Features

So it begins. Accent is ready for our SXSW coverage. We did a whole package for pre-coverage which can be found here.

Isn't this banner freaking amazing? Our web editor, Hanlly did a great job with the banners on the site. I love it! I have a feeling walking around 6th street or ACC campus is never going to be the same again. But it's part of the job. And if it means bands approaching me more for coverage, then I'm all for it.

Check out my awesome bio Life & Arts Editor Devon wrote for me. I surely couldn't have done it better.

Hola amigos, this is Sarah Vasquez checking in. When I’m not clocking campus news for the Accent, I also moonlight as a professional music writer at Austin Vida. This is my sixth SXSW, so I’ve got the experience, the knowledge, and the stamina required to tackle a festival of this magnitude. While all you amateurs are suffering from heat stroke and blown ear drums, I’m going to be front and center, taking video and photos of the hot acts descending on Austin’s downtown. From off the map parties to wild and raw day shows, I’ll be proving that, here at the Accent, we don’t need no stinking badges (though I will have a full music badge).

I wrote the caption for this: Use a QR code reader on your smartphone to take a photo of the above code which will then directly link you to our specific SXSW coverage page on www.theaccent.org. Because typing the url is so 2009.

Everyone with a SXSW badge is going to have this type of code on it so when you meet someone you want to keep in touch with, you just scan the code on your smartphone and the info is stored. Cool but creepy technology.

Then Devon and I wrote super short briefs on unofficial shows/parties to check out during SXSW. Here are my contributions:

5. Red Gorilla Fest
Since 2007, this festival has expanded to a multi-venue display of up-and-coming independent music. Former alumni that have performed in RedGorilla Fest include Cage the Elephant, Dead Confederate and Family Force 5. Centrally located on downtown 6th Street, fans can enjoy bands and musicians from a variety of genres such as acoustic, blues, hip hop and punk. March 17-21, Venues TBA

6. FUSXSW
With the abundance of cliched indie rock scheduled during SXSW, Giant Steps Productions provides a much needed relief with a week of loud, in your face rock bands. Located in the small confines of Plush Bar, the lack of stages gives a more intimate feeling as the fans are right there rocking with the performing bands.
March 14, Beerland, March 16, The Parlor, March 17-20 Plush, March 20 Music Gym

7. The Versatile Cache: Volume 2 Release Party
To celebrate the second volume of their compilation, Versatile Syndicate is throwing a day long showcase at Hole in the Wall. Bands featured on the compilation such as Prayer for Animals, and Obsolete Machines perform on two stages at this free show.
March 18, 12 p.m. Hole in the Wall

8. Octopus Project’s Hexadecagon Show
The Octopus Project are bringing another visual experience to the masses during SXSW. The band is joining forces with visual artist Wiley Wiggins, who some may remember as the upcoming freshman in Dazed and Confused. The audience will be surrounded by eight speakers set up in a circle as eight images will project over their heads.
March 16 7:00 p.m. and 9 p.m. Whole Foods Rooftop

All that's all for now. Be sure to bookmark my Accent SXSW blog which can be found here.

Editor's note: Sometimes these stories just write themselves. I stumbled across this band at a show a friend of mine wanting me to tag along with (which later on, she bailed on me and I was at the show alone). After a spontaneous interview with SPEAK that night, I decided to feature them months later after they had just released their EP. So another follow up interview was done and I was immersed in SPEAK for about two weeks. Writing this feature made me realize how much I miss writing them. Lately I've really only had time for Q&A's and album/show reviews, but now, I'm definitely going to take the time and effort to write more band features. Of course, after SXSW is over and done with.

SPEAK immediately got the Antone’s crowd dancing through their shyness at a December show with their 80’s reminiscent indie pop. These four baby-faced guys looked like they weren’t born to enjoy that music when it originally debuted but the lack of black x’s on their hands proved they are much older than their looks insinuate.

Those young looking kids are really vocalists Troupe Gammage, guitarist Nick Hurt, drummer Jake Stewart and bassist Joey Delahoussaye.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

By the way, here is the video for "Carrie" that was discussed in the feature.

And for those that haven't read my show review/recap on Digital Love (SPEAK's EP release), that link is here.

San Diego-based Blessure Grave started when frontman T. Grave began working on a side project, taking a break from his band Night Wounds. Bandmate Reyna Kay soon jumped on board the new Goth-pop outfit to contribute lyrically and vocally. With the help of several indie labels, the band gained an underground following from vinyl and tape releases of their songs. Their debut album, 'Judged by 12, Carried by 6,' was released on Feb. 9. Recently, T. Grave talked with Spinner about his band and his thoughts on Blessure Grave's upcoming debut at SXSW.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Austin Vida's indie showcase is this Saturday, Feb. 20, at Mi Casa, so we thought we'd give you some insight into the young bands we're featuring with a pair of Q&As. You can read Ian Morales' interview with In Situ Sound here. I spoke with the other half our bill: Hydra Melody, a progressive/alternative sextet from Helotes, Texas.

The band started as a middle-school pop-punk band, but evolved into the band we see now, a lineup that features keyboards and an auxiliary percussionist in addition to the standard guitar/bass/drums core. The setup provides an eclectic style of progressive melodic rock with hints of their Latin roots intertwined within the tunes.

Keyboardist Justin Berlanga recently chatted with me over the phone to provide an introductory overview of this headlining act for our first-ever indie showcase.

Click here to read the rest at Austin Vida.

If you live in Austin and didn't know that this week was SPEAK week, you obviously do not engage in Twitter and Facebook. Congratulations. Social media hasn't taken over your life yet. However, for the rest of us, we all probably received one tweet in your alerts that informed us that the band SPEAK is releasing their album tonight. Woo.

Throughout the week the band held little events including an album listening party and a Waterloo in-store performance to promote the album. Unfortunately, since my newspaper had to go to print yesterday, I didn't get to attend either one. However, the paper is done! It's been sent off so I plan on having fun tonight.

Joining SPEAK at the Independent is a Clap!Clap! reunion of sorts. For those that don't remember the San Marcos band Clap!Clap!, the name pretty much explains it all. Clap!Clap!'s groovy (yes, I said groovy) electronic dance pop never had a show when the crowd wasn't dancing. How many other bands do you know completely filled the stage with over 10 band members including members that only had one sole purpose, dance and clap. Genius, I must say.

So tonight two other bands, Love at 20 and missions will be opening up for SPEAK. Here's a little preview of what these bands are about.

Not only is tonight's SPEAK's album release show, but also the live show debut of Love at 20. Love at 20 is the brainchild of Mike Groener, who might be a familiar face to fans of Clap!Clap! This band however is also more like an Austin local super group as as part of the line up is bassist Louis Lemur, who's also from Clap!Clap! and The Always Already and drummer Mark Toohey who was in a band a looooong time ago called Slow Motion Picture (bonus points to you if you remember that band).

Mike took time to answer a short email interview in preparation for tonight's show. Stay tuned for an in-depth interview I'll be conducting tonight with him at the show.

How did Love at 20 come about?

As Clap!Clap! achieved its greatest success, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the cathartic aspects of the project. Josh and I were able to write songs together very well, but ultimately, I wasn't able to project my more personal thoughts into the music. I loved writing music that's pure purpose was to make people move. But in my opinion, music lovers can take a one-trick pony for so long. I am always seeking music that both moves me physically and emotionally. In effect, after a good year off from live music, I regrouped and began writing a musical "memoirs" of sorts under the name Love at 20.

With "Time to Begin" available for free download since around October (when I first herad about it), why did it take so long to actually perform your first show?

The strategy for releasing this record has been structured completely different than anything else I've worked on. In most cases, a band plays live shows, builds up a fan base, then finally records a record. However, "Time to Begin" was essentially a bedroom project until it was mastered. I spent April 09-July 09 writing and recording the album without ever really knowing how it was going to turn out. I knew I was shooting for a collection of songs that were incredibly ambitious and varied but had no guarantee that it would be performed live. But after the record was finished, I planned out the marketing, PR, live performance, branding, etc., because I knew that the songs were the best I've written.

Why did you pick tonight's show for your debut?

Jill from Knuckle Rumbler reached out about the Digital Love show a few months ago. I thought it was a great show to debut ourselves and an even friendlier bill due to Missions playing after us. In a sense, it's the "Future of Clap Clap" show we had been talking about for months.

With the show on Friday being your debut show, is there anything attendees have to look forward to?

I think in the current musical climate, especially in Austin, that Love at 20 has a very unique energy and combination of elements. I'm surprised that many bands fail to plan their live show. By this I mean, they don't establish a recognizable visual aesthetic and don't construct what is essentially a "performance". I think that Love at 20 does plan, and will have a visual "brand". I hope that people will be able to find themselves in the songs and share the performance with us. It goes without saying that I'm incredibly excited to finally bring this project to the stage.

By the way, you can download the album "Time to Begin" here.

Here's is a Love at 20 music video to the song, "So Bad."

Love at 20: "So Bad" from benberry media on Vimeo.

Missions was created by Josh Mills, the former vocalist of Clap!Clap!. This band is more like electronica space ride of some sorts. I'm interested to see how this translates live.

Josh also took the time to answer my short email interview about tonight's show. There'll be an in-depth interview with missions tonight as well.

How did Missions come about?

Shortly after Clap!Clap! disbanded, Scott and I started to write songs for a project we were going to call Purple Magick, but as it tends to do, life/work interrupted that dream. We could never meet enough and eventually Scott could no longer continue doing music. I kept writing songs and started to notice that most of them were very dark sounding and reminiscent of a feeling I can only describe as "doomed-to-die-floating-alone-in-space", especially this song I tentatively named "Shuttle". I actually wanted to call the project Shuttle, but the drummer of Passion Pit has that moniker already. I believe it was the day I wrote and completed "Darrk/Blakk" that I decided to put this project into action, bring on my friend Markus and my girlfriend Amber and give the project it's rightful name, Missions. That was April 19th, 2009. Missions, using some of the old material I wrote for Purple Magick and some of the newer, started practicing in August to later have our first show in October opening for Junior Boys.

How would you describe your sound in your own words?

I would describe Missions as dark, spacey, serious and electronic with a slow groove. We keep the tempo pretty slow in most cases, but you can still dance to it. We like that.

What can attendees expect at the show on Friday?

Attendees can expect to feel to the energy of the dance floor and the emotion of the music. They'll hear a lot of the songs we have available online mixed with some newer songs not many have heard. Hopefully they'll be able to hear how our sound is slowly progressing and evolving. Opening the night is a band I did a remix for Love At 20 which includes Mike Groener and Louis Lemuz from Clap!Clap!. Amber from Missions is also performing in Love At 20 and this show is their live debut, so attendees can also expect to see a bit of crossover there.

Here is a free tune from Mission called "Wavelength."

Click here to stream or download the track.

And what about a SPEAK interview? Stay tuned. ;)

I have a new blog for Accent as part of my editor position. This blog (which is currently nameless) is going to be featuring bands and musicians that have current or former ACC students. Here's my first interview for the blog with The Paper Shapes.

I've known Jason Bearden since his days in the former band, Consider the Source. He recommended I checked out his new band, The Paper Shapes.

Maybe it was my tiredness of the same formulaic, predictable indie music I had been covering for the past year or maybe it was what I needed to perk me up that morning, but once I heard this aggressively melodic post-punk band on the bus ride to class, I was instantly hooked. Either way, this band has my attention.

The Paper Shapes were formally known as the band Prom Nite, but after noticing the new direction the music was taking, the five guys decided to start completely fresh. A new band name and a new genre. This band is pretty new to the music scene. However, I'm sure there are fans out there who feels just like I did and are ready to embrace their refreshing vigorous sound.

But hearing the album isn't enough. This band is definitely one that needs to be seen live. One memorable time I caught one of their shows was during Transmission's Free Week at Red 7. The temperature at the outside stage was a freezing 17 degrees that night, but that didn't stop the band from performing with as much as energy as they would have given if they played on the inside stage. In fact, the guys claim to this day that that was their best show they've had so far.

I had a chance to sit with the band during one of their practice sessions at Music Lab. It was that night I learned that vocalist, Aaron Pearson-Jordan is a currently student at ACC as well as that guitarist, Hector Guerra, is a former student.

At this meeting, the band chatted with me about how the band got together, the recording of the EP they are currently working on and why there is a guy in the band that just works the lighting during the shows.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

It made me sad when I read that The States played their last show this past Thursday. Especially since I couldn't be there.

I met this Brooklyn band during South by Southwest in 2006. I happened to walk into one of those free night show because I wasn't sure what time the band I wanted to see was performing. Luckily for me, The States was already onstage. Even though I only caught the last songs from their set, I instantly became a fan.

After their show, they started striking up conversations with the crowd and handed out free demos from their record that was released at the time. I saw this as my chance to introduce myself and ask for an interview. They were game and the rest is history.

I kept up with this band through the years, catching them every time they played in Austin. They even contributed a track for one of my compilations. I have all the albums and recently I wrote a review for the newest one “We Are the Erasers” for Accent, which you can read here.

So farewell guys, I'll miss ya and your shenanigans. However, don't fret. Turns out Chris Snyder, the vocalist/guitarist, has been working on a little project called “ThreeSixFive Project.” His goal is to write, record and post a song every day for a year.

You can check out his progress here.

Now to share with you the last interview I ever did with The States during 2009's South by Southwest's Music Festival.

Introduce yourself and what do you play in the band.

Chris: We're the States. We're from Brooklyn. My name's Chris.

Joe: I'm Joe.

Pete: Peter.

How's South by Southwest treating you so far?

Chris: Friendly as hell. Hot. Wonderful weather. Hot wonderful women. Yeah, it's been great.

Pete: Beer, food, barbeque, sleep, sleep.

Chris: Yeah, it's great. It's our 3rd time down and probably the best one of the ones that we've been so.

Did you tour on the way over here? How did that go?

Joe: It was great. We drove first to Nashville. We did our last record over there with Chris Grainger and just did our mastering, final mixing session with them. That record got mastered like a day after we left so we played a show and finalized the record. All of it. Everything's done so third record's in the bag and we went to where?

Pete: Mobile, Alabama. We got to meet some of our fans down there from the internet. Came to see us for the first time.

Joe: The interwebs.

Pete: Then we drove to New Orleans and that was vacation day.

Chris: St. Patrick's Day.

Pete: St. Patrick's Day and so we went to a St. Patrick's Day parade. Got to see the sights. Eat the eats. Drink the drinks. Stayed in a scary hotel.

Joe: Yeah, it was a crack house. It was awful.

Pete: It was prostitution, cross dressers, roaches, rats, the whole thing. And then from there, drove down here.

Chris: That's right.

Pete: Across here, I guess. Got to see the Mississippi. Was that Mississippi we went through? Where'd we go through?

Chris: *shakes head*

Pete: That was all Louisiana all the way across, I guess.

Chris: Yeah I think so.

Pete: We've been here since Wednesday night. Played a show Thursday.

Chris: Yes and two today. That's it.

Pete: It's been great.

Have you seen any good bands since you've been here?

Chris: Birds and Batteries from San Francisco. We're sort of like friends of friends and it was way across the river and it was really awesome. I can't describe it but it's really awesome. I think they should have a website if you google it. Birds and Batteries.

Joe: I think it's birdsandbatteries.com

Chris: That's likely yes.

Joe: And then Planeside. We saw our friends from Planeside down here and a bunch of other people we've bumped along the way.

Chris: We stopped in Nashville with a group called Luna Halo who are from Nashville. Great guys. Awesome band. We saw them probably two or three times. So far so all good. All good shows.

Joe: It's great.

So when do you think the album will come out?

Joe: Don't know. Right now we're figuring out our next six months. We're going to try to see if somebody's going to pick it up and pay for it or we're going to do it ourselves. That'll be decided in the next three months probably. Then our back up plan is to do U.S. touring by the end of early summer, late spring.

Chris: Long story short though. Record will probably be out at the end of this year. It'll certainty be available online very shortly. A month. Maybe a month. Yeah, we're excited about it.

Joe: We're going to leak it. We're going to leak it all.

Chris: Yes. We're going to leak our own record.

How do you feel the music has changed since Pete took over the bass?

Chris: Well, I don't know if it was because Pete took over the bass or the direction we were moving anyway, or some combination of the two, it's probably that but the music is more band music now. It was very produced before the last record, the last time we talked to you. And this one, we really wanted to focus on three guys in a room. I mean, trios are special for a reason and so we were trying to focus on that. I think that came across. It's got a lot of space in the record. It's not shock full of stuff.

Joe: Extra stuff. It's basically us playing in a room together and that's really what we went for. Pete is really good at seeing the fat in parts and taking it out and helping the groove of the beat and the groove of the song flow. So it was something we were never able to do before. Just like look at something as it doesn't need all this shit to be in the song. Pete was the catalyst to help everything kind of move along in a better direction.

Pete: It's kind of like same band, different process. More or less. It still sounds like The States. It was just a different way to get there.

Yeah, it's kind of simplified but not really. I don't know how to explain it.

Chris: The last record, we just couldn't play all the stuff live. There was just three guitar parts all the time. It doesn't really make sense. I mean, it was fun to do and we liked obviously our record, but we wanted to do things that we could play together. And yeah, that does mean that it's simpler but it also means that the essence is more pure.

Pete: Definitely more of a spiritual record. At least it felt like for me. The way we collaborated was very personal. Where I know where the last two records kind of came from, this felt like it was like therapy for me. Some of the content Chris talks about kind of hits me in certain ways. Almost like I'm outside of it but within it. This record just took me to a different place than anything I've ever been in.

Emo's Lounge
603 Red River St.

Emo's definitely lives up to its reputation during SXSW and I don't blame them. What other venues provide great lines every day of the week for all ages? I especially like the Emo's Lounge shows. They mainly showcase local bands that are trying to get their name out but have great potential. It's a great place to check out those hidden gems people will be talking about in a couple of years.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

I interviewed Casxio in the back alley of Barcelona after their SXSW showcase. Sitting on amps, the guys and gal gave me an insite on the recording process for the upcoming album and the story behind this band.

Click here to read more previous articles about Casxio.

First off, how is South by Southwest treating ya so far?

Lucas: It's been good so far. It's like a big party of course and it's all a blur so far to tell you the truth.

Eric: It's good. We're out of LA and we're playing music in Texas in front of a lot of Texans and people from all over the world. So that's the best part about it is that people that we've been talking to like yourself and some people from New York and even England are coming out and they can see the show in person. so that's the best part about it.

And I saw Perez Hilton in the audience. He was standing behind me so that was kind of cool.

Eric: Actually Andrea's been talking with him because we played a show last week in LA. We opened for Yelle. Perez came out and introduced Yelle so she emailed him and they've been talking about it. We're going to go to his party later and everything. Talk about celeb gossip.

How are people responding to your shows so far? The music is kind of different than what's out there.

Lucas: Yeah, it is. Sometimes it takes a second or a couple of songs for them to really give a response that we want, but eventually we get that response. It's been positive at this point.

Eric: It takes one drunk guy dancing on the floor to open it up for everyone.

Lucas: That's right.

All: Jordan.

And you mentioned Phil's producing your album.

Eric: Yeah, Phil's producing and helping us out with the sound while we're here in Austin. Then he's helping us record all our new tracks and everything.

Lucas: Yeah, we're recording in his studio, Hanger 1018, in downtown LA. Amazing studio.

So you're currently recording right now?

Lucas: Yeah. We're aiming for the end of this year for the release of the first Casxio album.

Eric: Christmas. It's actually going to be our first Hanukkah album.

Ok and how did this band come about? How did ya form?

Lucas: We formed about two years ago. I basically recruited these folks to my band. They were more than happy to do so, I guess, because they're still here.

Andrea: We were playing pool and then he came over. He saw my keyboard and that was it. That was the beginning.

Lucas: Yeah and Eric here came from New York. Came down here and didn't know exactly what to do with himself. He was slumming it. Slumming it. Living under a bridge somewhere.

Eric: And Lucas saved my life.

Lucas: And I saved his life. I did. Gave mouth to mouth.

Ok. I'm sure you get asked this a lot but the meaning behind the name.

Lucas: You know, that's a tough one. Because there is no meaning behind the name. It's just a cool sounding name.

Eric: It's a word that was kind of out there but the point is to put that music, that sound like you said you don't hear it too much and brand that name with that sound.

Andrea: I just think it sounds sexy.

Lucas: I think so too. I think it sounds sexy.

Andrea: It does. It really does.

Lucas: And I think that's why I like it.

It matches the music.

Eric: Exactly.

Lucas: Yeah, absolutely.

Now we're going to have fun. If you were a superhero and could have any superpower, what would it be?

Lucas: Did we talk about this?

Eric: I think we did? I think we did this once.

Andrea: I feel it's a question too.

Lucas: Wow, I think we've answered this before. I don't remember what I answered. If I could be a superhero, I would want to be able to fly one inch off of the ground. That's probably it.

Eric: Just hover?

Lucas: I'd just like to hover one inch off the ground but be able to control where I'd go. Not like I'm hovering and you push me and I float away, but I want to be able to control that. I think that'd be really kind of cool. It'll look like I had those skating shoes on all the time, but I wouldn't need to go out and buy them so I'll be saving money.

Eric: Teleportation.

Andrea: Ok my turn. I would like to change little things on a cellular level with my eyes so I can like shape shift things with my mind.

Eric: Dr. Manhattan?

Andrea: Yes. But you know what though, I could also cure cancer if I did that. Like I could look at it and would change the cells in my mind and be like “oh, your tumor is gone.”

Lucas: That's amazing.

Eric: I think you would be Jesus if you could do that. You could turn water into wine and shit.

Andrea: I'm choosing my super power.

All right, what's next for you after South by Southwest?

Lucas: We have a few shows lined up in LA. One in Spaceland. I dunno. We're working on it. The main priority right now is working on the album. Yeah, so just working hard with that.

Eric: Yeah, we'll be playing shows in LA. Just building on what we're building on in LA and getting ready for that album.

Andrea: Dance party Casxio. Dance party 2009.

Eric: We're looking for a pet DJ. Right?

Andrea: She said what are we going to do? That's what we're going to do.

Anything you wanna add?

Lucas: Work hard. Study. Graduate. Go on to bigger and better things.

Andrea: And don't do drugs.

Lucas: Oh yeah and don't do drugs. Drugs are bad. Yeah, that's about it.

It’s the last day of SXSW! I attempted to sleep in to catch up on my sleep from the past 3 days but instead I woke up at 9:30 with no problem. Great.

I left my house later than I wanted because my boyfriend wanted to have breakfast with me so that took longer than I wanted. Oh well. I missed Folio.

Click here to read the rest at my Accent's SXSW blog.