Diarrhea Planet
Now before your mind wanders south of its usual (and possibly lascivious) resting place, let’s get one thing straight: Party In My Pants was a name of a SXSW showcase at the venue, Woodrow’s. Got it? Good.
This SXSW day began with the High Voltage team conducting round two of our artist interviews with the likes of PHASES, Judah and the Lion, the Virginmarys, MAGIC! and more. Stay tuned as those interviews emerge but, in the meantime, head over to our Youtube channel (subscribe!) and catch up on our SXSW daily video recaps.
Spirit Animal
Now as band names go, it’s not the most attractive one out there, but Nashville’s Diarrhea Planet are about more than aesthetics and correctness: they’re about the art of shredding and metallically rocking while psyching you out with a side of pop that is ridiculously exhilarating. What followed was the barely controlled funk rock chaos of Brooklyn’s Spirit Animal (kinda fell in love with what they were selling), the industrious indie rock of LA’s own beloved The Dead Ships and the swampy, home wrecking blues of San Diego duo Little Hurricane, who never disappoint. For all intents and purposes, it was a party in my pants and that, folks, is how my beautiful, sun shiny, yet a wee bit chilly day began.
Green River Ordinance
Texas sons, Green River Ordinance gave up a graceful dose of Southern Americana rock on the Whole Foods Rooftop, as charming and feel good as the shout out to “our German brother” aka the random person who appeared to have traveled the farthest to attend SXSW. Over at the British Embassy I sampled Demob Happy from Newcastle and…let’s just say that their offsides garage rock is an acquired taste. Perhaps yours, but certainly not mine.
Matthew Logan Vasquez
Moving on to things that are more my taste: Matthew Logan Vasquez. That lead singer guy of Delta Spirit who just put out a solo record (Solicitor Returns) and recently moved back to Austin? Yeah, him. Atop the roof at Shiner’s Saloon, Vasquez seemed very much at home: enlisting two random guys in the audience to play guitar, slow dancing with strangers – male and female – in the crowd, encouraging all to partner up and get their slow dance on, and simply reveling in the freedom of earthy and biographical, storytelling rock and roll songs that sound (and feel) the way he wants them to. Now that was a party…just more in my head than in my pants.
Feeling the urge for things familiar on this final day of the festival, over at Lambert’s (formerly Red Eye Fly), SWIMM gave me those yummy, somewhat unwholesome feelings their groovy indie rock usually does and newfound rock friends, Mainland and DREAMERS showed off what the future of music in youthful and talented hands may look and sound like.
X Ambassadors
File under, “Things Trina Appreciated”: X Ambassadors at Stubbs. Like many other outdoor or partially outdoor showcases, Friday night’s Culture Collide/Stubhub show at Banger’s on Rainey Street was almost rained out due to – you guessed it – rain. Well, that and the lightning. Fortunately, the show went on but did so over 1 1/2 hours late and with every artist’s set having to be shortened. Because of that, I greatly appreciated the second chance and dance with X Ambassadors at Stubbs. Songs that were cut from Friday’s set like “Naked” and “Fear” were played and even though their set was all energy and groove and feel good, it was my comfort and musical soul food.
And that, my friends, is how you close out a loooong week at South By Southwest.