Just a reminder WFMU will be broadcasting live this Friday night 8PM to 3AM ET live from Austin, Texas and our joint SXSW show curated by us and our pals from Aquarius Records in San Francisco! Liz Berg, Brian Turner, Scott Williams, Jason Sigal, Diane Kamikaze and AQ's Andee Connors will give you the play by play and simulcast live sounds from the massive 14 band, two-stage bill taking place at Encore (formerly Spiro's), 611 Red River right in the heart of downtown Austin. 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:
OUTSIDE STAGE
7p Liturgy
8p Speedwolf
9p Iron Man
10p Moon Duo
11p Shit & Shine
12m Pierced Arrows
1a Dengue Fever
INSIDE STAGE
7p Epileptinomicon
8p Drunkdriver
9p Home Blitz
10p Headdress
11p Sonny & the Sunsets
12a True Widow
1a Todd
We'll also have some FMU swag for attendees to check out, and the special-designed posters by famed UK artist Savage Pencil (pictured)! Click below for more on the bands, and some MP3s and links to sounds in general. If you're in Austin, we'd love to see ya.
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.
Some fantastic writing here! Love, love the spot-on Sonny & The Sunsets description.
BUT ... the Home Blitz blurb raised my hopes to a place from which they could only fall. No disrespect to Home Blitz, who ARE great - but they're not even a little bit like Game Theory mixed w. Half Japanese. If anyone can point me in the direction of a band that does sound like that I'll be eternally grateful!
Posted by: Holly | March 15, 2010 at 05:20 PM
wow! this radio is great!!! I'm listening to the Antique Phonograph Music Program!
I've just seen this blog five minutes ago and I inmmediatly became a fan!
Posted by: Josefa | March 16, 2010 at 07:40 PM
is this showcase all ages or 21 & up?
Posted by: Elizabeth | March 17, 2010 at 01:09 PM