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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Austin’s The Gary (with Trey of Sad Like Crazy) opened with a nice set. The bassist’s vocals were a nice baritone with a talky/singing style that reminded me of those Minutemen songs where Mike Watt would talk through a song. It was a nice juxtaposition with the melodic bass and guitar lines. Good stuff. Then Bright Men of Learning followed. Third guitar slinger Chris wasn’t there (this was a last minute show after all) and I, for one, missed what he brought to the band. BMOL isn’t about one person after all but the collective unit and what they each bring to it and Chris does help in filling out the canvas. That small quibble aside, it was nice to hear the BMOL songs live for the first time in a long time. The rythm section is great, Marshall Preddy’s vocals are always wonderful and horribly under appreciated, and Ben Murphy’s lead work is one of the best in the city. Perhaps because the sound was more sparse with Chris’ absence or just because this was a last minute show, Murphy even got a bit free-form and noisy with his guitar work at one point which was kind of a surprise and admittely fun to watch. But in the end, was it a wild and woolly night? Nah, but I did get to catch two solid bands play it loose and laid back which was great and more importantly I didn’t throw up.

No, it’s not a short-scale bass.
I’m 6 foot 5.

Bright Men of Learning’s Marshall Preddy
rocking the Rudz living room

BMOL’s Ben Murphy
channels his inner Thurston Moore

Links:

More pictures on my Flickr (link)

Bright Men Of Learning on Myspace (link)
The Gary on mysapce (link)