Love it, hate it, ignore it or flock to it, Austin’s South By Southwest has become a yearly spectacle, where vans crammed with starry-eyed rock babies from across the country congregate in the heart of Texas to grab a piece of that music dollar pie (and good Tex-Mex). Since the ANTIGRAVITY staff was too busy to make it this year, we asked some of our friends who were going to share their thoughts and experiences on an event that’s known as everything from a “blow job contest” (Vice) to “summer camp for musicians.” (MTV Hive) From all sides of the stage and both sides of the line, they dished– and it is truly vicarious living!
RORY CALLAIS
Rory Callais is the lead guitarist of Vox and the Hound, a band that’s been busting genres and ripping scene walls down lately. Building from the remains of former bands as different as Silent Cinema and Fatter than Albert, it’s no wonder their sound is so monstrous. They’ve been leaving huge footprints everywhere they play, from a crowded Cafe Prytania to Punk Rock Takeovers at the Big Top.
Vox and the Hound performed with a variety of bands at SXSW, most notably the Migrant, the Tontons, River Whyless, Megafauna and Click Clack Boom. We were also able to attend a brunch for the publication company SESAC, which provided us with some much-needed free sunglasses and lunchtime booze.
We were unofficial, playing off the grid in such disparate places as a pizzeria (J. Black’s), a coffee shop (Dominican Joe) and a saloon (Shiner’s) in the center of Austin’s club district, which provided us with a dubstep serenade as we loaded in and out of the venue.
Our reception varied, with some shows being intimate affairs with small, attentive (if somber) crowds and others featuring drunken sorority girls grinding on our singer, Leo [DeJesus] and pestering our keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist D-Ray to play his trombone for the sole purpose of taking a Facebook-bound picture. However, when we played at the mostly-empty Molotov, we did have a girl who looked around 14 buy our EP, “Hermosa”, and ask us to sign it. She said we were the best band she saw that day, even claiming we were better than Pearl Jam (I have no knowledge of Pearl Jam playing Austin that week, so I’m pretty sure this wasn’t true). She also promised to tell all of her friends at school about us.
Stardeath and the White Dwarf ripped through a set that was equal parts Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath at Friends on 6th street. Fog machines and strobe lights were abundant although they did like to jam on the same monotonous riffs for minutes at a time.
I also ended up in Stubb’s one afternoon and got to unexpectedly see Punch Brothers and Alabama Shakes, both of whom were incredible and bright spots of my week, along with being some of my few flirtations with official SXSW shows.
The place to visit in Austin is Dominican Joe. It’s a coffee shop with a direct relationship with the Dominican farms harvesting the coffee beans, eliminating the middlemen. Half of the sales go to the farm while another half go to a school in the DR. Dominican Joe rewards your altruism with a damn good cup of coffee– and I drink black coffee, which can be a bitter experience if I get it from the wrong place. Dominican Joe is not the wrong place.
I’ve heard SXSW called “Hipster Mardi Gras,” and I find this to be uncannily accurate. There are men in tank tops and women with feathers braided into their hair everywhere. A local clothing store put up a sign stating “WRANGLERS OUT/SKINNY JEANS IN.” Scores of young men and women roamed around downtown Austin with half-shaved heads, looking as if they collectively got in a fight with hair clippers and lost. Still, SXSW is a worthwhile endeavor. It’s essentially speed dating for indie rock, with a music fan able to sample many more acts than they would by cruising local bars. And if you don’t concern yourself with seeing the likes of Bruce Springsteen, there are a lot of discoveries to be made, such as River Whyless and their beautiful indie folk. It makes you feel as if you’re in on some of the best-kept secrets in music.
RUSTY LAZER
When DJ Rusty Lazer isn’t touring the country with Big Freedia, he’s holding down a weekly at St. Roch Tavern and throwing crazy parties like Big Dick’s House of Boobs, a bacchanal that celebrates nekkidness with flesh-colored suits, hot dogs and fish tacos. He’s one of the biggest promoters of bounce right now, and with the whirlwind it’s kicking up, we’re lucky to catch up with him!
I came here with Nicky da B primarily; we traveled deep with a crew from New Orleans, representing a lot of the stuff we love to dance to in our city right now (sorry we couldn’t bring a whole second line with us… next year?). Among those on the showcases I had a hand in organizing were Katey Red, Nola Fam, Mannie Fresh, Luckylou, Jean Eric, Chilldren, JC Styles, Caddywhompus, Magnolia Rhome, Dee 1 and more.
We kicked the whole thing off with a group of bike riders from L.A. called Midnight Ridazz, who invited us to do a guerilla dance party on the Pfluger pedestrian bridge with a three-bike mobile sound system! About 200 kids showed up to go bananas (presidential candidate Vermin Supreme leading the way!) and we tore it up for an hour before the cops showed up. A total success and a great birthday party for Nicky! Oddly enough, it was this “show” that got us on page 2 of the Arts section of the New York Times, with a photo of Nicky and Ro, one of our dancers, shaking that bridge!
Wednesday’s official(ly hijacked by) SXSW showcase was incredible! All of the performers did sets alongside local favorites Nola Fam, Caddywhompus, Prom Date and of course the headliner Mannie Fresh! People loved it and I have to say it’s always a nice reminder that so many people who ended up here in Austin post-Katrina still love that beat and are hungry for a chance to get a taste of home again!
Our Friday show outside Beerland with Timmy Hefner’s Chaos in Tejas was probably the most spontaneously ridiculous performance we gave, with our dancers Lady Business and Ro climbing up in trees and on top of cars to shake it for the whole block to see. Timmy’s a really wonderful and generous promoter and it felt great to be a part of his annual punk (as in leather and spikes punk) festival’s showcase.
I didn’t get a chance to see that many shows, and since Austin is a bit of home for me, the one day I had off I went to Krause Springs (about 30 miles outside of Austin), which I think is possibly the most beautiful place in all of Texas. When we weren’t working I mostly stayed on my new bike (my own having been stolen the first night in town!) and tooled around with our new friends from the bike crew, dancing whenever we could and generally making mayhem. The one exception was Gay Bi Gay Gay, which is a six-year running day-long festival held on a piece of land out by the airport. Probably the biggest name at that show was John Cameron Mitchell (of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame) who performed a couple of his songs and did a DJ set at the end of the night that harkened back to my memories of sneaking into dance clubs in the ‘80s and made me feel nostalgic and a little ancient all at once.
I’d have to say that I’m officially over the official SXSW. They’ve really become quite rapacious in their dealings with outside events and even though they worked with us in the end to help make our shows successful, we really could have done what we did without them. I think they are feeling the pressure to squash the overwhelming amount of free awesomeness going on (probably as a nod to their sponsors more than anything else). But the way they’re going about it is pushy and intrusive. SXSW corporate dominance at this year’s event was at an all time high and it seemed that everywhere we went, we heard this same refrain from other attendees (artists and otherwise).
All in all, I’ll go back again, no doubt, because Austin is so close to family and friends for me, but I’d just as soon play out at Krause Springs, up in a tree or on the back of a bike trailer if I could.
DREW STEPHAN
Drew is a Massplant who’s been heckling gutter punks and playing in punk bands like Small Bones and Adults ever since he landed in New Orleans. He also hosts the weekly trivia night at the Half Moon. But during the day Drew works a fancypants job at C4 Tech & Design, an IT firm, and traveled to Austin after he was selected to speak on a panel about cooperative tech businesses at the South By Southwest Interactive conference (SXSWi).
I had been to Austin a few times for various reasons, but this would be my first festival there. But my excitement slowly melted into creeping dread as I heard more and more about the conference: 500,000 out-of-town people (or something like that), over 800 panels at the interactive conference, 2,000 bands as part of the official roster, not to mention other bands who were just there.
On Saturday my flight got in a little late, so I rushed to the House Of Commons (a co-op house with about 30 students living in it and about a 100 bathrooms) on West Campus where I was staying, ditched my stuff, said hi to some people and ran out to meet some friends on 7th and Red River. I took a bus that actually arrived on time and got me nominally close to where I wanted to go. First sign that Austin is not New Orleans.
On Sunday I didn’t get out of bed until 11. When I finally made it down to the Austin Convention Center (ACC) to check in, the place was a terrifying hellstorm of publicity stunts, glossy posters, shitty swag and throngs of humanity everywhere. I caught some sessions, none of which were illuminating or useful in any way. As a general rule, “experts” of social media don’t know what they’re talking about, ever. Imagine that.
I went to the Black Star Co-op in North Austin for food, beer, solidarity and pub trivia, accidentally. We ended up tying for 3rd and would have come in 2nd if I could have fucking remembered Phillip Michael Thomas’ name. But I did win a free beer for knowing where the late Leslie Cochran was planning to move (Colorado) before he passed in early March. Once I got the beer, I had to pour out a little for Leslie.
The panel I was speaking on was at 9:30 on Monday. There were about 20 people there. I drank way too much coffee and kept using the phrase “…and things like that.” After that, the day was a blur of listening to panelists shill their products, sitting on the floor of the ACC using the internet and chasing down the free food and booze offers I saw on @SouthByFreeNoms and @SouthByFreeDrinks. I’ve been wary of Twitter since the very beginning, but since it got me all this free stuff we’ve brokered a tentative peace deal.
That night I called my friend Jane and met up with her at the French Legation Museum, where there had been music and free beer. By the time I got there, neither existed anymore, just some weirdo kids doing bad circus tricks and 2 dollar beers. Bah. Then we headed to the Shangri-La for a video game release party for God Of Blades from some company called White Whale. Again, no free beer or food. After grabbing a bad-ass burger from the Tenderland food truck, we headed over to the High Ball (part of Alamo Drafthouse) for karaoke with some SXSW Film folks. 2 AM snuck up on us and we got kicked out. Closing time, what the hell?!
On Wednesday I finally got to sleep in and it was glorious. Of course, sleeping in a room with 2 other people means lots of noise but I was so tired it didn’t matter. I slept till noon then headed to Barton Springs for some cold swimming and relaxing by the pool. On the way back to the house, I saw Eugene Mirman just off campus. He looks like he’s channeling Daniel Johnston. We weren’t far from the “Hi, How Are You” mural on Guadalupe, so I guess he was drawing power from it?
After some dinner at Ruby’s BBQ (omfg so good) and some chill time back at House Of Commons, a bunch of us headed to 21st Street Co-op and Eden House for some music. We caught a band called Magnificent Snails at Eden who were okay– but another shitty band name! At 21st, some generic-sounding indie band was playing and the bassist was on this beautiful Rickenbacker hollow body that I was coveting so hard. I drank a ton of beer to try to make the music sound okay and called it a night relatively early so I could wake up for my flight. Austin: We’ll hang out sometime when you’re not so busy.
MUSA
Musa’s Saturday night party at the Saint, simply called Obsession, has come to be known and feared throughout New Orleans as a night of dancefloor chaos and pulsing mania. Obsession also keeps pushing later and later into the night, threatening to take over Sunday too. She didn’t quite know it, but her trip to SXSW to DJ for Spank Rock turned into an audition to join his crew and guess what? She landed the gig!
Spank Rock was slated to play the Windish Agency, Iheartcomix, Biz 3 Publicity Agency and the Ninja Tunes showcases. The Windish and Biz 3 shows were definitely my favorite. The audiences were pumped, the sound was great and we went fucking nuts, and I stage dove at the Biz 3 show. Iheartcomix was cool because we played between Dan Deacon and Andrew WK, but the sound guys were too busy getting wasted and blew our sound, so it kept cutting out. The Ninja Tunes showcase was silly; the sound person poured a beer on the surge protector I was using and it blew up, then electrocuted our friend. The crowd was stoked to see us play two songs, though.
Andrew WK killed it at the Iheartcomix showcase. That dude is a super rad party bro. We hung with him at the Spin artist’s dinner and made him take an awkward photo with us. The Spin dinner was really fun because we got wasted and laid in the grass, ate good food and made jokes on jokes on jokes. I mean that sounds lame but it was collectively one of our favorite times during the trip. The Drums were amazing; I saw them twice, the second time at the Mad Decent/Check Yo Ponytail show. Johnny’s voice is incredible. Also, we had prickly pear margaritas with him. I also saw Santigold at the Fader Fort. She always kills it. I loved seing Bosco Del Ray at the Beauty Ballroom for the Mad Decent/C.Y.P. showcase. He has that hot chick Alix Brown playing with him now. I also caught the bounce showcase and saw Nicky Da B and Katey Red and Rusty Lazer (Hi Rusty!). They tore it up but my favorite part of that show was Akrum, wasted and saying mad funny shit.
I ate with @Lilinternet at one of the best restaurants in the universe: Hudson on the Bend. It’s like 100 years away from downtown but well worth the trip. We ate rattlesnake, venison, rabbit, buffalo and edible flowers. We also ate at Torchy’s twice and loved the Democrat and fried avocado tacos. Also got drunk and ate Lucky Charms in bed with our tour manager, Emily Rabbit, and at the time thought that was the best meal I ever had.
The first 2 days I was there I was a social leper because I didn’t have my wrist band yet and didn’t RSVP to anything. I tried meeting Diplo at Speakeasy on Tuesday night but they told me to go kill myself at the door and his text back to me said “Haha I’m going to sleep.” I went to the Flavor Pill party and saw Pictureplane but no real shenanigans ensued with him, just posi vybez. Then we got to witness the “race riot” at the Vice party between Trash Talk fans and A$AP Rocky’s camp. That was lame but we did have fun waiting in line to get in, telling the door guy I was Lana Del Skrillex Fader Fort III.
Sunday night we went to the last night of Beauty Bar (yeah, it’s closing) and saw Ninja Sonik. It was an all-star cast of fools.
SXSW kinda changed my life, LOLz. I had always wanted to play it and I always wanted to DJ for Spank Rock, and the two things happened for me at the same time! Naeem, Johnny Nelson, Rabbit and I just had the most fun ever, like even if something sucked we made it funny and fun. It was total love magic.
J YUENGER
You probably know J as the guitarist from White Zombie and you may be aware of his studio production credits, which include everything from Rik Slave and the Phantoms to Ballzack– but did you know he’s also a master blogger? JYuenger.com is a virtual funhouse of tidbits, photos, essays, punk rock memorabilia and is generally just an excellent rest stop on the internet highway.
This year I did some mentor sessions, which is basically giving advice to people about the music industry. I talked to musicians mostly– solo artists and band members– but also a couple of people starting out in management and recording.
It went really well. Basically, it was common sense stuff but people appreciate the validation. A rapper asked if she should move to Atlanta. I said yes, definitely. A guy who works for a management company told me that he has an artist who’s starting to do well but won’t give up control of day-to-day stuff he has no time to deal with. I asked this guy if he’d simply said to the artist: “You have to let me handle more of this stuff because you have no time to.” He admitted that no, he hadn’t.
I was at the Scoot Inn a lot, which is where the metal was. I saw High On Fire twice– they’re always great. Black Breath, who are probably my favorite super-aggressive band right now, was awesome. Off!, the classic hardcore supergroup, was probably the single funnest gig, also at Scoot Inn. I saw the NOLA-NYC band Star & Dagger a couple of times: once at the new Emo’s, which is a really big place and once at Headhunter’s, which is tiny. They had a very good reception for a brand new band, which leads me to think that they’ll do very well.
One thing I hadn’t done before is go to movies. I saw the U.S. premiere of Iron Sky (you know, the Nazis on the moon movie), which I’d been looking forward to for a long time and which I found totally disappointing– also the Bad Brains documentary (Bad Brains: a Band in D.C.), which was pretty good.
