SXSW 2012

About CloudCamp

As an informal, member-supported gathering, CloudCamp relies entirely on volunteers to help with meeting content, speakers, meeting locations, equipment and membership recruitment. We also have corporate sponsors that provide financial assistance with venues, food, drink, software, services and other valuable donations

If you are interested in helping or sponsoring, contact Dave Nielsen (dave at platformd dot com)

Schedule:
- See http://www.cloudcamp.org/workshop

Organizer:
- Dave Nielsen 

Interested in more about CloudCamp?
-  http://www.cloudcamp.org/schedule

 

The Apache Relay was formed by chance in a Nashville college dorm when Michael Ford Jr. (vocals, bass) met Mike Harris (guitar, vocals). Ford Jr. happened to be looking for some musicians to help perform his own music live, when he heard about Harris’ newly formed band, The Apache Relay. Ford Jr. hired the trio, which also included Brett Moore (keys, guitar, mandolin) and Kellen Wenrich (fiddle), to back him at a show and it was immediately evident that the four musicians had a unique chemistry and were on to something special.

The four-piece released their debut LP titled 1988 in 2009. Produced by Doug Williams, (renowned for his authentically raw approach with the Avett Brothers) the record was lauded by Paste Magazine as one of “The Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009”. The band’s ability to effortlessly blend acoustic sounds with ferocious rock anthem elements only hinted at the band’s capabilities.

From Doug Freeman, The Austin Chronicle:

Behind a whirlwind of blond hair and tempestuous guitar licks, Lauren Larson leads this Austin trio in an assault of virtuosic rock. Last year's sophomore LP, Phantoms, finally captured the band's powerhouse live performance, coursing with a fevered but tightly wound rush of heavy melodic shoegaze as Eric Larson's heady bass provides an anchoring counterpoint to the frontwoman's breathy vocals and flailing riffs.

The focal point of Yellow Ostrich's magnificent debut the mistress is Wisconsin native Alex Schaaf's voice. On the mistress it gets looped and layered, stretched and manipulated; it's stacked up several high and, most often, it's used as an instrument, fleshing out the empty spaces in his bare, searching songs. The album was originally recorded (largely by Schaaf himself with occasional help from a few friends) and given very limited release online for free via his Bandcamp site before he hooked up with now-fulltime bandmates Jon Natchez (bass, horns, vocals) and Michael Tapper (drums, vocals) in New York. Fully remastered and with the addition of three brand new tracks recorded by the trio, Barsuk's release of the mistress marks the album's first broad availability digitally, and its first time on compact disc.

Caveman was born in New York in January of 2010, when a group of friends decided it was time to put aside their boyhood ways and start being men. The sound they crafted in that large, dark room is equal parts chamber pop, dreamscape, and horror film score. At a Caveman show you will hear four-part harmonies, spaced-out guitars, synths, and, yes, much drumming. This has been a gallant year for the band, as since their first birthday they have shared the stage with bands such as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, White Rabbits, Here We Go Magic, Cursive, Amazing Baby, and Blue Oyster Cult. They recently went into the Loveboat studio with Nick Stumpf (French Kicks) to commit their songs to record.

POLIÇA began as a collaboration between fellow Gayngs' members Channy Casselle and Ryan Olson in June of 2011. By July they had completed 11 songs, made the key additions of drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson, bass player Chris Bierdan, and headed to the studio. After Mike Noyce (Bon Iver) lent his voice on Lay Your Cards Out and Wandering Star, the record was brought to Austin, TX to be mixed with Jim Eno (Spoon). In a few days, the LP was completed and the band Poliça was formed. On stage, the original beats composed by Olson play amongst Channy’s passionate vocals & an intense rhythm section, that lead to a description somewhere in the area of electro-r&b goth-pop.

I was actually inspired by my honeymoon. My new bride and I had very little money to spend on a post-wedding trip and I had coincidentally been asked by some friends in the band Bad Books to do a short tour in the Northeast, starting with a few days in NYC. I had never really played solo before, and certainly not in front of sold out crowds, but I had a handful of back-pocket songs and I knew that this was probably our only way to have a honeymoon, so that is what we did. The shows went well, yet I quickly realized that writing songs that can carry weight on their own, without a band in mind, takes a totally different approach. As soon as I got home, I wrote and demoed about 20 songs with that feel and idea in mind. Although I planned on having more instrumentation involved in the eventual recording of the songs, I wrote the initial songs as ones that could be played alone and still stand out.

Where dirty blues and beats collide: Meet ZZ Ward, a singer/songwriter whose artistry spins on a luminous axis of voice and soul. Raised in Roseburg, Oregon, ZZ learned from her father who wrote songs and played harmonica in blues bands, but it was old school masters like Big Mama Thornton, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters from her parent’s vinyl collection that first intrigued ZZ. “It was the authenticity,” she recalls, “the soulfulness.”
While ZZ is now at home on stage in reverential Los Angeles listening rooms, she was schooled in smokey dive bars and juke joints across the Pacific Northwest – anywhere she could sing. Driving fog-shrouded logging roads to gigs, hauling gear and setting up the sound system before playing three hours a night, ZZ is battle-tested.

“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve done a lot,” she says. “I’ve paid dues and I’m still paying dues. I put albums together and sold them in parking lots. It was hard to go up to strangers and talk about music, but it made me tough.”

Her musical momentum took her on a strange road, connecting her with a hip-hop community in Eugene, Oregon, to write and perform hooks at high-energy, rap shows. This rhythmic journey, combined with her bluesy upbringing, would become essential in laying the foundation for her signature "dirty blues and beats" sound.

On January 4, 2012, ZZ dropped her mixtape, eleven roses, further solidifying her sonic foundation. The set features blues-riddled interpretations of some of her favorite hip-hop songs including Tyler The Creator’s “Yonkers,” Childish Gambino’s “You Know Me,” Wiz Khalifa/Curren$y’s “Rooftops” and Freddie Gibbs’ “Oil Money.” The offering also boasts two originals produced by Kid Cudi/Cool Kids collaborators Blended Babies and two acoustic renditions of songs to be featured on her upcoming full-length debut, due out later this year on Boardwalk/Hollywood Records.

“When I first played the electric guitar, it felt like a lightning bolt,” says Julia Pierce, lead singer and guitarist of the LA based, all girl, rock band Cherri Bomb. “I was instantly struck by the idea of starting a band. And so my search began.”
Julia wanted to find girls who shared her drive and were inspired by similar rock ‘n’ roll bands she grew up listening to like Garbage, Foo Fighters and My Chemical Romance. After months of placing ads online and in papers, flyering local music shops, and holding countless try outs, in walked Nia Lovelis – a fearless, hard-hitting drummer who fit the bill.
Nia, daughter of a singer/songwriter mother and musician father, was born with music in her blood, and had been drumming since the age of seven. “I have been surrounded by artists and musicians my entire life,” says Nia, “and I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do more than be in a band.”
As the difficult search continued they found a multi-talented girl named Miranda Miller who had been performing since the age of three and learned to read music by four. Not only could she play guitar, she also played keyboards and sang perfect harmonies. Miranda didn’t always planned to pursue a music career but somehow found herself gravitating towards rock ‘n’ roll. “Although I came from a different musical background than Julia and Nia, they inspired me to think outside of my musical box and crank the amp to 11.”
After many attempts to secure a bass player, the girls turned to Rena Lovelis, Nia’s younger sister. Rena, a guitar player, recalls, “I always wanted to be in Cherri Bomb, but I didn't play the bass. When they asked me to try out I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ I knew playing on stage with my sister would make a killer rhythm section. I quickly learned bass guitar, practiced, and landed the gig!”
Although sharing the same name as The Runaways’ song, the band name Cherri Bomb was actually inspired by the 2009 book titled “Cherry Bomb” which features many contributors, including drummer Samantha Maloney, (Hole, Motley Crue, Eagles of Death Metal, Peaches) who, in the summer of 2010, decided to put down her own sticks to manage the young, all girl band. Samantha recalls, “Cherri Bomb opened for my band Chelsea Girls in February of 2009, and they blew me away. They played exceptionally well, sang 3 and 4 part harmonies, and left myself and the crowd speechless. I knew these girls were destined for greatness.”
Cherri Bomb has since played the Sunset Strip Music Festival opening for Filter, toured with Smashing Pumpkins at the request of Billy Corgan and recently signed with Hollywood Records. They’re already being called one of the hottest up-and- coming bands to come out of L.A. This summer, they were the youngest band to play some of the biggest European festivals: Oxegen, Sonisphere, T In the Park, Reading and Leeds among others, and opened for the Foo Fighters in Cologne, Germany, where they played in front of 15,000 people.
Cherri Bomb will release a five song EP, STARK, on Oct. 18 with the band’s major label debut to follow in early 2012.

The Cadillac Black Bio
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From the bluesy swagger of the album opener “Hollywood Hollows” to the soaring, Washington Irving inspired anthem “Equestrian,” it is evident that MIRRORS, the debut full length from U.S. Royalty, is an album of grand scope and range. It is a document of exploration and discovery. Songs kindle a spectrum of locales as the band laces a thread of longing and movement throughout the entire album to create a cinematic experience. MIRRORS is a cohesive and unified collection.

Dylan Rau started Bear Hands to spite a romantic rival. Joining forces with fellow Wesleyan university alumnus Ted Feldman and iconoclast punk veterans Val Loper and TJ Orscher, the band started to stomp live. Both other bands and people in the crowd were stomped regularly and definitively.

The rootsy trio began when Jazz Mills (T-Bird and the Breaks) got together with Jesse Plemons to write their first song. The collaboration took off and before long the pair was drawing major buzz at SXSW. Daniel James (frontman of SF based "Leopold and His Fiction") soon joined the band to complete the trio.
“We came together out of nowhere and were immediately inspired by one another,” Mills said. The band put that inspiration to work by recording their first song, “Hurt My Pride.” With James in San Francisco and Mills and Plemons in Austin, the bulk of the song was written over the phone. Yet when it came time to record, the chemistry was obvious to all. “We tracked the song as soon as we arrived in San Francisco,” James said, “and did it from the ground up, recording in living rooms, bedrooms and closets.”
The band is currently working on their first full-length album, produced by James and due out this spring. They recently recorded their video "Hurt My Pride” (featured on taste-maker blog Baybridged.com) while on their cross-country tour, using playful footage captured in Chicago and on the banks of Lake Michigan. The band’s song “Trouble Tracks” was recently featured in an episode of the NBC hit series Parenthood.

Street King presents, the “Unrefined Hype: Extended Play Showcase”, giving 35 emerging hip-hop & r&b acts the opportunity to showcase their talents in-front general SXSW goers, fans, brands, and media; in-turn giving attendees the opportunity to see hip-hop’s budding stars before they blow.

Host: Fort Knox Live (of Atlanta, GA)
Performers include Lecrae, Jhene Aiko, and Talib Kweli…. more to be announced, soon. 

This event is free to the public with R.S.V.P. Come early! There will be free food.

Make sure to ‘like’ Street King on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StreetKing

 

"Maus Haus used to be known as San Francisco’s own vintage synth-collecting, guitar-hating weird dudes. Well, they still are, sorta, but now they might do an entire album with only guitars. With a standout set at this past Treasure Island Festival, and plans for an EP and LP already in the works for early 2012, you’re not going to want to miss what this ever-growing, dance pop troupe has in store for the future."

San Francisco’s The Soft White Sixties are a hard-driving, original Rock & Roll band that delivers R&B grooves and pop hooks with the transformative power of raw Soul.

A junkyard band with a heart of dirt, smoke, and wires; The Curious Mystery involves slowburn psych and garage experimentalism. Since 2009 the mysterians have released two full length albums on K Records: Rotting Slowly, and We Creeling (2011) which received excellent reviews in Bust Magazine,Vice Magazine, and the Big Takeover called We Creeling "the best true psych album since 1976". This Spring the mystery sets out on a two month tour which, in addition to SXSW, will include a string of dates with K Records founder Calvin Johnson and an April residency at the Ace Hotel in NYC.

Sleepy Sun- Spine Hits- Biography 2012 by Charles Saufley

Bio: Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds new album Gorilla Rose
Gun Club co-founder. Gunslinger for The Cramps. Six-string stylist for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. The legendary Kid Congo Powers titles his new album on INTHERED Records GORILLA ROSE after artist/performer Gorilla Rose. As a teenage boy Kid met Gorilla thru seminal weirdo band, The Screamers in the emerging LA Punk music scene of the 70’s. He recalls, “Gorilla Rose was a close and constant presence and influence on The Screamers and me as a young pup. He was to The Screamers like Bobby Neuwirth was to Dylan, a jester of sorts, sparking many of their great lyric ideas. I still think GORILLA ROSE is the most fabulous nom de plume in history. His unsung specter had been in my mind a lot last year so I decided to title the album GORILLA ROSE to honor his name and bring him into rock n roll’s ongoing conversation.” While editing his fan club newsletters at a haunted Hollywood house, a teenage Kid Congo was also exposed to the sounds of Neu, Nico, Billie Holiday, and the “Susperia” movie soundtrack by Goblin. Along with Gorilla and Kid’s Garage rock pedigree, these past influences found their way back into his new album.
For GORILLA ROSE Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds grabbed producer Jason Ward and hightailed it back to the magik gymnasium at The Harveyville Project, a high school in Kansas and also the scene of the crime of their much acclaimed 2009 release “Dracula Boots.” Kiki “El Coyote” Solis on bass and Ron “The Cap’n” Miller on drums along with, new Pink Monkey Bird, Jesse “The Candyman” Roberts (from Seattle’s The Ruby Doe) on guitar, keys and vocals firms up Kid Congo’s squawking flock. Brandishing 13 all original glam-tastic compositions, GORIILA ROSE blasts off with the explosive dance anthem “Bo Bo Boogaloo” wearing their 60’s Chicano Rock influence on their sleeves. Shake it don’t break it! That’s just the start of a wild ride thru funky but chic decadence (“Goldin Browne”) slip sliding rockabilly (“Hills Of Pills”) ,Teenage punkdom (“Our Other World”) mystic Kraut rock (“Bubble Trouble”) , baby-making sleaze (“Catsuit Fruit”), the best bad Peyote trip you ever took ( “Injun War Crimes.”) and even a velvety call from the beyond (Lullaby in Paradise).
Finding inspiration in the past is what Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds do best. On this 2011 sonic trip, Kid brings his past into the present and names it after someone flamboyant and inspired. GORILLA ROSE.

Gypsyblood formed in 2009 when longtime friends and former bandmates Adam James and vocalist/drummer/bassist Kyle Victor healed the somewhat fresh wounds of their previous band’s breakup (initiated by Victor storming off stage after the last song and hitchhiking home.) The pair later made up and James invited Victor to hear demos of new songs he was working on. Gypsyblood was born shortly thereafter and the pair quickly wrote an impressive amount of songs together within two months.

Marriages is a new band featuring Greg Burns (Red Sparowes), Emma Ruth Rundle (Red Sparowes / Nocturnes) and Dave Clifford (Red Sparowes / Nocturnes / Pleasure Forever / The VSS).

Rory Friers: Guitar
Chris Wee: Drums
Jonathan Adger: Bass

California native Chelsea Wolfe has always embodied light and dark. Her music is a raw, dirging doom-folk with hints of black metal, deep blues and minimal synthesizer music, but it’s as prone to triumph as it is despair. Her voice is both haunting and seemingly haunted, though whether by angels or demons is unclear. And her lyrics reflect an obsession not only with life’s murkier moments, but the unlikely truths and beauty they so often reveal. It makes sense then that she hails from the wilder, woodsy northern part of her state. Wolfe’s hometown was a small unspecified burg amidst the trees, idyllic by day and begging exploration, but forbidding once the fog crept in. Her skewed romanticism began early. At 9, she started sneaking into her father’s home studio to record warped covers and goth-R&B originals. But growing up, she never shared her music. It wasn't until recently she considered making music for others to hear.

Zechs Marquise, the El Paso, TX quintet are back with their sophomore album Getting Paid, bringing an intensified swagger to the band's multifaceted psych-prog haze for their most aggressive and versatile effort to date. "We liked that hip-hop attitude," explains drummer Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez of the album title. "Getting your piece, taking yours." And, Getting Paid certainly finds the band fully taking charge of their musical destiny.

In the years since their auspicious 2009 debut Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, Zechs Marquise toured extensively throughout the U.S., proving to be a formidable live act supporting Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group and RX Bandits as well as leading their own headlining tours. Zechs Marquise have also grown considerably in other ways. Recent addition Rikardo Rodriguez-Lopez on keyboards and trumpet joins his brothers, drummer Marcel and bassist Marfred alongside guitarists Matthew Wilkson and Marcos Smith contributing to the band's expanded sound. Not only have they reached new plateaus of entrancing riffs and rhythms, but Getting Paid also integrates vocals on select songs, including guest performances by vocalist/guitarist Matthew Embree (RX Bandits, The Sound Of Animals Fighting) and El Paso singer Sonny Baker.

The album was entirely produced and engineered by Marcel. "We started off recording percussion to sequencers and loops," he explains. "I chopped those sounds up and arranged them. From there, were wrote the album with each of us coming in and playing on top of it. Kind of like a hip-hop song." Considering the hectic tour schedules of both Zechs Marquise and The Mars Volta (in which Marcel plays keyboards and percussion), the band was forced to work on the album over an extended period of time in between both band's tours. "It gave us a lot of time to get perspective on the songs," Marfred says. "We're really happy with and proud of this record."

Once all parts were composed using the studio as a tool, the band re-recorded the album live. "We wanted something to represent our live energy," says Marfred.

"The album cover is a play on Blacksploitation soundtrack art and stuff like (Miles Davis') Bitches Brew cover," Marfred explains. "We wanted our own weird take on it." Likewise, Getting Paid is throughout a wickedly wild take on elder forms of free jazz, skronk excursions, proto-funk and psychedelia with assertive tones and rhythms.

Zechs Marquise formed in El Paso in the spring of 2003, taking its name from a popular Japanese anime character. In June 2006 the band released 34:26, a live improvised set culled from their frequent west coast tours. The group's first proper full length Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare was produced and recorded by the band throughout 2008. In May 2009, Zechs Marquise signed on to the management roster at Sargent House and released Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare on LP/CD/digital in August of that year through Rodriguez Lopez Productions.

From Adam Schragin, The Austin Chronicle:

This San Francisco project is part of a growing wave of American black metal that eschews corpse paint but holds tight to the unrelenting rhythm and discord of its Norwegian forefathers.