After our debut show at SXSW in Austin in 2008 and our joint show with our pals at Aquarius Records from San Francisco last year, we're happy to be returning to Encore (formerly Spiro's) on 611 Red River Street on Friday, March 19th!
The show is open to badge/wristband types, but also to the general public for a mere $7! That's 50 cents a band! We're super-excited about being back and also excited about the bill (which is a pretty unique blend of the poppy, psyched-out, heavy and otherwise that seems catered to both FMU and AQ listener/customer tastes!) The lineup:
We've got a heady mix of the heavy, damaged, darkly, punk, weird, noisy, poppy, trippy sounds, some hometown NY/SF heroes representing in Austin, and even a full on Cambodian psych-pop dance party at night's end. Check out the lineup, and a mix of audio from some of the aritsts who already have some music on the FMA
OUTDOOR STAGE (covered, rain or shine) 7:00pm Liturgy (memb. GDFX, Thick Business, Dan Deacon) 8:00pm Speedwolf 9:00pm Iron Man 10:00pm Moon Duo (Ripley from Wooden Shjips) 11:00pm Shit and Shine 12:00m Pierced Arrows (aka the new Dead Moon) 1:00am Dengue Fever
INDOOR STAGE 7:00pm Epileptinomicon 8:00pm Drunkdriver 9:00pm Home Blitz 10:00pm Headdress 11:00pm Sonny & the Sunsets (feat. Kelley Stoltz and members of The Fresh & Onlys) 12:00m True Widow 1:00am Todd
We're broadcasting live this Friday night 8PM to 3AM ET on WFMU, and we'll feature highlights for download here on the Free Music Archive. In the meantime, check out our 2009 and 2008 SXSW collections, with music from Obits, Gunslingers, XYX, Mayyors, Half Japanese, Homosexuals, and more
PIERCED ARROWS Northwest rock LEGENDS (not using the term lightly, either) Fred and Toody Cole fronted the garage-punk combo Dead Moon for decades (and before that, connections to the Lollipop Shoppe, the Rats, and Zipper); a 2006 shifting of drummers and rechristening themselves Pierced Arrows has done little to subdue the raw, anthemic power that these eternal road warriors produce. A live experience of truth and purity. Check out some Free Music Archive MP3s and a classic Dead Moon session from Joe Belock's Three Chord Monte back in 2001! (photo Jason Quigley)
DENGUE FEVER Longtime WFMU faves Dengue Fever arrived in 2001 out of Los Angeles after Ethan and Zac Holtzman's hearts were pierced by the Cambodian music cupid. After they fell in with vocalist Chhom Nimol, DF's hybrid of Western and Far Eastern psychedelic pop wowed audiences and critics alike and have continued to free themselves up into even a wider range of styles. Expect a late night dance party at WFMU/AQ SXSW! Check out this Free Music Archive track recorded from the band's Terre T/Cherry Blossom Clinic session in our studio back in July, 2008:
HOME BLITZ (photo Lea Cho) Daniel DiMaggio comes from central NJ and writes sloppy bubblegum anthems equal parts tunefulness and chaos, punked up and totally memorable. One can only guess what Game Theory would sound like if they listened to more Half Japanese or Void? Either way, Home Blitz has a killer new disc out on Richie Records called Out of Phase, it's a WFMU/AQ fave, and HB now reigns supreme live as a four piece (with FMU DJ Jason Sigal on bass!)
LITURGY (photo William Berger) "Pure Transcendental Black Metal" is the tag this NYC band plastered on their first record sleeve, and without doubt Liturgy opens the genre to some seriously elevated psychedelic form. Raw and blasted guitars and hyperspeed pounding drums build up massive walls of sound that evolve into blissful, moving passages. An amazing live experience, as well documented on their live session from William Berger's My Castle of Quiet here in October, 2009, and the below track from their 20 Buck Spin release Renihilation:
DRUNKDRIVER Over the last few years, Kristy, Jeremy and Mike have assuredly claimed their role as NYC's finest soundtrack purveyors of cheap beer and bad acid. Heavy, damaged, brutarian rock sure to be showcased tonight and on their forthcoming Load LP in March. Collective Zine: "Drunkdriver, while not exactly ploughing themselves a new furrow (see also: Brainbombs, Drunks With Guns et al), garnered a similarly joyous reaction thanks to the sheer blown-out bluster and mic-swallowing outrage of these nine songs: a stupid, fucked up mess that reduces three-chord frenzy to overdriven clumps of terminal noise and hectoring, drool-chinned bedshitting and makes every songsomething you have to fight your way through rather than passively endure." Here they are live at WFMU Fest opening for Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, back in October at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (via the Free Music Archive):
SONNY & THE SUNSETS Sonny & the Sunsets' busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop's otherworldly despair, the kitchen sink savoir faire of The Raincoats, a dose of goofball humor from the Michael Hurley school, and positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman, with and without The Modern Lovers. Helmed by the acclaimed singer / songwriter, playwright, author & onetime troubadour pianoman Sonny Smith, The Sunsets have featured a revolving door lineup that became permanent with Kelley Stoltz, Tahlia Harbour and Ryan Browne. Still more friends and neighbors including John Dwyer, Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin cosmically appeared to contribute to the debut LP on Soft Abuse. Tomorrow is Alright hits on all the right zones, from sly VU-like observations to the true bedlam explored by Holy Modal Rounders. All the while, Sonny's pen is soaked with an EC comics sense of storytelling, touching equally on the macabre, the absurd, the humorous, and above all, the entertaining. Check out "Death Cream" from WFMU's archives, a nice approximation of a further wedding between Royal Trux and Sic Alps camps (somewhat).
MOON DUO San Francisco's Moon Duo was formed in 2009 by Sanae Yamada and Erik Johnson (Wooden Shjips). Inspired initially by the legendary John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Moon Duo counts such variant groups as Silver Apples, Royal Trux, Moolah, Suicide, and Cluster as touchstones. Utilizing primarily guitar, keyboards, percussion, and vocals, the pair plays space against form to create a primordial and disorienting sonic stew. They released two acclaimed records in 2009: the Love on the Sea 12-inch single on Sick Thirst and the Killing Time EP on Sacred Bones. Escape, their debut long-player on Woodsist, marks the fullest realization yet of the young group's evolving sound. "Love on the Sea" from WFMU's archives.
AQUARIUS RECORDS curated:
TRUE WIDOW Incredible, totally intense and brooding, nineties style slowcore, heavy and dark, epic and so catchy, one of our most listened to records last year (and even still!), and one of the most freaked-out-over Records Of The Week ever, and for good reason, amazing songs, irresistible hooks, gorgeous production, lush and warm, and so goddamn good. Dying to see TW live, hear some of those tracks we've been playing to death, and to hopefully hear some new songs from the forthcoming record!
HEADDRESS Texas trippers Headdress, have expanded from a duo, to a four piece, as they've shifted sonically from psych folk to druggy, spaced out heavy psychedelic dronemusic, shoegazey and dreamy, but definitely dense and heavy, think Brightblack meets Earth Meets Nadja. From the WFMU archives, "For the Lost White Brother" (taken from the full length Lunes on No Quarter.
SHIT AND SHINE Multiple drummers, multiple bass players, occasionally someone playing lawnmower, crushing, noisy, tribal, hypnotic, a sound equal parts vintage Butthole Surfers, classic Hawkwind, and modern kraut-psych-drone-rock a la Circle or Pharaoh Overlord or Cave. Supposedly performing a new song written just for SXSW, with a phalanx of drummers gathered from all over Austin. Also a former aQ Record Of The Week! "Girls Against Shit" (audio from WFMU archives)
IRON MAN Veteran Maryland doom metal legends, heavy and fuzzy, doomy, dramatic, epic and totally metal. Fans of Black Sabbath, The Obsessed, Trouble, Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus, Solitude Aeternus and all of that sort of heavy doomy stuff should worship at the altar of Iron Man! Check out "Life's Toll" from their Black Night LP, and also their recent live set on Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine show.
EPILEPTINOMICON Mysterious rhythmic drone / doom outfit, whose sounds is somewhere between, tripped out blackened psychedelic kraut doom, and pulsing minimal Chain Reaction style minimal murk, heavy and dense and druggy.
SPEEDWOLF A recent discovery for us, these Colorado thrashers totally destroy, a killer mix of Venom and Motorhead (and a little Bad News!), with a vocalist who is a dead ringer for Lemmy, crushing riffage, pounding drums, tracks range from full bore neck snapping frenzy, to loping hooky groove, to pounding almost doom, totally heavy and insanely catchy, dying to see these guys live. "In League With Satan" (Venom cover) from their Bark At the Poon release.
TODD Riffy and raw, rhythmic and heavy and in the red, a pounding and relentless blowout a la Brainbombs and Rusted Shut and Twin Stumps and White Mice and the Mayyors, howled marble mouthed vox, riffs crumbling with distortion, bowel rattling bass rumble, the drums pounding and frantic, from unhinged Scratch Acid / Jesus Lizard noise rock, to seasick post rock groove, to lurching sludge-y doom, to full on filthy space rock trip out.
