Articles

Wed 16 Mar – SXSW 2011

Wednesday
Information Society - Dimitri and co were a blast
Low - at St. David's Church - definitely a religious experience. Incredibly loud, incredibly gorgeous
Thursday
Full Metal Texas:
Goes Cube - unlike last year, they had an audience this year. Played new stuff from their recent EP's.
Kvelertak - ohmygod - party and a fucking half. jesus. brilliant
Hull - slow sludgey stuff like this pretty much always works for me on some level. really solid set.
The Funeral Pyre - last minute replacement for Rwake - I had associated them as equally as fast+thrashy as Landmine Marathon, since they did a split EP together recently, but this set was more than half breakdown/buildup, and had an excellent atmosphere of impending facemelting (which it did deliver, in incredible bursts).
Trap Them - seen 'em twice now. still don't get it
YOB - 4 songs in 40 minutes - exactly as amazing as I was hoping for - heavy as fucking hell and psyched out
Wizard Rifle - unexpected awesomeness of this year's sxsw: 2 young guys, energetic as hell, proggy, and awesome riffs
Agalloch - it's amazing to hear such beautiful, densely layered music performed in person by just 4 people. I feel like anything else I would try to say about it would diminish it. They disclaimered the show by saying they wouldn't have fog or incense, but the clouds rushing by overhead more than made up the atmosphere.
The Joy Formidable - I need new adjectives for these guys - shoegaze is a part of what they do on record, dream pop too - but live they're a fucking beast - it's a super-high-energy rock show, which is not something you'd think for those genres. amazing.
Celldweller - I've only been listening to Klayton's stuff for 15 years, 'bout time I got around to seeing him, eh? No mics for the drums, so it was basically just him and Blue Stahli rocking out, on a very tiny stage. The projector and the matching keyboards and effects ... thingies... were there, but on such a tiny stage it's difficult to imagine much else going on. highest energy and most crowd involvement of any show at sxsw for me this year.
Eksi Ekso - they played from their new album, which is a lot heavier, more varied, and more upfront (less atmospheric) than their first one.

I've already forgotten a bunch, I might as well start a list somewhere, before I lose any more. As of posting, there's 250.

Most seen band (6 or 7 times, lost track): Chevelle

5 times: Dredg, Opeth

4 times: Mates of State, High On Fire, Why?

3 times: Cake, Spoon,Bride, Ume, Tub Ring, Mucca Pazza, Shearwater, Voxtrot, Lucky Boys Confusion, Newsboys, Stars, Orphaned Land, Skeletonwitch, Coheed and Cambria, Eagle Claw, Converge, The Appleseed Cast,

Twice: In Flames, Arcade Fire, Mastodon, Tegan and Sara, The Sword, Cut Chemist,The Dresden Dolls, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Dream Theater, Clouds, Torche, Ruby Isle, Jucifer, Melvins, Jens Leckman, DeVotchKa, Basia Bulat, Dethklok, Wolf Parade, Pinback, Kylesa, The Weird Weeds, Týr, SuidAkrA, ASG, Burst, Laura Viers, The Octopus Project, Coalesce, Vesperian Sorrow, Between the Buried and Me, Voivod, Darkest Hour, My Education, Enon, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Used, The Black Angels, Goes Cube, Trap Them, YOB, The Roller, Wolves in the Throne Room, Katatonia,

Once: Primus, DJ Z-Trip, Prefuse 73, Four Tet, Battles, Deerhunter, Menomena, Iron & Wine, Death From Above 1979, Tortoise, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Lacuna Coil, The Album Leaf, Mirah, Ingrid Michaelson, Mike Keneally, Agents of Good Roots, DJ Shadow, Kid Koala, Katzenjammer, The Bird and The Bee, A Storm of Light, Handsome Furs, Tombs, The Rosebuds, Kittens Ablaze, Cloud Cult, Asobi Seksu, Department of Eagles, Tomahawk, Incubus, System of a Down, Mr. Bungle, Mi Ami, All the Saints, The Forms, The Gaslight Anthem, Tori Amos, Little Boots, Datarock, Roky Erickson, Okkerville River, Division Day, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Stephen Brodsky, David Bazan, Cassettes Won't Listen, Cloud Cult, Goat the Head, Ghostland Observatory, Megadeth, Children of Bodom, Mindless Self Indulgence, Dog Fashion Disco, Boris, Tilly And The Wall, Intronaut, Mouth of the Architect, Behold... the Arctopus, Lions of Tsavo, Rise Thy Ruin, Mount Erie, Fleet Foxes, Nachtmystium, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Big Business, Oh No! Oh My!, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Alestorm, The Handsome Family, Neko Case, Amon Amarth, Goatwhore, Ladytron, The Faint, Chicha Libre, Dengue Fever, Judgement Day, Flight of the Conchords, Enslaved, Black Moth Super Rainbow, School of Seven Bells, Galactic Cowboys, Bat for Lashes, Gojira, Zoroaster, Pack of Wolves, The Decemberists, Sunny Day Real Estat, Islands, Toro Y Moi, Moonspell, Secrets of the Moon, Divine Heresy, Young Widows, Russian Circles, Fucked Up, Face to Face, Health, Lucero, Crystal Castles, of Montreal, Danzig, Soilent Green, The xx. Metric, Korpiklaani, Devin Townsend Project, Cynic, iwrestledabearonce, Black Tusk, Rural Alberta Advantage, Titus Andronicus, Tobacco, Courtyard Hounds, An Horse, Holy Fuck, U.S. Christmas, Doomriders, Arsis, The Riot Before, Thrice, The Sour Notes, Tapes N' Tapes, Circa Survive, Relative Ash, Interpol, The Mars Volta, Local H, Cursive, Van Halen, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Tourniquet, Scaterd Few, Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, Deftones, Bridge and Tunnel, Eagles of Death Metal, Jimmy Gnecco, Fair To Midland, Saviour Machine, Filter, Jimmy Eat World, Sparta, Paul Oakenfold, Red Sparrows, Swashbuckle, White Wizzard, Black Cobra, Bison B.C., Alien Ant Farm, Staind, Godsmack, Jenny Lewis, Rilo Kiley, Chimaira, The Smoking Popes, Guardian, Ben Folds Five,Gratitude, Nevermore, Swallow The Sun, Land of Talk, Suuns, Sig Transit Gloria, Triptykon, 1349, Yakuza, Withered, Landmine Marathon, Eluveitie, 3 Inches of Blood, Absu, Immortal, Emilie Autumn, Low, Kvelertak, Hull, The Funeral Pyre, Wizard Rifle, Agalloch, The Joy Formidable, Celldweller, Eksi Ekso, Amber Asylum, Make Do and Mend, Acrassicauda, Touche Amore, KEN mode, Ecocide, Deafheaven, Revocation, Dark Castle, Queensryche, Megaton Leviathan, Sabaton, Blackguard

Wed 13 Jan – Between the Buried and Me, Cynic, Devin Townsend Project, Scale The Summit

In Brief:

Scale the Summit - Missed most of their set, but the new album is fantastic, and what I heard was pretty solid

Devin Townsend Project - Man, what a goofball. Tried to sing the female leads from the new album, which he was amazing at, but apparently not satisfied. So on the second chorus, he sang a goofy bit about testicles. It was an awesome little bit, but if you're looking for extra-serious, color-by-numbers technical wizardry, he's having a bit too much fun for that. I thought it was fun and funny and awesome, though.

Cynic - I don't really have words to describe how amazing Cynic was. The set leaned heavily towards Traced in Air, which, while Focus may be the great watershed album, TiA has definitely earned a rightful place in their sets, and in 00's metal in general.

Between the Buried and Me - after 3 bands of naval gazing prog, and the associated fans, BTBAM took the stage and turned the place into every bad metalcore cliche. Whitechapel logos, hardcore dancing, general awfulness. I watched a couple songs and left. I like their music, but their fans I can do without.

I kinda wish the pit during Cynic's set had lasted longer than just the first half of Veil of Maya, but with what the crowd turned into later, maybe that wouldn't have been a good thing. Still, 3 excellent sets. I'll just continue to enjoy BTBAM in the privacy of my headphones.

Going numerically by listens (with albums not released in 2009 removed) produces a pretty reasonable list, I'd say that the first 5 are indeed my top 5. Further down the list, albums that I obsessed over a couple songs off of(Queensryche), get higher placement, and of course Prefuse73 gets a boost for having a lot of short tracks, so here's my normalised list in descending order:

format:
Normalised Position (Original Position +/-Normalisation). Artist - Album (play count)

1. dredg - The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (400)


2. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns (189)


3. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs (141)


4 (12 +7). Isis - Wavering Radiant (85)


5 (19 +13). Sólstafir - Köld (75)


6. Queensrÿche - American Soldier (104)
7 (4 -6). The Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning (137)
8 (25 +14). Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist
9 (5 *). Kittens Ablaze - The Monstrous Vanguard (128)
10 (11 -2). Kylesa - Static Tensions (94)
11 (+18). Mastodon - Crack the Skye
12 (13 -4). Baroness - Blue Record (83)
13 (13 -5). Thursday - Common Existence (83)
14 (18 -1). ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - The Century of Self (78)
15 (15 *). 16 - Bridges To Burn (82)
16 (19 *). Týr - By The Light Of The Northern Stār (75)
17 (+12). Nahemah - A New Constellation
18 (+4). Metric - Fantasies
19 (+17). Silversun Pickups - Swoon
20 (+11). Ephel Duath - Through My Dog's Eyes
(7 -30). Prefuse 73 - Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian (121)

* Not Normalised (bad album ID)



Obviously the math doesn't add up for most of the albums, due to the removal of pre-2009 albums (of which there actually weren't that many).

EP's get pretty well screwed by tagging/album ID's/fewer tracks, so here's a manual list of the best of those:

1. The Joy Formidable - A Boat Called Moaning (actually got listed)
2. ASG/Blacktusk - Low Country (gets split into 3 albums in my charts)
3. Ume - Sunshower
4. Cave In - Planets of Old
5. Caïna - Caïna MCD

A couple of albums were substantially hurt by my listening to them on vinyl:
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love - bought it on vinyl ahead of its actual release, and a lot of the listens were on elvesoncrack's computer/profile.

Notes:

1,2,3: Totally unaffected by normalisation, which makes sense, since those were the only 3 that I was sure of their value before even looking at charts.

6: Queensryche's whole album is not that great. there's 3-4 songs in the middle that are great. I would not have said that I liked the album that much, but I guess I did listen to it a lot.

11/12: Crack the Skye is a step down from Blood Mountain, Blue Record is a MASSIVE step up from Red Album. I have no doubt that in a few weeks Blue Record will outpace Crack the Skye.

Fri 13 Nov – Adult Swim Presents: Metalocalypse’s Dethklok, Mastodon, Converge, and High on Fire

Despite loving Converge intensely for 5+ years, every one of their tours has coincided with something I absolutely couldn’t get out of, or with me being out of the country. Last night I finally broke that streak.

I nearly missed them this time, too, since apparently “doors at 6” meant “High On Fire at 6:20”, or High on Fire played a 20 minute set. or both. Anyway, I walked in right as Converge were starting, so I was farther back than I’d planned.

I’m not normally emotional about shows, and certainly large (2.700+) shows are usually less engaging. So it was shocking to me, just how affecting it was when they broke into Last Light. When the whole floor was screaming along to “This. Is. For. The Hearts. Still. BEATING! BEATING! BEATING! BEATING!” I lost it. Tears in my eyes and everything. You Fail Me is my sad music, but I didn’t really expect it to be that way wtih other people in the room. I’ve gotten chills from the music, at shows before, but this was communion on a wholly other level.

It was refreshing also, after seeing Coalesce at funfunfunfest basically deal entirely in noise and chaotic spasms, seeing Kurt Ballou play so incredibly tightly and adeptly. Really, Bannon exudes enough energy/spit/sweat for the whole band, but even Ballou does his share of tricks, even playing with his guitar held over his head.

Mastodon was the 3rd show I've seen this year of an album played through live (c.f. Kylesa, The Decemberists). It was a huge contrast to their set at Pitchfork a couple of years ago. Where that show was handily the highest intensity of the festival, this was a much more prog-nerdy, intentional affair. Certainly the accompanying video changes the way the audience is involved in the show as well, but it's strange to see a band that had such stage presence 2 years ago, standing stock still. And to see Brent Hinds, formerly referred to by security dudes as "the guy who does the smurf vocals", now wielding a double-necked guitar.

As for the set itself, Crack the Skye is what it is. Starts off with 2 great songs, moves through a few longwinded but really good songs, and then devolves into self-indulgence. After the album, they played one song from each of their 4 previous albums. Heavier songs that brought the energy level back up, but deep cuts and still without any stage banter.

I'm probably making this sound unnecessarily harsh - I enjoyed the show a lot, it was just very reserved.

Dethklok Is still made up of Mike Keneally and Gene Hoglan, which is an amazing thing to behold. I didn't stay too long into their set, though, as they played a lot of the same songs and clips from last time I saw them.

Fri 6 Nov – Night Eternal Above America tour

Secrets of the Moon - The reason I was willing to drive to San Antonio - did not disappoint, with their weird discordant atmosphere, and unrelenting, shapeshifting metal.

Divine Heresy - Dino Cezares does not disappoint, those nimble fingers are amazing. It's a shame I hate their songs/singer so much, and that their emotion is such bland testosterone rage.

Moonspell - I wasn't really sure whether I liked moonspell or not. There seem to be wildly varied opinions about them in the metal world at large. I dunno, I guess I have a soft spot for gothy doomy metal that doesn't overdo it. I liked the show a lot.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Fest 2009

Young Widows - I missed Coliseum, but for as much as I like Coliseum's nuanced songwriting, Young Widows are much more varied, and had really memorable songs. I need to pay them more attention.

Foot Patrol - Silly songs about foot fetishism. You kinda wonder why the singer doesn't sing in a more well known band, though. His range is pretty solid.

Russian Circles - 3rd time's a charm. Finally got to see them, and they didn't disappoint. They led with Harper Lewis and Station, which already made my show.

After that, we skipped to Frank for some dogs and cocktails.

Ssion - for stumbling randomly onto a blue stage show of a band we'd never heard of, they were pretty damn fun. dancy and silly.

Death - Reunion shows of bands that you've never been into are hard to appreciate.

Yeasayer - Really excellent show. I've only flirted with listening to them, mostly on the back of Bat For Lashes' new album. They were definitely one of the better shows of the day, though.

Fucked Up - I ran over for a brief bit, and their show was absolutely as crazy as I'd heard their shows are. Their frontman cracked jokes about anti-anxiety meds and Eyehategod, and there was a ton of crowd surfing and general shirtless chaos.

Shearwater - I love Shearwater, so it was easy to choose to skip the end of Yeasayer to see them(him), but it was kinda the wrong choice. Very odd set, much more noisy than the other 1.2 times I've seen him this year.

Face to Face - lots of crowd heckling, as usual, but they put on a fun show, of what I heard.

Ratatat - long sound check, but sounded good after they got started. Opted to head to Mohawk for the option of sitting down/air conditioning/cheap beer.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Afterparty

Twin Tigers - Fast and punky, definitely enjoyed their set. Will have to check them out.

The Octopus Project - Oh my god. I'd listened to them a little, but on record they come across much more chilled. The show was really energetic and electro, vs. the weird organic sounds on their albums.

Voxtrot - lovely as always.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 2

Why? - The show was good, they played well, and it was a setlist full of songs I like. The rain definitely dampened it, though.

Coalesce - It's hard to say whether the sound peaking and distorting helped or hurt their set. After seeing so many metal shows, I'm used to being blown away by precision, rather than blasted with noise and emotion. With the downpour, though, it was hard to really get into the mood for that sort of chaos.

We took a quick run to Target for ponchos and dry/warm clothes at this point.

Health - Fortunately, the blue stage was running behind, so we walked in just as they were soundchecking. It amazes me that they would use guitars to control the sounds that they produce. I don't know if that's something they do live, or if they actually make the albums that way. Definitely left them room to spazz out and be awesome, though.

Lucero - we found our way to the front-ish during lucero's set, so we could be close for the following shows on the orange stage. I dunno, lucero is ok in small doses - their songs kinda run together even during a short 40 minute set.

Crystal Castles - The shoving and umbrella waving was too much to deal with, so we backed out of the crowd after lucero, and watched CC from farther up the hill. That was definitely the way to do it, their light show is more than their stage presence, they played mostly in darkness, occassionally silhouetted against their lights.

of Montreal - Oh my god, the costumes, the weird videos, the awesome lyrics, the ninja dancers. So much awesome.

Danzig - I had to, just because I probably wouldn't see him any other way, now that his band isn't really a band any more, it's just whoever can put up with him. I caught Twist of Cain, and some glimpses of his skin tight shirt, and called it good.

Tue 29 Sep – Burst, Zoroaster, Pack of Wolves, Baron Grod

After Linus' comments in Houston about their previous headlining set being to a crowd of thirteen people, I was concerned that the Austin show would be sad. Fortunately, crustcake gave it a mention, and Red7's been advertising it through their own channels.

Local Openers Baron Grod reminded me that instru-post-metal still exists, despite it really not being my thing. Pack of Wolves were next, local black metal-ish, not bad, I'll probably see them again, they're on a bunch of bills. Zoroaster, man, what the hell. During the first few bands, Brent was talking to Linus(Burst) about how shitty their manager was. I heard him ranting about it again to some local guy later. They got up and played their set, which was a little more to the noisy drone side of doom than is to my liking, but was good enough. Halfway through, though, Brent got pissed off at something, and just took off his bass and wandered off, leaving just guitar and drums to finish the set. WTF.

Zoroaster encouraged the crowd to stay for Burst, but that really wasn't a concern. I was proud of Austin for turning out in solid numbers to see them off. Linus and company seemed genuinely shocked by the Austin crowd’s enthusiasm. I was definitely not the only person who new every stop, start, and lyric. Their set was only a small expansion from their set opening for Gojira - substituting Nineteenhundred for Cripple God, and a couple other changes. We refused to let them off lightly, though, and demanded they keep playing until nearly 2AM. They finally ended on Sculpt the Lives, which was a fitting end.


Fri 2 Oct – The Decemberists, Laura Veirs & The Hall of Flames
Laura Veirs was adorable, playing a bunch of new stuff from her forthcoming July Flame album, which is pretty good.

The Decemberists came out and played Hazards Of Love straight through (second time seeing an album played that way in a month, natch) with Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond. Amazingly, after the hour-long album, plus the completely amazing rocked out cover of Crazy On You, they took a break, and came back out for almost another hour. Colin's banter was lovely as always. They fairly deliberately avoided Castaways and Cutouts, which was kinda lame, as lame as anything could be after a 2 hour show and the whole of Hazards of Love, which is not lame at all.

Wed 7 Oct – Sunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate played a set almost entirely from their first 2 albums, with a couple songs from How It Feels, 1 new song, which was awesome, and none from The Rising Tide. It's kinda funny to see their setup, they had half a dozen guitars each, waiting in the wings. but Dan has exactly 2 pedals. Compared to burst, where Robert plays seated and barefoot so that he can manage his myriad pedals, it's a bit odd.

Sun 27 Sep – Gojira, Burst, Zoroaster

So, I'm probably seeing Burst and Zoroaster again tonight in Austin, but I drove to Houston to catch the show with Gojira.

I got there late, just barely in time for the opening note of (We Watched) The Silver Rain. Burst only got to play about 6 songs, which meant it was a setlist pretty well packed with their best songs. I'm looking forward to seeing them play a longer set, though.

Gojira, the reason I drove 3 hours, started out slow. I've disparaged The Way of All Flesh before, and that criticism still applies. I love From Mars to Sirius, though, and a couple of songs off the new one. Unfortunately, all those songs were packed at the end of their set. I could've gone for a smoke for the first half of the set if I wouldn't have lost my spot.

The end of the set, though, the songs finally caught up to the energy that they were putting out onstage. These guys definitely put on an arena sized effort the whole time, despite the small size of Warehouse live (relatively). The tied definitely turned for the rest of the crowd as well, by the opening of Vacuity, the crowd was one big shouting, shoving, surfing mass.