Entries Tagged With: Modular Records

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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