SXSW Preview – Catching Bands I-M

Posted on 02/27/2023 by Dagmar

Preview – SXSW 23 – Catching Bands I-M
~Dagmar

Nearly halfway through just some of the bands you’d want to see at SXSW this year. There seems to be a large number of Irish band’s on my radar. Plus, there’s a unique Ukrainian artist visiting Texas.

IST IST
Manchester, England
Schedule for IST IST

IST IST, a rock band from Manchester, England, heads to SXSW to share music from their new album, Protagonists. The quartet founded their own record label, Kind Violence Records. Always impressive, and even more so as they did this during the pandemic.

IST IST – photo by Tom White – Black Rock Creative

Jaguar Jonze
Brisbane, Australia
Schedule for Jaguar Jonze

Jaguar Jonze (Deena Lynch) released her debut album, BUNNY MODE, last year. The Australian rocker/singer-songwriter is never afraid to share her art and opinions.

Jaguar Jonze – photo by She is Aphrodite

Jealous
Berlin, Germany
Schedule for Jealous

Last year, Jealous, a Berlin, Germany trio asked the musical question “Why Can’t I Touch It?” That track, by the way, is a Buzzcocks cover. They have their own music, but I think they fit very well with Buzzcocks.

Jealous – photo by Kek Discreto

KRUTb
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Schedule for KRUTb

Ukraininan KRUTb (Maryna Kurt ) will make her American debut at SXSW. A player of the bandura, a Ukrainian instrument, KRUTb is also a singer. In a recent post, KRUTb sang, Instead of the sounds of city sirens, sing me beautiful songs/We will all wake up one day from spring and good news.

KRUTb – photo from KRUTb’s Facebook

Larkins
Manchester, England
Schedule for Larkins

Another Manchester, England band. JCOY, the band’s first album, found them working with Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, and producers such as Alex H.N. Gilbert (Freya Ridings) and Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodriquez).

Larkins

Lorelei K
Dallas, Texas
Schedule for Lorelei K

Ah yes, here’s none other than Texas’ Lorelei K. Her Bandcamp describes her as avant-pop, a genre that sounds mighty good to me. The prolific, Dallas-based singer-songwriter performed at last year’s Dallas Pride.

Lorelei K

milk.
Dublin, Ireland
Schedule for milk.

Indie quartet from Dublin, Ireland’s milk. has a few scheduled in America this March, including a stop at SXSW. Actually, the band revealed in Bodega Nottingham that these will be their first dates in America ever.

milk. – photo by Nicholas O’Donnell

modernlove
Drogheda, Ireland
Schedule for modernlove

It’s another group from Ireland! What’s going on in Ireland? modernlove describes themselves as pop/rock, that fits, and means they have a wider appeal. BTW, this is one of the bands that has a show in Seattle (March 24th @ Madame Lou’s).

modernlove – photo from modernlove’s Facebook

mui zyu
London, England
Schedule for mui zyu

Hongkonger/British mui zyu (Eva Liu) has a brand new album out called Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century. By new, I mean it just was released last week. That has to be one of my favorite album names for this year. Loads of genres joining in her work.

mui zyu photo fro mui zyu’s Facebook

Photos: Samia @ Crocodile Café

Posted on 02/26/2023 by Kirk

Samia @ Crocodile Café – 2/23/2023
Photos by Kirk Stauffer

Indie rocker Samia brought her Honey Tour to the Crocodile Café and thrilled the audience at the sold-out show. She and her five member band performed material from her latest album Honey (released last month) plus numerous other favorites. Samia’s lively signature dance moves only added to the excitement. Many in the enthusiastic crowd arrived early for a VIP pre-show Q&A and were treated to Samia’s witty answers and comments. Pop duo Tommy Lefroy opened and later joined Samia onstage for a song during her set.

Samia – Photos by Kirk Stauffer

Tommy Lefroy – Photos by Kirk Stauffer

SXSW 23 Preview – Catching Bands F-H

Posted on 02/24/2023 by Dagmar

Preview – SXSW 23 – Catching Bands F-H
~Dagmar

On to another set of a few suggested acts appearing at SXSW 23. This list features bands from the UK, Australia, Germany and Italy, and as always, if there’s no video, it means there were some pesky copyright rules on YouTube.

Folly Group
London, England
Schedule for Folly Group

Rock quartet who, I see, was praised by none other than Joe Talbot of Idles. Their debut EP, Human and Kind, features the excellent track “I Raise You (The Price of Your Head).”

Folly Group – photo by Alex Waespi

The Foreign Resort
Copenhagen, Denmark
Schedule for the Foreign Resort

The Foreign Resort’s Bandcamp describes them as dark new-wave, a genre I can always get behind. Decibel called the trio’s 2019 album, Outnumbered, “a gem of black leather noisy shimmery, and grim portent.”

The Foreign Resort

Germein
Adelaide, Australia
Schedule for Germein

This trio of Australian sisters toured with Little Mix in the UK, which, I think is awesome. They’ll also tour with the Corrs this fall. Also impressive.

Germein

GEWALT
Berlin, Germany
Schedule for GEWALT

Ah yes, some industrial music! From Germany! Cause for celebration indeed. Appropriately, GEWALT means strength in German.

Gewalt – photo by Frank Egel

Girli
London, England
Schedule for Girli

London pop artist Girli seems really in to bright colors. And bright music. Born as Amelia Toomey, she’s joined all this sparkle with feminist ethos.

Girli – from Girli’s Facebook

GIUNGLA
Milan, Italy
Schedule for Giungla

Milan-based GIUNGLA (aka Ema Drei ) has shared stages with Franz Ferdinand, Battles and Grimes. She’s an intriguing act for sure who should have a great live show. Also, GIUNGLA means jungle in Italian.

Giungla – photo Olimpia Rende

Annie Hamilton
Sydney, Australia
Schedule for Annie Hamilton

Annie Hamilton is another of the great female artists from Australia heading to SXSW this year. The singer-songwriter happened to have done a smashing cover last year of Supergrass’ “Alright.”

Annie Hamilton – photo from Hamilton’s Facebook

THE HARA
Manchester, England
Schedule for THE HARA

Brits THE HARA is a confident rock “genre fluid” trio from Manchester. Look at them! Lots to look at here. And their show should be loud and LIVELY.

THE HARA – photo from the HARA’s Facebook

Heartworms
London, England
Schedule for Heartworms

In an interview with The Quietus, Heartworms (Jojo Orme) described her music as dystopian. But it’s also very pretty. I guess dystopian can be pretty and deep, too.

Heartworms – photo by Tom White

SXSW 23 Preview – Catching Bands A-E

Posted on 02/21/2023 by Dagmar

Preview – SXSW 23 – Catching Bands A-E
~Dagmar

Part one of our preview of SXSW 2023 begins with some details on a few of the great artists heading to Texas. We’ll be doing this alphabetically, with A-E beginning the features. If there is no video, that’s because one was not available, like copyright wouldn’t allow to share them.

Adwaith
Wales
Schedule for Adwaith

Punk trio whose lyrics are in Welsh. Winners of the Welsh Music Prize (twice) for both albums they’ve released.

Adwaith – photo by Siân Adler

ALASKALASKA
London, UK
Schedule for ALASKA

Electronic duo, they opened up a Crowdfunder to help them get to SXSW, and here they come!

ALASKALASKA – photo by Tami Aftab

Augustine
Sweden
Schedule for Augustine

Augustine (real name Timothy More) is a multitalented producer who will make his American debut at the festival.

Augustine – photo by David Sahlberg

Avalanche Party
Yorkshire/the Moors/Middlesbrough, UK
Schedule for Avalance Party

Punk rock band. Their SoundCloud describes them as feral.

Avalanche Party

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8F6cQtE7fFk

Beverly Kills
Gotenburg, Sweden
Schedule for Beverly Kills

Another punk rock band. This one comes from Sweden and just released their debut album, Kaleido, in September 2022. They’ve also toured with Wolf Alice.

Beverly Kills – photo by Jakob Ekvall

~
Brìghde Chaimbeaul
Isle of Sky, Scotland
Schedule for Brìghde Chaimbeaul

Chaimbeul is a bagpipe player! How cool is that? She’s also got equally intriguing sisters, who are harpists.

Brìghde Chaimbeu – photo by Steve Bliss

CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE
Tokyo, Japan
Schedule for Chameleon Lime WHooipie

Dance Pop band fronted by the striking Chi-.

Chi- of CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE – photo by Masato Yokohama

Crawlers
Liverpool, England
Schedule for Crawlers

British quintet who has opened for My Chemical Romance. Cool!

Crawlers

Yayoi Daimon
Osaka, Japan
Schedule for Yayoi Daimon

Even at the young age of 31, Daimon is a veteran of the Japanese music scene. She used to be part of a girl group called rhythmic, but branched out on her own to be a feminist song-writer, singer, DJ and is also an accomplished dancer.

Yayoi Daimon – photo from Yayoi Daimon’s Twitter

Dream Wife
London, England
Schedule for Dream Wife

More rock from England. Am I stuck on this theme?

Dreamwife

Eydís Evensen
Reykjavik, Iceland
Schedule for Eydís Evensen

Nordic pianist. Evensen also used to be a choir singer.

Eydís Evensen – photo by Sunna Björk

Show Review & Photos: Anthrax & Black Label Society w/ Special Guest Exodus

Posted on 02/18/2023 by BBS

Anthrax & Black Label Society w/ Special Guest Exodus – January 18th @ the Paramount
Review by John Rudolph
Photos by Alex Crick & John Rudolph

Anthrax‘s Joey Belladonna – photo by Alex Crick

Anthrax brings so much energy to every stage I see them on! On January 18^th, they brought Black Label Society and Exodus to help them obliterate the Paramount Theater. And obliterate they did!

Celebrating 40 years, New York’s Anthrax thrashed the stage like only Anthrax can do. When I said that I like it when bands show pure joy, no band does that better than Anthrax.

Before Scott Ian, Joey Belladonna, and the boys arrived on stage, a curtain was draped hung from the ceiling. This isn’t unusual for an Anthrax show, but this time, Keanu Reeves, Corey Taylor, Gene Simmons, Rob Trujillo, Henry Rollins, Slash, Dave Mustaine, Norman Reedus, and more appeared on screen to help them celebrate 40 years of face-melting metal.

Joey Belladonna of Anthrax – photo by John Rudolph

Joey Belladonna & Scott Ian of Anthrax – photo by Alex Crick

For those fans in the audience, Anthrax hasn’t lost any of the energy from their beginnings in 1982. The amps power much more than the speakers. They powered the crowd with high-voltage thrash metal.

We were gifted a setlist that spanned most of their active years. They spent most of the show’s first half in the ’80s leading off with “Among the Living,” “Caught in a Mosh,” “Madhouse,” and “Antisocial.” The journey continued through the ’90s and landed in 2011 with “In the End.”

Anthrax is one of those bands from my childhood that I never get tired of seeing. They are super tight and full of energy, and watching Belladonna play off of every band member was incredible. You can see what 40 years of experience brings. Every note, every vocal, and every movement were seamless. They are a unique band that every metal fan needs to experience at least once.

Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde – photo by John Rudolph

Dario Lorina of Black Label Society – photo by Alex Crick

Many in the crowd knew who they were there to see, and they were flying their colors. Clad in black vests with white, Black Label Society banners on their backs, Black Label Society fans welcomed the band to the stage.

Some of metals most loyal fans flock to see Black Label Society. I’ve seen them in concert, primarily supporting headliners, and there is no shortage of black-vested fans screaming their allegiance to BLS.

Black Label Society grabbed the stage by the scruff of the neck and never let go. These guys are just great, blues-infused metal with terrific melodies. They are super heavy with thunderous guitar riffs and deafening drums. So deafening that my shirt moved from the energy blasting from the stacked speakers and amps.

Zakk Wylde is a terrific, charismatic frontman who looked like a character in Braveheart while sporting a kilt. He has a massively wide stance on his riser and played his guitar like a battle axe. His blonde hair flowed back and forth, swirled around his head. For a powerful looking guy, his voice was beautiful. I could have listened all day.

I love bands that have a great time. This band laughed like they were having the best time anyone could have. Every band member was magnetic, and New Jersey bassist John DeServio was no different. He could not contain his laughter, and I was all in. He was so fun to photograph. I appreciate the energy that he shared with me. He worked my camera, which allowed me to get such terrific shots.

Exodus‘ Lee Altus – photo by Alex Crick

The destruction had begun promptly at 6:30, with Exodus bringing the West Coast heat. They started the carnage with “The Beatings Will Continue.” The fans were ready for anything. The testosterone-fueled and male-dominated crowd was well-lubed with substances only a witch doctor could decipher. They sang along to every song, and then the mosh pit formed. It looked like a black leather-clad tornado turning counterclockwise. As with most metal shows, the crowd got rowdy, but usually, they are just straight-up cool people.

One thing that stood out was when Exodus invited a young kid onto the state to play one of their songs on guitar. The band gathered around the young man, and the crowd went nuts.