My story (with Jim Harrington of the Oakland Tribune) on the South by Southwest acts heading to the Bay Area is in the paper this morning and online here. It covers a lot of the biggies, from R.E.M. to Vampire Weekend, but there were several acts I didn’t get to touch on there or in [...]
It’s hard to go an hour without running into somebody from the Bay Area at SXSW. Indeed, I think there are people here from the Bay Area than any other city besides Austin. OK, that might be wrong - there’s got to be more Los Angeles cats than Bay dawgs, right? Yet, it sure doesn’t [...]
Name: DeVotchKa
Hometown: Denver, CO
Website: www.devotchka.net
Sounds like: Something that shouldn’t really exist in nature _ but in a good way
Download a taste: By visiting www.myspace.com/devotchkamusic
Local date: April 28 at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Visit www.livenation.com for more details.
The skinny: The majority of the crowd split after the much-hyped Vampire Weekend finished its SXSW set at [...]
Last year, it was Amy Winehouse. The year before that, it was the Arctic Monkeys. In 2008, the role of most-buzzed-about new act at South by Southwest was played by Vampire Weekend.
Out of the hundreds of aspiring new artists that perform each year at this huge music conference in Austin, Texas, there’s always one that’s [...]
OK, I’m finally at the point where I feel like I can write about yesterday afternoon. It took some 24 hours for the three pounds of meat in my stomach to digest and the food coma to go away. Now, I just wish that I could do it again.
On Friday (March 14), while seemingly everyone [...]
Name: Ketchup Mania
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Website: www.ketchup-mania.com (if your Japanese is good); www.myspace.com/ketchupmania (for everyone else)
Sounds like: No Doubt meets Metallica
Download a taste: By visiting www.japanfiles.com/ketchupmania
Local date: Friday (March 21) at the Independent in San Francisco. Visit www.apeconcerts.com for more details.
The skinny: Besides winning the hotly contested (though strictly unoffical) battle for best band name at [...]
Just got back to the hotel after a fine set by Nada Surf, and I’m catching a flight out of here in about six hours, so I hope you’ll forgive me if I write fast now and elaborate later. Look for a big post-mortem on Sunday.
But I saw lots of great music today, with the [...]
Name: Portugal. The Man
Hometown: Wasilla, AK
Website: www.portugaltheman.net
Sounds like: Stoner psychedelic rock crossed with White Stripes-style blues and other trippy sonic flavors
Download a taste: By visiting the band’s Web site
Local date: March 27 at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. Visit www.bottomofthehill.com for more details.
The skinny: Elvis Costello is often credited with coining the [...]
Spent a good part of the day Thursday at the NPR showcase, which closed with the SxSW debut of the biggest buzz band of the moment, New York’s Vampire Weekend. I’m not sure they live up to the hype — how could they without being some sort of jaw-dropping combination of Talking Heads, Tabu Ley [...]
Name: Kaki King
Hometown: New York, NY
Website: www.kakiking.com
Sounds like: Virtuoso indie-pop/guitar-rock, a sound nearly as rare as confirmed trips to the Loch Ness Monster Petting Zoo.
Download a taste: By visiting www.myspace.com/kakiking
Local date: Tuesday (March 25) at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Visit www.gamh.com for more details.
The skinny: Small in size, big in licks, [...]
