SXSW | MUSIC

Foxygen // Besnard Lakes // Eric Pulido // Diiv

As nice as all of the delicious food that surrounds SXSW is, we're all really there for the music. I'm not fancy or well-connected enough to be able to attend the showcases at night or any of the super exclusive parties, but I happily navigate the free (badgeless peasants allowed) day parties. We mostly saw music on Wednesday and Thursday because, truth be told, shit starts getting really obnoxious by Friday. Saturday: beware. I can manage crowds fine, but the torrent of drunk frat bros stumbling into events by late afternoon is more than I can handle. Excuse the snobbery but I definitely like the atmosphere at the day shows better. Less industry, more fans. 

I managed to see most of the bands that I was hoping to. The one event that I never made it to was Pitchfork's Day party on Thursday, because, to put it crudely, it was a shit show. We got there 40 minutes early only to get into an already excruciatingly long line. "No thanks," we said, and made our way to Under the Radar's party at Flamingo Cantina. We walked in, no line thank-you-very-much, and were given free beer. There were empty seats on bleachers right next to the bar with a perfectly unobstructed view of the stage. Sold. We spent the whole day there, drinking reasonably priced alcohol after the beer ran out, and enjoying an impressively solid line up of bands. We saw Foxygen (for the second time that week) who, even though I was eagerly anticipating seeing them live, managed to exceed my expectations purely based on the fact that they were nothing like I imagined live. I thought that considering the music was '60s-inspired, it would be a fairly mellow, but decent, show. But singer Sam France was a spectacle to behold. His performances was manic, frantic, ecstatic. He has the kind of charisma and swagger that made Mick Jagger famous.  I swooned, just a little. Diiv closed out the show, and I happily swayed and stared at my feet to their shoegaze-inspired brand of indie rock. 

We saw a lot of great music, and despite ending Friday exhausted and sore wondering why I subject my body to these kind of events, I can say now, with a clear mind, that I will be back next year.

SXSW | FOOD

Cocktail at Drink.Well // Taco at El Primo // Pork Belly Sandwich at East Side King

Well, it took about a full week to recover from the energy suck that is South by Southwest. It was extremely fun and extremely exhausting all at once, like most great things are. I spent last week trying to catch up on sleep and feeling a little bit like death for the majority of the time, but after plenty of food that would not appear on the food pyramid, and way too much chipotle, I'm ready to get back on track with productivity and eating foods that occur in nature. The music talk will come later this week, but let's start with the second best part of SXSW: the food. This year was a particularly good time for eats because Paul Qui (Top Chef winner and adorable genius) curated SouthBites over on Rainey St and Driskill, and despite being a bit of a trek, we managed to eat there twice. My boyfriend had a run-in with some mediocre BBQ, but every other morsel that entered out mouths was beyond delicious. Unsurprisingly the winner of the whole trailer park was East Side King, which I ate at both visits. I had a pork belly sandwich (pork belly, pickled veg, some sort of mayo, Hawaiian-style roll) which I still have dreams about and the Kara-agé Kimchee Yakisoba which I could have eaten a vat of. All in all, it was a food lover's paradise. 

CHARMING NOISE | SXSW 2013

There's a lot of bands that I'm excited to see this week while I'm at SXSW. Here's my top five favorites that I'll definitely be hunting down to see live. 

ADIOS | SXSW 2013

I'm in Austin for the week for a much needed vacation and to enjoy some music at SXSW. We had a lot of fun last year, though we stayed away from all nighttime events because it was a little too crowded and apocalyptic outside (see first photo) for our taste, and the day parties are way more fun and less intense anyways. We'll be sticking to the same plan this year. I hope everybody has a great week!

 

+ SXSW 2012 +

Intense night scene at sxsw 2012
Bear in Heaven at Brooklyn Vegan's Day Party last year
Mess with Texas party last year

We essentially stalked Bear in Heaven at SXSW last year. They played around eight shows, we saw two of those, though we would have liked to see more. My boyfriend took this video at the Hometape's Friend Island party last year. You can see my friend and I dancing with the lead singer a little bit. We had an amazing time. 

THIS IS RAD + A FRIDAY ROUNDUP +

I've been a fan of Brian Ferry's photography for a couple of years now so I was super psyched to see his beautiful Brooklyn apartment on Sight Unseen last week. It's a wonderful mix of minimal and eclectic. 

Ugh. That's all I have to say. Sometimes I hear a song that's so good that it almost pisses me off. "Try to Be" by Blue Hawaii is one of those songs. I'm mostly angry because I've been hearing about Blue Hawaii for a while now and haven't listened to any of their work until last night. Now I am hooked and angry that their new album Untogether doesn't come out until next week. In the mean time, I will be repeatedly listening to it on Pitchfork Advance.

Oh Lordy. I am headed to Austin in a little over a week for SXSW and I am so. damn. happy. So far this Pitchfork Day Party has me the most excited. I will most definitely be spending my whole day there.