#2 - Mew
I heard about Mew via Niki… can you tell this is a theme yet? He and Tim were super excited to see them play. On the way down to Austin we listened to their most recent album, “And The Glass Handed Kites”. The best way to describe Mew is a harder version of Sigur Ros. Dream like melodic vocals over indie rock instrumentation with a definite shoegazer foundation.

Mew was the reason we headed over to the BrooklynVegan day party. After seeing some great bands such as Rob Crow and Hella, Mew was the last act for the event. They are a five piece band that use all in ear monitoring, which was cool to see as they set up the show rig.

Watching the lead singer, Jonas Bjerre, sing was an experience in itself. As he sung his melodic parts he had an almost sad expression on his face. It wasn’t that he was having a hard time on stage, it was more his performance style. It was hard not to watch him as he sang. The rest of the band was amazing and the set went by way too fast. I can see why all people where excited to see them play.

#1 - The Dears
It should come as no surprise who my number one of SXSW ‘07 is. The Dears were the must see for both Niki and I. We first caught them at the Stubb’s show and it was amazing to see them perform at such a venue. I first saw them at the Independent in San Francisco and I felt the venue was just too small for them. They are meant to play on a large stage and they did not disappoint.

We also caught them as the “special guest” at the Art’s and Crafts showcase. We were front row center for this performance and it was mind blowing. They all work so hard on stage, every single one of them is putting it all on the line.

The highlight for me is their lead guitarist who’s energy and playing was so intense the entire set. I feel that their album “Gang of Losers” is my album for 2006 and to catch them twice in one week was the best part of SXSW for me.

Booka Shade, aka Arno & Walter, took a few minutes of their time to sit down and talk with Halon before their sound check at San Francisco’s Mezzanine. They talked about their label Get Physical, how Booka Shade has grown and what drives them both as producers and as performers.

Download the show or listen now:

Show links:
Booka Shade

Get Physical Music

As Chris “Cedub” Walcott so elegantly expounded on the NYTimes death of the album article, recent changes to Apple’s iTunes service makes me think that Apple feels albums are very much important to consumers, even in the pop world.

The big change that everyone is raving about is the “Complete My Album” function. When you chose this feature iTunes will determine what other tracks you already have for the album and then download the missing tracks tracks to complete the selected album. Of course you need to purchase the music (iTunes credits you $0.99 for each song you have already) before you can download it, but its definitely a cool feature… minus all the other issues I have with iTunes (DRM, costs, digital quality, etc).

So, if the album is really dead why would they roll out this feature? Why would be people be so excited about it? I think the reality is that albums make sense for a lot of people. Yeah, we all like singles and they work for some styles of music but seriously… gimme an album (even an EP) over a single any day.

#4 - Lily Allen
I first heard of Lily through a few friends of mine here in San Francisco They were talking about seeing her play at a local venue and at the time (almost a year ago) I knew nothing of her music. Since then I have heard most of the album and really liked what I had heard so far. While driving down to Austin I finally got a chance to listen to her whole album and was very much impressed with both her voice and the overall production qualities of the recording.

Once we arrived at SXSW, you could tell quickly that Lily would be the hot ticket for Wednesday night. While waiting for my badge I heard this woman talk about how excited her teenage daughter was to see her play. Walking through the streets you would hear people as they pass by say “Lily Allen”. In my mind, Lily was the Lady Soverign of ‘07. I think the SXSW crowd has a thing for cute, young UK girls…

Lily did not disappoint, albeit she was pretty drunk when she walked on stage. Here she was with her cute little LDN girl demeanor smoking a cig and hold a large budwiser in her hand. Her stage presence was solid, not bad for someone who has only been playing in public for a little over a year and half. She was honest and brash on stage, but the show was all about her voice. The girl can sing and she knows it. It was a short 30 minute set, typical for SXSW, but it was packed with all the tracks we wanted to hear.

The best part was her honesty about hating to sing “Smile” because she was sick of it, but for us she would try her hardest. I can only imagine how tiring it must be to play the same songs day in day out, every day, all the time. As an artist you want to be creative, to do something new, but you also want to make the crowd happy and give them what they came to see. Its a tough gig and for someone so young she did a great job.

#5 - Peter, Bjorn and John
aka PB&J… was a must for Niki. What was interesting was everywhere we went we would catch bits and pieces of their music being played. In a bar or the music between sets. For a band I had never heard of they were getting a lot of play and a lot of SXSW press. We missed their showcase but caught them at the waterloo in-store. We were front and center and the three piece from Sweden laid it all out and it was amazing.

Their hit song “Young Folk” is by far the closest thing to the perfect pop song that has emerged in a long time. Its simplicity is what makes it so amazing and horribly catchy. Its super sugary goodness crawls into you ear and you just can’t get it out of your head, even if you wanted to. On top of their sound, they have that perfect cool look… the suits, the style, the panache… on top of that they also have this look like they just don’t care, we just want to rock out for you.

It was an amazing show, even though it started late. You couldn’t stop looking at them and then the lead singer, Peter Moren, climbed onto the railing while singing and playing the shaker to “Young Folk”. How could you not like them, with their slightly think Swedish accents and endless supply of smiles. Great show… can’t wait to catch them again…

Ultimae Records has unleashed a slate of online-only releases: two morning-progressive trance maxi-singles, and two full length downtempo albums.

	Released: February 2007 buy: OP11 - L’Eau, la Ville et autres Contes Electro @ Fake Science [$5]

	Released: February 2007 buy: Cell - Live at Glade Festival [Tracks] @ Fake Science [$5]

	Released: February 2007 buy: Cell - Live at Glade Festival [Mixed] @ Fake Science [$5]

	Released: February 2007 buy: Aes Dana - Manifold @ Fake Science [$2]

	Released: February 2007 buy: Koffee Men - Nevermind @ Fake Science [$2]

#6 - Rob Crow
We saw Rob Crow unexpectedly at the BrooklynVegan day party. His band was 2nd in the line up for the day and as they were setting up my first impression was that they were going to be some kind of hardcore band. Wearing grizzly beards, jeans cut just below the knees, long hair, and Thor t-shirts, their look just screamed hard in-your-face rock.

With their opening note the music was nothing like we expected, it was complex, with well thought out harmonies and patterns. Each of the members were amazing musicians but the lead guitarist really stood out in my mind. Standing their with an almost autistic pose, eyes rolled back into his head he wailed on the guitar like he was slamming out power cords, but in reality he was playing complex patterns with each note clearly accentuated.

Similar to Sage Francis, we did not know what to expect and we were happily surprised. After the long grueling day of SXSW we went back to our hotel and did a bit of research on Rob Crow. That is where I found out that he was a member of Pinback and also one of the founding members of Goblin Cock. We actually caught Goblin Cock last year at SXSW during their Waterloo show, but they were all in costume and at the time the member’s were still unknown. The rumor was they had members of Pinback, which they do… ala Rob. Since the show I have bought his current album “Living Well” and have throughly enjoyed it.

#5 - Apostle of Hustle
Filling in for Rodrigo Y Gabriela at the Stubb’s show, it took a couple of songs (and a few hints from the frontman Andrew Whiteman) before we realized that this was not the listed band. We had looked up Rodrigo Y Gabriela and they were described as world music, but the band on stage was not anything like “world music” albeit they did have a percussionist. One of Joey’s friends Jason was with us and he kept mentioning how you recognized the songs they were playing, but could not recall the name of the band. Patiently as the band worked through their rocking set they finally mentioned their name to the audience.

Jump to the next night and we are heading over to the Arts & Crafts showcase to catch Amy Millan when we find out that the next band after her is the official Apostle of Hustle showcase. By this time we had read up on them and found out that the Andrew Whiteman is the guitarist for Broken Social Scene and as he played the second show I could hear similar music styles between the two bands. The band is full of talented musicians and they put on a really tight and well executed show. I have also bought their album and the music is great, but the engineering job on the mix is pretty poor with basslines too overpowering on some tracks, vocals over compressed, etc. Even with that letdown the album is still amazing and I will continue to enjoy it.

Monday FS partner Christopher forwarded an article from the NY Times Business section titled: The Album, a Commodity in Disfavor. It’s a tale of an R&B trio called Candy Hill that got a record deal with Universal/Republic Records. In the works are a video shoot and visits to radio stations to promote their music. What is unusual about the deal is that there is no CD to promote. They got signed to produce 2 songs. That’s right, 2 singles, not an album.

Last year for the first time, digital singles outsold physical CD’s and so far this year, single sales are up 54% for 189 million units sold. The single to album ratio is a staggering 19:1. This is much to the chragrin of record lables as there is more to be made on an album sale. Artists too are feeling the disappointment that comes from fans that don’t seem to have the attention span to get the complete experience that a full album conveys. The shift in buying has forced labels to rethink almost everything about they way they do business from contracts to the way they market new product. New artists are now getting stripped back offers of ring tones and a few singles.

Lables are not giving up without a fight though. They want to hold on to the album concept for as long as possible by encouraging listeners who buy singles to purchase the rest of the album. Apple iTunes is considering to offer users credits for songs already purchased if they choose to buy the rest of the album in a specified period of time.

But some analysits believe that it’s just a matter of time before the album becomes a thing of the past. More often than not, people are listing to playlists on their mp3 players and gravitate towards mixes or shuffle mode. One solution being considered is to turn labels into virtual fan clubs where listeners subscribe to a particular artist and will receive music and videos over a period of time. Executives fear that in this fast paced world, people will lose interest if they have to wait too long between releases as is often the case in the old model.

So, what does this all mean? There is no doubt that pop culture and record buying habits have embraced the 21st century of instant gratification where people want what is hip, they want it now and they want it as cheap as possible. I see two sides to this. One is the general pop buying public who has long given up on the album concept. The big labels will shuffle and stumble to meet the needs of majority just like they always do. They may not be elegant in execution but they will get the job done. On the other hand, the true music lover will continue to trust the artists that they have come to love. They understand that there is more to art than bits and pieces. A work of art needs to be appreciated in its entirety and that is what you get with a full length album. Fake Science believes in our artists and the music that they produce whether it be a 2 or 3 song EP or a full album. We believe that musicians work very hard to create their sound. The full length album is a work of art, and often creates a complete story for the listener. When you take songs out of context, you often lose a lot of the meaning that was intended.

I think Mark Twain said it best: the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. As long as there are true music lovers in the world there will be a place for art to be appreciated as it is intended.

#8 - Tiger! Tiger!
In the Habana basement, the Chicken Ranch showcase had this Austin local Atlanta based band rock the joint (Chicken Ranch is from Austin, thanks for the clarification Niki). Niki describes them as an UltraBabyFat meets The Cramps and I feel its a spot on description. With slightly country fried high energy rock, the lead singer’s punctuates the music with an almost a happy snear.

When Tiger! Tiger! plays they are having a great time on stage and you know it. Working in a small space they continued to urge the crowd to move closer and closer promising they would not bite, too much. In many of their songs the lead singer would step back from the mic and give a huge wooping scream that just fit perfectly into the song. Even though the yell was part of the song the smile on her face and the way she did it made you understand that it was more then just a required bit. Every time a gap would open someone eargly filled it in. It was hard not to get into the music and the energy as the show progressed and this is why they get #8 for SXSW ‘07.

#7 - Amy Millian
After first hearing her music online, Amy was a must see on my list of bands to catch while at SXSW. Slightly country, slightly folk I was excited to see another amazing Arts & Crafts band. For her stage show Amy had 7 members: keys, bass, mandolin, drums, guitar/banjo, steel lap guitar and her self on acoustic guitar. She had a very relaxed manor on stage and her banter was light and engaging. The band was spot on but the hightlight had to be the woman playing the lap steel. The interplay between the steel and the other instruments worked well with the feel of Amy’s music and voice.

Of all the shows we had seen up to this point her’s was the most relaxed and mellow. Yet, even though her show was not about rocking the crowd it was a breath of fresh air to hear her music and bands performance. By the time her 45 minute set was up I wished there was more time for her to play. After seeing her at SXSW I regret not finding the energy to try and catch her last time she came through SF. She was in town during a time where I had seen 3 other live show in the 4 days and I just couldn’t motivate to get out to see one more night. I won’t make that mistake again…