SXSW 2012

From Zoe Cordes Selbin, The Austin Chronicle:

New York's Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi produce big beats, house music, and remixes that will make teen girls and other booty-shakers squeal and dance. Recently signed to dance label R&S, the duo's sophomore disc is promised for later this year, with experimental beats sure to be booming in clubs worldwide. 

From Kevin Curtin, The Austin Chronicle:

"Muthafuckin' is like a scuzzbucket word you're not supposed to say. Esquire is a word that means prestige. I'm in the middle of that, I'm intelligent, but I'm hood." So says this Brooklyn-based rapper who collaborates with Das Racist, Danny Brown, and El-P. That's evident by mentioning J.D. Salinger and a seriously disturbing oral sex reference in the same breath.

Most people assume that when a band makes it—that is, reaches a critical mass of listeners, where shows across the country get packed, where the big festivals come calling, where placement on year-end lists seems preemptively settled—the work stops. It’s as if all the hours spent writing and rehearsing, tacking flyers to utility poles or maintaining forever-multiplying social media platforms suddenly switch off as some vaunted rock-star lifestyle switches on. And in some cases, maybe it does; then again, Bear in Heaven’s never been about easy expectations of normalcy.
After the release of their second album, 2010’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth, big things began to happen for the Brooklyn trio of Jon Philpot, Joe Stickney and Adam Wills, from the aforementioned accolades to an electrifying collection of remixes featuring some of electronic music’s heaviest hitters, like The Field and Studio. As if in a transatlantic dream, they even split a single with Norway’s Lindstrøm and Christabelle, who covered their calling card, “Lovesick Teenagers.” But Bear in Heaven didn’t settle for the new well of notoriety they’d opened. Rather, they played some 200 shows in support of Beast Rest Forth Mouth—touring the world, playing progressively bigger rooms, building an intricate stage show that turned an album of songs into a synesthetic experience. When it was over, they retrenched in Brooklyn and, during the dead of summer, retreated to a chilly practice space to work harder than they’d ever worked on any other project. They wrote, re-wrote, arranged, re-arranged, spending days or weeks building one song at a time. After months of testing their limits and trusting their instincts, Bear in Heaven emerged with I Love You, It’s Cool, an album so vivid and visionary that it meets and even exceeds the confidence and calm its title suggests.
For years, Bear in Heaven existed as a nights-and-weekends band, the sort of project that was more of a casual hobby than a career path for a few Southern natives who’d been living in the city for years. As such, they associated more with New York’s experimental vanguards, whether playing at the late, great Tonic or touring as a backbone for composer Rhys Chatham. But in 2010, Beast Rest Forth Mouth delighted listeners with the unexpected—futuristic rock music that didn’t sound alien or bound to ostracize. Taking these songs from coast to coast and continent to continent, they learned that having fun with this music was copacetic, that they could delight a crowd while defying musical binaries. I Love You, It’s Cool turns that realization into a peerless set of instant anthems.
“You come off of a tour, and you have ideas of what you found yourself enjoy playing over the last years,” says Wills. “It felt good when people would dance. We tried to turn that into a record, to emphasize that. But there’s still an absolute need to take the pop song and ruin it.”
Indeed, some of these songs are ready for the floor. On “Sinful Nature,” a perfect, tiny guitar theme spirals through colossal drums and slabs of synthesizers, suggesting perpetual motion. “Cool Light” booms with bliss, icy keyboards reflecting off of a relentless throb. It’s inescapable.
But the intricacy and edge of Bear in Heaven’s music is not only here but sharper and more sophisticated than ever before. Philpot’s programming is both complex and compelling, whether in the refracted rainbows he warps on “Kiss Me Crazy” or the noisy matrix he weaves across “Space Remains.” Certainly, “The Reflection of You” feels like a hit, with a hook that instantly catches and a bridge that curls its finger—lyrically, stylistically, temptingly—toward the dance floor. Philpot’s mix of nostalgia and need is immediately relatable, too, bringing the band’s exploratory sounds a little closer back to home. But the song exits in a moment space-rock ascendance, a readymade rock-club banger that erupts into a bold new direction.
I Love You, It’s Cool is the first time Bear in Heaven has sounded so unapologetic and so evolved, so risky and so redeeming, so focused and so finessed. After years of restless exploration, this feels like a definitive arrival. I Love You, It’s Cool is music written in the present tense but ready to speak to the future. The work is its own rarified reward.
“We are a functioning band. We can work full-time on a record. We’re all focused on this one thing that we’re going to make, with no sidestepping,” says Philpot. “Making this record has been one of the best times of my life.”
David Wrench engineered and mixed I Love You, It’s Cool during two months at New York’s DNA. Roberto Lange, Rhys Chatham, James Elliott and Agathe Max contributed to the sounds. Dead Oceans and Hometapes will partner to co-release I Love You, It’s Cool on April 3, 2012.

From Luke Winkie, The Austin Chronicle:

Essentially the second-in-command of Kendrick Lamar's rising Black Hippy rap collective, the German-born, L.A.-based MC ScHoolboy Q has an exquisite ear for beats. Woozy, tethered drums and smoke-damaged synths mix together in a pitch-black blur. The smoothness of breakout second album Habits & Contradictions is undeniable

Depending on whom you ask, Matthew Dear is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader. He co-founded both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He’s had remixes commissioned by The XX, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Spoon, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, and Chemical Brothers; he’s made mixes for the Fabric mix series and Get Physical’s Body Language. He maintains four aliases (Audion, False, Jabberjaw, and Matthew Dear), each with its own style and distinct visual identity. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none—and he’s just hitting his stride.

When Frederic Riviere says something along the lines of “the sun and the sea are really important to me,” it’s easy to think, ‘Oh great, another chillwave artist who enjoys long walks on the beach and sitting on the dock of the bay all day.’
If only things were that simple. While he’s certainly into laser-guided synth lines and sepia-toned nostalgia trips, Riviere’s debut album as Anoraak (Wherever the Sun Sets) is more indebted to Italo disco, Motown-schooled funk and sepia-toned pop music—think: M83 on Ecstasy—than anything that’s lo-or-glo-fi. Which makes sense. After all, it’s not like the French producer/singer/multi-instrumentalist picked up his first battery-powered keyboard yesterday. Truth be told, Anoraak began as a bedroom-based project about eight years ago, as Riviere searched for sound engineer work and found nothing but bar gigs.

Housse De Racket are the French duo Pierre Leroux and Victor Le Masne. Starting out as in-demand session musicians with Air and Phoenix the boys were simultaneously making their first steps as Housse De Racket. Recent signings to label extraordinaire Kitsuné, their superb second album, Alesia was co-produced by Phillippe Zdar and looks set to establish itself as one of the cornerstones of 21st century French pop.

College, from his real name David Grellier, is a French electronic music composer born in 1979 in Nantes. At the end of the 90s, he purchased his first computer, with which he realized numerous demos influenced by artists such as Jeff Mills, Aphex Twin and labels such as Soma Records, Peacefrog or still Warp. In April 2007, he met Anoraak and decided to create a blog to share their most recent productions: the Valerie project was born. Other artists such as The Outrunners, Maethelvin or even Russ Chimes would soon join the blog. His first Ep Teenage Color was released that same year and allowed him to meet the German illustrators The Zonders.
A collaboration started then with the latter for all the flyers related to the Valerie Parties, as well as all the records and projects which are associated to them. An identity and a musical movement evoking a kind of nostalgia from the 80s arose and the international press started to notice the productions associated with Valerie. In 2009, while his first album entitled Secret Diary was being released, College toured with Anoraak all through the biggest capitals in Europe, the United States and Australia. College also collaborated closely with the Canadian duet Electric Youth, who participated to the Ep A Real Hero, released on the Belgian label Flexx Records. In the meantime, Valerie became a real label by producing two 7inch with the support of the New-York collective Free Danger.
After four years of existence, Valerie creates today a new subdivision in its catalog. Entitled Composer Series, this entity aims at releasing a series of special pieces composed and interpreted with one or several hands. Real items, these special pieces which are mainly unique instrumental works will take the shape of short-lived projects. This new collection will be available soon in laser disc (limited edition) as well as in digital, and the new record by College, Northern Council, will be its first release.

YELLE is a French dance-pop act founded in 2005 and fronted & named by Yelle, nee Julie Budet.

From Zoe Cordes Selbin, The Austin Chronicle:

A beautiful and energetic journey through ambient rock, heavy on the theremin.

In the year of the saxophone, Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa give us the flute. And along the way, G&V effectively wipe clear the vaseline from the murky bedroom funk of recent days. G&V bang out instant classics -- each crystal clear and immaculate, but no less sweeping or languid. Their debut is a youthful exploration of just how opulent and pop starkness can go. It also leaves an impression of California in the way that Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series or the pool party scene from The Graduate both do, always sensed more than stated outright.
Gardens & Villa channel all the taut pop precisions of 90s Britpop of bands like Blur (borrowed from the 60s anyhow), and send it through an 80s synth filter both undeniably coastal and modern. It's Spoon's Kill The Moonlight lost in a daydream, but with that same hungry energy. Gardens & Villa may simultaneously pull from Gary Numan, The Kinks and odder prog within one composition. And like a fine sweet tea, it's made just that right kind of sugary -- though even the most upbeat tunes have an undercurrent of the bittersweet and the lost at heart.
In 2010, Gardens & Villa traveled to Oregon to record their debut with visionary, vibemaster and labelmate Richard Swift. Together, they put some sand in the sheets of new wave ("Black Hills") and pop some translucent funk ("Orange Blossom"). There's also a level of effortless class maintained across the whole set. Each and every lush little gem explores the wonderful mystery between intuition and proficiency, between tension and repose.
Gardens & Villa are Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop and Dusty Ineman.

Most people assume that when a band makes it—that is, reaches a critical mass of listeners, where shows across the country get packed, where the big festivals come calling, where placement on year-end lists seems preemptively settled—the work stops. It’s as if all the hours spent writing and rehearsing, tacking flyers to utility poles or maintaining forever-multiplying social media platforms suddenly switch off as some vaunted rock-star lifestyle switches on. And in some cases, maybe it does; then again, Bear in Heaven’s never been about easy expectations of normalcy.
After the release of their second album, 2010’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth, big things began to happen for the Brooklyn trio of Jon Philpot, Joe Stickney and Adam Wills, from the aforementioned accolades to an electrifying collection of remixes featuring some of electronic music’s heaviest hitters, like The Field and Studio. As if in a transatlantic dream, they even split a single with Norway’s Lindstrøm and Christabelle, who covered their calling card, “Lovesick Teenagers.” But Bear in Heaven didn’t settle for the new well of notoriety they’d opened. Rather, they played some 200 shows in support of Beast Rest Forth Mouth—touring the world, playing progressively bigger rooms, building an intricate stage show that turned an album of songs into a synesthetic experience. When it was over, they retrenched in Brooklyn and, during the dead of summer, retreated to a chilly practice space to work harder than they’d ever worked on any other project. They wrote, re-wrote, arranged, re-arranged, spending days or weeks building one song at a time. After months of testing their limits and trusting their instincts, Bear in Heaven emerged with I Love You, It’s Cool, an album so vivid and visionary that it meets and even exceeds the confidence and calm its title suggests.
For years, Bear in Heaven existed as a nights-and-weekends band, the sort of project that was more of a casual hobby than a career path for a few Southern natives who’d been living in the city for years. As such, they associated more with New York’s experimental vanguards, whether playing at the late, great Tonic or touring as a backbone for composer Rhys Chatham. But in 2010, Beast Rest Forth Mouth delighted listeners with the unexpected—futuristic rock music that didn’t sound alien or bound to ostracize. Taking these songs from coast to coast and continent to continent, they learned that having fun with this music was copacetic, that they could delight a crowd while defying musical binaries. I Love You, It’s Cool turns that realization into a peerless set of instant anthems.
“You come off of a tour, and you have ideas of what you found yourself enjoy playing over the last years,” says Wills. “It felt good when people would dance. We tried to turn that into a record, to emphasize that. But there’s still an absolute need to take the pop song and ruin it.”
Indeed, some of these songs are ready for the floor. On “Sinful Nature,” a perfect, tiny guitar theme spirals through colossal drums and slabs of synthesizers, suggesting perpetual motion. “Cool Light” booms with bliss, icy keyboards reflecting off of a relentless throb. It’s inescapable.
But the intricacy and edge of Bear in Heaven’s music is not only here but sharper and more sophisticated than ever before. Philpot’s programming is both complex and compelling, whether in the refracted rainbows he warps on “Kiss Me Crazy” or the noisy matrix he weaves across “Space Remains.” Certainly, “The Reflection of You” feels like a hit, with a hook that instantly catches and a bridge that curls its finger—lyrically, stylistically, temptingly—toward the dance floor. Philpot’s mix of nostalgia and need is immediately relatable, too, bringing the band’s exploratory sounds a little closer back to home. But the song exits in a moment space-rock ascendance, a readymade rock-club banger that erupts into a bold new direction.
I Love You, It’s Cool is the first time Bear in Heaven has sounded so unapologetic and so evolved, so risky and so redeeming, so focused and so finessed. After years of restless exploration, this feels like a definitive arrival. I Love You, It’s Cool is music written in the present tense but ready to speak to the future. The work is its own rarified reward.
“We are a functioning band. We can work full-time on a record. We’re all focused on this one thing that we’re going to make, with no sidestepping,” says Philpot. “Making this record has been one of the best times of my life.”
David Wrench engineered and mixed I Love You, It’s Cool during two months at New York’s DNA. Roberto Lange, Rhys Chatham, James Elliott and Agathe Max contributed to the sounds. Dead Oceans and Hometapes will partner to co-release I Love You, It’s Cool on April 3, 2012.

Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs reside at the blurred edges of American music: overexposing studio limitations, piling tape upon tape to maximum density, and then — with each song — they pull off the scaffolding to reveal what sticks, keeping only what’s absolutely necessary and dig into what sounds like the best kind of fucked up. As on their 2008 debut, Wagonwheel Blues, central member Adam Granduciel takes small moments occurring over multiple tapes and multiple song versions, and puts every last drop of trust in his own keen instinct of momentum.

Catch Knife Party at the AM Only Showcase!

Sharon Van Etten came to Brooklyn via Jersey via Tennessee via Jersey. Along the way, she sang in choirs, rejected her school’s music program, worked at an all-ages venue, trained as a sommelier, and got a full time job at a record label. She also had some bad experiences in relationships.

Check out Laidback Luke at the AM Only Showcase!

This BK, NY based beat maker is reachin' back to those golden days of hip-hop and house music. The days where you might sit in a record shop for hours searching for that diamond in the rough. His sound is a little cut n' paste, a little production wizardry, and a lot of love. Somewhere between here and there, then and now; thats really the best way to describe Codes take on dance music. This project pulls from his colorful background as the turntablist, producer, party starter, and of course music aficionado. His years of experience on both side of the decks makes him a natural fit on Slow Roast Records, and his production chops make him an exciting name to watch for 2012 and beyond!

Don't forget to check out Felix Cartal at the AM Only Showcase!

FELIX CARTAL / BIO:

Come see Felix Cartal at the AM Only Showcase!

Don't forget to check out ArrabMUZIK at the AM Only Showcase!

DC and Hooks are Zeds Dead.

Don't forget to check out Skrillex vs 12th Planet at the AM Only Showcase!

Don't miss Kill the Noise at the AM Only Showcase!

Although the Magnolia Housing Projects have long been demolished, a light post still stands at the corner where youth like Vockah Redu (Javocca Davis) gathered to rap and create beats. The light post marks one of the birthplaces of Bounce music, a genre of rap specific to New Orleans that has invigorated crowds throughout the South. Vockah Redu and the Cru animate the stage with their dynamic revival of dance, music, and art from the street corner to the club. More than your typical hip-hop act, this theatrical performance sets the stage for a sweaty hands down booty up good time, transforming any party, bar, or dance floor in your neighborhood.

This is what Chuck Klosterman says about Delicate Steve. He missed the note on hyperbole.

From Austin Powell, The Austin Chronicle:

Third Man Records literally rolled into South by Southwest last year. Owner Jack White turned his innovative Nashville, Tenn., label into a rolling record store, hosting a generator-powered show in the Frank parking lot and selling limited LPs across town from a window in his tricked-out step van. Never one for idle hands, expect White to perform in some capacity, given his upcoming proper solo debut, Blunderbuss, and the fact that he's either produced or played on most of Third Man's releases, notably for model/chanteuse Karen Elson, goth girls the Black Belles (who play Sat., 10pm, at Mohawk Patio), and Australia's Lanie Lane, who looks and sounds like a vintage rockabilly pin-up gal. Actor John C. Reilly walks harder in real life than Dewey Cox, with two 7-inch singles to prove it, while Nashville's Pujol offers a promising dose of garage-pop. Brooklyn's suave White Rabbits just released their career best, Milk Famous, but most eyes will be on Electric Guest, a Los Angeles duo whose debut for Downtown Records, Mondo, out April 24, was produced by Danger Mouse and sounds like a more promising version of Broken Bells. As for special guests, let's hope it's not the label's most controversial collaborators: I.C.P.

From Greg Beets, The Austin Chronicle:

Longtime Ty Segall collaborator Mikal Cronin successfully stepped into the spotlight with his self-titled 2011 solo debut. What makes Cronin's garage rock so compelling is anything-goes arrangements that transition from an homage to the Beach Boys into a flute solo atop a hardcore bridge. It shouldn't work, but that's what happens on "Is It Alright," which is why this album has more staying power than Segall's Goodbye Bread.

From Doug Freeman, The Austin Chronicle:

Over the course of three albums, the Strange Boys have perfected languid, drawling, garage R&B, plying an insouciant slacker charm that belies the tightness of the Austin quartet's arrangements. Last year's Rough Trade debut, Live Music, aided in part by Jim Eno's production, delivers a mellower pace to Ryan Sambol's rusty, slurred moans but to the advantage of also pushing his yearning pop lyricism more to the surface.