This should be cool, tomorrow nite

What are you doin' tomorrow night? If you're in SF, you might want to check this out.

Free admission. Free booze. AQ faves the Water Borders doing soundtracks to old silent films! You gotta RSVP at that link above.

Frisco Freakout Tomorrow!

Can't read the poster?

Thursday nite SF Cinematheque at 50 party!

We're co-presenting this event, this Thursday!

Don't forget to Freakout

We know we've got an event here at the store tomorrow too, but we also want to remind everybody that the 2010 edition of the Frisco Freakout psychedelic dance party all-day festival at Thee Parkside is tomorrow!! Along with Arthur mag, KUSF, and um, Ice Cream Man, we're proud to be sponsors. Here's the lineup, with set times:

12:30 AM Wooden Shjips
11:15 PM Howlin Rain
10:00 PM Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound
9:00 PM Carlton Melton
8:00 PM Strangers Family Band
7:00 PM White Manna
6:00 PM Greg Ashley
5:00 PM JEFFERTITTI's NILE
4:00 PM Young Prisms
3:00 PM Sic Alps
2:00 PM Glitter Wizard
1:30 PM Mass At Dawn

PARK(ing) Day at AQ, or Homeless Encampment? You decide...

PARK(ing)

So maybe you already know about this, but apparently tomorrow is something called international PARK(ing) Day, our friend Daryll just told us about it. The idea being that folks are supposed to "transform metered parking spots into temporary parks", partly for fun, partly to raise awareness of environmental concerns. Our friend has a supply of sod, apparently, and plans to come by in the morning tomorrow and create a little urban oasis in one of the parking spots in front of our store. Which inspired Andee to plan on bringing his BBQ grill (is that good for the environment?). So if you're in the Mission on Friday and stop by AQ, you can maybe get Andee to cook you a hot dog or something!

Also don't forget, Saturday we're hosting the KFJC Penny Pitch, see earlier blog post below for details.

KFJC live from AQ

Hey it's that time of year again, time for the KFJC Penny Pitch, a fundraiser for one of our absolute favoritest non-commercial radio stations! We've hosted this event a couple of times before and it's always been super fun and festive. So please come by on Saturday, September 18th (or tune in on the radio or online!), there'll be a tent set up on the sidewalk outside of AQ with a whole bunch of KFJC's DJs broadcasting live all afternoon, from one o'clock to six o'clock pm. Not only can you do some shopping here, but you can donate some change to support KFJC.

Plus there'll be the usual snacks and beverages and stuff... and maybe one or more of the AQ staff will get to spin some tunes on the radio too.

Here's the schedule for the live KFJC DJs:
1pm C.H. Skewer
2pm Cynthia Lombard
3pm Maybelline
4pm Belladonna
5pm Captain Jack

Record Store Day approacheth!

Of course, as we always say, every day is Record Store Day as far as we're concerned. But "officially", Record Store Day this year Saturday, April the 17th, coming up really soon! That's next Saturday, folks! Last year was a blast, hoping to see even more of our friends/customers (same thing) come out for this one, it'll be a lot of fun.

And as you probably know, there's gonna be a bunch of limited edition Record Store Day only releases coming out that day. A nice idea, stuff that won't be available at Amazon or iTunes or Walmart or wherever, just a real record stores... but we do feel that maybe a little too much emphasis is placed on these Record Store Day limited releases, after all, what REALLY should be the point of Record Store Day is that you go down to your favorite friendly local indie record store, especially if you haven't been in a while (and why the heck haven't you?), and hang out and buy stuff and celebrate, listen to tunes and talk to the folks there and get turned on to some music you didn't already know all about, limited or otherwise!

Not that the RSD releases aren't cool, a lot of them are, and we will have a bunch of 'em (while they last, of course!). A few we're really stoked on are the Moon Duo / Bitchin Bajas (a Cave side project) 7" on Permanent, and the B-Music various artist 12" called "Radio Galaxia", and the Nada Surf cd, among others, well, there's a lot of neat things, yeah! Some others, though, well... it's sorta just another street date. Like, the label was gonna put something out anyway, and it was in April, so ta-da! it's a RSD release, c'mon collectors, buy two copies! Some of those, we didn't order up on so much. And then some others we wanted, but of course here weren't as many to go around as there should have been (c'mon labels, you take preorders, can't you just make more?) and so we don't know just how many we'll get, but probably not as many as we hoped for. But, as we said on our latest New Arrivals list, #343, this past Friday, it's not like we don't ALWAYS have all kinds of cool limited stuff, of course. And cool not-so-limited stuff too. And really, the important thing isn't grabbing some particular limited RSD release, 'cause then chances are there's gonna be someone who's not gonna get the thing they need need need, and then go home and look for it on eBay and that's really not the point of Record Store Day is it?

Anyway, see you Saturday, we'll definitely have a party!!

And a lecture too

For the, ah, intellectuals out there, looks interesting...

+DIALOG
An evening with Steve Goodman (Kode9) & Erik Davis (TechGnosis)

Location:
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts
55 Taylor Street
Friday, March 26th 7pm – 9pm
Recommended $5-10 donation, however no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Recombinant Media Labs SF (in collaboration with Gray Area Foundation For the Arts) is excited to announce +DIALOG, a symposium series inviting local and global artists, scholars and polymaths to present and discuss their work in an intimate environment.
In a time when the information we consume is unprecedentedly estranged from its origins, +DIALOG will provide a forum to commune, collate and derive fresh context direct from the source.

For our second chapter we are fortunate to welcome London based cultural theorist, electronic musician and label owner Steve Goodman (aka Kode9) to present and discuss his first book Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (MIT Press, 2009).

A flag bearer of the Dubstep movement, Steve Goodman founded Hyperdub Records in 2004, releasing critically acclaimed records by artists such as Burial, Zomby and The Bug as well as his own productions and collaborations.

Holding a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Warwick, Steve is a member of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) and practicing academic, lecturing in Music Culture at the University of East London.

For this occasion Steve will be joined in conversation by San Francisco based kindred spirit Erik Davis, whose work is regularly referenced in Sonic Warfare.

Erik Davis is the author of The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, the cult classic TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Information Age, and a critical volume on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. He also hosts the net radio show Expanding Mind. A frequent speaker at universities and festivals alike, Davis has contributed articles and essays to scores of books and publications, and posts regularly at www.techgnosis.com.

The event will take place at 7:30pm on Friday, March 26th 2010 at Gray Area Foundation For the Arts, 55 Taylor St. San Francisco. Recommended $5-10 donation, however no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Press inquiries, general questions and suggestions are welcome at mat [åt] rml-sf [dot] org

Schedule:
7:00 – 7:30pm reception
7:30 – 8:00pm Steve Goodman presentation
8:00 – 8:30pm Discussion with Steve Goodman & Erik Davis
8:30 – 9:00pm Open Q & A, closing.

AQ x WFMU x SxSW 2010!

This year's South By Southwest Music Fest in Austin TX is getting underway soon (it runs March 17th-21st, that's next week, I guess you know if you're going already or not). If you are going, don't miss the showcase gig we're putting on, again in conjunction with our friends at radio station WFMU in NY/NJ. And if you go, be sure to look for Andee and say hi!

If you're not going, you'll still be able to listen in via WFMU's live audio broadcast, check their site for info on that, you'll be able to tune in online or get it over the air if you're in the NYC area.

So, here's the details. Our show is on Friday March 19th, at the club now called Encore (formerly Spiro's, which is the place we did it last year too). There's two stages, indoor and out, and a grand total of 14 bands performing. Several of 'em, past AQ Record Of The Week honorees, plus other longtime faves!! They are:

DENGUE FEVER

Incredible Cambodian garage pop from these long time aQ faves, former members of Dieselhed teamed up with vocalist and Cambodian pop princess Chhom Nimol to not only cover classic 'Cambodian Rocks' pop and psych rock gems, but to also compose originals, which are just as fantastic as the songs and singers they pay homage to. One of the best live bands around, we're so honored to have them playing our show!

DRUNKDRIVER

Crusty, filthy, pummeling noise rock, think Brainbombs, Twin Stumps, Billy Bao, Rusted Shut, total crushing noise drenched heaviness, wild, unhinged, chaotic, blown out and plenty fucked up. We'll be highlighting their 7" on tomorrow's list!

EPILEPTINOMICON

Mysterious rhythmic drone / doom outfit, whose sound is somewhere between, tripped out blackened psychedelic kraut doom, and pulsing minimal Chain Reaction style minimal murk, heavy and dense and druggy. We just sold about 10,000 of the two two cd-rs of theirs we listed recently!

HEADDRESS

Texas trippers Headdress, have expanded from a duo, to a four piece, as they've shifted sonically from psych folk to druggy, spaced out heavy psychedelic dronemusic, shoegazey and dreamy, but definitely dense and heavy, think Brightblack meets Earth Meets Nadja...

HOME BLITZ

Super noisy and fucked up, totally irresistible, sloppy, chaotic garage power pop, that actually sort of ends up sounding a bit like noise rock guys unleashing their inner power pop demons. Home Blitz are responsible for one of our pop jams of last year ("Two Steps") and had an aQuarius Record Of The Week.

IRON MAN

Veteran Maryland doom metal legends, heavy and fuzzy, doomy, dramatic, epic and totally metal. Fans of Black Sabbath, The Obsessed, Trouble, Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus, Solitude Aeternus and all of that sort of heavy doomy stuff should worship at the altar of Iron Man (who themselves obviously worship at the altar of Black Sabbath)!

LITURGY

"PURE TRANSCENDENTAL BLACK METAL" from New York City. One of our favorite black metal outfits, whose sound is a strange hybrid of raw blasting blackness, and epic soaring high end trills, which make the songs sound like black metal composed by Arvo Part, sprawling and majestic, explosive, exhausting and incredible.

MOON DUO

This two piece psychedelic drone groove offshoot of psychedelic space rockers Wooden Shjips, treads similar ground, but moves further away from the Shjips overt rocking, exploring a sound much more fuzzy and abstract, sprawling repetitive drone rock, hypnotic and mesmerizing, a sound motorik and krauty, absolute super-rhythmic, dreamy psychedelia.

PIERCED ARROWS

The band formerly known as Dead Moon, Fred and Toody Cole return with a new drummer, but the same glorious stripped down scuzzy retro rock sound, fuzzed out and melodic, catchy and raw, driving and steady, absolute classic sounding Pacific Northwest garage rock.

SHIT AND SHINE

Multiple drummers, multiple bass players, occasionally someone playing lawnmower, crushing, noisy, tribal, hypnotic, a sound equal parts vintage Butthole Surfers, classic Hawkwind, and modern kraut-psych-drone-rock a la Circle or Pharaoh Overlord or Cave. Supposedly performing a new song written just for SXSW, with a phalanx of drummers gathered from all over Austin... Also a former aQ Record Of The Week!

SONNY & THE SUNSETS

Awesomely sunshine-y jangle pop from right here in SF, fronted by local luminary Sonny Smith, backed up by a who's who of local rockers, which sometimes includes Kelly Stoltz, John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, Shayde Sartin of the Fresh & Onlys, Flying Canyon and Kelly Stoltz's band and Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys, 3 Leafs, Amocoma!), from brooding moody lope, to shimmery doo wop flecked surf rock to stripped down classic power pop, to fifties style balladry, to twangy back porch folk...

SPEEDWOLF

A recent discovery for us, these Colorado thrashers totally destroy, a killer mix of Venom and Motorhead (and a little Bad News!), with a vocalist who is a dead ringer for Lemmy, crushing riffage, pounding drums, tracks range from full bore neck snapping frenzy, to loping hooky groove, to pounding almost doom, totally heavy and insanely catchy, dying to see these guys live.

TODD

Riffy and raw, rhythmic and heavy and in the red, a pounding and relentless blowout a la Brainbombs and Rusted Shut and Twin Stumps and White Mice and the Mayyors, howled marble mouthed vox, riffs crumbling with distortion, bowel rattling bass rumble, the drums pounding and frantic, from unhinged Scratch Acid / Jesus Lizard noise rock, to seasick post rock groove, to lurching sludge-y doom, to full on filthy space rock trip out.

TRUE WIDOW

Incredible, totally intense and brooding, nineties style slowcore, heavy and dark, epic and so catchy, one of our most listened to records last year (and even still!), and one of the most freaked-out-over Records Of The Week ever, and for good reason, amazing songs, irresistible hooks, gorgeous production, lush and warm, and so goddamn good. They were awesome playing with P.E.E. at Noise Pop the other week).

Not bad, eh? So you don't miss anything, here's the show schedule with set times for the venue's two stages, indoor and outdoor:

OUTSIDE

7p Liturgy
8p Speedwolf
9p Iron Man
10p Moon Duo
11p Shit & Shine
12m Pierced Arrows
1a Dengue Fever

INSIDE

7p Epileptinomicon
8p Drunkdriver
9p Home Blitz
10p Headdress
11p Sonny & the Sunsets
12a True Widow
1a Todd

Please come check it out or listen in at home. And if you're at the show, we'll have some amazing silkscreened posters for sale, with amazing art by Savage Pencil. We'll post the image on this blog soon so you can see it... Only a limited run have been printed, but we're pretty sure we'll also have some to sell at AQ and via mailorder after SXSW is over.

Thanks again to WFMU for asking us to do this with them once more, it's gonna be fun!! Andee doesn't like to go to shows, but even he's excited (he'd better be!).

Also, we're co-sponsoring a free daytime outdoor party on Thursday March 18th, curated by our pal George Chen of Zum, that we're co-presenting along with LA's KXLU, part of something called What By What-Ever. Some of the bands playing include Eternal Tapestry, Weird Weeds, Total Abuse, Abe Vigoda, Infinite Body, Earn, among others! For more info on that and the other WXWE activities, go check out the WXWE site.

Freakout schedule

Here's the current schedule for tomorrow's 2nd annual Frisco Freakout at Thee Parkside, obviously showing up early is the thing to do...

DOORS OPEN AT 1:30PM!

12:30am Liquorball with Steve Mackay (of The Stooges "Funhouse" fame)
11:15pm Magic Lantern
10pm Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound
9pm Citay
8pm Barn Owl
7pm Sun Araw
6pm Wooden Shjips
5pm Lumerians
4pm 3 Leafs
3pm Powell St. John & The Aliens
2:00pm Heavy Hills

We also hear there will be a limited edition cassette release of music from last year's Freakout for sale at the show tomorrow... if there's any left over, hopefully we'll get a few to sell here too...

New Frisco Freakout poster!

Frisco Freakout II

Hey remember the awesome time you had at the first Frisco Freakout last year? All the loud rad California psych bands, organic eats, and good vibes? Ah, it's like the sixties, if you can remember, you probably weren't even there. Anyway, this happenin' is happening again, real soon. And once again we're pleased to be a co-sponsor, along with Arthur Magazine and KUSF. Also once again the Frisco Freakout is a benefit for Creativity Explored, one of our favorite things in the Mission.

Here's some details about when/where/who/what:

The Second Annual Frisco Freakout Psychedelic Dance Party

Heavy Hills
Lumerians
Powell St. John and the Aliens
Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound
Liquorball with Steve MacKay
Wooden Shjips
Citay
3 Leafs
Magic Lantern
Sun Araw
Barn Owl

Thee Parkside, San Francisco, OCTOBER 10, 2009 2PM-2AM Doors 1:30
$15 ALL AGES!!! ALL DAY!!!

Mark your calendars! Don't miss it!

On Land Fest

We're pleased to be sponsors of the upcoming ON LAND FESTIVAL here in San Francisco, which is being curated by our industrious friends at the Root Strata label. Two days, three shows, a whole bunch of amazing bands, we're really looking forward to it! And not just those of us who are playing the festival, that'd be Jim, Scott (in The Alps) and Jon (in Barn Owl)...

Here's all the exciting details:

On Land
September 19th & 20th
San Francisco, CA
Curated by Root Strata
Sponsored by Aquarius Records
Hosted by The Swedish American Hall & Cafe DuNord
onlandfestival.com
Tickets available at cafedunord.com

LIMITED FESTIVAL PASSES available for $35! Available only by calling Cafe DuNord box office (mon-fri, 2pm-6pm: 415-861-5016) to purchase over the phone!!

Otherwise you also can purchase tickets to each show at the door, if it hasn't sold out. Or get 'em in advance, in person here at Aquarius - for those there's a dollar service charge in addition to the prices listed below...

Sunday, September 20th
The Swedish American Hall
$20
Grouper
Christina Carter
Ilyas Ahmed
Barn Owl
Sun Circle
Common Eider, King Eider
Brendan Murray

Saturday, September 19th
Cafe DuNord
$10
Tarentel
Keith Fullerton Whitman
The Alps
Ducktails
Pete Swanson
Joe Grimm
Operative (Scott Goodwin)

Saturday, September 19th
The Swedish American Hall
Early Show!
$10
Starving Weirdos
William Fowler Collins
Metal Rouge
Darwinsbitch
Jim Haynes
John Davis
Danny Paul Grody

Sunday Streets 7/19

FYI, locals, if you come down to AQ this Sunday, from 10am-2pm you'll find our part of Valencia Street to be a temporary pedestrian paradise, no cars allowed. Should be nice for a sunny Sunday stroll!

They did this a month or so ago too and it sorta took us by surprise, you'd think local merchants would be informed about a street closure but somehow we didn't get the memo! It was cool though, several blocks of Valencia Street, including ours, shut down to cars. Lots of people wandering about, enjoying the freedom.

Look here for a map of the blocks where this is happening in the Mission this Sunday, with info on some of the special activities planned around it, dance classes at the 24th St. BART plaza, rollerskating, stuff for kids, etc.

BMSR listening happy hour TONITE

Tuesday, May 26th
Terrorbird Media, Aquarius Records, & Graveface Present:
BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW "Eating Us" Album Listening Party
featuring live performances from Ghosts On Tape and Tempo No Tempo
+ free BMSR giveaways & exclusive download cards & your chance to win the entire BMSR catalog from Graveface!!!
6-9pm, FREE, 21+
@ The Knockout
3223 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94110

To coincide with the release of the new BMSR album as well as their current cross country tour with School Of Seven Bells, Graveface records is throwing a string of release/listening parties across the country in conjunction with Terrorbird Media, record stores, and college radio stations. For the San Francisco edition, Graveface teams up with Aquarius Records and Terrorbird Media to throw a happy hour bash from 6-9pm at the Knockout in San Francisco, where folks will have a chance to get BMSR freebies, and maybe even win the entire Black Moth Super Rainbow back catalog as well as the special import only "hairy" edition of the album! In addition to a full listen of "Eating Us", joining the SF festivities are live performances local post-dub/disco upstarts Tempo No Tempo as well as tropical-bass maestro Ghosts On Tape. This event is FREE and open to the pubic from 6-9pm, 21+!

In addition, Black Moth Super Rainbow hits San Francisco two days later on Thursday, May 28th @ Bottom of the Hill for a sold out show with School of Seven Bells and Odd Nosdam.

Looking forward to next year

We'd like to thank everybody who came out on Saturday and made Record Store Day such a blast here at Aquarius (and everywhere else that participated, apparently)! It was a ton of fun, super busy, cool to hang out with peeps who made a special trip to visit, and all that. For those who didn't make it down, well you missed a whole lot of donut holes and beers and soda and chips and freebies of course all the special limited edition Record Store Day releases - although there's a few we specifically ordered up on and still have enough of to list on our list this Friday, you'll see...

We'd also like to thank the folks who thought up the whole Record Store Day thing and made it happen, last year we were a bit out of the loop on it, and even this year were wondering just what it would be like, and let's just say we're believers. Even though as far as we're concerned, every day is Record Store Day, Saturday was special.

Oh, and of course the Higgs/Nace instore on Friday was cool too, what nice fellas!

We're number 7!

According to Spin magazine (online), in their list of America's top 15 best indie record stores, just posted here! Thanks, Spin!

Aquarius regulars will note something funny about the accompanying photo of our storefront, though (at least, until Spin fixes it)... they used a picture of the fake-Aquarius-on-Castro that was mocked up for the movie Milk! Whoops. A Google image search must have led them astray. We emailed some pictures of the real AQ to Spin so they can correct that, no big deal anyway, actually kind of funny.

But that reminds us, if anyone does have photos of the actual AQ location(s) on Castro back in the day, let us know.

And we should remind YOU that tomorrow, Saturday April 18th is RECORD STORE DAY. Hence the timeliness of Spin's feature.

Since we're having an instore tonight (Friday) with Dan Higgs and Bill Nace, and also already had one on monday with Wavves, we didn't plan any special instore event for Saturday. Other than plenty of SHOPPING! And hanging out. The Barsuk label sent some root beers and we'll get some more snacks and beverages too, plus Andee will be here if anyone wants to challenge him at Joust, Ghosts n' Goblins or Tron. And of course you've probably already heard about how there's all these special Record Store Day releases, like Sonic Youth 7"s from Matador and a live Iron & Wine album from Sub Pop and a rad Thrill Jockey comp lp, that we'll have a goodly selection of for sale tomorrow - while they last! So c'mon down Saturday and help us celebrate Record Store Day!

SXSW report (part 1?)

Whew! We're back. Actually we got back at 8:30am Sunday, but had some work (and sleep) to catch up on before attending to blogging duties. I (Allan) had brought my laptop along to Austin, intending to write up a few blog posts about South By Southwest while we were there, but never found the time! And besides, Andee was doing a good job of "tweeting" about what was going on, so there was that. Although, it should be noted that that in his Twitter posts Andee really only mentioned the stuff he saw, and while he was playing minigolf and taking naps and stuff like that, Allan actually was out catching even more bands...

So, first off, SXSW was a blast. Even Andee had a good time, and he (as he so often, and so vehemently, declares) doesn't like to go to shows. Our showcase with WFMU was a rousing success, it went really well if we say so ourselves! Big thanks to all the WFMU people who did so much work to make it happen (our pal Brian Turner especially, also FMUer's Diane, Trent, Scott, and I think there were some others I didn't even meet). Also to all the SXSW volunteers at our venue, and to the guys from place we rented the backline from, who were very nice indeed. And to the bands who played, you all were awesome, thanks for doing it!! And, of course, to everyone who attended. Hope you had a good time too!

So, for those who are further interested in a brief rundown/writeup of our SXSW experience, here you go...

Allan and Andee arrived in Austin on Thursday afternoon, and were picked up from the airport by our buddy Jeremy Devine from Temporary Residence Ltd. (thanks Jeremy!)

We immediately drove over to see Pinback's Rob Crow perform a solo acoustic set of all-improvised songs. Well, he eventually played some old Heavy Vegetable songs too. Andee was sorely tempted to sit in on drums for those, too bad the drum kit the previous band had used had already been broken down...

Then we met up with one of the bands on Jeremy's label, Young Widows, and had dinner at the fantastic Torchy's Tacos (fried avocado! yum). After that, Allan got a ride back downtown with the Young Widows guys, while Andee and Jeremy hit the (miniature golf) links, really.

So, while those two contended with giant dinosaurs and other minigolf hazards, Allan wandered about the craziness that is Austin's 6th Street area during SXSW, stopping at one venue to see a few minutes of Endless Boogie (who certainly lived up to their name). He then went and found Brian Turner at the Siltbreeze showcase, and they went back to the place where Endless Boogie had been playing to see Flower Travellin' Band, who were up next! Despite being pretty big fans of the legendary Japanese '70s psych band, we had fairly low expectations, 'cause the new, reunion FTB album unfortunately sucks, but they started off with a song from "Satori" and sounded pretty darn good, with the singer still hitting all the high notes. The guitarist had some crazy huge guitar thing with extra strings that he was playing, he seemed really happy about that. But after about 15 minutes things started to go downhill, so we split. It was cool to hear the "Satori" song though! Later Allan managed to see Oakland's Annihilation Time (who got a bit of a pit going) and, later still (about 1:30am) Priestess from Montreal, both of 'em kicked out the jams. And that was that for Thursday.

(To Be Continued...)

We DID mention this already, right?

AQ X WFMU X SXSW!!!

That's this Friday, March 20th, 2009 at Spiro's in Austin, TX.

Listen in on WFMU (online, or over the air if you're in the NY/NJ area), performances on one of the two stages (or maybe both, switching back and forth) will be broadcast live! With the others recorded for later broadcast, as well.

Here's the FINAL, UPDATED lineup and set times, with only one change since we last posted it (Belong, sadly, dropped out of going to SXSW entirely, but we got Elm to take their place).

Time / Outdoor Stage / Indoor Stage

7p Prizehog - Gary War

8p Wildildlife - XYX

9p Slough Feg - Mayyors

10p Absu - Renderers

11p Obits - Ovens

12p Major Stars - Woven Hand

1a Gunslingers - Elm

Here's some blurbs we wrote about these bands...

ABSU
You know we had to have a black metal band on the bill. And who better than one of THEE earliest and best of 'em on the American scene, ever? Texas' own Absu! We've been fans of these guys for YEARS. Amazing, arcane, thrashing true occult black metal that will DESTROY. We're beyond chuffed that Proscriptor & Co. agreed to play. If you're at all metal, do not miss their show! First Absu gig in 7 years!!

ELM
Dark brooding twang flecked drones from one half of the free rock duo Barn Owl. Like a more druggy blissed out Earth, woozy guitarscapes and undulating layers of low end, conjure up primal blackness and hazy moonlit melodies.

GARY WAR
Fractured fucked up off kilter woozy warbly anti-pop. Like Ariel Pink, Night Control, Wavves, Kurt Vile, Gary War offers his own twisted take on alien FM radio pop, burying it in layers of hiss and buzz and a barrage of fragmented melodies and textures.

GUNSLINGERS
Featuring members of black metal horde Diamatregon and avant post rockers Aluk Todolo, the Gunslingers are from France, and spit out a wild frenzied savage and super distorted psychrock. Like a French White Hills of Heads, plenty of garage rock crunch, and pounding seventies acid punk style RAWK blowout, everything doused in a heavy haze of amp damage and distortion. First US tour ever.

MAJOR STARS
Massachusetts based psych rockers, featuring Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggars (from Magic Hour and Vermonster), specialize in their own unique brand of druggy, washed out, buzz drenched, guitar heavy psychdrone bliss. Heavy and freaked out, total distortion drenched psychedelic nirvana. A rare non-East Coast show.

MAYYORS
Some serious, down and dirty, Chrome meets Brainbombs, sonic destruction from Sacramento. Sludgey and noisy, trashy and garagey, with plenty of hooks and swagger, pound and pummel, wrapped in some speaker shredding NOISE!

OBITS
Rick from Drive Like Jehu and the Hot Snakeswhich is pretty much all you need to know. But just in case you need a little more, they’re now Brooklyn based, with a record coming soon on Sub Pop, and Andee saw them at the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary festival in Seattle and they destroyed!

OVENS
Shredding, hook-jammed pop blasts from SF, Weezer meets Guided By Voices meets the Beatles meets The Fucking Champs, 30 second blasts of crunchy pop genius, songs about smoking PCP, getting fired and falling down the stairs, as likely to kick out a Melvins cover as they are to tackle some Bee Gees baroque pop classic, they have a new record on tUMULt!

PRIZEHOG
Crushing, slowmo heaviness from SF. Like a more spaced out Harvey Milk, gloriously pummeling and abstract, chugging riffs collide with murky droney drift.

RENDERERS
Legendary New Zealand post punk avant folk outfit, plenty of dark twang and brooding shimmer, a strange hybrid of noisy dissonance a la Sonic Youth or Mission Of Burma, and delicate lo-fi NZ ghostlike balladry a la Alastair Galbraith and Graeme Jefferies. First show in the states in ELEVEN YEARS!!

SLOUGH FEG, THE LORD WEIRD
Our other more-metal-than-thou pick. From San Francisco, we have first hand knowledge that this band is one of the most truly cult heavy metal acts currently going. And when we say heavy metal, we mean melodic '70s and '80s, Iron Maiden/Judas Priest/Thin Lizzy style with classic riffs, a twin axe attack and heroic vocals. Epic and shredding and as weird as their name implies. Few, if any, other bands can compare.

WILDILDLIFE
Damaged and druggy, rhythmic, tripped out, psychedelic metallic noise rock / space pop whatthefuck from these Seattle based (formerly SF, and before that Boston) noisemakers, featuring one former aQuarian, their record on Crucial Blast was an instant classic, their live shows are wild and unhinged, and Wildildlife are definitely one of the few bands who could, and did, give the mighty Harvey Milk a run for their money.

WOVEN HAND
One of our all time favorite bands, ex-Sixteen Horsepower, David Eugene Edwards and his troupe are masters of abject apocalyptic swamp folk, dark and folky and biblical and so so grimly beautiful. Almost every Woven Hand record has been an aQ Record Of The Week.

XYX
All the way from Mexico, comes this female fronted trio, who kick out the hooky, noisy, effects heavy WAY lo-fi art-punk jams. Supposedly an incredible live band, we can’t wait to see for ourselves.

Can't wait! Allan and Andee and Jon from AQ will be there, if you are too, that would be rad.

(the cool show flyer above was whipped up for us by Ben West of Oaken Throne, thanks Ben!)