My SXSW 2010 awards:
The Best Find/Heartthrob Award - MNDR
It takes a pretty special talent to clean up two of my (pointless, imaginary) awards, but this Debbie Harry/Klaus Dinger lovechild crushed both of these categories. Flaxen ringlets, Aphrodite hips, a pinned together Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo t-shirt; all part of the allure, but when she climbed onto a tiny midday stage all alone and began to wield her mixer and keyboard, all physical beauty sublimated. The idea is that an artist is there at the moment of a songs inception, and the thrill of the even the fattest beat-drop wains over time, but MNDR was simply too much heat incarnate for that noise. Her body would quake as she wrenched notes from her throat. The music would rise and quiver, she'd twiddle knobs, tuck another layer into the fuzz, and as the beat would writhe to it's climax, she'd cock back on one foot, check her hip forward, and assert the break with the whole of her presence. This was heart-heavy sigh territory enough, but as theses moments peeled back and bodies were tossed on the rhythms, a sly smile would creep from behind her microphone. That's rock'n'roll.
The Emperor Has No Clothes Award - Broken Bells
That band sucks. It's lifeless and unimaginative and rests purely on the laurels of other more interesting projects. Thumbs down.
The Over-Hyped Band that Over-Delivered Award - Local Natives
This is a band whose quality I'm still actively debating. There is something about them seems half-smart and over-sold (these guy's girlfriends probably have to read reams of awful...just terrible poetry), but that was a f*cking rock show. In my typically antagonistic manner, I told my friend that there set would be the album from top to bottom, verbatim, and when the show began with track one from the new record, I made sure to point it out, my smug satisfaction intact. By the end of the show I was sweat soaked and hoarse from singing at the top of my lungs. In a sub-award-award, the keyboard/percussion player at center stage might be the hardest working dude at SXSW. He kept perfect arrhythmia on his floor tom and never missed a lick. He even played guitar on one number. The harmonies were studio tight, there was some improvised and extended numbers, and a Talking Heads cover! You and your soft/loud soft/loud win this round Local Natives, but I've got my eye on you.
The Over-Hyped Band that Under-Delivered Award - jj
This is exactly how this set went down: "Oh shit...is that jj on stage?" and then "Oh shit...is her set over?" Total invisibility. It makes sense that she tours with The xx so much. They must love to get together backstage and debate what they hate more; music or fans. And yes, I'm deducting the requisite points for her not being cute.
The Hometown Heroes Award - Ume
Ume is the best Austin-based band I heard. It's weird, I don't know if their recordings that I rushed to hear really do them justice, but that electric live show gave my post-punk, Swervedriver loving, inner twelve year old funny feelings. Like funny in the pants feelings. Now, my cock-rock tutelage might show it's ugliness in commentary like this, but chicks don't rock. (Seriously, name me one lady-shredder that's famous. Yeah, I've heard of that Russian classical guitar player too, and that shit don't count) But Lauren Larson can handle her axe. The hooks were tight, there was no second guitar to hide behind, and she can root around in an anti-solo like an animal. So slight in her red dress, so massive hovering over her pedal board. Okay Larson, get Kim Gordon and the drummer from Black Moth Super Rainbow and prove my sexist ass wrong. (Oh...and of course I'm not talking about you Electrelane. You're English. That's totally different)
The One More Song! Award - Memory Tapes
This might be the closest I get to seeing New Order. Please come back soon, my terrible dancing won't be happy with anyone else.
The "If had a switch on the back of my neck that put me in that prefect spot on an acid trip" Award - Washed Out
Doing acid is like swimming in the Pacific. The entry is a shock to the system, the waves rough you up a bit, but when the perfect breaker rolls you over and sends your limbs akimbo back to the shore, the ocean cradles you in a chorus of foam, salt, and water that whispers something about the size of all creation...and Washed Out's set was like ( ) this close. Wide open drones that would make Madlib jealous anchored by punchy beats. A hard groove that's easy in its way. A wall of druggy molasses that your feet fight through because to not dance would be to not listen. He loved the crowd, the crowd loved back. Oh to be young and beautiful. (um...don't do drugs?)
The Show these Kids How it's Done Award - Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings
Yeah, so it's a soul outfit built entirely on convention. It's familiar and an homage to a bygone sound, but Ms. Jones has those boys in. the. pocket. I like my soul a little grittier (congas are too sweet...and no Hammond player?) but that is a complete outfit of professional musicians that know their paces. No prerecorded loops. No 808's. No laptops. Living music from live beings. The songs would shift on improvisational cues counted off by their band leader. The bass player and the drummer had to watch each other. This is honest music. It's stripped of pretense, it's made to dance to, it's the plain language of love and loss and the party that lives between our hips. Sharon Jones is irrepressible, her joyful nature and gratitude coursing through every smoky flourish. It takes thousands of years to make a ray of sunshine, it took 54 years to make Sharon Jones; and I can't think of one noticeable difference between the two.
Well SXSW, I anticipated your arrival, I resented you while you were here, I was glad to see you go, and I begrudgingly acknowledge that I'll cave to hopes of peer approval and see you again next year. Hooray?
For sure. Hooray.
No comments:
Post a Comment