Rockfeedback @ SXSW '09 – Day One - 18/3
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Rockfeedback's SXSW '09 began with taking new signing to our continually blossoming sister label Transgressive Records, Graham Coxon, to a hat shop on 6th street, where said Coxon had purchased a fetching tweed beret the day prior. This time, he was back to play some acoustic songs 'specially for us and our cameras, from his forthcoming LP The Spinning Top. Sat on a stool just high enough for it to be a little bit uncomfortable, neither backside niggles nor the imposing amount of mirrors in the surroundings, not to mention the intense stares of the few Rockfeedback types and giggling Japanese fans gathered, could distract from the overwhelming charm of the performance. This being the first time that these songs had ever, ever been played live to anyone, the odd slip up was understandable (especially when playing lightning fast runs between chords that contained about 23 individual notes for the sheer, joyous hell of it), but a winning smile and a fair smattering of easily the best guitar work we've ever witnessed as such close quarters more than made up for it. Childhood dreams were achieved with a long chat about "girls, love and magic" on the way to Waterloo Records a few blocks up, where Graham picked up LPs by Sleater Kinney and Swell Maps, just as your idyll of him would have dictated he would. (5/5)
[GRAHAM COXON]
Next, we revisited an old haunt for another new addition to the Transgressive stable, this time in the shape of the greedily named Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. If this man didn't have the talent of four singer songwriters, he wouldn't deserve that quartet of titles. Yet, in the same spot we shot some of our favourite Rockfeedback TV footage ever - remember that Jens Lekman stuff by the river, from last year? - Miles turns on the charm for the cameras big time. Perhaps the most laid back gentleman in a city that spent the day going maniacally loopy for the start of a mammoth knees up, Miles breaks strings, restarts songs four or five times due to perceived mistakes that we honestly don't notice ourselves, and has his band join in for the entirety of tunes they've never even heard before - for a laugh. What on paper looks like a mess becomes, in the blistering Texan sunshine, something quite sumptuous - the perfect accompaniment to the beers we're drinking illegally in the street whilst gazing wistfully upon it. (4/5)
It was about time we saw a full band though, with a drum kit and a bass player and electricity and everything. First on our list was The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and we could have done a lot worse. Theirs is a sound that would fit in to the gap between Teenage Fanclub and My Bloody Valentine like the missing piece in a puzzle, and even devoid of any of the shoegazing tendencies that characterise them, their songs are remarkably strong. What they aren't is any of the following - innovative, different, exciting or pioneering. What the crowed watching them are is - not bothered by any of that. They've got a beer and a piece of pizza and dude it's totally spring break and oh my god I love this song! (3/5)
OK, so we make them sound like a teen movie, and it was a bit, but a good one. But the gap in quality between a decent band like TPOBPAH and a great artist like Anni Rossi is made immediately apparent as soon as she ascends to the stage of the church the 4AD Records showcase is being held at and pounds the shit out of her poor violin to the extent that she needs to retune it each and every time she comes to the end of one of her sometimes violent, often magical songs. What with the vocal affectations and quirky lyrics (there's a song that probably isn't solely about fridge freezers, but certainly mentions them a lot), it'd be easy to compare her to Regina Spektor, but a Regina Spektor who played the violin (because she does) and a Regina if produced by Steve Albini (who recorded Rossi's forthcoming LP). See? It was very easy. About as easy as Anni Rossi is brilliant. (5/5)
Grizzly Bear aren't markedly better than side project Department of Eagles, you know. The place is rammed for the Department, who are lead by your man in the checked shirt who's also in Grizzly Bear. Granted, that probably describes everyone in Grizzly Bear, but I can't remember his name off the top of my head at the moment, OK? And besides, I'm talking about the guy who has the red shirt. If you want more of a description, I'm referring to the really talented guy. Department of Eagles use a lot of looping, but not in a way that gets their songs stuck in a cyclical rut as happens to so many drawn to the allure of the looping pedal. There are a lot of effects present on their guitars, and the same ones are used throughout the set - they sound like church bells, aptly given their setting (did we mention it was a church?). Their calling card is playing not particularly weird songs in a very, very weird way. And as pew upon pew of the gathered congregation would agree, that makes for something quite thrilling. (4/5)
St Vincent however is more of a divisive proposition, I'd add, in a good way. General consensus seems to be that these are interesting songs played with panache, yet weighed down with an enforced kookiness that hinders their ability to become great. Our group compares her to everything from Billie Ray Cyrus to Laurie Anderson, and can't reach an agreement on who's right. Some people get angry, in defense of their own stance. My own position, based on a performance that was as endearing as it was peculiar, is that the argument between whether St. Vincent is pretty good or too kooky can probably be settled by arriving on the following conclusion - she's clearly both. In a few records time, she'll probably realise that herself. (3/5)
Camera Obscura however could probably benefit from borrowing a little of St. 'Annie' Vincent's extra quirkiness, as their headline set (to a now less than packed house of God), lusciously arranged though it is, suffers from being the first predictable thing on the 4AD bill this evening. Credit to the label for keeping the thought from our mind for this long, but I don't think we're the only ones thinking that we could do with a beverage right now - alas, the church we're in has banned it (weird, as I was brought up to believe that the Lord's blood was wine?). Disappointingly the most complimentary I find myself able to be about Camera Obscura is that there music seems all well and good, but little more, when the rest of the bill has been overflowing with excitement and moments worthy of delight and, at the very least, debate. Consensus is much easier to reach on the topic of Camera Obscura - it's just all a bit... well... (2/5)
Must sleep. Have to meet Daniel Johnston in the morning and can really not predict for the life of me what in hell that's going to be like. (pic below, report to follow).
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