The Cause Covers SXSW in Review: part 1

I don't feel it's appropriate or fair to fully digest an event (especially one as expansive as SXSW) until you have properly removed yourself from it and decompressed. How long does that take? Until all of your dirty laundry is washed, put away, and you've received at least one paycheck from work you are not fully decompressed from any trip.

You may have noticed there was only one ACTUAL update from within SXSW. It became hard to piece together what was happening without taking a step back so i resigned my coverage to constant steady posts on @chasehammerton during the last couple weeks. I hope you've been following. For those of you that were, thank you and welcome back to The Cause. Over the next few days I will be posting unrolling pieces of our SXSW coverage. From what lived up to our excitement to what fell flat, you can read about it here. Check back often this week for our The Cause Covers SXSW In Review.

What we wanted to see and the content we ended up actually catching was a bit different due to over crowded venues, hustling from one stage to the next, lack of communication (spiking of cell phones), the loss of a drivers license (which led to explaining to Kevin Devine about a sexual encounter I had during his set at the South Paw in Brooklyn back in 2007). From a Chase Hammerton perspective, here’s what happened…

On Tuesday the fifteenth of March, three friends arrived in Austin, wet behind the ears, stupid with confidence. Confidence in that they had a plan, one which they knew to be a loose, but a plan none the less. Confidence that they were ready for this conference. I was one of those three friends. We were a bunch of dumb assholes.

Our first real taste of anything was the Nerdcore showcase at the Flamingo Cantina. I only stayed for Dual Core but the rest of the group stayed for Mega Ran and Wordburglar and had nothing but high marks to give both. The general theme of this showcase was videogame fueled hip hop. All of which was very refreshing and interesting in an industry where the top earners seem to have traded in the genre’s inventive roots for another record about spinning rims and auto tuners.

After Dual Core, I left Flamingo Cantina for the Bat Bar to see Admiral Fallow. A Scottish band who fall into the vein of Mumford and Sons and River City Extension, they are very tight and enjoyable but lack that one song that sticks in your head for days; which is why, sadly, they were lost and possibly forgotten by many in the crowd. The potential is there for Admiral Fallow to put out a great collection of songs but I don’t see them being there yet. That being said, it would definitely be worth your time to take a listen to them.

This brings us to the Latitude 30 showcase. A showcase comprised of bands from the UK, we were able to catch Pulled Apart By Horses (American influenced lead laced chunky rock), The Boxer Rebellion (Echo-y Indie shoe shuffle), and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (digital dance pop). Although massively different styles of music, all three bands were good yet their sounds all played it remotely safe. Pulled Apart By Horses and the Boxer Rebellion put together great live performances. I wouldn’t buy a ticket to see either band; however if they were to mount the stage before the headliner at Bowery Ballroom, you would find me on the main floor and not in the basement lounge.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. There are two places you should never apologize. One place is in bed. The other is on a stage. TEED was one of the artists we selected as something to be excited about; and live he was a bit of a letdown. Between his gimmicky dinosaur costume, pheasant feather head dress and his awkward song transitions, it was sort of a dead end to the night. At the onset of every track I wanted to dance and I did dance. His beat transitions between songs were jerky, at best, and left me feeling he’d be less offensive to the dance floor if he simply stopped at the end of one song, paused, and then started fresh with a completely new song. All in all, the content within the songs was solid, fun, and can shock any party’s hips and feet into moving along. Live however, he needs more time and practice to get his performance down. I’m going to give him a bit of room here as he’s still a quite young.

www.dualcoremusic.com
www.megaran.com
www.wordburglar.com
www.pulledapartbyhorses.com
www.theboxerrebellion.com
www.myspace.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs
www.admiralfallow.com

"Is the coffee downstairs free, or just for Breakfasters": SXSW DAY 1

We arrived at the airport in Austin, Texas a bit after 11am. I lost the jet race, for anyone that's interested in how that turned out. Our hotel is clearly not as close to downtown as advertised which is going to be a bit of a pain for coming and going. But it does have a great fried seafood eatery right next door named Captain Benny's.

Stepping into the Convention Center, which houses the SXSW trade show, it looked every bit the part of an adult film convention with people drooling over picture disk vinyl and industry networking booths rather than slender / half nude starlets. One welcome difference: Since the companies didn't have porn to help attract you to their booth what could they use? FREE BEER! The Convention center is a fantastic way to pre-game/day-drink your way through until the showcases start that night.

Here's what's about to happen...my spicy chicken is getting cold so I'm going to skip to the first night of music...

First up was Flamingo's where we caught a great nerdcore hip-hop showcase. Duel Core was our first experience here and it was a good one. His speed and flow were krysp as he hit the crowd with "Hostage Down" an ode to Counter Strike. Some stayed behind to continue the rhythm lesson while I hopped up the block to The Bat Bar to catch a folk band from scotland Admiral Fallow. They were worth the walk. Wonderfully layered vocals over top of full guitar work, a driving drum line, and a flute move the crowd.

After Admiral Fallow, we headed over to Emo's to see Surfer Blood and Gold Panda at the Pitchfork showcase. The line was all kinds of retarded so we passed. We changed the game and made the place to be Latitude 30 for Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. On our way there, however, my dream of a friend passed on the inside info that across town....the Foo Fighters were playing a secret show. It was obvious not many knew, while this was happening, as we were seemingly the only people hustling over there. But the walk was too far...and we were unable to make it in. SO...now TEED was soon to play and here we were on the other side of town.

Enter my angel, Maranda (hot name right?). Maranda rides up to us like on her shiny chrome steed (a 10 speed). She is a rickshaw driver and was brave enough to take the three of us clear across town. With her beauty and skill she peddled us up hills at speed I've never been a party to. She made it to Latitude 30 so fast that not only had we not missed TEED, but we were there to see Pulled Apart By Horses. Needless to say, they were great.

TEED takes the stage in a full body dinosaur overall...thing. He claims his stance behind his table of midi controllers and wires and places a native american headdress, fashioned of pheasant and crow feathers. His samples and tones were krysp and got everyone in full dance party club mode. It was enough beat to fall in love, but just for one night. What he was doing wrong? He kept apologizing if he messed up and his flow between songs needs work. There are two places you never apologize, on stage and in bed. The artist needs to let things go. We're here, we're dancing...what happens happens. Move on and keep the beat going. His transition between songs was caught somewhere in between being a continuous DJ mix and fully stopping a song at its end, pausing, and starting the next song. That being said, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur was great. HIGHLY recommended. As well as all the bands I've mentioned in this post.

Follow me on twitter @chasehammerton for all the up to the minute data and PHOTOS!!!!!!

Email me @ chasehammerton@gmail.com if you'd like to see us cover anything. I've looked at all the artists you've all already sent in and we will do our best to see what we can see...if they were any good. Most of the bands you want me to check out suck. Go listen to Duel Core and Pulled Apart By Horses and come back with a revamped list of what you want me to check out.

If you're in town, buy me a drink. I'll be the one in a suit, playing guitar, in the back of a rickshaw piloted by a beautiful blonde.

xoxo see you later.

THE WAR ROOM (Elizabeth NJ) AKA: shutting the door to America

Here we are. Hours away from our flights, (for some reason we decided to take different planes and race to SXSW) we are gathered in our associate's studio combing over the SXSW schedule, plotting a week that will surely end in hearing loss, two cases of pink eye, several dozen broken pairs of sunglasses, and most likely a son who I will not become aware of until he seeks me out on his seventeenth birthday.

What?

Here is a loose idea of what we will be getting into over the next week (and when I say loose I mean "it wasn't even worth buying her that many drinks loose"):

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
The Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger
Casiokids
City and Colour
Damion Jurado
T Bird and the Breaks
Innerpartysystem
The Limousines
G. Love
JBM
Great Lake Swimmers
Deer Tick
Cory Branan (playing three pay shows... worth it)
Tyler the Creator
Shit Horse
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group
The Screaming Females
River City Extension
Friday night's Texas Battle League @ Fuze
Gold Panda
The Growlers
Kill it Kid
...

Running through all of the nights and all of the showcases started turning into abusive remixing of every artist's songs with aggressive Moog touches.

More will be added to this list. I'd do it now, but I need another Narragansett and it's my turn on the Drum synth.

AND YES, we realize that The Strokes and Bad Brains are playing. I'm not wasting my time getting to a club at doors, washing my mind with thoughts of all the better things I could be doing with my evening. We will gladly be leave the headroom open for you.

See you kids in the AM.

UPDATE. TOO LATE

We here at The Cause are sorry that we haven't had a chance to get up last week's album review. But we can assure you there will be a lot of content coming.

What have we been up to? We have been Plotting our schedule for SXSW which begins this coming Wednesday in Austin, Texas. Myself, along with two other devoted members, will arrive in Texas this coming Tuesday. We will be providing you with an overload of updates, content, who to check out, and who blew clams.

To stay very current be sure to check out my twitter feed @chasehammerton for up to the minute coverage.

Monday night we will post a more accurate schedule as to where we'll be over the next week and a half. Off the top of my head we are scheduled to check out Cory Branan, River City Extension, City and Colour, and Screaming Females. I know there are a LOT more, but right now those are a few that have me excited.

So if you'd like to hang out, possibly help us cover more of this expansive conference, or just buy us tall boys and scotch (or at the LEAST Jameson) check back here Monday.

Follow the blog, follow us on twitter, and if there's something you want to see TELL US ABOUT IT. Email me at chasehammerton@gmail.com

Talk to you all soon!