dread-locked Papa from the Carper Family and her bearded bandmates from Arkansas – meld of bluegrass and country – Papa plays her upright bass, one guy is on banjo and harmonica, and the other guy is on guitar and kazoo (as well as a little human voice instrumentalizing) – they often harmonize – particularly liked a southern gothic song that Papa led on – they write most (or all?) of their music as well – some witty lyrics – their shows are hard to come by but they’re really really good

[Memphis, TN] the only show I was insistent upon seeing this SXSW – fronted by Alicja Trout, the woman who dated Jay Reatard and formed Lost Sounds with him – since none of his other material had the same sound as Lost Sounds, I attribute the sound to her – she was so thoroughly not a disappointment – in case you’ve forgotten, Lost Sounds are the best band of the 2000s: dark driving synth punk – despite this, I just was certain she wouldn’t be a scenester and she wasn’t, bless her honest heart – she showed up in blue jeans (they were skinny) and a bright-blue halter top (literally could have been from Old Navy) – her hair was naturally brown and a ridiculous mess, she had a little cloth tie buried in the nest – she was medium height, not skinny but spare, you could see her cheekbones – yes, I have a crush on this woman – she was very decorous while she watched the band before her, no antics, spoke to the people who approached her – and then she hit the stage and was a fury of guitar whaling – and it was over for me – she is a goddess of rock without pretension or show or sexy little tricks – and so I near cried by the end of the set – seeing women break boundaries does that to me – so this band is not Lost Sounds, they’re more garage punk – she is accompanied by a lean grizzly man on bass and a guy on drums – they played one Lost Sounds song which was pretty much put me over the edge of ecstasy – Rockboy, although not a Lost Sounds fan, did notice that the sound of that song was dramatically different than the others: harder, more staccato guitar – I always thought Lost Sounds had a keyboard but now I’m not sure – Alicja invited the wild frontman of the Zoobombs up to accompany them on their last song which I thought was very gracious – I’m not sure if he was following their lead or they were following his (good sign) but it basically ended up that she and he went into a guitar battle – it is just very apparent that the guitar and music are within her, and that she does this because she loves it – she could kick a boy’s ass any day

[Tokyo, Japan] and right after their earthquake… it was three youngish guys and one older minuscule woman in bell-bottoms – they started off with what I’ve come to expect from hard Japanese bands: tight and explosive – it was mostly fast and furious but, with some 60s keyboard, they strayed into some psychy wailing (almost Doors-like) and even a little bit of dance rock – the lead singer was fantastically dynamic: flailing, fixing his broken guitar string mid-song, mouthing the microphone – I didn’t like the keyboard/psych stuff too much but enjoyed that they ended their one-long-song of a set with a guitar wail and a group bow

[Austin, TX] three old guys, each a certain sort, and none the same sort as the other – one had a bandana around his head, one had a lot of tattoos and a squirrel tail hanging from his guitar like a big old hipster, and the other was like a former hardcore guy (based on bumper stickers) – there’s no denying they could play (they mentioned a 20 year history as a band) – one guy sang for the songs that were bluesy hard rock – the other guy sang for the songs that were vaguely 70s pop post-punk (Buzzcocks, Vibrators) – they were good and I really can’t put my finger on why I couldn’t quite get into them – maybe it’s ageism, and they had the longest outro ever

[Austin, TX] we were lucky enough to see their last-show-ever (and their 5th show ever) – and all because of a girl: the leader singer and guitarist is moving to follow his woman (who filmed the entire show) – the bassist and the drummer work with ShellFish, and we were regaled with the band’s history the night before by the bassist who learned to play bass just in time for their first show – despite all this, they were a just-fine 90s alt rock, post-grunge sort of band – they had a blues stomper song too – they wrote several of their songs – they played a Roky Erikson cover (“I Walked with a Zombie”) – most charming were the tongue-in-cheek comments of the lead singer – he managed to unite the band and the audience (most of whom he probably knew) into finding all of their flubs endearing and being thrilled that we were able to see the last show if this outstanding – they re-started 3 songs, the bassist screwed up his run one time, and then pulled out notes to do his spoken word part, but that was all part of the hilarity

[California] this band came to our attention because the former lead singer of Grand Ole Party is in this band – Grand Ole Party is/was a great band and Dum Dum Girls is not – I’d heard their recorded material and wasn’t very impressed but hoped the live show might be better because Grand Ole Party’s live shows were fantastic – it was just dull girl rock – 3 girls in slutwear with guitars in the front and one girl on drums – no movement or passion – I ESP that they got a manager who tried to make them appealing to a wider audience (sexy! slick!) and they’re a big old peter out….

[Brentwood, NY] highest quality rap show I’ve ever seen, especially at SXSW – VegasFashionisto recommended them and I happened to walk by – two MCs and 1 DJ – kind of a Wu Tang sound but maybe more clubby – the crowd was live

[Nashville, TN] we saw them last year and liked them enough to see them again – ghoulish wailing swamp punk – they were a little messy but I think that’s the point

[Indianoplis, Indiana] girl in black with feathers on her head, jerking herself around the stage wailing and whining – backed by three guys, two guitars, and a drum – she expressed angst very well, and sometimes used a loudspeaker to do it – kind of reminded me of a singer/songwriter version of Babes in Toyland which is ridiculous – I liked them a lot actually – dark, pacing and dancey – her voice is great – she’s familiar to me somehow, hopefully because of the music and not the personal torturedness

[Oklahoma City, OK] Queen of Rockabilly who has no problem wearing the crown in her 70s – she’s a husky-voiced sexy spitfire who has found Christ – she would tell us about that and sing a dirty little song from the 50s/60s – she still knows how to carry a crowd, a big crowd – there were rumors Jack White was going to join her on stage but he never did…

[New Orleans, LA] this group threw me off with their look (don’t quite fit any place or decade that I know of) but their sound was all booty rap and bass, kind of old school – per his/her myspace, the appropriate description is ‘bounce rap’ – I stand by my name, though, because the band members spent a lot of time doing fancy booty moves in swirly underpants – their myspace also makes them out to be a gay/cross-gender, but from I was standing, this wasn’t clear – people were helplessly drifting to this show – it was irresistible – but when the line of people waiting to get in or gawking over the fence started booty dancing too, it was hilarious, especially the pale little hipsters – one drunk party girl was trying to get in with her smooth booty moves, it didn’t work – and the best best part was the sullen and uncomfortable long-haired old rocker monitoring the line – oh, I love it when cultures collide

[Puerto Rico] very nice sleazy garage punk

[Nashville, TN] psych rock n roll – sloppy rock n roll – we thought we were sitting next to a member of The Strange Attractors but it turned out he was a member of The Strange Boys which is perfect because this band was a little bit of both – they were also that dirty sort of rock n roll that I love (Vodka Tonic radio), maybe 70s post punk? – they were really good, although a little unpolished

[Austin, TX] this was an intentional sighting of a local band because they are always so professional and good – a blend of guitar rock, 60s soul, and moderate jam band – 2 horn guys, 2 guitars, and 2 drums, and they’re all enthused – they pulled out what looked like a cigarette for the last song which seemed perfectly fitting, but I think it was actually a blunt and a little NORML message

[Seattle, WA] I found them eh until they grew on me a little – they were so painfully white middle class – they had some Trail of Dead as well as power pop

[Atlanta, GA] Bruce Springsteen if he had Irish roots – they weren’t Irish but they had that pick up spirit – some 60s rock too – singer for the Barreracudas played guitar for them

[Chatsworth, CA] exuberant techno – one man behind the controls – he was good until he did a sunshiney song with electronic vocals – best part was when the crowd parted near me and everyone was staring at the ground – I got nervous someone was Down and was kind of tip-toeing to see what was going on – it was an exploding energy drink that all the boys were too scared to pick up

[San Francisco, CA] among the top three bands of SXSW 2011 (for me) – last year, the lead singer of The Magic Kids had a jacket on that said “Hunx and His Punx” but I thought he was referring to him and his band, turns out the Hunk is not him – it is a very fabulous thin boy in a moustache, cap, see-through leopard-print leggings, and a raggedy t-shirt – Rockboy had just told me he’d ran into one of the members of Operator Please, who had an outrageous blonde wig on, had dropped something, and then staggered up to stare meaningfully at Rockboy for way too many seconds – turns out it was actually Hunx: hipsters, they’re hard to tell apart – the lead singer was rock star outrageous, rolling around on the ground exposing his very exposed crotch (“I wear really pretty underwear”), and preening in front of male audience members – I don’t know if he was really drunk/high or putting on the sort of show that will make him famous, but his crew of 4 to 5 female guitarists/back up vocalists even seemed a little surprised – I would have just classified them as classic 60s rock with a male lead instead of a female lead, but Rockboy heard (and rightfully so) really gay Ramones, Redd Kross, and some Rocky Horror – he seems the sort of flame that will burn out fast if he doesn’t take care

[Oakland, CA] doo-wop stylings over punk rock – drum and slap guitar – raw 60s girl rock

[Brooklyn, NY] girl on keyboard – ah ah harmonizing between a girl and boy – pleasant dance rock – they weren’t an intentional see but they were good

[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

we were ‘treated’ to this band at a pitstop – I described them as “triumphant cacophony rock” and “introverted emo noodlers” in my notes but all I remember is a post-grunge haze – bad Rush and whiny guitars – the lead vocalist was particularly annoying with his incessant face contortions – I did enjoy the strip of flashing lights they had set up at the back of their stage, and the stiff stern dark-haired girl in green semi-lingerie playing bass (I could just tell she loves math) – Rockboy thought they sounded like Hot Hot Heat and liked them a lot more than I did

[Los Angeles, CA] real punk is pretty hard to come by during SXSW so this was a welcome relief of a show – as it turns out, it looks like this band was not an official SXSW showcase band (we were led here by ThinLizzyLover) – sounded British, the sing-along drunk type punk – the leader singer was just perfect: he’d have these little moments of insecurity and then he was back to being in the audience’s face and yelling “fucking hipster prick” – Rockboy was excited when they covered a Test Tube Babies song and would officially call them “street punk” – in an example of how they blended fuck-you-ness with charming earnestness, the lead singer wept to the side at one point, “If we just make one person happy…”

[Austin, TX] nooo!!! – if I’d known they were local, I wouldn’t have allowed this stop – as it turns out, they were one of my top three bands of SXSW 2011 (yay Austin!): everything good about the 70s – and they must have emerged from the womb arena rockers, because I swear the lights got brighter the second they came on stage – they started with a slow southern rocker but pretty quickly shifted into very very exciting disco rock – they were slick and sexy – kind of remind me of Chili Cold Blood now that I think of it, though bigger and prettier – ThinLizzyLover: “I hate them and like them”

[New York, NY] we walked 3 miles uphill in snow to see this band because Rockboy and ThinLizzyLover know the bass player from Las Vegas when they were all young high school lads – it was a grey-topped crowd of former bad boys – he was a harmless singer/songwriter type who told lots of stories

[Queensland, Australia] they were exciting right from the start with their 3 excruciatingly pretty boys (guitars and drum), 1 gothic-looking two-dimensional female fiddler, and 1 three-dimensional Hawaiian-looking female vocalist with a pom pom on her shoulder – the vocalist ruled the stage as did her bad-ass fiddler pal – she fiddled like the she was trying not to make a deal with the devil – they were some crazy mix of indie rock and dance music – they made me think of The Gossip and The Eurythmics – they’re kind of 80s synth pop too – I’m definitely not one to dance but this band made me wish I was in a room alone with a gay boyfriend – ThinLizzyLover is mad for them

[Knoxville, TN] DRUMS – and keyboards, guitar,… – emphatic power pop along with some airy guitar sheen – Rockboy described them as early Flaming Lips, Dodos (once they brought out an additional tom drum), and post-apocalyptic rockabilly (he may have been over-exciting himself at this point) – rotating singers – I starred them because they stood out, despite being indie rockers, among the sea of indie rock and indie pop that is SXSW, and they were not bad

[New York, NY] skinny white man on an acoustic guitar with a butter voice – accompanied by an electric bass, trombone, drums, and sometimes a sax – but then he was more soulful angsty as was the music – and then they were a band for children (“I don’t want to go to the candy store anymore”), sure, it was about how at least he’s addicted to candy instead of auto asphyxiation, etc., but as far as the me and the kids in the audience were concerned, they were one of those bands musicheads go to once they have kids and can’t stay out late – the two really little boys at the next table to me were loving it – the one who was about 5 was all rapt attention and shiny eyes, obviously in total agreement about the lure of candy stores – the other one, maybe 8, was practicing piano scales with his fingers on the table – Rockboy liked this band a lot more than I did, but they were high quality and diverse at least

[London, UK] clean funky guitars – verocious drums – slightly distorted female vocals, thought she was Siouxsie but she’s either happier or angrier – little bit of afro pop, little bit of Slits post-punk – good energy – quite liked them