Entries Tagged With: Black Angels

Guest SXSW Blogger: the Wedding Present, Van Morrison, R.E.M., the Lemonheads, and more

By Arielle Castillo At 12:10pm Mar 15, 2008

We asked a guest blogger, Sir Winston, proprietor of the illustrious venue Churchill’s Pub in Miami, to weigh in on his SXSW experiences so far. Here are his recollections of the first day.

Pedal to the metal. Well, not just metal, but in fact all genres from alt-country to zydeco…. (Actually that's a lie; I haven't seen any zydeco bands yet, but I'm sure there are some here.) And I mean pedal down, as in speed, because if you want to catch a few idols as well as up-and-comers at SXSW you have to move pretty fast.

To recap a lightning first day, Wednesday, read on -- but before doing so, drink three energy drinks and four shots of espresso, and make sure you do your warm-up stretches.
I got to the starting line late, and set off at a slow pace by revisiting an old memory in the guise of English Eighties band The Wedding Present at Emo's Annex.

(A quick aside here: Talk about a greedy venue -- we have Emo's Main stage [think falling-down barn], Emo's Jr. [smallish room with a bar], Emo's IX lounge stage [actually a well-appointed room]…. Is that enough? Oh no. For SXSW they need a fourth stage, so across the road they erect a tent for about 250 people with a bar and some porta-potties. End jealous rant).

So TWP played a mix of old hits and new songs from their soon-to-be-released new album. (At least it's soon in England; contact Sweat Records or some other expert for more info on a U.S. release date).

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SXSW So Far (I Think): Black Angels, Van Morrison, Roky Erickson, Cut Copy, Tough Alliance

By Arielle Castillo At 01:47pm Mar 14, 2008

Reporting in from SXSW in Austin, where the proliferation of barbecue, noise, and way too much free booze is starting to severely hamper my ability to take notes.

It’s now day three of the music marathon, and over the last couple of days I’ve caught a few legends, maybe a couple soon-to-be-legends, and … I should make a clever pun here, but I’ll just say, bands that were not so great.

Much of Wednesday is already lost to the sands of time, so a few highlights:

Happy Surprise #1: An afterparty for a screening of the new Lou Reed Berlin movie. I missed the screening, but hustled over to Pangaea (yep, same as at the Hard Rock Live, same logo, same strange piratey décor, only here with more skulls and Texasy touches). First cool random discovery was What Laura Says Thinks and Feelsfrom Tempe, Arizona; a bunch of shaggy, long-haired types with a really pleasant, tripped out, fleshed out psych-ey sound. Kind of like Devendra Banhart but not quite as weird, and with a big backing band. Awesome, creepy harmonies. After that, more excellent retro psychedelics from Austin’s own Black Angels.

Second stop, on to La Zona Rosa to see none other than Van Morrison -- definitely one of the best things about SXSW is, besides the new bands, sort of return appearances by classic artists. What to say about Van Morrison? Rumors of his condition seem to be exaggerated; his voice sounded great, but the whole vibe was a little subdued, and he sat the entire time.

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