Monday, April 2, 2007

speakeasy...or how i learned to love the balpeen hammer

first off, why the fuck isn't jarvis cocker playing chicago on his u.s. tour? ridiculous...

anyway, you got most of the sxsw skinny from the HP, and seeing as you'll have to pay various publications for my sxsw recaps, i thought i'd throw y'all a bone and at least give you the 5 best bands you didn't see at sxsw '07:

1. hot cross
even the kids waiting to see circa survive looked on at them with something resembling disbelief. a bunch of 30-something dudes tearing it up, spitting and spewing vitriol from every pore and knocking the shit out of the tunes from their newest long-players, Risk Revival.

2. walter meego
two chicago dudes and a fuckload of synths and drum machines = a wicked depeche mode/pet shop boys rucks that had the whole place shimmying just like their trousers were on fire.

3. rwake
absolutely titanic sludge-metal from a gaggle of alabama wastoids. their dirge is equal parts melvins and mastodon with jugular-slicing riffs and a thunderous bottom-end squall that'll have you scrambling for the depends in a matter of seconds.

4. the oohlas
utterly charming female-fronted noise-pop from these l.a. scene darlings. delirious pink-noise pop and heart-breaking harmonies. plus, if ollie stone's not the absolute cutest girl frontperson around, then i don't know who is.

5. foals
the best uk import since, god, lord knows when. they fuse the taut, revved-up fire of early franz with the glo-paint indie-techno snottiness of the klaxons and add some stuttering incantantions a la the fall for good measure. the best live band of the festival, hands down. investigate now or pretend like you knew them later...