SXSW Recap Part I

This past weekend, nearly 2,000 bands descended on Austin, Texas for the annual SXSW Festival and in the three days that I was there, I managed to see 29 of them. Thirty, if you count the Holy Fuck set that I inadvertently heard while standing within earshot proximity of that outside venue.

Over this extended weekend, Austin transforms itself into an overwhelming and dizzying city, one that makes music virtually inescapable. Just about every bar, restaurant, public park, café and, of course, the local Urban Outfitters reinvents itself as a makeshift venue, playing host to a half dozen bands all intent on impressing the buzz-hungry crowd. This gathering of people consists of label representatives, music journalists, bloggers, radio producers and the random assortment of actual music fans. You can tell the former from the latter—industry people are the ones talking in the back.

And while I’d love to say that all 29—excuse me, 30—bands impressed me, that sadly isn’t the case. I heard a fair amount of mediocrity in my three days there, and in one rare instance, I even witnessed borderline awfulness, but I’d rather share with you the music that truly inspired me rather than tell you something you already know: there’s a lot of "eh" out there.

The Ting Tings – This English duo made such a great impression during their multiple performances at SXSW that even my New York taxi driver had heard about them. Well, kinda. “I just had the Ting Tings in my cab,” he said. “Are they gonna be famous?” “Probably,” I said back. And in truth they should be. Jules De Martino and Katie White aren’t making music for rocket scientists. You can figure this out from the lyrics alone. Take “That’s Not My Name," for example, which repeats the refrain “that’s not my name” over 40 times and, for illustrative purposes, details just some of the other names that people call her incorrectly (“bird,” “Stacey,” “Jane”).

So why are people talking about them if their music is a just superficial, empty calorie ride? For one, the unrepentantly catchy New Wave-influenced pop music that thankfully sounds a hell of a lot better live than on the record. They played at the culmination of a wonderful Diesel Jeans party at 2 a.m. on Saturday night and despite the late hour and a waning crowd, they kept everyone dancing. Their debut record comes out on Columbia pretty soon, which means its good enough for Rick Rubin. “I should have gotten their autograph,” the driver said when I got out. Probably.

The Ruby Suns – Every festival year, there’s always a pleasant surprise, a band you show up to see because you’ve heard a few kind words about them. The night is young—in this case, it’s 8:30 p.m.—and the expectations are low. But while New Zealand’s Ruby Suns could have been acceptably average, they were a joyous discovery. The trio consisting of three awkwardly dressed (bathing suits and tie-dyed T-shirts) multi-instrumentalists alternated between playing unpretentious reverb-drenched fuzz pop, and amalgamations of Afropop and Hawaiian luau music (listen to “These Are Birds” on their website and then tell me this the same band that wrote “Tone Mohuta”). And due to the exotic influences, the Suns will inevitably be lumped in with the Vampire Weekenders, but fear not; there’s no bitter Ivy League after-taste. Sub Pop just released their debut Sea Lion on March 4.

The Heavy – It’s hard to believe that Amy Winehouse was a virtual unknown before last year’s SXSW Festival, but her hard efforts during that weekend resulted in both a successful and controversial year thereafter. Let’s hope fellow old-schoolers the Heavy follow suite… this time without the crack pipe.

While the band purports to sound like the Stooges on their MySpace page, they felt more like a hyper-sexual Troggs or early-Kinks on steroids. And ultimately, the passionate live show culimates into soulful rock with a dirty mind and less so of a debauched mess. I saw them as the perform at a Playboy-sponsored party and the magazine couldn’t have picked a more appropriate houseband. Unleashing every ounce of their collective energy, the dapper fivesome channelled the same R&B that inspired the British Invasion songwriters of the ’60s. And as the first band signed to the newly launched label +1 Records, this group has a heavy responsibility on their shoulders but as their name suggests, they can handle the weight.

[Part II coming tomorrow]

What do you think?