The music industry congregated in Austin, Texas for its annual hoedown last week. JIM CARROLLchecked out the latest batch of wannabes hoping to escape the cold winds of economic meltdown by making it big. Here are 21 acts coming your way
IT WILL come as news to the thousands of people who spent last week in Austin’s bars and clubs that the music business is in trouble. With close on 2,000 bands playing over four hectic days and nights during the 23rd South By Southwest festival (SXSW), there was an air of “crisis, what crisis?” to the proceedings.
But it was probably a different matter at SXSW HQ. While there may be more punters about for the free parties and showcases thrown by labels, magazines, blogs and international associations, there are definitely fewer industry delegates around this year to pay from $550 to $695 for a festival badge. The economic turndown has seen record labels cutting jobs and costs, meaning fewer expense- account holders to prop up the bar at the Four Seasons Hotel.
You could hear many mutterings of doom and gloom in conversations throughout the cavernous convention centre where delegates went to attend panels, hear keynote addresses from Quincy Jones, Devo and Steve Van Zandt or do business at the trade show.
There were no such bad tidings, though, in the clubs around Sixth Street and Red River. Here, the emphasis was on checking out as many bands as possible.
For the new acts, SXSW is all about making the most of this gilt-edged opportunity to turn audiences into fans. The best way to reach potential fans is to play as many gigs as possible over the week. Indeed, some acts seemed to be playing gigs every hour, on the hour.
However, SXSW is not just about new bands looking for a break. Because there are so many music fans and media reps in one place, you always get a few well-known faces making “surprise” appearances to flog a new product or increase their profile. This year, not-so-secret shows from Metallica, Kanye West and Jane’s Addiction grabbed the headlines.
But it’s the potential headline names of tomorrow who are the real draw in Texas. Here are 21 acts who created a stir at this year’s SXSW ...
Ladyhawke
Pip Brown – better known to us all as Ladyhawke – treated South By Southwest to a sparkly showcase. She talks to JIM CARROLL
THIS IS where Ladyhawke’s campaign to win the hearts and minds of America begins in earnest. In Austin, Texas during South By Southwest, there’s a band singing for their supper on any street corner where there is room to swing a microphone or sit behind a drumkit.
Stubb’s is one of the big venues in the city, an outdoor amphitheatre with room for a couple of thousand people to stare at the act onstage while getting their fingers sticky on choice BBQ from the on-site restaurant.
Tonight, the woman getting all the stares is New Zealand pop star, Pip “Ladyhawke” Brown. As you watch her coming onstage, you remember a quote from her where she said she’s usually so nervous before she goes onstage that she throws up.
At a show like this, where everyone is looking to size her up, she has every right to be nervous. She looks left, then right and starts to play.
Last year, Ladyhawke released a smashing album where she shared her love of soft-rock, electropop and stadium disco with the world. The world was smitten and wanted to hear more.
That self-titled album was a tribute to the pop sounds of the 1980s, created by someone channelling the best efforts of Kim Wilde, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. It shouldn't have worked but, with songs such as Paris Is Burningand My Deliriumit did. And how. Who knew that a wide-eyed Kiwi with big hair would rehabilitate with such style the sounds of the decade that taste forgot?
Brown has heard those comparisons to Ms Nicks and Ms Wilde before. “They’re the ones which always come up – Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, the obvious ones. I guess the stuff that I grew up listening to seeped into me. As I got older, I was researching more bands and I came across ELO and Steely Dan and Hall and Oates, that sort of stuff. I’m just tipping my hat to them on the album and trying to put my own flavour on top as well.”
However, making radio-friendly pop with a tough edge was not Brown’s initial plan. Her childhood was marred by a run of illnesses which had her regularly in and out of local hospitals. One of these illnesses was, she says, “common in seagulls but rarely transmitted to humans”. Brown turned out to be the exception.
In more recent years, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which she believes explains her anti-social, solitary behaviour as a child and her difficulties in dealing with social situations.
It’s not pleasant for any sufferer, but for someone who is expected to gig and do endless rounds of promotion, dealing with Asperger’s can be especially difficult.
“I only have a very mild form of it, but I still get moments when I just don’t feel like I can perform. It happens to me at almost every show, so I’m getting used to it. The thing is I went through my whole life not knowing I had it until only a few years ago. It was a relief to know what it was.”
Brown’s musical ambitions began back in her home town of Masterton where she played drums in the local marching band. Then, as a photography student in Wellington, she played guitar with Two Lane Blacktop, a garage-rock band who had moderate success in New Zealand and Australia.
After that band fell apart, Brown headed to Australia with few plans or contacts and started making experimental art-rock music in a duo called Teenager alongside Nick Littlemore (now one half of Empire of the Sun).
But after a couple of years, Brown wanted to do something which was totally her own. “I wanted to make music that had that same warm feeling that Fleetwood Mac, ELO and The Pretenders gave me.”
Brown decided to use an alter-ego for her new project and that’s where the Ladyhawke handle, taken from a so-bad-it’s-good 1985 fantasy movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer, entered the fray.
“I suppose I thought a different name would allow me to do things I’d never do myself,” she says. “I thought it would be one way to overcome how nervous I am onstage if I could be someone else. I always worry that something will go wrong onstage and make me look a fool so I wanted a fall back plan of some kind.”
Such nerves didn’t follow Brown into the studio, where she’s fastidious about the craft of recording. You get the sense as she reels off her contributions to the album that this is where the multi-instrumentalist is happiest at work.
"I did a little of everything on the album. I played all the guitars, some synth and the drums on Back Of The Van. I play guitar on all of tracks and bass on half of the tracks. On some songs, I play synths, although some of the producers I worked with, like Pascal Gabriel, are synth geeks and classically trained, so I can't compete with that."
That might change with the next record. While she’s currently doing shows such as South By Southwest to let even more people know about her debut album, the second record is already playing in her head.
“It will be different to this one, but in a good way. Trust me!”
It's the evening after the night before and Ladyhawke is playing another show. This is what you do in Austin in March, even when you're a bona-fide pop star. In a tent in a square, Brown and her band play the hits – among them Paris Is Burningand My Deliriumand each song crackles with energy and vim. It's clear to see that Ladyhawke's time is now.
** Ladyhawke plays the Oxegen Festival at Punchestown, Co Kildare on July 10th.
www.myspace.com/ladyhawkerock
Grizzly Bear: grrreat!
Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear seemed to come of age at this year’s South By Southwest. The band release their new album, Veckatimest next month and played two hugely over-subscribed shows to set the buzz for the release. Add in a couple of shows by Department of Eagles, the side-project of the band’s Daniel Rosen, and you really couldn’t get away from the Bear in Austin.
Their gig at the Central Presbyterian Church on the Thursday night was one of the festival highlights. Advance listens to the new album mark it as one of the year’s landmark releases. Grizzly Bear’s atmospheric chamber-pop has taken a major leap forward from 2006’s Yellow House. The band are obviously relishing those new songs. Two Weeks, in particular, was aglow with hushed harmonies and glorious tones.
Older, more familiar material also got a look-in. Knife reminded all that Grizzly Bear are capable of both swinging and soaring. The vocals from Rosen and Ed Droste floated towards the heavens, making you want to coo with delight before you remembered exactly where you were. One of those you-should- have-been-there gigs.
[ www.myspace.com/grizzlybearOpens in new window ]
Local Natives: vocal wonderland
From Silverlake in California, Local Natives are a live tour-de-force with a head-spinning display of indie-rock pick and mix as if Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes started jamming with Talking Heads. Best of all, this barrage of new wave licks, big music choruses and blasts of idiosyncratic melodies make for songs which are high on hooks, memorability and fantastic vocal harmonies.
www.myspace.com/localnatives
Here We Go Magic: sleight of hand
Luke Temple and band arrived in Austin with a self-titled album already gathering rave reviews and left the Lone Star state with a ton of people buzzed up about their live show. It's all about beautifully captivating atmospheric grooves wrapped around gentle songs and downbeat moods. The band will be touring the US in the coming months with Grizzly Bear – a match made in indie-pop heaven. www.myspace.com/herewegomagi
The Golden Filter: Studio 54 revisited
Thumping disco-pop with plenty of vroom from a couple of New Yorkers who’ve been doing their best to maintain a veneer of intrigue. Excellent lead singer and a couple of songs tailor-made for the Studio 54 after-party. Solid Gold is the tune you need for your iPod.
www.myspace.com/thegoldenfilter
Harlem Shakes: transvision vamp
Harlem Shakes may be a bit Vampire Bank Holiday Weekend in places, but they have really strong tunes like Strictly Game when they shake off those influences and hit paydirt.
www.myspace.com/harlemshakes
Titus Andronicus: et tu Bruce?
They’re a bunch of New Jersey bar-bums playings ballsy, blue-collar punk rock tunes and, yeah, we’re sure they have a couple of early Bruce Springsteen albums at home. Easily the most hell-raising, demented performers of the week named after a Shakespearan tragedy.
www.myspace.com/titusandronicus
The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart: party boys
This throwback indie-pop four-piece seemed to be playing every party that was going to recruit fans for their perfectly blended mix of twee, shoegazing and alternative pop songs which could just as well have been written and recorded back in 1986.
www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart
The Tallest Man On Earth: stage presents
Those who have already encountered Swedish singersongwriter Kristian Mattson’s Shallow Grave album know he has one hell of a voice and some magic songs, but SXSW-goers now know he also can weave a spell live. A powerful, mesmerising figure.
www.myspace.com/thetallestmanonearth
Lissy Trullie: blonde with attitude
Hugely buzzy sass and attitude from a lady who seems to be taking her cues from 40 years of Noo Yawk City sounds and poses. There’s a ton of Debbie Harry in there for sure, but she’s also got her mitts on a kind of edgy pop which could lead down some interesting musical alley-ways.
www.myspace.com/lissytrullie
School of Seven Bells: twin peaks
The new band from former Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis sees him hooking up with identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza for a master-lesson in dream pop. Their harmonies and his incand- escent, pristine guitar lines adding wallop to beautiful, ethereal songs.
www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes: hippy joy
Sharpe and co are a dozen freaks and hippies from Los Angeles who arrived in town and proceeded to charm everyone they met with skyscraping tunes. They didn’t confine their hippie-shake to venues either and could be caught busking up and down Sixth Street over the weekend.
www.myspace.com/edwardsharpe
Sam Amidon: exercising his options
The only act at SXSW 2009 to take a break midway through his show to do 20 press-ups onstage, Amidon, from Vermont, has a wonderfully memorable and warm woody voice, perfect for those fully-realised folk songs and story-telling of the highest order which are his bread and butter.
www.myspace.com/samamidon
The Low Anthem: tender folksters
The Rhode Island trio were hard to miss at SXSW, gathering plaudits at every turn for their beautifully realised tender folky tunes. While they add some oomph now and then, it’s really their languid, haunting luxurious sounds which has them at the top of many lists.
www.myspace.com/lowanthem
The Ettes: superbad sounds
Explosive, superbad garage-rock with a snarl from these two girls and one guy now living and working in Nashville. They’ve released two albums to date which are chockablock with greasy hooks, rockabilly riffs and thundering songs. Live, they’re in a class of their own. Two thumbs up.
www.myspace.com/theettes
Micachu & The Shapes: Electric Picnic get ready
There are times when you think that Mica Levi’s tunes are going to fall apart at the seams, but this ramshackle, rumbustious, unvarnished mess is a big part of the Londoner’s charm. Expect her to be the one causing lots of head-scratching at this year’s Electric Picnic.
www.myspace.com/micayomusic
Solid Gold: long time coming
Likable, lush, psychedelic indieelectronica from a Minneapolis band gaining a lot of online love since their Bodies Of Water album came out. They’ve spent about six years already getting that luxurious, fully-rounded sound, which is one part The Knife to one part Junior Boys. Bang on.
www.myspace.com/solidgoldband
Amanda Blank: hip-hop pop
Already in the frame before SXSW thanks to longstanding hook-ups with Diplo and Spank Rock, Amanda Blank gave it socks with a dynamic, driving, energetic set of superior poppy hip-hop. If anyone is looking for this year’s Santogold/Lykke Li, it could be this Philly performer.
www.myspace.com/amandablank
The Knux: New Orleans heavyweights
All in favour of a hard Knux life, raise your hands and wave them in the air like you don’t care. Two New Orleans homeboys and their eager band of heavyweight musos tear the roof off the joint with some gnarly, punchy old-school hip-hop panache.
www.theknux.com
Lisa Hannigan: charms across America
Three rammed-to-the-rafters shows were proof that the word is well and truly out Stateside about Lisa Hannigan and that lovely debut album of hers. Both singer and band produced an unholy show in the Central Presbyterian Church on Friday night. Two words: Damien who?
www.myspace.com/lisahannigan
John Fairhurst: finger pickin’ good
The last act I saw at SXSW 2009 was this awesome blues guitarist from Manchester playing to a couple of dozen tired and emotional souls in a hotel. Fairhurst’s sound runs the gamut from psychedelic finger-pickin’ and Arabic-style wig-outs to Indian ragas and swells of English folk.
www.myspace.com/johnfairhurst
