Kerry King of Slayer - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
It's been hard keeping a lid on this one as long as we have. No its not another SXSW rumor, though I have a few of those too, and some confirmed stuff as well. No, this involves our namesake reptile web site kingsnake.com and it's 10th annual chat week symposium.
Every year we ask famous reptile people to stop by our chat room and talk about their cold blooded pets. Once in a while we get some big name people that cross over from the entertainment industry. This year we had people like Lassie's vet and Animal Planet's Nigel Marvin. In the spirit of saving the biggest for last we have been holding back on the final guest announcement - until now.
This year our final chat week guest will be Kerry King, lead guitarist for the thrash metal band Slayer.
Best known to his many music fans as one of the founders of the seminal thrash metal band Slayer, Kerry has been keeping snakes almost as long as he's been playing guitars. An accomplished reptile breeder Kerry will stop by our site to chat with fans about his snake collection, some of the reptiles he has produced, and what he does with them while he is on tour. The chat will be primarily about reptiles and those that wish to come and just hang out or ask questions are welcome. To check out the chat room go to http://chat.pethobbyist.com/login.php?room_name=Reptile+%26+Amphibian.
No special software is needed but you will need to have JAVA enabled on your browser. Kerry's chat is scheduled for Sunday at 8:00pm EST. UPDATE: Kerry has RESCHEDULED HIS CHAT FOR TONIGHT!!! His chat will occur in the same place but will now be tonight (Saturday March 1, 2008) at 10:00 EST.
Ok now onto SXSW...
The Scion day party Thursday at Stubb's looks even better now. Not only is Motörhead playing but so are Napalm Death, High On Fire, and Enslaved. Sounds like it's going to be mosh city at Stubb's. This is confirmed. What has not been confirmed yet are those "Body Of War" special guests. A new wrinkle in the rumor mill has popped up as well. It seems The Boss aka, Bruce Springsteen, may be one of those special guests. Springsteen, who features predominantly on the soundtrack, would be a natural as he is not touring
during that period and band mate Little Steven is already rumored to be appearing at this years SXSW.
Everybody's favorite guy named Lemmy will be bringing Motörhead to SXSW this year, according to 2 separate sources. Motörhead are currently in L.A. laying down tracks for a new disc but will come to Austin to play the Scion day party. More details as they become available.
Serj Tankian, frontman for System Of A Down, will not only be playing the Body of War showcase at Stubb's on Thursday, but also has his own showcase later that night at La Zona Rosa. Of course the Body Of War showcase also includes Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and "Special Guests". I'm torn because I am otherwise committed and it will take an act of god for me to catch either set.
Speaking of those "Special Guests", the Foo Fighters are popping up on the SXSW rumor screen again. Seems that their tour, which has an unexplainable gap during SXSW week, currently has two opening acts, Serj Tankian and the band Against Me!. Both of those acts are slated to play SXSW. My sources are telling me that there is a good chance that we could see Dave Grohl pop up as one of those "Special Guest's" and maybe, just maybe, a full Foo Fighters showcase.
Tom Morello at SXSW 2007 - more photos... photo by clint gilders - staff photographer
In case you missed it, over the past couple days SXSW has listed a few more artists for this years music festival. Van Morrison will be playing a SXSW gig at La Zona Rosa in addition to his non-SXSW gig at the Austin Music Hall. Legendary punk band X will also be performing over at Emo's.
For all those doubting Thomas's and those that overlooked the fine print, there is a band listed as Body of War, after the film of the same name, and if you look at their listing it lists them as being Kimya Dawson, Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello(Rage Against The Machine) and Special Guests. One can only wonder if my rumors of an Eddie Vedder or Rage Against the Machine surprise appearance are coming closer to fruition as their Special Guests. Certainly seems to be, what with Vedder having produced the soundtrack, the movie being shown at the festival, and with many of the artists from the soundtrack in town.
In other Austin Music News...
National Product has been gathering some steam ahead of their visit to Austin's Red 7 tomorrow, and their show promises to be the hot set of the night. Tracii Gunns will be bringing his version of L.A. Guns to a new venue, the Rock City Icehouse, on Wednesday night.
On Friday Feb 29th NOFX, Flatliners, and No Use For A Name will be filling up the pit over at Stubb's, and Saturday March 1 Marilyn Manson and Ours will be playing over at the Austin Music Hall. On Sunday March 2, Built To Spill and The Meat Puppets will also be at Stubb's. Guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny will play the Paramount Theatre on Tuesday March 4th, the same night Willie Nelson opens at the Star Of Texas Fair & Rodeo at the Travis County Expo Center. Dropkick Murphy's play Stubb's on Friday March 7, then Protest The Hero plays Emo's on March 8th.
Looking out past SXSW we have some interesting stuff on the horizon. Acid Mother's Temple plays Emo's on March 17, Bob Mould at Antone's on March 20, The Moody Blues at The Austin Music Hall on March 21. New Model Army from the U.K look like they finally have their visa issues cleared up and will be playing at Elysium on March 28.
Willie Nelson will be playing the "new" Long Center on March 29th, the same night as Les Claypool over at Stubb's. Liam Finn, son of Crowded House/Split Enz founder Tim Finn, will be playing the Parish on April 2. George Clinton and PFunk will be playing the Swamp Thing / Crawfish Boil Festival on April 5th. Dropping Daylight and Sick Puppies over at Emo's on April 7th.
La Zona Rosa hosts Manchester Orchestra and Say Anything on April 9th, then Armor For Sleep and Saves The Day on April 10. Ministry will play La Zona Rosa on April 15, Buddy Guy and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Stubb's on April 18th. Panic at the Disco plays Stubb's on April 19th, followed by Cat Power the next night, and then Behemoth the following night.
Rush plays the Frank Erwin Center on April 23, David Allan Coe plays Stubb's on April 25, Joe Jackson plays The Paramount on April 28. Billy Talent and My Chemical Romance play Stubb's on April 28, and then to end out April we have Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco at the Frank Erwin Center on April 30.
In what will probably be another blow to SXSW's headliner list, Dolly Parton has announced that she is postponing her tour scheduled to start on February 28th in Minneapolis. Parton will be rescheduling her dates in April and May, which would preclude her appearance at SXSW this year, though that has not been specifically stated. On her web site, Dolly attributes the postponement due to a back condition "hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don't have back problems". That means the Saturday night slot at the Austin Music Hall will be free, it will be interesting to see who SXSW gets to fill it. It's a big room.
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Tokyo Police Club photo by clint gilders - staff photographer
I could hardly believe my eyes as I perused the SXSW 2008 Biglist. Yeah, there are cool bands coming from all over the world, but the 100+ acts making the pilgrimage from Canada set my mouth watering.
The Blacklist at SXSW 2007 - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
SXSW made their big list announcement today as expected, with a whopping 1594 bands in all, surpassing the band count at ACL Fest, Bonaroo, Coachella, Jazz Fest, and Langerado combined. There are at least 20 bands alone with the word "Black" in their name.
Think about it, almost 1600 artists and bands, all looking for a place to park the van at once. So many bands that musicians wander the streets in packs like African plainsmen armed with accordions, stalking unwary members of the press like frightened gazelles. Eighteen wheelers packed stem to stern with tortilla chips and beer will be poised ready to deliver at a moments notice, and even spare couches will be running upwards of $50 a night for those who can find time to sleep.
Its good to see the list out, and on time, though our readers have been familiar with almost half the list for a while now. Our rumor on Ice Cube has been confirmed, and some neat new names have surfaced like Jakob Dylan, ex-frontman for the Wallflowers and son of Bob Dylan. There are so many bands and artists it will take me a couple days just to fully digest the list. Then it will change.
I suspect that there are still a few artists to announce, including some more top drawer talent. There are still many people on my "rumored" list that have yet to burble to the surface. I will continue to maintain the "rumored" portion of My Unoffical SXSW Band List, and will freshen my copy of the "official" list from time to time.
We will be doing a bunch of SXSW Artist Spotlite interviews over the coming weeks as we close in on the start of the festival. You can expect to hear interviews starting with The Hymns, The Brother Kite, and The Super Insurgent Group of Intemperance Talent all the way from Bandung, Indonesia. We will also proabably check back in with a few of our past SXSW interviewees like Paul Collins, and Blacklist, both returning from last year.
We are only days away from the official band announcements from SXSW and we are still hearing about gigs left and right. This will probably be my last post to the "unofficial" list for 2008.
The guys over at Showburner confirmed my Adele rumor as well as digging up confirmations for The Wombats, The Bug, Captain Bliss, and a handful more. Also, PaisleyUmbrella dropped me a note to confirm a few other bands. Her(?) list includes Austin's own The Ugly Beats, The Cynics, Mondo Topless, and a band that just sounds cool based on it's members, Magic Christian. With Cyril Gordon of the Flaming Groovies, Clem Burke of Blondie on drums, and "Fast" Eddie Munoz of The Plimsouls on bass rather than guitar. Listening to their songs, they sound like the rock soundtrack to the 1967 film Casino Royale.
This all happens at the Get Hip Records showcase though I have conflicting sources as to whether this is a Friday or Saturday showcase. Also doing the Get Hip Records showcase is Paul Collins And The Beat. Paul, one of the founding members of the seminal power-pop bands The Nerves, brought his band all the way over from Spain last year, and after running into Peter Case had an impromptu SXSW Nerves reunion at The Saxon Pub and at Waterloo Records, both of which I missed. I did catch up with Paul last year long enough to get an interview with him and the band. This year Paul will be over here celebrating the launch of his new CD Ribbon of Gold which releases in Europe on March 24th. Produced by Chips Kiesby, (Hellacopters, Nomads) in Sweden, Paul forwarded me 2 dynamite tracks, the title track and "I Still Want You" that I immediately stuck on my iPhone. Paul Collins and The Beat will also be playing over at The Soho Lounge Saturday night and a few other neat stops along the way. I look forward to treating Paul et al to a nice sit down Tex-Mex dinner at El Azteca when they get here.
It ain't over til the tribute bands sing. Just because they launch the official list this week (hopefully), doesn't mean you can let your guard down. They will still be adding showcases and sets almost right up until the last night of SXSW, Sunday March 16th, when Emo's whips out the traditional tribute band showcase. Until then walk ons and secret shows are possible at any time, on any stage, with any band. Only when the last tribute band has left the stage can you really say "it's over" and stop looking for the stars.
Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
As we reported here, first, The Black Crowes have canceled their SXSW appearance. As confirmed by Austin American Statesman writer Joe Gross. According to the article posted by Gross the bands publicist confirmed “There has been a change of schedule and the group will not be performing there this year�.
What an unfortunate turn of events as the Saturday show at Stubb's was bound to be Saturday's A Ticket event. I know I was looking forward to that particular showcase.
In other SXSW rumor news, Les Claypool's chance for an appearance has dropped to nil, as he has announced remaining dates on his current tour that would conflict. He still has 1 day open on his schedule
so it is possible he might do a walk on, but the chance appears remote. I will be scratching him from the rumored list. Good news on the Beastie Boys rumor, maybe. The band has announced a second gig, this one in Mexico, on March 8th, the day after their set at Langerado. That indicates 2 things, the band is moving west, and they are booking more gigs in that time period. Maybe they will step into the Crowes boots over at Stubb's.
I spent a little bit of time updating the SXSW 2008 band list today and we now have over 670 bands and artists listed as confirmed so far. I will continue to update the list until SXSW publishes the official list/schedule, then I will hand the reins over to them and focus on doing SXSW artist spotlight interviews. Last year we interviewed a whole bunch of neat SXSW performers like Hugh Cornwell, The Zico Chain, Dirty Wormz, Paul Collins, Peter Case, Blacklist and more. This year we have already done a podcast spotlight with Broken Teeth and next on the list is an interview with The Hymns out of New York. If you are or represent a SXSW 2008 performer and would like to see your artist included in our coverage with an interview, drop me an email. I'm booking interviews up until March 9th.
Velvet Revolver at Stubb's - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
Velvet Revolver brought their tour buses to town and parked them at Stubb's last night for a smoking hot set, or was it? Raoul Hernandez over at The Chronicle is doing more than suggesting that Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland had a little help from performance enhancing electronics to get through the set. I was there and can attest to a very variable sound, to the man with the laptop offstage, and to some interesting pre-show happenings with the mics, but the crowd for the most part seemed to enjoy the show. I was there to check out Slash's performance and dig for SXSW rumors so I wasn't paying that much attention to Scott. I am just glad he didn't sound like a bag o' cats like one of Slash's previous frontmen. Slash's performance, as well as Duff's and the rest of the bands, seemed to be 100% au natural and Slash sounded good.
On to SXSW 2008 news...
Ok now it's getting weird.
One of my sources has been hired to cover Roky Erickson's Ice Cream Social specifically to cover the purported R.E.M. set, yet when I talk to Roky's management they are insistent that they have no clue what I am talking about and insist they have not booked R.E.M. for a slot. My sources employers are just as adamant that it is happening to the point that they are ready to write him a check to be there.
Another source has reported to me that the Black Crowes have pulled out of their Saturday gig at Stubb's, reportedly not wanting to be second billed to R.E.M. Checking with a number of my contacts at Stubb's they are unaware of any schedule changes and are still planning on a Crowes gig that night. Pollstar still has the Crowes listed on Saturday as well.
I don't know if any of this is true, but my sources are usually pretty good, and SXSW tends to get strange as we get down to the wire.
I do know that every day that passes more bands are confirming SXSW gigs, and we will probably see the "official" list posted sometime next week. Some of the more interesting confirmations include The Hymns from New York (Watch for a podcast interview next week), The Presidents Of The United States Of America, Bowling For Soup, and Zebrahead to name a few.
