As festivals go, the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX is one of the biggest, most diverse and longest running music festivals around. What started back in 1987 at the Driskill Hotel featuring a handful of up and coming and regional bands, the festival has grown into an enormous gathering of passionate creators and consumers working in film, technology, gaming, comedy and of course, music. To be asked to showcase is high praise in itself but that’s where the work really starts. With thousands of bands in town performing at hundreds of venues over the course of 5 days it can be hard to get noticed and even harder to leave a mark. We here at OpenEars have picked some of our best below. From vintage hip hop to cutting edge indie pop and country, there’s a little bit for everyone.
We’ll be out in Texas during the week from March 12th until March 17th running all over town to catch as many great sets as possible.
Check out some of our top picls below and head over to http://www.sxsw.com for even more information about all of the bands performing.
Deerhunter
How do you describe an album out of time, concerned with the disappearance of culture, of humanity, of nature, of logic and emotion? Why make this album in an era when attention spans have been reduced to next to nothing, and the tactile grains of making music have been further reduced to algorithms and projected playlist placement. Why wake up in the morning? Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?
Deerhunter’s eighth LP forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around, it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
From the opening harpsichord and piano figures of ‘Death in Midsummer’, it is impossible to tell where the record came from. Is ‘No One’s Sleeping’ an outtake of an aborted Kinks recording session in 1977 Berlin with Eno producing? No. That is nostalgia. If there is one thing Deerhunter are making clear it is that they have exhausted themselves with that toxic concept.
Deerhunter are a band from Atlanta GA, comprised on Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and Josh McKay.
Mar 11, 2019
10:45pm — 12:00am
*repeat repeat
*repeat repeat was founded by Jared Corder — a former punk-rock kid raised on the sounds of Bad Religion & Black Flag. The goal was simple: to make edgy, guitar-driven music that nodded to the classic sounds of Jared’s California birthplace, complete with hazy harmonies and surf-inspired arrangements. The problem? The group needed a female harmony singer, and nobody seemed to fit the bill. Things changed when the band’s producer suggested that Jared’s wife, Kristyn, sing with the band. The fit was natural. Kristyn had grown up in California, listening to ’60s legends like the Mamas and the Papas & The Everly Brothers. She quickly completed the band, sharing vocal duties with Jared and serving as the inspiration for much of Bad Latitude — a debut album largely written by Jared during the couple’s engagement.
Floral Canyon (their sophomore album) stretches the band’s musical envelope, adding depth, drive, and darkness to the sun-baked, surf-tinged pop that’s always been their bedrock. Gluing everything together is the band’s melodic, musical attack: equal parts percussive thunder, trembling organ, synth pads, coed harmonies, and wide-ranging guitar parts.
https://www.repeatrepeatmusic.com/
*REPEAT REPEAT AT BARRACUDA BACKYARD
Mar 15, 2019
9:45pm — 10:25pm
Illuminati hotties
Despite the pluralized nom de guerre, illuminati hotties is the creative outlet of Sarah Tudzin – a producer, engineer, and burrito aficionado hailing from the sprawl of Los Angeles. Armed with bright white shortveralls and a rotating line-up of Sarah’s bffs, illuminati hotties has been lighting up stages across SoCal since Fall 2016 with playfully interweaving guitar lines, relentless rhythmic momentum, and strikingly self-aware vocals. Lauded as local “tenderpunk pioneers,” illuminati hotties has perfected the blend of sweetness and ferocity, of celebration and despondency, in their debut album, Kiss Yr Frenemies.
At first listen, illuminati hotties is a sun-drenched, irreverent volley with the onset of adulthood, but as the listener dives deeper, they will find an earnest consideration of musical phrasing and deliberately crafted wordplay regarding the complexity of love, loss, and skateboarding. illuminati hotties’ live show challenges audiences to bring their deepest feels and fiercest moves to the floor, and has elicited comparisons to Best Coast, Angel Olsen, Courtney Barnett, and Alvvays.
http://votiv.is/illuminati-hotties
ILLUMINATI HOTTIES AT BEERLAND
Mar 12, 2019
11:00pm — 11:40pm
ILLUMINATI HOTTIES AT MAGGIE MAE’S ROOFTOP
Mar 13, 2019
10:00pm — 10:40pm
ILLUMINATI HOTTIES AT CONTAINER BAR
Mar 15, 2019
2:00pm — 2:40pm
Moving Panoramas
Spacey but not alienating, loud yet still light, painting panoramic sound against a moving melodic backdrop, Moving Panoramas make dream rock from Austin, Texas.
It all began in Brooklyn, where songwriter Leslie Sisson lived for nearly a decade while playing in a number of touring bands. She came back to her home state of Texas to be near her family while navigating through a series of life-changing events. This led to an array of songs that shaped the birth of the band. The debut LP ‘One‘ released via Modern Outsider Records in 2015 conjured a wave of dream gaze and international acclaim.
Moving Panoramas break the shell of ‘One‘ veritably ‘In Two‘ with the new sophomore LP available via Modern Outsider 2/22/19, expanding room for more diversity, rhythm, volume, instrumentation such as the swimmy pedal steel, plus special guests Matthew Caws of Nada Surf & Sabrina Ellis of A Giant Dog/Sweet Spirit. Over the years, the band’s lineup featured a moving cast of magical busy talent but has luckily landed on the incredibly solid current Baby Blues crew with Cara Tillman, Rosie Castoe, Jordan Rivell, Jody Suarez, & Phil McJunkins.
MOVING PANORAMAS AT CHEER UP CHARLIE’S
Mar 12, 2019
11:45pm — 12:25am
MOVING PANORAMAS AT THE BELMONT
Mar 16, 2019
11:45pm — 12:25am
Billie Eilish
With an appetite for the gliding, glassy indie-pop of artists like Aurora and Lana Del Rey and the Distorted Menace of Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, Billie Eilish listens to music the way that most watch movies, entirely undefined by genre. This bleeds through into her own unique style of music, calling out lyrics with a mix of heartbreak and damaged indifference. Born and raised in Los Angeles by two actor/musician parents, Billie Eilish grew up surrounded by Art. She began singing in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus when she was 8 years old. Now at the “seasoned” age of 14, Billie has begun releasing her own original material, Produced and Co-written by her Older brother Finneas O’Connell (Of The Slightlys). With songs like “Fingers Crossed”, telling an apocalyptic tale of a virus outbreak and the Song “Ocean Eyes” Calling out to a lost love, Billie’s voice and perspective roams far beyond her years in it’s emotion and power.
BILLIE EILISH AT UBER EATS HOUSE
Mar 16, 2019
10:00pm — 11:00pm
Blushh
Blushh is what you get after your bjillionthth quarter life crisis: when you realize you’ve been sitting in the corner your whole life watching the party happen from afar, never saying a word about how you felt, or standing up to grab the last cupcake. Blushh is what you really mean when you shrug it off and say “it’s fine”, when you roll your eyes and deal with it. Blushh is what you’ve been wanting to yell at the top of your lungs, but never had the guts to.
Mar 12, 2019
10:00pm — 10:40pm
Bellows
Bellows is the bedroom recording project of Brooklyn songwriter and producer Oliver Kalb. The sound of Bellows is sensory and delicate, subtle and quiet, but erupts with frantic wobbling drums, large orchestral sections and bursts of noise that push the conventions of pop and folk. Started in late 2010 in a bedroom in upstate New York, Bellows has since blossomed from a solo recording experiment into a large-scale rock band, employing the help of friends to bring Kalb’s intimate home recordings to life on stage in sweeping, loud, and intense live performances. Bellows has been writing and self-producing records for the better part of the last decade, recording four full length albums and multiple shorter collections of song-a-day projects in the years since their naturalistic 2011 debut As If To Say I Hate Daylight. Bellows’ ambitious sophomore album Blue Breath was recorded over the course of three years in several bedrooms across the United States, and was named in Bob Boilen of NPR’s Best Albums of 2014 list. 2016’s synth-heavy Fist & Palm meditated on the ending of a friendship and was named twice in Stereogum’s 100 Best Songs of 2016 list.
BELLOWS AT CHEER UP CHARLIE’S INSIDE
Mar 13, 2019
7:40pm — 8:20pm
Boy Scouts
Taylor Vick makes music that is instantly comforting and arrestingly beautiful. Under her songwriting moniker Boy Scouts, the Bay Area artist has spent over a decade refining her craft, penning heartbreak confessionals over glitchy drum loops since Myspace days. It wasn’t until 2015 that Vick put together a live band and became a staple of San Francisco and Oakland lineups.
On her forthcoming album, it feels like Boy Scouts has truly arrived. Recorded and produced by Stephen Steinbrink, every element exists purely to serve the songs – the bass lines bounce and guitars are lush, but nothing gets in the way of Vicks true superpower, her voice. Delicately layered harmonies exude an effortless grace, and make the most casual lyrics hit the hardest. There’s something so honest about her songs, they feel like late night therapy sessions with your best friend.
Mar 14, 2019
11:00pm — 11:40pm
Hala
Recording under the moniker Hala, 21 year old Ian Ruhala writes songs that feel fresh, bright, but insightful, out of his home in Detroit, Michigan. It is the kind of music that one would expect to hear at the beginning of a movie or short film, alongside opening credits. With a prolific output, Hala stresses the importance of the songwriting and production process, as much as the final product.
Take his 2016 debut, Spoonfed, which is perhaps Hala’s best-known collection of songs. “I was in a pretty rough, and eclectic state of mind, when I was writing and recording the album,” Ruhala remembers. “I felt like the entire world was fighting against me, and my only weapon of defense was my voice, and my guitar.”
Recorded in the attic of a century old home in Midtown Detroit, with limited studio equipment, songs like “Club Soda,” “Phone Calls,” and, “Not Your Modern Man,” chronicle Ruhala’s experiences of living in a musical commune, and crossing the threshold of adulthood. These songs document in a rather poignant way, a sense of uncomfortability, and naiveté, that almost simultaneously accompanied these transitions in the young writer’s life.
The stand-out from the record, “What Is Love? Tell Me, Is It Easy?,” has gathered praise for having this sensibility. Lyrically, Hala says the song is rather rhetorical, but since it’s release it has become a soundtrack for the optimistic but always hopeless romantics of indie rock consumption.
Hala’s latest numbers, seem like reasonable stepping stones. On “Love Grows,” the guitars waver hot above a low, dusty drumbeat, as a restless bassline shrugs beneath shuffling chords, and a vocal that croons like that of Bob Dylan.
A most recent single, 2018’s, “Sorry,” shows Hala at perhaps his most realized—sunny and fun, with lyrics as mischievous as the guitar’s leads; the track is energetic, restless and all encompassing.
Mar 15, 2019
11:00pm — 11:40pm
John Vanderslice
Over the course of his 30-year career as an influential songwriter, record producer, and studio owner, John Vanderslice has carved out a singular place for himself in the landscape of American indie rock. Between 2000 and 2014, JV released 10 records on Barsuk, Dead Oceans, and Secretly Canadian, and collaborated as a producer and musician on records by Spoon, the Mountain Goats, Okkervil River, Death Cab for Cutie and Tune-Yards. In April 2018, Vanderslice decided to leap back into his solo career with full force, hunkering down for over 50 days in his San Francisco studio Tiny Telephone in a process that yielded The Cedars—Vanderslice’s most ambitious record to date. The Cedars (Native Cat Recordings 2019) approaches the craft of songwriting from every direction but the front, in a non-linear process driven by drum machines, synthesizers, and an unpredictable palette of sonic textures. In an act of getting both figuratively and literally lost in the woods, Vanderslice finds himself favoring chaos and deconstruction over well-worn paths of familiar sounds and instrumentation.
JOHN VANDERSLICE AT THE HIDEOUT
Mar 14, 2019
1:00am — 1:40am
Locate S,1
Having rotated between a handful of cast and characters under various titles over the years (Jepeto Solutions, CE Schneider Topical, Christina Schneider’s Genius Grant…) Schneider has settled on the pop moniker Locate S,1 for her newest album, Healing Contest.
Healing Contest stands out as the fully realized, high-fidelity collaboration pairing Schneider’s compositions with the iconic creative force behind of Montreal. Produced, engineered and mixed by Kevin Barnes, Healing Contest is the debut release from Barnes’ new label, Sybaritic Peer.
On Healing Contest, Schneider is back with a futuristic palette of electronic drums, funky bass lines, and quietly hyperactive chord progressions that are sure to impress even the most learned musical millennial. Locate S,1 is the result of a seasoned songwriter cum lo-fi home-recorder delving into the world of mid-fi pop, with results that are pleasantly difficult to define; a technical tour-de-force that extrapolates high-brow jazz harmonics and prog-rock time signatures into a whole menagerie of new forms—all while still passing as pop.
Mar 12, 2019
9:00pm — 9:40pm
Ratboys
Fresh off the heels of their second album, ‘GN’ (aka Good Night), Chicago’s Ratboys entered 2018 with a brand new companion EP called ‘GL’ (aka Good Luck). Featuring four songs spinning stories of loss and heartache and loneliness, Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan yearn for simpler times together, in a wash of dynamic guitars and wistful melodies. Described as ‘bold and arresting’ by The AV Club, Ratboys have traveled far and wide in the past year, playing songs old and new all across North America, Japan, the UK, and Europe.
RATBOYS AT CHEER UP CHARLIE’S INSIDE
Mar 13, 2019
12:40am — 1:20am
Sneaks
Just as she takes up space in the male-dominated Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area punk scene, Sneaks aka Eva Moolchan takes up space among the patriarchy. Highway Hypnosis, her recently released album on Merge Records, plays on hip-hop, post-punk, and invented words to fill a gap between the feminist underground and genre-specific singles charts. Through it, Moolchan joins the resistance forged by queer black feminists who create, explore, empower, conquer, and play bass.
The solo act, born with Pluto in Scorpio, released her first single “Beliefs” in September. The glimmering anthem shrouded in an atmosphere of darkness drops its beat along with a call to arms for all non-believers whose mantra is assigned: “Remove your beliefs and start again / ’cause all I wanna do is start again.”
Flashes of Robyn, Britney Spears, Jock Jams, Nirvana, recess hour on the blacktop, M.I.A., Lil Mama, a hacky sack circle, Aaliyah, and your first Warped Tour experience somehow all make sense inside the mind attached to ears experiencing Highway Hypnosis.
Mar 13, 2019
10:00pm — 10:40pm
Mar 14, 2019
11:10pm — 11:45pm
SUSTO
Mobility has always helped define America. Don’t settle for where you start. Find a new town, new coast, or new state of mind––then make it yours. “We export this idea of getting in your car and going somewhere, trying to find something new, bouncing around,” says Justin Osborne. “We live in some strange, crazy times. There is a sense of darkness. But I’m crisscrossing the country, and people are good and fun. There is a lot of beauty everywhere. I think not forgetting that is important.
Osborne is home in Charleston, South Carolina, reflecting on the personal journey and cultural climate that have led to Ever Since I Lost My Mind, the third record and label debut for his acclaimed project SUSTO. The album is a resounding triumph: a mix of new partnerships and collaborations with old friends, all anchored by Osborne’s perceptive songs that explore connection, loss, and transience––and the pain and joy each brings.
Ever Since I Lost My Mind is very personal. This collection of songs came together over the course of a couple of years, and they all represent different moments,” he says. “It felt cathartic writing all of them, and they were also all fun in different ways.”
Mar 13, 2019
11:30pm — 12:10am
Mar 16, 2019
12:00am — 12:40am
Courtney Marie Andrews
Courtney Marie Andrews spent over nine months of 2017 on the road, with multiple trips across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. That’s nothing new for Andrews, though. She’s been touring relentlessly since leaving her Arizona hometown at 16. It’s a life that inspired much of her 2016 breakthrough album, Honest Life. While that album’s themes spoke to the isolation and rootlessness inherent in a life on the road, most of its songs were actually written during an intentional, extended break. The success that followed its release, however, didn’t afford her the same break to write the material for her new album.
Although May Your Kindness Remain was predominantly written on the road — in the van, in hotels, and in the homes of family and friends — it’s not a road record like its predecessor. That is, it’s not so much inspired by her life on the road so much as it is by the people she’s met along the way. It’s an inward reflection on the connectivity of their stories and her own. “More than anything,” she says, “it got me thinking about my childhood, and the people around me that I’ve known, and the stories that come from my family. It became clear how many people are struggling through the same issues.”
May Your Kindness Remain is full of vivid depictions of complex people and places with all too common struggles. Much of the album deals with the psychological and relational impact of the unrealistic picture of success that is so embedded in modern American culture.
http://courtneymarieandrews.com/
COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS AT SXSW OUTDOOR STAGE AT LADY BIRD LAKE
Mar 16, 2019
6:40pm — 7:15pm
De La Soul
In 1987, a trio known as De La Soul formed from Long Island, NY roots and changed the landscape of hip-hop as we knew it. Now, for over 20 years they have rocked us with their De La songs full of inscrutable samplings, whimsically irreverent lyrics, social commentary, light rhythm and laid back rhymes. They have gained respect within and outside the hip hop community with their contributions to rap, as well as jazz, funk, soul and alternative genres. Not only are their musical innovations acclaimed and respected worldwide, but they paved a path for many alternative rap groups to come after them.
Today, De La continue to the tour globe and released their most recent studio album “And The Anonymous Nobody“, in 2016.
Mar 13, 2019
12:00am — 12:40am
The Tiny Desk Family Hour
The SXSW Music Festival is pleased to announce the first-ever Tiny Desk Family Hour showcase, an evening of music by artists who have played NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert, at Central Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 12 from 8-11pm.
Throughout 3 hours you’ll hear roughly ten acoustic performances by Tiny Desk alum hosted by Bob Boilen, the creator of the series and other NPR Music names you may recognize. Who’s performing? They aren’t going to tell you. Trust us, and trust Bob; this is not one you’ll want to miss.
https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/
THE TINY DESK FAMILY HOUR AT CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Mar 12, 2019
8:00pm — 11:00pm
