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Live Shots

Sarah Jarosz Momo’s, Friday, March 19 She’s only 18, but Sarah Jarosz possesses a very old soul. She may not have set out to prove it with this set, but that’s exactly what she did, with songs from Patty Griffith, Bob Dylan, Shel Silverstein, Tom Waits, and the Decemberists, performed in a style that’s almost…

by Jim Caligiuri

Day Party Crawl

Mess With Texas 1001 E. Sixth, Friday, March 19 Local promoters Transmission Entertainment’s two-day party started life in 2007 mixing hip alt-comedians and their favorite bands at Red 7. After a couple of years in Waterloo Park, the latest rock (and nothing else) incarnation has switched to scrubland east of I-35. Admiral Radley typifies the…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

Smokey Robinson, Raphael Saadiq, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Mayer Hawthorne Austin Music Hall, Friday, March 19 Opening a stellar lineup representing more than half a century of R&B, from Motown to Daptone, hipster heartthrob Mayer Hawthorne, decked in a skinny tie and red cardigan sweater, pieced together A Strange Arrangement with his fourpiece…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

World’s Largest Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Amy Elliott, Elizabeth Donius What makes a man want to build the world’s biggest lava lamp? From the 40-foot metal stalks of wheat in Williston, N.D., to the bull-sized fiberglass killer bee of Hidalgo, America’s heartland has long been a home to giants. As happy visionary Brent Blake…

by Richard Whittaker

Day Party Crawl

Music by the Slice Home Slice Pizza, Friday, March 19 Anchoring South Congress’ day show scene, Home Slice’s annual pizza party on its back patio remains one of the best out-of-the-fray lineups. An early set from Park the Van discovery Generationals lifted tight, harmony-infused Kinksian rock and pop, culminating best with indie anthem “When They…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Film

The Living Room of the Nation Documentary Feature, SX Global D: Jukka Karkkainen Finlanders are known more for their buttoned-up silence than their willingness to share their most intimate thoughts. But as producer Sami Jahnukainen noted at the film’s first North American screening here March 15, a single camera placed in living rooms across Finland…

by Amy Smith

SXSW Film

The Red Chapel Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites D: Mads Brügger, Johan Stahl (assistant director) That The Red Chapel was made at all is impressive; that it is often hilarious is a bonus. Operating from the premise that “comedy is the soft spot of all dictatorships,” director Mads Brügger, comedian Simon Jul Jørgensen, and self-described “spastic”…

by Cindy Widner

Ballroom Dancing

Meet the New Soul – Same as the Old Soul? Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 19 Is the new soul the same as the old soul? As panelist Bob Davis of Soul-Patrol.com said over and over, “It’s all part of the thing.” Truth be told, new soul was an afterthought, with the recent retro-soul resurgence…

by Thomas Fawcett

Live Shots

Japan Nite Elysium, Friday, March 19 Having conquered American baseball, the land of the rising sun has long set its eyes on yet another American distraction: rock & roll. The lovely ladies of JinnyOops!, touring as a trio after losing their horns last year, poured it on a bubble-free set that rocked Runaways hard. The…

by Dan Oko

Live Shots

The So So Glos Club 1808 II, Friday, March 19 Bands worth your time meet three criteria. First, they look like they’re enjoying what they are doing. Second, they’re good at it. Finally, they’re not embarrassed by what they do. This is all a long way of saying that New York’s So So Glos not…

by Michael Bertin

Ballroom Dancing

CBGB Stories Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 19 The spirit of CBGB lives in more than just the T-shirts you see worldwide. Drawing together a few of the people who were there when club owner Hilly Kristal opened its doors to New York City’s underground rock scene in 1973, the memories flowed for more than…

by Jim Caligiuri

Off the Record

Chimes of Freedom In the chapel of the Travis County Correct-ional Complex on Friday afternoon, Wayne Kramer introduced himself to inmates by way of a confession: “I’m Wayne. I’m an alcoholic.” The former MC5 guitarist is the subject of the Clash’s 1978 B-side “Jail Guitar Doors” and a testament to the vision of Billy Bragg’s…

by Austin Powell

Live Shots

Band of Skulls Beauty Bar/Palm Door, Friday, March 19 Band of Skulls know what they are and what they are is Cream-y, blooze-rawk goodness, thick with the leftover three-chord grime of guitarist Russell Marsden’s molten riffs fighting a losing battle against Emma Richardson’s gnarly basslines and Matt Hayward’s ferocious abuse of his Yamaha drum kit.…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Jimmy Tupper vs. the Goatman of Bowie Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Andrew Bowser; with Bowser, Pedro Gonzalez, Chris Jones Part shaky-cam scarefest, à la Blair Witch, and part … something else, it’s difficult to pinpoint what makes Jimmy Tupper intriguing. Part of it is director/actor Bowser’s insistence that the first-person footage not be handholding exposition, plunking us…

by Wells Dunbar

Ballroom Dancing

What Becomes a Legend Most? Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 19 Any discussion of music legends this year was guaranteed to focus on the late great Alex Chilton, who died this week prior to coming to South by Southwest, where he was scheduled to play. And this free-flowing sit-down was a case in point, though…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Film

Dance With the One Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Mike Dolan; with Gabriel Luna, Xochitl Romero Locally grown and cultivated, Dance With the One is the culmination of a graduate student project midwifed through the screenwriting, filming, and production stages by the considerable talent on hand at the University of Texas Film Institute. The film…

by Melanie Haupt

Ballroom Dancing

The Kids Are Alright Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 19 Senior Chronicle Music scribe, Austin Music Awards engine, and teen-rock mentor Margaret Moser argued for the tremendous power of young people playing serious music. The question is: How do we promote and encourage it? Kim Fowley, former manager of the Runaways, burst into the room…

by Melanie Haupt

My SXSW

The guard captain walks up to the mic and says, “Y’all couldn’t go to South by Southwest, so we’ve brought South by Southwest to you.” So began the most exclusive panel of this year’s Music Festival. You’d need more than a wristband to get in here. The Travis County Correctional Complex is Austin’s local jail…

by Billy Bragg

Live Shots

The Carrots Beauty Bar Backyard, Friday, March 19 One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found, Rhino’s fabulous 4-CD box set from five years ago, contains a track called “Sophisticated Boom Boom,” and that’s a pretty good descriptor of the Carrots’ sound. The three-girl, three-boy Austin sextet is doing more than…

by Audra Schroeder

Ballroom Dancing

Women Write Women’s Experiences in Music Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 19 Iggy Pop announcing he has to take a piss, then doing so inches from where you’re standing. Getting French-kissed by 91-year-old Bill Monroe. Being threatened with bodily harm for being in the audience of the music you love. Being given “the test” to…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

And Everything Is Going Fine Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites D: Steven Soderbergh The great monologist Spalding Gray delivers something of a posthumous autobiography in this documentary by Soderbergh that cohesively pares down more than 900 hours of available Gray footage (gray matter?) into a 90-minute movie. The film will appeal mostly to those already familiar…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Ice Cream Man Presents!

Saturday’s Flavor: Carsick Cars A couple years ago I had the good fortune of attending All Tomorrow’s Parties in England. Ice Cream Man was supposed to sling a bunch of cream at the event, but things fell through. Since I already had my plane ticket and ATP had a spare room, I flew across the…

by Matt Allen

SXSW Film

American: The Bill Hicks Story Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas; with Bill Hicks, Dwight Slade When Bill Hicks was really on – which, toward the end of his far-too-brief 32 years, was nearly all the time – he was on fire; hearing him unload on the Gulf War or the religious…

by Robert Faires

Live Shots

Band of Horses Central Presbyterian Church, Friday, March 19 After conquering Stubb’s the night before, Band of Horses corralled into the more intimate and sonically honed Central Presbyterian Church, perfect sanctuary for Ben Bridwell’s slow-rising, ethereally echoed vocals and the quintet’s galloping guitar jams. Opening with the title track from their upcoming May release, Infinite…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Gay Witch Abortion Soho Lounge, Friday, March 19 If you’re going to be in a metallic twopiece, you either need to go massive or go home. Fortunately for Minneapolis’ Gay Witch Abortion, they bludgeon like Black Sabbath – if Bill Ward and Tony Iommi had sacked Ozzy and Geezer and started listening to experimental jazz.…

by Richard Whittaker

Day Party Crawl

Girls Rock Camp Austin Cafe Mundi, Friday, March 19 With the positive reviews the new Runaways movie has been getting during South by Southwest, it was a shame Joan Jett canceled her trip last-minute. Still, Friday afternoon she was there in spirit, a guitar she’d signed resting on a table by the entrance of Cafe…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

World Peace … and Other 4th-Grade Achievements Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Chris Farina It might be unusual for fourth-graders to study the philosophy of Sun Tzu, but it’s routine in the classroom of Charlottesville, Va., teacher John Hunter, who regularly quotes passages from The Art of War – a book about “how to avoid…

by Nora Ankrum

SXSW Film

Ain’t In It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Jacob Hatley One suspects that even if he knew nothing about Levon Helm’s musical status as one of the members of the legendary Sixties group the Band, director Hatley still would have been inclined to shoot this documentary –…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Live Shots

Carolina Chocolate Drops Victorian Room at the Driskill, Friday, March 19 Durham, North Carolina’s roots-music buzz band took the stage to a capacity room on Friday night, leading off with the rollicking “Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind.” Bowler-hatted Dom Flemons stomped his feet and buzzed into a ceramic jug as fiddler Justin Robinson sang…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

War Don Don Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Rebecca Richman Cohen Issa Sesay is a convicted war criminal. The tragically small number of Westerners who followed the 11 years of blood-soaked revolution in the African state of Sierra Leone know that, and it’s the first fact presented in this measured analysis of Sesay’s five-year trial.…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Texas Shorts Shorts Program A shorts program leaves one wondering about the form’s essence: Is it poetry? A moment exploded? A feature condensed? A punch line? The answer, of course, is all of the above. The best here is Miguel Alvarez’s haunting “Mnemosyne Rising,” about a man alone in a spaceship who learns he’s about…

by Joe O'Connell

Nneka

Following the Black President into the Concrete Jungle

by Dan Oko

SXSW Film

Rejoice and Shout Documentary Feature, 24 Beats per Second D: Don McGlynn; with Smokey Robinson, Mavis Staples, Andraé Crouch Madalyn Murray O’Hair herself (may her pieces rest in peace) could toe-tap to this evangelical shout to music’s higher power. Far beyond Gospel 101, Rejoice and Shout digs deep to the fleshy roots of gospel music…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Film

NY Export: Opus Jazz Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Henry Joost, Jody Lee Lipes A visual feast of color and physical beauty unfolds throughout this “ballet in sneakers,” a film adaptation of the 1958 gem by Jerome Robbins, who choreographed this piece as a companion to his famed West Side Story. Shot on location in…

by Amy Smith

Live Shots

Alejandro Escovedo & the Sensitive Boys Orchestra Jo’s Coffee, Friday, March 19 Adoring Alejandro Escovedo fans crammed the parking lot behind Jo’s Coffee on South Congress Friday night for the long-awaited return of the local rocker leading an orchestra. They got a preview of his new album, Street Songs of Love. Looking in fine form,…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

Hood to Coast Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Christoph Baaden, Marcie Hume; with Katy Ryan Sometimes the race is secondary, Baaden and Hume tell us in this beautifully shot and heartfelt doc about an annual team running event from Oregon’s Mount Hood, past Portland and on to the ocean’s edge. Instead, as in most successful…

by Joe O'Connell

Day Party Crawl

Village Voice Media La Zona Rosa, Friday, March 19 After last year’s double-digit performance effort by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, it seemed like they were making a run at trying to eclipse Jon Langford’s performance record for South by Southwest in a decade. Problem was, it wore them down and they fell…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Film Reviews

Amer Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani; with Cassandra Forêt, Charlotte Eugène-Guibbaud, Marie Bos, Bianca Maria D’Amato Largely gestural, this French-language film outlines one woman’s life as she experiences it during three moments: as a child (Forêt), as an adolescent (Eugène-Guibbaud), and as an adult (Bos). All three highly sexual moments place Ana…

by Ashley Moreno

SXSW Records

Ray Davies The Kinks Choral Collection (Decca) Shouldn’t that be The Kinks Khoral Kollection, as in Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy, both 1965? Their kreator, Raymond Douglas Davies, revisits the era with surprising sincerity and success, the first lines of opener “Days” acting as prologue to a celebration of the Kinks (sorry, last one)…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Titus Andronicus The Monitor (XL) The Monitor is a near perfect union of cacophony and immature angst. It’s impudent and insolent and a little smarter than it needs to be. It’s like a punk rock record but with enough actual musical competency to carry the songs out. That sounds trivial until you see that, much…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Records

Quasi American Gong (Kill Rock Stars) Quasi’s eighth studio album sees the permanent addition of touring bassist Joanna Bolme from the Jicks. The result is a bigger sound from the Portland, Ore., lo-fi indie rockers, and the best evidence of this bulked-up aesthetic is epic “Bye Bye Blackbird.” What starts out as vague guitar noodling…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

The XX XX (Young Turks/XL) Is it raining where you are too? Is there one too many toothbrushes sitting forlornly by your bathroom sink, bristling with minty sad memories? Are you going to throw it away, or use it as a boot-scrubber, a once fine, now masochistic flagellant with which to feebly scrape away what…

by Marc Savlov

Live Shots

Brownout Scoot Inn, Thursday, March 18 Brownout, the alter ego of the wildly successful, Grammy-nominated local Latin big band Grupo Fantasma, is Austin’s premier funk mob. Mob is an apt description for them, too. Ten musicians – two guitars, three drummers, three horns, bass and keys – barreled through their allotted 40 minutes almost nonstop.…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Film

Higanjima Narrative Feature, SX Fantastic D: Tae-Kyun Kim; with Hideo Ishiguro, Dai Watanabe, Asami Mizukawa, Koji Yamamoto In Kim’s film adaptation of Koji Matsumoto’s manga of the same title, Akira’s (Ishiguro) older brother, Atsushi (Watanabe), disappears. After two years, Akira learns from a new acquaintance, Rei (Mizukawa), that Akira’s brother is alive, battling the undead…

by Ashley Moreno

The Cry of the Owl

Based on the 1962 Patricia Highsmith novel, this mood-heavy film contemplates what happens to a stalker when the object of his obsession returns the favor.

by Kimberley Jones

Band of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, Los Lonely Boys, Los Texas Wranglers, Brownout, The Belleville Outfit, White Denim, Spoon, Matt the Electrician

by Chronicle Staff

Best Latin Traditional

RUNNERS-UP: Joel Guzman & Sarah Fox, Grupo Fantasma, Del Castillo, Texas Tornados, Trio Los Vigilantes, Hector Ward & the Big Time, Cienfuegos, The Brew, El Tule

by Chronicle Staff

Best Songwriter

RUNNERS-UP: Sarah Jarosz, Ray Benson, Julian Fernandez, Matt the Electrician, Shelley King, James McMurtry, BettySoo, Black Joe Lewis, Wendy Colonna

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Life 2.0 Documentary, Festival Favorites D: Jason Spingarn-Koff Using the research methods of a trained journalist and the storytelling skills of a filmmaker, first-time documentary filmmaker Jason Spingarn-Koff creates a thoroughly engrossing film about something that has engrossed others: Second Life. Much more than a video game, players navigate an alternate reality world they either…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Records

Efterklang Magic Chairs (4AD) Efterklang’s Magic Chairs is what Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible would have sounded like if it had been written for the church instead of just recorded in one. Not that this Danish quartet preaches the gospel, but its somber art-pop and disciplined chamber orchestration beckon for stained-glass treatment. The band’s third LP…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

We Are Wolves Invisible Violence (Dare to Care) First impressions here honk open a synth figure and guitar burp straight out of MGMT, with just enough Death From Above 1979 to assure you this clanging Montreal trio is sérieux. That’s when “Paloma” veers rock en Español, Control Machete meets Plastilina Mosh, so by the time…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Anti-Pop Consortium Fluorescent Black (Big Dada) Like Warp, which put out 2002’s Arrhythmia, the Ninja Tune/Big Dada family always encouraged the union of hip-hop and electronica. The London label gave New York’s Anti-Pop Consortium free rein to turn the knobs and hype up the bizarre on Fluorescent Black, the New York foursome’s first album since…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Film

The Weird World of Blowfly Documentary Feature, 24 Beats Per Second D: Jonathan Furmanski Rap Dirty, a nonpareil piece of musIcal raunch, was released seemingly out of nowhere in 1965 by Blowfly, aka Clarence Reid, to arguably become the first rap record. But despite dropping filthy, parody-laden “party records” throughout the 1970s and beyond, Reid…

by Wells Dunbar

Live Shots

Peter Rosenberg’s Noisemakers With Bun B Aces Lounge, Thursday, March 18 UGK hit “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” thumping in the background, Texas rap legend Bun B descended the stairs of Aces Lounge after hearing what amounted to his living eulogy, read by Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg. The sixth edition of Rosenberg’s Noisemakers series,…

by Thomas Fawcett

Ballroom Dancing

SXSW Interview: Feargal Sharkey Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 18 What if Feargal Sharkey hadn’t sent the Undertones debut single “Teenage Kicks” to UK deejay godhead John Peel? For one thing, Peel would’ve played more of the Fall, itself a seeming impossibility. Fortunately, the late Peel’s golden ear failed no one, and the Undertones’ 1978…

by Marc Savlov

Best New Band

RUNNERS-UP: The Bright Light Social Hour, Conjunto Los T-Birds, Mother Falcon, The Ruby Jane Show, The Trishas, The Daze, Vitera, Quiet Company, Heartless Bastards

by Chronicle Staff

Best Metal

RUNNERS-UP: One-Eyed Doll, Scary Mary, Baron Grod, Baphemetis, Powderburn, Sinistra, Done Deal, Blunt Force Trauma, Butcherwhite

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Audrey the Trainwreck Emerging Visions, World Premiere D: Frank V. Ross; with Anthony J. Baker, Alexi Wasser Audrey the Trainwreck couldn’t be more casual if it came swathed in a pair of sweats. Inscrutable title aside, it’s more concerned with the way regular people – stoic or defeated, take your pick – get up and…

by Kimberley Jones

SXSW Records

U-N-I A Love Supreme 2.0 (London Live) Blog darlings hailed as the next big thing in L.A. after their Love Supreme mixtape made it cool to emulate Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak, U-N-I earns its through-the-roof confidence on debut release A Love Supreme 2.0. Thurzday and Y-O come off as charismatic as Kanye throughout, riding a…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Pierced Arrows Descending Shadows (Vice) Fred and Toody Cole, patron saints of Northwest punk rock, have kept it pretty real through three decades of music-making, putting out their own albums and touring like it kept them alive. After Dead Moon disbanded in 2006 after 20 years together, it wasn’t long before the Coles and new…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Skyzoo The Salvation (Duck Down) Anointed the next king of New York after 2007’s Corner Store Classic, Skyzoo was rewarded with a murderer’s row of beatmakers in putting together The Salvation. Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, and Black Milk (“Penmanship”), among others, helped concoct this ode to NYC’s Lox-laden street dominance of the 1990s, a canvas…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Film

Saturday Night Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: James Franco; with Franco, John Malkovich, Lorne Michaels Actor-turned-filmmaker Franco takes his unassuming self and his HD camera into the bowels of late night’s most enduring legend to find out how it’s made. For fans of Saturday Night Live (or TV in general), it’s surely engrossing, but it’s…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

11/4/08 Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Jeff Deutchman A year and a half later, the worldwide hope generated by the election of President Barack Obama has long since painfully collided into the discouraging pragmatism of governance. It’s difficult to recall the international euphoria sparked by the possibility of momentous change, and this “participatory documentary” –…

by Michael King

Ballroom Dancing

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary Tribute Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 18 “If there was one event on the modern jazz timeline that’s most divisive, it would be the coming of jazz-rock fusion at the close of the Sixties,” began veteran music journalist Ashley Kahn. “And if there is one album that most…

by Thomas Fawcett

Musician of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: Black Joe Lewis, Sarah Jarosz, Ray Benson, Willie Nelson, Julian Fernandez, Matt the Electrician, Shelley King, Carolyn Wonderland, BettySoo

by Chronicle Staff

Best None of the Above

RUNNERS-UP: More Cowbell, Conjunto Los T-Birds, Girl Guitar, The Invincible Czars, Matt the Electrician, White Ghost Shivers, 25 Smokin’ Figurados, Trio Del Rio, The Jitterbug Vipers

by Chronicle Staff

Love Bath

SXSW 2010 keynote speaker Smokey Robinson originally wanted to be a cowboy, but they didn’t have any horses in his hood

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Sixteen Deluxe Year One (Bunkhaus) “You almost hit me, like, five times,” exclaims singer Carrie Clark as Sixteen Deluxe’s signature song “Idea” squalls shut. “Jeff’s, like, totally rocking out, [and I’m like], ‘Shit! It’s like being in the front row of a Jesus Lizard show!'” Where David Yow and company gnashed reptilian, first generation post-punk…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Chico Mann Analog Drift: Muy …Esniqui New Jersey’s Chico Mann is the alter ego and solo side project of Antibalas guitarist Marcos Garcia. On Analog Drift: Muy … Esniqui, Mann explores the outer realms of Afrobeat with a Casio keyboard and a mother ship full of synthesizers. Call it 8-bit Afrobeat. In the wake of…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Records

Local Natives Gorilla Manor (Frenchkiss) There’s something in the floating harmonies of this incredible young L.A. band that will stop you in your tracks. Not as rustic as Band of Horses, Local Natives can’t be contained in the rubric of jam-happy beard bands. Simultaneously bristling with paranoia and basking in sunshine, the band’s Pixies-like approach…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Fool’s Gold (I Am Sound) Fool’s Gold expands globally upon co-founding guitarist Lewis Pesacov’s side project, Foreign Born, in every possible direction. The 10-plus L.A. collective fuses elements of African funk, Western pop, and, in the Hebrew vocals of Israel-born bassist/songwriter Luke Top, even a bit of the Middle East into joyous jams that will…

by Austin Powell

Day Trips

The Collin Street Bakery along the northbound side of I-35 in Waco serves up fruitcakes for weary travelers

by Gerald E. McLeod

Live Shots

Bajofondo/Banda de Turistas Auditorium Shores/Flamingo Cantina, Thursday, March 18 The Argentines were represented on both ends of the musical spectrum with the mature and the seasoned and the new and eclectic. The electro tango collective known as Bajofondo played its first South by Southwest to a packed audience at Auditorium Shores that was soon won…

by Belinda Acosta

SXSW Film

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Eli Craig; with Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss In the horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, a group of college students travels for spring break to the Appalachians. After forgetting beer, they stop at a local gas station. There, they first run into…

by Ashley Moreno

Ballroom Dancing

How to Make Money With Vinyl Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 18 Grooves are in orbit, but the most pertinent subjects addressed by the panel of waxperts were how long it can last and how big the vinyl bubble will be able to grow. While the panelists posed confidence in its near-term future – a…

by Doug Freeman

Album of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: Song up in Her Head, Sarah Jarosz (Sugar Hill); Willie and the Wheel, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel (Bismeaux); Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears (Lost Highway); No Boundaries, Los Texas Wranglers; Animal Boy, Matt the Electrician; Heat Sin Water Skin, BettySoo; Fits, White Denim (Downtown);…

by Chronicle Staff

Best Punk

RUNNERS-UP: Scary Mary, The Midgetmen, Krum Bums, Opposite Day, Adrian & the Sickness, Riverboat Gamblers, Lower Class Brats, Blunt Force Trauma, Mocktigers

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Fanfarlo Reservoir (Canvasback/Atlantic) Formed in London in 2006 by Swedish musician Simon Balthazar, Fanfarlo finally unleashed its debut, Reservoir, last year. The largely acoustic quintet has been described as Beirut meets Okkervil River: There’s the rollicking, rootsy melodies of Okkervil and the almost vaudevillian use of brass and strings per Beirut. There’s also an element…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra Black Dynamite (Original Motion Picture Score) (Wax Poetics) Every black superhero needs a badass theme to accompany his pimp strut. Credit composer Adrian Younge with outfitting Black Dynamite in the finest sonic furs: “When you see him, don’t have shit to say,” warns “Black Dynamite Theme” over a crawling bassline. “He…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Records

Let’s Wrestle In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s (Merge) Don’t let the art rock homage in the album’s title mislead you. There’s nothing progressive about London’s Let’s Wrestle. They probably couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort to be that proficient about anything. Except maybe drinking. Somehow that seems entirely essentially to their…

by Michael Bertin

SXSW Records

Fashawn Boy Meets World. (One) Like Nas, who set the precedent for debuts with a straight-faced kid on the cover, Fashawn grew up fast. And like Illmatic, Boy Meets World. is an album to tell it like it is. Fashawn’s story is true, too, flowing with a Kwelian raspiness both raw (“Freedom”) and refined (“Hey…

by Chase Hoffberger

Off the Record

Thirteen According to SXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke, the scheduled Big Star showcase at Antone’s on Saturday will now serve as a tribute and benefit for the family of singer/guitarist Alex Chilton, who died on Wednesday. Barring some unforeseen complications, the panel will also proceed as scheduled. “There are a lot of people that want…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Film

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Steve James James (Stevie, Hoop Dreams) goes back to his hometown of Hampton, Va., to revisit the 1993 bowling-alley brawl that came close to derailing, at age 17, the hoop dreams of NBA-star-to-be Allen Iverson and threw an inflammatory wrench into the town’s…

by Anne S. Lewis

Keynote

Smokey Robinson Keynote Interview Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 18 In the beginning, there was Oobla, a primitive fellow in a primitive village. Oobla had a friend, Coyote. One day, Coyote failed to howl at the moon, so Oobla gave it a shot. He crawled on top of a boulder, and his howls attracted neighbors.…

by Dan Oko

Ballroom Dancing

Where Goes English Folk Music? Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 18 The old adage that “everything old is new again” is popping up in Britain once more, only on this occasion it’s a fascination with traditional folk music. This fast-moving panel, led by author Will Hodgkinson, served as an attempt to alert Americans to the…

by Jim Caligiuri

Song of the Year

RUNNERS-UP: “Hesitation Blues” Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel; “Song up in Her Head” Sarah Jarosz, Song up in Her Head; “Sugarfoot” Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!; “La Troquera” Los Texas Wranglers, No Boundaries; “Summer Wine” Shelley King, Welcome Home; “Wet Gold” The…

by Chronicle Staff

Best Rock

RUNNERS-UP: Bob Schneider & Lonelyland, The Bright Light Social Hour, White Denim, The Daze, Adrian & the Sickness, Spoon, Alpha Rev, One-Eyed Doll

by Chronicle Staff

Best Local Label

RUNNERS-UP: Deep South Austin Records, Kirtland Records, Bismeaux Records, Steady Boy Records, Beats Broke, New West, Western Vinyl, Fat Caddy, Chicken Ranch

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Broken Bells (Sony) Spoiler Alert: This album does not live up to its hype. It all started late last year when singer James Mercer (the Shins) and producer/mash-up wunderkind Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) announced their collaboration and released the first single, “The High Road.” That song is nearly perfect: dark, gorgeously layered, swaying and…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Nneka Concrete Jungle (Decon/Epic) Nigerian-born Nneka Egbuna is a global musician whose experience in the streets of Africa and the clubs of Northern Europe positions her as an artist on par with Sri Lanka’s M.I.A. A creature of Na’vilike independence, Nneka finds joy in reggae beats, dismay at the corruption of governments from Abuja to…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Drive-By Truckers The Big To-Do (ATO) The Drive-By Truckers sure are a prolific bunch. The Big To-Do is the Georgians’ 10th since arriving on the scene in 1998. There have been concept albums and more concept albums, and their last epic, 2008’s Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, sprawled for more than 75 minutes. The Big To-Do…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Fucked Up Couple Tracks (Matador) Over the last decade, this Toronto sextet has dragged punk rock into dangerous new territory, and Couple Tracks picks up some of the vinyl shattered along the way. Essentially a companion piece to 2008’s Epics in Minutes, the 25-song collection splits the band’s difficult-to-find singles (“Dangerous Fumes,” “Toronto FC”) and…

by Austin Powell

Live Shots

Woven Bones Galaxy Room, Thursday, March 18 What’s Woven Bones’ favorite aperitif? A sloe gin fuzz, of course. Drenched in the caterwauling 120-decibel wash of guitarist/singer Andrew Burr’s reverb-a-matic, six-strung superskronk and battered by the twinned percussive punch of upright drummer Carolyn’s punishing prepunk thud, plus bassist Matty Nichols’ post-Nuggets churn und drang, Austin’s Woven…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Film

Brotherhood Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Will Canon; with Jon Foster, Trevor Morgan Audiences may thrill to this fraternity house anti-caper as blood spews, girls are publicly humiliated, and hip-hop pounds to freshman rush in director Canon’s feature debut. Young male egos are put to the test as a fraternity pledge hoax goes mortally wrong,…

by Anne Harris

Best Blues

RUNNERS-UP: Carolyn Wonderland, Gary Clark Jr., Los Lonely Boys, Blues Mafia, Eric Tessmer, Ruthie Foster, Guy Forsyth, Shawn Pittman, Margo Valiante

by Chronicle Staff

Best Roots Rock

RUNNERS-UP: Porterdavis, Uncle Lucius, Shelley King, Reckless Kelly, The Gourds, James McMurtry, The Band of Heathens, The Mother Truckers, David Lutes

by Chronicle Staff

Best New Club

RUNNERS-UP: Mi Casa on 6th Street, The Highball, Encore, Marfe Gardens, Republic Live, Nomads, Valhalla, Club 1808, Krush

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Mojoe Dirty Genes (StraightLine Entertainment) Soulful Texas hip-hop, a phrase best said by Austin’s Bavu Blakes, doesn’t need to sound like someone prevailing over the elements. That’s just how it’s done best. Few put that theory to practice better than San Antonio’s MoJoe, whose Dirty Genes never fails to find the “Silver Line” in any…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

The Very Best Warm Heart of Africa (Green Owl) Making the leap from mixtape to a proper album can be even more difficult than overcoming the dreaded sophomore slump – the bar being measured against is one of critical hyperbole, not commercial success. Global in its scope and appeal, the Very Best – Malawian-born, London-based…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

The Soft Pack (Kemado) Though undoubtedly a smart PR move, it’s disappointing that the Soft Pack changed its name from the Muslims, which seemed to fit the L.A. quartet’s tongue-in-cheek don’t-give-a-fuck attitude and lo-fi guitar jihad. “C’mon” kicks off the band’s debut full-length with the kind of catalyzing call that births scenes, so its early…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Illa J Yancey Boys (Delicious Vinyl) Younger brother of hip-hop’s patron saint of blunted beats, Illa J lives in the spreading shadow of his beloved older bro, the late James Dewitt Yancey, better known as J Dilla. Yancey Boys finds the titular MC rapping and singing stoned non sequiturs over a treasure trove of unreleased…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Some Days Are Better Than Others Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Matt McCormick; with Carrie Brownstein, James Mercer, Renee Roman Nose, David Wodehouse Featuring indie godheads Mercer (the Shins) and Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney), along with fine actress Nose, Some Days Are Better Than Others brings a Northwestern sensibility to the Slacker genre. As aspiring reality-show star…

by Cindy Widner

Best Country/Bluegrass

RUNNERS-UP: Los Texas Wranglers, Asleep at the Wheel, Texas Bluegrass Massacre, The Belleville Outfit, The Ruby Jane Show, The Fireants, The Derailers, Reckless Kelly, Flatcar Rattlers

by Chronicle Staff

Best U18

RUNNERS-UP: The Apple Trio, AfterMath, Avenging Poor Yorick, The Aviators, Casino, South of Center, The Ruby Jane Show, Carson Brock Group, Indigo Fresh

by Chronicle Staff

Best Radio Music Program

RUNNERS-UP: Halftime Show, Charlie Hodge, KLBJ; Eklektikos, John Aielli, KUT; Twine Time, Paul Ray, KUT; Dudley and Bob, KLBJ; Blue Monday, Larry Monroe, KUT; Bobby Bones, KISS; Blueseum of Fine Art, Chris Jagger and John Peyton, KLBJ; Texas Music Matters, David Brown, KUT; The Roadhouse, Chris Mosser, KVET

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Phillip the Fossil Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Garth Donovan; with Brian Hasenfus, Nick Dellaroca, J.R. Killigrew Peter Pan is dead, but Phillip (Hasenfus), a thirtysomething townie with an enduring penchant for endless summers, girls just slightly over half his age, and a half-baked landscaping “profession” (i.e., he’s handy with a Weed Eater), is having…

by Marc Savlov

SXSW Records

Freddie Gibbs Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik Freddie Gibbs The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs There’s no trickery when it comes to Freddie Gibbs. No fancy sneakers, no electro-tinged beats, no chaser. Reminiscent of Tupac and Scarface, his hardened flow chronicles life on the streets of Midwest murder capital Gary, Ind. “I’m fresh up out a city where most niggas…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Records

Solillaquists of Sound No More Heroes (Anti-) Austin’s newest, albeit temporary, residents get a bum rap, because the chemistry between lyricist Swamburger and vocalist Alexandrah hits a little too close to will.i.am and Fergie. It’s odd, because Solillaquists of Sound are actually the anti-Black Eyed Peas. The Orlando, Fla., natives lean on the same cleanly…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights Pardon Me (F-Stop/Atlantic) Does the world need another Kid Rock? Via Dallas, Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights seem to think so. After one successful self-released offering and a slew of praise for their energetic live show, the band has debuted on a major label with Pardon Me. From…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Moreland & Arbuckle Flood (Telarc) On its label debut, this rock-ribbed blues trio joins the North Mississippi Allstars and Gov’t Mule on the quasi-traditional trail. Though its native Kansas isn’t a notable hotbed of the genre at this point, there’s no escaping the feeling that one of the devil’s minions must have been in Wichita…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Interviews

Death: Detroit’s reunited proto-punks riff on the Motown connection; Big Star: Still shining brightly after 40 years

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

Camp Victory, Afghanistan Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Carol Dysinger The people of Afghanistan, who have endured millennia of invasions, have a saying: “You have the clocks; we have the time.” These words open up this depiction of three years in the forgotten war from a group whose voice is seldom heard – the Afghan…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Pelada Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Luke Boughen, Rebekah Fergusson, Gwendolyn Oxenham, Ryan White Sometimes deserving and hardworking people will not succeed – at least in the way they had hoped. This four-person-directed sports documentary discusses that topic as it follows the travels of two soccer players who never turned pro. The featured athletes and…

by Ashley Moreno

Best Cover Band

RUNNERS-UP: The Eggmen, The Frank Gomez Band, Lost in Austin, Skyrocket!, Cover Girl, My So-Called Band, Suede, Hell’s Belles, The Spazmatics

by Chronicle Staff

Best World Music

RUNNERS-UP: The Tea Merchants, Mary Welch y los Curanderos, Rattletree Marimba, Ocote Soul Sounds, Hard Proof Afrobeat, Cadaques, Austin Piazzolla Quintet, Del Castillo, Grupo Fantasma

by Chronicle Staff

Best Radio Personality

RUNNERS-UP: Jason Dick, 101X; Charlie Hodge, KLBJ; John Aielli, KUT; Dale Dudley, KLBJ; Paul Ray, KUT; Chris Jagger KLBJ; David Brown, KUT; Larry Monroe, KUT; Bobby Bones, KISS

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Cherry Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Jeffrey Fine; with Kyle Gallner, Laura Allen, Britt Robertson, Esai Morales, Matt Walsh Putting aside the question of whether the world really needs another movie about an American boy virgin, this is an awfully likable entry into the cherry-poppin’ canon. Twitchy overachiever and budding artist Aaron (played with a…

by Kimberley Jones

SXSW Records

Scale the Summit Carving Desert Canyons (Prosthetic) Taken at Paria Canyon in southern Utah, the wavelike geologic images adorning the cover of this Houston prog-metal quartet’s second CD speak volumes about their evolutionary approach. The band slips and slides around rock’s ancient dynasties with a frisky slither that’s one part Joe Satriani, one part Link…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Binary Audio Misfits B.A.M.! (Platinum) As the needle falls into the vinyl groove of the debut LP from Binary Audio Misfits, an English-speaking man in the left channel and a French woman in the right break it down simultaneously: “From Toulouse, France, the rock band EXP, also known as Expérience. From Austin, Texas, members of…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Records

The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar) After playing The Dark Horse with 2007’s sophomore album, the Besnard Lakes now inhabit The Roaring Night, filling the darkening parameters with an expansive crush of guitar battered swells and gorgeously rent atmospherics. Helmed by husband-and-wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the Montreal…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Freeway & Jake One The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers) Who could have predicted that Freeway would have his best success at an indie label? Brought up by Jay-Z and the Roc-a-Fella family, the Philly Freeway was bred for stardom but ultimately rapped with a voice too gruff to break through the glitz and glamour. RAF’s label…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Interviews

Chamillionaire & Paul Wall: Texas’ last great tag team gets back in the ring; Nas & Damian Marley: Kindred spirits or Distant Relatives?; Brian Posehn: Going to 11 with Fart and Wiener Jokes

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film

The Oath Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites D: Laura Poitras Poitras’ documentary takes this decade’s faceless al Qaeda bogeyman and locates a pair of dramatically human stories beating within. The Oath follows Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, who is now a cabdriver in Yemen. Poitras and her camera spend a lot of time with…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

SXSW Film

One Night in Vegas Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Reggie Rock Bythewood; with Mike Tyson This unorthodox documentary, part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series, charts the parallel lives of Tupac Shakur and Mike Tyson, culminating in the fateful and fatal night in Las Vegas in September 1996, in which Mike Tyson claimed the…

by Melanie Haupt

Best Experimental

RUNNERS-UP: Scary Mary, Opposite Day, Baron Grod, SubNatural, Los ZZs, The Octopus Project, One-Eyed Doll, Ghostland Observatory, The Floating Opera Orchestra

by Chronicle Staff

Best Acoustic Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Monte Montgomery, Van Wilks, Junior Sandoval, Henry Garza, Matt the Electrician, Kimberly Freeman, Slim Richey, John Pointer, Guy Forsyth

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

The Myth of the American Sleepover Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: David Mitchell; with Claire Sloma, Marlon Morton, Amanda Bauer, Brett Jacobsen This last-night-of-summer ode evades the slippery slope of high school flick cheesedom. Maggie (Sloma), Rob (Morton), Claudia (Bauer), and Scott (Jacobsen) embark on separate yet proximate quests, all driven by the typical teen…

by Kate X Messer

SXSW Records

Balmorhea Constellations (Western Vinyl) Following the narrative adventure and grandiose expanse of last year’s breakthrough All Is Wild, All Is Silent and its accompanying remix collection, Balmorhea’s Constellations isn’t so much a step backward as it is one to the side – a momentary pause of minor-key reflection and frosted nostalgia captured by a series…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Records

People Under the Stairs Carried Away (Om) It’s not often hip-hoppers reach their seventh album, so it’s a little bizarre that L.A. duo People Under the Stairs chose to commemorate lucky No. 7 with what’s largely a tribute LP. The most obvious nod is “Check the Vibe,” which finds Thes One and Double K biting…

by Chase Hoffberger

SXSW Records

Woodgrain The Bronze (Australian Cattle God) This local quartet’s instrumental space jams seem custom-made for the dude-rock stables of ATX’s Australian Cattle God Records: a thick finish of prog-metal courtesy of bass and double synth, drummer Russell McCallister leveling each track with octopuslike grace, and song titles like “Poop Girl.” Woodgrain’s 12-song debut is short…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

The Explosives Three Ring Circus (Steady Boy) Three Ring Circus reinforces the notion that Austin’s early punk/New Wave scene was so concerned about image it often overlooked talent. The Explosives dive-bombed the late-1970s acts at local punk palace Raul’s with estimable credentials – Cam King was one of San Antonio’s progressive country visionaries, and Freddie…

by Margaret Moser

International Bands

Killer Wales Attack! Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle (Wed., 1am, the Ale House) Mackey’s buttery Welsh pipes sold out every single one of her nine SXSW 2009 showcases. Straight Lines (Wed., 7:15pm, Austin Music Hall; Thu., 12mid, Opal Divine’s) “All [Their] Friends Have Joined the Army,” but somehow they still manage to rock the…

by Chronicle Staff

Live Shots

Miles Kurosky (Ex-Beulah) Emo’s Main, Thursday, March 18 So Miles Kurosky (ex-Beulah) used to be in this band called Beulah. Its albums were sort of like, “Hey, you got your Loaded in my Whipped Cream and Other Delights” (or Elephant 6 West if you’re a hipster with a sense of history), and they were most…

by Michael Bertin

Day Party Crawl

Roky Erickson’s 8th Annual Ice Cream Social Threadgill’s, Thursday, March 18 Notch another year for the day party/fundraiser that is not only a benefit for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, but also an all-star gathering that puts the “all” into all-ages. “I could talk about Metamucil or just jangle my keys,” grinned Riverboat Gamblers…

by Richard Whittaker

Best Folk

RUNNERS-UP: BettySoo, Matt the Electrician, Sahara Smith, Sam Baker, The Belleville Outfit, John Pointer, The Lost Pines, David Lutes, Wendy Colonna

by Chronicle Staff

Best Bass Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Jojo Garza, Alex Dunlap, Bruce Hughes, Sarah Brown, Joey Delahoussaye, Dave Miller, Bill Stevenson, Jack O’Brien, Danny Gomez

by Chronicle Staff

Best Record Producer

RUNNERS-UP: Jim Eno, Tell ’Em What Your Name Is!; Hector Saucedo, No Boundaries; Ray Benson, Willie and the Wheel; Gary Paczosa and Sarah Jarosz, Song Up in Her Head; Rick del Castillo, Straightjacket Hymns; Jason Rufuss Sewell, Sleep; Gurf Morlix; Los Lonely Boys, 1969; Kathy Valentine, B.F.D.

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Google Baby Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites D: Zippi Brand Frank Conversations about outsourcing to India are no longer limited to software and customer phone support, as Israeli businessman and self-described baby producer Doron adds the stork to the list. We meet the enterprising Doron and his partner as they welcome their own $140,000 baby, Talia,…

by Anne Harris

SXSW Records

You Say Party! We Say Die! XXXX (Paper Bag) Love’s a four-letter word, so these British Columbians’ third disc adores censorship. A pinging New Wave keyboard hook and Becky Ninkovic’s crimson encounter with Cupid pierce hooky and haunted as Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.” Kate Bush leading Blondie 2.0, or Metric with fewer guitars and…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Phantogram Eyelid Movies (Barsuk) Phantogram’s sort of the East Coast answer to Yacht. The songs on debut Eyelid Movies aren’t as roller-rink ready as the Portland, Ore., duo’s, though this Saratoga Springs, N.Y., twosome finds definite grooves in which to etch its love songs. Massive Attack, Portishead, and Cocteau Twins all come to mind in…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Texas Tornados ¡Está Bueno! (Bismeaux) What makes ¡Está Bueno! so remarkable isn’t simply timing. It’s the group’s musical effort. These aren’t just guys in the studio backing one another’s agenda for the album. Even the late Freddy Fender’s unapologetic paean to the traditional role of women (“They Don’t Make ‘Em Like I Like”) comes across…

by Margaret Moser

SXSW Records

The Watson Twins Talking to You, Talking to Me (Vanguard) The Watson Twins seem committed to being tandem torchers, and building upon their natural, sultry, Southern-bent harmonies, the duo’s inseparable intentions are justified. Which is what makes its sophomore LP so direly disappointing. Each song sets Chandra or Leigh in the fore, with their vocals…

by Doug Freeman

International Bands

Yorkshire Puddin’ The county of Yorkshire is to England what Texas is to the U.S.: the biggest, the most self-assured, and the most convinced of its place in the universe. So, if you think that the British musical legacy stops at the M25 road around London and all you know about Leeds is that the…

by Chronicle Staff

My SXSW

I did my first South by Southwest show in 1993. Guitarist Kevin Salem and I came down from Hoboken to play at the … the … oh, I just can’t remember where. It was a tent with a stage and a sand floor adjoining a bar on Sixth Street. I had an album out called…

by Freedy Johnston

SXSW Film

Greenlit Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Miranda Bailey Nobody quite knows how to talk about environmental issues. There’s old-school doom-and-gloom or new-school, optimistic pep. There’s the nerdy numbers crowd that strikes deep but never close to the heart, and the cuddly animal types who do the opposite. Then there’s “it ain’t easy being green,” a…

by Nora Ankrum

SXSW Film

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers Narrative Feature, Special Events D: Tim Rutili The best thing about Funeral Singers, aka “That Califone Movie,” is that it works so well even when the band isn’t generating the score themselves, playing live (which they’re doing for the two SXSW screenings) slightly below and in front of the…

by W. A. Brenner

Green Zone

With Matt Damon’s Bourne director at the helm, the actor plays an officer in Iraq who’s mystified by why he’s unable to uncover any WMDs.

by Marc Savlov

Best Drums/Percussion

RUNNERS-UP: Conrad Choucroun, Ringo Garza, Brannen Temple, Jake Stewart, Dave Sanger, Victor Ziolkowski, J.J. Johnson, Matt Strmiska, Jason Rufuss Sewell

by Chronicle Staff

Best Record Store

RUNNERS-UP: Cheapo Records, End of an Ear, Tommy’s Turntable Records, Antone’s Record Shop, Encore, Trailer Space, Half-Price Books, Backspin Records, Sound on Sound

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

When I Rise Documentary Feature, Lone Star States D: Mat Hames; with Barbara Smith Conrad, Harry Belafonte Opera may not be thought of as a battleground in the civil rights movement, but this Austin-made documentary proves it was, vividly recounting how in 1957 state legislators pressured the University of Texas to pull an African-American freshman…

by Robert Faires

SXSW Records

The Marshall Ford Swing Band It’s About Dam Time There’s something about hearing musicians in their 20s perform swing tunes more than twice their age and really nailing it. The affection the Marshall Ford Swing Band has for the music comes through both in its originals and the covers which makes listening to the debut…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson Summer of Fear (Saddle Creek) Two songs into his sophomore LP, co-produced by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson sing-shouts, “I’m sorry that it turned out bad.” Considering the rough times this man has seen – homelessness, addiction – it could have ended much worse for…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

BoDeans Mr. Sad Clown (429) Nine albums into a career that’s stretched almost 25 years, the BoDeans have lost their edge. Granted, their brand of heartland rock was never that edgy, but counter to the strong showing of 2008’s Still, with a few exceptions, the songwriting on Mr. Sad Clown seems forced and lyrically simplistic.…

by Jim Caligiuri

Getting It Done

Increasing the city’s tree canopy by 2030 was one verdant objective identified at the ACPP community charrette – an objective now in need of an action plan. Trees are a “carbon sink” that absorbs CO2; when they shade buildings, they also reduce the energy needed for air conditioning. Travis County currently has a tree canopy…

by Katherine Gregor

SXSW Records

Joe Pug Messenger (Lightning Rod) Troubadours tabbed as the next Dylan number by the generations now, yet 25-year-old Joe Pug, based out of Chicago, should make even the most sample-happy listener take note. Considering the title of this full-length debut, it follows that Pug is a man with something to say. With a touch of…

by Dan Oko

Ice Cream Man Presents!

Friday’s Flavor: Avi Buffalo To give away ice cream in Austin during South by Southwest, I drive the ice cream truck from my hometown of Long Beach, Calif. A couple of years back, the Ice Cream Crew rocked some hometown pride in this column by featuring a band called Crystal Antlers. This year we’re happy…

by Matt Allen

SXSW Film

For the Sake of the Song: The Story of anderson Fair Documentary Feature, Lone Star States D: Bruce Bryant; with Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt With the impending closure of Austin’s Cactus Cafe, this documentary about a venerated Houston folky bar/restaurant of the same ilk is timely. Sometimes slow…

by Joe O'Connell

SXSW Film

The Parking Lot Movie Documentary Feature, Emerging Visions D: Meghan Eckman The backwaters of college towns are generally more colorful than elsewhere, and Charlottesville, Va., is no exception. Spend a long summer afternoon inside the exclusive club of the Corner Parking Lot employees as they ponder drinking, set up the flip-cone court, and when you…

by Anne Harris

“Hubble 3D”

This breathtaking IMAX documentary follows NASA’s May 2009 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

by Marc Savlov

Best Indie

RUNNERS-UP: Speak, Suzanna Choffel, Spoon, The Daze, Quiet Company, GBMojo, Mother Falcon, Margo Valiante, The Midgetmen

by Chronicle Staff

Best Electric Guitar

RUNNERS-UP: Carolyn Wonderland, Henry Garza, Nick Hurt, Curtis Roush, Van Wilks, Redd Volkaert, Kimberly Freeman, Marshall Hood, Eric Johnson

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Crying With Laughter Narrative Feature, Festival Favorites D: Justin Molotnikov; with Stephen McCole, Malcolm Shields, Jo Hartley Struggling stand-up comedian Joey Frisk (McCole) reveals early on that he rarely looks back. However, writer/director Molotnikov gives Frisk little choice in the matter as forces beyond the hard-living Scottish comedian’s control begin to make for one seriously…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Records

Dawes North Hills (ATO) When Taylor Goldsmith gently pleads the richly harmonized title of “Give Me Time,” it’s a call worth heeding. The L.A. quartet’s 1970s roots-rock-saturated debut progresses in slowly unrolling ballads, only once dipping below the four-minute mark, but North Hills benefits from the patience. “That Western Skyline” and “When You Call My…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore Dear Companion (Sub Pop) A collaboration created to raise awareness of Appalachian mountaintop removal, Dear Companion sets the emerging talents of Kentucky songwriters Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee with “Yim Yames” behind the boards. The result is harrowing, beautiful, and sincere. Though rooted in those Cumberland contours, the…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Boulder Acoustic Society Punchline (Nine Mile) The rest of Colorado calls Boulder “25 square miles surrounded by reality.” That bubble makes it the perfect breeding ground for this acoustic quartet, which makes good contemporary use of banjo, upright bass, accordion, and top-notch fiddle. Punchline, the group’s fifth release and first for Austin’s Nine Mile Records,…

by Melanie Haupt

Headlines

� City Council cools its jets this week, returning next week full of vim and vigor to consider a controversial renegotiated contract with Greenstar to continue handling the city’s recycling duties. � Get yer ya yas out! The SXSW Music Festival opens today (Wednesday) and promises to keep the town jumpin’ until the wee hours…

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Records

Ólöf Arnalds Við og Við (12 Tónar) Familiarity with the Icelandic language would probably add a layer of understanding and appreciation for Ólöf Arnalds’ ethereal music. Then again, as she has said, “If you mean what you sing, then it doesn’t matter what language you sing in.” Which explains why it’s impossible not to fall…

by Melanie Haupt

Live Shots

The Soft Pack Stubb’s, Thursday, March 18 When the Muslims played South by Southwest a few years ago, you could tell they had definite pop chops under their sloppy surf rock. One wise name change later, San Diego-bred, L.A.-based quartet the Soft Pack have excised the fat and made the lean parts work. Their debut…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

Beijing Taxi Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Miao Wang Through a pall of automotive-induced carbon monoxide, Wang’s rich and culturally challenging documentary traces the rapidly changing fortunes of three taxi drivers as the 2008 Beijing Olympics draw near. Among them are Bai Jiwen, a weathered veteran of both Mao and the birth of Chinese capitalism…

by Marc Savlov

The Runaways

A grittily femme perspective governs this otherwise conventional music saga about the Runaways, America’s first all-girl rock band.

by Marc Savlov

Best Industrial/Goth

RUNNERS-UP: One-Eyed Doll, Scary Mary, Lucid Dementia, Hipnautica, Scorpio Rising, SubNatural, Exit, Death Is Not a Joyride, Bob Schneider

by Chronicle Staff

Best Female Vocals

RUNNERS-UP: Carolyn Wonderland, Patty Griffin, Kat Edmonson, BettySoo, Kimberly Freeman, Suzanna Choffel, Shelley King, Phoebe Hunt, Sarah Sharp

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Animated Shorts Shorts Program The Animated Shorts program begins with Jonathan Ostos Yaber’s “La Nostalgia del Sr. Alambre,” a deft blend of comedy, pathos, and the grotesque that sets the tone for the program. The same spirit’s there in “Bygone Behemoth,” Harry Chaskin’s stop-motion parable about a past-his-prime movie monster, and in “The Cow Who…

by Wells Dunbar

SXSW Records

The Morning Benders Big Echo (Rough Trade) The Morning Benders waste no time in setting the singles bar for 2010, opening their sophomore LP and debut for Rough Trade with the stunning “Excuses.” A vinyl hiss melts into the blurry orchestral sweep of pure pop charm behind Chris Chu’s daydreaming vocal swoons. Credit Grizzly Bear’s…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Records

Deadstring Brothers São Paulo (Bloodshot) Talk about the Deadstring Brothers always pops up references to the Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, and Black Crowes. Another of Detroit’s finest sound like they were weaned on Exile on Main St and took Eat a Peach as an affirmation to live by. São Paulo, the group’s fourth Bloodshot effort,…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

The Ruby Suns Fight Softly (Sub Pop/Lil’ Chief) For 2007 sophomore effort Sea Lion, Kiwi Ryan McPhun of the Ruby Suns took Brian Wilson on a trans-Indian Ocean jaunt across the islands and into Africa, where they did a bit of exploration. For Fight Softly, McPhun has gone Kurtz with the Californian. If you’re following…

by Michael Bertin

Live Shots

Ólöf Arnalds Victorian Room at the Driskill, Thursday, March 18 Ólöf Arnalds is a surprisingly lovely blonde who wore a gorgeous blue dress shot through with gold thread; it didn’t take long for her striking looks to be matched by her equally striking Icelandic folk-mum music. Joined by David Thor Jonsson on guitar and piano,…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

The Canal Street Madam Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Cameron Yates; with Jeanette Maier Maier is a complicated figure: On the one hand, she seems to bear as a badge of honor the fact that she was once a successful brothel owner, even thriving on the attention her infamous, widely publicized bust garnered despite the…

by Melanie Haupt

Day Party Crawl

Babelgum/Dig for Fire/Other Music Lawn Party French Legation, Thursday, March 18 The only guarantees in life are death and taxes and the certainty that set times for South by Southwest day parties are merely suggestions for when to show up. Thursday’s party was behind before it even started. The best course of action was to…

by Melanie Haupt

Red Riding: 1974

This is the first of three absorbing adaptations (filmed concurrently by different directors) of David Peace’s linked novels about crime and corruption in Yorkshire, England.

by Kimberley Jones

Best Instrumental

RUNNERS-UP: 3 Balls of Fire, Explosions in the Sky, Baron Grod, Balmorhea, Muchos Backflips, My Education, The Octopus Project, The Floating Opera Orchestra, Sheer Khan & the Space Case

by Chronicle Staff

Best Keyboards

RUNNERS-UP: Sonny Trujillo, Ian McLagan, A.J. Vincent, Earl Poole Ball, Stefano Intelisano, Ginger Doss, Tom Burgess, Emily Gimble, Laura Scarborough

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

A NY Thing Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Olivier Lécot; with Jonathan Zaccaï, Fanny Valette, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Greta Gerwig A French sex comedy of sorts (though spoken largely in English), A NY Thing follows writer Antoine (Zaccaï) as he follows a girl, Alice (Valette), from Paris to New York, where she reunites with her boyfriend…

by Kimberley Jones

SXSW Records

Surfer Blood Astro Coast (Kanine) All the songs on Astro Coast, the 10-song debut from South Florida quartet Surfer Blood, hinge on the mighty riff. Guitarist John Paul Pitts’ vocals are secondary, and the guitar compensates, weaving Built to Spill’s guitar heroism into three-minute shards of pop-punk. The insanely catchy hook of “Swim (to Reach…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Golden Triangle Double Jointer (Hardly Art) Southern-spun sixpiece Golden Triangle may reside in Brooklyn now, but its debut LP calls on fore-Mamas & Papas the B-52s for sound and vision. The harmonies of singers Vashti Windish and Carly Rabalais double-team every song, and from two-minute warm-up “Cinco de Mayo” right through to six-minute psych-winder “Arson…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Records

Pirate Love Black Vodoun Space Blues (Kong Tiki) Wherever he is, Lux Interior wears a very wry smile. Following in the footsteps of the Cramps, Oslo’s 7-year-old sixpiece Pirate Love revs up some serious garage reverb. Beginning with “Shake It,” Black Vodoun Space Blues takes a galloping romp through the seven stages of feedback (“Is…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Records

Rogue Wave Permalight (Brushfire) Categorizing Rogue Wave as “indie” now qualifies as a misclassification. Being on Sub Pop, as the Bay Area act was for its first two LPs, still gives you that kind of moniker, and when the band jumped to Jack Johnson’s Brushfire label, it wasn’t overly concerned about editing for space on…

by Michael Bertin

Live Shots

Harlem Red 7 Patio, Thursday, March 18 Harlem shows teeter on the brink of dissolving into disaster, which might be considered part of the band’s ramshackle schtick if shows didn’t occasionally run completely off the rails. With Michael Coomers’ eyes drawn back and clutching at his hair in clumps like a blown-out tweeker, the local…

by Doug Freeman

SXSW Film

Les Signes Vitaux/Vital Signs Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Sophie Deraspe; with Marie-Hélène Bellavance, Francis Ducharme, Marie Brassard, Danielle Ouimet, Suzanne St-Michel, Alan Fawcett, Marc Marans, Bernard Arène This French-Canadian production is a delicate study of human fragility. Following the unexpected death of her grandmother, Simone (Bellavance) abandons her graduate studies in biology to volunteer…

by Michael King

Day Party Crawl

Kill Rock Stars Cheer Up Charlie’s, Thursday, March 18 Kill Rock Stars’ day show lineup was delightfully lady-heavy, curated by KRS honcho Maggie Vail. As such, the connections between decades of girl punk became clear as the day went on. San Francisco trio Grass Widow’s KRS debut lands in August, and it couldn’t be a…

by Audra Schroeder

Best Jazz

RUNNERS-UP: Elias Haslanger, The Jitterbug Vipers, About:Blank, Ephraim Owens, The Belleville Outfit, Jeff Lofton, White Ghost Shivers, Sarah Sharp, Blaze

by Chronicle Staff

Best Male Vocals

RUNNERS-UP: Black Joe Lewis, Troupe Gammage, Amador Salazar, Willie Nelson, John Pointer, Matt the Electrician, Henry Garza, Ray Benson, Guy Forsyth

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW Film Reviews

Medium Cool: 3 (not so) Shorts Shorts Program, Festival Favorites D: Spike Jonze (“I’m Here”), Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“Successful Alcoholics”), Holden Abigail Osborne (“Solitary/Release”) Being realistic, most people attended this program of half-hour short films to see Spike Jonze’s “I’m Here.” And while it reminded me of Jonze’s video for Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” the robots…

by James Renovitch

SXSW Records

Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio Circular Colectivo (Nacional) Adhering to a Clash-like manifesto, aggressive hooks playing good cop to a lyrical agenda’s NATO peacekeeping force, Mexico City fivepiece Maldita Vecindad bears down on its sixth studio album since 1985 and first in a dozen years with all the gravity of a ska…

by Raoul Hernandez

SXSW Records

Dum Dum Girls I Will Be (Sub Pop) Sprung from the brain of enigmatic artist Kristen Gundred (aka Dee Dee), L.A.’s Dum Dum Girls began as a solo act releasing the odd EP and 7-inch and bloomed into an all-girl quartet paying homage both to Iggy Pop (“Dum Dum Boy”) and the peppy girl-group harmonies…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Records

Chuck Prophet ¡Let Freedom Ring! (Yep Roc) For a man who claims no real affinity for politics, ¡Let Freedom Ring! is Chuck Prophet’s most overt political statement yet. Recorded in Mexico City during last year’s swine flu scare in a studio the Bay Area-based guitarist claims was modern in 1957, the disc crackles with rare…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Records

She & Him Volume Two (Merge) These days, every screen queen thinks she’s a pop princess (see: Johansson, Scarlett), but Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward prove with She & Him’s sophomore album that 2008’s Volume One was more than a serendipitous tryst. While its sequel lingers in the same pop nostalgia, Deschanel vocalizes with a…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Ray Davies La Zona Rosa, Thursday, March 18 Ray Davies wasn’t playing for nostalgia’s sake. Three-quarters of his 20-plus song set at La Zona Rosa Thursday night was just Davies and Irish guitarist Bill Shanley, dueling acoustic instrumentalists, with the latter offering light harmonies and backup. Davies remains a natural raconteur with a vaudevillian knack…

by Dan Oko

Day Party Crawl

Titus Andronicus/Drive-By Truckers Waterloo Records, Thursday, March 18 Here’s a theory: Any band worth listening to is either a disciple of the Replacements or the Velvet Underground. Support for it often presents itself in unlikely places. To wit: even Patty Griffin has covered the ‘Mats’ “Alex Chilton” live (and not to get sidetracked, but R.I.P.).…

by Michael Bertin

Best Latin Rock

RUNNERS-UP: Vitera, Del Castillo, Los Lonely Boys, Grupo Fantasma, Vallejo, Hector Ward & the Big Time, Maneja Beto, Ocote Soul Sounds, The Frank Gomez Band

by Chronicle Staff

Best Miscellaneous Instrument

RUNNERS-UP: John Pointer, beatbox; Tim Torres, sax; Sarah Jarosz, clawhammer banjo; Ian Stewart, fiddle; Tamir Kalifa, accordion; Phoebe Hunt, fiddle; Mother Falcon string section; Yvonne Lambert, theremin; Warren Hood, fiddle

by Chronicle Staff

SXSW FIlm

Helena From the Wedding Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition D: Joseph Infantolino; with Lee Tergesen, Melanie Lynskey Joseph Infantolino’s debut feature explores the tensions of varying nature and degrees among three married couples as they celebrate New Year’s Eve together in upstate New York. The marriage at the center of the narrative is that of Alex…

by Melanie Haupt

Ballroom dancing

SXSW Interview: Cheap Trick Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 17 Seeing Cheap Trick perform live – Friday night at Auditorium Shores, 8pm – is extremely entertaining, and the band’s discussion of a more than 35-year-long career was just as much fun. Led by music writers Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times and Greg Kot of…

by Jim Caligiuri

SXSW Film

Ride, Rise, Roar Documentary Feature, 24 Beats Per Second D: David Hillman Curtis; with David Byrne From his days of writing songs about food and buildings to his more recent forays into visual art, the former Talking Heads frontman rarely bores anyone watching. That would bode well for Ride, Rise, Roar, a document of Byrne’s…

by James Renovitch

My SXSW

The first time I heard about South by Southwest was last year. I was in Brazil, hanging out in Rio de Janeiro on Ipanema Beach. Our band, Bomba Estéreo, was finishing up an amazing Brazilian tour, and we were very relaxed in this place, staring at the blue/green and perfect waves. It’s an incredible scene,…

by Simón Mejía

Live Shots

Melissa Auf der Maur, Voivod, Michael Monroe Austin Music Hall, Wednesday, March 17 A do-over, a tribute, and a raw rock survivor brought three faces of rock to the Austin Music Hall on Wednesday. Melissa Auf der Maur’s 2009 SXSW set was impaired by a reedy mix that swallowed her luscious, soaring vocals. While many…

by Richard Whittaker

Ballroom Dancing

Lead Belly to Ludacris: From Analog to Digital Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 17 In a historical presentation that included a heap of archival photographs and online video clips, Alvin Singh clarified a few points about his great-uncle Lead Belly (1888-1949). “The media was fascinated by his story, and they projected him as the murderous…

by Thomas Fawcett

Live Shots

Nneka Day Stage Cafe, Wednesday, March 17 Late and limping due to an undisclosed leg ailment, Nneka – pronounced “neck-a” – and her crackerjack fourpiece weren’t about to sit down on the job. Looking slight in a fatigue jacket and tie-dyed pants, the neo-soul chanteuse quickly won the decidedly undersized crowd over with singsong flow.…

by Dan Oko

Ballroom Dancing

How Will We Listen to Music in 2020? Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 17 Scary to think that only a decade ago we were all lugging CD cases around. Where will we be in another 10 years? “I’ve been traveling for the past six months,” led off moderator Jonas Woost. “What have I missed?” As…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

The Trishas Opal Divine’s Freehouse, Wednesday, March 17 For the Trishas, comparisons to the Dixie Chicks are inevitable. The two bands tread similar musical paths: occasionally rambunctious Texas country laced with gospel, a hint of soul, and not a note out of place. The main difference in favor of the Trishas – Savannah Welch, Kelley…

by Jim Caligiuri

Ballroom Dancing

The Cloud vs. the Paradise of Infinite Storage Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 17 What’s the bigger danger for recording artists: computer users with hard drives crammed with music or Internet file swapping? As Wednesday’s music panel the Cloud vs. the Paradise of Infinite Storage proved, they actually go hand in hand. A 1-terabyte hard…

by Richard Whittaker

Live Shots

Naam Mohawk, Wednesday, March 17 You can probably gargle better, but no more guttural or Godlike, than Brooklyn-based Naam throat Ryan Lugar, but you’ll have to sacrifice your uvula. Small price, true, but “Black Ice” is slippery like a thick wad off chaw’d-off black, tentacled doom. Paint-stripping the Mohawk’s interior, Naam made it so that…

by Marc Savlov

Ballroom Dancing

Green Touring: Stupid, Dumb, or Best Idea Ever? Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 17 Green is on everyone’s mind these days, making it a cute move on the Conference organizers’ part to schedule this panel on St. Patrick’s Day. The panelists, led by Creeper Lagoon founder Sharky Laguana, were full of ideas both practical and…

by Melanie Haupt

Live Shots

Fanfarlo Galaxy Room Backyard, Wednesday, March 17 Either Fanfarlo has the most fastidious roadie in rock & roll, or the sound system at the Galaxy Room Backyard (a tent over a patch of alley behind Sixth Street) needs tweaking. The London quintet, kitted out in crisp Oxford button-downs, lost a solid 15 minutes of playing…

by Melanie Haupt

SXSW Film

Documentary Shorts Shorts Program, Documentary Shorts D: Various This finely curated cluster of shorts runs the gamut. While David Wilson’s “Big Birding Day” never really delivers the birds, nor a big day, per se, its focus on the nerdery of speed-birdwatching still manages to charm. The disappearing rural Texas landscape is handsomely portrayed in Jeff…

by Kate X Messer

Live Shots

Catherine MacLellan Victorian Room at the Driskill, Wednesday, March 17 There was something appropriately disconnected to the setting of Catherine MacLellan’s set inside the Victorian Room at the Driskill Hotel. The staunch full-length drapes billowing down the walls and enormous picture windows reflecting out upon the opening-night frenzy of Sixth Street struck a contrast to…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Pegi Young Maggie Mae’s, Wednesday, March 17 For someone embarking on a solo career relatively, oh, late in the game – her second solo album will be out on Vapor later this year – Pegi Young has a few things working decidedly in her favor. She’s got decades worth of experience on the road as…

by Michael Bertin

Day Party Crawl

Hella Hipster Hoedown Hoek’s Death Metal Pizza, Wednesday, March 17 Elaine Layabout’s Hella Hipster Hoedown series has earned its reputation as one of Los Angeles’ great underground successes, but its Austin spin-off was a minidisaster. Technical difficulties plagued the first half of the all-day extravaganza, and by 2:30pm, when five bands were supposed to have…

by Chase Hoffberger

Live Shots

The Yellow Dogs Wave, Wednesday, March 17 While revelers in their best Irish stood watching a bagpipe busker do his thing, inside this otherwise anonymous shot bar, the Yellow Dogs out of Tehran, part of the underground rock scene recently documented by journalist Roxanne Saberi in No One Knows About Persian Cats, worked desperately to…

by Dan Oko

SXSW Film

The Erectionman Documentary Feature, SX Global D: Michael Schaap; with Schaap, Irwin Goldstein, Chip Rowe This jaunty little film owes much of its appeal to its narrator, Dutch director Schaap, whose confessional style and general goofiness bring levity to an awkward topic: “erectile dysfunction” and the little blue pill that treats it. At age 40,…

by Nora Ankrum

Day Party Crawl

Pierced Arrows, Happy Birthday, Golden Triangle End of an Ear in-store, Wednesday, March 17 Golden Triangle’s two singers produce a Hitchcock-ian effect: There’s the blonde and brunette up front, shaking tambourines while staring you down. Double Jointer, the Brooklyn sextet’s new CD, shakes that same neon dread out of its garage rock, recalling contemporaries Thee…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres D: Mike Woolf; with Richard Garriott Space truly was the final frontier for video-game tycoon Garriott: the ultimate item on the Ultima creator’s bucket list of adventures he wanted to experience. The son of an astronaut, Garriott was determined to follow his father to the…

by Robert Faires

SXSW Film

The Loved Ones Narrative Feature, Midnighters D: Sean Byrne; with Jessica McNamee, Xavier Samuel, Richard Wilson, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine Not to be confused with the Evelyn Waugh/Terry Southern film The Loved One (although you get the feeling that the always-perverse Southern, in particular, would have approved), this Aussie import proves yet again my theory…

by Marc Savlov

Day Party Crawl

‘Paste’ Party Galaxy Room, Wednesday, March 17 If there was any doubt about the pairing of psychedelic pioneer Roky Erickson and literary balladeers Okkervil River when the Chronicle forged the bond between the two local icons at the 2008 Austin Music Awards, they disappeared with “Rokkervil’s” redebut to headline the first day of Paste’s weeklong…

by Doug Freeman

Live Shots

Stones Throw Showcase Speakeasy Kabaret, Wednesday, March 17 Some find it hard to justify spending a night listening to an all-DJ lineup with literally a thousand live bands playing across town. An all-star cast of Stones Throw affiliates, however, is a treat to treasure. DJ Amir hollered amid a break of Latin, funk, and disco…

by Thomas Fawcett

SXSW Film

Putty Hill Narrative Feature, Emerging Visions D: Matthew Porterfield; with Cody Ray, Zoe Vance A young guy dies of a heroin overdose and his dysfunctional family and friends try to absorb the loss. Sounds like a straightforward story of angst, but in the hands of Porterfield, it becomes something more. Ably using a mostly amateur…

by Joe O'Connell

SXSW Film Review: The People vs. George Lucas

It makes sense that this documentary is preceded at its SXSW screenings by the short “Star Wars: Retold” (retold by someone who’s never seen it). Even people who have never sat through George Lucas’ epic tale of a galaxy far, far away have been touched by its cultural impact. Mixing talking heads and clips from…

by Richard Whittaker

SXSW Film

Reel Injun Documentary, SX Global D: Neil Diamond; with Clint Eastwood, Sacheen Littlefeather, John Trudell The surprising thing about filmmaker Neil Diamond’s film is how funny it is. Perhaps it’s because the stereotypes of Native Americans as they’ve been depicted in film are so ridiculous in retrospect. Or, it could be part of that Native…

by Belinda Acosta

Live Shots

Grooms Wave Rooftop, Wednesday, March 17 Paging Pavement: Please report to the customer service desk; we have your children. Maybe it’s unfair to pigeonhole Brooklyn trio Grooms, formerly known as Muggabears, as just their sonic kin. They do have a sound of their own, but Death by Audio debut Rejoicer pulls from a very distinct…

by Audra Schroeder

SXSW Film

Dirty Pictures Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Etienne Sauret; with Dr. Alexander Shulgin Many attribute the discovery of the drug MDMA to Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin. But as Etienne Sauret’s documentary Dirty Pictures shows, the chemist did not invent Ecstasy – just a use for the previously discarded compound. The film outlines Sasha and his…

by Ashley Moreno

In Memoriam: Big Star Myths

Reprinted from the Chronicle’s SXSW Daily issue of March 19, 2004, when Big Star played the Music Conference. Big Star is probably the most influential American band of the 1970s, despite releasing only three studio albums beginning in 1972. Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, and the late Christopher Bell have inspired the likes of…

by Kent H. Benjamin

SXSW Film

For Once in My Life Documentary Feature, Documentary Competition D: Jim Bigham & Mark Moormann; with Javier Peña, Emilio Estefan, Terry Wigfall This feel-good documentary follows the Miami-based Spirit of Goodwill Band as they prepare for the concert of a lifetime. It’s difficult enough to coordinate the 29 musicians and singers, but when you figure…

by Belinda Acosta

Off the Record

Alex Chilton (1950-2010) This year’s South by Southwest Music Conference was intended in part to celebrate the legacy of Big Star. The seminal Memphis power-pop band is the subject of a panel discussion, Saturday’s I Never Travel Far Without a Little Big Star, and is also scheduled to perform at Antone’s that night, both corresponding…

by Austin Powell

SXSW Film

His & Hers Documentary Feature, Festival Favorites D: Ken Wardrop Ken Wardrop clearly takes pleasure in the art of the interview, setting up his shots with unmistakable tenderness and drawing from his subjects the kind of casual candidness that transforms the mundane into the remarkable. With His & Hers, Wardrop asks his subjects – 70…

by Nora Ankrum

SXSW Film

Monsters Narrative Feature, SX Fantastic D: Gareth Edwards; with Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able It’s not a question that gets asked a lot these days: What if you merged two of Toho Studio’s resident kaiju eiga master Ishirô Honda’s most underwhelming non-Gojira creatures – Yog, Monster From Space and Dagora, the Space Monster (interstellar neighbors, one…

by Marc Savlov

Luv Doc Recommends: Austin Chronicle Music Awards

Walk outside. Inhale deeply. Smell that? That’s the smell of fresh meat: thousands upon thousands of fame whores, sycophants, big shots, losers, and a few real, honest to goodness normal people who somehow got sucked into the roiling clusterfuck that is South by Southwest. The air Downtown is thick with the scent of desperation and…

by The Luv Doc

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