One Night Soundtrack

So last wednesday I had the pleasure of two of my favorite live acts together on one stage. I'm always nervous about introducing my friends to new artists that I like, fearing that they might not have a good time at a show. Thankfully, Mother Falcon and Balmorhea tore shit up at the Mohawk, and my friends had a great time. Like I said in my previous post, these guys kick a lot of ass.

Lost River/Old River kicked the night off with a few solo songs, and then was joined by a few friends to round out a full band sound. I didn't get to catch much of this set, but what I heard I liked. I will definitely be looking out for upcoming shows.




Mother Falcon! (you have to say it like that, it just sounds more fun) was excellent, yet again. These young, talented, ladies and gents are still figuring themselves out. With 17 members, and even more instruments, things can get a bit confusing on stage when members are switching between instruments and changing stage location. This most recent show, we got a preview of some of the newer stuff that they have been recording over the past few weeks(months?). New stuff=even more ridiculous. Seriously, HOW DO THEY DO IT?




Before Balmorhea could take the stage, one very important thing had to happen: a poem reading by Thax Douglas! If you've been going to shows around Austin in the past year or so, you've probably seen an older gent, with an excellent beard, introducing bands with poems before they play. In the past year, Thax has been at at least five shows that I have been in attendance of.




After a marvelous introduction by the bearded man, Balmorhea picked me up and wrapped me in an epic movie soundtrack. Seriously, when these guys play, I feel like I'm in the middle of the Gladiator soundtrack or something. Okay, maybe not Gladiator, but something with a soundtrack equally as epic. Apparently, someone in Hollywood thought the same thing. The next time I go to the movies, I want these guys sitting in the very front, making the movie come alive for me.

Shows with lineups like this make me very grateful that I have ears that function marginally well.

womp womp womp

So, no Autolux tonight. A friend of mine needed to jet out of town for a few days so I'm taking care of her kid.

Next week, two local Austin bands, Balmorhea and Mother Falcon will be playing a show together at the Mohawk.

I saw Balmorhea a few months back at Emo's. I had never listened to their music before the show, and was pleasantly surprised at what I heard that night. Their music has a way of slowly creeping in under your skin and becoming something so much bigger than what you expected. Their most recent album, Constellations, released in February, can be found on iTunes.

Mother Falcon is pretty new to the scene, but they've been creating a lot of local buzz with their debut EP, Still Life. The band was recently featured in the Austin Chronicle article about their July 17th show with fellow Austin musicians The Octopus Project:

"Under darkening skies the motif to "Her Radiant Limb" emerges. This is the arrangement from the group's Austin Music Awards performance during South by Southwest this year, the mass introduction to Austin and the world beyond that Mother Falcon had practiced for two years."

Honestly, I can't wait to see what else these bands come up with. If you're in town and not doing anything on the 15th, you should definitely check them out at Mohawk on Red River.

andddddddddddd i'm back!

It has been quite a while since I last updated this. I've got quite a few shows marked on my calendar for the next few months, so I've decided that I'm going to start writing about each one.

BUT FIRST, a recap of highlights of the past few months:
So I have this sick job where I get paid to listen to the music I love and connect these artists with various brands for different experiential marketing campaigns.

Bonnaroo 2010: One of our clients wanted to do an activation at Bonnaroo, so we packed an RV and headed east to good ole Tennessee. Besides attending the festival, highlights of the trip include: pushing a walmart shopping cart full of groceries across a highway and getting on an artist bus with one of the bands that we were going to interview later in the day, being in the same room (okay, there weren't any "rooms" at Bonnaroo, but our tent was the size of a large boardroom, and I wanted you to get the idea that I was in the same space as these dudes) with the dudes from Weezer, watching Mumford and Sons in the rain, sneaking into VIP for Jay-Z's set, and singing along to Stevie Wonder with 80,000 other people.








Lollapalooza 2010: The same client was itching to make a stop at Lollapalooza so we packed our bags and hopped on a flight to the windy city. First stop: Perez Hilton's One Night In Chicago party to kick off the festival's, umm...festivities. Guests were treated to performances by J Brazil, Nneka, Lissie, Kid Sister, and B.o.B..

The rest of the weekend was filled with cafe performances by Neon Trees, The Constellations, Chiddy Bang, Andrew Belle, Neon Hitch, and Erin Martin.

My favorite non-festival performances were Minus the Bear, Mumford and Sons, and The Temper Trap.




A really cool dude I met over the weekend managed to get me into VIP for Minus the Bear's show at Double Door in Wicker Park. The venue was SUPER hot inside, but the crowd was really ramped up for the show, so no one seemed to mind.




Probably my favorite memory of Lollapalooza was sneaking backstage to watch Mumford and Sons and The Temper Trap for their sets at Belve Nights at the Hard Rock hotel. Mumford and Sons are basically my favorite band right now. I was really disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to see them back in June because we were going to be on the road to Tennessee, so this definitely made up for not being able to see them at a club show.




The Temper Trap kicked ass as well, I've seen them once before and both shows were great.


8-24-2010: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of catching Chromeo and Questlove of The Roots in the same night.




My night started at Stubb's here in Austin where Chromeo made a tour stop with Holy Ghost and Telephoned. Luckily, I got to the venue RIGHT before Chromeo took the stage. These guys have GREAT energy. The electrofunk duo fed off of the crowd's energy and played favorites such as "Needy Girl", "Night By Night", "Bonafied Lovin'", and "Don't Turn The Lights On". Stubb's is not my favorite summer venue in Austin, mostly because the big name shows hosted there are always outside when it its simply too hot to enjoy the show. Come October though...




After catching the end of Chromeo's set, I boogied on over to Red 7 to get a good spot for Questlove's DJ set. The man didn't stop spinning FOR 3 HOURS. He played a lot of old school favorites (think "Pass The Dutchie") and mixed a couple newer tracks (a few Jay-Z snippets here and there). After 2 hours at Chromeo and 2.5 hours at Questlove I had to take my tired, sweaty ass home. Two days later I STILL hadn't regained hearing in my left ear.

Next on my schedule is Autolux at Emo's on the 9th...see you there!