after sitting next to their skilled guitar player during the bluegrass workshop, and seeing the respect he was paid, and hearing that they gig all over, I was expecting something great – well, I’ve never seen four men destroy such promising instruments like these four men did: upright bass, guitar, guitar, mandolin/fiddle – it was the weakest ass shit I had ever done seen in my life – the Yo La Tengo of whatever-you-want-to-call-their-music – I heard recently that the difference between the young and the old is that the old understand restraint, well the degree to which these guys have restraint mastered suggests they must be one step from the grave – they were particularly bad when they sang the lead vocalist’s own songs – he’d simper as he described them and they were these cheesy trite bland horrors – I swear he’s trying to turn a church band into a pop band – his voice is weak too, sometimes John Denver, usually church folk – it was the ultimate irony when he was trying to express how he’s changing the world with his music and stated “Nothing speaks louder than music” – the one time they were tolerable was when my guitar man sang – ironically, I feel like their sound has some promise if they would only play more interesting songs– I’ve honestly never seen these instruments handled like they did – they could do ambient bluegrass or something– they also played the song that I hear everywhere I go in Gunnison and will forever consider the theme song of Gunnison: “Wagonwheel” – turns out it’s a song for which Dylan wrote the chorus and never recorded, and then Old Crow Medicine Show wrote verses around it and made it hugely famous… in Gunnison

this is an inappropriate and rude review, but I am open to the criticisms of people who know better – it’s inappropriate because I saw only a little bit of each performance but the little bits I saw were an introduction into a world of music that I didn’t know people participated in, especially live – Derek Morgan was literally a guy at his keyboard playing what seemed to be a single sad note, made bands I’ve called monotone in the past sound downright lively – AMASA GANA was a full band playing at -40x speed – you had time to watch the violinist pull his bow across the strings and then turn your head to catch the guitarist change frets – Fennesz, on the other hand, came highly recommended, actually beat out CocoRosie as the “recommended” show for the night, but I was done with this room by that time the entire staff of the place where we go for music trivia came to see Fennesz and loved him so it’s clearly a personal issue – I maintain still that these “bands” were the definition of minimalism and as close to being comatose as you can hope to be without extra help

[Los Angeles, CA] we had never heard or heard of this band but were there because I’d won free tickets through an Emo’s contest for naming your favorite show you’d ever seen at Emo’s and describing why – pretty much the contest I’d been waiting for since the day I moved to Austin – I spotted the photographer for the Statesman’s A-list in the crowd early on which was a plus since it’s a sign that the event is at least minorly significant, but a negative because the bastard, once again, didn’t care to take my photo – on the other hand, though, the Chronicle had recommended the opening and local band, Pure Ecstasy, which was pretty much a slap in the face to Autolux – so they started off kind of average-sounding, which is dangerous for a band I don’t know – without a remarkable sound and with songs I don’t know, I’m at high risk of being bored – but I quickly became mesmerized – some of their songs had a 90s noise rock sound, which confirms my suspicion that the kids are on their way to reviving the 90s instead of the 80s, also confirmed by the number of NIN t-shirts I’ve been seeing around lately, and flannel shirts – anyway, there was also a shoegaze element, in the quiet repetitiveness – some suggestion of synth – it was all very simple, drum, bass, and guitar – there wasn’t a lot of to-do or hijinx – but their very calmness and seeming maturity suggested that they knew they didn’t need that extra fluff – I think they might be better live than recorded but, in general, this band pleases me greatly

[Austin, TX] I really liked this band but then I really like shoegaze, at least some of it (basically The Stone Roses) – the band was tucked into one corner of the stage basically playing to each other – unassuming in plaid shirts – well-paced, sweet, and dense

reminded me why I love the shoegaze, with sweet melodies and escapism all wrapped up in fuzzy noise, she basically played songs and they were good but if I were to be a DJ I would mix and mesh a little bit more, something besides standing up there in my cowboy boots and silly dress

pleasant surprise because have had their CD courtesy of BestGirlfriend\”s ExHusband for years and have always liked it, reminiscent of my personal gods: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, found their live show captivating though may have just been suiting my mood, baseball-hatted man crouched over his pedal steel and glancing at a laptop (the source of the undertone of wind and drone I guess) convinced me of the versatility of the pedal steel by making it whine and wail in ways very counter to last band, accompanied by a drummer who managed to make his slow slightly off-kilter tempo look intense, basically a more ambient version of the proggy psych-metal that I really enjoy, I spent the set daydreaming about the darkness that must inhabit these two men, they\”re probably frat boys.

fantastic, melodic droners in the tradition of Morphine and Beta Band with an undercurrent of Black Sabbath riffs and Tia Carrera depth, describe themselves as psychedelic – shoegazer – garage, sexy chick bassist, deceptively small-boy lead vocalist had powerful voice, maybe Brian Jonestown Massacre too

Kyuss like but more thrash, drummer was cute with curly hair but lead vocalist distracted in his red sweatpants and red head sweat band and red wrist sweat bands

free acoustic show that we had to arrive two hours early for, buzz made it exciting but the show was quite good, they were a little weird to me, homey . . . well acoustic I guess, bland lead singer with average voice, what was very special about them was their trumpets and the songs that were black Spanish magic

druggie electrician talking my ear off (and I gave him and his roommate my number – that woke me up a few times last night in disgust/terror) so couldn’t listen properly, but really liked them, lush, full, keyboard, many members, druggie kept comparing them to Joy Division