More SXSW

Friday, the Big Day. Started off awesomely with a bunch of 85 cent breakfast tacos at Tamale House #3 (a place Andee remembered fondly from his A Minor Forest touring days, like a dozen years before). Then we did some shopping at Half Price Books and Cheapo Discs, with Brian WFMU and a nice Aquarius customer by the name of Denman, who had helped hook Andee up with a place to stay (Allan, who it seems is less willing to entrust his sleeping arrangements to the kindness of strangers, had opted to book a hotel room). There wasn't a band playing at Tamale House #3 or the book store, but there was one at Cheapo, that started as soon as we walked in... that's the way it is in Austin during SXSW. Bands playing in every nook and cranny it seems. Sometimes, it was quieter to go into a venue where you could only hear ONE band, rather than be outside where you could hear ALL of them.

Andee took an afternoon nap, while Allan went to a free party at Trophy's bar, where one of our showcase bands, Slough Feg, was playing... he also got to see a bit of Portland rockers Red Fang (whose debut album we just got in, haven't heard it yet, but they are responsible for what might be the best video EVER, in Allan's opinion). Turned out that Skeletonwitch had already played at Trophy's earlier, had Allan known he would have hurried down there sooner.

Then, at about 5pm, it was time to meet up at Spiro's, the site of our showcase, mere hours away!!

(To Be Continued Again)

Photos pertaining to the previous post

Rob Crow (note Om t-shirt).

Flower Travellin' Band, with "sitarla" clearly visible (thanks commenter Wrezhu).

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!)

Thank you, John Dwyer

Hey, we shoulda posted this before... If you're a local store regular, you'll have noticed the cool new artwork on one side of our old sandwich board sidewalk sign. It's by our pal John Dwyer, of Thee Oh Sees / Coachwhips / Pink & Brown / etc. etc. fame. Thanks, John!

DC area 'Avant Fairfax Festival' 2009

A customer of ours is involved with putting on this fest, upcoming in April.
It looks to feature lots of out-there sounds, so if you're into dark and experimental, ambient psych stuff and you're in that neck of the woods, check it out!

More tix to give away

Two upcoming shows, two ticket giveaways! Here's the details...

Wednesday April 8th at Great American Music Hall
Vetiver (cd release party for “Tight Knit”!)
Richard Swift
Adam Stephens (of Two Gallants)
$16
Doors 8, Show 9

We have 2 pairs of tickets to give away, you just gotta email with VETIVER TIX in the subject line to store@aquariusrecords.org and you'll be entered in the random drawing for them.

Sunday April 12th at Slim’s
VH1 Classic Presents
The Anvil Experience
Movie Premiere followed by live performance!
$18
Doors 6:30, Show 7:30

Same deal, 2 pairs of tix to be randomly awarded, just email with ANVIL TIX in the subject line to store@aquariusrecords.org for a chance at 'em.

And if you haven't seen the Anvil documentary, it's GREAT. Highly recommended. As is Anvil.