Austin, baby!

 

Day One. Today we made sure my charts were acceptable and introduced ourselves to Keanu. Mark played a 19th century pump organ. Bad scratch vocals from me (but that’s why they call them scratch.) Made phone contact with Mr. Andrew Hardin, who will be in on Friday. MOTHERF%^&*R, this is fun!

 

Mark and Tommy on a quest for the perfect reverb…

Okay, this came out kind of blurry, but did you know you can get a massage at the Whole Foods? (Just in case you are too overwhelmed by the twenty seven kinds of olives.)

Crosstown from Whole Foods to the hotel, the Capitol looks lovely…

And now I’ve had my Cola-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Grilled Asparagus with a an engaging little Zinfandel and am watching Leno in prime time – I think it’s pretty good! Everything’s pretty good! Early to bed because tomorrow we’ve got Chris Maresh coming in on bass and more drum tracks from Mark. Tomorrow we will become Compartmentalized and will take a fresh look at a lesser-known Bob Seger classic. Yay!

(Some of this post is code to get you excited about the upcoming album…)

Greetings from Austin – it’s 3 am…so far: Alejandro Escovedo, James Intveld, Bonnie Bramlett, Daniel Lanois, Lou Reed, Martha Wainwright, Johnette Napolitano. Ehhhhh….

My last post was March 21st, and I promised lots of SXSW lowdown. But does anyone care anymore about my sharp cultural observations (as if they did before)? I want to live in the now.

Here are teeniest little ducks that my daughter Stella spotted in the “ocean” at Disney’s California Adventure. They were literally the size of a walnut.

Here’s a picture of the choir at the recording session for Julie Christensen’s killer song “Rapture Index=0,” from her new album. What a rockin’ song, and it’s going to be a great, very political album.

And, finally, here’s a group shot of the fabulous “Repeat Offenders: Dirty Girls Come Clean” show at Theater 150.

Here’s the lowdown on sxsw music festival. My lowdown on the conference will come next.

I saw 30 or so bands (which is just over 2% of the total number of bands showcasing!) at SXSW, as well as several unofficial shows. I missed some things everyone was talking about (of course), but all in all I’d say I did okay, both in diversity and quantity of acts seen.

Okay, starting with the LEAST indie, least unknown first: let me just say that with his porn star-looking wife writhing around onstage and his silver lamé pants, Perry Farrell is a showman in the grand tradition of Freddy Mercury and David Bowie. You know you’re not watching yet another earnest hipster indie rock band when he waves his arm across the crowd and says: “You all look so ravishing! I just want to grab you by the hair and…” (okay, you get the idea). And quite a breathtaking striped sweater. Maybe it was my mood, but i loved it.

Rickie Lee performed a few shows, as well as sat for an interview during the conference. The show I caught was on the last day, an afternoon thing at the convention center where they were broadcasting live for Direct TV. It was a set designed to look like a club. They had two: the “Bat Bar” and the “Lone Star Lounge” or something. Anyway, her band was really tight and she was in a good mood. She said, “this has turned out to be a lot of fun for me. There should just be more food for when you’re walking down the street at 2 am after your show and you’re drunk…we need more food for the people.” She was focused and beautiful and when she wailed “Do you know my name? Do you know my name?” it was an anthem for all of the hopeful souls trying to be heard in Austin last week. I was crying, but that’s not rare.

I saw Kaki King, who was amazing. She performs these weird percussive things and then loops them and it’s fiddle and guitar and very interesting. Andrew Bird does something along those lines but with a band and with his surreal, ethereal lyrics. At one point he introduced the song “Plasticities,” and the guy behind me yelled “Plasticities!” like it was “Freebird.” Funny! And then talked throughout the whole song.

Martha Wainwright is some kind of otherworldly creature – so charming and lovely and sexy and talented – something in the Wainwright/McGarrigle DNA is more talented than the rest of us humans. She’s a timeless performer, which was refreshing because quite a few of the bands I saw were completely of the moment – a moment that will pass.

They weren’t on the official SXSW showcase list, but I had a blast watching the Lonesome Spurs at Hole in the Wall. They are the duo of Lynda Kay Parker and Danny B. Harvey – he plays rockabilly lead guitar and she plays rhythm, sings and a Samsonite suitcase kick drum. Very fun. Plus – it turns out that Danny B used to tour with Nancy Sinatra, and they played the song “Kind of a Woman” that my mom wrote.

Okay – gotta get the kids to bed and will post more soon.

An opportunity at SXSW that I chose not to pursue.