I have 14 days left until I hit up Austin for SXSW and within the last two days I have learned more about what acts I plan on seeing than I have since I bought the flight tickets.
A lot of shows are going on at the same time and I can help but wonder, how do all the folk who go to SXSW do it? how do their weigh who they are going to see every day? I want to see Screeching Weasel but just found out the Black Lips are playing a set right around the same time…
Regardless, yesterday my fav female pal in Austin left me a voicemail telling me to RSVP for a free show that The Dead Milkmen were going to be playing. I about fell out of my chair the moment I heard her say that…
Then looked at the website for Transmission Entertainment’s Mess With Texas 5th annual event and saw this line-up:
The Dead Milkmen
!!!
Odd Future
Surfer Blood
The Dodos
Ted Leo (solo)
Thee Oh Sees
Deer Tick
OFF!
Screaming Females
The Strange Boys
The Fresh and Onlys
Davila 666
Big Freedia
Lemuria
Dom
Esben and The Witch
Devin Therriault
The Growlers
We Barbarians
EMA
Wow, just….wow!!!!!
I know what I am doing Saturday whilst in Austin now.
Sadly I am going to be missing the one and only Wu Tang Clan who play the night of the 17th… Having seen them twice in my time, once with ODB himself, I think I will live, but I am always down to see some live Wu Tang.
The Dropkick Murphys’ new album Going Out In Style just dropped this week via their own Born & Bred Records. In connection with the release, the band released a video for the title track called “Going Out In Style”:
Man I want a Guinness now…
A little info about the video for those of you who might have recognized a few familiar faces (taken from the band’s website):
In the clip–directed by Mark Higgins–a funeral parlor scene quickly becomes a raucous celebration of life. Dropkick Murphys are joined by friends, family and special guests including NHL Hall of Famer Bobby Orr (Boston Bruins alumni), fellow musicians Fat Mike (NOFX) and Chris Cheney (The Living End), along with a host of Boston-based celebrities: Micky Ward (boxing champion; The Fighter), Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me actor & comedian), Shawn Thornton (Boston Bruins), Milan Lucic (Boston Bruins), Kevin Youkilis (Boston Red Sox) and Heidi Watney (NESN reporter).
I do not know about you, but I enjoyed that video a lot. I have loved Dropkick for many years now and am stoked that they keep dishing out new material.
I actually just got my hands on the album and hope to have a review soon for you all. Having heard a little bit of it previously I can tell you the Boston punks still have their sound on this concept album of sorts.
I am also going to be seeing them this Sunday at the House of Blues in Cleveland with my brother. The show is sold out and has been for a couple of months now. I was lucky and grabbed tickets early as I knew it would. Saying I am excited is an understatement and I am stoked to be able to take my own brother to the show.
Hey everyone. I just learned of something fun that is happening this Friday at Annabells in Akron…and it’s FREE!
The Decline, a NOFX cover band project featuring members of past acts like Friends Back East and D.F.T.W. will be playing a set at Annabells for all who decide to attend.
Local Cleveland punk rockers (and great friends of mine) The Facials have decided to jump on the bill as well as the still smells-like-new Akron act Worship This! (also friends of mine).
If you were once of the seven people that accidentally read my Best Of 2010 post a couple months back, you might remember that The Facials dressed up as NOFX and played a Halloween set at Now That’s Class. It was fun, they sounded good, and everyone in the venue was loving it. I am pretty sure that The Decline will do the very same as they are a group of good guys looking to just have a night of fun.
Doors are at 10pm and admission is free unless you are under 21 and in that case you will need to sell your soul or offer up $3.00 (I think).
Don’t act like anything else is going on Friday night in Akron. Be there.
I am sure I have bragged about this before but… I’m going to be checking out SXSW finally, well sort of. I am going to be missing a few days of it thanks to school but will be able to catch the latter end as I will be arriving in Austin on March 18th around noon.
Why am I telling you all this? Well why wouldn’t I? I’m stoked to actually check some of this amazing span of days in one of my favorite cities.
Plus I am hoping people from Austin will read this and give me a ride from the airport to the city as I have things to do!!! Just kidding, I made arrangements already.
Shirts For A Cure will be putting on a free show at Red 7 that will start right around the time my plane lands. I am hoping I can make it there in time to see Paint It Black, Fake Problems, BANE, Title Fight, Riverboat Gamblers, Dave Hause, and The Flatliners. I am not holding my breath though as I am sure a ton of kids will get there before I do.
Later that night I need to poke around the city and find The Scoot Inn as Screeching Weasel, Banner Pilot, Dead To Me, and The Flatliners (2 shows in one night!) will be playing a later set. I am pretty certain that this show is going to not be free and I will do my best to find a way in as I did not obtain a SXSW bracelet since I am only going to be there technically for two days.
Saturday afternoon it looks like Alternative Press is having a free afternoon of music as well but I am not too sure I am going to dig any of the bands so we shall see. If anything I will spend that day eating good food and seeing good people.
I plan on making it over to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon (see Ginny on the right) and see Dale Watson and crew play a show on Sunday the 20th. That right there would make my weekend. Plus I hear the chicken-shit bingo is a ton of fun too. Mike B., I’ll be looking for you man!!!
Other than those couple events I have nothing really planned for my 5 days in the coolest city in Texas other than hanging with one of the coolest ladies on Earth. I hope to mingle with some other friends too that I have who live in the area as well as meet up with some of the PR folks who help keep this site awesome including JT and Vanessa.
I am sure I will spend a dollar or two at Waterloo Records and I am hoping to see the cool parts of town and maybe see about getting a permanent souvenir again at Triple Crown Tattoos (not counting on that as Austin is going to be insane, but still…).
Hello to all you happy readers out there. Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I have been really caught up with school the last couple weeks.
So what have I been up to other than studying too much you ask?
Well…
Last Saturday I headed to Musica in Akron, OH to check out the amazing folk act Frontier Ruckus. This band blew me away live. I have been a fan of them for some time now but always missed them when they came to Ohio. I made damn sure I was not going to miss them this time.
The band made their final stop in Akron before wrapping up their tour and enjoyed every minute of it. If you have not heard of them yet and like some honest, good folk rock, check them out. Their saw player is amazing (yes, saw player).
The band played through a great set with everyone in the house signing along and enjoying themselves. One kind female fan even showed her approval and tossed an undergarment to the stage. The band loved it and even made the comment that no one had ever done anything like that for them before. Once they found out the owner of the garment, they jokingly asked her to prove it was hers. She had no problem doing so…
Other than a couple of highly intoxicated guys who could not control the volume of their voices, the night was a blast. Frontier Ruckus are one of those bands that sound so much better live and I am glad I finally made it to experience it.
Opening act White Pines were playing when I got there and besides the Kings Of Leon singing similarities, they sounded awesome. There was an opening local act that I missed but from what I heard from the hyper Moby-looking bartender (I mean that in a good way), the crowd loved them.
I took a crappy video of them playing “Junk-Drawer Sorrow” with my iPhone during their encore. The coolest thing about the video I took is that the band pulled the plugs on all of their amps, gathered in front of the crowd and played the song a cappella:
Again, sorry for the crappy quality. I am going to invest in an HD camera soon I think.
Frontier Ruckus was offering a pretty unique FUNRAISER recently (it ended today – 02/25/2011 actually) to help them get a new touring van. See this letter for the reason behind the request for donations. I was just checking out what were offering to raise money for a new ride and I must say I was impressed with the idea.
Bundles were offered as an exchange for a donation and they started at $10 for some demos from the band. The bundles escalated from there.
For a mere $1000 donation you could have received from the band:
Copy of trinity thaw demos
Copy of live at noordbroek Copy of live at eddie’s attic A limited edition I Am The Water You Are Pumping EP
A digital download of Deadmalls & Nightfalls A digital download of The Orion Songbook
The Orion Songbookon vinyl (2xLP)
A frontier ruckus t-shirt
A personalized song written by Matthew
Hand-written lyrics for personalized song
& A house concert for you and your friends
I wish I was able to take some donations on my end to make that happen…
The Dead Milkmen
I plan on making it over to 