer, Art Brut and the Mountain Goats, but seeing the festival grounds for the first time and the loads of kids in tight gym shorts.

2-Watching Matmos make their album on stage. The floor had rose petals on it.

3-The Futureheads’ wall of harmony making it impossible to watch without earplugs.

4-Free water, beer, ice cream, and snacks is ultimately why I applied to write news for Pitchfork over a year ago.

5-Talking about tattoos with Derek and watching some crazy dude a few seats away laugh like a meth head at everything we said.

6-Locking ourselves out of Marcel’s master bedroom, which meant sleeping on the floor with no sheets. Picking the lock the next day with a credit card.

7- Day two: Missing Tapes ‘N Tapes but catching Danielson, then, afterwards, watching Daniel Smith walk around in the most dad-like outfit ever (collared shirt, tan shorts, black socks pulled high, loafers).

8- Jens Lekman playing with an all-female backing back like some sort of Euro Robert Palmer.

9- Lead singer of CSS stagediving, falling down twice, after the lead singer of Bonde Do Role just broke her arm jumping into the crowd on the same stage.

10- Devendra Banhart talking about how white the festival was, drinking burbon on stage, dancing topless to Os Mutantes later on.

11-Fred Armisen at every single show.

12-Possibly Nick Zinner in a sun hat???

13-Watching Ryan tackle Mark behind the Connector stage.

14-Meeting staffers that I’d only emailed before. Sightings of legendary Pitchfork staffers

15 – Getting free whiskeys and cokes then punching Ryan in the chest as way of saying “Thanks for putting on a good festival”

16 – Getting home w/o worrying about cancelled flights, missed connections, work.

EDIT: I just fixed maybe 10 bad spelling errors in that.

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Recent little bits / Alden Penner

Calexico interview on Pitchfork. I wish I could still use the prefix ‘hometown heroes’ because I love that. Tucson represent. A lil’ Goldfrapp review and a lil’ profile of The Appleseed Cast for Spin’s band of the day. I was sick and missed all of No Fun Fest, which

Recent little bits / Alden Penner

Calexico interview on Pitchfork. I wish I could still use the prefix ‘hometown heroes’ because I love that. Tucson represent.

A lil’ Goldfrapp review and a lil’ profile of The Appleseed Cast for Spin’s band of the day.

I was sick and missed all of No Fun Fest, which was very disappointing. The weekend before I saw Islands, then, the next night and the night after that I saw Alden and Adam. It’s funny because Alden is the third of the Unicorns who did not move on to Islands.

The difference in the way Nick and J’aime, and Alden approach being in a band, or making music was so huge. Alden played in Bushwick with Adam, a violinst who used to play in Arcade Fire. Neither used their last names, nor advertised their former bands. Alden and Adam didn’t bring CDs, merch, any of that stuff except for a few CD-Rs of a show someone had recorded for them, which they gave away for free.

Both shows I saw (the one at Bushwick’s Goodbye Blue Monday, a great wonderful venue/curiosity shop/cafe and 123 No Rio, an activist workspace on the Lower East Side) were for donation only, and each show had about 20 people in the audience, at most. There were no vocals, just Alden on guitar and Adam’s violin, which he layered with the use of an effects pedal.

I talked to Alden for a bit, and though he was nice, he has changed a lot since I met him back in Tucson. It’s probably a combination of his exit from the Unicorns, plus my entry into the music writing world, which I know he loathes. It was still good to see him, and good to see him play especially.

Stuff on my desk that I’m excited about: The Knife, The Fuck-Off Machete (not related), Planning To Rock, Ghengis Tron, Beirut, Human Television, The Gossip.