Lessons in Not Wetting Yourself: Interviewing rockstars.

Hello, it's me Tolly.  Would you like to know four hard things I can do without getting nervous?

1.  Taxes
2.  Thumb wars
3.  Reverse the car out of our driveway*
4.  Make a duck call with my hand**

*Meaning: I don't get nervous.  Everyone watching does.
**This probably doesn't make anyone nervous.  Also it's not hard.

Would you like to know what does make me nervous?

1.  Cooking
2.  Long division
3.  Dogs that look like wolves
4.  Interviewing rockstars

SO.  When I was asked to do #4 last week at SXSW for Express Clothing, I was simultaneously thrilled / teensy bit terrified.

But I think it went ok.

The interviews were spread over three days at Cedar Door here in Austin, where Express and BMF Media Group cohosted the Express Rocks! Music Lounge.  There were over 50 bands, with Neon Trees as the headliner, and folks like Chromeo, Ellie Goulding, and The Sounds stopping by for interviews.  Express dressed me (thank God) and I got to hold a super-huge microphone!

Here are videos of my three favorite interviews: Diplo, Atomic Tom, and Asher Roth.  They are all viewable on the Express website, or more accurately, the Express Rocks portion of their website. 

I was super excited to talk to Diplo.  A long time ago, I wrote a column for The Deli called "DJ Education," and it's sort of like my weird closeted music secret: My brief but intense obsession with DJs.   In the DJ world, Diplo is like Michael Jackson.  Or at least Elton John.  What I'm saying is, he's a big deal. 

Atomic Tom's Tobias is Canadian.  Why is that pertinent?   I don't know.  Except that every single Canadian I've ever met is shockingly nice.  Including Tobias.  Here's his 60 Seconds with Tobias blog.

Asher Roth shook every crew members' hand before the interview, and is just straight-up charming.  Can you see it here?  I ran after him post-interview and made him take an iPhone picture with me.

 Here are some more photos from Express Rocks.

Me with Miss Holly Huddleston, contributor to one of my favorite local blogs: ATX Gossip. 

HOW EXCITING IS THIS.  I got to meet my beloved Peelander Z!  And boy did I gush.  I told them how I went on a date once with this guy to see them, and then I thought he was basically the coolest guy ever, and then I married him, and omigod would they mind terribly signing an autograph for my then date, now husband?

Now taped to the refrigerator!

Daniel Cavazos shot these pictures of my boys: GARY! and Happy.

Chris Apollo Lynn and I making swift use of the photo booth.  I don't know what we are trying to do here.

After this Express gig was all said and done, I can honestly say I had a blast!  Like, a ridiculously good time, and I don't think I scared too many bands.  Wonder if I'll get to do it again?  Express Rocks! does lounges at places like Coachella and Sundance, and while the chances of being shipped out to spots like that are probably slim ... a girl can dream. 

All of my band interviews can now be found on the homepage of the Express Rocks site.  Enjoy!

TONIGHT: Mortified Austin.

Friends, do you remember a time before text messages and Facebook?

When angsty pre-teens and teenagers wrote soul-baring poetry inside their Trapper Keepers?

Archaeologists have now uncovered a rudimentary communication tool called a "pencil," which bore marks onto "paper," an advanced form of papyrus.  It is these instruments that frustrated, horny, confused individuals of roughly the 11 - 18 age range used in antiquity to record their thoughts and feelings.

Mortified is a national, touring show that uncovers these artifacts, and features their users reading them aloud, in front of a live audience, and TONIGHT is the third anniversary of Mortified: Austin.

GARY!  introduced me to Mortified a while back, and oh my God, the Austin version is hilarious.  I performed last year, and read my diary entries about mooning dogs, as well as love letters from summer camp to -- not boys -- my CAT.

One of the producers of the show, Patrick Daniel, told me tonight's group in particular is ridiculous.  The show is at United States Art Authority, next door to Spiderhouse, which means that seating will be limited: so jump on it.

Mortified: Austin

Friday, January 21 (tonight)

8:00pm - 10:00pm

United States Art Authority

2906 Fruth Street

Ross, I, and a group of friends will be there.  Yay!  ALSO.  There is a nameless, jazz-ish, delightful trio that plays 80s covers in between performers.  I think they are called "The After-School Specials" and they only play for Mortified.  I have a crush on all of them.  They are another excellent reason to see this show tonight.

PS: Yes, that is me, in the beautiful Olan Mills portrait above.

TONIGHT: Black and White Years debut their AMAZING new LP, Patterns.

So, this is probably the most self-serving item I have ever posted on Austin Eavesdropper.

Why?  Well, it's written by GARY!, and this is the story of how GARY! and I met. So in that way, it's also one of the most sentimental items I've ever posted on Austin Eavesdropper.  

Grin.

Anyway. Basically, what you need to know is, The Black and White Years, Austin's electro-dance-music-with-smart-lyrics-band, is releasing their new LP Patterns tonight at The ND.  It is incredibly catchy, the Internet is freaking out about it, and I have been listening to the whole album on repeat this past week. Sample one of the singles, "Up!" here.

Here's GARY! to tell you the rest. Remember -- I'm warning you -- the first part is straight-up flattery, and I'm a bit of an ego maniac just for posting it.

*  *  *
from gary!:

About two years ago, I was at The Mohawk for the YELLE show, when a friend of mine ran up to me and said, “I just met the cutest girl, and the two of you just HAVE to meet! You are going to LOVE her!”

If it sounds like he was gushing, it’s because he was, not to mention that’s just how gay folk talk when they get excited. I must have looked a little puzzled because he went on to explain, “She writes for this new blog in town called “That Austin Girl.” Now at this point in time I had never heard of a blog called “That Austin Girl,” nor had I ever met the pocket-sized blond girl behind it.

We did actually end up meeting that night in October, if only in passing, but my friend was right.  I was immediately taken by this HUGE personality trapped inside such a compact frame. We ran into each other a few other times after that, and we finally decided that if we were both going to inadvertently stalk each other’s social calendars, that we should probably exchange number.  God forbid, we both showed up at an event wearing the same thing.

Fast forward to the middle of November 2008.  I had heard about a show taking place at The Compound called “The Black and White Years: The East Side Remix.”  Tolly and I had previously bonded over the fact that we thought The Black and White Years were one of the most exciting things happening in the Austin music scene.  I mean, it’s not every day a local up and coming band is approached at SXSW by Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison, and are asked if they’d like help in producing a debut album, right?  So, I rang Tolly.

It was an awesome night, and the start of a great friendship. Did I mention it was something like 35 degrees that night?  I think that officially makes us hardcore fans.

So!  It turns out that history will kind of be repeating itself tonight. The Black and White Years have a show tonight at The ND at 501 Studios.  This is their official album release party for Patterns, and their first single “Up!” has been garnering some heavy play on both 101x and KUT, as well as another favorite track of mine called “Everything’s Eventual.”

The first three times I heard the new songs on the radio I whipped out my phone and tried to SoundHound/Shazam it, only to end up feeling a little defeated when nothing pulled up. I actually found myself sitting in my car, praying the DJ would tell me who was behind the awesomeness (Praise Jesus for Andy Langer and Matt Riley!).  Since then, I’ve wised up and learned that they are actually streaming all of Patterns from their MySpace page, and I'm happy to report that this band has no idea what a sophomore slump is. The album is chocked full of danceable beats and catchy choruses, and I think our friend Happy put it best when he said, “Holy ish. This album is fun. Like REALLY fun.”

Here is a little taste of what you can expect tonight. From Patterns: The song “Animal Behaviors.”

And from Sip Sip -- opening for The Black and White Years -- “Continental Breakfast."

What I am trying to say is: You should seriously come out tonight and get your dance on.  (And to help two Austin Eavesdroppers celebrate their 2nd Friendaversary).

details:

101X Homegrown Live Presents: The Black and White Years CD Release Party with Sip Sip and MoTel Aviv

When: Doors – 9pm, MoTel Aviv - 10 pm, Sip Sip - 11 pm, B&WY’s – 12am

Where: THE ND @ 501 STUDIOS // 512.485.3001

Tickets: $8 at the door, Get there early for $3 Shiner’s and free pizza from Mr Gatti’s (while it lasts)

Love,

GARY!

My rockstar doctor, and, The Official XX After Party on Saturday.

SO. Before we begin this blog post -- a preamble.

I was at the doctor yesterday, who, as far as doctors go, is unusually hip and cool. Dr. Dickey is one of the "Rock Docs" at ACL every year, which technically means he's on-call to take care of any band members who start to feel whoozy.

Which basically means he's watching shows from the absolute best seats in the house, i.e. those little bleachers ON-STAGE you see at each performance.

So we're talking yesterday about bands, when Dr. Dickey casually mentions he's also the doctor for The XX. "Have you heard of them?" He asks.

"YES," I bellowed. Only flew to San Francisco to see them!

"Well, Jamie got a cold last time he was in town...but hopefully he'll be fine this weekend. We're gonna hang out."

How cool is my doctor?

I guess this means there is a good chance I'll see my rockstar doctor at this party that GARY! is about to tell you about.

Reader, you are familiar with GARY!, yes?  He wrote yesterday explaining he kind of missed telling people what to do blogging. And with that, wrote up a little post.

Here he is then, GARY! with a weekend party preview:

From GARY!:

So leave it to something like ACL to drag me out of whatever it was I was doing that prohibited me from blogging on this wonderful site for so long.  I'd like to tell you that I've been away at Encyclopedia Brown Private Investigator Camp (it's just down the road from Hogwarts), but really I just haven’t been my usual socially lubricated self.  This is probably just the logical progression of me becoming a crotchety old man who yells things like, "And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids!" *yanks rubber mask from head* but for whatever reason I guess I got caught up in the ACL madness, and decided to try and make a return to form.

So it's common knowledge that ACL comes with its fair share of pre-parties and after-parties, but it's also common knowledge that most of those shows sold out the moment the interwebs mentioned their very existence. Sucks right? Well fear not.  Over the next few days we are going to do our best to keep you in the know on where to go, so let's get down to business shall we?

First up our friends over at Giant Noise dropped us a line to let us know that Dubfrequency and Malverde are teaming up this Saturday to present THE OFFICIAL XX AFTER PARTY.  Basically, we have a pair of DJ sets from Jaime (of XX fame) and his frequent collaborator Fantastic Mr. Fox. Take note that the first 10 folks in line are also going to receive free tickets to the October 28th Ghostland Observatory show in Cedar Park.

So here are the basics:

THE OFFICIAL XX AFTER PARTY

From 10pm - 2am

Where: Malverde

400 West 2nd St

Austin, TX 78701

COVER: $10

Arrive early as space is extremely limited.

For now that's all I got, but keep an eye out for a few more parties to be posted throughout the week

GARY!

UPDATE 10/7/10: We've just been informed there is now a $10 cover for the party.  So.  Bring yer wallet.

Saturday is crazy. Here's one option!

Holy weekend, there are a billion things going on in Austin today.

Some rock-tastic teens are playing this afternoon at Highball, 1:00pm, for the Girls Rock Camp Showcase. There's a gourmet grilling party happening at Breed that I totally meant to blog about.  I'll be at the Hollywood Gossip release party tonight, while a ton of you will be getting your faces melted off at Stubb's for Night 2 of the Passion Pit madness. Yow!

(Speaking of. Can we talk about the fact that I sold my Passion Pit ticket last night, for reasons I'll explain later, and saw Sex & The City 2 instead?

?!?!

Actually... let's not talk about it. It's embarrassing).

Anyway, GARY! uncovered one more bit of fun going down tonight, happening on Austin's east side. Take it GARY!:

Don't worry, you aren't seeing things. Yes, you are getting two posts from GARY! this week, and that is because we live in a city that is chock-full of badassery (real word, I swear). So here we go.

A few weeks ago, a show took place that I regretfully didn't have time to write about called Night Fever! VOL I: Hip Hop. Not only did I fail to post about it, I also didn't make it out due to conflicting plans (and the lack of a clone).

Well leave it to our friends here at Austin Eavesdropper to tell me that I missed a pretty stellar event. You see, last time Night Fever occurred Soul of the Boot and Strange Tribe Productions brought in DJ NuMark, and apparently it was amazing. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the part where I nod and pretend like I know who GARY! is talking about).

So the next time one of these events rolled through town, I knew I couldn't miss it.

Rich Medina, who headlines tonight, is a total grab bag in terms of musical stylings: Think hot soul, funk, hip hop, house, even afro-beat. Here's a sample here, and here. Deliciously chill, non?

Also on the bill are Austin's own The Lost Soul Revue. These guys are an anachronistic wonder, essentially a Motown cover band, but damn are they good. If you ever catch one of their sets, listen up for Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Otis Redding, The Shirelles, The Ronnettes, Stevie Wonder, Sly and The Family Stone... all accompanied by a 10-piece band.  This lady just opens her mouth, and spills out two tons of soul.


Hope to see you guys there for what is sure to be another amazing night in Austin!

details:

The Scoot Inn 

1308 E. 4th St @ Navasota


Austin, TX, 78702

$5.00 for the ladies / $10.00 for the fellas

Additional info here.

see you tonight!

A post from GARY!: Happy Pride, Austin.

This post, lovelies, comes courtesy of Austin Eavesdropper's very own music editor GARY!

I hope you find his simple reflections on this song as touching as I did. GARY! and I were having a conversation earlier about the nature of love, and about shame. In our hip, ironic, post-everything world, it is things like Pride Week that remind me how good it feels to genuinely emote. And to say so - without qualification or apologetic quotation marks - when something moves you.

Here's GARY!:


This one goes out to all the gays, queers, lesbos, fags, drag queens, dykes, moes, and everyone out there that gets us and, more importantly, supports us.

I just stumbled onto the remix of an older Chemical Brothers track called “Saturate” that the Stanton Warriors reworked recently. Instead of converting the song into another breakbeat track, they actually included some samples of Martin Luther King quotes. I have no idea why, but the effect is simply astounding.

I gotta say that 50 years later, his words still resonate with anyone that has been witness to any kind of social injustice. And I can’t help getting a little emotional when I listen to this track, because as far as we have come, we still have so far to go.

The only thing I know is that his message is so strong and positive, that one can only hope that eventually everyone will come around and realize that hate has no place in humanity.

You can download the track here.

Happy Pride, Austin.

--Gary

“Remember we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters and not die apart as fools. And so for this to be done, what should we do next? Keep working. Keep struggling. And keep marching. And don’t you surrender.

We are doing something brand new here today. Trying to stop a war before it starts. Trying to slow down the strong to protect the innocent children. Don’t you give up, and don’t you surrender.

Your spirit and faith will be tested. The war machine will give us fierce opposition, but faith can move mountains. And YOU are the light of the world. It’s hope time. Its healing time. Give peace a chance.”

A post from GARY!: Massive Release

It's me again. I just HAD to drop another quick line to let you know about another show that our friends over at Knuckle Rumbler are putting together with Simple Shoes at Encore.

Now when I talk about music, I have to say that for a good while, the local Austin scene simply failed to appear on my radar. An Austin band hadn’t really caught my attention since Spoon, and the act of discovering new bands just seemed tedious. This brings me to 2008, the year I found out about The Black and White Years.

In short, these guys restored my faith that Austin actually is the Music Capital of the World. So heed my advice: If you haven’t caught these guys around town yet, I highly suggest you get on it soon-ish (like tonight) before they blow up and get all famous. Here's the video for "Zeroes & Ones" to whet your appetite.

Also being served up on this buffet of local talent are two other bands, releasing albums today as well: Quiet Company's Songs For Staying In, and the vinyl LP of the The Rocketboys,  20,000 Ghosts. Hence the apropos party name "Massive Release," see?

All told, six bands round out this bill tonight: The Black and White Years, The Rocketboys, Quiet Company, The Eastern Sea, Murdocks and STEREO IS A LIE, divided up on two stages. Tickets are $10, and you can RSVP HERE.

That’s (really) all I got,
g

A post from GARY! In the Words of Johnny Kemp, "It's Friday Night"

This post comes to you courtesy of GARY!, Austin Eavesdropper's devilishly handsome music contributor. GARY!, tell the good people of Austin what they should be doing tonight:

Have wiser words ever been spoken?

Just got paid, Friday night
Party huntin', feelin' right
Body shakin', all around (Body shakin' all around)
No one thinks when I'm gettin' down

Check the mirror, we're lookin' fly
Round up the posse, jump in my ride
Radio rockin', a monster jam
Feel the rhythm, pump up the sound

Ok now that we got that out of the way, let me be the first to say congratulations. You made it through another monotonous work week. So let us all let out a collective sigh, because it’s Friday yo. Now let’s talk about what to do with all that hard earned cash!

We all know that Austin has its fair share of things to do on any given day, and tonight is no different. Tonight brings us a pretty stellar event that has the Eavesdropper all up in a tizzy. Yes, a TIZZY. And I will be the first to say that we don’t use that word lightly.

First up we have an album release party for one of AE’s favorites, Fresh Millions. We’ve talked about these guys in the past on AE, and to beat a dead horse, we absolutely love it when these guys play a live show. There is something about their music that just causes the booty shake involuntarily. The way Geoff Earle melds the sounds of electro, funk, and rock (with heavy emphasis on the FUNK) are unprecedented in the Austin Music scene, perhaps only matched by fellow Austin band Auto Body. Tonight’s show at The Scoot Inn marks quite an achievement for Geoff, being that tonight is also the band's album release party.

I’ve had a chance to listen to the album a few times and I have to say it delivers on every front that it should. My only complaint is that it falls slightly short of capturing the spectacle of seeing Fresh Millions live. That’s not meant to be disparaging ding against the album, but rather a compliment to how rad they are live. I feel the same way about Hot Chip, Ghostland Observatory, and The Octopus Project. All great bands, but live they take things to a whole other level of awesome. In my humble opinion some bands just need to be experienced, and I can’t really think of a better compliment to pay a musician than that. We now live in the age of the modern recording studio where anyone can sound like a great band, but what matters is that they have the goods to back it up live (AHEM. Looking at you, Crystal Castles).

Also on the bill for tonight’s show is Focus Group, releasing their new Unicornography EP tonight. This is the first time they’ve really popped up on my radar, but I have to say I’m REALLY digging what I’ve heard on their website. I can’t even begin to really describe their sound except to say that it’s two parts awesome and one part eclectic, with a dash of horns and keys to boot. I'm looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future, and if the music posted on the web is any indication of the new EP’s sound, I’ll definitely be picking up a copy for myself.  Check 'em out yourself to see what I mean.


No Mas Bodas , Butcher Bear and VidKidz are also on the bill as well.

Make sure to RSVP over at Do512 for FREE entry tonight. Show starts at 10 at the Scoot Inn, and the first 25 people through the door will receive a free copy of the brand new Fresh Millions CD. To get a little taste of that goodness, visit Fresh Millions' band camp page or Sound Cloud page.

That's all I got,
g.

TONIGHT: Disposable Edits, starring Hipstercrite

Hello again!

I don't mean to brag, but we are kind of kicking ass on a Saturday. Two posts in one day? FROM TWO DIFFERENT CONTRIBUTORS? We need to sprinkle Adderall in our coffee more often! (Kidding Daddy).

Here's GARY! on a rad art show tonight. Check it!:

Hey ebre-body. One of Eavesdropper's favorite Austin bloggers, Lauren Modery over at Hipstercrite, is involved in a photography show at SUPER! ALRIGHT! (301 Chicon STE A Austin TX 78701) in East Austin that I thought sounded pretty neat. And since everyone knows us Eavesdroppers are all about supporting Austin's burgeoning art scene, I wanted to take a quick second to point you in the direction of where you should be this evening.

The premise is a simple one: Disposable Edits will bring together 16 Austin artists who will each display one enlarged photo taken with a regular disposable camera. Each artist comes from a variety of backgrounds - painting, drawing, video, mixed media and photography. Sounds like it could be interesting, and I definitely plan on swinging by to check this one out for sure. It also turns out that there will be some FREE Dos Equis on site to quench that mighty thirst of yours.

So! Come out and get your art and drink on East Side style, tonight from 6-10pm.

That's all i got,
GARY!

Here are the official details from the events page:

16 Austin artists come together to display a unique photography project At SUPER! ALRIGHT! Each artist will display one unaltered enlarged photograph taken with a standard single use disposable 35mm camera. The project is a collaborative effort between the artists as a way to exercise their creativity. They are also working within other certain constraints such as limited wall space and not being able to digitally enhance their images. Each artist has a unique style within various mediums - painting, drawing, video, mixed media and photography.

the artists:

Andrea Barringer

Valarie Campbell

Mike Combs

Erin Coscia

Jen Bradley

Adreon Henry

Luther Himes

Daniel Hill

Lauren Modery

Tasha Petty

Ben Prentice

Leah Ross

Eric Schoen

Danica Steinhauser

Jacob Villanueva

Carrie Wells

Broc Wilson

Camille Woods

*Danica Steinhauser, Marcos Molina and Mike Aho are longer able to be

in the show.

May 1st 2010. 6-10pm
At SUPER! ALRIGHT!
301 Chicon STE A
Austin TX 78701

Refreshments provided
Special musical guest: Missions

Facebook Event Page
Support provided by Precision Camera

for more info: disposable@digitalpurity.com

San Francisco show review: Miike Snow.

If you've been anywhere near SXSW, Brooklyn Vegan, or an episode of Gossip Girl lately, you've heard of Miike Snow. An innocuous-enough sounding moniker, until you realize that's "Miike" with two I's, not one. The extra "I" means that it's time to party.

I first came across Miike Snow like most people did, with the animal head-heavy music video.


This song, along with "Cult Logic," remains Miike Snow's most popular contribution to the 2009 cadre of indie dance grooves. If synthesizers make you drool, like they certainly do me, you'll find its marriage on this track with light reggae beats a refreshing way to get down. The sound is familiar and yet, like nothing you've ever heard before.

Then again, maybe it is. GARY! informed me that Miike Snow isn't "Miike Snow," the frontman's real name is Andrew Wyatt. And that his main production collaborators are Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, known in the music world as Bloodshy & Avant, and even better known as the Grammy-winning pair who laid down the "Toxic" track for Britney Spears.  Proving that, in the world of music economics, there really is such a thing as the trickle-down effect.

But enough of this Reagan talk: Let's talk about Miike Snow's SHOW that I caught recently.  Happy, GARY!, Andrew and my two dear friends from Sacramento, Jon and Ila, went to go see this group and Delorean exactly two weeks ago at San Francisco's La Zona Rosa-like venue, The Independent, an excited beehive of tight pants and hipsters.

So, this is exactly how I felt while watching Miike Snow.  You may be asking, "were you on a crazy drug trip?" The answer is no, I was not, but I was in fact standing behind the tallest damn man in the world, requiring me to experience the whole thing by jumping up and down in place.

Miike Snow - pardon me, "Andrew" - and his friends started out the show wearing Phantom of the Opera masks, which tickled Jon and me to no end. Before the set began, we looked at each other, and as so often happens with this man, intuited each others' thoughts. And in this case those thoughts were lifted directly from Andrew Lloyd Webber: "Think of me / think of me FONDly / when we've said GOOD-BYE!"

Oh, Phantom. How you deserved Christine.

Back to Miike Snow: Well the set was incredible, of course. I got a harder cardio workout than I ever do at the gym. Here they are, masks-adorned, performing "Burial."


Next up was "Sylvia," masks off.  Are you as surprised as I am by how much Andrew, the lead singer, resembles John Lennon?


Anyway, because we had just been spoiled the night before on the endearing stage antics of Sia, I was hoping for a little more audience interaction...some, "hey San Francisco!" thrown in between songs. But in keeping with the band's mysterious aura - WE WEAR PHANTOM MASKS AND AREN'T GOING TO TELL YOU WHY - no trifling chatty-chat fell from the mouths of Miike Snow. Le sigh.

The highlight of the set for me, however, was the pseudo-tribal version of "Animal," accompanied by big, deafening drums. You know that scene at the end of Apocalypse Now when they slaughter the buffalo and chop it all to pieces and it gets all jungle-psycho? That's how I felt, all intense and savage! (Says the middle class white girl, checking horoscopes on her iPhone, chewing on a pen that says "Eat at Jason's Deli!").

After that, I tumbled out of The Independent with Jon onto the street, where we giggled about God knows what.  Phantom of the Opera?  Slankets? The hit film and 1988 dance musical, Salsa?  These are all distinct possbilities.

Later, we traipsed around the city with our band of friendly fools, ducking into a classy bar, then into a seedy diner, and finally into a taxi cab whose driver casually played disturbing tenets of Scientology over a cassette tape. We laughed. The driver did not. At one point, GARY! wrote, "HE IS GOING TO KILL US" on his cell phone, in a feeble attempt to stifle our life-threatening giggles.

But we made it home alive.

A post from GARY: Sia, I told you so.

Hello my darlings.  Over the next couple of days, we're going to do a mini-series of posts here on Austin Eavesdropper covering the bands (and vineyards!) my friends and I got to see in San Francisco this month. That way, if they ever come to Austin, you can impress your company with the inside scoop.

First up is Sia, with a show review by GARY! Now, I wasn't that familiar with Sia before GARY! told me about her, but I can tell you in all honesty that this was one of the most moving performances I have ever attended. Maybe it was the fact that a man proposed to his future wife in the middle of it. I am not joking. Or maybe, it was the woman who REMOVED HER PROSTHETIC LEG DURING THE SHOW and tried to give it to Sia as a heartfelt gift. I'm not joking about that, either.

But more likely, the magic of Sia's shows can be explained by her own candid, warm, and very real stage presence. She actually talks to people during the show. She remembers individual fans in the audience, and thanks everyone profusely after each song. In short, she's one of those people you would be a fan of anyway, whether she was a singer, an actress, or a Starbucks barista. All it takes is a few seconds around this woman, and you are completely and forever won over.

Here's GARY! with a little more about Sia, and our live show experience:

Oh, SIA.

Friends, the first time I became familiar with this Australian song bird was on a dance compilation I acquired many years ago, from a DJ in Houston. The track was “Drink to Get Drunk,” and if you were ever in a club back around 2001/2002, you have probably heard it before.  Alternatively, if you were ever a Six Feet Under fan, you may also be familiar with "Breathe Me," a Sia song that backed the epic season finale in the show's very last episode.

But despite a rabid fan base, Sia never really achieved mainstream success in America.

Back in November though, she leaked a dance-y, upbeat pop track from her Twitter account: "You've Changed."


Given that Sia's previous albums consisted mainly of atmospheric downtempo tracks and ballads that dealt more with substance than catchy pop hooks, “You’ve Changed” marked a departure - especially from quieter, more thoughtful pieces, like "Soon We'll Be Found."


Quite versatile, yes?

We caught Sia at the wonderful Regency Ballroom while we were in San Francisco. Some things you should know about a Sia concert:

1. Presents or “prezzies” for Sia are always welcome and will be discussed onstage at length,
2. Crowd interaction is encouraged,
3. If you knit, bring your gear because Sia will let you up onstage to knit while she sings,
4. Her fans are some of the nicest people you will ever meet,
5. Be prepared to get to know your performer. Sia isn’t just there to sing, she’s there to chat. Not only does she talk to the audience, she lets the audience talk to her (sometimes inviting them onstage for the purpose),
6. This is the longest show I have ever been to. Her set lasted about two hours that night.

Here she is performing "Never Gonna Leave Me." To get a real taste of this experience, I kept the tape running while she accepted a few random “prezzies” from fans, and then, acted as videographer for a marriage proposal (wait for minute 5:04):


(EDITOR'S NOTE: Tolly here, that video totally made me tear up).

Next, here is a gorgeous cover of Madonna’s “Oh Father," which I believe will be released on her new album We Are Born (available June 22).


This next clip comes from another fan at the show who captured yours truly offering the shirt off his back! I guess you could say I got caught up in the moment, as did the guy who, after me, threw his pants on stage.


Sia eventually offered to give back that infamous pair of pants back to the now pant-less fan. Please note the enormous homemade bubble-blowing wing contraption she wears while negotiating with him.


Don't you love how she continues to hold/display the pants as she begins the next song? Haha.

Anyway, I taped a whole mess of other songs, so if you like what you see here, check out my mini Sia YouTube channel of videos from that night. We loved this girl, and pray to God she comes to Austin some day.

That’s all I got,

g.

San Francisco calling.

Hello friends!

GARY!, Andrew, Happy and I are on Day 3 here in San Francisco, and last night, we met up with my beloved Sacramento friends, Jon and Ila. It's been a whirlwind of shows, dance parties, kindred spirits, hearts-beating-in-time and louder-than-necessary squeals, and every time I see something lovely, I am definitely that obnoxious person who goes, "WAIT, stop. Picture time!"

Here is what I have spied with my little eye.

I had a pretty proud pun moment here. "Who needs their homework grated?" I said.

Chinatown, where we ate our first day. Coincidentally, it was at a dim sum place my dad and I actually visited years ago, New Asia, where groups of Chinese performers sometimes put on shows - during lunch - on a stage flanked by more chandeliers than the eye can see. Isn't that how every lunch should be?

(Freaky!)

This is a temporary, free zip line currently set up near Fisherman's Wharf that I am campaigning to go on. The only problem is, you have to travel there and get in line way early (7:00!) for a wrist band before they run out, and we can never get up at that hour. Girls and gays need their beauty sleep.

Love from San Fran!

(I miss you, Ross and Claudia!)

TONIGHT: A post from GARY! Behold, They're Coming Back...

Tolly here, physically restraining her gorgeous blogging partner GARY! from throwing up all over the computer, he is so excited about this dance party tonight. I was all, "what is the deal with this Auto Body show, GARY?" and friends, this is what he wrote back.

What you are about to read is a kind-of-adorable expository essay on a handful of (awesome) electric acts, with a special educational section on mash-up music, supplemented by video, wit, and abundant exclamation points.  Here's GARY!: 

Well, hello there!

You might have noticed that I've been mildly absent from the blog lately.  I guess I've been more "behind the scenes," really. Lately I like to think of myself as "The Blog Whisperer" or "The Blogging Intern," but only because I love referring to Tolly as "The Boss." You see it's part of my job here on the AE to keep "The Boss" informed. Even though we only live about two miles from each other, we explore different parts of Austin, and then share our discoveries with each other another and with you guys. So with that said I think it's time to do what I do best, which is gush about something I love. In this case, it's Auto Body, Prepmode, Car Stereo (Wars), Machine, and The Parish.

If you have been following us for a while you may recognize Auto Body from a previous post I did that actually had nothing to do with Auto Body (that's how impressed I was when I saw them for the first time) I believe they included the words "melt your face off." Ring a bell?

Now, Tolly and I realize we gush more than one of those oil derricks in There will Be Blood, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing - it's gushing, after all, that makes me curious about things. When my friend Lindsay wouldn't shut up about how great Auto Body was, I joined her at The Parish for Free Week and ended up having one of the most EPIC nights I've ever had. So gushing is a good thing, see? It makes miracles happen.

Auto Body:


Auto Body:


So now you know how I feel about Auto Body, so let's move on to another great thing about tonight's show: PREPMODE.

I've had the chance to catch him a few times around town, and let me just say the man gets me. Everywhere he plays, he brings the party with him. He's an expert on the decks, as both a DJ and a turntable-ist, and has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. I believe this is one of the last times you will actually be able to catch him before he jaunts off to the Caribbean as the resident DJ of a cruise ship (no joke). So take my advice and get in on this action while the gettin' is still good. Rumor has it that Prepmode may even drop a couple of turntable mashups himself.

PREPMODE'S "PON DE FLOOR" (MAJOR LAZER) TONE TRICK:


Had enough? Well tough! We still have one more thing to go over before I can let you get back to whatever it was you started ignoring when you decided to read this blog (to which we say THANK YOU!).

Anyway, tonight's action is so good they've even brough Car Stereo (Wars) back from New York to partake in the awesomeness. If you aren't familiar with CSW's you are at least familiar with what it is he does. He's a mashup artist. A what? A MASH-UP. ARTIST. Basically someone that thinks a little differently than your typical DJ. They take 2 different songs with beats that complement each other and mash them together. You may have heard of Girl Talk or The Hood Internet; both are great examples of what a mashup artist does, except the main difference here is that Girl Talk should SERIOUSLY be on a heavy doses of Adderall.

Check out the video example below, courtesy Car Stereo (Wars), and you will see what I'm talking about.

Car Stereo (Wars):


Do yourself a favor and make sure you hit this show up tonight. Tickets are available HERE.

And as an added bonus, if you find me tonight at the show and tell me what the title of this blog post is a quote from, I'm buying you a drink. DM me on Twitter.

Finally, I'd like to share some choice quotes from the press release for this event tonight - i.e., the raddest press release I have ever seen.

The men of Auto Body have completed Priest Party, their debut album, and formal introduction to the world.

Conceived in and birthed from Austin's steamy underground houses of rock, AUTO BODY is live electro fusion. Fueled by their shared bloodlust for sonic divinity, and armed with a war chest of synths, samples, rattlesnakes, and bass, Tibaut Bowman and Felix Moreno crusade the universe in search of the electronic Holy Grail.

THIS Friday, 04.09.10, at 9 PM at The Parish in Austin, Texas.

The lights will be taken to the next level.

The sound will be taken to the next level.

The face-melting will be taken to the next level.

Even the levels on the scale that is used to measure these things will be taken to the next level.

bring your protective eye wear.

That's all I got,

g.

Hiding away in Simplicity Wine & Eats.

A few months back, GARY! turned me onto a new wine bar here in Austin, called Simplicity Wine & Eats.  We are residents of the Hyde Park / Allandale / Rosedale area of town, and lately, Burnet Road has been opening up all sorts of little culinary gems.  (If you aren't from Austin, you should know that Burnet Road has, historically, been an endless stretch of antique stores and dive bars, a mini-freeway littered with establishments for rehashing your old memories, or buying someone else's. Which is to say: old. Burnet Road is an OLD Austin road.)

So this trend of new flashy eateries is something different for the area. And we like it.

Anyway, Ross and I tried out Simplicity a few weeks ago, and quite fancied this place. The food is tapas style, and the wine selection is extensive. Since I'm an atmopshere girl, and always end up taking pictures of the walls rather than the food, you'll just have to trust me that everything we ate and drank was delicious. We got a mini bowl of warmed olives, which tasted just like soft figs. Plant alchemy. 

I'd also like to thank the good people of Simplicity for letting me cry in their establishment. The worst thing when you are crying in public is for a waiter to keep coming over and asking, ARE YOU OK?  HOW IS EVERYTHING? CAN I GET YOU SOMETHING?  Which makes me want to say, "No! Go away!!" But fortunately our Simplicity server was gracious and kind, and left us be. I tend to be an emotional wreck sometimes over literally the tiniest things, and on this occasion, Ross just patted me on the shoulder while I sipped my wine and plucked each olive.

What a weird way to end this blog post. I can't just have you guys all thinking about me crying and that's that...how about a picture of my cat in a bag?

One long, last farewell to SXSW 2010: Hole, WhoMadeWho, and Dominique Young Unique.

Reader, we are FINALLY FINISHED with our SXSW 2010 recap series!  Are you sad?  You're sad.  Stop crying.  Cowboy up.

Since assuming the role of in-house Austin Eavesdropper videographer, GARY! has dived* into his new duties with stunning aplomb. Here are the last four videos he shot during SXSW, of three very different acts.  First, the girl with the most cake.

Below is Courtney Love at the Perez Hilton party. I'm going to start with "Violet," because I love her commentary at the beginning. Girl's all class!


Also, "Celebrity Skin." God, doesn't this song take you back? In 7th grade I had this song on a mix(tape) right before "Seether" by Veruca Salt. Good times.


Moving on then, to WhoMadeWho.  Of the three bands included in this post, they are probably my favorite. GARY! describes them thusly:

"Really fun Danish band. They had an excellent sense of humor, and even did a weird impromptu song when one of their amps broke. Instead of just sit there waiting for it to be fixed (like most bands would), they continued to play while singing about their current equipment woes, 'My amp is broken....' on repeat. 'Can someone fix my javascript:void(0)amp? My amp is broken...' Everyone around us couldn’t decide if it was really one of their songs. Turns out they made it up on the spot. It was probably one of the cooler things I saw at SXSW this year."


Finally, 17-year-old Dominique Young Unique, who played at the Knuckle Rumbler Lounge (where we watched dreamy Casxio too). GARY! places her somewhere between the likes of Rye Rye and Lil' Mama, and said: "once her voice finishes maturing I think she's really gonna take off."


This is off-topic, but girl's got legs for days, non?

Anyway, that is it for our SXSW 2010 recap! We hope you enjoyed, and now, we're going to get back to our regular blogging schedule. Totes McGotes!

*This word is always extremely confusing, grammar-wise. Dived/doven/diven? Something is amiss.

SXSW 2010 recap: Hexadecagon and Octopus Project.

Some of you may have heard about "Hexadecagon," the multi-media show local faves Octopus Project put on at Whole Foods during SXSW.


I've seen lots of bands utilize projected visuals in their shows lately - Broken Bells, Ratatat. But Octopus Project took this idea to a new level, as GARY!'s videos attest.  For one, the projections were a 360 degree affair, literally surrounding you with surreal images both playful and haunting.  And secondly, this show happened off the beaten path of South By, in a tent erected inside the parking lot of Whole Foods. I like that, because while many bands are content to play in such nonconventional venues as unused portions of crosswalk during SXSW, it typically happens within a 20 block radius, stretching from 4th to 12th Streets, contained by Red River to roughly Colorado. Or so. Hexadecagon was a three months-in-the-making project, with a deliberately different setting, for a crowd who had planned well in advance to get there and get there early.

In other words: Away from the riff-raff.

GARY! shot six videos of the party, which is a lot, but TOTALLY WORTH IT to watch all of them. (Fun fact: the projected videos used at Hexadecagon were shot and edited by Austin’s own Wiley Wiggins, whom you may know as Mitch Kramer from Dazed and Confused.)




In the video below (says GARY!), Yvonne Lambert proves she's a master of the Theremin, in a performance being hailed as one of the top 5 performances of SXSW 2010 by USA Today.




Finally, here are some of my favorite Hexadecagon images, shot by Happy Mercado.

(AMAZING outfit.)