Monday, March 26. 2007
One of the world's great levelers is certainly the internet, and the music industry's great leveler has got to be MySpace.com. Forget all the high school (and junior high) hijinks and shenanigans, if you really look deep into its soul, MySpace is an incredible resource for the music journalist, whether they are writing for Rolling Stone or writing for their own blog.
In the old old days of music journalism, before the internet, to hook up with a band there were really only two ways to go: The front door, which meant tracking down publicists, promoters, or venue management, or the back door, which was literally the back door, hanging around at the clubs and venues until you could pigeonhole someone who looked important enough to get you in.
While I still use these methods, my most successful connections seem to be coming primarily from MySpace these days, and like as not with a MySpace contact I end up dealing with the artists themselves.
A perfect case in point would be how we connected up with Paul Collins. When I tried to hook up with him 25-odd years ago at the Dillo when they opened for the Jam all my attempts to connect with him and the band failed, though I tried both the front door and the back door. This time, for his SXSW appearance, I contacted them through their MySpace page, and I'll be damned if Paul the man himself didn't reply. Because of that MySpace connection, I did a podcast interview with him, and when he and the band came over we not only filmed an interview, they invited us to film their whole SXSW set! Now, I'm not going to tell you if you run off to Slayer's MySpace site and send them a message then Kerry King will send you a personal reply, and Sting is actually unlikely to be the one approving your friend request on the Police's page, but for the other 99.9 percent of the bands and artists online, you stand a good chance of connecting some way.
My thanks go out to Paul Collins and the Beat for doing the interviews and letting us film. It really helped make our 2007 SXSW experience memorable.
Saturday, March 24. 2007
Returning to SXSW for a follow up appearance this year at the Dirty Dog, the Zico Chain from the U.K. invited me to their soundcheck, and then later we went out for dinner at the Iron Cactus (I had the chicken breast and too many beers) and over to Stubb's to catch a bit of the show by the Automatic. It was great to get the chance to hang around with the guys, talk off the record about the music industry in the U.K., their career direction, making records and touring. I also got to spend a bit of time chatting with their manager, Matt Willis, and it was gret to find someone older, like me, who actually knew who the bands Camel and BrandX were.
Later that night, at their gig, we were able to do some filming. Unfortunately, we wouldn't have the trick mic setup for our HDR-FX1 until the following day, and so we have some awesome 1080i video footage of their set but the band's SPL (Sound Pressure Level) swamped the little built-in microphones and the audio was unusable. This is unfortunate as the band was hoping to use some of the footage for a live video. There was at least one other videographer at the gig. so we're hoping to track them down and get the audio. If you are that person or are have an audio copy of this show, please let me know.
On Friday, before the guys packed up and headed west towards their gig at the Knitting Factory in L.A. , and after the guys at B & H got our mic situation sorted out, we hooked up with the Zico Chain one last time and got to put a nice interview on film. Now that we have our sound, light and video issues resolved we expect to be doing a lot more of these video interviews. If you have a band coming to Austin and have 15 minutes to spare before your gig, look us up. And if you run a major TV network looking for some nice HD content, you can call me too.
The Zico Chain soundchecking at The Dirty Dog
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Wednesday, March 21. 2007
SXSW is all but a memory, but here at club kingsnake we are still editing videos and uploading photos. It will probably be a week before we get all caught up, because we interviewed several performers and filmed several performances, and captured somewhere around 60 Gb of raw still images.
Hugh Cornwell was nice enough to do a follow up video interview to our audio podcast, and it turned out great. We caught him right after his SXSW panel discussion with other musical contemporaries like Kathy Valentine of the Go Go's, Michael Des Barres, and Marco Pirroni of Adam and the Ants, as well as a much older set of two Hanson brothers.
Hugh's acoustic set the night before was certainly one of my highlights of all of SXSW. I was really surprised to hear how well the acoustic arrangements of some of the old Stranglers' classics worked, and his new songs showed that he had lost none of his songwriting talents after leaving the band. I had a great time remincising with Hugh about the good old bad old days in the punk days of the 70s and 80s, and to catch up with his newer projects, like the new Dirty Dozen album. Thanks to Hugh for spending time for us, for the guys at his label, Invisible Hands, for providing me so much background material on his new stuff, and Jo Murray at Musebox for keeping us both on schedule and arranging everything.
Hugh Cornwell performing at Elysium
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Tuesday, March 20. 2007
Though not an "official" SXSW event, Roky Erickson's annual Ice Cream Social at Threadgill's is an Austin tradition that attracts not only SXSW badge and wristband holders, but SXSW performers such as Robyn Hitchcock, Spoon, and REM's Peter Buck. Essentially a day party that runs a little long, many special guests and performers have come to help fete Roky Erickson over the years. This year they came to help celebrate Roky being emancipated, becoming, for the first time in many years, legally his own man, not having to have a legal guardian represent his interests.
The line "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" by the Dead could certainly be applied to the life and times of Roky. I was first introduced to the music of Roky Erikson and the seminal psychedelic band he co-founded in 1965, called the 13th Floor Elevators, by my high school english teacher. Long a proponent of marijuana and LSD use, in 1969 Roky was arrested in Austin for possession of one joint. Faced with the prospect of a 10 year prison term, Rocky made the horrible mistake of pleading insanity, and was sent to Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane where he was forced to undergo electroshock and Thorazine treatments until 1972.
His treatment changed him forever, both personally and musically. In 1982 he asserted that aliens had entered his body, and later was arrested for mail theft after it was found that he had taped unclaimed, unopened mail to the walls of his room at the halfway house. I remember him myself at this time best from a series of odd solo acoustic video performances that would appear very late night on Austin public access TV, where he appeared disheveled and disoriented, playing an acoustic guitar, sitting crosslegged at town lake.
In 2001 Roky's brother Sumner was finally granted legal custody as his guardian, and this year, 2007, Roky is finally a free man again. Almost 38 years after his arrest for a single joint, Roky's time has finally been served, and Roky, performing more vibrantly and clearly than I have ever seen him play before, is back. It's good to see you again, Roky.
Thanks go out to Troy Campbell, Sumner Erickson, Roky Erickson, and the Rocky Erickson Trust for inviting us out to film this year's performance. We couldn't get there in time for Spoon, Robyn, or Peter, but we got to see Roky and that's all I cared about.
Roky Erickson and the Explosives at Threadgill's - Photo by Staff Photographer Jeff Barringer
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Sunday, March 4. 2007
diRTy WoRMz
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Hometown: Austin, Texas
http://www.dirtywormz.com/
Saturday, March 17 1:00 a.m.
Club One 15 (115 San Jacinto St)
diRTy WoRMz Concert Pics
(subject to change) Add this to your SXSW Calendar
Austin's own rap-rockers diRTy WoRMz set at Antone's on Friday was so hot it set off the smoke detectors, literally! Luckily we were able to sit down with the Wormz and put an interview together before the alarms sent us into the cold night air.
The diRTy WoRMz have been a fixture on Austin's rap metal scene for the since 2001 attracting quite a strong local following, mixing buzzy speed guitars and with Run-DMC vocal chops and putting on quite a show. After releasing their first disc with the help of members of hard rocking Austinites Vallejo they set the bar high. With the release of last years "The Parazite" CD they will be showing SXSW 07 attendees that Austins local scene knows how to rock it old school. Check out our video interview with of Smackola and DJ Crash and some live clips or still pics from Friday's performance, then go check them out at SXSW! Be careful with that mosh pit though, it's not for beginners.
DIRTY D of the diRTy WoRMz kicks it out at Antone's - Photo by Staff Photographer Jeff Barringer
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