Blogs

So the South by folks have been posting some pretty great-lookin' vids of various performances from last week. If you check their YouTube channel, you'll find (in addition to the above JTE performance) some impressive footage of Dinosaur Jr., Bishop Allen, Parenthetical Girls and more. They also have film trailers and all sorts of interviews. Prepare for a totally awesome time-suck.

Whether you made it out to Austin last week or not, you're probably still sick of hearing about SXSW by now. Frankly, after being in the hot, sweaty, windy, sun-soaked, beer-flooded, BBQ-flavored midst of it for a week, I'm pretty much over talking about it myself. My liver feels as if it could fail me any minute, my ankles and kneecaps as if someone took a crowbar to them last night. Though, I did pledge attempts at covering it for the Cream, other obligations left me spread a little too thin to actually make it happen in real time. . Only just now in the wake of it all have I had a moment of clarity and spare time to reflect on it all.

Outside Cedar Street Courtyard trying to see Peter, Bjorn and John.

Friday night, we hit Cedar Street Courtyard in the hopes of catching Peter, Bjorn and John and '90s holdovers Dinosaur Jr. When we turned the corner, we saw a mass of people gathered around in no discernible order. If you've been to SXSW, you know all about the crazy swarms of people and the line fascism and the subsequent Badge Envy, but if you haven't, allow me to explain.

Hot Leg? Hot Ass!

We hit the Village Voice day party to catch a little bit of the moody/pleasant rock of Meese along with some sweet fajitas, and we were only at the Next Big Nashville day party long enough to catch some tuning up in between acts, but that's because we managed to finagle some Spin Magazine invite-only laminates, and we wanted to catch Boston's Passion Pit, Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins' new outfit Hot Leg and maybe a little of Echo and the Bunnymen. So it was off to Stubb's to clamor along with other badge-holders for a glimpse of what's typically though of as a must-attend party. But we're in a recession folks.

Playing tonight at SXSW?!?!??!?!

Those of us who missed out on the secret Metallica show at the Basement back in June, and who are in Austin tonight, may be in luck. Everyone is reporting that the metal gods are playing SXSW tonight at BBQ joint Stubb's. The official schedule says tonight at 10 p.m. is the Guitar Hero Metallica Madness Competition, where eight finalists battle out playing what someone has called the "ridiculously difficult" new Guitar Hero: Metallica game, out March 29. But next on the schedule after the competition says "Volsung" from "Somewhere, Norway," and the following act isn't on until 12:20 a.m.

Hanging out at Stubb's today for the Spin Magazine party, we noticed several white road cases from sidestage with Metallica stenciled on them, so something's definitely going on. But then a blogger nearby told us they heard James Hetfield would not be present. Perhaps the winner of the competition will simply be backed by Metallica sans Hetfield? Who knows. We're getting in line early to try to check it out, but we can't promise anything.

Scott Carney from Wax Fang.

We hit the Side Bar right on time to find Wax Fang running a few minutes late. Which was good, because it gave us lots of time to drink the free Lonestars on draft. When Wax Fang kicked off their anthemic, epic rock, it occurred to me that I've never seen a bad Wax Fang show. Every performance I've seen, whether it's at an in-store or a venue, has been one confident ass-handing to whatever poor souls have to follow them. This one was no different, but it was only a handful of songs, so it was over in a flash. It was time for night time debauchery, and by 'debauchery' I simply mean more mustaches and very, very long lines.

See Steve Cross's Day 2 slideshows here, here & here.

Bloggers in the wild.

The whole thing about SXSW is that the day parties are free and often have free food and booze, so it's critical to get up early and mooch like you've never mooched before. Yesterday, there wasn't so much as a free breakfast taco to be found. So this morning, I got up early-early enough to catch a blogger panel called "Bloggers Are Now in Charge" featuring Nashville's own Janet Timmons from Out the Other, Glenn Peoples from Coolfer as well as the dudes from Brooklyn Vegan and Aquarium Drunkard. Blogging about blogging is so meta you guys, but the panel was cool because it looked at the unique position bloggers are still in to be tastemakers while maintaining their own independence and street cred. But then it was time to hit the streets to find tunes and booze, hopefully the free kind.

While you're at it, check out photos from Steve Cross's slideshow. More goodness after the jump.

"I, too, think highly of Guns N' Roses, Budweiser guy!"

So for all you Nashvillians trotting about in Austin (and those of you stuck here, like me) who want to keep up with Middle Tennessee's most beloved Beatles-esque circus popsters, peep this: WhereAreTheFeatures.com. The site, powered by both Tumblr and Jonathan Kingsbury, keeps track of The Features (well...cardboard depictions of them, anyhow) as they get their "South by" on. Keep an eye on the site to see what the boys and their paper doppelgangers are up to. Here are their dates for the remainder of the week:

Tonight: Next Big Nashville Showcase at Maggie Mae's Gibson Room, 8 p.m.
3/20: The Tap Room at Six Lounge: T(ea) for Tennessee Day Party, 4 p.m.
3/21: The Troubadour Saloon: Give More Love Party, 2 p.m.

The ladies of Bitch Magazine.

So it's the first day of the SXSW music fest extravaganza orgy, and we kicked it off by rolling up to Mohawk on Red River to try to catch local songstress Caitlin Rose. The door guy said both stage's sets were running about half an hour behind (thanks, dude) so we used the time to head next door to the Bitch Magazine party at Club Deville, where Paper Chase were onstage rocking their rap-leaning, white-boy rock.

All photos by Lance McDonald. More after the jump.