someone still loves you boris yeltzin

SXSW ’07, Day 3: Friday

I’m starting the day at 32%. Obviously the lack of sleep was getting to me. Couldn’t even figure out a schedule for shows… It was about wandering and finding fixes that day.

Seeing the Riverboat Gamblers picked me up to around 55%.? Their lead singer avoided certain injury 9 times during his set, jumping off speaker stacks, hanging from weak beams in beer tents and standing on plastic ice containers on top of the back bar. Really amazing set, pure energy. Of which Thunderbirds are Now! had tons of as well. Saw most of their set up at Hot Freaks!, a blogger curated day party at a couple venues around the Mohawk. Could it have got me around 70%? I thought so. So I continued my brief love affair with Shiner Bock.

Cold War Kids was my last show before dinner. They played the Paste Magazine party at Maggie Mae’s on 6th. Packed. But, I still had an angle on the stage. I did arrive late, wondering if I’d missed my favourite song by the band…. sure enough, I heard the piano line bring in the song and I was singing louder than anyone to Hospital Beds. 85%.

I fully recharged at the North By Northeast (NXNE) bar-b-que at Caswell House, just outside of downtown. A chance to sit on the grass, eat bar-b-que and drink Canadian Beer! We had a great cab driver bring us to the party; in fact lucky to get one at that time of day in Austin. Swamped. When leaving, I called his cell from the business card he gave me. I got him on the phone, but couldn’t understand a word. Neither could anyone else. We said don’t worry about coming to get us…. He apparently arrived after we left, waiting 30 minutes then calling my cell 9 times trying to reach me like a crazy ex…
I bet he didn’t have a problem finding another fare.

Best show of the festival was Annuals in the Austin Convention Centre. Brought me up to 100%. The Festival had set up a sound stage to film live concerts every hour on the hour during sxsw. This meant that there was actually no bar there, but that didn’t matter. I needed to see this band properly mic’d (unlike the night before). These kids (all apparently younger than 21) rocked through Be He Me and gave us a couple new songs to digest. Again, great writing, great live show.

I jumped over to 6th to catch Adem‘s set. Not a great venue for a guy who during some songs was playing bells. The noise pollution from the bar across the street totally drowned out and downed his set. We tried RJD2 after that. Couldn’t get into it, neither could the crowd. Possibly because of a guy in the crowd with the worlds worst body odor problem…

We finished the night by seeing NY’s Pela and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltzin. Big fan of the records here at the filter, but it didn’t translate live the same way I thought it would. Or maybe I just needed to go to bed. I look forward to seeing these bands again in other less chaotic venues.

Sway by Annuals

Day 3

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

When you dedicate a certain part of your day to reading music blogs, its hard not to notice someone writing about Someone Still Loves Your Boris Yeltsin. I guess the name makes you look once, but the music keeps you coming back. They’re a great indie-pop band from Springfield, Missouri who originally released Broom in 2005, but are about to have a re-mastered version release in October, courtesy of Polyvinyl Records.

While away in Montreal this past week, I put together some questions for the band.

Here’s what they had to say.

Chris >> You mentioned in a previous interview that one night on the road you were hearing your music on the OC, then you were figuring out how to keep touring on the $20 you made at the concert the night before. Since then, do you think that tv show has increased the amount of people that buy your record or go to your shows?

Boris >> No, not really. They used our song as background music and they didn’t say our band name at the end of the show or anything. We probably sold a few CDs when it happened, but that’s it.

Chris >> How did your relationship with Polyvinyl Records develop?

Boris >> They saw us play in Champaign. Their A&R guy bought a CD and everyone at the Polyvinyl office liked it. We heard from them a couple months later when we were really looking for a label. We shared a lot of ideas about the future and then we signed up.

Chris >> With the amount of people (including myself) who have blogged about your band, I assume its common for people to approach you at shows and tell you that they came to see you after reading about you. Do you connect with many fans from campus or commerical radio these days?

Boris >> Commercial radio..no way. I only know of one commercial station that plays us and it’s during their underground show on Sunday night. College radio is a different story, though. We made a lot of friends, especially with the DJs who played the CD. We like college shows. Especially the ones where people go insane and start hitting the ceiling until you play Jessie’s Girl. We started to play it and they had to stop the show because people went insane. Insane is never good, even at a show.

Chris >> Do you think one day Boris Yeltsin will hear your record?

Boris >> Yeah, I think so. God, I bet it will make him feel weird. I mean, all our songs are about girls. He’ll probably get real confused. Then he’ll call us and we’ll hang out and do pills in Russia, I hope.

Well put. Here’s two of their best.

House Fire and Oregon Girl.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin