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Music with Jameson & Lone Star: SXSW 2024 Recap – Thursday and Friday (April 19 and 20)

RamonLP4 — Mon, 23 Mar 2024 14:06:00 +0000

Yes, you’ve probably been wondering where our posts have been over SXSW. Well, first off, only I was supposed to to do daily blogging; Levi and April were going to do theirs this week as recaps. So why no posts? Well, lets just say that the rest of my posse showed up Thursday and when you are in the middle of a hurricane you just try to make it through alive.

See here is the thing about SXSW, sure you have all the issues revolving around this big overblown marketing beast where small independent bands scream to be heard above the fray, but forget that. Put that aside and what you have at SXSW is this crush of humanity descending on our proud state capital every year to hear some great music and have a great time. I mean look at this fellow below.

Chris Gray – Responsible Writer
Yes, that’s our dear friend Chris Gray of the Houston Press working hard like the excellent writer he is. He’s got his press badges, his wristbands, and he blogged extensively throughout. Well, not us. No sir we are down in the trenches with you plebeians. While Chris was jumping from show to show in the evening, we had to pick our shows*, pay for each one, and drink like fishes at our homebase bar on 7th. While Chris was blogging extensively we were either too hungover to type in the morning or threatened with death for typing too loud at the early hour of 1PM. While Chris was bringing you the latest and greatest bands, we were discovering new uses for Guideon’s Bible that probably would fall under sacrilege in most denominations. So, no, you are not going to get the full SXSW musical experience here. Neither will you get a run down of all the silliness, weirdness, drama, and genuine party call me insanity of the weekend – this ain’t no personal blog. But here is a quick recap of what I got to see from Thursday and Friday. Blogger is being weird right now so Saturday’s recap will have to wait.

Thursday 19 April

Consider this a stand-in for all lame SXSW bands
Let this band take the place of all awful and middling bands of SXSW. Ya see, for all the good that you can find at SXSW, you can find something terrible. Now granted, the “Texas Rock” stage on 7th street is the worst crap you will ever hear at SXSW no matter what year it is and even these guys above couldn’t hold candle to that shit but in their own bar band/blues rock tropes kind of way they were pretty unbearable.

The Gary

The reason though I’d gone to Ms. Bee’s was to see Austin’s The Gary whose little CD I really enjoyed. The set was pretty good but hampered by the sound. I actually picked up one of their CDRs last time they came to Houston and really dug songs like Confusion and Damn Machines so I was able to fill in the gaps where the sound failed them but, hey, you know, it’s a free show; outdoor sound is always dodgy but the band still played with some great verve – tossing out aggressive bass and some sweet guitar lines. Fun and good to see these guys again.

Elaine Greer’s death metal set at Casa de Gallo
Next stop was Casa De Gallo and when I got there I had JUST missed Giant Princess play. The setting was pretty nice – a small little home in an obscure street on the east side and there was a good representation of all your music friends relaxing while enjoying some food and music. Elaine Greer played a great set with Travis on bass being his usual jovial self and Austin lending his skills on guitar, accordion, and backing vocals. The room sounded great, the band delivered, and Elaine’s voice carried all the melody, wit, and intelligence of her songs with a charming grace. Of course, if you’ve read my columns or blogs, you’d know that this is nothing new. Buxton was to follow Elaine Greer but I had to leave to catch an old friend from Austin. No worries, you know as well as I that it’s an easy bet that Buxton would take no prisoners. Need proof? That new single they have coming out KILLS! When it comes out buy a copy, then you will truly know of this band’s might.

Lou Barlow and Imaad Wasif – Cool Texas Night Awesomeness

After a short break, Lou Barlow and Imaad Wasif were performing outside at Ms Bees and, unlike the Gary’s earlier set, the sound was great. Perhaps the surrounding crowd did a good job of corralling the sounds – I dunno. It’s the first time I’d seen Lou play with Imaad and I have to say I really really liked what Imaad brought to the performance with his soft melodic phrasing complimenting Lou’s guitar and voice. Throw in a cool cloudless Texas evening and what more could you want? Excellent and worth racing out to see! Indian Jewelry followed but the way they were situated the crowd enveloped them to the point where I could not see them at all. Saturday, Erika told me they DID in fact have the strobes on that night but I didn’t see any from the back of the crowd. That right there tells you how packed it was. Still they sounded great so no complaints here.

And finally here is one last image of the evening…

Young Mammals and Ghormeh Sabzi (with Sandwich)

Funny enough this was one of the few times I ran into a Houston Band on the street. In fact, overall I found this year’s SXSW to have fewer people roaming the streets in general. Last year it seemed that you couldn’t turn around without bumping into another Houston band or scenester and even though this particular night seemed to have a good number of scenesters suddenly appear at our homebase SXSW bar that was more the exception than the rule. For what it’s worth, I’m gonna guess from what I saw that SXSW attendance dropped to some degree this year

Friday 20 April

Friday ended up being my Battan Death March. Let’s just say, I paid for Thursday all of Friday and leave it at that but, using every possible method available to me, I plugged through. Still we did see some good bands along the way.

Themselves

Themselves were pretty fun. They played a smart-ass electronic white boy hip-hop thing. One of the best songs they did involved using the drum machine (sounding like a typewriter) to type our what he was rapping to hilarious effect. My favorite song though was the third to last song which laid this heavy Kraut rock groove on the chorus. Unfortunately when I asked them what that song was their only response was “Oh sorry we fucked up the set. I have no idea what song that was.” Ha! Well fucked up or not it was fun and smart stuff.

Deer Tick
By chance Deer Tick was playing and given Tuesday’s show in Houston we figured we’d give them another chance and for me this was more a coming to terms with what Deer Tick has become show than anything else. I will say that the band opened with a version of one of the songs off his Jukebox Whore CDR that I hadn’t heard in ages so, for me, that was just one of those Oh man, I havent’ heard this in ages – I love this song kind of moments. And they closed with my favorite Deer Tick song which was played with all the ornamented beauty of the original. I think here is the thing about Deer Tick; they’ve become an Americana band. Gone is the signature subtle melancholy of his earlier work and in its place is a good Americana bar band. The kind of band that plays long aimless 12 bar blues songs and has frat guys high-fiving each other (Oh yes they did!). It’s a good band but it’s not the band I came to love. I’ll bet they get a bigger audience and they’ll be fine. So good sailing to you Deer Tick.

Jana Hunter
After that is was a race across town to see Jana Hunter at Domy books. I’d missed her Tuesday so I was glad to find that Domy was running a bit behind schedule. I mean c’mon you know Jana: that singular phrasing, that jangly guitar, the slow spacious emotional songs. Much like Lou Barlow’s set the prior night, Jana hailed in the cooler evening weather playing her haunting music as the sun began to fall and birds flew across the sky overhead. I couldn’t have asked for better.

Babel Fishh And Evak1

Last for the evening was Babel Fish and Evak1 which easily, hands down had the best banter of any band of SXSW I’d seen. I already dug the Babel Fishh stuff but, together, these guys were this brilliant non sequitur stream of consciousness . The whole routine about the Bono Hot Wings just had me rolling with laughter. It was like those two good friends everyone has who can just riff off each others silliness. Unfortunately, the sound didn’t do them many favors (the vocals were way too loud compared to the beats and samples). Nevertheless their music, wit, and nerdy charm was easily more than a match for the crappy sound and the fact that there was no room to dance because of tables and chairs. Fun music, smart guys, go see them!

My SXSW 2024 Posts:
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part I: (Link)

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part II: (Link)

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part III: (Link)

Also,
April’s recap (Link)

*My band didn’t apply this year and so I didn’t ahve wristbands like I did last year.

Music with Jameson & Lone: New Year’s Eve at Indie Houston World Headquarters 12/31/2008

RamonLP4 — Mon, 05 Jan 2024 08:01:00 +0000

I remember having a conversation with April 5K a while back about the music scene. Her basic premise was that there has been a sea change in the scene with an old wave is finding itself pushed out by a new wave of kids and a lot of the grumbling about “The Scene” had to do with an old guard not willing to recognize or accept what was overtaking them. I think to some extent April had it pegged. Nowhere was this sea change more apparent than at Indie Houston’s hugely successful New Year’s Eve party. You want to know where the kids are? You want to see DIY? You want to see community and celebration? This was the place. For all you old old old schoolers out there let me just say – remember Lexington? You remember the parties we’d go to on that street? OK Imagine that vibe. It was there – alive and well. Bands playing great music, people having fun, and sharing hugs; you know one big happy family. From beginning to end it was the best way to ring in 2024 you could possibly imagine.

I missed openers Ghormeh Sabzi but arrived to catch Galveston’s Darwin’s Finches who apparently come with their own dancing neo-hippie fans. Kicking-off with a song that cops a Stooges riff is not a bad opening gambit and the flailing abrasive guitar work of Justino Saladino grabbed you by the collar and shook you to the core all night. As performers, they understood how to dig into that primeval cromag thing that made you whip out that Dio devil sign and when the material matched the performance it was earth shattering. One song…something about a party. Holy Rob Tyner! Justino’s nervous stuttering phrasing on that song killed!!! Seriously, the energy of the performance and the primal rock and roll power coming off the stage felt like the band was channeling the MC5 in all its glory. That’s not to say that every song pegged it to that level but, for the most part, I can see why people have been bandying their name about – here’s serious island rock and roll.

Next came The Tontons whose set was probably one of the best I’ve seen them do. Being the focal point of any band is no easy chore and you have to give it up to frontwoman Asli Omar (whose vocals are singular in the scene) for channeling the music like a jazzy priestess when she sings. But the wonderful thing about the Tontons is it’s not a one woman show – the rest of the band is phenomenal. I generally rave about guitarist Adam Martinez channeling Hedrix but this time I was on bassist Tom Nguyen’s side and, man, that dude can rip like no man’s business. There’s this Bossa Nova song they do, which I never particularly cared for, but they completely tore that one up on Wednesday and when Tom started getting all Geddy Lee on the bass I wanted to shout “You bastard! Stop, I don’t like that song dammit!” and then concede that they were just too hot to let any song not come across as anything less than stellar.

So here you have a band red hot on new year’s eve and what do they do after their set? Do a video shoot. A little backstory first – they were scheduled to do a video shoot from 7-9pm but for reasons unknown they didn’t do it at that time and just got bumped up to third on the bill. That’s fine; nobody was complaining. I sure wasn’t as I would have missed them perform had they started early and I was loving the film crew’s lighting (great for taking pictures) but here is the problem – I don’t care to see the Tontons lip-sync. I’m sure the results are great but, given the brilliance of their live performances, it’s horribly dull stuff to sit through. It’s kind of like driving a car over 100 mph only to then find yourself in a 5mph school zone. You guys have fun; I’m gonna refill my beer.

Riff Tiffs eased the party back into gear. I’ll admit it was weird seeing Tom Nguyen filling in for Althea Topek on bass but he didn’t miss a step and within no time that thought was put the background. Pausing the set, IH’s Robert Delossantos, counted down to the New Year and the night continued with hugs, kisses, fireworks, and the Riff Tiffs which made you hopeful for 2024. What can I really say but what better way to hear Houston’s best shoegazers‘ jangly and atmospheric guitars than framed by swaying trees under the shimmer of stars on a chilly New Year’s Eve.

Scheduled next were The Mathletes, but as they set-up we got a treat – Fat Tony commandeered the stage. It was as if he looked around at people just standing there chatting and having a good time and thought “No, no, people! This will not do! This is a party! This is serious business!” So, holding a jug of wine in his hand, he strutted on stage and barraged us with rhymes until people were talking this party thing seriously. Standing? Unacceptable! Chatting? Unacceptable! Dancing! Yes, now you’re with the program! So, ladies and gentlemen if you are going to crash a party, take a lesson from Fat Tony!

After the Fat Tony power-up, it was time for The Mathletes to carry the torch and they did not miss a beat. Opening with Pavement’s “Summer Babe” they stubbornly refused to accept any beat that was not up-tempo. You in the front dance! Joe Mathlete commands it! He will sing Pinnochibot and, yes, I liked it when the horns better for the coda too but dance dammit! Actually that was the only song where I missed the huge Mathletes full-on ensemble. Other than that one song, the smaller and more stable Mathletes were no less about pounding your skull into a joyful, happy, melodic bliss than the Mathletes of old. They sing, you dance – it’s the natural order.

Unfortunately, right after the Mathletes set, the cops came in around 12:48am and closed down the outdoor stage. Someone seemed worried worried about the cops hassling people but I shrugged it off; If you have an a-hole cop shutting down a show, you’re gonna know immediately – when the cops come in and all chill and have a look that says “sorry to ruin the party” odds are they aren’t there to mess with people. As it turned out moving things indoors seemed to have worked in Giant Princess’ favor anyhow. The party was moved indoors and what you got you got was all this energy confined to a small room and Giant Princess feeding off this like some crazy sci-fi energy monster. Hands down, Giant Princess was the highlight of the evening. With drums raging, the keyboards oscillating, the bass thumping, and Colin looking like he was possessed by some demon, holy shit it was like a Rock ‘n’ Roll tent revival. Seriously, it was like the insane energy of a hardcore show but with an Indie Rock band instead. People atop people’s shoulders, bumping into each other, screaming shouting – holy crap! It was Rock and Roll giving you an epileptic seizure. Diego instrument of choice I think sums up the band in two words – Fun Machine! All hail the Fun Machine! All hail Giant Princess!

The last band I saw was Time Machine Veterans (sorry I missed B L A C K I E) . Now mind you TMV started last week as a trio – Carlos (Young Mammals), Andrew (Wild Moccasins) and Jaime (Giant Princess) – but somehow by the end of the night it was, what 10 people? Insanity! As they were setting up (which took forever) I commented with my tongue in my cheek “How you say…clusterfuck?” But that was kind of the idea, pulling off a big huge clusterfuck kind of like the Mathletes used to do but with more chaos. Guess what? They pulled it off. Keeping the songs (well, more like riffs) simple, the band just shouted and bludgeoned its way through the morning to everyone cheering, dancing, hopping, and carrying various bodies overhead. It’s great to see all these indie bands jump together, throw caution to the wind, and create this supergroup (which seemed to have expanded to include members of Buxton, News On The March, Elaine Greer, etc.) whose sole purpose was to have fun. To me, Time Machine Veterans only strengthened April’s thesis – The new wave was here, has been here. Thanks Indie Houston for leading the charge.

Galveston’s Darwin’s Finches providing a much
more rocking soundtrack to George Lucas’ THX 1138

Given the choice of
looking fashionable or warm legs
The Tonton’s Asli Omar chose the former.

“OK, You’ve guys just put on a really phenomenal set!
People are stoked!
I’ve got an Idea!
Let’s kill that momentum with a video shoot!”

The Riff Tiffs ring in a shoegazing New Year

Indie Houston’s Robert Delossantos leads the countdown
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Happy New Year!

Fat Tony shows you how to Party Crash in style!

B L A C K I E ponders the ramifications of the Mathletes
covering Pavement on the space-time continuum.

Holy crap! IH World Headquarter’s is
being attacked by Giant Princess!

…can’t hold out much longer!
…Giant Princess…too powerful!

AAAAAAARRG!!
We’ve lost the Cameraman sir!

Giant Princess is down!
Repeat Giant Princess is Down!

Hail Hail Time Machine Veterans!

Time Machine Veterans – think of them as
The Superfriends of the Houston Indie Scene

Remember when TMV was billed as a trio?
That was last week.

Colin (Giant Princess) in a subdued moment
during the TMV’s set.

Happy Sparkly 2024!

Links:
Indie Houston (Link)

Ghormeh Sabzi on myspace (Link)
Darwin’s Finches on myspace (Link)
Tontons on myspace (Link)
Riff Tiffs on myspace (Link)
Fat Tony on myspace (Link)
Mathletes on myspace (Link)
Giant Princess on myspace (Link)
B L A C K I E on myspace (Link)