So I got a call from a long-lost friend (okay, not lost, we know where each other are) who moved to Austin years ago. He was hoping to meet up with me, but obviously I decided not to attend SXSW this year. He was psyched because he's going to see Public Enemy tonight, and it would have been fun to see that particular show with him, but it helped me start to formulate what it was that turned me away from traveling to Texas this year. This formulation crystallized after a day of talking to folks who were down there and reading posts and updates that spike up online between the day parties and the evening showcases.
A couple years ago, Chuck D was at SXSW pushing his Atomic Pop MP3 label -- which, by the way, is where I got one of my favorite T-shirts ever for free (it's the "I Want My MP3" one my friends constantly tease me for wearing too much) -- and I remember what a cool fucking idea it was. I think that was also the year I saw Tom Waits perform, but I might be wrong. The bottom line is, once SXSW represented a world of wonder and discovery. Granted, even when I started going people were griping about it being too corporate and it having sold out. However I don't think that's really the problem. If anything such a complaint is a knee-jerk reaction to any sort of change.Here's where I see the real problem, and it's NOT with the SXSW festival organizers: The day parties and the social cliques that follow them have begun to seriously fuck with anyone who is not a 100% tied in scenester's enjoyment of the festival.
I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has been writing about music for almost twenty years (!) and knows my fair share of industry types, so I realize that my criticism is not exactly a hurdle I myself would encounter. But to me SXSW was always more about people enjoying a broad swathe of music and making new discoveries, and getting so fucking stoked about this one band they'd never heard before but now can't wait to buy every record that band has ever released and want to run out and tell all their friends about their fantastic new discovery because they love them so much they want everyone else to love them too ... I think you get the idea.When I used to cover it I would hunker down in the Kinko's downtown, type up a terribly garbled mess of observations (that my friend Darcell then reconstructed into something less Hunter S. Thompson and more Lester Bangs, at least as far as readability went), and then I'd run off to get in line for the first showcase of the evening. There were a few day parties, but they were casual affairs, primarily held for bands not playing in actual showcases. It was a lot of fun.
Well, now it seems the whole thing has turned into a battle over which bands will play which day parties, and a battle of the "cooler-than-you" crowd putting together the parties to attain some sort of (unattainable) crown as King of the Castle/Hill/self-promotional slag heap. Corporate thinking hasn't tainted SXSW itself (and now I actually understand why they held off releasing the line-up until so late) but the corporate desperation working outside of the SXSW structure proper are doing their best to turn the whole thing into something seriously resembling a high school popularity contest.
So that's that. That's the reason I didn't go. yes, I know it still can be a fabulous time, and there are certainly lots of people down there attending it for the right reasons, and next year I will go with an optimistic glint in my eye with the hopes that the whole day party thing hits critical mass this year (as it seems to be doing). And part of my argument is certainly weak since I let preconceptions keep me from attending and I could make a far better case had I actually been there. My only response to that is I know how my reservations on certain things can affect my enjoyment of activities, so until I actually had time to sit down a work this whole thing out in my head (as I've just done, so I'm a bit sorry for the rambling nature of this) I knew that I wouldn't have had a good time.So, SXSW, you and I have a date next year. I'm coming to you hopeful. I want to dance. I want you to make me swoon. And I want to find a day party put together by some band from Nevada who couldn't get on a night showcase so I can sit in the sun drinking Shiner Bock while reeling from the genius of one undiscovered genius after another. And then I want to cap off my nights with frenzied travel between showcases checking out bands from Japan, or England, or Omaha, that never come through Chicago.
I want to love you again SXSW, and next year I'm not letting the cool kids deter me from that.
I'm not Irish.
I'm not. Well, maybe a little. The funny thing is I identify myself as Bohemian, but my little brother identifies himself as Irish, and my other brother calls himself German. I guess we accentuate the portions of our family tree as we personally see fit, huh?
Anyway, I'm not Irish, but I love St. Patrick's Day. I used to hate it when I was younger, since all it represented was a bunch of frat boys puking green beer and slutty chicks kissing everyone because they were "Irish." But then I moved back to Chicago and discovered the Beer Nuts St. Patrick's day shows at Double Door. Here's what I wrote about tomorrow's beer Nuts show earlier in Chicagoist:
We never miss a St. Patrick's Day with the Beer Nuts. We decide to spend time with them partially because no weekend amateur/single-day Irish wannabe would be caught dead at a Beer Nuts show ... and if for some reason they accidentally stumbled into that particular party they would run screaming for their life shortly afterwards. But the real reason they get our green backs every St. Patrick's Day is because they, hands down, put on the most astoundingly fun, vibrant, life affirming, mess of a show you could possibly ask for. Plus? Lots of beer gets thrown around so you need only stand near the stage with your mouth open to get blasted for free.
Get there early, too, since my friend Kevin's new band are opening and it's their FIRST SHOW EVER.
Tonight I'm staying in and eating lots of starchy food so I can absorb all that booze tomorrow. However if you're going out, go see She's Your Sister at SubT tonight. I preview the show (and review the album that it's a release party for) here.I'm sorry I'm missing it, since I only get to see their bassist Jenn once a year now since she moved out to Cali, so if you go, tell her I said hi and pinch her dimples for me. Here, I'll post an MP3 of there's to help you make up your mind, attendance-wise.
This one is off their new one.
MP3: She's Your Sister, "Sweet Sorrow"
The Bomb Squad.
Just remember that phrase. The Bomb Squad.* And start clearing your Thursdays on your calendar. I can't divulge any details yet, but suffice to say it's the party Chicago's been missing.
Stay tuned.
*Yes, I'm aware that sort of bookends all these posts, what with the Public Enemy / Chuck D mention in the first movement, and the Bomb Squad of yore being the unbelievable production team behind the truly great Public Enemy discs. Honestly, I didn't plan it that way, but there you have it.
Top SXSW photo by Kevin Tamura
Second SXSW photo by Ariel Waldman
Third SXSW photo by Jason Schultz
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