SXSW: march 18, thursday daytime

I was working the ascap booth at the trade show during the day but my lovely friends would come visit me and keep me company.... Tom! Jo! Mike and jared and byron from winter pageant! Thanks so much for coming by for the free beer. I also randomly talked to the guys from the national, who were supernice! I gave them all beers. I also chatted with keith girard, the eic of billboard. He asked me what the hot shows of the night were and I of course raved about the walkmen, and I told him he missed the amazing cass mcccombs. And I told him about a band called I love you but I've chosen darkness. Best band name ever. They are from austin and are phenomenal. See my photos and write up below...


the pleased @ the fader/levis party
Before that I was with jo jo at the fader levis party to see the pleased, a band from san francisco. The girl in the band was absent and I forget why -- but they were still really good. I just love the way the music felt like drugs were surging thru my brain. I swear it wasn't the free red stripe. Their music just wooshes and unfurls like a trippy kaleidoscope.

SXSW: march 18, thursday night

robbers on high street
i also decided to see robbers on high street with jo jo. now i have to say they didn't impress me much the first time i saw them, but i decided to give them a second chance because i find that bands tend to get better over time... and robbers have definitely improved their stage charisma tenfold. i really liked the last song of their set... don't know what it's called but if any of you can enlighten me, please do!! is it on a record or what? i couldn't stay for the sounds because it was beginning to remind me of the nightmare experience of seeing them at luxx -- crowded, smoky and sweaty. i jetted out of that joint and wandered over to try and see stellastarr* -- tom was supposed to be over there.


i love you but i've chosen darkness
on the way, i ran into the winter pageant boys who were standing in line to see i love you but i've chosen darkness. so i stood with them for a while because i heard that the line for ss* and ambulance was too insane to even attempt. so tom met up with us at red eye fly to see chosen darkness. everybody's been raving about this band like crazy. and i hear the bbc did a huge write-up of the band as well. they are going to be huge!! their songs were so moody in an upbeat way. it made me feel like i was soaring and diving into something quite extraordinary...

Check these dudes out. Met their manager thru daniel. She was a total sweetheart, and I could tell she felt the same way about her band as I did with dirty on purpose. Its nice to see that. I was also at the show with tom, mike and byron. We were all floored. This band made my jaw drop. I can't wait for them to come to nyc. Nota bene: aurelio from calla was there too. along with chris newmyer from self starter and corey from absolutely kosher records.


modey lemon @ beerland
Then we couldn't get in to see the walkmen (when i ran into peter later, he said not even people from warner bros could get into the show -- uh, that's crazy!!) so we went to see modey lemon, who were surprisingly fun to watch.... Actually the asian dude with the bleached hair who was rocking/making love to the guitarist was fun to watch. They thrash their hair around a lot and the music was much like that. I liked the venue b/c it was called beerland and had empty prescription pill bottles on fish nets on the wall. I drank vodka and red bull to keep me awake. I was still not anywhere near drunk so I think my tolerance was way up... Tom left and told us to call him when we left for the next show.

the stills @ emo's
So then we went to emos to see the stills. Daniel had a special pass that gets u into the venue through the back way. It was funny. I felt like we were incognito celebs sneaking in the back way to avoid the papparazzi. We met up with tom there. We were so tired we sat on the bleachers, but ended up leaving halfway thru the stills set b/c of utter exhaustion.


dinner with ma' peeps @ iron cactus
Earlier in the night I had arranged an amazing dinner at iron cactus for mexican food with jennifer from the ascap l.a. office, jojo, tom, justin and jack from bishop allen, mike and jared from winter pageant, and jennifer's friend brian, who books at the knitting factory l.a.


It was a lot of fun just hanging and getting to know each other a little better. Tom said the table was full of jin's friendsters! So true! It was funny and bizarre how friendster is in our normal lexicon.







We ran into ultragrrrl at the restaurant. She is one of the coolest chicks in the music scene (besides the obvious other queens of nyc, you know who u are) and always friendly. an entire table applauded her when she walked in and she did a little curtsy. Word!