SXSW 2014: Damon Albarn & Friends

Ok, so here we go with Day 3 of the 2014 SXSW Conference in Austin, TX – As I mention in Part II, I didn’t think I could outdo yesterday’s ambition of seeing 15 acts over 7 different locations but I think I may have even topped that today. And its certainly not like I’m trying. In fact I was actively trying to NOT do this and just get my work done and see what else came along the way. That biz took me to alot of different parts of the conference today but also when that fuse gets lit I tend to get out of control. Here goes:

Ok, so I had to be in like 3 different parts of the city all seemingly during the 4pm-5pm hour and somehow made all of my appointments and even caught some impromptu action along the way. First thing was I had an early afternoon DJ gig at the Living Room Bar at the W Hotel – nothing major, just a chill session in a swank hotel lounge for about 30 people.
What made it special was that Jessie Andrews was also scheduled to DJ – If your not familiar with her, or have just seen her many American Apparel ads – she’s really something.

In addition to being a high-profile model, she performs in adult films, has her own jewelry line, is a columnist for BPM and Galore Magazine (and she’s only 22) and has been focusing heavily the last year on producing music and doing tons of DJ gigs all over North America. I’m not usually into House Music but her Girlfriend Mixtapes have been some of my favorite this year and she made a killer video for standout track You Won’t Forget Tonight –

Was happy to have met and played a gig with her – She was super nice and as you can see super attractive, and in person its kinda insane how good-looking she is. She doesn’t smoke or do drugs like me and is just doing it right. You can’t kick this much ass and look this good doing that shit.

Ok after I wrapped up my set, I had to get all the way over to the East Side but was gonna swing by and see some other friends from New Jersey, New Day Dawn –

New Day Dawn – Texas Rockfest 

Their a great band from Maplewood, NJ where my dude Claude (Ween) is from, whom I was on my way to meet that very second. I was disappointed by the producers of the Texas Rockfest as they do literally nothing to promote this thing and just rely on passers by at the festival (which is ludicrous given all the competition and people usually come here with a set agenda) as well as they don’t spend any money booking anyone with a major draw that these smaller bands could play with to get some needed exposure (the whole idea of the festival right?).
In fact they CHARGE you to play there – and let this be a cautionary tale for any band potentially falling for this scam or any racket that this festival enables.
They prey upon bands that are naive about the business side of things who just simply want to play the festival – The festival itself does the same thing – that submission money that unknown acts pay to showcase at the festival is what funds their agenda for other big acts. So while everyone is down the street watching stadium headliner-in-a-club setting, your band plays to no one.
Here’s a tip – if your paying your doing it wrong – hook up with a sponsor, have them foot the bill and play to a real crowd. Don’t fall for the “We are playing SXSW!” racket – You’ll spend all your money getting to and from Austin, play to practically no one and go home empty and instead of creating buzz, you just created more debt for yourself.

Here’s a way of creating buzz the right way, as I was headed back to my car to get over to the East Side I literally walked into a fucking tornado of fan fury.
As I later learned, Hardcore band Trash Talk’s performances were cancelled yesterday due to the tragedy that took place and with one simple tweet that they were staging a free show literally in the patio/street in front of Beerland, it was as if the entire festival evacuated anywhere else to get there.

Trash Talk – Beerland Patio

I just happened to be walking to my car and into the eye of this impromptu madness. Minutes elapsed before the cops broke it up. This kind of thing evokes the very punk spirit the band represents so their fans live for this shit and dudes were literally jumping off the Beerland roof, onto a throng of circle-pitting insanity that coagulated the Red River block adjacent to 6th Street. Police, still obviously sensitive to yesterday’s events were doing their best to break up the chaos while fans shouted  “One More Song!”.

Regardless I got the fuck out of dodge with a quickness. Headed over to the East Side old school record store Trailer Space.
Claude was playing bass with some old punk friends of his from New Jersey called TV Tramps.

TV Tramps – Trailer Space

Singer Joy, has the best look ever and I would invest any amount of money in any of her future endeavors. The whole band is the real deal and all great players.
Saw a bunch of old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. Had some biz to take care of with Claude before heading out, wish I could of stuck around to check out the store more, it reeked of something very similar from my past of employment at an indie record store.

Jesus Lizard Book Party – Book People

Waterloo’s literary neighbour Book People was hosting David Yow, Mac McNeilly and David William Sims of the Jesus Lizard who collectively have penned a book that offers a frank account of their time in the band as well as Scratch Acid, the band that started in Austin that later became the Jesus Lizard.

Book includes a mini-autobiography from each member, priceless photos, an epic list of every show they played, bassist/resident historian David Sims’ obsessive track-by-track breakdowns of each album, and testimonials from peers like Krist Novoselic, Guy Picciotto, and the band’s longtime producer Steve Albini.
– Mike Watt’s entry is like an abstract beatnik poem.

After the singing the band participated in a discussion with a moderator. The SXSW timing, Yow said was “happenstance,” but he wouldn’t totally rule out playing a few songs with Scratch Acid since he, Sims, drummer Rey Washam, and guitarist Brett Bradford were all in town.
I don’t think that actually happened on this trip but I did catch Bradford’s current project, Insect Sex Act a few hours later, check it later down in this post.

Ok, so now I was headed back to the East Side which for me, is increasingly where all the action is (at least the action that I’m interested in is).
I needed a break before the next two events so I stopped off at a familiar SXSW destination – the Fader Fort.
Needed to charge my phone (and my mind & body) – sit down for a sec, have drink and chill and you can do all of that here (which makes it such a popular destination) and oh yeah, my “break” consisted of also seeing Damon Albarn while I was here.

Damon Albarn & Guests – The Fader Fort

I literally had no idea who was scheduled to play,all I knew was that I was beat and needed to pay the Fort a visit to chill and recharge before heading back out.
That’s the other amazing thing about this festival – Like yesterday with the Les Claypool thing, I can’t tell you how many things I’ve got to enjoy just out of proximity and happenstance and those always seem to be a bit more special because of it.
I’m by no means a committed fan of Damon Albarn but I do know that he’s heavily influenced by alot of artists that I’m interested in and the (& Guests) invited the promise that something special indeed could go down.

Albarn, who’s primarily here to debut songs from his new solo album Everyday Robots, and again I’m not a committed Albarn fan, but these songs were just downright dreadful. Every song was super mopey and slow and just plain boring. They seemed meant to have this powerful dynamic but just came off as extremely dull. People were leaving in droves.
Albarn’s a smart guy, so to break up the monotony he invited De La Soul onstage to join him for their Gorillaz collaboration Feed Good Inc. and naturally the place went positively batshit –

Pulling off one of the bigger surprises so far at the conference as I knew that a big deal was the return of Deltron and they were in town to kickoff their first tour in their 15 year existence, but I didn’t even know Albarn was playing, remember I just came in for a drink and to sit down.
And then look at the pic above, Albarn doubled-down and invited Snoop Dogg to finish the song with them and do a few verses from Drop it Like Its Hot.
It was a great moment and one that just totally fell into my lap.

Ok so I only had a few blocks to walk which was good because I could barely stand at this point for a one-two punch of shows at the Grackle and Hotel Vegas – which thankfully were right next door to each other. An act of convenience that I would miraclously repeat again later in the evening with an another gift of proximity for my aching feet.

Insect Sex Act – the Grackle

As I mentioned above, members of legendary punk freak-out Scratch Acid has a new band with the impossible name of Insect Sex Act and with a pedigree extending from Scratch Acid through Prong via Ministry, they are quotable experts in perverse, rock psychosis.

For example their outrageous new album is called A Fistful of Panties, For a Few Panties More, or Once Upon a Time in Your Panties.
The show was ridiculously loud and even more inanely awesome – Just some crazy old-school art punks doing their best to piss everyone off and kicking ass at the same time.

Buffalo Daughter – Hotel Vegas

So I only had to walk a few hundred feet this time first stopping at the Sailor Jerry House next door to use the bathroom and say hello to some old friends.
I was finally going to get to see Tokyo Japan’s Buffalo Daughter, a funk rockabilly quartet  best known in the late ’90s when they were signed to Beastie Boys’ label, Grand Royal. Their 1998 album New Rock exemplifies what they do, mining synthpop, krautrock and hiphop into one funky dance party.

I never got to see them back in the day and this was one of their first shows in North America in 15 years. The show was phenomenal and one of the best I saw all week. I was just so happy to be finally at one of their shows. Their DJ is a real charachter doing very unorthodox scratching and makes all the weird faces in the world, and projecting animated buffalos onto a screen behind the band with his phone. It was VERY Japanese (and awesome!)

Ok, so now back to downtown for as I mentioned (and thankfully) the next two shows were in also in side-by-side venues – Swan Dive and Holy Mountain.

Star And Dagger – Swan Dive Patio

I get over to Swan Dive to see some friends of mine from New Orleans – Star and Dagger – and really this was the only real hiccup I had the entire festival.
I don’t do that badge/wristband racket – Instead I secure invitations from the bands I want to see ahead of time or in this case invited by the band themselves.
I don’t know what going on inside Swan Dive but it was a total shitshow out front and no could tell me what was going on.
I finally figure out that the show I wanna see has to be accessed through the alley as they were playing the outdoor patio.
The door people at this place were fucking chimps with the corniest Austin-style pose ever – These guys thought they were really something guarding a door in an alley next to a dumpster. They also “assign” certain SXSW “staff” at some of these venues to “oversee” shit – They are always some humorless 19 year old chick volunteering for free while taking a night off from their barista job and think their now in the mix and have the worst attitudes – I almost said fuck it and just went next door to my next show before a member of S&D’s crew recognized me and walked me in.

And good thing too, because the show kicked serious ass. The three women who make up Star & Dagger put heavy music’s testosterone contingent on notice. Dava She Wolf was in the crazy-fun and unfortunately short-lived Cycle Sluts From Hell, while bassist Sean was the other half of White Zombie until they disbanded in 1998. Singer Von Hesseling is such a bad ass, I could watch her do her thing all day.
I met them last all last year in NYC through my buddy Dave Catching who sometimes plays with them along with other Queens of the Stone Age alumni Gene Trautman – Unfortunately both of those dudes were not at this show but it didn’t stop the girls from tearing the roof off this piece of shit.

I hung for a bit to catch up and say hello before heading next door to continue today’s motiff of seeing some legendary Hip-Hop.

Mobb Deep – Holy Mountain

I go over and get in no problem (unlike their asshole neighbors next door) to see one of my fave Hip-Hop groups ever that I never managed to get to see – Mobb Deep –  I was scratching them off the list day left and right today.

As you may know I notoriously hate pop music from the 1990’s and loathe the current nostalgic wave that always happens at the 20 year mark of anything – but I will say this – They got Hip-Hop CORRECT in the 90s and their LP, 1995’s The Infamous became the archetype for a genre. A small but exuberant crowd completely lost their shit, rapping along to every word, when Shook Ones Pt. 2 closed their brief 20 min set.

Kelis – Hype Hotel

Ok, what else could possibly be still going on in this town tonight?? – It was now after 1am – I was so tired I couldn’t speak, dude GO TO BED – but oh no, on the way to the car I passed by the Hype Hotel because I was hungry as well and guess what – Here comes Kelis –

Ten years after her Neptunes-produced sugar-bomb Milkshake and four since her EDM diva turn on Flesh Tone, Kelis has morphed again — this time into an earth mother R&B priestess more about sustenance than confections. Fronting a big band — including a four piece brass/wind section and backing singers — in robes and gold-dust makeup, thick mane of hair to her waist, she segued non-stop through a set of new soul vamps with an Afro-Caribbean undertow and an overall sound recalling 1970s Stevie Wonder. If the songs fell short of that mark, she put them over with spunk and charm.
With a solid new Dave Sitek-produced album called Food as well as an actual food truck to promote (which fits the Austin dynamic brilliantly)  Kelis has been working SXSW hard all week. She’s spared no expense in an effort to recreate the album’s sleek R&B sound, backed by a crack dozen-piece band that delivers the goods. It’s a stellar show, leaning very heavily on the new album and deep cuts from her past albums, and almost grudgingly the fast one-two punch of Milkshake and Got Your Money late in the set that brought out the inevitable field of phones in the crowd. She did not play Bossy, despite Beyonce’s recent poaching of the word.

Ok, so that’s GOT TO BE THE END right?  Wrong!

Jessie Andrews – Republic 

When I met Jessie earlier in the day at the gig we did together, she technically didn’t get to play for very long at all. She didn’t have an SD card and I didn’t have a spare one to give her (and oddly no one else did either) So she invited me to come to an after-hours party at Republic where she was going on at 3am – I had just left the Kelis show a little after 2am – so I just walked over.

I’m wasn’t the only one having an exhausting marathon day – This was her SEVENTH DJ gig of the day (and 9th overall of the festival) – You have to admire her ambition and her skills were still on point. It was a great way to enjoy the end to a very hectic but amazing day.

Stay tuned for Part IV –

Photos –

Roy Turner
Will Oliver