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