South by Southwest 2010: day one

Sharon Jones (Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

South by Southwest 2010 report

The bands, the parties, and all the buzz from Austin, Texas

Despite the music industry’s well-publicized woes, South by Southwest—its annual mix of conference, festival and spring break—shows no signs of slowing down. This year, the list of bands on the official schedule is longer than ever, topping out at close to 2,000—and judging from the line at the taxi queue outside the Hilton at 2 a.m., every one of them brought their manager, publicist, roadie, girlfriends/boyfriends and maybe a hanger-on or two. Between them and the throngs of college kids in St. Patrick’s Day attire, Austin is packed. If it was a club, the fire marshal would’ve shut it down hours ago.

SXSW attendees come from all over, but Internet hipster fashion now spreads so fast, it’s hard to shake the impression, as one publicist friend of mine tweeted on Wednesday, that “Brooklyn threw up on Austin.” So it was especially nice to start my annual pilgrimage to Austin at City Hall, where the mayor’s office was hosting a welcome party complete with tray-passed fried green tomatoes, cans of Lone Star and local bands sporting acoustic guitars and bolo ties instead of vintage synthesizers and skinny jeans. Now this was Texas!

But enough fried green tomatoes—on to the evening’s bands.

The Art of Shooting @ The Belmont (Manic Fest Destiny)

With a massive lineup of less well-known bands playing abbreviated sets on two stages over two days, the Manic Fest Destiny party was SXSW in microcosm—an endless parade of sink-or-swim moments for bands with names like City on the Make (an apt description for Austin this week), Only Living Boy and Dirty Sweet, playing to an industry-heavy crowd that was, for the most part, more interested in schmoozing than in rocking out.

Given this environment, the punky/poppy Brooklyn quartet called the Art of Shooting fared pretty well, managing to create a moody, 3 a.m. vibe even in Austin’s late afternoon sunshine. Heavy use of a smoke machine probably helped.

Dawes/Here We Go Magic @ Club de Ville (Brooklyn Vegan)

For any bands looking to book future SXSW showcases, here’s a tip: Avoid the 8 p.m. Wednesday set times at all costs. Los Angeles folk-rock quartet Dawes did the best they could on Club de Ville’s small outdoor stage, but against a crowd of freshly arrived scenesters and industry people in full meet-and-greet mode, they didn’t stand much of a chance. Still, it was a pleasant surprise to hear most of the crowd put away their iPhones and business cards long enough to sing along with Dawes’ closing number, the eminently sing-along-able “When My Time Comes.” I hoped to catch them again later in the week, when the SXSW attendees have settled in a bit more.

The next band, New York’s Here We Go Magic, fared better—partially because the frenzy of bro-hugs and “what’s your schedule like?” conversations had died down a bit, and partially because the band’s shoegazey sonics just commanded more attention than Dawes’ peaceful easy blend of Creedence roots-rock and Laurel Canyon folk. Much has been made of the ethereal vocals of Here We Go Magic’s frontman, Luke Temple; live, his voice and stage presence were less assertive, but the full band compensated with a dense, groove-heavy sound that was equal parts Talking Heads and My Bloody Valentine. No songs really stood out, but there was a hypnotic quality to most of the set that bodes well for this band’s future.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings/Broken Bells/Spoon @ Stubb’s (NPR Music)

No one, not even the new project from the Shins’ James Mercer and Gnarls Barkley’s Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, should be forced to follow the force of nature that is Sharon Jones. Like a female James Brown, the fiftysomething Jones attacks the stage with unbridled emotion, sexuality and humor—she’s literally a joy to watch, leaving a sea of grinning faces in her wake. She and her band the Dap-Kings leaned heavily on new songs from a forthcoming album (“I Learned the Hard Way”), all of which sound pretty much exactly like the songs on the band’s previous album—which in Jones’ case is just fine. When the wheel turns this smoothly, there’s no reason to reinvent it.

After that Dap-Kings R&B onslaught, the low-key psych-rock of Mercer and Burton’s band, Broken Bells, was a comedown—but ultimately a welcome one. On disc, Broken Bells had left me a bit cold—the music was crafty and atmospheric, but Mercer’s sharp melodies were largely absent and Burton seemed to have traded in his usual production curveballs for a hazy gauze of twinkling synths and lazy, mid-tempo beats. But the band’s live incarnation—a seven-piece beast with Burton on drums—revealed some new nooks and crannies in the music, especially on the last song of their set, a burst of programmed beats and post-punk guitars called “The Mall and Misery” that left the unmistakable impression that Broken Bells still has some new territory to explore.

The NPR showcase concluded with perhaps the most quintessentially NPR-friendly band of the past decade: Austin’s own Spoon, whose crisp, meticulously well-crafted rock ‘n’ soul nuggets are as brainy and earnest as an Ira Glass intro on “This American Life.” I didn’t stay for the band’s entire set (I left early to catch the Morning Benders—and I’m glad I did), but the first half leaned heavily on cuts from the recently released “Transference.” Songs like “Written in Reverse” and “Got Nuffin” certainly pack a punch live, but they lack the slinky, R&B-inspired rhythms that make so much of the band’s earlier catalog such a gratifying mix of geeky and groovy. The jury’s still out for me—and for many of the fans at Stubb’s, based on the crowd’s response—as to whether “Transference” will go down as one of their better efforts.

The Morning Benders @ Emo’s Jr. (Rough Trade)

By far the highlight of my first night at SXSW came courtesy of these Berkeley, Calif., rockers, led by an extraordinarily talented songwriter (and increasingly gifted frontman) named Chris Chu. Despite some early technical difficulties, the Benders’ late-night set was absolutely riveting, especially the closing number “Excuses,” which built from a gentle, Beatlesque melody to a gorgeous bridge of layered harmony vocals and a thunderous, guitar-fueled climax. The set focused exclusively on material from the band’s latest album, “Big Echo,” which was co-produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor—and if tonight was any indication, this is a band destined for Grizzly Bear-like heights of crossover success.