South By South West 2012 - Day 1

Tuesday, March 13th began the music portion of Austin, Texas' wonderous and maddenly chaotic South By South West festival.  Having made plans to attend all six days of this gloriously shambolic event, I hit the ground running early that day.

Packed and loaded, that silver bird made sure everyone made it to Texas on schedule.

The Texas crest lets you know you've arrived in the correct location.

Articles of the tourism variety can be had here, as once might expect.

Guitar themed eateries are more the rule than the exception here.

But I suppose when your baggage claim area has guitar sculptures anchoring it

One is quick to realize that laying at least partial claim to the title "music city" is serious business.

Bags in hand and hitting the ground running, I catch a ride with the legend that is Dead Leaf Echo and Vandelles guitarist Christo Buffan and head towards the action.

I headed off to catch the early part of Steven Matrick's Pianos and Prefix mag presents at Club Deville on Red River Street.

An early evening performance by local New York grunge n' electronic purveyors Tiny Victories set the night off just right.

They channel a big sound for just two dudes (though it should be noted there is quite a bit of electronic equipment there).

A spirited set concluded I set up to catch another performance by the next act (my first in Austin of theirs, however) - the glorious ExitMusic

Having developed a sincere appreciation for what this band presents over the many months preceding, I know what kind of quality to expect from these Brooklyn based musicians.

Singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Aleksa Palladino is the central focus, as her presence commands attention.

A gentle confidence is initially felt

The songs build to a heightened intensity

The other half of the songwriting team - guitarist Devon Church - delivers punch and power with star-like quality.

Together they create a most appealing tandem, both with unique songwriting and intense performance.

Percussionist Dru Prentiss adds rhythmic patterns that provide a fluid base for Aleksa and Devon's sonic forays.

The hooded druid

Back out onto the street for more adventures

Passing up the opportunity to get a tatoo and/or piercing - I know soon that another fave band of mind (this time an actual Austin based one) is about to play at The Bat Bar - so off I go.

The venue is layed out in a clever way that allows those watching from the street (and who cannot get in due to capacity already reached) to watch from wide open doors just behind the drummer.

Ume is already on stage and rockin' as I arrive - and if you've even attended one of their shows, then you know how intense it gets.

Having the unique perspective of practically sitting in the drum chair as the band plays is something of a magical experience.

This band kicks ass in so many ways that you practically have to catch your breath inbetween each song.

An appreciative (and some, no doubt - awe struck) packed house witness the throttle and mayhem

The Bat Bar experiences all that Ume has to deliver.

Lauren never disappoints

After the show I catch up with drummer Rachel - and help out with the gear.

Catching a breeze with Rachel

Then over to the East Side to catch my ride and prepare for a very busy Wednesday

Recent Deli Mag Features: Catching Up with The Pierces/White Hills/Amen Dunes and More

Nearing the end of February, presented here are the most noteworthy recent features I've had published in The Deli Magazine.  The soundquality and performances these musician deliver make for essential listening.

First up - The Pierces

Having resided in New York City for the better part of ten years now, it was a triumphant homecoming for the sister duo known as The Pierces as they played two sold out shows at The Mercury Lounge last week. Allison and Catherine Pierce (and their band) presented a set that was weighted more heavily with songs from their most recent release, "You & I." Sprinkled amongst those, however, were a number of classic tracks from earlier albums as well. Opening Thursday's show with Catherine's "Love You More," they hit the ground running, delivering those trademark harmonies on the rising chorus. Working their way through an hour long set, other highlights included Catherine's "Drag You Down," which weaves a lyrical tale of excessive weekends, poorly matched lovers and "just another role that you do." Allison introduced her heart tugging song about "dating another musician" stating that "we don't really recommend that" which elicited audience chuckles - before launching into the stark, haunting, acoustic guitar driven "I Put Your Records On." Naturally the co-written single "Kissing You Goodbye" was very well received, as was their Pretty Little Liars TV show theme song "Secret." For the two song encore, the singers took the stage minus any instruments at all and delivered a perfect acapella version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cathy's Song," which they stated they've been singing together since their early youth. They followed that will a full band version of the vampish, going-out-on-the-town but nothing satisfies showstopper "Boring." A fitting, if somewhat inaccurate closer, as these artists are anything but that.

http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/node/8407

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White Hills

Space rock appears to be coming back in a big way, and bands like Brooklyn's White Hills are at the forefront of this movement. Their latest album "Frying on this Rock," (scheduled for release on March 20th) is a riff-heavy tour-de-force of epic psychedelia. The album was recorded by legendary NYC producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Swans, Herbie Hancock, Boredoms) and features five jam-heavy tracks, with "I Write a Thousand Letters (Pulp on Bone)" clocking in at nearly 12 minues in length. That song presents clever use of distant conversational voices contributing to dreamlike texture as it weaves through industrial sounding guitars and a hypnotic drum patterns. Subsequent cuts emphasize sonorous power chords, rhapsodic guitar solos and and swirling synth tones. The band will be debuting tracks from the new album live at The Mercury Lounge on January 24. Special guests MOFO, which feature ex-members of A Place To Bury Strangers, will also be playing that night

http://soundcloud.com/white-hills/visions-of-the-past-present



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Amen Dunes


http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/8627/amen-dunes-plays-w-will-destroy-you-285-kent-on-0223

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Ancient Sky / Exitmusic

http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/8578/live-reviews-ancient-sky-cd-release-death-by-audio


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Xray Eyeballs

http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/node/8763





The XRay Eyeballs interview:

http://www.thedelimagazine.com/band-interview.php?artist=xray-eyeballs

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Snowmine

http://www.thedelimagazine.com/FeatureView.php?artist=snowmine


Lots of great music to listen to and plenty of Crom-words to read at the links listed under each band.

EXITMUSIC - An Agitated Dream

Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church make a dreamy rock music under the name EXITMUSIC. Brooklyn based, the married couple play in a style that often starts out quietly, but ultimately winds up grabbing you by the throat. Their impressive live shows have been garnering them much deserved attention, and now the finely crafted recorded works they have been meticulously constructing will be released as their debut album "From Silence" this fall.

Listening to these recordings in advance of the release via their website, one can't help but be captivated by what you hear. On their leadoff song titled "The Sea," a tension is noticable at it lurks throughout the quieter moments. There is an unsettling pulse that is mysterious and moody. The direction seems to travel down sonic areas running against what one might associate with a more "upbeat" music.

"I don't think you can decide where your creativity comes from," Aleksa says. "I feel that there is a place that I write from, a place that needs to be revealed. And this is the mood and the tone of that place," she continues. "People often say our music is 'dark', and there's truth to that, but I don't feel like we're 'dark' people or even that our music is all that dark," adds Devon. ":We're just trying to express our experience of life as honestly and as compellingly as we can. Sometimes I get creeped out by how 'happy and upbeat' most music is. We are in the middle of 3 or 4 wars and a mass extinction, after all. After a point, this obsession with pop (especially in the indie world) begins to seem kind of insane."

Listen to their live performance of "The Sea"

On stage, Aleksa commands attention as the bands lead vocalist. She also alternates between playing guitar and keyboards. Devon stands tall as the primary guitarist, and shifts effortlessly between providing power chords, quick riffs or melody lines and even employs at violin bow on the strings at one point.

Much of their show has a solemn quality to it all. Frequently the vocals are presented like someone almost going into a trance. Of someone losing themself in the moment. "The feeling of being on stage is a really hard to remember clearly afterwards," explains Aleksa. "It's almost like you have to find the spot where you can lose yourself in the moment while still being totally aware of where you are in time. I'm not in a trance, I'm just singing the words as weighted as I feel them," she concludes.



Their live show also presents some interesting guitar interplay between them. While Devon tends to play the longer, extended melodic notes (sometimes with slide) Aleksa will execute bursts of quick, forceful strumming, that creates a fuller sonic wash. "For me, I try to combine rhythmic and melodic elements in my guitar parts, so I'll play chords that incorporate a traveling counter-melody that supports what Aleksa's playing or singing," says Devon. "I think of myself more as a rhythm guitarist than a lead guitarist, though I do play some "leads". But I almost never strum the guitar - just a few times during the set. Mostly I play arpeggios or deconstructed chords."

"It's a language that I keep developing… it's like a cast of characters or a palate of colors, each with something to say," adds Aleksa. "I often play melodies by picking one string really fast, like a mandolin. I think this tremolo style - those explosions are just as emotional as the human voice. And I use those parts to sing with my guitar, and to disrupt the certainty of measured time."

On one of the songs in their live show, Devon used a violin bow across his guitar strings, creating a unique sonic tone and effect.. "I used to play a lot with an e-bow, but I wanted something more expressive, and more guttural sounding," he offers by way of explanation. "I like the deep moaning sound that you can produce by dragging the bow over the low strings of the guitar. You risk a lot of dissonance and feedback playing with a bow and a lot of reverb and distortion, so the intent is ultimately to wrest something beautiful out of what could potentially be kind of ugly. The influence for me is more Sigur Ros than Jimmy Page, but I also think of the violin bits in early Velvet Underground," he concludes.

The two of them self-directed their video for "The Sea," using footage from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1975 film The Mirror. "We'd seen a lot of Tarkovsky's films, and when Chris Swanson (who runs their label Secretly Canadian) suggested we try cutting an existing film into a music video, we thought of him. But we hadn't yet seen The Mirror," says Devon. "When we did a google image search for 'Tarkovsky' this stark, beautiful image of a sort-of deranged looking woman standing over a basin of water came up. Then there was another image of a woman levitating and a man standing reverently beside her. They were both from the Mirror. We youtubed some montages of the film, and it was just incredibly rich with imagery. Especially the wind stuff is amazing. In a way, Tarkovsky's wind is serving the function that the sea, the water, does in our song. His images, together with the stock footage of war and revolution that he used in his film, create this incredibly menacing, dream-like, apocalyptic feeling that seemed to fit perfectly with the music."

Since then the band has released another video, this time for their song "The Hours." Directed by Will Joines, the imagery finds Aleksa singing against her reflection and possibly coming to grips with a polar opposite version of herself. Devon supports by way of slo motion guitar strumming and the overall effect is transcendent. With sonic production qualities that put emphasis first and foremost on the vocals (multitracked and uniquely enunciated) guitar lines are the appegiated deconstructed chords Devon describes, combined with a sparse percussion that makes its inclusion all the more dramatic.

The couple came together from disparate backgrounds. Devon came to New York by way of Winnipeg, Canada, while Aleksa grew up in this city. In addition to the music she has always made, Aleksa has an extensive acting career, and is currently featured in the HBO drama "Boardwalk Empire."

The band's name is a reference to the music one hears as the credits roll at the end of a film. "Everyone always mentions radiohead, but that's not where we got the name from," states Aleksa. "Exit music is the name for the last piece of music to be played in a film… the song that ushers people out of the theatre… the last piece of that 'world' they take with them. That's what we heard when we played our songs back," she continues. "Music that suggests a transition from world to another. My grandpa, Tony Palladino, is a graphic designer and has always had a unique way of making letters and words speak for themselves (he designed the lettering for PSYCHO). Anyway, he took out the space between exit and music… it fortified the whole concept. EXITMUSIC."

Cromwell chats with Aleksa post-show

Find out more about EXITMUSIC via these links here:

http://exitmusic.bandcamp.com/

http://vimeo.com/exitmusic

www.myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest