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Casiokids

Mar 18, 2010 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern SXSW 2010

A sea of green t-shirt wearing drunken Austin locals intermingled with diehard audio fans and industry types as the start of the music portion of SXSW 2010 coincided with St. Patrick’s Day. Seeing no need to ease into things, this writer jumped in at 2 p.m., stopped at 1:30 a.m., and saw a total of 11 artists during the first day, including the likes of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Broken Bells, The Walkmen, and many others. But more on all that in a later post. First, here is a recap of the day parties we attended.

For starters we made it to the Little Radio day party at Red Eyed Fly just in time to catch the last three songs of Findlay Brown’s set. The English troubadour with perfectly quaffed hair was playing one of his finest songs, the Blade Runner referencing “Teardrops in the Rain,” as we entered the venue. “We’re going to try and squeeze a little one in, not a little one out. I like to self-defecate on stage,” Brown joked, before playing his final song, “Everybody Needs Love.” Live, Brown sounded more rough and ready than on his well-produced (by Bernard Butler) sophomore album, Love Will Find You. But he was no less charming.

Around the corner at Red 7 we caught a set by Denmark’s wittily named Oh No Ono, at the Forcefield PR/Terrobird party. The band had a big, almost theatrical sound, for an afternoon party. Three to four different band members often sung at once, with a sound that filled up the room. As an added bonus, they had a polka-dotted guitar.

Across the road, fellow Scandinavians Casiokids were playing the Shout It Out Loud party at the Creekside Lounge. The band, who only sing in their native Norwegian, were stuck playing an outside patio that had a big tree growing in the center of it. They went on 20 minutes late and took awhile to truly warm up. But eventually their energy kicked in, complete with a shaker that looked like a pineapple, and the set ended with lots of cowbell, multiple members banging on drums, and a good time vibe.

Back at the Forcefield party, Real Estate were a lot less animated. The New Jersey-based band were kind of aimless, but pleasant. The venue was packed with lots of smelly guys in tank-tops, half-shirts, and silly haircuts, leading me to think that my new band name would be Sweaty Hipsters (if I had a band or could play a lick of anything). While sound-checking, the bassist for A Sunny Day in Glasgow played a Stone Roses riff. The shoegazers were predictably loud and at first the two female singers’ vocals got lost in the haze. The second song had a better mix of danceable beats, shimmering guitars, and more recognizable vocals, and the mix sounded better when I moved further away from the stage. Alas, “Nitetime Rainbows,” the best song off of last year’s sophomore album, Ashes Grammar, didn’t remotely equal the recorded version.

For our last daytime set of the day, although we’re talking 6 p.m. at this point, we headed to the British Music Embassy at Latitude 30 for a party hosted by Huw Stephens (of BBC Radio 1) to catch a short set by Manchester, England’s Everything Everything. “This is our first time in America. Very happy to be here,” said vocalist Jonathan Higgs. The quartet played an energetic set that included singles “MY KZ UR BF” and “Photoshop Handome.” The Brits were kind enough to provide free English food, but alas, a pastry that was mislabeled as containing cheese and onion, actually included beef, which forced this vegetarian to spit out his complimentary snack into a napkin, which not the polite behavior that I’m known for. But there’s no way I’m swallowing meat!

With the day parties over, it was time for a quick dinner and then on to the nighttime festivities, which I will have to write about in a separate post later. Got to get to a photo-shoot and then more bands to go see before I can write anything else!