We’ve been fans of Film School’s brand of West Coast shoegazer-inspired psychedelia for years but somehow, we’ve always managed to miss them in Cincinnati, so we jumped at the chance to host them in Austin. Their three-guitar attack still allows for all of the melody in Greg Bertens’ songs to shine through making them somewhat of a rarity in 2008: a highly melodic, guitar-driven American band that’s not afraid to crank it up. They really wanted to show their appreciation for the years WOXY support, and delivered a strong set of tunes from their latest CD, Hideout.
Admittedly, by the time the band stopped by EAR Studios for our final session on Friday afternoon, our fourth day in Austin, the long days and nights of SXSW may have started to catch up to your humble WOXY crew. This made for a rather free-wheeling, and perhaps a little silly, interview portion. But the truth was, we all got along really well and spent an extended amount of time after the session just hanging out and chatting, with the band even inviting the station to present a few shows on their upcoming tour.
I’m just guessing that the warmest summers in Scotland are still no match for Texas heat, even on an mid-March day. By the time Glasgow’s Sons & Daughters arrived on Friday morning, the mercury was well on its way north of 90 and the band was feeling it: singer Adele Bethel donning a large floppy hat that matched her black and white dress. Fortunately, the quartet proved they could generate a little heat of their own inside EAR Studios with a set of music from their third CD, This Gift.
The pixielike Bethel and drummer David Gow formed Sons & Daughters after both served in the now-defunct Arab Strap, her strong vocals alongside guitarist Scott Paterson creating a formidable frontline while Gow teams with the cooly detached (aren’t all the best bass players?) Ailidh Lennon for a beast of a rhythm section. Since then, they’ve toured Europe, Australia and the US a few times, once as openers for fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand. Their latest headlining tour brought them to SXSW for a number of appearances and we were thrilled to have them in. In the interview, Adele talks about the inspiration behind This Gift, while Scott tries out his best Morrissey imitation. It’s one of our best from the week.
Last fall, the band came through Cincinnati while touring their second EP, “An Ocean In The Air”, and we hosted them in our Cincinnati Lounge. This time around, we had the pleasure of meeting up with the band at EAR Studios in Austin during our SXSW sessions.
Even though they were the first session of the day and had to arrive at 8am to setup, they were excited to share a batch of new material with us. Their Lounge Act revealed 5 brand new songs that they’ve been working on and just from hearing those songs in a live setting, it is clear that their debut album will be worth waiting for.
Folks out in San Francisco have a chance to see the band play some of these tunes out live on April 22nd, when they hit The Independent for a show with The Teenagers!
You really have to hand it to Frightened Rabbit. A relatively unknown band from Scotland with only a debut CD that’d received a limited release (ever hear of Hit The Fan Records?) to their name, they turned a wealth of positive reviews and blogger buzz into the catalyst for their first US tour in early 2007, a full six months after Sing The Greys release.
Initially appearing in press photos wearing something akin to Mexican wrestling masks, the band revealed themselves to be a trio from Glasgow, led by singer-guitarist Scott Hutchison and his brother Grant on drums. They eventually signed to FatCat Records, who reissued their debut in the Fall of last year, and that’s when we caught onto them…in a big way. Sing The Greys hit WOXY’s heavy rotation in October and earned enough airplay to make our list of the 97 Best of 2007 at #70.
Now in 2008 with their debut almost a full two years old and having expanded into a quartet, the band have emerged with The Midnight Organ Fight, their proper FatCat debut. Recorded in the US and produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National), the disc once again features Scott’s plaintive vocals and emotive lyrics. In this Lounge Act session, it’s just the two brothers performing a beautiful, stripped down set that includes four songs from the new record as well as “Be Less Rude” from Sing The Greys.
Georgia’s Dead Confederate first hit our airwaves early last October and, truth be known, were the very first act we confirmed for a Lounge Act during SXSW. Five more down to earth guys you’d be hard pressed to meet, they were returning to Austin not long after they’d spent time in town recording their full-length debut, due later this year. With only a five-song EP to their name, they band surprised us by playing four brand new tunes in addition to a blistering rendition of “The Rat”.
The band had been playing gigs en route to Austin and, talking to Mike, made light of a few under attended shows along the way. Not to worry, the guys arrived at EAR Studios on a natural high after playing their biggest concert to date as handpicked openers for R.E.M.’s sole festival performance at Stubb’s the night before.
Brooklyn duo Project Jenny, Project Jan made quite an impact on our listeners last year after the release of their full-length debut xoxoxoxoxo. Several tracks off the record became frequently requested here at the station and the airplay secured them the #84 spot on our 97 Best Of 2007 countdown.
Jeremy Haines and Sammy Rubin have been playing together since late 2004 and already had an EP under their belt by the time we were introduced to their debut disc. Their performance from Austin mixes tracks from both releases and the guys showed up incredibly prepared. Just as they do with a regular live show, they projected videos behind them in the studio that corresponded to each song (you’ll get to see a bit of that in the forthcoming live video footage). Even though it was 11 in the morning, the guys had more energy than almost any band we met during the week!
Right in the middle of scheduling our Lounge Acts for SXSW, we came across this video for “No Surprise” which served as our introduction to James Yuill. Eager to hear more, we snapped up his latest disc Turning Down Water For Air, added it to our playlist and a few e-mails later, he’d accepted our invitataion to play live for WOXY listeners worldwide.
A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from London, James’ music has been described as ‘folktronica’, which blends the influence from two of his favorite artists: Nick Drake and Radiohead. Not surprisingly then, his session saw him shifting ably between an acoustic guitar and some electronic machinery, usually during the same song. He’s also been in-demand for his remixing skills, recently adding his touch to songs by Au Revoir Simone and The Answering Machine.
Three of the four songs in his Lounge Act appear on his latest CD while the fourth, a cover of Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”, has become a trademark of James’ live shows. Turning Down Water For Air is available digitally in the US and directly from his own Happy Biscuit Club label. Definitely an artist we expect to hear a lot more from in the future.
Setlist
She Said In Jest
This Sweet Love -interview-
Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
No Surprise
From the moment we heard “Lightbulbs” on the Artrocker radio show last Fall, we began to seek out more about The Answering Machine. Martin, Patrick and Gemma formed the band in 2005 while attending the University of Manchester and initially used a drum machine, Mustafa Beat (get it?), before adding Ben to round out the quartet.
After releasing just two singles, “Oklahoma” and “Silent Hotels”, they were invited to play the 2007 Glastonbury Festival. “Lightbulbs”, their third single, appeared in November prior to making the trip to SXSW in 2008. Their Lounge Act session at EAR Studios marked their first performance of any kind in the USA and includes all three of their singles. Obviously, we think they’re awfully special and have an extremely bright future.
As a matter of fact, the band has attracted the attention of producer Tony Hoffer, who’s previously worked with Beck, Belle & Sebastian and The Fratellis, and has expressed interest in possibly recording the band in the future.
After relentless worldwide touring due to the great success of Peter Bjorn & John’s Writer’s Block album, Peter Moren has slowed things down a bit for his solo debut. The Last Tycoon is released April 8th on the Quarterstick label here in the U.S. and it is a stunningly simple record. Inspired by folk pioneers of the 1960’s & 1970’s, Peter worked with his friends Daniel Varjo (of the Concretes) and Tobias Froberg and it’s obvious that he had fun working on some songs that wouldn’t really fit for PB&J.
In this intimate performance, the songs are presented as stripped down as possible: it’s just Peter and an acoustic guitar. He only made a few appearances down at SXSW this year and we were thrilled that he spent some time with us and played a few tunes off The Last Tycoon. You’ll hear four tracks from the new cd and then he presents a reworked version of an old PB&J song to close out the set.
