“Sxsw” (Used 28 times)

WFMU held a showcase independent of the SXSW Festival at the great Beerland in Austin TX on March 17th. It was a 6-band blowout featuring Electric Jellyfish, Death of Samantha, The Wedding Present, Supreme Dicks, Xray Eyeballs and The Men. We aired sets live over WFMU (91.1/90.1-FM NY/NJ) with a stream at wfmu.org (and many FMA jams blastin thru the soundsystem betweens sets!). We're pleased to share high-quality mp3s from this event!

Crawl is a one-man experimental sludge project from San Antonio. With his vocal mic shrouded in a parastacoidean mask, Emperor Crawl plays drum with one hand while controlling a bass string instrument made out of actual bones. He likes to build things, he says, and to run this sound through a wall of amps. The result is eloquently blackened doom with nods to Khanate's Things Viral and Sunn O)))'s Black One.

I was fortunate to witness Crawl's incredible live performance at Sux by SuxWest, Austin's second-annual anti-sxsw noise festival. I'd originally biked to way out Bernadette's for Rat Bastard and the supremely funky Olneyville Sound System, who were at the top of their game in duo form. Crawl's set was an unexpected highlight of my time in Austin, and left the entire room stunned. After our applause faded into an uncomfortable silence (yo where's the DJ?), Emperor Crawl removed his mask to let us know that he does not have any merch— but! There is this demo recorded in 2010 that you can download for free on bandcamp. After the show ended, I asked where to find it, and learned that Crawl is a bit of a free music advocate. Even once he gets to doing physical releases, we'll always be able to download and share Crawl mp3s. So I told him about the FMA, and of course it's with his belessing that the Crawl Demo is online under a CC Music Sharing license. Go forth and spread the word of Crawl!

A photo of Crawl's bass string instrument and video of an earlier Crawl performance after the jump...

WFMU returns to Austin Saturday night for it's showcase, this time an event independent of the SXSW Festival at the great Beerland, 711 Red River. It's a 6-band blowout featuring The Wedding Present, The Men, Xray Eyeballs, Electric Jellyfish, Death of Samantha and Supreme Dicks! Liz Berg, Jason Sigal, Brian Turner will be broadcasting the sets live over WFMU-FM and wfmu.org starting 8pm central/9 PM Eastern. $10 door entry, no SXSW badges or wristbands accepted. All proceeds to the bands. Special commemorative posters designed by Nevada Hill will be available at the show.

Lineup (Times Central):

8PM: Electric Jellyfish: Straight outta Melbourne: "Electric Jellyfish carry the torch along with Eddy Current Suppression Ring lighting the way to a legendary story of distinctive rock 'n roll beginning with bands such as Radio Birdman, The Saints, X, the Birthday Party, feedtime, etc. Their sound is on par with The Wipers in their heyday...such daring emotional vulnerability, yet it's psych/punk that's sonically full-fledged, solid, walloping, and (to quote Monoshock) 'philosophically Stoogely'".(Rick Ele)

 9PM: The Wedding Present: The first band to play a WFMU show to have had 18 top 40 singles in the UK!

10PM: Death of Samantha: Full on reunion show by Cleveland post-punk/indie godfather legends! DoS tore through the late 80's early 90s and gave birth to Cobra Verde (which included members John Petkovic and Doug Gillard, who also spent time in Guided By Voices); Petkovic also was a member of Sweet Apple with J Mascis, Gillard made records with the great Gem, solo, and nowadays plays in Bambi Kino and Nada Surf. Drummer Steve-O was an Elvis impersonator in Memphis for a while. This is gonna rule.

11PM: Supreme Dicks: Uber-rare out-of-New England show by these reclusive woodsy Massachussetts psychedelicists! Their official recordings ceased in the mid 1990's, but have popped up live around their locale through the years, now lured to Texas on WFMU's special invite to which we are extremely grateful. The Dicks are also subject of a well overdue recent anthology on Jagjaguwar, a 4CD complete history called Breathing and Not Breathing.

12M: Xray Eyeballs: NYC new wave dance party faves, started up by OJ from Golden Triangle. Equal parts Jay Reatard and the Urinals, described by our own Liz Berg (who had them live on her show): "fuzzy, over modulated garage pop at a languid trot.”

1AM: The Men: (photo left: Ryan Muir) Raucous four-piece post-punk combo out of Brooklyn who've cobbled together a pile of not-so-pounding influences (drone, Krautock, pop) and sets them into car-crash mode. Howling guitars, rocked-up Suicide references, this could be the great crossover Amphetamine Reptile spacerock band if they were around circa 1989. Seriously driving punk rock with intricate, layered structures amidst the raw power. Played live on Brian Turner's show in 2011 (issued as a tour CD), and have a new album out Open Your Heart on Sacred Bones. Perfect way to tear up the evening's finale!

Past WFMU Austin events [2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011] have included: Sun Araw, Kurt Vile, Half Japanese, Mayyors, Los Llamarada, Harvey Milk, Pierced Arrows, Dengue Fever, Cheveu, Kelley Stoltz, Whitehorse, Hank IV, Evangelista, Major Stars, Iron Man, Absu, Woven Hand, Gary War, XYX, Shit & Shine, Gunslingers, Home Blitz, Todd, Moon Duo, the Renderers, Sonny & the Sunsets, El-G, Amen Dunes, the Homosexuals, Lexie Mountain Boys, Psychedelic Horseshit, Gary Higgins, Paul Metzger, The Bad Trips, Citay, the Endtables, Obits, Slough Feg, Elm, Prizehog, Speedwolf, Prizehog, Epileptinomicon, Headdress, and True Widow. So you know it's gonna be a stellar night in 2012! Stop by, grab a poster, dance the night away with WFMU.

SXSW is underway right now down in Austin TX. Between the interactive, film and music portions (not to mention taco, bbq and beer portions), SXSW is a many armed beast. With so many great bands descending on Austin this week, it's a great opportunity to pull some gems from the FMA library.

Here's a 2-part mix featuring free & legal mp3s by 122 artists who'll be in Austin during SXSW Music (March 13-18):

Big thanks to kingmmm1234 for helping research and compile this playlist!

Free Music Archive curators with Austin happenings:

KEXP is broadcasting live from Mellow Johnny's! (Info)

WFMU hosts a Saturday night show at Beerland! (Info)

DUBLAB bypassed Austin in favor of an all-night 'Tonalism' festival in Marfa! (Info)

CBC Radio 3 host three live broadcasts: Canadian Blast BBQ, Street Sessions, and Planet Quebec! (Info)

If you know of more artists with free & legal mp3s who'll be kickin' around Austin this week, drop a line in the comments!

This week, CBC Radio 3 will be hosting the web premiere of Winning America: The Story of A Canadian Band Trying To Make It In The States. 

Vancouver band Said the Whale are at the center of this documentary which deals with the struggles that Canadian artists face when trying to gain a following in the US. "If you want to have a career as a musician [in Canada]," says Tyler Bancroft of the band, "you absolutely have to break into the United States."

Director and R3 Producer Brent Hodge takes us on the road with Said the Whale as they look to build their US following at SxSW in Austin, TX. The documentary highlights the challenges unique to bands working in Canada. 

You can stream the documentary from Friday August 19th at 2pm PST until Sunday August 21^st at 11pm PST at CBC Radio 3.

Right now, get aquianted with Said the Whale by listening to a playlist made by Winning America Director Brent Hodge!