BRR started out SXSW by going over to the Creekside Lounge to catch Goes Cube with their day show. Unfortunately, we got there too late to have New York’s loudest trio punish our eardrums, but we did catch up with them and their impressive tour beards. They’re off to play shows in Laredo and Corpus Christi before coming back to Austin for their official showcase on Saturday at Maggie Mae’s. (Goes Cube arrives back in NYC with a show at Union Pool on Mar. 28)
We did manage to catch The Midgetmen’s brand of fast, catchy punk rock, centered around an awesome clear bass guitar.
Then, I walked through downtown Austin a bit to get bearings and lunch. This is my first time here and I’m amazed at the extent to which SXSW takes over downtown.
Stopped by Mog’s day party to see the Raveonettes. Ended up seeing this band first. From Phoenix, they are dudes with beards making music for dudes with beards.
Then, Austin’s Black Angels came on and brought their reverb-drenched noisy rock to the stage. They were the BRR find of the day. Of course, I didn’t manage to take a photo, but they’re playing again today at the Red Eyed Fly at 5:30 with A Place to Bury Strangers.
The Raveonettes came on and were surprisingly loud with some heavy and nasty (in a good way) pre-recorded loops. This was when forgetting my earplugs in my bag became a poor choice.
BBQ anyone?
Later, stopped in on Walter Meego and their dancey synth-rock, highlighted by some nice unison dual-guitar work.
On to day 2….
SXSW: Day 0
I’m writing this stuffed into a middle seat on the flight down to Austin, TX. For the first time ever, BRR will be bringing you partial team coverage from the SXSW Music Festival.
We’ll be on the ground with the best coverage that you can find on this site.
Elevators Everywhere Weep
101.9 FM in New York is no longer CD 101.9, the home of smooth jazz (music made by computers, for computers) but is instead now 101.9 RXP – The New York Rock Experience, which claims that it will focus on variety, intelligence and local acts.
Between the death of Jack FM (music programmed by computers) and now CD 101 (music written by computers) and the return and creation of rock-focused stations with DJ’s, this looks like a realization that radio is more than just playlists. Radio is about the connection between the music, the DJ and the listeners.
FNL and the Second Half Collapse
Even with three months of the strike behind us, I’m still almost not quite caught up with Friday Night Lights. I started with the season 1 DVD in the fall and am now only two episodes behind with episodes.
But for everything that the series did right in season 1, season 2 just hasn’t clicked in the same way.
The football games have fallen to the background, which seems out of place when season 1 established that the most important thing in Dillon is Dillon HS football.
Or, as usual with most things TV-related, go read Sepinwall:
“I’ve had lots of problems with “FNL” season two, but none moreso than the way the show has completely lost track of the damn team. We’ve seen, what, six games in 13 episodes? (With Smash playing terribly in almost all of them, which makes his big college recruiting story seem doubly baffling.) And now there are only three more before the playoffs start? And we spend an entire episode with zero football action or practice, but with a subplot devoted to the girls’ volleyball team?
I know the company line is that “FNL” isn’t really about football, but that’s just a lie to lure in the people who would otherwise refuse to watch a show about football — and who, based on the ratings for season two, aren’t going to watch anyway. Season one was absolutely about football, and that’s what made it great. It was about how a town defined itself through this team and how the pressure of being that defining element shaped the lives of the coaches, the players and their friends and family. There was plenty of action that took place away from the gridiron, but the season was always there in the background. We were always aware of how the Panthers were doing, how Saracen and Smash and Riggins were playing, how secure Eric’s job was, etc.
Football was the foundation on which everything else was built, and now it’s become this obligatory thing that the writers feel like they have to bring up from time to time, when they’d rather be spending time on another romance or crime plot.”
The pressure on the coach and the team from the talk radio, boosters, and everyone else in Dillon shaped characters and relationships, but we haven’t seen that since Coach returned to Dillon. That’s one reason why the characters seem to be in a vacuum. Foorball is what brings everyone in Dillon together, and without it, the characters are all off in little groups doing their own thing without any other context.
If there’s going to be no attention to the football details that were the basis of the world of Dillon in season 1, why not keep season 2 in the same school year after the championship? This way, there’s no need to fudge that Riggins and Lyla weren’t also originally seniors in the same class as Street.
How does the show reboot for season 3 (assuming that there is one)? First, bring in new characters to fill in for Smash and Riggins on the team and maybe add some more non-QB, non-RB characters into the mix. A lineman, a wideout, a backup. At the same time, don’t lose Smash or Riggins. Wouldn’t The Smash not be quite the big fish in college he is in Dillon? How would Riggins deal with graduating and being stuck in Dillon (besides dating the MILF next door or living with the town Meth dealer)?
Great Moments in Keytar History – 2008 Grammys
This is apparently going to be a series– if not the entire raison d’être of the blog.
At the Grammy Awards last night, Morris Day and the Time reunited to rock some awesome keytar action (and play with Rhianna):
Great Moments in Keytar History
Howard Jones, Herbie Hancock, Thomas Dolby, Stevie Wonder perform a medley at the Grammy awards in 1985:
William Howard Taft
The Two Man Gentlemen Band bring their old-timey song style to video, with this snappy song about the only person to serve as both President of the US and Chief Justice of the US. And the only President whose girth enabled him to get stuck in the White House bathtub.
He’s Leaving
30 Rock, I’ll miss you most of all…
Getting a new episode of 30 Rock last night was a nice bonus in these strike depleted days.
I was going to embed the musical clip from Hulu, but it’s a shame that the online market is so nascent that NBC hasn’t figured out how to make money on online video, aside from runing pre-roll ads. If they give those away to Cisco as promotional material, how can they earn money on the content?
Food Fight
Food Fight by Stefan Nadelman: “Food Fight is an abridged history of war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.”
Very clever.
Mario Paint Nirvana
Ever wonder what it would sound like to recreate songs using Mario Paint? No? Me neither. But someone did: