J. Tillman, now better known for being a member of Fleet Foxes, played an early show inside at Mohawk, which was a great low-key start to SXSW.  His accoustic folk is similar to Jason Molina, and his beard evokes Will Oldham.  The lyrics are dark, which deepens the similarity to both those men.  It was a good show, and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

Anticon: Yoni Wolf and Themselves at Red7

After the brevity of J Tillman's set, we had more time than we needed to get to our next show, so we dropped in at Yoni Wolf's show at Red7.  I've seen him plenty of times with Why?, which pushed him out of my "must-see-artists" list, but I do love his self-depricating lyrical style, and it was a cute show.  Just him and a keyboard, playing new Why? songs, and a couple off of Alopecia.  After his set, we moved inside to catch his Anticon labelmates, and ex-cLOUDDEAD bandmates Themselves.  DoseOne's hi-speed lyrical delivery was barely intelligible, but amazing.  Their phat beatz, as it were, were also amazing.  We can only assume that the lyrics matched the dirty humor of his stage banter between songs.

The Handsome Family at Dog and Duck

Despite getting a tweet from @amandapalmer, we Missed her flash-mob-pillow-fight outside Radio Room, and had time to stroll slowly up to Dog and Duck for Handsome Family.  Their alt-country set was nice, as were the chairs after our long walk.  They played the songs we wanted, and it was a nice and chill show before dinner and the evening craziness.

Jucifer at Emo's Annex

Jucifer was hands-down, the best set of the day.  Amber Valentine came out and lived up to the Rock Star tattooed across her knuckles.  After her folky leather outfit, Her dirty sludgy guitar was the second thing to strike from the stage, she made it growl for longer than some of their whole songs, before launching into their set.  And launch they did.  She was ferocious, bringing unbelievable energy to songs from their latest double album, playing songs back-to-back, with no pause even to breathe.  Her husband and drummer was just as intense, standing up to bring more force to the stops and starts of their songs.  He also contributes perplexing falsetto vocals in the midst of his heavy drumming and Amber's heavy guitar work, contributin to their amazing stylistic breadth for a 2 person band.  Their DIY-halogen-light-and-smoke stage was amazing, too.  Most of SXSW is pretty low-budget, and low production, but not this show.

Katzenjammer in the middle of 6th street

We were on our way to see The Wierd Weeds at The Hideout when we were suddenly arrested by the norwegian folk harmonies of Katzenjammer playing in the middle of the street.  They played like they meant it, and were completely adorable.  We'll try to catch up with them later at SXSW, which I suppose is the reason for playing impromptu street shows.  The Weird Weeds are a local band who I saw just after new years.  The show was a lot more focused than the last time I saw them, but still very artsy/avant/experimental.

Dosh at Mohawk

Dosh was the victim of unfortunate circumstances.  His multi-instrumentalist electronic music is calm and intricate, which is better suited to an afternoon show than to 11PM, when I'm already feeling the wear of going to 7 different shows.  To make matters worse, Mohawk's inside venue is no longer air conditioned, and the stage is no longer visible from the far side of the bar.  In fact, with him sitting down between his drum set, keyboard, and effects, he was impossible to see.  The pictures I took are my only view of the show, since I could hold the camera up high enough to see over.

Viva Voce at Radio Room, and The Decemberists on the radio

No pictures for this show, since The Radio Room had a sign saying only cameras with badges.  After a really long sound check, Viva Voce played with very bad sound and lots of feedback.  They seemed as exhausted as we were, and unable to connect to their music at all.  When we got back in the car to go home, we heard The Decemberists playing with My Brightest Diamond on KUT, and were chagrined at our choice of shows, since it was clearly far better than Dosh and Viva Voce.  I picked up their new LP the next morning at Waterloo, since the show was so good, and I'm really into My Brightest Diamond, who appears on the album.

We arrived on wednesday, and after picking up badges, I went straight over to Mohawk for The Forms. The show was nice and open, since most people still hadn't arrived yet, and the venue was ample for those who had. The weather was beautiful, the set was great, and Mohawk had some of the best sound all week. I caught 4 bands before The Forms went on, and all of them were at least interesting. I find it sad that there are so many bands out there that I'd enjoy, and yet there's no radio station that manages to find them. No matter, the internets are better for everything. The Forms played a great set, and it was the best show I saw until Sunday.

Meeting up with the wifest again, we headed off to catch Why? at Emo's. The picture above is from Thursday, when we caught them again outdoors. They played a different set at each of their three shows, which probably makes their first one the best, since that's where they played "The Hollows", which I now realize I like disproportionately more than the rest of their stuff. Okkervil River with Roky Erickson was much more of Roky's crowd than Okkervil's, being at the Austin Music Awards and all. I'm not completely writing off Okkervil, but they're hanging by a thread.

Thursday: Shout Out Louds, Weakerthans, High on Fire

We queued up just early enough for the NPR showcase at The Parish, we were the last 2 people in before the guest-listers. The Shout Out Louds came on before Jens Lekman, who we were there to see, but had much better sound, and much more of a show to give.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent moderating comments from a certain post on my work blog, until I went out to meet the wifest for Weakerthans & DeVotchKa. The Cedar Street venue is pretty cool, although my blackberry's camera didn't do it (like so many things this weekend) any justice at all. Nonetheless, I ran off to check out High on Fire. I'd had hopes of catching Municipal Waste as well, but Emo's Annex was running closer to on time than Cedar Street, so I missed them. Hight on firesound more similar to mastodon than they actually are, live. The show was much thrashier than anything else I saw this week.

Friday: Division Day, Cloud Cult, Clouds

Ironically, despite the names of the bands, it was clear, sunny, and well into the 90's on friday. This made the trek over to Waterloo Records for Division Day pretty painful, but they made it worth my while. Their synth-emo was the right kind of dreamy to be seeing in the middle of a record store.

Afterwards, I walked all the way back to Emo's Annex for Why?, and was pleasantly surprised by Cloud Cult beforehand. They had a painter on stage, and played cool noisy experimental stuff. their forthcoming album (for sale at the show) doesn't really capture the dynamics and explosiveness of the live show. I'll definately be checking them out more, though.

For the night show, I decided that I'd had enough of standing in lines, and I'd try to stay in one place. The Hydrahead showcase is exactly what I wanted - Stephen Brodsky (masquerading as a misspelled Stove Bredsky), Clouds, and a patio to smoke on. I first walked in during some very space-y "experimental" set, which quickly caused me to go take a smoke break. The patio was filled with metalheads, for the "It's GRIM up North" Showcase. Turns out Goat the Head was about to start. The guys walked on caked in mud or blood, and wearing only diapers loincloths. Except the singer who wore pelts, and growled non-stop, doing his best to sound like this. I love metal, but sometimes you just have to laugh.

I came back in to find Stephen Brodsky playing guitar on stage, by himself. Rather than playing the very chill, very acoustic stuff from his recent solo records, he played stripped down versions of Cave In songs. Mostly from "Tides of Tomorrow", the EP that's not as inventive as Jupiter, or as pop as Antenna, released between the two. It was a really great fit.

His sometimes bandmate's band, Clouds, came on next, and played a great show. They don't so much mix stoner metal and hardcore, as they veer wildly between the two. It's a very easy type of music for me to listen to: it's intense, but it has great melody, and surprising harmonies from the 3 vocalists, who trade off songs and verses. It's crunchy and fast, and just damn good.

Saturday: The Gaslight Anthem, David Bazan, Cassettes Won't Listen

I'd tried to catch The Gaslight Anthem earlier, but there'd been a last-minute lineup change, and I wound up with a $10 tab, and an earful of some band from the Spiderman soundtrack. It was quite a contrast to the Austinist/Gothamist Showcase on wednesday that made such a great opening to the weekend. Anyway, back to Gaslight - I love those guys, and the show was just as fun as I'd imagined. Well, for their part, at least. The audience was mostly pre-teen girls, which I think was as surprising to them as it was to me, prompting jokes about braces and spring break. I think of Gaslight in the same vein as Sparta or later Hot Water Music, so I didn't think I'd feel that old.

Amongst the swag we picked up at registration, there was a card for a blackberry-based music store. There nothing I was interested in, save for a lone Pedro the Lion EP, in amongst mainstream and christian crap. Early Saturday evening, I'd queued up for Jaymay at Maggie Mae's. By the time The Wifest and Harry showed up, 6^th st. Was a zoo, since the line for the rooftop was inextricably mixed with our line. Chatting with our newfound friends-in-line, I found out David Bazan was playing upstairs, and changed my plans. David is an incredibly talented writer, and not much is lost with the transition from Pedro The Lion to solo singer/songwriter.

Cassettes Won't Listen closed out my weekend. I suffered through Tiger City beforehand, a little worried that I'd misjudged CWL. Turns out he was exactly what I wanted to see before going home. There are plenty of electronic one-man-bands that are painful to see live, because they're either mostly just playing a pre-recorded set, since they can't do it all at once, or they're so intently hunched over their laptop as to make it pointless to not just pre-record it. (*cough* four tet *cough*). CWL was the shining example of what a one-man show should be. He started out with his sampler and keyboard, building the introduction, looping and sampling himself as he went, building to the point that he could move to the mic, pull up his guitar, and just deliver. The songs were brilliant, and his performance carried the subtlety that I love about his music.

A brilliant end to a great show. You can check out more crappy phone pictures on my flickr stream, if you're into that kinda thing .