sxsw: the finale

On my final day at SXSW: I meet Mingering Mike, hear a great band in a bike shop parking lot and finally see High Places.

My Saturday started a little outside the main SXSW jag. Air Waves, the band my brother is in, were playing a show at a very cool café called the Spiderhouse, so I decided to start my morning away from the general SXSW madness. I wasn’t sorry: Air Waves have great songs (and I’m not just saying that), and they sounded perfect floating out on a crisp, mild afternoon. The remind me a little bit of Tiger Trap: frayed pop songs with just the right amount of snarl. As I was leaving the Spiderhouse, I heard a band playing across the highway, in the parking lot of a bike shop. There were about seven people watching them, but the songs were hooky and herky-jerk and irresistible, and I soon found myself crossing the highway to be audience member #8.

Turns out, the band is called Spring Tigers. They all looked to be in their mid-teens, but their songs were like White Music-era XTC as played by Motion City Soundtrack. Which is a good thing, trust me. I grabbed their EP, though I have to admit they sounded a bit better live. (On a similar note — on Thursday I caught an afternoon set by a band from Portugal called Bildmeister who were also fantastic — they reminded me of The Clean. I wanted to catch their proper SXSW showcase but, as these things happen, they were on against 700 other things I wanted to see).

Afternoon/evening yielded a few grand surprises: White Rabbits (who began their set by saying, “Hi, we’re Spoon from Austin, Texas”) barreled through a jubilant set that got better as it went along. Every time they burst into one of their chaotic, minor-key, piano-driven stompers, I expected the villain from a silent movie to lurch on to the stage twirling his mustachio. Following — and surpassing — them was Lykke Li, who played what may be my second favorite show of the week (behind Black Mountain). She was stunning: her voice is mighty and her stage demeanor is thoroughly charming, and her songs have that Bat for Lashes mystique that bowls me over every time. I’ve heard mixed things about her full-length, but her short set at SXSW was straight up pop sorcery — I was smitten. Live the cottony edges were torn completely off: the songs were laser-beam precise. There was no coquettishness, really — this was commanding and intense.

Next up: Senegalese guitarist Boubacar Diebate. I entered mid-set, so Diebate was already fully in his groove, spinning out a dizzying fabric of notes on his kora. I was floored: the notes were clear and perfect and crystalline, dropping down over and over all around like rainfall. He played two long songs, each of them featuring extensive and stunning improvisation. The notes came in circles, phrases repeating over and over and becoming more hypnotic every time. The final song ended with Diebate grinning and singing, “We love you, Texas!” over and over. Texas was loving him right back.

The evening’s biggest surprise came next: I hoofed it over to the Ubiquity showcase for Ohmega Watts and, more importantly, Darondo. Ohmega was just-ok. Darondo sounded fine, but in order to get to his (too brief) set, I had to sit through endless, awful frat-house funk courtesy of Nino Moschella. I’m trying to stay positive, so all I will say is that I don’t understand this guy’s music at all. I felt like I was at a terrible wedding reception in Cape Cod, just seconds away from a “smokin!” rendition of “Play That Funky Music, White Boy.”
But totally offsetting that was getting to meet Mingering Mike. I’ve written about Mike in this space before (and to get the full picture, you should read this New York Times piece), so I don’t want to rehash, but standing before him was like suddenly standing in front of Paul Bunyan. I quickly snapped up what I think is the first-ever publicly released Mike recordings, a 7” called “There’s Nothing Wrong With You Baby.” The sleeve was, as I expected, original Mike marker-drawings, and an insert featuring hand-penned liner notes (sample: “Peace and Power to All Man Kind, and Me Too”). I spent a while talking to Mike’s “manager,” who told me that they’re working on releasing a full-length Mingering Mike album – there are apparently loads of original recordings. Just owning one is sending me over the moon. You can get your own here.

My night more-or-less ended with a set by High Places. I think I’m the only eMusic employee who hadn’t seen them, and they were well worth the wait. You’re probably getting sick of hearing this, but live they are awesome, awesome, awesome. Mary would open her mouth to sing, but the voice that would come from the speakers was transcendent and otherworldly — it was like someone else was singing through her. The songs sound exactly like the record with, as far as I can tell, minimal pre-programming. All the percussion was live, and seeing Rob sweating and pounding and flipping switches made each song feel a little more desperate and frenetic. It was a terrific conclusion to another great week.