You know that minute, when you are so saturated with the throng and tired of fighting the tide on yet another street blocked off to accommodate the drunken proletariat? Well, I always have at least one of those per South by Southwest day and a sure fire way to calm me is to surround myself with friendly (albeit snarky) faces. So when parking stress on SoCo was gettin' me down, I slipped into Vivid/Blackmail to get some luv. Fashionista clerks Jeremy and Sherry always have something dishy to say. So I poked them like bears to see what bugged them most about the crowds this year.

Jeremy was in a very good mood (the store was staying nice and bu$y) and said he wasn't bitter yet but still managed this: "Slouch boots. I am so over slouch boots. And sorority girls in slouch boots. You can't take a sorority girl and stick her in a pair of Urban slouch boots and make her a hipster. It just doesn't happen. Wait, that sounds mean. I'm just grumpy because I can't get my coffee. I am not waiting in that line at Jo's."

Owners Gail (click gallery link) and Evan were seen outside pushing their twin babies up street into the sunset. Sweet.

Caught the Moaners from North Carolina at the Continental and Detroit's the Paybacks at the Ale House. Dang. Both sets cranked out new, fucked-up takes on slurpy gutter blues in ways that reflect their home bases. The Moaners are all Flannery O'Conner with lots of pounding and slide electric and the Paybacks are straight up MC5 ... not MC-505, but 5. Period.

You might say they both have the White Stripes in common: The PBs appear on a Jack Black Detroit comp and the Ms are jus' guitar and drummys. Whut? A bit of a stretch, yes, but I am morning blogging. Go look at the pics.

Stumbled upon the 2006-07 Austin Music Award-winning Hudsons last night at B.D. Riley's while awaiting a show next door. Dang. Glad we did. Spry and sprite, this young band full of cutie-pie maestros (seriously, i wanted to pinch all their cheeks, but they were so talented) kicked up quite a jig.