Review: The Best Of SXSW Music 2016

Words and Images by: David Schultz

SXSW Music :: 03.15 – 20.16 :: Austin, TX

As much an annual custom as the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas has served as a yearly centerpiece and platform for the future of film, music and interactive technologies. With more than 2,000 bands coming to the Texas capital, the weeklong music portion of the festival is nothing short of sensory and auditory overload. Unofficial day parties hosted and curated by a variety of music publications and other music related ventures take over the downtown area during the afternoon with the official showcases, put together by independent record labels, booking agents and the like, taking over at night. Absent the ability to roll back time, it takes Herculean effort to see even five percent of the artists plying their craft. Consequently, putting together a compendium of the notable highlights of the 2016 SXSW festival becomes a bit of a subjective venture. Elsewhere, you may find raves about the Iggy Pop/Josh Homme performance at ACL Live, Drake’s not-so-surprise set at the Fader Fort or The Roots party at the Bud Light Factory (oh yes, did I forget to mention the corporate sponsorships), but here you’ll find the highlights of JamBase contributor David Schultz’s trip to SXSW.

If there was any type of proper opening to the music part of the festival, it took place at Maggie Mae’s on Sixth Street where Capsula, an engaging Spanish rock band that now hails from Argentina, forewent a set of originals in favor of covering Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars in its entirety. As much a labor of love as a crowd pleaser, guitarist Martin Guevara and bassist Coni Duchess had voices perfectly suited for David Bowie’s classic album while Guevara has it within him to serve as energetic embodiment of the glam-era. Although a festival that looks forward, Bowie’s influence could be found throughout the week. The arty Stealing Sheep, an interesting psychedelic pop trio from Liverpool, played in leotards that could have come from Bowie’s closet and the cross-dressing of Ezra Furman, so tangential to his music, seems like the type of thing Bowie would wholeheartedly endorse.

[Capsula Covers “Moonage Daydream” in 2013]

The opening day also saw Downtown Boys, a ferocious hardcore band from Providence, Rhode Island electrify the late afternoon crowd assembled on the Side Bar patio deck. Over the course of their 30-minute set, lead singer Victoria Ruiz bitched out Texas over their abortion laws, turned artist’s rights into a socialism issue and transformed Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” into a feminist anthem for every woman that isn’t a size zero. Ruiz’ apparent willingness to challenge any type of authority or prevailing view, no matter whether her opinion might be popular, was everything great about punk rock.

For 14 consecutive years, Peelander Z has made the trek from Planet Peelander (otherwise known as Japan via New York City) to Austin, hosting their annual Peelander fest at the Grackle as well as playing a number of other showcases. On Tuesday night, the self-proclaimed Japanese Action Comic Book played the sparse confines of Valhalla, filling it with their extremely outlandish brand of performance art. With brief bursts of hardcore, punctuated with stage dives, stilted banter and more Superfly splashes from the speakers than an ’80s era WWF show, Peelander Z is either hardcore at its finest or a 100 mph train wreck. At the start of the set, Peelander Yellow informed everyone that “we don’t play music, we make noise.” As if to prove the point, by the end of the set they relinquished their instruments to the first people that professed any competency in an innovative bit of interactive hardcore.

Given the certainty that SXSW will leave you with aching feet, sleep deprivation and ringing ears, it’s fair to inquire why any spectator would dive into this venture. An easy answer could be found on St. Patrick’s Day, where Jake Bugg, the folk-rock Wunderkind from Nottingham, played a brief early afternoon set at Old School as part of the Island Records party. Where Bugg’s American shows are usually held in ever-growing 1,500 to 2,500 capacity venues, his Old School set was as relaxed and enjoyable as watching a musician play his local pub. Another answer could be found in seeing Bleached, comprised of Los Angeles based sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin. Two years ago, the Clavins were a promising young band with great songs and little stage presence. Now, with brightly dyed hair and an attitude to match, they could be on the verge of a tremendous breakout. There hasn’t been a transformation like this since Dylan Baldi grew his hair out and turned Cloud Nothings into the greatest grunge band of the 2000s. It also shouldn’t be ignored that Twin Peaks, a wonderful outfit from Chicago, is maturing into a mighty rock band.

Yet another reason to come to SXSW is to see artists that would likely never appear on your radar. While there are surely acts that step up to their synthesizer, push a button and hit play, what sounds like studio confabulation becomes extremely interesting and enjoyable when played out live. Once an avant-garde duo of sisters as likely to forego actual music in favor of an interpretative dance, Prince Rama has brought in a guitarist and learned how to overwhelm a crowd with their boundless energy. At the Ad Hoc day party at Cheer Up Charlie’s, Taraka Larson not only climbed the walls, she executed an impressive balance beam walk across a guard rail to the middle of the crowd before performing a trust fall into the crowd. In a similar vein, Boston based Guerilla Toss brings a punk-noise vibe to their brand of dance rock while Marijuana Deathsquads sets up a bunch of electronics to squelch and a wildly distorted singer in front of a pair of drummers going double time. The Deathsquads did accomplish a neat trick when they had a sit in, although it took the guy a lot longer to plug in his gear box than Warren Haynes would a guitar.

At the Brooklyn Vegan day party on Saturday afternoon, as they did throughout the week, Car Seat Headrest, a solo home-school project of Will Toledo, simply dropped jaws. In the ’80s/’90s, anyone wanting to create music in their bedroom needed to follow the Liz Phair regimen of sitting in front of a tape recorder and pouring their heart out. Given the analog nature of the process, the results were relatively easy to replicate on stage. tUnE-yArDs, one of the first to benefit from the Pro Tools era, managed to create a swirling eddy of sound from the comfort of her own home. However, Merrill Garbus wasn’t able to quickly convert that into a compelling live performance. Having built a following by releasing a prolific number of songs on Bandcamp, Toledo transitioned to the stage by bringing on a band able to turn up the volume, add great heft and truly fill out the sound. Opening with 20 minutes of the most compelling rock to come around in quite some time, even silly songs about drunk driving and the ills of smoking remained interesting as they are simply great songs.

The weather played a small but influential role on the Friday night showcases as a lightning storm resulted in delays or the outright closure of many of the outdoor venues. Slingshot Dakota, a keyboards and drums husband and wife duo from Pennsylvania that isn’t tremendously far removed from the Benevento/Russo Duo, received an unexpected benefit during their set on the deck of Sidewinder (nee Red Eyed Fly). With the sky lighting up with great frequency around them, their cover of Tori Amos’ “Cornflake Girl” became a piece of performance art. It’s a shame that it wasn’t recorded from the right angle as it was an absolutely compelling visual. Over at Barracuda, the bands scheduled for the patio played indoors in the round with hard rockers like Demob Happy and Plague Vendor deriving extra gusto from their proximity to the crowd.

[Slingshot Dakota – Cornflake Girl | Captured by Rick Dalhberg]

With the exception of Iggy Pop, 83-year-old Loretta Lynn was possibly the only artist at the festival that could care little for how she came across at SXSW. As the main attraction at the BBC Music showcase at Stubbs, Lynn drew as large a crowd, if not more as Rachel Ray’s entire day party. Over a brief set, the Queen of Country granted an audience, running through classics like “Fist City” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Although Lynn couldn’t help but engender nostalgia in her traditional red sequined dress, like most at SXSW, she did have a recently released album, Full Circle, her first since the Jack White produced Van Lear Rose a dozen years ago, and made sure to let everyone know that it was available for sale by offering up “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven,” one of its standout tracks. Shameless plugging may seem beneath a star of Lynn’s caliber; then again, she didn’t get to be country royalty by being subtle.

For the majority of SXSW, Showtime took over the Clive Bar to promote its new Cameron Crowe created series Roadies. Regardless of whether the show exceeds the always askew Vinyl, it did have the good sense to book White Denim as its Thursday night headliner. Previewing many of the songs from their upcoming release, Stiff, the band sounded as sharp as ever with the hipster patois of James Petralli and endless supply of hooks and riffs remaining the captivating focus of the band. Most importantly, White Denim didn’t seem to miss a beat with the inclusion of new guitarist Jonathan Horne and drummer Jeff Olson, who are filling the shoes of Austin Jenkins and Josh Block while they are on tour with Leon Bridges. While the camaraderie and stage chemistry may be in the development stage, Horne and Olson surely are up to speed on the songs. As an odd thought, if Leon Bridges turns out to be a flash in the pan, his legacy might very well be as the Yoko Ono of White Denim, which would be fascinating in its own right.

While many artists stood out on talent alone, others stood out by simply being different. Lavender Country released a gay country album in 1973, in the midst of an era when it was extremely provocative to do such a thing. It would turn out to be the only album they ever recorded and hardly even rose to the level of footnote or curio. Forty years later, the inclusion of “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” on a compilation album led to the band’s rediscovery and eventually an invitation to the Pitchfork day party at Barracuda. Their set on the back patio was far from a transcendent, prescient slice of country from another generation. Rather, than come across as kitschy or politically timely, the songs came across as slightly crass and really could have benefitted from some refinement.

Just over a decade ago, Wolfmother seemed poised to conquer the world as the future kings of rock, garnering raves and buzz the likes of which have rarely been seen since. Unfortunately, a series of lineup changes and the inability to credibly follow-up their self-titled debut led to a quick descent into obscurity. In the not too distant past, the nadir was reached when lead singer Andrew Stockdale took to the road as a solo act for a quickly aborted tour. With a recently released new album, Wolfmother returned to the Easy Tiger outdoor stage before a packed crowd eager to relive their heady mix of progressive rock and early-era heavy metal. From most vantage points, Stockdale appeared to be nothing more than a giant afro singing “Woman,” “Mind’s Eye” and “Joker & The Thief,” which no one minded at all.

For the past ten years, the Athens In Austin day party, presented by the Georgia Theater with support from the 40 Watt Club, has featured acts that, if not from the Athens area aren’t too far disassociated from the region. T. Hardy Morris, formerly of Athens powerhouse Dead Confederate, closed the showcase with his band the Hard Knocks. Earlier in the afternoon, Morris jumped on stage with Saint Pe, joining Ian St. Pe, formerly of the Black Lips, for a mini-Diamond Rugs reunion with St. Pe returning the favor during Morris’ set. The entire afternoon ended with a ramshackle all-musicians-on-deck cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that St. Pe saw fit to sit out.

When the history of the ’90s is written, Soul Asylum will have a significant role, being big enough that Winona Ryder deigned to date lead singer Dave Pirner as part of her baptismal of all worthy indie rockers of the era. History hasn’t been incredibly kind to the Minneapolis quartet and any mention of the band is usually met with a snicker and snide reference to “Runaway Train.” Nonetheless, at the unfortunately underfilled Scoot Inn on Saturday night, when Pirner led the reconstituted band through “Somebody To Shove,” “Just Like Anyone,” “Black Gold” and their cover of Victoria Williams’ “Summer of Drugs,” it was absolutely glorious, proving that music, when it hits you in the right spot, is ageless.