I first mentioned Wavves (Nathan Williams) back in October of last year. The one-man San Diego noise pop band has since gone on to sign with the illustrious Fat Possum Records, becoming a hit among taste-making music bloggers for his fuzzy, super lo-fi beach punk anthems.
In an effort to wrap my head around the hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of acts scheduled to perform at SXSW 2009, I've decided to go through and pick a bunch of names I don't recognize and find out more about each of them. I'm going to start with Cotton Jones, simply because that was one of the first names that was released a few weeks ago.
The Black Lips' tour of India has sadly been cut short. The "#1 Indian music blog," Indiecision, had been following their progress through the six-date tour that would introduce the fine people of India to the Black Lips. Though known for the occasional on-stage antic, (nudity, fire, bodily fluids etc), the band did agree to tone things down for these gigs. To their credit, the band did get halfway through the tour before showing any wang.There were about 400 people at the venue. The other headlining act for the night, hard rock band Synaps from Bangalore, ended their set at around 9:20pm following which Black Lips got on stage. The entire band was in various levels of inebriation with Joe Bradley (drums) being the least drunk, though, as with Pune, he was unhappy with his drum stool....and the story gets better from there. The Black Lips offered up their experience via myspace:
The band played their most well appreciated set of the Indian tour with the Chennai audience getting into their sound far more than the audience at any of their previous Indian gigs. Jared Swilley (bass) was actually chatty with the crowd asking them for any sort of intoxicant they were willing to hand him. The crowd loved it. Then, close to the end of their set Cole Alexander (guitars) and Ian Saint Pé (guitars) started making out on stage. There was a roar. Cole then proceeded to moon the audience, getting further props from the fans. As he turned around, he did not pick up his pants. The band finished their last song with Jared throwing his bass in the air and, subsequently, letting it fall on the stage and disintegrate. Jared then proceeded to jump into the crowd.
Cole was escorted off stage as Joe and Ian dismantled their gear. By this time Jared had procured additional intoxicants and consumed the same. The gig organisers, DNA Networks, were, understandably, flustered by the events, and, in the hours that followed cancelled the rest of the band’s India tour.
Unfortunately, we have had to flee the country of India due to having our whole tour canceled and having to escape being held by police for indecent exposure during our most rawkus set in Chennai at the Campus Rock Idol showcase.Oh dear, it sounds like a rock show broke out. Someone call the cops. These financial backers should have expected something like this. I mean, asking the Black Lips to "tone it down" is kind of like asking The Doors to change their lyrics for national television. Maybe there was something to that Jim Morrison comparison after all. You can see Black Lips in Austin at SXSW.
After the fiasco, which the kids seemed to like, the financial backers of the event were furious and threw us off the tour. They tried to get security to restrain us until the Tamil police arrived. We locked the door while they were kicking and banging on it. Meanwhile, we slipped out the other emergency exit.
When we got to the hotel our tour guide informed us that the that the Campus Rock Idols sponsors were pressing charges and that the police would make their arrest. At that point our tour driver informed us we would have to drive six hours to get to the next town and cross state lines where we would be out of the Tamil authorities jurisdiction, because apparently the jail in Chennai is no joke. Word on the street said that it was teeming with tuberculosis, violence and live maggots so instead of risking going there we fled the scene. The drive ended up taking 10 hours because of a horrific accident on the road. We were also informed that all of the shows on our tour had been canceled effectively fucking all funds for the trip. This was a cultural clashing shit storm.
When we got to the next hotel a mysterious man and someone who worked for our Indian booking agency tried to run off with our passports they got to the car when we caught them. That's when our VBS.tv documentarian Rob went postal on them. We surrounded them until they gave back our passports. After that we booked the first flight to Berlin to instead work with another Indian, King Khan, on an upcoming EP. We are flying out as soon as sunrise hits this far away land and we have to have the US embassy's phone number on hand in case any more troubleshit starts popping at the airport or something.
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears were recently featured on Daytrotter, offering up four live studio cuts from their self-titled album and an unreleased cover of a Junior Wells original. Here's an except from the article:"It’s merely an extension of the raw and just plain honest music of Joe Lewis and his Memphis-flavored band of guitar, horn and pianah players. This band of merry – and lascivious – young men have the scent of last night’s woman or women, a whole carton of smoked Camels, a boozy romp and lived in clothing – coming out of their amplifiers and speakers."Check out one of the funky fried tunes from their Daytrotter session below, then hit the link for more. Ben Kweller is there, too. Get on the bus.
As a gift to fans, The Octopus Project recently got together to record a cover of an old Bee Gees tune called "I.O.I.O.", with excellent results. Though their musical creations are typically vocal-free, they sound great sharing vocal duties on this track, which might be a sign of things to come. Austin Sound reports that they will be releasing a new EP soon, with these two songs and leftovers from Hello Avalanche included.
As I was sitting out in the crowd watching Dr. Octagon at Fun Fun Fun Fest, listening to hundreds of people in the crowd matching every rhyme word for word, I knew this was something I needed to give a listen to. It didn't take long to get hooked on it, because this album is cool in a couple of different ways.
You never really need a good reason to throw a party, but in honor of George Bush's exit, and President Obama's entrance, the Heartless Bastards will be doing their three-way garage-soul thing down at Antone's as part of the Bush Retirement Celebration.
I've been meaning to show the Dirtbombs some love ever since they rocked the house opening for TV On The Radio at Stubb's. The Detroit rockers released a new album via In The Red last year, the A.V. Club approved We Have You Surrounded, so here's a couple of songs from that one.
SXSW rumors, announcements and confirmations continue to reveal themselves. Of the names being tossed around right now, these are the ones that most interest me:
I have been really tied up with work and having too much fun at Free Week, but I will commence to regular blogging soon enough. I hate not having a bunch of tunes up here for you to check out. Here are a few things I have been meaning to post:
A new Dan Deacon track surfaced earlier today, and it kind of sounds like a magic xylophone racing down the side of a mountain. "Get Older" will be released on vinyl later this month via Carpark, and it will also be the closing number on Deacon's new album entitled Bromst.
