[Vancouver] This was the band I’d come to see and I watched them mill around by the side of the stage while waiting through the band before them. I could tell this girl was a mean primapunk from the second I saw her – even her band members seemed to be avoiding her. Punk-white-blonde hair, skinny jeans, impossibly high wedge heels – she was the rock version of Lady Gaga. And, of course, once they took the stage, she hassled the sound guy forever, and, of course, her fierceness is exactly what works for her as the lead singer of a mostly female thrash band. I loved this band. She stood all tiny and in command, and her white translucent hands and arms, finally freed of the knitted black sweater, flew and wavered in front of her as she screamed at us. After the second song, she apologized to the audience for her throat problems – the tactics of an insecure high-strung person – setting up the reason for any possible failure before the failure happens. She managed to carry on, and well. They were kind of riot girrl but with complicated proggy guitar (male), strong bass (a goth Joan Jett), and drums (more of a dark clothing with pearls type girl). None of them outshone the princess, although the bassist was intriguing. Best of all, she ended the set by running off the stage in tears –artists will have their moments.

[Philadelphia] I’d been watching reruns of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (first-run for me), and so this band, being from Philadelphia, kept reminding me of the show what with their dirty urban look. The female lead, dirty bleach blonde, had an ironic Mickey Mouse t-shirt on. They were hard enough that they drove away a good half of the crowd. Mostly, they reminded me of the 90s. Noise rock with an atonal but melodious undertone – flat unwavering vocals – a midlevel whine dominating every song. I’m too of the 90s to describe its sound – it’s just an overall feeling for me and they had it. The Vaselines… Yo La Tengo… what have you. It was nice to hear something different but I wouldn’t listen to them.

On a mission to make amends for a half a year of pathetic homeboundedness. I like the looks of the place: mixed age, credibility without depravity. And then finally the band takes the stage. And they’re wearing an Austin t-shirt – what the hell!? Some Lake Travis sports reference, which I refuse to interpret as ironic, because the four boys are white and clean cut as all get out, and very likely did attend school in the wealthy suburb of Lake Travis. My other bone of contention is that Houston’s (pathetic) music scene is entirely dependent on Austin. Anyway, they are a meld of a power pop and pop punk. Watching them, I was mostly transfixed by the lead singer’s facial expressions – which could be interpreted as aggro or mental imbalance a la Charles Manson. Their songs brought to mind Fountains of Wayne, Spoon, Tom Waits, and Irish drinking songs. The keyboard player and his sound, I finally determined, are a key contributor to the character of this band. From what I saw, I’d say they’re a pretty good band.

They started with a fast Spanish guitar vibrato/tremolo but all psyched out, which I love – and then one of the band members screamed from the middle of the audience and they became kind of an indie pop version of Godspeed You, at least insofar as the very long talking portion of their music. In reality, they started as a bunch of hipsters drawing out the start time of their set, milling around, being cool. Two of them were affable musicheads, but one of them.. oy vey – he had the worst case of I’m-sure-intentional bedhair I’ve ever seen and he had a squirrel tail hanging from the butt-crack-line of his pants. The squirrel tail just didn’t make sense with the rest of his outfit: a pretty standard vintage set of intellectual hipster clothing. I had the misfortune of standing behind a middle aged rocker woman & man whom they seemed to know well. The entire band made their way over one by one to pay their respects. SquirrelTail smacked the ass of the middle-aged gentleman every time he passed, which would have been fine except I was convinced he was doing it to get attention. Oh those attention-getters, how I hate them yet love them. And SquirrelTail spoke with many pauses, as he considered whether his next words were ironic enough to utter. Well, SquirrelTail turned out to be a stand-out performer. The other two band members twitched nervously on the stage (ducking their heads, rubbing their eyes), while SquirrelTail convulsed and gyrated and generally made a spectacle of himself. SquirrelTail was entirely consumed by the personas and words of his music, which is not a bad thing. Eyes uplifted, hands fluttering, spoken word. I started wondering whether the show was actually performance art rather than music, and then I worried SquirrelTail couldn’t actually sing, but he could. And their lyrics were poignant, verging on Bright Eyes but less witty. They were interesting. But then they were sincere and sweet enough that I wondered whether they were a Christian band – that’s the sort of fear a few months of Houston radio stations will put in you. Their sound was very much Friends of Dean Martinez, The Books,… even down to some wailing lap steel. The lap steel player, the shy guy who also played the guitar with pretty gold plates that made all the psychy noodly noises, was my favorite. Sometimes he went into that dark spaghetti western sound that I find delicious. A more rocking song verged on White Rabbits. The band was playing for their record release, but this in-store version of a record release was an acoustic set with a limited number of band members. All in all, they were engaging, and reminded me how rejuvenating weirdness and art can be.

same living-room-in-a-warehouse stage but very different vibe – this band had some rock to them and immediately soothed our spirits – it turns out they were the guys next to me in the audience during the previous band yucking it up because the lead singer was moaningly offering their CDs for free to the crowd: “way to sell your band” – they knew what they were talking about – nonetheless, they have no online presence themselves!

the amazing street band that drew a bigger crowd than was seemingly in all of the clubs lining Frenchmen St. – they played a hard jazz, a punk jazz, or a free style jazz that was still incredibly listenable and danceable – was immeasurably more interesting to me than that old played out same-style jazz you hear all over New Orleans, but they told us that the clubs won’t hire them to play – maybe because they’re clearly from the poorer parts of New Orleans – it amused me that in New Orleans, it’s cool, even for street kids, to play band-geek instruments like the trumpet and trombone

[New York, NY] the sound and the people per square foot were awful – seemed to be a good band – cacophony shoegaze but melodic – some harder moments – Rockboy heard Verve but I think they were harder

I’d been hearing about this band as long as I’ve lived in Austin (a pretty long time now) and had never seen them so I was excited – they did not disappoint – I would like to credit DetroitRockGirl for her 50% success rate: Grand Champeen – yay!, Centro-Matic – nay… they were electric and I’m not talking about their guitars – they took to the stage and were immediately in sync and in animation – it was organized chaos and joyful pogo-rock power pop – plus they all seemed like guys you’d want to hang out with: genuine, smart, and nice – I think the Soul Asylum comparisons are because of the main vocalist – when the bassist sang (also a very nice bartender at the Hole in the Wall), I was taken back to 90s indie rock with that atonal falling-down feeling – both singers were good and the diversity was nice – there was also notes of country rock and maybe some Weezer for a second there – we also happened to stand next to their #1 fan, who was completely beside himself at finally getting to see the “#1 live band in Austin” after a long hiatus of no shows – he was also completely sober and spent many minutes discussing why I should love this band – we’re both hoping they keep having shows

Quiet is the new loud. First struck by Richman’s constantly dopey expression, with the eyes of a cult-member and a mouth that is always slightly open. I like some of his songs just fine and I love his early Modern Lovers work, but the last time I saw him, I was bored stiff. The music was the same tonight—Spanish guitar, tribal drums, jazzy singer/songwriter, kind of jammy, mostly anti-pop—but the vibe with the crowd was all different. It was an intimate setting, and his lyrics were allowed to shine. Jonathan to the crowd: “Don’t just stare! What’s the point?” It was a poetry slam with a Sesame Street sensibility. He managed to pull off a performance that approached The Mountain Goats brilliance at live shows, giving off the feeling that we were privy to personal revelations. The first time he started dancing like a painfully white boy, it was hilarious. Jonathan on growing up weird: “My parents trusted me on the way to bohemia…” Jonathan on the tactlessness of ‘picking up’ a girl: “Hey, let’s pick up a 6-pack, 2 tires, and 2 girls…” Jonathan on your girlfriend leaving you for her old boyfriend: “Well, she’s back with her old boyfriend… Just let her go into the darkness… You want to tell her, her boyfriend’s no friend…Just take them sheets to the Laundromat!” Jonathan on building walls around yourself: “When we refuse to suffer, we refuse to feel, we can’t fall in love, … but we can have sexual relations.” Jonathan on his pretentious adolescence: “I talked with an accent I didn’t even have… in my affected accent [Jonathan as the crowd’s response: his affected accent]… such a brat… I should have been bullied more than I was.” The thing is, he’s still that adolescent. He sang Pablo Picasso with a fake little accent. He loves to slip into singing in different languages. The kooky dancing wasn’t funny after the first few times. All of his overt attempts to be eccentric just create distance. Still really enjoyed the show.

[New York, NY] only saw them for a few songs but they were striking – really pretty soul rock – like Jackson 5 on acid – every band member had long hair that was parted in the middle – and they would engage in moments of thrash like the kids do nowadays to pretend that their pop bands are hardcore

[France] “Those, those beautiful boys / Those, those beautiful boys / Born illegitimately / To a whore, most likely / He became an orphan / Oh what a lovely orphan he was / Sent to the reformatory / Ten years old, was his first glory / Got caught stealing from a nun / Now his love story had begun” – those lyrics are pretty much why I went to this show – and because I think their general sound is pretty remarkable – [on a side note, you've got to hear how they sing the song to really appreciate it, and, as usual for me, it was not played at their live show which I sadly realized was because it features Antony from Antony and the Johnsons who was not touring with them] – it ends up I may have been more enthused about the crowd than the band, but the band deserves a lot of credit for the crowd – so the crowd was fantastic – some mix of neo psych hippies, ravers, plain old burners, steam punks, and some unfortunate ones in renaissance garb – the common theme was iridescent eye paint or painted-on pencil moustaches on girls, which I came to find out was part of the whole CocoRosie cult I didn’t know existed – surprisingly, at least to me, there were also lots and lots of lesbians – I’m always confused as to how the lesbians unite and figure out which bands they love but turns out one of the sisters is a lesbian plus the band promotes drag, androgyny, etc. – there were also an awful lot of young females falling out, e.g., being carried out because of excess consumption – not sure if it’s because the crowd was pretty young or if the band attracts a druggier crowd – anyway, the band is comprised of 2 sisters who are artistes in every sense of the word – one had long romantic hair and sang in an operatic voice (properly trained) and plucked a harp – the other one with the squeaky baby voice that defines CocoRosie (at least to me) strutted around with male attitude and had a baseball cap on top of a feminine doo-rag on top of long brown hair – I much preferred her – there was a keyboardist guy and then a little unassuming guy who did a human beat box solo that was amazing and referenced actual American hip-hop songs – their music is a lot more diverse than I was aware of before the show – they manage to incorporate electronic, hip-hop, classical, and pop into a sound that ends up being pretty distinctly theirs – many bizarre instruments come into play – I think the thing I liked most about their sound is that they play childhood innocence off of the dark realizations of growing up and seeing stuff – especially with the two sisters interplaying their vastly different attitudes and sounds (think Enya intermixed with ghetto dance rap), it’s a bizarre but beautiful marriage of cultures (which I am always a fan of) – so I thought they were from France and assumed their inclusion of rap and the bad sister’s headdress was a nod to the French Muslim outcasts – I also assumed their air of hipster superiority was a product of general French superiority, but turns out, they’re American, and the superiority is a product of New York – the good sister moved to France early on to study opera but the bad sister moved to Brooklyn to party at Kill Whitie parties – those parties are a whole other conversation, but the sisters are worth looking up in general because of their interesting backgrounds – other notes of interest: 1) Rockboy overheard a couple mating in the outhouse bathrooms, 2) the most shocking girl was the one in a modest dress with granny panties that clearly shone through (a lesson to the young girls) , 3) the bad sister moistened her clarinet in her beer like the bad ass she is, 4) Rockboy happily gave up all claims of being a hipster once he realized that hipsters are now parting at the back of their skull and combing their hair forward, and 5) there is a series of really interesting photos of the sisters that do a nice job of expressing their artistic vision

[Austin, TX] I wasn’t going to say anything about this show because I’ve already said way too much about them, but they’re too good not to promote – lots of echo effects and classic songwriting is the key to their superficial sheen of coolness – not to say that they’re only superficially good – they’re just so immediately striking that you worry they might be – I think that they’re actually pretty down to earth people who really love what they’re doing – they have a distinctive and modern sound of their own but also are definitively influenced by Spiritualized, The Doors, and Suicide – the record store was pack-ked and the young guys buying their record in line behind me discussed the band: Guy 1: So you’re buying their record?, Guy 2: Yeah, I mean, they might be influential someday, you know?, Guy 1: So where would you rank them on your list of all-time great bands?, Guy 2: uhhhh… uhhhh… 4th

also a 2nd wave ska band from the late 70s on the 2 Tone label more recently noted for the song playing as Ferris Bueller runs through backyards and houses to beat his family home – so we were optimistic at the start – the lead singer had a cute British accent – the band was good – it was pretty quickly clear, though, that there was something lacking – that energy! the quick pick-up of ska – it finally became clear that they just weren’t playing ska – maybe some sort of pop-rock inspired by ska but not ska – the early part of the set reminded me of The Talking Heads, kind of – the pop-rock became decreasingly ska and increasingly soul-pop – like a mix of 90s artists Soul Decision and Shaggy – by the end, it was full-on reggae – I preferred the reggae to the watery rock – reggae would have been okay if I hadn’t come expecting ska – 2 hours of unska was not okay – Rockboy insists they were playing poorer versions of their recorded material and/or the worst of their recorded material – I insist this band is not for me

I was hesitant about seeing this band because I can hardly stand hearing the giant names from the 90s nowadays let alone the post-grunge names from the 90s – but I always had a soft spot in my heart for this band – the album grew on me – rather than the one-emotion sound of say a Fuel or a A Perfect Circle, they were a little odder and darker, albeit poppier – so it was just the lead singer on an acoustic guitar with whom I assume was his daughter sitting behind him – his voice, without the support of a full band, was familiar but definitely not a strength – he did Possum Kingdom but the song that really roused the crowd was I Come From the Water, on which the audience handled the chorus

I hear mention of this band a lot but didn’t know their material or even their sound – I can’t stand Interpol and they’re definitely in that vein but I could stand them – sleek, dark and shiny – I always imagined them as a bunch of polished young rock stars but they were 2 pleasingly unaverage looking guys – they ought to be ashamed for ripping off Joy Division but I guess that’s the way of the world

[Knoxville, TN] on my and Rockboy\”s lists – it was just too cold to listen properly – they were fine but I was more impressed by WhoMadeWho – this band was similar, electro-rock, but they were more indie and less bombast – this band deserves more listen

[Copenhagen, Denmark] it was so fiercely cold, I was out of my mind, but from what I could tell, this band was fantastic – three in-synch dance rocking guys from Denmark – they played hard-driving precise disco rock – they joked when they switched form dance rock to electro rock that they were stepping back a year

[Dublin, Ireland] average-joe middle-aged guys doing very enjoyable raucous rock that was a mixture of U2 and Irish pub songs

[Stockholm, Sweden] out of all of the many female-vocalist semi-retro bands we saw (thanks to the Rockboy), this was my favorite – Miss Li had a genuine edge and sang creatively and enthusiastically while pounding on her little keyboard – she didn\”t seem like she was acting but like she was really just that passionate and that much fun – they\”re really less retro revival and more indie pop inspired by retro jazz and blues – she was backed by a guitar, drums, a sax (I think?) and an upright bass, but we particularly enjoyed the two very Swedish looking gents – oddly, we\”d tried to see her earlier at an outside stage, even willing to brave ridiculous 40 degree weather, and been told she\”d gone home due to the weather

[San Antonio, TX] this was honestly the one show I felt “dragged to” by Rockboy but it ended up being a top show – I am officially in love with the gorgeous Latina tattooed lead singer – I figured this out because she referenced him, but I think her voice is totally influenced by Jeff Buckley, both edgy power vocalists with lots of emotion – they’re an indescribable girl rock band – there’s pop punk in there, latin rock, and just plain hard rock – the bands you adore but can’t sum up quickly are bands that are going to endure- upon further research, the drummer is the lead singer’s sister and the guitarist is the drummer’s lover – because they’ve got the musical talent, the stage presence, the creativity, and the street cred that makes you wonder about them, they’ve opened for a lot and lot of verifiably huge bands – she referenced Jefferson High in a song and I fantasized that it was a poor inner city school but it\”s a fine arts magnet school, which.. is.. fine.. – lastly, a woman whose name was indistinguishable to us at first, came up to accompany them on The Runaways “Cherry Bomb” – come to find out, it was a former member of The Runaways, Cherie Currie, which was exciting

[Japan] I think rock must be a required class for elementary students in Japan because the Japanese bands are always tight as hell and hard, including the girls, the tiny little girls – so this was another band of tiny hot Japanese girls who shredded like men – they were great but nothing inventive or remarkable

[Alliance, OH] lite alt-rock – anthem rock with big sound like Coldplay – boring

[Santa Cruz, CA] I have a small crush on David Lowery, both for this band and Cracker – the music was great, didn’t realize how many songs I knew from this band, but the man disappointed me – he flinched and stopped at one point, looking as if he’d been hit by something, but it turned out he’d somehow been shocked by the microphone – once he recovered (30 sec later), he started tapping his guitar to the microphone to show us the sparks and yelling that we should never return to this place – eventually one of the venue’s employees ran up to the stage to apologize but David grabbed his beer from his hand, poured it out on the stage, and pushed the employee, telling the crowd “See, he’s drinking while on the job” – he had a right to be upset but he took it too far? – they finished their set but ended by saying there wasn’t time for Cracker to follow as scheduled

[Portland, OR] beautiful, some sort of Irish flavor, complicated and sophisticated indie folk

[Long Beach, CA] three small boys playing indie psych pop with vocals that were high-pitched like Bright Eyes – they were complicated and good but maybe overshadowed in the sea of harder and more exciting live shows

a former member of The Hidden Cameras and a golden frosted fairy of a man – he\”s near albino – his voice was both good and interesting, but his singer-songwriter style grew old very quickly – towards the end of the set, the band moved into indie rock material that was more exciting

we were dubbed number one fans without our consent – they were supposed to go on at 9pm, at least in my head – they were supposed to go on at 10:30 or 11pm, at least in their head – they didn\”t go on until 11:30pm but in the meantime they were a little too excited that we were the only non-band-members there at 9pm and the few of about 10 non-band-members by the time they went on – most every band member shook our hand and we were given t-shirts – and it turned out the recommendation I\”d seen for them at Waterloo was posted by a buddy who works there – this all made me suspicious but they were kind of excellent – the first song was so terrible I almost left immediately but the 2nd was a dramatic turn-around into funky short guitar riffs and stiff drum beats a la Gang of Four – I remain most suspect of the lead singer\”s unimpressive quiet complaint of a voice but the sound system was among the worst ever so it\”s hard to say

everybody wanted to see them at SXSW and nobody saw them – they were three very young girls from Brooklyn harmonizing in a pleasantly monotonous almost atonal fashion – not what I expected but it was an acoustic set so can\”t really judge – maybe a little pretentious in the Yo La Tengo way with their disregard for hitting the right note – the flatline melodies were intentional and while the FrustratedPhilosopher found it to be obnoxious hipster posturing, I found it comforting – created a pleasant drone – they were described as surfer girls which made me like their sound more – they were also described as having opened for Jay Reatard (awwww) and Sonic Youth which did not at all fit their sweetie sweet vibe

a caricature of a rock band, tight black jeans, shaggy hair, wan faces, slapping the microphone in the palm of the hand, they had the energy and the skill and even the diversity but whatever happened to originality?

really solid – chamber pop – Radiohead-esque but lighter and goofier – distinguished by a plinking xylophone (? – maybe… we were looking for a place to rest our weary feet at this point… but this was a band that was on my list through hearsay only) – had the look of British lads but looked them up and they\”re California surfers which I\”ll accept as fact

we hated it and left after a couple of songs but keep in mind that 4 days of 12 hours of music will make you a tad intolerant of average-joe rock – UrbanBiker described it as music for the 20- to 30-year-old female – heartfelt! emotional

this band was distinctive in a quiet way – there was a girl on guitar and singing in a slinky glittery dress of large black and gold stripes – she had on black nylons and no shoes – there was a clean-cut cute urban-looking boy in black on guitar – there was a drummer in something – their music was a gothy sort of dance-rock almost approximating a poppier Bauhaus which is a pretty dramatically positive comparison to make but there you have it – they both had good voices – too low key to go crazy over – oh and they were part of a Swedish showcase