Cake In 15

In Which Your Correspondent Gets Tired or “I didn’t say rosebud”

Raphael Saadiq

If you have ever surfed or studied the ocean, you’ll know about the rip tide, the reverse current that, from the shore that quickly pulls back out to sea. It is especially dangerous to surfers and swimmers, who, after feeling the exhilaration of surging momentum of the wave, find themselves dragged under and away. Friday at SXSW had that dangerous rip tide quality. The running around, late nights of music, writing, editing and getting up early to finish and post, the drinks and smokes and adrenaline rush of crowds surging crests and a crash is dangerously imminent. I could have been done after the SPIN party at Stubb’s, having seen a killer lineup. I also could have been done after the AOL/Spinner Soul Revue, having been funked and romanced to bed. But you are not here to hang out in a hotel room. You have to find some reserves and get out and see things, keep swimming against that rip tide of exhaustion and deadlines.

Miike Snow

The SPIN party was pretty a-fucking-mazing. They throw it every year, and although as Staciaann warned me, the crowd can be a little uptight (it is, after all, an invite-only, industry heavy crowd) the lineup they picked definitely had the potential for mayhem: the re-united Hole, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Free Energy, Harlem, Miike Snow, Rogue Wave, and Fucked Up. Oh, Fucked Up. I’m going to start with them, even though they were more sort of in the middle, and I am just going to let the photos do the talking for the most part. I wrote a blog post for City Pages on it, and that should be enough and up soon. I’ll link when it is. Suffice to say this- it was so good that once it was over, we watched the entire show again silently on a friends videocamera andif I hadn’t taken a shower last night, I would still have mud on my body and Pink Eyes’ belly sweat in my hair.

Sharon Jones killed it again. She has been everywhere this South By and played two big shows yesterday, the SPIN shindig and the AOL/Spinner Soul Revue that we hit up later that night. Her guitar player introduced her as “the super soul sister with the magnetic je ne sais quoi” and that doesn’t disappoint. She is so buoyant and electric, it almost seems like an undersell. For the tune “If I Give You My Love” she brought Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes up on stage and sung it to him and although he stands a good two feet above her and is covered in tattoos, by the end of the song, he was on his knees hugging her. It was so sweet and maternal I had to text my mom that I love her, but it was also sexy, so know I have some Oedipus issues to deal with. Jokes aside, Sharon Jones deserves all the success she can get- before breaking into demonstrations of dances like the Mashed Potato, the Funky Chicken and the Boogaloo, she talked about getting on the soul train in Augusta, Georgia in 1965, and that train is still driving strong, thanks in no small part to the Dap Family. They have a new record out in April, I Learned The Hard Way, and it is knowledge you should share in.

Sharon Jones

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Tired. This is just easier now:

Hole Setlist (with notes and Courtney quotes)

Sympathy for Devil (Rolling Stones Cover)- An awesomely canny way to come back; a total rock tune and a fuck you to people who think she killed Kurt Cobain/ruined their lives/is a walking disaster.
Skinny Little Bitch- Courtney has the best green satin pumps on, which she reveals when she puts her foot up on the monitor and spreads her legs, which would be great except she misses several times and her foot goes skidding down the wedge.
Miss World- “I said Hole. I didn’t say big hole or little hole. I didn’t say rosebud, or big flapping vagina, I just said Hole.”
Nobody’s Daughter
Violet- Jokes about Brett Michaels and a “powerful ballad.” Then she sings part of “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn.” Then talks about her and BM running off together- “I’m gonna make that fucker get preg so fast.”
Letter To God- Introduction of the band members, including “Invisible Dave,” who is there to “shadow my shitty guitar playing.”
PCH
Reasons to Beautiful
Malibu- Followed with jokes about hate sex, where “you’re going ooh-ooh and then you punch them.” Next level up; kicking!
Dirty Girls- Overheard before the show, “I feel like I’m re-living my angst at 13 years old.” Despite whatever diminished expectations there may have been for this, thee women surrounding us who were in the CD buying demo circa ’96, this is pretty thrilling. Especially for the chick wearing the sundress made of fabric with Courtney all over it, who Courtney recognizes and has a moment with.
Honey
Samantha- “People like you fuck people like me,” is a pretty catchy chorus, but not with a ten-foot pole, love (idiomatically, not last-namely). They’re kicking her off because we’re at time. She cusses us out, smiling. It’s funny she’s still here, but that’s a walking example of pulling out the Disaster Principle.

Also awesome at the SPIN party: Goons of Doom. Foul-mouthed heavy Aussie rockers with choruses like “Burn alive, burn alive, every motherfucker’s gonna burn alive.” Towards the end of their set, one band members pretended to swim on the ground in front of the stage while another charged through the crowd with a shitty hand-made shark fin held above his head, then jumped on top and pretended to eat his bandmate, all to a song with the line “The shark that ate my lover, I want to buy that shark a beer.” Their recent recod on Volcom Entertainment is called I Hate My Hair and Want To Die, so if they are touring, find them and bring your harpoons.

Black Joe Lewis

After all that mayhem, bed seems good, or walking around, or eating, or anything seated. But there are legends to see and soul to have, so we hop a pedicab over to the Austin Music Hall and on the ride, roll past Andrew WK doing an interview in the back of another pedicab, which doesn’t seem all that surprising. We got to the Soul Revue in time to catch Austin’s own Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears tearing into some punk rocker Delta blues, some seriously heavy wailing with a tight brass section. Lewis not only covered Iggy Pop in his set, but busted out the harmonica and put on a serious show with tunes like “Sugarfoot” and “Bobby Boucher” and had his band working so hard that the drummer lost his glasses.

Raphael Saadiq from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

After Black Joe Lewis cleared off, Raphael Saadiq had his band in black suits with skinny black ties warming up the crowd. Saadiq, formerly of early 90’s R&B-styled group Toni! Tony! Toné! has styled this soul singer persona as a mix of the Temptations mixed with James Brown and when he bounded on stage in a fire-engine red suit, Saadiq’s ineffable energy was contagious. Vamping with performative sexiness and dancing in unison with his sideman, Saadiq wailed through tunes like “Sure Hope You Mean It” and “Let’s Take a Walk”. He definitely fed off the crowd and there were definitely some moments of stroking Saadiq’s own ego, continually asking “Do you love me?” but the answer was yes, so get some self-esteem and perform already. Still, the band made the show bounce so hard that bits of confetti that were stuck up in the rafters were shaken loose and Saadiq has a clothes-melting tenor. School of Cool was definitely in session, and one of the big lessons was “Always leave them wanting more” as Saadiq performed for barely half an hour in order to keep on schedule for Smokey Robinson.

Smokey Robinson

OK, so Robinson’s songs are part of the American canon of romantic songs, and I am sure there are many people walking around today who owe their existence to his tunes. I am also happy that I got to see him sing “Second That Emotion” but Smokey doesn’t move so well these days and his voice isn’t as powerfully smooth as it once was. He’s also had some work done so he doesn’t blink all that often, meaning that his live performance seemed, well, a little animatronic. It doesn’t help that he had some seriously cheesy, slightly peaked dancers gyrating around him, emphasizing his own diminished movement and by the time there spotlight fell on one musician for an extended flute solo, that was about as much 70s-style loving I could take.

That really should have been it, the plan was to wander lazily and and then head off to get to work, but the more we were on 6th street, the more random Minnesotans we ran into, Lucy Michelle and her crew, the Anthem Heart gang, Tony Zaccardi, Bella Koshka peeps- everyone is better friends with their countrymen in a foreign land. Snapping some pictures, eating some street pizza, laughing at the people coming out of the drum line dancing, it was a great night. Aimless and lovely and possibly a perfect note to go out on.

Drumline on 6th Street from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

But still, tiredness shall not win out and The Very Best, one of the bands that I had already missed twice was playing the late slot Emo’s. There seem to be two tacks for closing out the night at SXSW, something calming and relaxing (Sondre Lerche on Thursday) or crazy dancing (dubstep and Surfer Blood on Wednesday). The Very Best is some of the greatest dancing around, beautifully voiced Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya chanting and singing atop western pop hits re-cut and mixed by the London-based Radioclit DJ/production crew. Their free mixtape and record have been in heavy uplifting rotation for almost two years now, and when I saw them last at Pitchfork, it was one of the best dance parties ever, starting with 150 people or so and ending up with 2000. Crazy and not to be missed, damn the tired. Live on Emo’s small stage, Esau did not disappoint, but the tings that were off-putting at pitchfork were magnified, namely stupid hypeman doing all the blah blah blah bullshit hype stuff and the fact that the Radioclit guys are kind of douche-y and not great DJs. They’re basically playing a CD, and it can still get glitchy. Still, dance on, including their new hijack of Yeasayer’s “Ambling Alp”, “Tengazako” from M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” and when they got told by the venue that they were going to get shut down, those of us up front hopped on stage to dance to “Warm Heart of Africa” before wrapping it up in the dark to the overdub of Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There”. Too short, for sure and although the Very Best crew was running shuttles out to the ranch where they were staying to keep partying, it seemed the better choice to wander around towards home at that point. Tiredness will have out, but not before one last back-alley impromptu show by Austin’s Not In The Face, a rip-roaring country-punk duo stealing power for their mic and amps who sent me home with a cover of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”, which is a fine thing to sing to music, your lover and your muse.

Not In The Face from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

In Which Your Correspondent Gets God or Do People Still Say “Shoe Leather”?

Peter Wolf Crier

Life is a problem, a huge hurtling shitstorm of trials and tribulations, long treks, hard waits, frustrations, disappointments and anguish. Someone’s gonna get screwed, so it might as well be you and if you know that all this is going to happen to you there is no reason to get all down in the mouth abut it, especially when you can stand on a streetcorner with the sun shining on you and an ethereal breeze, listening to Dawes and the crowd sing out “When My Time Comes”. No use getting down about it, especially when it was yer dam self that left your ID and wallet at the hotel, just be grateful you didn’t lose the sucker and wait it out.

Wait it out and hit the road were themes of the day yesterday. And although I swore I didn’t come down to Austin to see local bands in the last post, there was too much Minnesota happening at SXSW yesterday not to pay attention and get some coverage. Vita.mn hosted their Minnesota music showcase, featuring Solid Gold (who have their own billboard right now in downtown Austin, courtesy of their record label, Green Label Sound) Lookbook, Romantica, Jeremy Messermith, City on the Make, We Became Actors and winners of their “Are You Local?” competition, dirty electro-rappers Bight Club. Staciaann spent time there shooting the event and eating up the free BBQ, so look for photos of that here and on Vita.mn.

Bight Club

Kitty-corner from that showcase, Dom Davis of Dearling Physique and Hilary Davis of Bella Koshka presented the 45th Parallel showcase that they organized, surprising the people who had come into the El Sol y La Luna restaurant expecting a taco and delighting the peple who had shown up for them. Dearling Physique kicked off the set with Davis performing in full-face glitter. They have an EP release coming up at the Varsity on Friday April 16th, so look for that. Anthem Heart were also on hand with a sweet portable screen-printing rig they had welded together over the weekend and were printing up custom “Austin” T-shirts. When we walked past six hours later, they were still at it, except out on the street and “living on borrowed time” in honcho Ken Hannigan’s words, as they were still stealing power from the restaurant!

Bella Koshka

It also feels like I shouldn’t complain about trekking across downtown and the river to catch Spirits of the Red City at the “All Yr Friends Are Here” showcase. Hell, that’s a local band that plays so infrequently in the Twin Cities that you almost have to be out on the road to catch them. When you do see them, though, they are so totally engrossing and worth it, with their nigh-spiritual chamber-folk. As @gimme_noise put it in a tweet, they are like “the eye of the storm” and despite whatever travails you may face, Spirits are a balm. Dark Dark Dark was also on that bill and they will be sharing the stage at the Cedar Cultural Center on April 15th, so add that to your already hectic April show calendar.

Spirits of the Red City from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

CakeIn15 pal Pezzettino was playing her show for the Muzzle of Bees blog in a lovely little spot by a canal but when I showed up (running late and running, as per the course) she was nowhere to be found. Turns out she had taken her little band of followers on a field trip to a nearby grotto to perform, and soon she was back on stage stomping her boots, wailing with her accordion and flinging her glockenspiel around. The joy of watching Pezzettino is the childish abandon with which she throws herself into her songs, and you are not immune from it at all- you will participate in some capacity.

Pezzettino from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Later, the potential for frustration mounted, mainly because the desire for the bands was high. The Dickie’s clothing company sponsored a day party at an intimate house venue just south of downtown that featured an excellent line-up, capped off by the one-two punch of Dawes and Delta Spirit. These two bands have made regular stops in the Twin Cities, and the first time they were on tour together, so it would have been a treat to see them both back-to-back again. Although the people who arrived early and have everything prepared got in right away, as you might have gleaned from the first paragraph, Nuts McRunner here unwittingly left his ID at the hotel, so though Staciaann got in alright to snap photos, by the time that was sorted, there was a line stretching down the block. The will to persevere will win out, though, and being grateful for the little things pays off in the end. As people began to lose hope or interest, the line diminished and many people who had been waiting out the line got in to catch at least part of Delta Spirit’s uplifting, populist folk-rock. The people, with their will and perseverance shall be victorious!

Dawes

From there, on to Emo’s, where Peter Wolf Crier were to play their third and most important show of the day. This was their official SXSW showcase, opening up an awesome line-up Miles Kurowsky (formerly of Beulah), Rogue Wave, Local Natives, Adam Green and Delta Spirit. The PWC boys didn’t show any signs of wear from the day, and what has been most fun in watching them ply live I how the songs off of Inter-Be have mutated in arrangement. Peter Pisano thanked the city of Austin for their hospitality and invited them all up to Minneapolis for cold weather and hot chocolate, so start saving up your Swiss Miss. After the show, Peter Wolf Crier’s crazy day was capped off with an interview by Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, who is in town for the IFC television channel doing musician interviews, so look for that awesomeness.

Peter Wolf Crier from Stacy Schwartz on Vimeo.

The rest of the line-up for that show was rock solid, any one of those bands is worth your dime live, Rogue Wave especially so. Kurowsky was extra effusive to the crowd, pulling up a fan and his girlfriend which whom he- was a “pen pal” to sing, and then inviting people to call out songs, on the condition they come up and sing them themselves. When one wag called out “Popular Mechanics” and then demurred to sing, Kurowsy fixed him with a stare and laughed, “You can’t just call it out and not do it. If you want it, you have to fucking want it.” Might as well be a life mantra there.

Rogue Wave

Cutting out of Emo’s (which is an amazing venue, like First Avenue only two times bigger and with most of the roof torn off) Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson at the Saddle Creek showcase was the target. MBAR’s first self-titled album contains a couple of my favorite tracks of the past few years, “The Debtor” and “Buriedfed” and he played both- “The Debtor” solo with his Epiphone and “Buriedfed” accompanied by synth keys, that turned it into a camp tragic opera, weird and compelling, death in the 80s. The songs themselves always stand up, whatever the arrangement, they have the ring of Dylan with Lou Reed’s junkie issues, and I’m glad he is alive.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

To end out the night, church seemed to be like an appropriate place to be and Central Presbyterian has opened its doors to intimate SXSW performances for years now. Norwegian songsmith Sondre Lerche fit the bill to a T, switching between a borrowed acoustic and plugged in Gretsch for his dynamic style that alternated between Paul Simon-sweet and Elliott Smith-angry. Cheers erupted when he tore into “Two Way Monologue” and he was self deprecating throughout, to the delight of the crowd. In noting the special nature of the venue, he remarked he was “not big on the church scene,” and when he introduced a song from his album Phantom Punch and people clapped, he joked that, “The label told me it didn’t sell well.” Although many people here are representing the labels, so many of the people attending are in it because they love the music and want to be here; all else in liefe can be between them and their god.

Sondre Lerche from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Judgement Day/Zoe Keating street orchestra

In Which Your Correspondent Gets Free Lunch or The Best of the Disaster Principle

You know you’re at South By Southwest when breakfast is lunch and you know you’re in Texas when that breakfast is beef brisket. It’s kind of like the Texan Breakfast of champions, and thanks to the folks at AOL/Spinner, Wednesday got off to a tasty start. Mark one day down for free breakfasts. Today, the Muzzle of Bees day party with Peter Wolf Crier should have free breakfast burritos.

Wednesday during the day was mostly spent at the Paste magazine party. Some old friends and favorites were playing and the new bands did not disappoint either. First up on the bill and with a nice crowd already for a noon slot was Basia Bulat, Canadian songstress who has been through the Twin Cities several times and who Staciaann met in the bathroom at First Avenue while Basia was trying to figure out which dress to wear for her gig. Backed by her brother Bobby on drums and Alison “Wonderland” Stewart on viola, Bulat’s warm and buttery alto filled up the room, even as she closed out her with a solo rendition of “Hush” an old gospel tune, against the noise bleed competition from the outside stage and street. Bulat’s songs, especially when she plays the autoharp, have a swirling old plains feel to them, and they were a beautiful way to kick off the day in Texas.

One of things you do need to do if you want to get the free swag/drinks/food is show up early. After Basia’s set, so by 1pm, one of the bars had already tapped out their reserves of free Sierra Nevada and the Izzie sodas were gone by 2. Still, while waiting in line for such things on the outdoor patio, Louisiana’s Givers were putting on a terrific little set. With a sort of noodling psychedelic guitar sound grounded in some deep bass and fuzz pedals, they came across like a more Jefferson Airplane influenced Dirty Projectors and were really fun to watch live, especially as the female lead switched between acoustic guitar and stand-up toms in front of her. I can only imagine that with their multiple guitar lines and percussive punches that they are a band that could fall dangerously flat on record, but on stage the mix was hot and they should definitely be on the Twin Cities tour watch list.

Back inside, Free Energy came onstage to play their first show of the day. Since Paul Sprangers used to front Hockey Night in the Twin Cities there is obviously a desire to call Free Energy a “local” band, in the same vein as the Hold Steady. In the debate posed on Twitter by @gimme_noise, @Staciaann and @doubleasterisk took the side of claiming but @solace put some distance between the band and Minneaolis, saying that the Hold Steady made it easy to claim them with their references to Twin Cities landmarks in their early records. Here’s a Mid-western passive-aggressive stand for you; we’ll claim the roots if they really truly blow up, and if not, Philly can have them. Still, with the crowd they packed in at the 7th Street Entry a couple weeks ago, and their totally infectious mix of T. Rex and J. Geils Band (which is really easy to get into if you happened to be a Hockey Night Fan) is definitely ascendant.

Free Energy from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

After an amiable set from New Yorkers Freelance Whales, whose sprinkling can used for percussion had a warning label posted on it that any use other the recommended was not advisable, Carolina Chocolate Drops came on and did something amazing. Two men and a woman, from North Carolina, they get down deep into American music. When I interviewed Ben Knox Miller of the Low Anthem and asked him about the current popularity of roots music, he responded, “Hey, I don’t know if there’s any one reason, but music that comes from the old traditions will always be around. It’s real, it’s simple.” The Chocolate Drops embody and vivify that Faulkenerian chestnut that the past isn’t even past, because through their fiddles, banjos, guitars, kazoos, jugs, bones, breath, hands, feet, their very bodies, it lives in them and on stage, music specific to time and place and yet transcendent of it. Old blues tunes, drum-and-fife, Dixie jigs, plus a cover of Blu Cantrell’s 2001 revenge belter “Hit ‘Em Up Style”, everything comes full circle and anyone who cares about American music has no excuse to miss them when they come in to town this summer, or to pick up Genuine Negro Jig, out now on Nonesuch Records.

Carolina Chocolate Drops from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Frightened Rabbit provided the first real exposition of the disaster principle of rock and roll, that everything will go wrong, we want to watch it happen and we want even more to watch a band pull though, the thrill of riding along the edge of chaos into the light. As they came into the Galaxy Room, the Glaswegians were already looking harried. Although this band of Scotsmen is rarely sunny by disposition, their dourness and desperation can be incredibly forceful and compelling, sounding like a thunderstorm across the glen. Still, they did not look like happy campers and as frontman Scott Hutchison tried different variations of UK-US converter plugs it became clear that his guitar pedals and their keyboards would not be willing to cooperate. As they became more wild-eyed and with time running out, they signaled back to their sound man, who came through the monitors saying, “Fuck it, this is the most rock and roll thing I’ve ever done.” So, making do with an acoustic guitar hooked into a direct input and some of their backing instruments, they tore into a shortened, sweaty and impassioned set. As born out by their excellent albums Sing The Greys, The Midnight Organ Fight and the recently released The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit play their hearts out. They did it in the face of adversity on a hot day in Texas and will surely do it again in more amiable circumstances at the Varsity Theatre on May 10th.

Later on in the day, Minneapolis locals and CakeIn15 faves City on the Make faced their own difficulties while playing a show on the swank stage at the Belmont. On the way down to Austin, singer Mike Massey lost his voice, and so when he took the stage, his blues rasp was deeper and rougher than usual. The band adjusted well, so that Peter Blomgren’s guitar and Stephen Rowe’s bass had extended playing time against Colin Stumbras’ drums and Massey’s upper registers were unaffected, leading to a fierce mix of high and low dynamics that made tunes like the soulful “Ships Across the Ocean” and Minneapolis summer classic “Chicks on Bikes” grind and pop. Later on at the Green Room Booking gig at Lambert’s, Ruby Isle was doing their thing with the lights on, which is not as dirty as it sounds and had the diminishing effect of stage wildness. Still, I really can’t wait for their new-wave cover album of Appetite for Destruction comes out this summer.

I’m going to try and catch as little Minneapolis music as possible whilst here, it seems like going on a package tour to Italy or Egypt and only eating turkey-mayo sandwiches. Speaking of food, and I am going to belabor this point, Austin’s street vendors put Minneapolis to shame. Where is our street food? We got these goddamn cupcakes from a truck! You can’t tell me that winter makes it impossible, there is so much we do only in summer that street food should be one of them. City Council member Gary Schiff, I am going to tag you in this note when it imports to Facebook, and I want you to get on it, mmkay? Because this is a travesty. Imagine if Rotisserie Brasa had a pulled pork sandwich stand on Nicollet. Let’s get on this.

Here’s where the Hipster Heirarchy comes in- Staciaann with her badge got into the NPR Showcase at Stubb’s with the Walkmen, Spoon, a very dimly lit Broken Bells show and an outrageously phenomenal Sharon Jones fronting her Dap-Kings. I, however, with my limited access wristband did not get in for any of that, but I did get to meet up with my best friend from college who I had not seen in far too long. She has become a dubstep DJ, and so we packed in underground at Barcelona to dance like crazy to some of the best current dubstep DJs, DreadBass Soundsystem and Eprom, both from San Francisco and Manchester, England pioneer MRK1. After mostly standing in crowds during the day, letting loose and dancing with friends to people doing what they love, that’s some beautiful freedom, and you couldn’t really ask for more.

Actually, you might ask for more linking, video and photo. We’re working on it. With limited bandwidth and capacity, uploading video is not the easiest. We will do a recap when we get back and clean everything up then. Love you all.

In Which Your Correspondent Gets Free or The Benefits of Bureaucracy

Hunched over in the exit row of the tiny plane (I had to use the bathroom standing like a closed parentheses) heading down to Austin, Fort Wilson Riot’s “A Wordlessly Whispered Melody” shuffled onto my iPod. A sudden swell of nostalgia and I spun the dial back to play the Idigaragua album in full. Perfect traveling music. Two and a half years ago, when the Twin Cities theater and music scene was still relatively unknown to me, I was a part of the stage production that accompanied that rock-opera’s premiere, and I count it as one of the singular best and most formative experiences of my life. It was one of those things that was ridiculously hard work to pull off, that became more pleasurable the harder it became, was a rough an d beautiful synthesis of music with movement and art. The people I made that show with, I love them all still.

It seemed only fitting, that the dangerous travels and travails of the American journalist be the soundtrack for my first push down to South By Southwest. Here seems like a perfect place to lose oneself, to encounter gypsies and pirates and singing, dancing cacti, or their modern counterparts. I think PR and marketing people must be the carnival barkers with their Dancing Geek of Ciegozia. You have to go into this willing to accept those dangers, the perils of booze being flung at you, the weight of people pushing their band’s free swag, late nights, long lines and auditory assaults from all angles. Take it in, write it down and smash the glass of the rules you follow.

There is, however, a bureaucracy and hierarchy to the South By Southwest Music Festival, something a little akin to bribing your way through a Soviet regime. Who you know and how fast you get there are keys to getting the most out of your visit to Austin, like knowing which shopkeeper in Tito’s Sarajevo has a shipment of sugar coming in. However, unlike some dour Politburo meeting during the Cold War, all the apparatchiks of SXSW are well-coifed neon hipsters or leather-clad grungy rockers. No one is going to mistake our skinny jeans for Mao suits, and the purpose of meeting is the pleasure principle, and once formalities have taken place, you can get around to partying hard. ‘Round here, we’re trying to tear down the Berlin Wall of humdrum living.

Upon entering the Austin Convention Center, the air buzzes with attendees and functionaries running around with wireless devices, gathering credentials and standing in lines. The highest credentialed level is the Badge (which Staciaann has) an imprinted security-coded device that grants different levels of access to the various functions and conference panels, easy circumvention of lines and an all around munificent blessing. The wristband (which I have) is tagged on, unremovable for showering and general human functions offers access to basic services like venues, of course for a price. It is also totally possible to see plenty of great music for free, often on the condition that you RSVP to the open invitations beforehand.

The Constellations at the Fader Fort

At South By Southwest, the RSVP is the everyman’s secret weapon. On Tuesday night, before the festival even kicked off in earnest, an RSVP to the Levi’s Fader Fort (this is no place to start quibbling about corporate sponsorship of music) opened the doors for free popcorn, mechanical bull rides and Southern Comfort-Red Bulls and a performance by Canadian band Metric. Which is pretty amazing, because anyone who has seen or heard Metric should have, in the words of another journo on the trip, an “indie-rock boner” for lead singer Emily Haines. Hell, if you are capable, you should probably just have a regular boner for Emily Haines. And to push up for free to the very front so that when she spins her head and prances…

Hang on, a Japanese glam punk all-girl band in black vinyl and kimonos just walked past. I may be distracted like this throughout.

So, when Emily Haines prances and bounces around the stage for “Help I’m alive” and “Gimme Sympathy” her sweat lands on you like holy water. When the finale of “Stadium Love” rolls around and you’ve only been in Texas for four hours and seen a band you would have paid $25 at First Avenue to see and the weather, though cold, has the promise of sunshine and warmth, good god, I’m alive and my heart keeps beating like a hammer.

Metric

Metric

As the night progresses, because we feel unconstrained by schedules or coverage expectations (I hope, dear reader, to remain similarly unencumbered throughout the festival) we wander through the streets, eating BestWurst hotdogs, which put to shame Minneapolis and it’s abhorrent lack of decent street fare, stop in to some parties, watch people wander around. One of those people happens to be Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, who is in town doing music interviews for a show in IFC, so I get my picture taken with him. One of the people in our hotel room says that she swears she saw him on our floor later that night, so if Craig Finn is staying on our floor, there might be some very awkward hanging around the elevators later in the week. But the night goes on. We run into the Ice Cream Man, who gives us free swag and with free pineapple basil ice cream, we walk through the streets to a place called the Beauty Bar and music streams out of different venues every ten feet; this is what freedom looks and sounds like.

My phone just reminded me I am supposed to be at work in 15 minutes. Nope, I already am. At work riding the bull, leaping in the water.

Carl Rides The Bull from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

In some exciting news, ascendant CakeIn15 pals Peter Wolf Crier signed to record label Jagjaguwar today, home of acts like Bon Iver, The Besnard Lakes and Dinosaur Jr. It is an exciting move for the duo of Peter Pisano and Brian Moen, who just released their record Inter-Be this last fall with the Jeremey Catterton-directed house show This Is Not For You and graced the First Avenue Mainroom stage as part of the “Best New Bands” showcase in January. Even more exciting for CakeIn15 is that Staciaann’s photos of the band, which have been widely used online and in their promotion, will grace the cover of the record when it comes out on CD and vinyl! It has been an exciting couple of months for the talented two, their record bears out that talent and we couldn’t be more proud of them.

Also, Jagjaguwar will be releasing the much-hyped Eau Claire/MSP yacht-rocking supergroup GAYNGS record Relayted this spring, so look for that for your prom flashbacks and summertime deck shoe wearing.

Saturday was also a big day, with the Modern Radio record label celebrating their 10th anniversary at the Cedar Cultural Center. The lineup featured Modern Radio mainstays Vampire Hands (performing sans Colin), STNNNG, Skoal Kodiak and The Plastic Constellations, specially re-united for the occasion. The night was boisterous and loud, with lots of flannel and shaking kids dancing around, chomping down on free cupcakes and taking advantage of the $3 discount at The Wienery, which essentially cut the bill in half. Staciaann shot the celebration for Vita.mn, which you can sere here, and congratulations Modern Radio!

Friday night kicked off a busy weekend for CakeIn15, starting with the CD release show at the Fine Line Music Cafe for A Badly Broken Code, the solo debut from Dessa of Doomtree. The night was an eclectic mix, with Jeremy Messersmith opening and showing off his Vikings fight song (alas, to no avail) and Cecil Otter working the crowd backed by live bass and drums, an arrangement that suits his ramshackle, Bukowski-rambling MC style. Dessa first hit the stage as a jazz chanteuse, showing off her singing chops, ably backed by a band featuring Sean “Twinkie Jiggles” McPherson on bass and producer MK Larada on drums, with guest vocals courtesy of Aby Wolf. After working through her material, Dessa left while her Doomtree cohorts P.O.S., Mike Mictlan and Sims lit up the stage, obviously having fun while working through familiar material. Dessa returned to cheers and performed some of her more MC-oriented material, old and new as the boys stayed on stage to back her up. She ended the night showing off her most surprising talent yet- a choreographed dance number with Omaur Bliss, riffing off her Mictlan-given nickname, “Dancing-Ass Dessa.” With A Badly Broken Code showing strong on iTunes and a set of great performances, the night was a hit, and not in any way like the TC Hip-Hop awards down the street. Staciaann captured the whole show for Vita.mn, which you can see here.