8 posts tagged “the crimea”

SXSW: SUMMARY
You know, the festival is only four days, but it really seem like weeks.

While having every band in the world merge at one place might sound like a great idea... sometime their appearance conflicts with other artists that you also want to see. So one of the biggest problem I had was sacrificing who to see.

Music happens from daylight (probably closer to 10am start) until two in the morning, or even later.

I usually started my day around 8am, working out my schedule for the day. Sometime it's logistics, sometime it's time-issues, but usually I have a full day's worth of stuff to do. I don't follow my schedule to a T, but there are certain items that I absolutely cannot miss (scheduled interviews takes priority over shows).

IMIW09	Shay in the Blackwatch Studios	Camera Obscura - Setlist (3-19-09)
The May Fire - Set List (3-18-09)	Proclaimers - Set List (3-19-09)	Glasvegas - Set List, La Zona Rosa, Austin TX (3-20-09) - From Bob
Late of the Pier - Set List, Austin TX (3-21-2009)	Crimea - Set List, Austin TX (3-21-09)	Superdrag - Setlist, Guero's (3-19-09)
Wave Machines - Friends, Austin, TX (3-18-09)	Jay Jay Pistolet - Friends, Austin TX (3-18-09)	May Fire - Havana, Austin, TX (3-18-09)
Meiko - Cedar Door, Austin TX (3-19-2009)	Superdrag - Guero's (3-20-09)	Primal Scream - Austin, TX - Photo from Bob
Ed Harcourt - Cedar Door, Austin TX (3-19-2009)	Kate Tucker - Cedar Door, Austin TX (3-19-2009)	Diane Birch - The Garden Party, Austin TX (3-21-09)
The Gin Riots - Rio, Austin TX (3-21-2009)	Goldielocks - Rio, Austin, TX (3-21-2009)	Crimea - Austin TX (3-21-2009)
Babies Loves Jeremy Jay - Austin, TX (3-21-09)	Jeremy Jay - Club de Ville Austin, TX (3-21-09) 1 comment	Melissa Auf De Maur - The Garden Party, Austin TX (3-21-09)
Camera Obscura - La Zona Rosa, Austin TX (3-20-09)	Solid Gold - Beauty Bar, Austin TX (3-20-09)	Laura Marling - The Garden Party, Austin TX (3-21-09)
Ed Harcourt - Until Tomorrow Then 1 comment	Cedar Avenue - Running Home 2 comments	Los Fancy Free - JAJAJA 1 comment
The May Fire - Under The Wave 3 comments	Solid Gold - Get Over It 2 comments	Kate Tucker & The Sons of Sweden - Saturday Night 1 comment
Meiko - Piano Song 1 comment	I Am Incinerator 5 comments	The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - The Sun Ain't Shining No More 2 comments
Glasvegas - Geraldine	Camera Obscura - Eighties Fan (original version)	The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) 8 comments
Primal Scream - Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar 2 comments	Jeremy Jay - While the City Sleeps	Laura Marling - Ghosts 3 comments
Late of the Pier-Space and the Woods [Cenzo Townshend Mix] 1 comment	The Crimea - Jellyfish 3 comments	Camera Obscura - Hands Up Baby 2 comments
Ed Harcourt - Until Tomorrow Then	Crimea - Jellyfish 1 comment	The Proclaimers - 500 Miles

WHAT WORKED
- Offline gmail. This worked! I read/did most emails offline and when I was connected, all emails were sent, marked as read, etc.
- iPod Touch, worked like a charm. I was able to grab onto various (free) wifi to receive emails or websurf (maps), etc.
- Austin Convention Center's SXSW wifi stayed up most 99% of the time. Wonderful!
- Cash (ATM) availability
- Blocking off 6th street for pedestrians

WHAT SUCKED
- AT&T Network, apparently everyone in Austin had an iPhone
- Walking......
- Sony Memory Stick not supported on my laptop
- Bands playing 30 minutes or less
- Badges are ridiculously expensive ($600-$700). I think they should make it more affordable, especially since most places don't bother to check for a badge and/or were free. If there was a cover charge, it is usually under $10.

I guess my problems are not really that bad.

DAY ZERO (Tuesday)
Travelling… nothing too exciting. My least favorite state was the one with the road tolls (I think this was in Oklahoma). We did stop in Oklahoma City to see Blackwatch Studios (myspace). We got to hear a few songs from Minneapolis' Cedar Avenue (official/myspace) band from their forth-coming long playing record. The few songs we heard were incomplete, but it sounds really layered with a variety of tracks.

By the way, if the name Cedar Avenue sounds familiar to you, it is because Kristin reviewed their debut album a while back.

DAY ONE (Wednesday)
Getting my barring was hard. I didn't know where any of the streets were. So when people text me: come over to (name of venue), I replied and ask what the cross streets were. Since walking around was my main means of transportation, I ended up crossing out outlier venues immediately.

Wednesday was evening-only, so I mostly went to see some British acts over at Friend's. These guys were all from the London area, with the exception of Liverpool's Wave Machines (official/myspace). These guys creeped me out with their masks that they wore on stage - however, due to heat and comfortableness, they took them off half way into their short set. Also caught a bit of Jay Jay Pistolet (myspace), whose singing voice is very peculiar... it's like he sounds like he's sing out the side of his mouth.

When Mumford & Sons (myspace) took the stage, it was very, very, very crowded. The audience loved them and it's apparent that these guys are going to blow up this year.

The Havana Bar had some Spanish showcase, featuring mostly Mexican bands such as Songs For Eleonor (myspace), Satin Dolls (official), Cosmopolitan (myspace), and Los Fancy Free (myspace). With the exception of The May Fire (official/myspace) and Spain's Capsula (official). We like Spanish acts, so be sure to read more Mexican Summer and my coverage of Los Fancy Free.

DAY TWO (Thursday)
I think this was the big press day, I got to meet & greet Victoria who setup the interview with Solid Gold (myspace). She was kind enough to have me in the Myspace Music event, featuring some artists that I really enjoy: Kate Tucker, Meiko and Ed Harcourt.

To kick off the party was The Real You (myspace), a power-pop band from Seattle, Washington. According to their biography, they've been on constant tour since forming in early 2007 - so I'm sure you'll run into this young band eventually.

I haven't been keeping up with Kate Tucker (official/myspace), but apparently her latest project is with a band called The Honeydove (myspace) - who debuted at SXSW! Unfortunately, I had prior commitments, but I would've liked to have seen her new band play at the Beauty Bar.

Anyway, the nicest bit about her set was that she wanted everyone at the event to get a copy of her last album, "I want to give you my music!"

So if you weren't at the event, you missed out. Hey, maybe you can stop in and say hi to her in Washington:

04/05/09 Sunset Seattle, WA
05/21/09 Chop Suey as honeydove Seattle, WA

Read more Kate Tucker & The Sons of Sweden on W♥M.

Meiko (official/myspace) had a guest trumpet player on for most of her set (she requested him on for the rest of show because I guess she felt more comfortable with having someone else with her). She actually started her set with "Piano Song", which ironically just her and her guitar... She made some funny comments, such as "I've never played to a bunch of porta potties before".

You get the impression that she was happy to be there, and maybe it's yellow-iest dress combined with her orange/red dyed hair, but she looks gorgeous.

Ed Harcourt (official/myspace) was very engaging…. During "Until Tomorrow Then", he got down to the audience and walked around, singing and putting his hands around people while everyone was filming and taking pictures. Enclosed is a video evidence.

Harcourt is releasing a new six-track EP called Russian Roulette out on May 5^th, but SXSW audience were privy to some of his new songs courtesy of Dovecote Records and Directv. Pay close attention to "Caterpillar", as this is a personal song about his newborn daughter being placed in an incubator as they helpless sit and wait.

Went to an open-door new talent showcase, this was not an official sanctioned SXSW event (you'll find that there are many, many unofficial events), so I don't have a listing of who played at what time. They were all giving away their CDs, but I couldn't bother to pick them up (this would require me to carry around stuff, and I didn't have a hand bag ready). Reminder for next year: bring a man purse.

Also went over to check The Elevaters (myspace) and Rumspringa (myspace) at the Hi-Lo venue. While Elevaters were fun and energetic, it seems the drums/guitar duo of Rumspringa had a lot of problems with their equipment. They had to cut their southern-sounding melodic set short after four (?) songs, quote from the singer, "my shit ain't working."

DAY THREE (Friday)
The busy day. Walked all over town basically. My only out-of-the-way venue was at 3 o'clock to see Superdrag (official/myspace) at Guero's, which I thought was far walking there. I ran into one of our RV family, who we'll call Rose because she looks like a pint-sized Pippettes, complete with dress and all. We walked back across the river so I can make it to my Asteroids Galaxy Tour (official/myspace) interview (this was delayed because of some miscommunication).

Afterward, headed over to Beauty Bar to see Solid Gold play, mustache and all. I can tell the audience was having a good time, especially the girl at the backstage.

Then snuck over to see this punk(ish) band that MTV was covering. I didn't catch their name, but it sounded something like Dirty____ Something. The singer had bleach blonde hair and eye shadows.... and likes to walk around with no shirts on.

Evening was spent mostly at the Scotland show: We Were Promised Jet Packs (myspace), Dananananaykroyd (official/myspace), Camera Obscura (official/myspace), The Proclaimers (official/myspace), Glasvegas (official/myspace), Primal Scream (official/myspace). I was in-out so I did end up missing Glasvegas & Primal Scream, but thanks to Bob for sending in some pictures.

DAY FOUR (Saturday)
Saw a few bands in the daytime at the Press Here Garden Party at the French Legation Museum across the Freeway (this is actually closer than it sounds). The walk there was interesting, and I discovered a no-seating Wendy's on the right side of 7th Street. Yep, I ended up having dinner there since they were making these chicken things that's not available in Minnesota.

I got to the Garden just in time to see Jeremy Jay (myspace), and enjoyed the most of the day with The Soft Pack (myspace) and Diane Birch* (myspace) before heading over to 900 Red River to see Jeremy Jay again.

Listened to Camera Obscura afterwards with those Peelander-Z, as I previously mentioned.

Headed back to the Garden to see Melissa Auf De Maur (official/myspace), who started her set with three cover songs: Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", Danzig's "Devil's Plaything", and The Smiths "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". Although the first two went off pretty well, she totally messed up on "Stop Me" - which is understandable because that song has a lot of Morrissey's lyrics and also they had only practiced it the night before in their hotel room.

It wasn't long before people started filling up the seats at the Garden to see Laura Marling (official/myspace). She was joined on stage by Marcus Mumford, I think. He played percussions and sang backup, although I have to say that Marling would've done just fine with her lovely voice and acoustic guitar.

Saw Late of the Pier at the Bat Bar later that night. Since it was being broadcast live on Directv, I think the pressure got to the band and it was just embarrassing to watch. Towards the end, they seem to not be so nervous, and the (rather long) setlist ended with men in death masks coming on stage to carry the band offstage. I don't have Directv, is there a way for non-subscribers to watch this?

Honey Ryder (myspace) was really happy to be Austin, I think this was their first ever US appearance or something. I believe also that their name came from a James Bond girl ? I don't know much about them, but they seem to have a wider audience and following in the UK, where their single "Fly Away" entered the UK Top 40 at #31.

GoldieLocks (myspace) is 75% English and 25% Swedish from Croydon (South London). She raps to DJ Sports (?), who is wearing this Skeletor T-shirt. After the show, she wanted to give everyone in attendance her EP, which actually went pretty fast. As I previously mentioned, keep an eye on this one.

There's no denying that The Gin Riots (myspace) have quite a few hardcore fans here, as evident by a bunch of Gin Riots T-Shirt in the audience.

It's been a few years since The Crimea (official/myspace) toured in the US, so I was happy to be there for them on their second and last SXSW appearance. They were the last band on my list, so it was kind of a relief when it was all over.

And as corrected by superfan Christopher, Tara Blaise shared the stage to sing backup for the band.... Highlight of the show was then Davey Macmanus stepped down and sang in the center of the audience.

* A note on Birch is that she has these incredible legs, but too bad they were well-hidden behind her piano on stage.

I will at SXSW09 from March 17^th to March 22^nd so I will have sporadic internet access, if any.  Please consider getting in contact with me if you want to hang out.

Also, don't expect any updates from me, until maybe March 24^th or so.  I am certain I will be seeing loads of bands, but there are only a few on my preliminary list: SUPERDRAG, THE COATHANGERS, THE DRONES, LAURA MARLING, HONEY CLAWS, ASTEROID GALAXY TOUR and THE CRIMEA.

I will try and do some random interviews!  Fun fun fun.

Here are some SXSW Schedule, check out my map.

SUPERDRAG
CRIMEA

COATHANGERS

HONEY CLAWS

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR
RANDOM
Moshi Moshi VS Anorak London SXSW party
Saturday 21st March @ Lamberts
401 W 2nd St, Austin, Texas 78701

SATURDAY MARCH 21st The Garden Party proudly presents:

NEW BANDS I WANT TO CHECK OUT:

Ok, another cheap shot at posting Crimea stuff... but there's some real music here too :o) The BBC just let on that Coldplay aren't so great. Go figure. Apparently they plagurised a Joe Satiani track. Who? Never mind, the below video explains it all. I'd post full tracks but Vox editing clearly still sucks and it's already decided to kill my entire post once today so I ain't pushing it...

On a similar theme, here's a track by the band I love to spam, The Crimea. It's a re-recorded version of their track Baby Boom, and along with sounding a whole lotdifferent from the original, it sounded a whole lot like something else I'd heard. Took me an entire day to figure it out though; after considering Morrissey, Sleeper, Echobelly, and figuring it had to be something brit pop, I even thought about asking that fountain of all musialknowledge Vu. No need though as I got it eventually. Guesses in the comments please, answer tomorrow ;o)

- Christopher

EDIT 12/13/08 VU: That first video was removed due to "a copyright claim by EMI Music".  Ironic because the video is about infringing on copyrighted works.  I don't think it should've been removed because it's fair-use with only excerpts of the chords.

Told you there'd be more, and because today is the official release of their second album Secrets Of The Witching Hour (available for free download from www.thecrimea.net, and some extras at www.inaudible.co.uk/crimea if you're quick ), here's the second version of my favourite Crimea track Oliver Twisted. This one's a little more upbeat so if you didn't like the last version, still have a listen to this one and see what you think.

Best thing about it in my opinion though is the guitarist. Back while they were still juggling members around, an Austrailian / New Zealander by the name of Julz Parker happened to be in the area and joined the band for a while. I'd seen her play before with a seperate artist before I had any idea about her joining The Crimea, and had already decided she was the best guitarist I was ever likely to see play live. So when she did join the band, I nearly died of happiness.

Here's a short bio on her, which says she's been playing guitar professionaly from the age of 13, and played with a guy called Phil Emmanuel (apparently a pretty good guitarist) when she was 15. Anyway, Julz's own band is called Project Winterhaven but she also gets about with numerous other bands lending her skills, and most of them all play some kinda hippy folk rock happiness. Here's her personal MySpace page if you wanna hear more.

Anyway, here's a vid of her playing  a live webcast requests gig. Listen for the first minute to here her start with my own request, I swear it was the only thing I could think of at the time. Second part of the show is here if you last that long. - Christopher.

For the past two days I've been constantly adding updates and links to my own website, inaudible.co.uk, and it's been driving me mad. See, it's a fan site for my favourite band The Crimea, and a couple days ago they released a new album. Online. Without any DRM. For free. You'd think the whole world had stopped the number of people who picked up the story. One of the biggest ones was a major newspaper in the UK, The Guardian, who think the "giveaway could ignite music revolution".

I don't know about that. I do know there's good reason for me following the band for the past 7 odd years. 'Course, at the start they had a few different members, were known as The Crocketts, and produced what can best be described as Welsh cow-punk. The lead singer, Davey, did stuff like this and this.

Then a few members left, a few more joined, they changed their name to The Crimea (though it was nearly the much more interesting Fat Camp Heros) and eventually they started producing much quieter, heart-felt indie with a bit of an edge. They've been compared to everyone from the Pixies to Dusty Springfield. I that's just marketing crap, but anyway. They released three singles and an album, then were signed to Warner Bros for a while who promptly went about releasing the exact same three singles and album once again. When they ran out of stuff to leech off, they dropped the band leaving them to run things on their own.


The song I've added is a never released demo from 2005 called Oliver Twisted (cockney for pissed, if you couldn't tell). The lead singer burned it along with a load of other in-progress tracks to a CD after a gig one evening and handed them to a friend of mine. I have good contacts. I actually have another version of the same song that came on a demo CD I got off eBay. They're almost like chalk and cheese, this one's kinda dark and emo-y, the other is real light and poppy.

Either way, in my opinion it's the greatest song the band have ever produced, and because of that and the fact that, as a good fansite webmaster, I must do my duty to promote the band as much as possible, I'm gonna post the second version of the song later on. That way, if you hate it, or you just forget that there's a free album to be had, you'll get a second chance to fall in love with the only band I've listened to for 7 years. Well, pretty much.