Song Wars : Episode 1
Tell me, which song stays in your head longer???
(I’m looking for comments on this one….)
or
- God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me by Aberdeen City.? **The song should start playing right away.
Tell me, which song stays in your head longer???
(I’m looking for comments on this one….)
or
There was music going on that Sunday, but I opted for something a little different.
Three words. Fucking Roller Derby.
A couple of us spent most of the afternoon sipping some margharita’s and red bull coolers. The Meligrove Band were there, Eric from V2, Endearing Records and Ryder from White Whale. I checked the local weekly and found an ad for Roller Derby. The Rhinestone Cowgirls were taking on the Holy Rollers (both from that A&E show about Roller Derby) at the Austin Convention Centre later on that night.
When in rome….
Here’s how it works. 10 girls start on the track, 5 from each team. 8 girls start skating together in a pack around the circular track. Then, the remaining 2 skaters start a little behind them. Their objective is to skate past the pack, then lap as many opposing players as possible, in one minute. And without getting killed.
Players get points based on how many people they pass. And there are 4 quarters (with live bands during halftime).
Before the match, a woman walks around with raffle tickets for ‘Spank Alley’. If your number was drawn, you and 9 other people were allowed to sit in Spank Alley, located just off the course on one of the turns. When a player is penalized a punishment wheel is spun for them. When the wheel lands on ‘Spank’, all the people in Spank Alley go up to the course with Fly Swatters and start smacking them on the track. Then the penalized player skates by them bent over and gets her punished.
The ‘Reverse Spank’ is the opposite. And the pillow fight always turns into a brawl. Seriously, I have never seen women kick the crap out of each other like this.
Rumour has it that Toronto and Hamilton are setting up teams….
Music in Haiku.
Sliversun Pickups
Played me great music in the rain
Kissing Families
You, Jason Collett
sang well to distracted ears
I was listening
Six Decoder Rings
Again impressed me with
Lush music and film
Jose Gonzalez
Must now love bouncy balls and
Bravia TVs.
Jade Tree found Snowden
I loved Anti Anti live
Sound guy sucked at sound.
We Are Scientists
Kept fans singing and dancing
Here’s The Great Escape
Stop number one. The Australian Party at Brush square. Caught the last song from Decoder Ring. Checked my watch to make sure it was past 12pm, had a beer. And so on.
Stop number two. The Paste party. Great magazine, always a good party every year at SXSW. They had this cheese sauce…. wow. It made you want to dip your hand into the bowl, let it solidify, then go around Austin all day licking your hand. Well, it at least made me want to do that.
Caught a cool band called Midlake on the advice of a great guy named Nelson from Team Clermont. Check out the tracks ‘Roscoe’ and ‘Balloon Maker’ here. They have a Flaming Lips sound and the drummer looks a lot like Elijah Wood.
Also, caught a little bit of a band called Manchester Orchestra. Here is thier myspace page, I really recommend spending some time with ‘Golden Ticket’ and a nice live solo effort of ‘Play It Again Sam’.
Stop number three, the NXNE party at SXSW. If a bomb had gone off, Canada’s music industry would have perished. And Switzerland would become the new Montreal. Strong sets by Pilate, Cuff The Duke and Novillero.
Final Stop. Stubbs. Spent a good couple of hours drinking Lonestar beer and watching some of the bigger bands at the festival. Heard four bars of the Subways, all of Metric‘s set (which was very good), The Magic Numbers, and Snow Patrol (who weren’t actually that lame as some of us thought they would be).
By this point, I had developed a nice blister on my big toe. I named him Johnny.
I only saw 8 bands that day. That seems a little low for SXSW.
This one is short and sweet. Big ups to these bands.
Finally, spent around 2 hours at Flatstock, the festivals’ poster fair. If you ever see this show coming to a town near you, go. And go back.