Okay, so I’m back from SXSW. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t see either Wavves or The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart on principle, since they were playing 50 times each. I ended up seeing both bands only once. In fact, my coworker saw The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart while standing next to Vivian Girls. Fucking ridiculous. If Vampire Weekend had been there, it would have been like that episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer where the Anointed One tries to resurrect The Master, but can only do so by assembling those who were present when he died and draining their blood over his body. I’m going to say The Master would be... I don’t know... The world pre-blogging? Sufjan before he was cool? Indie rock 10 years ago? Pitchfork when it was brown-fork? I don’t know; I’m open to suggestions. Oh, and big ups to Ryan Catbird: FTW. Anyway, on to the news.
- Akron/Family are going to kick it with Wilco this spring and go on tour in Europe. They have a few select dates on their own in the U.S. in early May before heading to Brussels to start their tour with Wilco. The tour is about a month long, and if you happen to be from Europe or plan on being in Europe around this time and you give a shit, you can find the dates at the Dead Oceans site.
- The Meat Puppets are heading on tour this summer. A real tour, not one of those tours that are announced and get people excited and then they check it out and it’s like four dates in Los Angeles and one in New York. Meat Puppets are kicking things off mid-May in Los Angeles and finishing things off at the end of June in Austin. They’re even coming to the South, which is why I call it a “real tour,” because bands skip us all the time. They also have a new record coming out May 12 called Sewn Together. Check out the dates on their MySpace.
- El Dorado Desert Rock Fest. I don’t know what the fuck this is.
- Okay, so L Magazine announced their plans for the first Northside Festival, which is being advertised as a “sort of non-industry, SXSW-like festival” in Brooklyn. Okay, first problem: the “industry” will infiltrate eventually, hippies. Where there are bands, there will be writers, managers, label people, etc. In fact, there already are label people, since there are label showcases from Ernest Jennings and Frenchkiss and a few from blogs. You think the people who run those labels and sites are going to be like, “Alright, you guys are playing the showcase, but you kids have fun, I’m going to kick it at home with some Battlestar and a medium pepperoni.” Yeah, no. Also, I really wanted to mention this one comment someone posted on Brooklyn Vegan in response to the news about Northside Fest: “This has the potential to be really awesome. Hope Grizzly Bear plays.” HAHAHAHAHA.
BTW, Buffy was a total bitch in that episode. She was a total snatch to Cordelia and Willow and she tried to make Angel jealous by dancing like a skank with Xander. Xander fucking sucked.
L8R.
