SXSW Music Diary: The Austin Invasion, Rhymesayers 20th, and Swervedriver's survival guide

Feature by Dave Kerr | 21 Mar 2015

Unrelenting rain thins the numbers and shows our schedule the window when the festival should be in full swing. There’s an appointment to keep with the United Fruit on Friday morning as we embark on a day of ghosting the band around the city on camera. Their first port of call is a free all-dayer at a venue in the University district called Hole in the Wall – a rugged dive bar which is pretty much perfect for the occasion – hosted in conjunction with American music news website Stereogum and reassuringly punk Brooklyn label Exploding with Sound.

“We're not here to bring you the next buzz band,” say the label's founding duo of their presence at the festival and general modus operandi. “We're trying to build something long lasting and musically important.” Louisiana trio Pope, whose flyers confirm that reports of Jeremy Clarkson’s bluster have somehow travelled to New Orleans’ DIY community – play directly beforehand, harking to the Lemonheads’ fuzzier, angrier origins. Straight away, it's obvious that United Fruit are playing in the right kind of company here; when the Glasgow quartet take the stage they put everything they have into another high velocity set, bringing in a respectably sizable and curious crowd. You can''t ask for more from either side of the stage.

Parish Underground on ‘Dirty Sixth’ is next, where Frog Eyes make what Carey Mercer hopes (with a bit of tongue in cheek) to be their 'coronation' at SXSW. A songwriter of various guises (Swan Lake, Blackout Beach, the list goes on) with the look of a younger Mark E Smith and the touch of Isaac Brock to his expressive vocal style, Mercer recalls a particularly shambolic appearance with Destroyer in the upstairs ballroom when it should have been their moment in the sun. "The band afterwards were smoking crack in the back," he says, shaking his head. "Even they were better than us." Tonight it's a far smaller scale coronation, perhaps, but a sound reminder that this festival sometimes isn't so much a band's introduction to the world or a spotlight stealing comeback as a tiny flag going up to say 'hello, I'm still here'. 

The downpour continues to rock our plans as we meet with The Twilight Sad to record an especially selected cover from an Austin legend (which you’ll find on this website soon enough) in the open air but end up forced under cover by mother nature. After thwarted attempts to see Jad Fair play The Hideout and the live return of LA space-rockers Failure, we rejoin James Graham and co at 7th Street’s Red 7 club to take in their triumphant final gig of the festival and a gruelling six week US tour. More recent tracks such as the chilling Last January find their own unique space, while And She Would Darken the Memory signs off in visceral style, Graham reaching for the same conviction fire he had in his belly eight years ago. It’s a thrill to see the band on this form.

A familiar flute sample calls over from The Mohawk like birdsong as we take a wander through Red River Street. Cult Minnesotan rap crew Atmopshere are in full flow as their influential Rhymesayers label winds down a 20th anniversary celebration, chronicling their enduring success stories (see the likes of backpack originators Murs and Dilated Peoples) and future hopes (deM atlaS). With past and present heavyweights like Wyclef and T-Pain swooping in to Austin thoughout the week like neon distractions, the support for Slug and Ant’s inimitable way around a beat and syllable is heartening stuff.  

By Saturday, Sixth Street is crawling with spring breakers and a bizarre procession of pouting selfie gangs, although the persistent misty rain has noticeably muted the carnival atmosphere that closing night of South by Southwest is famous for. None of this matters to the capacity crowd gathered for Honeyblood, who return to the British Music Embassy for a victory lap in the midst of another US tour. Grinding it out on the road over the past year has served the duo well; tonight they exude a new confidence as Stina Tweeddale and recently recruited drummer Cat Myers turn the likes of Ruby Red and emphatic closer Killer Bangs into snarling, powerfully seductive pop rock charmers.  

Rainey Street is virtually unrecognisable to last year as big business and major investment have visibly started to erode the vibrant character of Austin’s Historic District (an IHOP dominates the communal ground where a park of local makeshift restaurants had previously welcomed passing traffic to the neighbourhood). As if to directly prove the point, a Hard Rock Cafe showcase next door to Okayplayer’s annual closing night at The Bungalow bleeds into Ibeyi’s hypnotic set, while the development in the area has reduced the ground to a clay swamp.

A delayed schedule at The Bungalow makes it impossible for us to sprint across town and see what by all later accounts is a victory for Hector Bizerk, who ram the Embassy and prove once again that observational hip-hop knows no cultural barriers. Come midnight, instrumental Toronto trio BadBadNotGood arrive in expanded form, teasing the crowd by leaving a few mics centre stage. Having appeared with recent collaborator Ghostface Killah at various points throughout the festival, chants for the Wally Champ punctuate their set. Drummer Alexander Sowinski is as much de facto hypeman as the band’s rhythmic backbone; riffing on Triangle from last year’s III, it’s not often you see a crowd pogoing to a jazz band. Joined by Leland Whitty’s purring sax, the quartet recline into the sort of louche funk that has suited many of their more hip-hop-oriented projects so well. Detroit's Black Milk appears onstage for a shmooved out J Dilla medley, before sometime Jay-Z producer Just Blaze brings his own beats to the party.

Since Pretty Toney won’t come to us, we track Ghostface Killah down on Sixth Street in the wee hours; alongside Raekwon and Cappadonna, a 20th anniversary celebration of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx gets underway at The Belmont. “Right here is my ninth show in three days,” Ghost frowns at his own staggering prolifacy. “Voices is raspy.” With New York’s finest cab driver Cappadonna handling hypeman duties, a laryngitus stricken Raekwon can barely summon a whisper to address the crowd, resorting to a sort of expressive mime to the old coke-nosed Scarface fantasies of his Purple Tape. "He says he feels bad and shit," Ghost apolgetically offers at one point, as if communicating via a medium.  

"Where Bush at?" Cappa repeatedly asks, apparently convinced that George junior might stagger out of the crowd and throw up his dubyas to salute the occasion. In the absence of any verbal input from The Chef, he tells the story of how they met in third grade and traded in ciphers ever since. Closing the night and indeed our week in Austin on the sprawling Wu-Tang Forever classic Triumph, it doesn’t exactly speak for the mixed bag that was SXSW 2015. With real moments of potency from the margins often overshadowed by big name cameos from ubiquitous pop stars, C.R.E.A.M. might have been a bit more accurate. 


LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: SWERVEDRIVER

Adam Franklin of resurgent Oxford psychedelicists Swervedriver tells us how he navigates the city...

You've played Austin in numerous bands over the years – in which ways are you looking forward to this particular experience, and what might Swervedriver ultimately hope to gain from playing SxSW in 2015?
Austin's a great town and we've always loved going there although it's usually been as part of a regular date of a tour rather than SxSW. Things do seem to get extra chaotic when that music festival is happening but there is an energy to feed off because you end up bumping into people you know and bands from all around the world that you might not have expected to see.

With the band's first new album in 18 years emerging in the same month, is there some sense of this being the right platform to relaunch the band, or is it just another gig?
Well it is literally just another three gigs as part of a tour, yes. But people stumble across bands they know or discover artists they didn't previously know about in much the same way they would at a regular outdoor music festival in a field, except it's all occurring in these lovely old bars and venues. So I think it can be a great place to catch an artist on good form because everyone tends to be picking up on the vibe.

What kind of advice would you give to any unknown bands making their first trip to an industry showcase of this scale?
Get outside of the circus for a while in the morning if you have the time – go for a swim at Barton Springs or something. Although there's a tremendous energy to the whole event, I can see why a lot of locals have come to loathe it and find it to be more 'industry' than 'music'. Otherwise, be prepared to see your lawyer or accountant who you've only ever seen before sitting behind a desk in a suit, dressed in an Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts holding a chicken drumstick in one hand and a cocktail in the other at a pig roast with cocaine residue all over his nose.

Who are you looking forward to catching live as a punter while you’re out there?
I have to be honest, I have absolutely no idea who's playing. There's never much point planning on these things when you're performing because what usually happens is you see that a band you like are playing at a festival and then you arrive the day after they've left anyway. I usually just walk around and see where we end up.

Based on your past experiences, when you think of Austin, Texas, what comes to mind?
Trees, pedal steel guitars, Mexican food, Lone Star, Death Proof.

Finally, where can people see Swervedriver at SxSW?
Saturday 21st March, House of Vans Showcase at The Mohawk (15:35) and The SXSW/YouTube Streaming show at Emo's (22:00)

adam franklin ON HIS SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST HAUNTS...

Favourite pub: Yellow Jacket Social Club (my friend just told me to say this).

Best place for something to eat: Guero's Taco Bar (I like tacos and I like Death Proof).

Finest venue to catch a band (or play): Gotta be Stubbs.


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SCOTTISH BANDS SEEK TO MAKE THEIR MARK AT SXSW 2015
http://www.sxsw.com