Spent the afternoon on the floor of the SXSW tradeshow with industry folks. I gotta say that it was more than a bit irksome to see the oversized Sound Exchange booth handing out all sorts of swag to people. If they can do that now, imagine the extravagance once they have 10x the royalties from internet radio. But I'm not going to get off on that rant right now. Instead I'd like to encourage you to visit another group that I met with yesterday, the folks from Digital Freedom. These guys are trying to get the independent artists and consumers together under the idea that maybe (just maybe) the record companies aren't acting in either of our best interests as they represent the music industry to our lawmakers. Please go out to their website and sign their online petition.
Musically, in all honesty, I've been underwhelmed so far. Yesterday, we got to see Pete Townshend (being indulgently Pete Townshend), Elvis Perkins, Cold War Kids, The Dears, and Bloc Party. Once again, the early slot carried the day with a strong set from Perkins who is touring in support of his debut CD, Ash Wednesday. Perkins and his band had a loose confidence that suggested a much more mature artist. While the Cold War Kids were equally confident (perhaps they've read their own blog clippings?), their songs lacked focus and quality.
The Dears' set was one of the worst I've seen since... hey, could this be the same band that sucked the life out of me with their droning & indulgence performance back at B.D. Riley's back in 2002 as I waited to see the Sadies? I bit of Googling turned up a brief blurb in the Austin Chronicle and pictures from the performance. It WAS them... The band I promised myself to remember their name so that I would never see them again. I forgot. Damn. Well, last night's performance proved that they hadn't learned anything (or improved) over the past 5 years. They were still the droning indulgence that I'd grown to hate that night and just like then, they played long extended songs that went on and on without purpose (or end). And just like back then, they started a 10+ minute song when they should have been finishing up, blowing way past their scheduled end time. Think of the Dears as an unwanted house guest who overstayed their welcome. With guitars. Note to the Dears: When you end a set in front of a nearly packed Stubbs crowd to what could politely be called a smattering of applause, perhaps you need to re-consider your musical choices.
The night ended up with the UK's Bloc Party and borrowing from another Londoner, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. A tale of two bands, so to speak. The Silent Alarm material was taut, aggressive modern rock but the newer material from A Weekend in the City was limp mid-tempo disco at best. So for 20 minutes of the 70 minute set, I heard some of the best music I'm likely to hear all SXSW. But overall, the performance lacked the impact it could have had.
Summing up, here are the grades for yesterday's performances: Elvis Perkins B+, Pete Townshend B, Bloc Party B-, Cold War Kids C-, The Dears F... and for the record, here's Wednesday's grades: The Automatic A-, The Sunshine Underground B+, Blonde Redhead B, Lily Allen C, The Mountain Goats C, Jamie T D.
To give you a feel for the Perkins set, here's video of a recent show in NYC...
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