your weekend reading. daughters of invention presents: sxsw 2006 diary

or, how to roll through austin like an f-lister and still have the bestest time ever.

aka, the post so long no one will want to read it.

so. i had been having a shitty, fucked up month health wise leading up to our long ass vacation in austin. i needed a getaway from cold toronto and doctor's offices desperately. it's not like we went to austin for "business" and whatnot. we arrived on wednesday and left the next tuesday. no hightailing out of texas at 5am post afterparty, thank god. i realize it's a total cliche to blog about sxsw at this point, BUT it's what i've been doing for the past while, so if you're interested to hear what i have to say, read on. if not, there are a couple songs to be had, so scroll on. this is also written in the style of me writing to my very closest girlfriend (well, maybe not very closest), so bear with.

pam and i decided to go to sxsw about a month before it actually occurred. we were on the fence about it for a really long time, but in the end we decided to just do it. we went with the cheapest airfare we could find, sans hotel, sans badge, and sans wristband. pure ghetto. mostly, we wanted to check out acts we had never seen live before and let ourselves be guided by curiousity. here's how we fared:

WEDNESDAY MARCH 15TH

we left our houses at 4:30 am for our 7 am flight to memphis. from a 1 hr layover there, we were supposed to catch a flight to austin. unfortunately, our 7 am suffered from "technical problems", so we got left behind with 2 other toronto music biz types who were headed the same way. after lots of panicked scrambling, including the nightmarish statement that we wouldn't get another flight to austin until friday night, we were granted seats on a flight to denver, then an arrival in austin later on in the night. lesson learned: if you're going to austin, try not to do it at the same time as 10 000 other people.

we made it into austin at about 9 or 10 pm, thereby missing all the day festivities. we also found out that our last minute seats had been granted to us by the process of overselling the denver flight. 5 music biz badge holders, who had had the flight and their hotels booked since october were left behind in denver (more about the possibilities of "karma" later). luckily, pam's got pals all over (thank yooouu lisa, chris, brian, lee, and lizelle), so we stayed in a very cozy house that sort of resembled a gingerbread wood lodge. out front were trees that had branches that looked more like roots (which produce their own moisture and rain in the spring), cactii, and these very strange, apparently natural blue plants sprouting out of the ground. throughout the whole neighborhood! someone please tell me what this is!

we were so grateful to have a place to finally put our heads down that we decided to scarf down some thai food and entirely skip wednesday night's activities. which was somehow supposed to include a guest listed flaming lips show. oh well. we slept incredibly well that night.

THURSDAY MARCH 16TH
after having some "tex-mex" style breakfast, we started walking south and ended up at the urban outfitters instore. pam and i stuck around for skeletons and the girl faced boys, who were pretty rad and can-y although the window of urban outfitters isn't exactly an ideal venue. we also decided that their preschoolers just waking up from a nap fashion look (right down to the ankle guard sneakers) was waaayyy better than the scads of faux garage rockers roaming the streets of austin that weekend.

we took off after a bit, managed to confuse our easts and wests, thereby losing some time and not ending up at the vice day thing, and finally wound up at the fader/ levi's trading post. people, if any of you go to austin next year make sure you rsvp for these fader things. they had daytime events every day (some more stacked than others, admittedly), and totally had the best free drink selection (red stripe, slushy soco limes, and those fruity vitamin waters that i drank throughout last year's intonation festival and cannot find in canada). and if you're sort of bored of the goings on, you can head inside and find some levi's that make your drunk ass look good. so thank you fader/ nick catchdubs for having us. we caught a bit of steve aoki's dj set (pop, of course), two bands that sounded like post bloc party/ franz ferdinand fallout and jose gonzalez's live set, which was nice but i just kept thinking "nick drake". and when he played 'heartbeats', i very much wished i was hearing the knife.

so we left the trading post around 5 and moseyed over to the i heart comix bash, which i assumed was going to be amazing, what with them flaunting names such as annie, uffie, and lady sovereign. i think we left after about half an hour, not having seen any of those acts (as they were apparently only doing dj sets? yuck). we did witness cobrasnake guy in action, and had our first taste of giant drag. what i don't understand about sxsw is how i have tapes n' tapes and lavender diamond written about 3 times each on my list of acts to see, don't get to see them at all, but somehow manage to chance into giant drag's try hard retard stage banter twice throughout the weekend. it was like being in the amazing race and fucking up your options so that all the random factors work against you.

we also notice the presence of gigantic myspace tour buses, which we half jokingly guess are full of people pouting into digital cameras aimed at themselves. i later read that bands are actually playing on these things for industry types, which is almost more depressing and weird.

pam and i head out for some mexican dinner and try to settle on an event to check out for the evening. i think thursday night was the only night i really regretted not having a wristband. after being hit on by a couple of 14 year olds, we decide on the beggars showcase, with the rogers sisters at 10 pm and celebration at 1 am - even though indian jewelry, poni hoax, erase errata, xiu xiu, the gossip, man man, velella velella, no things, and the rub are happening at various spots throughout the evening (mostly because i had seen half of those acts before, and had not seen either the rogers sisters or celebration). the thing that absolutely killed us was the 2 hr wait time between the rogers sisters ("b-52's") and celebration (totally great, pam saw rocks tumble from the terrain behind them while they played), which turned into a burnt out migraine snoozefest ("calla"). we head home the second celebration bust out one of their slow jams.

FRIDAY MARCH 17TH
it's warm and lovely in austin (albeit slightly overcast) so i decide to wear a dress. this is important to me because i will not be able to wear a dress in toronto for at least another 3 months.

the first place we hit is the windish/ pitchfork parking lot jam and manage to squeeze in just as hot chip start being annoyed by their sound problems. i dunno, i personally don't think their sound problems are that bad and love off all 15 - 20 minutes of their set. pam and i had decided from the get go that our saturday night plans would be the hot chip/ juan maclean gig, as we had left the night hot chip played toronto. we grab some beers and settle back into the front as spank rock goes on. it's a fun and energetic 20 minutes, and we get to hear a new song called 'race riot on the dancefloor' with a lyric that is sure to be on the tip of everybody's tongue this summer - "shake it till my dick turn racist".

pam and i walk over to the fader/ levi's trading post (their wristband being our favorite accessory of the whole weekend) to check out simian mobile disco. they are not churning out a great set as i had hoped, although i guess 4 pm never does have the same vibe as 4 am. i ask where else they are djing throughout the weekend, and they are nice enough to offer to put us on lists for places where they will be playing. we grab some drinks, crack some jokes, check out some more denim, and head to the next partay.

hustler - simian mobile disco (2006)
cos it's so much like real life. i think this will be released on kitsune in may.

we walk past the soooper long lineup for the $2 insound show featuring clap your hands say boring. yikes! end up cabbing it out to the vice thing. the venue is kind of terrible. the outdoors portion feels like a white trash barbeque hell pit, and the indoors could have used some sort of decent concert lighting or something. we finally locate the free beer and the only group we stick around for is the presets, who are the owners of the tightest pants of the entire festival. musically, pam says they are sort of like the faint fronted by damon albarn. luckily, they are the owners of the tightest pants of the entire festival. pants that tight always walk a fine line between "wow" and "eww". we sort of guessed that annie would not be playing, and we were right, so we left post presets.

we head home to chill out and make some decisions. we cannot afford to suffer the same fate as the previous night. i had rsvped for a dim mak party, and then we remembered that we don't actually like any bands on dim mak. i want to go to the fat cat showcase, but assume that it is all sold out, so we decide to skip it altogether (more on that later though).

we settle on the ttc/ spank rock show. i think the beginning of the evening is spearheaded by some ninja tune dj's and is sooooooo boooooring and makes me feel like a teenager. ttc comes on, and while pam and i tend to be somewhat leery of french rap in general, we cannot help but notice the awesomeness of their dj ("orgasmic the toxicologist" hahaha), who is sporting a long greazy ponytail, a tight patterned turtleneck, and an overall air of fashion designerness that just doesn't exist in north american dj's. the best part is that he still pulls rap dj faces and makes rap dj arm motions! what starts out feeling a bit corny to us turns into a fantastic set of music that nobody understands, but that everybody is going crazy to. the entire room has their arms up in the air and about 15 drunk girls rush up to dance on stage with cuizi, teki, and the other guy. after all that, i am sad to report that spank rock's set turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. for some reason i am surrounded by corpses (industry lames in leather jackets) and really tall people who have no control over their elbows. spank rock is still fun and energetic, as he had been earlier in the day, but in comparison to ttc's totally solid set and amazing build, spank rock felt like he had no momentum and no real show put together. i mean, it's one thing to record some great singles and have people play your songs at parties but i don't wanna hear your dj cueing up all night. good move on the climbing 12 feet into the air atop a speaker and shirt removal though. regardless, pam and i danced our faces off till the club lights went up.

here is a tip for anybody trying to catch a cab after a gig. don't stand on one fucking corner for an hour expecting to get something. walk towards the source. pam and i had a nice 10 minute night walk out of the centre of the action, and finally caught a cab with the nicest, youngest, hilariousest driver with the best stories ever. dude, he offered to give us a lift for free. when does that ever happen??

SATURDAY MARCH 18TH
saturday was a weird mixture of feeling really tired, but also feeling like "this is it. it's the last day. we are going allllllll out no fucking matter what." we hooked up with the berman for brunch and cabbed it out to the arthur day show, which we sensed from around the corner due to the presence of floppy hats and sherpa vests walking along the side of the road. we milled about for the duration of two bands (giant drag and mazarin, both pretty meh) and alternately spent time running away from a photographer toting a wine bottle that was big enough to contain half my body weight and playing "who would stuart date?". apparently beth orton was lookin pretty fine that particular day. pam and i decided to head to the day's fader event while stuart decided arthur was more his vibe for the afternoon.

we missed lady sov and lavender diamond, but managed to slip in for kyp malone, lupe fiasco, love is all and (i guess) michael watts of swisha house. we meet up with a toronto gal pal and the band she is working with on tour and slurp down soco limes. the good times are plentiful. i had been keen to check out love is all, and they put on a great show. sorta reminded me of early 90's indie punk along the enthusiastic lines of huggy bear etc. i don't get to realize my teenage desire to see ghostface. we made dinner plans for 7:30 sharp and we have no idea when and if he will show up, so we leave, reluctantly. hear raves about the afrirampo show at dinner, wish i had been there to see two japanese chicks get carried out of the venue atop the shoulders of fans whilst chanting all the way out the front door.

go home for a second to refresh and jump back into a cab headed towards the parish, where tonight's hot chip/ juan maclean show is taking place. okay so, remember way back on wednesday where i had a said a little thing about the possibilities of "karma"? pam and i hopped out of the cab and literally ran down 6th st to meet up with claire and josh and jules, and ... WE GOT LOCKED THE FUCK OUT OF THE HOT CHIP SHOW. it was BADGES ONLY. i actually howled in frustration in the middle of the street. i started smoking again after quitting for a month. i was angry for a good hour and could barely engage in conversation.

the five of us losers tried to figure out what our alternatives were. i suggested the nxne showcase cos i had missed shout out out out out during cmw due to sick, and i was curious about them. holy fuck were also playing, it would be really nice to hang out with a bunch of canadians in texas, and there was a good chance we'd get in for $0. we headed to the other end of 6th st, walked up to momo's, found a nice spot on the patio, and proceeded to get wrecked as jason collett and s@m R#b&rt$ created a semi-pleasant background drone (weird bill, huh?). we briefly entertain the possibility of checking out the thing that simian mobile disco mentioned to us, but we hear that it is a v magazine party in a clothing store, so it is quickly ixnayed for likely being full of fashiony assholes (fashion parties = usually dull, unless the drinks are free and you're going somewhere funner after. although i do find out later that rory phillips is also supposed to dj, i still don't know if that's enough value to cancel out the badness of a we are wolves show. god i'm such a bitch). anyway, chilling on the patio was way fun and felt a bit like we had all gone to summer camp together. holy fuck had everybody screaming "HOLLEEEEEEEE FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!" but i think the real treat for the evening was edmonton's shout out out out out. a quick description of their live show: 6 guys, 1/2 of them possibly 15 years old. 2 drummers. 2 bassists. lots of electronics. synth drum pads. cowbell. hilariousest stage banter. scissor kicks. singing thru earbuds into a korg. songs that sometimes sound like daft punk crossed with zz top. so much infectious enthusiasm. pam says she cannot remember the last time her face hurt so much from smiling.

tiiiired - shout out out out out (2005)
some of the synth lines in this song are breaking my heart, although overall i think my only criticism is that they need to ditch some of the !!!-isms to really move them forward. i also wish that the recorded output could capture just how big and dynamic sounding the live show is. shout out out out out has a 12" out now, and an album due in june.

did you think it was over? it's not over. it's only just past 2 am.

getting to the vice afterparty proved to be another challenge. it is out in the middle of nowhere, and if i was to judge by their day parties, i'm not even convinced it'll be any good. i mean, you know how it is with vice. 1 part enjoyment to 7 parts exasperation. we manage to catch a cab there, after many desperate attempts. we get dropped off in some industrial looking area, and all we can see are some warehouses and trucks. we walk a little ways and look up ... to see a building that is painted with a desert scene populated with tents, and an enormous blue genie sitting atop the building.

do you know what a mixture of relief and awe feels like? it feels like my jaw dropping to the ground while tears well up in my eyes. no but really, the venue was fantastic. i didn't even give a shit that shitty wolfmother were playing as we walked in. there was lots of local art up on the walls, a huge circuslike backdrop for the bands, and lots of neato props strewn around the 2 room + outdoor area venue. for instance, the dance room, where we spent most of our time, boasted a 10 ft high bust of a woman covered in gold glitter with a disco ball afro. yeah, for real. james f!@.$%"^ friedman played all the hits, including cuts by hot chip, mstrkrft, kavinsky, uffie, and solid groove mixed in with ol nuggets by daft punk, adonis, charlie, and this unreal version of 'can't go for that' that was making me and pam crazy at around 4:30 am. did i mention that the beer was free? it always weirds me out that i can drink like a champion when i go to america, but then i remember it's because american beer is so weak! anyway, dude's set made us really happy. i realized later that the best time we had was at a place that was like some hyper fantasized version of what home is like, but with like, 100 times more people and beatmatching and stuff.

we had bid adieu to claire and company earlier, and ran into vanessa no dynamics and jeff controller, who were toting around a gym bag full of sparks. i fear that we may have ended up sleeping in that warehouse, or perhaps in some rubble-y brush by the side of the road, had it not been for those nice holy fuck people and their van getting us all the hell outta there. pam and i had had no star sightings that weekend, so we very much enjoyed stories of sneaking thurston moore into the animal collective show (i heard that people were sneaking in thru a hole in a fence. imagining thurston moore sneaking into an animal collective show thru a hole in a fence is so grin inducing) and vanessa seeing owen wilson shopping at the new 80 000 sq ft whole foods market barefoot. catching a cab out of holy fuck's hotel is another story altogether, but it ends happily with us strolling in the door and jumping into bed at 6 am.

so that's pretty much it. the key to rolling through sxsw like an f-lister and still having the bestest time ever is taking the funnest, raddest people you know with you and meeting loads of awesomely nice strangers. good company means the shits and giggles are guaranteed to be neverending even if you don't get to do everything you wanted to. i think we got up at 2 the next day, went to eat at kerbey's and had an awesome time listening to elton john at said establishment. he never sounded so good. it was the perfect end, really.