Nov 16, 2024 | ktru
By Steven Burgess
Peter Hook, co-founder of legendary bands Joy Division and New Order, revolutionized post-punk and electronic music. Since his time in these iconic groups, Hook has collaborated with artists such as Gorillaz, authored multiple books, and formed Peter Hook and The Light, a band dedicated to performing Joy Division and New Order songs live, with Hook himself taking on lead vocals. At the time of this interview, he was on his Substance tour, bringing the raw energy of these timeless songs to audiences around the world.
Q: 50 years ago… At Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, the Sex Pistols played… what was different about them that was unlike any other act at the time?
A: The Sex Pistols were interesting because they were very young, like me… I’d been to see Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, all those bands in 1973-76… I said to Bernard… that we should go and see them… It was £0.50 to get in.
When the Sex Pistols came on, their attitude was completely unlike any other group I’d ever seen… They really weren’t interested in you, and Johnny Rotten in particular, spent most of the time telling everybody to f-off… And the 40 people that were there were like, what the hell is this?… And I thought, “you know what? I could do that.” And so, at the end of the gig, I said to Bernard… we should form a group.
I didn’t play an instrument. I had no instrument. He had a guitar, but he didn’t play it. And we formed a punk group on the way out. So that’s how inspirational that performance was compared to everything you see. The thing about [a band like] Led Zeppelin is… I didn’t feel like I could do that… I never felt for one moment that I could play bass like John Paul Jones or do anything that the others could do. You know, they were so far above me, it was ridiculous.
When I saw Johnny Rotten, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook and Steve Jones play, I felt for some insane reason that I could do it, which, as it turned out, which is uncanny, was true and weird… The other 40 people… went on to form their own groups too.
Q: In your book, Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division, you talk about how you accidentally learned bass and played with three fingers originally… did you ever feel pressure to play more traditional style?
A: I taught myself how to play just by listening to [other] bands. So did Bernard. We bought a couple of books but couldn’t be bothered to read them, so we just stuck with the old punk ethic of… playing anything really.
I always [play with three fingers] because [my ring finger is] my weak finger. So I always push it down with my [middle finger]. Very strange habit. And even now, as you said, after 48 years I’ve been playing… I still do it.
In the 80s… popping [on bass] was really big… I thought that it would be better for me to learn popping… A very good friend of mine called Donald Johnson, who was in another band (A Certain Ratio) that was on Factory Records… gave me one lesson and he said “Okay, you play with three fingers… you make a wonderful sound with those three fingers… Get on with what you do best.”
I’m very lucky to have a very unique sound… I was very lucky to be able to inspire not only Ian Curtis, but also, New Order to [use bass] as a lead instrument… The melody of the vocal came from the bass…
If someone rips me off, I always take it as a compliment. A lot of my friends will send me [a track and tell me] “the kid sounds just like you.” I always take it as a compliment because when I went to see the Sex Pistols and I was watching Glen Matlock… It wasn’t anything to do with music. It was about the simple confusion that you felt as a kid, of not knowing what your life was going to come out to. Of being told what to do and having your path sort of chosen for you. It was that rebellion that you felt at that age was what gave me the courage to grasp that chance.
Hooky on the early formation of Joy Division:
Every one of my friends that I told we went to see a group and now we’ve formed a group… [said], “You? I’ve never known anybody as unmusical as you in my life. In fact, the only other person I know that is unmusical as you is Bernard.”
And don’t forget, we’d never written a song before, never. And we had to sit there and learn how to write songs… It was absolutely crazy… It was not easy to build a following. It was not easy to write great songs. Luckily, once we met Ian Curtis, which I met him at the third Sex Pistols gig… and [when] we met him at that gig and he said, “oh, are you in a band?”
Because everyone was in the band. And we went, “…we’ve got a band, me and Bernard, I’m on basses and he’s on guitar.” [Ian] said, “I’ve got a band… we’ve got a guitarist and a drummer. We’re looking for a bassist.” So, I thought, well, I’m not leaving [Bernard]… It was only when Ian’s drummer left that he phoned up and said, “oh, you know, the drummer is gone. And the guitarist is gone with him… Should we join up?” We said, “yeah.” And, you know, the rest is history.
Then we wrote a load of songs together. [Joy Division] got better and better, and I mean, it is amazing to think that by the age of 20, Bernard and I had already written the music for Unknown Pleasures, and Ian had written some of the songs.
Hooky on the formation of Peter Hook & The Light:
When New Order split up in 2007, the atmosphere in the group was very negative about everything. We didn’t play much. We weren’t happy. We never played anything to do with Joy Division. We never played most of New Order’s music. There was a marked reluctance to do anything in it, and it was very frustrating for me and very saddening… I was happy when we split up, to be able to enjoy what I was doing again.
As soon as I was outside of New Order… I stood there and I thought, why do we never celebrate anything to do with Joy Division? Why [did] we never celebrate one year, ten years, twenty, twenty-nine? And I thought, you know what? I’m f***ed if I’m going to let thirty go… I thought how am I going to do it?
I was very happy to find a way to be able to play the music to people who liked the music, just like me… Chances were pretty low that you’d be one band that changed the world. Never mind two, that changed the world, you know? So I was somebody up there and I suspect it’s Ian Curtis that really, really likes me, you know, and he’s looking out for me in some way or other.
I love the music. I’m very proud of it, and I’m very proud to be able to sit down with anybody who wants to listen to it… and to have gone through the 14 years that we’ve been playing as [Peter Hook &] The Light and watch it get bigger and bigger.
My ambition was to play every song that Joy Division ever wrote and recorded, which I have done, which we played in one concert. We played fifty-four songs in one concert… in one concert in the church that Ian Curtis used to attend when he was a kid, and he was a choirboy in that church, and we did it for charity… we played to 500 people in this church… people wanted to be a part of that.
My next ambition is obviously to play every song that New Order have written and recorded, which I’m well on the way to do it. We’ve done I think we’ve done seven or eight LPs and now… I’ve got three more New Order LPs to transcribe and play to my friends. Yeah. The audience, that’s it… The Light [and I] can actually play upwards of a hundred songs. When I was in New Order, when we were together, we could only play about 17.
After losing that music for so long… I’m watching [Joy Division] and the myths grow and the following, and the people… who love the music and loved Ian’s vocals and his melodies and his words, his message, you know, it was wonderful to be able to.
It was scary singing [Ian’s] words to Joy Division’s music… I was terrified. I didn’t know what people would think. I didn’t know whether I’d… pelted with rotten tomatoes or whether people [would] just disappear. I had no idea. But yeah, to work through that and get to the point where I could actually enjoy what I was doing, and also find a new love for Ian because I had to concentrate on his words so much.
[Performing these songs] made me miss him all the more… in my life, I’ve lost a few people like that and always leaves you with an awful feeling… like survivor’s guilt. The guilt that you couldn’t help, you know, it’s always with you all the time. And playing the music actually, in some ways made me… [miss him] more.
I always remember when we were together in Joy Division… [and] we hadn’t had a gig for a while and nobody loved us… he would be the one that would grab you by the lapels, pick you up and go, “come on, stop it. We’re going to be doing this. We’re going to be touring Brazil. We’re going to be touring America. We’re going to be going all around the world.” So, all the places that I’ve taken Joy Division, where we didn’t go… every single time I get there, I always go, this is for you, Ian. This is for you.
Hooky talks about playing with his son, Jack Hook:
When I came to play this stuff again as [Peter Hook &] The Light in 2010… my friend Rosetta said to me, you’re going to have to sing… And we needed a bass player.
My son Jack, who plays bass with the Smashing Pumpkins now, he was 20 then. So, we started learning Unknown Pleasures, and he started learning Unknown Pleasures at the same age that I was all those years before.
How weird is that? And when we moved into Closer, he was the same age. I was 21, going on 22, and then when he finished Joy Division, he was the same age. I was 23 and we moved into New Order. So yeah, the uncanny feeling of watching him, who obviously looks a lot like me when I was 20, struggling with the bass riffs to get them, that gave me the biggest feeling of deja vu I’ve ever had in my life. Once you learned the songs, you didn’t have that deja vu feeling because you’ve learned it. But that struggle to learn it reminded me so much of those days when we were struggling to write the music that it was worth it for every moment, you know, of that feeling.
I am immensely proud of him for what he’s gone on to achieve with the Smashing Pumpkins. You know, I mean, God, he’s playing to crazy audiences… he’s actually touring on the co-headline with Green Day at the moment. They’re playing huge venues, you know, more people than I’ve ever played to in my life… he’s self-taught as well, same as me.
Q: Being a part of Factory Records in the 80s, how do you feel this independent record model reflects the state of democratized music today, with platforms like Bandcamp and SoundCloud and YouTube.
A: [DIY] music is now easier than ever… when [New Order was] signed to Factory, we had no money whatsoever, so we had no of getting a record out, nothing. There was no way you could publicize your music yourself. It was all about money.
Tony Wilson was a very unusual man. He didn’t believe in, ripping off his artists… when you signed to Factory, you split the money evenly… [Tony] said that when we record the record, as soon as the record comes out, the master is yours. Not mine. Doesn’t belong to the record company. The music is yours. That is very unusual for a record company, very idealistic. So the thing is, is that he was doing what all of us have to do.
He worked on that right till we left in 1993. And we still actually have the same deal with Warner Brothers because the deal carried over to Warner Brothers… So we’re one of the very few bands that split our money 50/50 with our record company still now Factory did that and Sony gave away all the masters.
I have to put my own music on Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. you have to be a businessman as well as a group member. And I think that that’s better, because I think if you learn that you don’t make the same bloody mistakes I did… We made loads of mistakes and I’m still paying for them now, right? But Factory Records was a great place for us to be because it allowed us to be punk right to the end.
[Factory] allowed us to leave singles off every album. That’s why Substance was a great hit, because it put all the New Order singles together, and substance – Joy Division did the same for Joy division’s music.
Nov 16, 2024 | ktru
Written by Steven Burgess, photo by Youna Baupoux.
Norwegian-American artist Kaya Wilkins, known by her stage name Okay Kaya, has made waves with her eclectic blend of disco, pop, and orchestral music. Her 2020 record, Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, earned her the Spelman Award for Best Indie/Alternative Artist solidifying her unique place in today’s music scene.
Currently on tour for her latest record, Oh My God, That’s So Me, Okay Kaya continues to captivate audiences with her introspective lyrics and experimental soundscapes.
Q: What was your introduction to music as a kid? Do you have a vivid memory of a song or an artist that clicked with you?
A: My mother is a visual artist. She’s a painter, and she’s really into her music, so I just remember it being music 24/7.
There’s so many artists that she listened to. She would listen to a lot of contemporary music or older music… I remember the first Mariah Carey record being on tape in our Volvo, because that was like one of the only tapes, so that was kind of fun.
[My mom] inherited her mom’s record collection… a lot of jazz [and] Billie Holiday, lots of different sorts of music in all sorts of languages. Lots of Swedish folk singers, whether it’s Cornelis Vreeswijk [and] Lisa Ekdahl.
Q: How do you feel these artists have influenced your work?
A: I feel like mostly, in terms of my practice as a songwriter, I’m influenced by books and reading… As well as movies and also music, of course, but it’s usually the starting point for my songwriting process. It’s like different mediums.
For this record, I wanted to explore a few questions, and I suppose one of the questions was… how can fiction… tell the true story about what a human being is? So, there’s a lot of references to all sorts of people: Tove Jansson, the Finnish writer and artist… [and] Edgar Allan Poe… that’s what kind of makes it fun for me… that most of the songs have a starting point in fiction.
Q: What does the creative process look like for you?
A: It’s kind of hard to tell. It’s a difference from day to day. For me, the most important thing and I think for most artists is to have time to do what you do. Be open [to] things.
I actually really like working within limitations with music because, you know, for example, my guitar skills are quite limited or, I don’t have too many plug ins and logic and stuff like that. So that can kind of like be a good limitation. But I think creatively… staying open is a good call.
Q: Do you remember what the first song you ever wrote was?
A: Me and my friend Ingrid, growing up, she’s my childhood friend since we were about six years old, wrote a song at that age, that had the word boom, and I don’t really remember anything else, or it was something about. It was in English, actually. It was about a song not being long.
I started recording music, in my 20s, onto SoundCloud. And made various mixtapes and whatnot. And it was really enjoyable.
Q: What made you lean into more compositional elements on your newest record, Oh My God, That’s So Me
A: When I wrote The Art of Poetry, which is the last song on the record, I heard… strings happening, and I’ve been really fortunate to collaborate with my friend Frankie, Francesca Aichner… to do live performance… I also worked with Clementine Brown, who’s also a dear friend now.
As the first song of the record [that I] made, I could hear that I really wanted to use that sort of instrumentation… [and] use the strings throughout.
Q: Which of the songs off Oh My God, That’s So Me do you feel the strongest connection to and why?
A: They’re all my little babies, you know. So it’s tricky… I’m bad with favorites, but I think sometimes my favorite songs off the records are songs that were slightly more frustrating to record.
Picture This, which was one of those, very first songs, which I knew was going to be on the record. I had recorded the original record on an Omnichord, which is a very sort of beautiful, bright instrument, and it just wasn’t going very well. The recording… had too much high end and I didn’t really know how to ground it. So I did a guitar version that didn’t work and then ended up being both of those things
I used a lot of energy on it… [and] I’m proud of the outcome of that. So, in some way, it’s my favorite, but only for the reason of like how much time I spent with it.
Q: You were born in New Jersey but grew up in Norway. How do you feel this cross of cultures influences the themes and sonic elements of your music?
A: I was born in New Jersey in a place called Bergen Fields. And six weeks after I was born, I moved to Norway and lived there until I was 18. And then when I was 19, I moved back to New York, relatively close to New Jersey, and then lived there for ten years. So, I knew as a kid growing up in Norway that I really didn’t feel all that Norwegian.
I was always drawn to going to America, and I was really lucky because I have a passport. So, I spent… all [of] my 20s there. And I think a lot of my influences are [from] American… mainstream culture… The reason why I make music is probably because I moved [back].
Whether it was the challenge of moving somewhere new… [or] meeting the amazing people that I met while living [in America]. So, yeah, definitely both.
Q: What have you learned by collaborating with different artists, whether it be New York or Norway, what has pushed you to become a fully realized artist in the way that you record, produce, or compose?
A: I wouldn’t say that I am a fully realized or that would make the rest of my life incredibly boring… Looking for people who, you can collaborate with the from the get-go [that] speak a similar sonic language has been key I think because there needs to be some sort of… spark that doesn’t really have a language. You can’t really talk about music. You can only talk about music, you know, so many ways.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have this click with a lot of different collaborators and people.
Q: How has the process of releasing your music changed with time?
A: Well, it’s quite different… I’ve kind of gone back to self-releasing, which is really amazing because it means that there is the turnaround of when stuff is actually happening.
I wrote a lot of the record this winter of 2024, so I’m really excited that that’s kind of back to the way it was in the old SoundCloud days.
I didn’t think about [creating Heavy Body Records] as bold at the time. I was sure that I was somewhat frustrated, and because I have a little bit of DIY in me and a little bit of spite… I [thought I] can just do it myself. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about… [how] the internet works for making music and putting it out these days. You kind of just can. I definitely feel like that’s a really positive thing about being part… of the streaming generation.
I don’t know if I could do anything differently. I think it’s so easy to see stuff that went right or wrong in hindsight, but I’ve just been, putting one foot in front of the other, and, crossing my fingers behind my back, so to speak.
Q: What would you say has been a full circle moment in your career up until this point?
A: I feel like Oh My God, That’s So Me feels sort of full circle, just in the shape of it. And, what my team and I have been able to accomplish as of yet, it feels really, fun and free and autonomous and just kind of groovy and all those ways… I’m never really searching for, like, any sort of specific heights, but I do feel like it’s like a really good time to perform.
I feel better performing and just more stoked than ever. So now. Now is good to be here now and for sure… I have the sweetest listeners. Everyone who comes to the show are so, yeah, just great. I think sometimes they worry about my well-being. The first few minutes when I step on the stage. I’ve had people do it, “Hey, are you okay?” And I’m like, “yeah, this is me in real life.” And then, you know, slowly, warm up a little bit.
A lot of, people come up and say, oh, you know, I listen to this and this album that, was helpful for, for personal reasons for them and all that. So, I just think it’s nice that music gets to live and take part in other people’s living experiences.
With time, that’s really different from when I started out being like, oh, this is what I make.
Q: Were there any, concerts or performances that you saw that inspired how you perform?
A: Definitely. Well, I was living in New York at the time, and, I only did my first performance… through friends who asked me, “hey, do you want to sing this song?” My friend asked me about a song that he wrote and I said, “I’d really… just done a lot of karaoke.”
I always loved singing, but I’ve never really been on a stage like that, so that kind of catapulted everything… It’s really nice to support each other, play for each other if you’re in the musical community, put on small gigs together, that’s definitely what I learned the most and cherished the most from, you know, my 20s in New York.
My good friend Aerial East… she made a fantastic record this year, actually, called Talking to Myself. And I’ve been singing alongside her for many, many years now. So, she’s definitely like the voice and presence and everything that comes to mind if I think about… mind-blowing stuff… We actually released a little children’s song EP called Pegagogy… it’s about 4 or 5 songs. There’s one song about a bat or about echolocation, actually, and a song about a rainbow… Simple but bright and hopefully fun.
Q: What’s usually on rotation when you’re on tour?
A: So many different things. I’ve actually been listening to my brother’s music right now because he just released.
He raps in Norwegian. So, I was checking that out because he wants to make 100 songs this year… So, he’s constantly releasing stuff.
He’s 12 years younger than me. So, our musical reference points are actually wildly different. So, I always enjoyed speaking to him because he’ll show me new stuff that I don’t know about.
I would love to collaborate with him, but I like my brother that’s one year older than me. He’s a black metal drummer… I would also like to collaborate with him, to be honest… we’re all very different, but we’re definitely doing our own thing.
Q: Did you think you would grow up to be a musician? Or did you think that life was going to take in a different direction?
A: I didn’t really think about it. I remember really enjoying to sing… from an early age, but, like, picking up a guitar around 12 and then singing in a gospel choir… I wanted to take singing lessons when my mom was like, just do gospel choir, it’s free.
Once I hit high school, I was actually a dancer… doing events in high school. I kind of thought that I would work with emotion and something more somatic. But I yeah, I didn’t really think like, this is going to be a thing, but I don’t know.
After making a couple of records, it’s… my favorite thing, that’s for sure.
Okay Kaya, taken by Youna Baupoux.
Nov 14, 2024 | ktru
Check out the fall 2024 edition of the ktru noizeletter below!!!
CLICK THIS LINK: KTRU Noizeletter Fall 2024 Digital Copy
Nov 10, 2024 | ktru
By Imogen Brown
and Peter Brown
Weezer is, at best, a rocking dad band (pre-1996) and at worst, a gimmicky threat to the spirit of nerdy dude rock (no one asked for a recorded cover of Toto’s “Africa”). My dad and I had the chance to see Weezer live at the Toyota Center on September 28th– it’s almost as if they knew the Rice dads would be showing out en masse for parent’s weekend! I am interspersing my thoughts with his in this review (his are in Italics). It’s only right that Weezer’s dad rock demographic gets to say their piece.
From the start, Weezer slammed us over the head with their tour theme: space. They opened their set with a five minute long “countdown intro” that might have retained more hype had it only been sixty seconds. The intro – which was meant to be ironic – was drawn out too long. Get on with it already. Not sure about the whole space motif. Seemed random. I preferred the Buddy Holly/Happy Days/Al’s Diner motif when we saw them at Jones Beach, Long Island. That’s right, this was our second time seeing Weezer – the first being in New Jersey in 2018. Ah.. a time before teal album-gate and the catastrophe of the SZNS series. At Jones Beach, they had a jolly 1950s vibe (that still failed to outshine the raw, awesome grit and grime of the Pixies opener). It was less nerdy and less aggressively themed than Voyage to the Blue Planet. However, there is something to be said for commitment to the bit.
The set was broken up into three segments: 1) post-1996 songs that many fans tolerate, 2) cult classics off of Weezer’s second studio album Pinkerton and 3) the entirety of Weezer, the blue album. The first segment paid homage to hits like “Pork and Beans” and “Beverly Hills,” which Dad and I BELTED in long car rides growing up. “Perfect Situation” is the song of my generation. The transition between each segment was transcendentally geeky; the Pinkerton segment was introduced by a large, animated Weezer “W” with glasses that proclaimed that the “space ship” had reached the “Pinkerton asteroid belt,” to crazed audience screams. Cue “Why Bother?” a classic Pinkerton track filled with 90s angst and relationship ennui. I thought the vocals were a little garbled. The dude with the gray beard rocking out next to me was awesome and loving it. In my opinion, the Pinkerton section of the night was a smashing success. The crowd was in UPROAR at the transition to the blue album, which Weezer played all the way through chronologically. Dad and I knew every single word.
In short, Weezer shows are true theater. A corny, awesome time was had by all.
Oct 20, 2024 | ktru
By Marty Brandwein
Austin City Limits. Weekend 1. Friday. After waiting for only a few minutes to get into the festival, I entered, surrounded by streams of people in cowboy hats, boots, sunglasses, and not much else, speed-walking from one stage to another. Already, there’s a twenty-person line to take a picture in front of the ACL sculpture, but I’m not there for that. So, I made a beeline for Honda Stage.
By the time I get there, Foster the People is already playing, founder and frontman Mark Foster bouncing around the stage as they perform one of my favorite songs of the set, “Sit Next to Me.” The crowd is loving the band’s energy and giving it right back as they rock their way through each song. Every bass line is being slapped, every lyric is being spit, and every key is getting… keyed, I suppose. The screens, though they only convey a fraction of the band’s actual energy, show each musician in a tracer-ridden, trip-inducing world. Finally, after a great run of songs, it’s the encore, the song that every casual fan, including me, has been waiting for begins. The drumline starts and the crowd screams as “Pumped Up Kicks” blares over the speakers. Though a noticeably lower energy song for the band, Foster the People still delivers on what I can only imagine is a song the band is more than tired of.
After a few less-than-notable performances from other bands, it’s time for the main event of the night, at least for me. It’s time for… blink-182. Back at Honda Stage once again, the members of blink gallop out as if they have, excuse the pun, forgotten their age. Now, I won’t sit here and pretend that I was conscious, or even alive, during blink’s heyday, but I was screaming the lyrics to each song I knew and pulling out Shazam on every song I didn’t. Between each snarling riff and insane drum solo, the hilarious, and not-suitable-for-this-website, banter between vocalists Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge showed their immense comfort on stage. By the end of the set, Travis Barker’s fingers were literally bleeding and my vocal chords were ripping as every single Millenial in the crowd lost their minds to “What’s My Age Again?” and “All The Small Things.” Incredible set with incredible energy. Gonna need to sleep after this one.
Photo by Gabriel “Allen” Witkop
Wake up, it’s Saturday! First up is Khruangbin playing at American Express Stage. Getting there decently early, I was surprised at the mass of people already flooding onto the dead grass in front of the festival’s biggest stage. After a short wait, funkiness floods the field as “María también” seeps from the speakers. To say that the band was not energetic would be inaccurate; though they refrained from the Jagger-like dancing of Foster, Laura Lee Ochoa perfectly matched the mood of her bassline, seeming to glide around in front of thousands. The on-screen visuals similarly mirrored the upbeat groove of each song, making for a cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable set. With great difficulty, I peeled myself away from the performance, nearly running to one of the smallest stages in the festival, IHG.
So who, you ask, could possibly steal my attention from Khruangbin, while playing at one of the smallest stages? As I arrived, two words faded onto the screen, and the crowd began to chant: “VINCE STAPLES.” Despite no real set pieces on stage and far less elaborate visuals than the other artists I had seen, Vince more than matched the energy of his peers. With songs from every album, including “FUN!,” “Yeah Right,” “THE BEACH,” “Étouffée,” “Big Fish,” and “Norf Norf,” the rapper, actor, and comedian entranced his audience from start to finish, curating a set to be remembered. Despite Saturday’s performances from big names like Dua Lipa and Khruangbin, Vince managed to steal the show, all from the humble IHG Stage.
Finally, it’s Sunday, the day that for me and many others represents only one artist: Tyler, the Creator. But before his incredible performance, Kevin Abstract took over Vince Staples’ “alma mater,” IHG, to perform hit tracks from both his solo albums and his work in BROCKHAMPTON. Displaying his innate understanding of the balance between artist-necessary arrogance and human humility, Abstract brought up no less than 5 fans on stage to watch him perform “Georgia.” His crowd work, however, did not stop there, leaning over the barricade to rap and sing many songs alongside his front-row-fans. One standout track from the set was the surprising “BUZZCUT,” a song I never thought I would see live. Despite the absence of the immaculate Danny Brown verse, the truncated tune lived in my head for the remainder of the day.
After Abstract wrapped up his set, I migrated to the American Express stage. As only a spectator of the “femininomenon” that is Chappell Roan, I was trapped in a sea of fans spelling with their arms and screaming with their whole bodies. Despite my apathy for her music, Roan’s theatricality and energy was pervasive throughout her set, including her surprisingly good rendition of Heart’s “Barracuda.” But finally, after two hours of wading through the crowd and waiting for the end of the set, I was left swimming upstream, intent on making it as close as possible to the stage for Tyler’s set. Tyler started on the top of an on-stage mountain screaming through many songs from “The Estate Sale” and “Flower Boy.” As he progressed in semi-reverse-chronological order, I made it to the beating heart of the pit by “IFHY,” a personal favorite of mine. Though I could continue to name drop Tyler’s incredible tracks, there is nothing I could write that could convey the energy of both the artist and the crowd; it is unmatched by any other set I have yet experienced. Every lyric is screamed by the crowd and every track has a unique and custom-made intro. I can not, to the time of my writing this, think of a single thing that could be improved.
Photo by Gabriel “Allen” Witkop
As my second-ever music festival, and my first three day stretch, ACL 2024 will be hard to beat. An incredible experience from top to bottom with electrifying energy, phenomenal organization, and thousands in attendance, I will certainly be coming back next year. See you then.
Oct 12, 2024 | ktru
By Steven Burgess
Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter (“Hooky”) Hook is currently on tour with his band Peter Hook and The Light for their 2024 Substance tour. The Substance tour is inspired by the records of the same name put out by Joy Division and New Order, with Hooky on lead vocals. The band played a 3-hour set on September 13th at Houston’s famed House of Blues.
When I arrived at the venue, the crowd was filled with a variety of people: a mix of parents taking their kids to their first concert, day-one fans of New Order and Joy Division, and young adults who had discovered records like Unknown Pleasures and Power Corruption & Lies through decades of a cult following. With no opener, Hooky got on stage with The Light and started their set with New Order tracks. The New Order set was filled with many fun and upbeat songs like “Thieves Like Us” and “Regret.” It’s pretty remarkable to hear a song live like “Blue Monday” and hear how similar it sounds to the studio version. Hooky is incredibly expressive on stage, moving around and playing a variety of bass solos in fun poses. My favorite moments from the set were when everyone sang the hook to “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “State of the Nation” or when everyone began to dance in unison to “True Faith.”
Once the New Order set had ended, there was a brief intermission between sets. When the band returned to perform their Joy Division set, the energy in the room went from a happy, fun dance party to a foreboding, intense environment. This set consisted of darker themes and louder instrumentation over Hooky’s haunting vocal delivery. Hooky surprised everyone by playing “Disorder,” the night really started, and hell broke loose (in the best way possible). A mosh pit formed in the center of the GA standing area as people began to push into each other – reminiscent of a very toned-down version of Hooky’s accounts of crowds from Joy Division sets. The night went on with the crowd becoming rowdier than ever as Hooky would deliver wailing vocals over songs like “Leaders of Men” and “Digital” while the band performed at a range of high-speed to hauntingly slow tempos. What mainly stuck out to me about this set was how this mesh of adrenaline-induced rock and melodic dark ballads worked so perfectly. Standout moments during this set were when the band delivered a wall of sound on songs such as “Transmission” and “Shadowplay” with an insurmountable amount of energy and when Hooky began to sing over the Light’s haunting rendition of “Atmosphere” filled with beautiful instrumentation. Peter Hook and the Light stuck their landing with their final song, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” ending the night with a collective chant of arguably Joy Division’s most iconic hook.
Hooky proves himself on this tour that he is a vocal chameleon. His energy as a frontman and his versatility of vocal deliveries on both pop and post-punk front is remarkable, given he had never been lead vocals for either band. Being a part of a crowd with such a diverse age group, it was surreal to see how this crowd of adults transformed back into raging teenagers. The length of the show and the band’s ability to reciprocate the crowd’s energy at all times was nothing less than impressive. By the end of the night, everyone had gone home with a little more youth than before entering the doors of the House of Blues.
Check out my interview with Hooky at https://ktru.org/peter-hook-interview/ for more on Peter Hook.
Sep 5, 2024 | ktru
By Steven Burgess
Last weekend at White Oak Music Hall, I went to see BLK ODYSSY. The Austin-based collective has been embarking on their The Fantasy House tour as they promote the release of their newest record, 1-800-FANTASY. Before the show, I had very little knowledge of their music, but I was excited to see them live, given the tracks I had heard before the show.
The show openers, Benji. and Asha Imuno set the bar high with fantastic sets and distinct energies. Benji. opened the show with colorful production elevated by his lush vocals. Throughout the set, Benji. would experiment with elements of R&B, Hip-Hop, and even some Gospel. My favorite moment of his set was when he had the crowd sing along to “Jorja” with him, second to when he brought out his bass and played over his melodic tunes.
Following Benji. was Asha Imuno, delivering a high-octane set with energy flowing throughout each song. What I loved most about Imuno’s performance was how much fun he had on stage. He would jump around on the stage, interact with the crowd on multiple occasions, and portray himself as a very authentic personality. Imuno’s stage presence consistently elevated the songs he performed live with such instances as “DO u WANNA BE HIGH?” and “ZIG ZAGGING.”
After 20-30 minutes, BLK ODYSSY came on stage and immediately hit the audience with a wall of sound. With a set that lasted over an hour, frontman Sam Houston brought his catalog alive with ear-grabbing and captivating performances. BLK ODYSSY exhibited astounding versatility, seamlessly shifting from Rock to Pop to Neo-Soul to Hip-Hop. I was very impressed by the backing band, exuding just as much energy as their frontman. Highlights from this set were “WANT YOU” and “GHOST RIDE,” both performed with passionate delivery to a crowd that reciprocated their energy.
As someone who did not have BLK ODYSSY, Asha Imuno, or Benji. on their radar before this year, the energy and passion behind their music was most apparent in their live performances. Even when taking photos, I could not help but dance and enjoy each set. Each delivered a unique energy that made them memorable and had the audience in sync, strangers dancing alongside one another. I loved how receptive the crowd was to the melting pot of genres performed, making this one of the most surprising and memorable concerts I’ve attended this year.
Aug 1, 2024 | ktru
By Steven Burgess
This year, I decided to study abroad through Rice in Madrid. During a free weekend, I got tickets to an annual music festival here in Madrid called Tomavistas. The festival lasted two days and consisted of a 4-stage setup with multiple bands playing throughout the day. I had the pleasure of seeing four acts at Tomavistas, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba
The first act I caught at Tomavistas was a band by the name of Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba. This band, hailing from Spain, performed a set consisting of hard rock tracks that fused its sound with a unique blend of psychedelic rock and flamenco. The band had not been on my radar until I walked into a record store and I asked a random customer if there were any acts he would recommend I see live from the lineup. After conversing with him, he told me that I could not miss this group for how eccentric they were. What I appreciated most about Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba is exactly that, how eccentric they were on stage.
The lead singer, Dandy Piranha, would belt over fast guitar and bass sections drenched in pedal effects. The crowd was loving the frantic vocals and fast tempo because they began to start a mosh pit and rammed into each other with no cares in the world. I had a good time and thought the band put on a fun show, but I did think that some of the songs blended together at times.
Belle and Sebastian
UK collective Belle and Sebastian was the second act I got to see perform at Tomavistas. I absolutely loved how interactive the band was with the crowd! Frontman Stuart Murdoch would go into the crowd multiple times singing and showing a lot of care towards the fans in attendance. The backing band were fantastic with a great rhythm section helping create such an atmosphere filled with dancing and fun.
During “The Boy and the Arab Strap,” they invited about 25 people to get on stage with them and dance in a truly euphoric moment. Tracks such as “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying” had the crowd singing along to every word. This was my favorite crowd out of the entire festival because of the amount of dancing, clapping, and positivity radiating from everyone. I seriously doubt that anyone left this performance without a smile on their face.
The Jesus and the Mary Chain
Jesus and the Mary Chain was the next act and they were as loud as they were melodic. The Scottish post-punk band formed by brothers Jim and William Reid played their entire set as silhouettes on stage with most of the stage videos playing abstract images of light or flashes of all their album covers. Jim’s vocals were low and moody, pairing well with distortion-filled guitar and booming drums really bringing out the essence of songs like “In a Hole” delivering a wall of sound.
The crowd was put into a trance during songs like “Just Like Honey” with many swaying and singing along to the lyrics. The atmosphere was like that during most of the set, even on their more upbeat songs like “Happy When it Rains.” One of my favorite moments was the duet between Jim and Rachel Conti on “Girl 71,” with a great chemistry on stage delivering a beautiful, oddly optimistic performance. Overall, the Jesus and the Mary Chain delivered loud and moody tunes that also paired well with the more tender cuts from their discography.
Phoenix
The last act of the night, Phoenix, had no shortage of energy and presence on stage. From the first notes of “Lisztomania,” they had the crowd in the palm of their hands and they played with flying colors! Phoenix, based in France, sounded exactly as they do on record, but with an amplified sense of energy in concert. I love how interactive the band was with the crowd. One of my favorite bits that Phoenix pulled during the show was when the lead singer, Thomas Mars, got a pair of binoculars and looked into the crowd with playback on the stage screen of him looking into the crowd. The stage was set up with so much eye-catching imagery from the use of kaleidoscopic museum-like imagery to the colorful wash of light on the band members.
The power of the band’s set lay in the fact that Phoenix made it impossible for the crowd to not want to dance with the upbeat tempo and bright instrumentation on songs such as “Entertainment” and “1901.” Everyone on stage looked like they were having fun and matching the energy of the crowd. The show ended with Mars being crowd surfed next to an inflatable palm tree.
Overall, the festival was jam packed with great acts and food/drinks. It was so much fun to make friends with different concertgoers from around the world (Mexico, UK, etc.) and be able to make some core memories. I definitely recommend this festival because I never felt overwhelmed by the lineup and I was able to make it to all the live acts I wanted to see.
May 14, 2024 | ktru
By Gustavo Raskosky
South by Southwest has always been an event that I wanted to experience; however, there was always some roadblock – until this year! I joined fellow KTRU DJs, Keegan Pierce and Steven Burgess, in Austin as we got on our bikes, birds and traversed all throughout the land of Austin, Texas.
DE FACTO began my “official” SXSW experience. I could hear the echoes and reverberation of the show from the moment I stepped off a lime scooter in front of Willie Nelson’s statue at the venue’s entrance. Unfamiliar with their music, I entered the Moody Theater without any expectations and noticed the audience members were either abnormally calm or lost in a trance. A few minutes into their set, I realized it was the later. The Moody Theatre temporarily became DE FACTO’s dimly-lit, underground club serving heavy grooves and a slow, alt-reggae jam. DE FACTO exudes a cool, calm and calculated vibe with their set. Their drummer, Cedric Bixler-Zaval, constantly looked towards their bassist, Omar Rodríguez-López, throughout the set in a rather calculated way. After noticing their interactions, I realized exactly who they were – The Mars Volta! It was a great surprise to start the SXSW; however, I was looking forward to the higher energy some of the later sets in my schedule were offering. After enjoying a few more songs with a KTRU peer, Keegan Pierce, it was already time to begin concert-hopping as a few other shows I had on my list were just about to begin. I hopped onto another lime scooter and commuted ten minutes northeast to make it in time for my next set at the Palm Door on Sixth.
Minimal Schlager caught my attention early on. This edgy, synth-pop duo hails from Berlin and combines Italo disco with the intimate sounds you’d find in a European dive club. Their music sounds like it could’ve been involved in the soundtracks for Blade Runner 2049 or Stranger Things. They also sound like a slowed-down, more alt-indie version of CHVRCHES. They’re an 80s techno band lost in 2024. NOTE: In these comparisons, I hope not to deduce the amount of schlager this minimalist group produces. Their most-streamed song, “FMB,” came on and the duo confidently found their placing. Alicia Macanas, the group’s lead singer, maintained so much energy and audience engagement throughout the set. They played roughly six different shows that week and although this was the first one literally right off of their flight from London, I was able to see that they kept their performance pace through video stories highlighting their other sets. This duo produces magic and holds so much enthusiasm towards their craft – I can’t wait to hear them as they continue their journey. Minimal Schlager exudes maximal energy.
The night was off to a great start. I had a few other artists favorited for the night, but I stumbled upon the “Tokyo Calling” showcase.
Chiaki Mayumura was finishing up her set on the Elysian stage, but it felt more like it was only beginning. When I walked in, I saw Chiaki suited up in an aluminum NASA space suit smiling ear to ear while getting the entire audience to follow her signal in making a wave. I thought the last duo had plenty of energy for their set, but Chiaki Mayumura had the audience following her orders in Japanese. Shortly after I found a good spot, she changed out of her space suit and a stage manager brought her a guitar. The multi-talented Chiaki charismatically had the audience in the palm of her hand. A stagehand threw an inflatable pool floatie into the crowd. The highlight of the show? Watching Chiaki Mayumura belt out a few of her songs, surf the crowd on a floatie and simultaneously entice the audience to join in on her song with off-beat claps.
I left Elysian and ran into two women promoting another show that was part of the showcase. They handed me an info-sheet and a Pokémon dime bag filled with Japanese candy. I took a selfie with them – then realized afterward that I had just taken a photo with the lead singer and guitarist for Tokyo Syoki Syodo (東京初期衝動) aka “Tokyo Initial Impulse.” I was definitely coming back.
Joachim Garraud held the next set I would attend at The Venue ATX. This would be a change of pace as this legend in electronic music had a crowd that dwarfed the audiences of all the shows of my Monday night lineup. He probably put up more songs with a higher BPM than all the other shows as well. It was exhilarating. Joachim began his set with a simple French flag graphic and their national anthem. The anthem quickly turned into a quick-paced banger, and the audience came alive. Roughly fifteen minutes into his set, Joachim put on an alien mask. The audience loved it. He disappeared for ten seconds and reappeared with two handfuls of alien masks to throw out. The audience roared. My favorite concert and audience experience was this set. He makes being paid to party a very enticing calling. Joachim Garraud may be fifty-five, but his set proved that age really is just a number.
Tokyo Syoki Syodo was the only reason I left Joachim Garraud’s set early. Their time to claim the Elysian stage had arrived. Tokyo Syoki Syodo is a rock and J-Pop four-member girl band. As they took the stage, the crowd cheered. The younger version of myself who loved Avril Lavigne, Green Day, My Chemical Romance and J-Pop duo, “PUFFY,” was LIVING! A “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” band had escaped the comics and materialized onto the Elysian stage. Each member of the band looked like they were having so much fun on stage. This could’ve been (and most likely was) the first time most of the audience experienced Tokyo Syoki Syodo, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell. A moshpit quickly formed. My second crowd surfing sighting of this SXSW experience was had as Sheena (Vocals/Guitar) trustingly jumped into the crowd backward. Overall, I’d say this was one of the most fun concerts of the whole SXSW 2024 experience.
Backdrop Cinderella was the final performance at Elysian that I stayed for – and I was not ready. Formed in 2006, this J-Pop/Punk band came onto the stage how I’d expect a metal band to – a dive into the crowd. The lead singer, Dendeke Ayumi, introduced the band then quickly counted down his leap into the dark-void that was becoming of the late-show’s audience. Dendeke kept up his energy during the entirety of their set with some high kicks, jumps, more crowd dives and attempts to start multiple mosh pits. It was an unexpectedly fun way to end the first real day of the festival’s music portion.
My second day of South by Southwest 2024 began with an unforgettable Keynote on the Daniels’ victory in filmmaking by describing their process and ideas conceived when they began conceptualizing “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Shortly afterward, I received a confirmation message from two artists I had been chatting with: HIEN and JW Francis. Both were available for an interview!
HIEN’s set was up first. I packed my equipment and headed out to Shangri-La in East Sixth. HIEN is a Budapest-born Vietnamese artist residing in New York City. Her electronic/pop-based music hints at her Vietnamese upbringing (her grandparents were Cai Luong musicians) fused with influences from her environment (Hungarian folk). Her performance was part of the Budapest Showcase. On a more overcast day, her set was one of the earlier ones at the outdoor Shangri-La venue. Once she gave the AV team an “ok,” she began setting up her beat machine and grabbed a mic. HIEN walked the stage once she got a loop set, danced and sang. It seemed to be a bit early for many audience members to join in; however, there were a few by the stage who were entranced by the beats. HIEN’s music invoked a variety of emotions – and when “Bloom” and “Family” came on, those emotions were felt and left the audience cheering. I picked up on quite a variation of moods in her work – so I decided to ask about the varying messages and production in each song. HIEN responded, “I have both sides. I’m very bubbly, like, rainbows and unicorns-type of person, but I also have my super emo and melancholic side. I’m a Pisces and both are living in me. I think I express that through my art.”
Shortly after speaking with HIEN, I went to High Noon further east to catch JW Francis for an interview before his set.
Subsonic Eye was playing when I arrived. The young, Singaporean, alt-rock band crushed their intimate High Noon appearance. They are aptly described as, “a coming of age band you’d hear in all the 2010s rom-com movies if they had existed then.” I didn’t hear too much from them, but I feel as though I’d be doing my experience a disservice without mentioning stumbling upon them – even briefly! They were that good!
Veeze was the next artist I’d encounter on my adventure as Keegan and I awaited Teezo Touchdown. Honestly, I wasn’t really impressed by Veeze’s performance. His energy was low, his crowd did most of the talking and on top of that – I wasn’t familiar with his work. Being fair to all the performers I saw during this festival, I hadn’t seen or heard a majority of them, yet they would still win me over with their energy and performance. I’m sorry to say, but Veeze’s was the most memorable in being my least memorable.
Fortunately, DJ Rosegold came on shortly after for about twenty to thirty minutes in between sets and engaged the crowd more fully. I was ready for Teezo.
Teezo Touchdown came onto the stage the same way you’d imagine a Hall-of-Famer quarterback to enter a home football game. With studded-out shoulder pads and a bouquet of flowers as his mic, he owned the Moody Theatre stage for the next hour. I’d say he tied both Backdrop Cinderella and Tokyo Syoki Syodo in terms of sheer energy. It was an extremely fun and photogenic set. I kept thinking that I’d love to see him do “RUNITUP” with Tyler or “MODERN JAM” with Travis – live! Unfortunately, I left his set after a handful of songs to make it in time for JW Francis’s set back at High Noon.
JW Francis was a rather important set for me as it was not only the last set I could attend during my first (and rather short) stint at SXSW 2024, but he was the first artist I reviewed for KTRU. I came across JW’s “We Share a Similar Joy” album a full year ago. It had been lost in the stacks – unreviewed – since the beginning of COVID. I had a good gut feeling about it. I remember listening to it on repeat and trying to get a good sense of each song – so much so that I’d be able to memorize the lyrics. I’d have friends listen to it with me and pick out tracks that stood out. It was my introduction to thoroughly reviewing music at KTRU – and I loved it. I’m a major Mac DeMarco fan, and this reminded me of a more energized version of his Lofi tracks. I told JW Francis that his music sounds similar to how a warm hug feels. While at South by for KTRU, I looked at a few random events that were popping up and noticed JW Francis’s name was mentioned. I IMMEDIATELY got on Instagram and reached out. He contacted me shortly after, and we scheduled a brief interview as he prepped for his show! Once he got on the High Noon stage, he grabbed his guitar, introduced himself and began strumming away. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone bounce as joyously and continuously for the entirety of a set like he did. A few standout songs in his set include “John, Take Me With You” which is currently his most popular streamed song and “I Love You” which is simply him saying the phrase over and over while pointing to different audience members. In that moment – he was joy incarnate.
I left for Houston the following day to take care of some work (and see Nickelback perform live at the Houston Rodeo), but I decided to return to Austin for one more day. On the final day of my first South by Southwest experience, I saw Tierra Whack, Fairlane, Illenium, Bootsy Collins, and Questlove’s DJ Set. All of which were fantastic. I reached my Air BnB that night around 2am and heard heavy bass from a small bar across the street. I decided to go check it out and found three nameless DJs around my age having the most fun by playing all their early 2000s favorites. Energy is contagious – and this experience was a reminder of that.
Selfie with Tokyo Syoki Syodo (東京初期衝動) at Elysian
Teezo Touchdown at the Moody Theater
JW Francis at High Noon
HIEN at Shagri-La
May 14, 2024 | ktru
By Keegan Pierce
Every year around Spring Break, thousands of bands and brands, as well as hundreds of thousands of professionals and partiers, descend on downtown Austin, TX. for the one-of-a-kind festival/conference/expo/billboard that is South by Southwest. Since 1987, the annual event has been a hub for all kinds of creative industries, showcasing music, movies, and more. Here’s some stuff I saw there this year.
Some Non-Music
A big part of the conference is the industry focused keynote speakers. I saw Conan O’Brien and Dave Kroll at one cutting it up about Conan’s new show, which won him a new fan. J.K. Simmons got stuck talking about his insurance ads, which was a nice nap, and I saw Mike Judge and the cast of Office Space do an anniversary panel for the movie. In my opinion, that panel was overly editorialized by the moderator. She didn’t let David Herman joke around.
SXSW runs on corporate sponsorships, which means that there’s all kinds of sponsored “activations” around. I got jumpscared in a confession booth set up on the side of the road to advertise some movie. I got a picture with Master Chief and in the USS Enterprise’s captain chair at a Paramount place. I saw Mark Cuban at a party hosted by the host of the “Call Her Daddy Podcast.” There were also giant eye-catching inflatable poops around by Poo-Pourri. Fun stuff. You can really feel the new skyscrapers around downtown.
Inside the convention center, there was a creative industries expo featuring all kinds of companies giving out swag for contact info and such. What I was most excited about was the Flatstock 92 print showcase. There were rows and rows of vendors showcasing and slinging their poster prints. As an amateur screenprinter, I was blown away by every booth and star struck to meet the artists behind gig posters that I have on my walls. I was honored to get a book signed by the OG Andy Macdougall and hear him talk about motorcycles.
Music
The first big show I went to was a crazy triple header of experimental rock music. First was the minimalist rock band Water Damage, whose artistic focus is monotony and whose motto as a group is “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation.” I’ve been wanting to experience their radical repetition for a while, and it did not disappoint. While I’m not sure that they played any more than one song, the members deftly wielded their repetition to constantly reveal new patterns and textures in the loops like a violent William Basinski. A special treat for the weekend was the reformation of the short-lived dub offshoot of At the Drive-In, (which would become The Mars Volta), De Facto. It’s really saying something that De Facto is perhaps the strangest turn for the band members Omar and Cedric considering their other genre-redefining projects. Still, next to the driving bass of ATDI and the proggy-weirdness of Mars Volta, their improvised, Scientist/King Tubby-esque, instrumental dub kind of makes sense as the bass drives and the keyboard strikes and weaves. Finally was the headliner, Mogwai. The songs of the Scottish post-punk band are less structured and more shaped. Each of their songs starts as a seed– a little line that repeats itself– and crecendos into ear splitting volumes pummeling your chest. It’s inescapably moving because the music moves so much itself like the breaths of a giant– in dynamics, speed, and tonality. It’s like a meditation CD turned up so loud that it pumps your blood for you.
The next night, I got my blood pumping to Veeze. Veeze practically slurs his raps in a deceptively laconic Detroit flow, which can hide all of his great one liners and make it appear like he’s not even trying. I’m a big fan though. If you can see past his bleary-eyed veneer, I really think he’s got the hooks and bars. Teezo Touchdown was up next. He’s also totally up next – a great performer who works the crowd way above his weight class. Just gotta get some better songs lol.
One of the biggest established names on the lineup this year was The Black Keys, who came promoting a new album and a film. While they performed a number of sets throughout the week, I know I caught the best one at Mohawk when they were playing songs from their 2021 album, Delta Kream. That’s because it’s an album honoring the Mississipi blues that inform the Black Keys sound, and I love some MS delta/hillcountry blues. In a way, I was reminded of the acoustic Beck show I saw last time I was at SXSW, where he wore his country and blues influences on his sleeve for an intimate set. In two ways, The Black Keys’ set was not like that. For one, The Black Keys went a step further by bringing out their heroes turned collaborators Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Robert Finley (and others I didn’t see because my bike got stolen right before I went over), to play on the stages before them. “Duck” Holmes had me laughing and hollering at his alternatingly raunchy, devastating, and worldly blues. Known as the last Bentonia bluesmen, he stands, at the age of 76, as the last known steward of his regional style of blues. I’m very glad The Black Keys brought him out. Robert Finley, legally blind, age of 70, only released his debut album 6 years ago, but he his soulful blues voice shows his life drenched in the gospel and blues of Louisiana, which is why Dan Auerbach of the Keys collaborates with him and brought him out. To prove I was in the right place, I got to shake hands with the frontman of Spoon, my favorite band, who was also there to check it out. The Keys were good too.
SXSW offers the unique opportunity to see a lot of small international bands that don’t normally tour the states. I saw Tokyo Syoki Syodo at a stage of Tokyo artists. This Japanese punk band brought an infinite amount of energy and little chocolates to give to the audience and it was a blast seeing them tear down the club. There was also The Canada House down the street, where I caught the end of a buffet but no bands that really excited me. I think the Canucks just don’t really have good music and that The Unicorns are a bit of a unicorn. (I kid– really, I just didn’t go at a good time, and this Yankee thanks ye for the sandwich.)
Our Southern neighbors were out in full force, however. The burgeoning Latin American influence on pop music was clearly heard at the festival (or at least at the shows I went to). I saw American groups like the Chicago-based “psychedelic tropical” band Cabeza De Chivo or the hometown cumbia group Los Bravos De La H driving the dance floor harder than any other acts. Meanwhile, the Mexican star Peso Pluma’s set at ACL Live was at capacity from early in the afternoon and was the most hyped concert all week. I saw one of the openers, the Puerto Rican singer Pink Pablo, at another showcase, and I totally recommend checking out his unique blend of sounds, but I wasn’t cool enough to get into ACL Live that night.
Instead of the Peso Pluma show, I saw the breaking London-based, indie-darling trio (quintetto live) Bar Italia. The set captured the entrancing and moody sound of their records; however, with live drums and bass replacing the programmed rhythm section on the album, there was an added edge of energy as the band ploddingly entwined their melodies. The audience was completely dialed in. Unlike many bands at SXSW that are still building a fanbase, Bar Italia had a packed house singing along, and while their blend of lo-fi, post-punk, and shoegaze might not seem to lend itself to mosh pit formation, the excitement boiled over, and you know that I was throwing elbows. I met this cool dude there who had just graduated from college radio, and I asked him where to go next.
He introduced me to Zheani, a self-described “Australian artist, musician, and occultist.” Equally infectious, scary, pummeling, and grooving, I never would have heard her otherwise since A) I haven’t explored a lot of occult electo pop and B) She claims to be shadowbanned because of the videos of her scantily clad running around the Australian outback that often accompany her music.
This takes us to a whole host of Texas bands I saw!
I randomly stumbled upon Joe “King” Carrasco returning to SXSW. While he is listed a notable musician of the year 1990, the “King” of tex-mex, who has a song with the king of pop, was playing a random small stage in East Austin next to the food truck I ordered chicken at. Even if his spotlight has changed, I think that his audience consisted of the same people at 1990. A polo’d fan was harassing him before the set about doing a cruise, which is probably the catalyst for me seeing him as a Tex-Mex Jimmy Buffet.
The most impressive soloist I saw was the Texas born multi-intstrumentalist Blue Lakes. He designed his custom zither especially for his playing style, which is to say that he’s masterminded completely unique aural landscapes. I saw him inside a beautiful historic church sancutary, which further elevated the zither’s spell as it washed over me. It was ultimately serene.
Behold! born from the ashes of various psych rock acts across Texas and possessed by an interdimensional being of funk, the band Grandmaster! This band has an expanding universe of lore following it with a YouTube series documenting their story of being possessed by this cosmic force of funk that writes all of their songs. I did an interview with them while they were loading out, and the members I grabbed were worried that they weren’t familiar enough with the forbidden knowledge to tell me about it. “Just make it up!” their band leader said, which I think sums up this silly, funky, and cosmic band.
I’m like 90% sure that Nolan Potter of Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band was filling in for a member in Grandmaster – I definitely saw a case with his name on it there. I ended up walking past this band a few nights later and stopped by. They were pretty groovy, but I couldn’t really get lost in the jam because this dude sitting on a block close to me started a fight with the people in front of him by aggressively tapping them with his cane to get out of the way, which lead to security coming over and yells exchanged.
After evacuating that scene, I headed over to Revival coffee to wait in line for the Houston legends Propaine, Sauce Walka, and Z-Ro. Shouts out to them all for showing up late else I probably wouldn’t have gotten in. I got stuck just outside the gate at capacity. Even bigger shouts out to the security guard out there who saw my Houston radio badge and fought for me to get in to see the Houston rappers. I did get in before it got real, and I had my H in the air. A fitting end to my time in Austin that got me excited for the drive back to Houston.
and Peter Brown
SXSW offers the unique opportunity to see a lot of small international bands that don’t normally tour the states. I saw 
The most impressive soloist I saw was the Texas born multi-intstrumentalist 
Behold! born from the ashes of various psych rock acts across Texas and possessed by an interdimensional being of funk, the band