http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blogs-1-1-1-25.html A few scattered, final thoughts on my time in Austin and SXSW: • I’ve learned to love the city and its conveniently centralized downtown. There’s so much to do in such a tightly packed area; and for the first time, I can see why anyone would actually want to live there. • For a purported “liberal oasis,” though, the city sure doesn’t offer much in the way of vegetarian food. As best I can tell, the people of Austin subsist e]]> Yesterday brought one of SXSW’s most anticipated (and oddest) day parties: Rachael Ray’s. Apparently, the celebrity chef/media mogul is a serious indie music lover, but I still have a hard time believing that the soccer mom-like talk show host has an iPod filled with Holy Fuck. Nonetheless, hers was one of the best parties I attended this week. Free mojitos loosened up the crowd, while Elfren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite’s Pedro) proven himself a ]]> With seven members and trunks full of equipment, the coed indie-punk group Los Campesinos! requires a fair chunk of time to set up and take down their stage, but last night at the Arts and Crafts showcase time was in short supply. I blame Jason Collettzzzzzzzzzzzzzz---sorry, I tend to dose off when thinking about Jason Collett---since his sleepy set ran a little long. Organizers were hounding Los Campesinos!, their set already heavily s]]> When you see 1,000 bands in four days, it becomes very obvious that some bands are simply just more entertaining than others.The Ringers, based out of Los Angeles, California, could be described as way more entertaining than most bands. The Ringers are indeed one of those Hollywood bands that have a front man who is also an actor %uFFFD Joe Hursley, who%uFFFDs resume includes many mediocre comedy films like Accepted and Resident Evil, a]]> With her dark, weary eyes and her dry persona, Zooey Deschanel is an improbable lead actress, but those same qualities have endeared her to indie culture. This year, the actress released a debut album with guitarist M. Ward as She and Him, and between her star power and Ward’s devoted following, theirs was one of SXSW’s more anticipated sets. Deschanel is casting herself as something of a Jenny Lewis-type, a doll-sized, blue-eyed soul si]]> I'm ambivalent about the upcoming Destroyer album, Trouble in Dreams. On one hand, I’ve been listening to it for two months and still haven’t warmed to it, but on the other, it took me nearly as long to discover the wonders of Destroyer’s last album, Rubies. Last night’s early-morning Destroyer set went a long way toward helping me make up my mind. “Hello; we’re Dan Bejar and the Destroyers,” the group’s keyboardist said, hitting home on]]> I spent a good 14 hours wandering SXSW yesterday, dropping into various venues and tents when something caught my ear. Early in the day, I was enticed by one singer-songwriter with a particularly lovely voice. It turned out to be a familiar one. It belonged to Peter Moren, the Peter part of Peter, Bjorn and John. He was plugging his upcoming solo album, performing somber songs with just an acoustic guitar and the Bob Dylan harmonica set]]> SXSW is pretty easy when you have a media badge. By and large, you’ll be let into any show you want. But there are a few hyped shows where press credentials aren’t enough, and perhaps the most hyped of all was yesterday’s from Vampire Weekend, the preppy Afro-popsters who were compiling binders of New York Times and Spin press clippings before they even put out an album (their ascension has only continued since the album finally dropped.) ]]> The country’s largest weekly papers have now consolidated under the same corporate umbrella, but there are some perks to the Village Voice/New Times Media monster conglomeration. The papers pooled their resources to collectively sponsor a pretty impressive SXSW party this afternoon. I arrived in time to catch the tail end of The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ set, and although the band’s bloated psychedelic rock isn’t my cup of tea, they wowed]]> I had a couple of high priority shows that I had to catch while attending this years SXSW festival, and the Raveonettes were definitely one of the highest on this list.I have been a fan of this band for quite some time now, and I have never had the chance to experience them live. To my surprise, I only ended up waiting in line for about 15 minutes, which was pretty quick compared to lots of the other shows that I had attended.I received ]]> Okay dudes – we need to take it easy on the skinny jeans and girls jeans.I really thought that this was a dying trend, but more men are wearing female jeans than women in Austin this week. As far as I am concerned, kids get a free pass for simply not knowing any better, but full grown men in their twenties and thirties – I ask you, “WHY?!”A standard “straight leg” should suffice for you, and is quite far from a “flare” or even a (God forb]]> The world's greatest music festival has officially kicked off, and day one of four is now over at 2:30 in morning (at least for me - Evan is still out wondering the streets). In addition to being able to witness countless amazing performances from lots of great bands, I also have the discreet pleasure of being able to perform myself, which is why I need to go to sleep now . . . but, before I do, here are some quick highlights of the events tonig]]> I fought the crowd to see R.E.M. last night, standing for over two hours before the band began playing. Even with my pretty excellent (and hard-earned) vantage, it probably wasn't worth all the effort. R.E.M. was playing to promote their upcoming (and apparently pretty good) new album, Accelerate, slated to be one of the band�s hardest rocking albums, as per pre-release hype. "We're going to be playing a lot of new songs ]]> Justin wasn't lying: There's an odd stigma about drinking Pabst here. When Justin ordered a round last night, a guy next to him surmised that he must be out of town, since people here stopped drinking Pabst two years ago. Justin was unable to gauge how much (if any) sarcasm was in that statement. And indeed, when I ordered  a round myself, the bartender raised an eyebrow  and dismissively shook her head, flashing a bemused smile and ]]> In 2006, Shearwater released Palo Santo, one of that year%uFFFDs best albums, but despite the loudening accolades, the group has yet to break through the way their friends in Okkervil River have. That could change this year, when they release a new album on Matador Records. Turnout for their first SXSW show was modest, about four dozen attentive listeners (with more in the background drinking and chatting indifferently), but that%uFFFDs prob]]> I'll be posting periodically to this blog throughout the week (or at least as much as I can, given that I'm hoping to spend more time taking in music than in my hotel room, hunched over my hefty, barely portable laptop.) Anyway, I just arrived in Austin, and it's sunny and 75 degrees here. It's amazing how this mammoth festival engulfs the city: Even on my connecting flight from St. Louis, there were an inordinate number of skinny-jeaned ro]]>