Drenge, British Music Embassy at Latitude 30, Austin, Saturday 15 March 2014, SXSW 2014

2014 was the year grunge came back to SXSW in its steel-capped Doc Martens. There is only so much sound checking a two-man guitar and drums band needs, so we enjoyed a very thorough sound check of every possible drum strike.

This rocket-fuelled, loud and scuzzy, final (for us) set of SXSW kept the energy going to the last. The band are clearly influenced by Nirvana in their style. Interestingly, the vocal style was much cleaner though.

The guitar sound was heavy and at one stage the vocals had a touch of Jack White which made for an interesting combination. The singer seemed to be using effects pedals to have bass doubling what he was playing on guitar. The duo made the sound of a more bigger band; which is a skill to appreciate.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Folly and the Hunter, Saturday 15 March 2015, Tap Room at the Market, Austin, SXSW

We had come across this Montreal band via a pre-SXSW playlist so only knew one of their songs. They used two sets of keyboards, balanced on a wooden chest and bar stools as well as guitar and drums. The drummer harmonised beautifully with the singer and created some clever rhythms throughout the set.

Their sound was gentle and most of the songs more subdued than the one we knew. They built soaring songs in the model of Coldplay or Arcade Fire. The final song included an pretty electro-acoustic guitar duet, with the whole band 'uh-oh’-ing. Although they were then told they did in fact have a bit more time to play, they wisely allowed this to be the musical memory they left with the audience.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Tim Easton, Saturday 15 March 2014, Tap Room at the Market, Austin, SXSW 2014

A treat of SXSW is to catch an artist you’ve never heard of because you’ve arrived early for the next act. Tim Easton was an unexpected pleasure to watch. He played acoustic guitar accompanied by an electric guitar and upright bass. His set reminded us of early rock’n’roll, with its country DNA still apparent.  He is an engaging performer who chatted wittily with the audience, describing his musical genre as “gentle outlaw dad”.

His set included a touching song for his young daughter about being away from home. He explained that his song writing process includes absorbing what he sees and hears around him. The songs create a narrative. The opening song of his new album, which he performed, was based on an argument he saw between a couple in the street. The sentiment it conjured was pretty raw.

Tim mentioned fellow Nashville musician Jonny Fritz who we’d also seen at SXSW. He later played a song he had written with Keith Richards in mind about how he would cheer him up by showing him a good time in Nashville, having read in an article that Keith didn’t want to tour any more.

His Tennessee trio produced a great driving rhythm. When he built a song introduction by creating feedback between his guitar and wedge we knew we were watching an accomplished and creative musician at work.

This was an opportunity to watch top notch seasoned and passionate musicians.  They created a great sound and made us want to form a band to experience the joy of musical creation that they were experiencing on stage. A really excellent set.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Cody ChestnuTT, Saturday 15 March 2014, the Bungalow, Austin, SXSW 2014

The crowd had been whipped up into a party atmosphere and were very excited for Cody’s set. He did not disappoint in the short time he had.

We were treated to a set full of funk and soul, which got the audience dancing. His vocals on one of the early songs had a Marvin Gaye-esque quality. The guy introducing the sets rightly thanked him for bringing us Harlem soul for SXSW.

For the final song, Cody brought Gary Clark Jr on stage and ended his set with a riotous guitar freak out.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Deep Cotton, The Bungalow, SXSW, Saturday 15 March 2014

This phenomenal band were introduced as the funkiest most ridiculous thing we would hear all weekend. That was an accurate predication and this set was a real SXSW highlight. We were too busy having fun to write really detailed notes.

 Deep Cotton opened with a slow dance-style bluesy backing. The two lead singers leapt on stage and wailed their lungs out soulfully for the first song. The band used echo and reverb to create a spacey rock’n’roll sound. The second, up-tempo, song got the crowd jumping. Amazingly catchy this bore traces of Specials ska and Britpop 'la la la’s. The versatile band followed with a funk number, with the wah wah pedal in full force and effect. An amazing, energetic, funky, rocky cover of the Rolling Stones's ‘Satisfaction' sent the crowd wild. Their own song, 'Runaway Radio', was infectiously enjoyable with a ska punk taste to it.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Liam Bailey, the Bungalow, Austin, Saturday 15 March 2014, SXSW 2014

Liam played a funky set of bluesy rock overlaid with soul style vocals. Some of the songs made us think of Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes and 60s British R’n’B. His second song opened with a guitar lick reminiscent of Sergeant Pepper. We really enjoyed the set, Liam is a compelling performer. Watching his material was like discovering classic rock and rhythm’n’blues material you’d somehow never come across. We would be keen to check out more of his material.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Wye Oak, Brooklyn Vegan at Red 7, SXSW, Saturday 15 March 2015

This synth-playing duo gave us sweet vocals and lush keyboard tones, and created a sonic landscape halfway between Chvrches and the XX. Their songs also featured some punchy basslines, bringing to mind the British New Romantics.

The singer's voice had hints of Kirsty MacColl or the Sundays' Harriet Wheeler. She engaged well with the crowd, commenting that playing live was a good crowd sourcing opportunity when the audience put their phones in the air to film a song they liked.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Speedy Ortiz, Brooklyn Vegan at Red 7, SXSW, Saturday 15 March 2015

Speedy Ortiz played noisy rock'n'roll with grungey guitars. Their sound brought to mind Mudhoney or Husker Du. They also threw in some good crunching unison stop-starting riffing.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Connan Mockasin, Brooklyn Vegan at Red 7, Saturday 15 March 2014, SXSW 2014

Connan started with a chatty opening asking who everyone had seen at this year's SXSW, and apologising for his drunkenness the previous night. He opened the set of mellow, experimental, hypnotic freak out tunes with a track from his album, channeling Prince, and in the process pushing some of the audience into ecstatic meltdown.

The keyboard player and Connan had a bit of a sit down during the tuned out guitar solos. The long songs and short set meant that when he said "We haven't got long left", it was only after two songs. Overall, the band only played three or four songs which were all largely instrumental

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice

Jeremy Messersmith

Quilt, Brooklyn Vegan at Red 7, SXSW, Saturday 15 March 2014

The warm up tape before this band was an exciting indicator of what was to come with a good dose of The Beach Boys, Small Faces and Velvet Underground. The band's sonic palette was atmospheric west coast psychedelia with swooping and swirling guitars. The band were holding up well and still sounding fresh for their final show of SXSW.

They sounded like a melding of Teenage Fanclub or Velvet Crush and the Flying Burrito Brothers and seemed to take as their starting place the point where the Byrds' 'So You Wanna Be...' and 'Eight Miles High' left off. There were some nice finger-picking guitar licks from both guitarists as well as sitar inspired melodies.

The band gave the audience the pick of a fast or slow one as their final song. The fast one was requested and it was appropriately about as mellow fast as a psychedelic Cosmic American Music band who've played a week of shows, and an audience of exhausted gig goers, could want.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Tweens, Brooklyn Vegan at Red 7, SXSW, Saturday 15 March

Tweens played a sparky set of punky trash pop.

The three of them made a great racket blasting through short sharp songs with touches of Blondie, Bis, and Helen Love. 

A couple of the best songs had refrains about 'I'm your boy' and wanting you to be me. The compact songs were great as they managed to squeeze a whole bundle into their short set.

Leah Mason, Maggie Mae's Gibson Room, Friday 14 March 2014, SXSW 2014

A fantastic way to end Friday night at SXSW. Leah is a phenomenal guitar player with a great voice reminiscent in a way of Bonnie Raitt. Accompanied by her band she rocked out a bluesy set that got us moving our feet. 

The guitar licks ran through some great songs that she'd written, including a couple she'd written in Nashville two years ago that are hopefully coming out soon. We caught the name of one of these, Riot Pony, which would be worth looking up. 

The treat for the audience was that she was joined by the songs' co-writer, Brendan Benson, but the final song came around far too soon, just as we were settling in for a night of husky blues rock.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Ezra Furman, Valhalla, Fri 14 March, Austin, SXSW 2014

Throughout a buzzing and packed show in a tight little venue, Ezra and his band the Boyfriends played high-energy old-school rock'n'roll, with sax, bass and drums backing Ezra on guitar.

Ezra had to change guitar when he broke a string and later n the set played a harmonica on a neck stand. The edge in his voice and the fast-paced set made the band sound like a ramshackle updating of Sun studio classics, or Jonathan Richman heading up a bar band.

Ezra wore a dress and chatted wittily to he audience between numbers, introducing one number as a "topical song". "Topical as in a cream or ointment," he said. He seemed to be unsettled by the slightly rowdily crowd, which may have fired some of the energy in what was a really entertaining show.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Temples, Radio Day Stage, SXSW, Austin, Friday 14 March 2014

Introduced as the best way to wrap up a great day on this stage, Temples played grooving rock songs with a swirling 60s psychedelic feel. There was a real buzz in the crowd as the band started, and people rushed up to the stage to take photos.

The band looked like a dressed down Marc Bolan and T-Rex, and brought with them a tinge of more recent scouse psychedelia from bands like the Zutons, the Coral and the La's with a slightly heavy, almost metal, guitar undercurrent.

A song called Sundance had quite a dark, spooky feel, pulsing thrum of the rhythm  running beneath the vocals.  Throughout the set they created an interesting sound, rocky, but also similar to the baggy grooves of Jaguar Ma and the late 80s Manchester bands.

The songs also had a lot more too them, and more depth, than is often the case with "buzz" bands, leaving us optimistic for what the band might create in future.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Jeremy Messersmith, Radio Day Stage , SXSW, Radio Day Stage, Friday 14 March

Jeremy opened with a more rocky sound than that on the material we're familiar with from his first two albums. He seemed to have grown into a rock'n'roll singer after the baroque-esque 60s pop of his earlier material.

The new sound was reflected in the lyrics and themes. The second song took a close and thoughtful look at infidelity, with the subject protesting 'it's only dancing'.

After that tune, the band launched into one of their early, Beatlesy numbers, which they seemed to really enjoy playing, and followed that with another of their lovely 60s-esque tunes. They then played another song from his new album, which Jeremy said was mainly a set of love songs.

He then played a lovely song about a man asking his wife to be his one-night stand, leaving the children and wedding rings at home and going to cheap motel. This was followed by a song about wanting "a hitman for my heart", which had a lovely arrangement. As Jeremy strummed his guitar, the guitarist played a few ringing notes, then the whole band crashed in.

The set closed with a lovely foot-tapping country tune, with beautiful quiet verses and then a train-beat driving towards the song towards the choruses.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Phantogram, Radio Day Stage , SXSW, Radio Day Stage, Friday 14 March

Phantogram made haunting electronic sounds, with pounding industrial beats and interesting synth textures. They had an atmospheric "super sad" song named for Bill Murray about his character in Rushmore when he's sitting at the bottom of the pool.

They closed with a beautiful and rousing song that had been written originally with the idea of having a rapper collaborate. In the end they had adapted it and turned it into one of their own songs, which was a win for the band and the audience.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

The Hold Steady, Radio Day Stage, SXSW, Austin, Friday 14 March 2014

The Hold Steady came on to the biggest crowd rushing to the front of the Radio Stage, together with an army of photographers.

The band opened with a restrained song which was like a deep-breath meditation on playing shows with nice backing harmonies from the guitarists. They then burst into a full- hearted rocker from their new album, and the third song was more punky and brought cheers of recognition from the crowd.  'The Ambassador' from their new album was quieter with a country-tinged beat driving it. It sounded more like REM than the punky rock of the songs earlier in the set.

 The singer said the band were having a great time and really looked like it too. The audience certainly were. They loved the off-mic interaction.

The band created a total wall of rock guitar sound, like a multiple-tracked studio creation, rather than five guys rocking out and bopping along in front of us, and had the greatest-sounding rock guitars we've heard at SXSW this year.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Lucius, Radio Day Stage, Austin Tx, Friday March 14, SXSW

Lucius played stylish synth pop with great harmonies. Unusually the drums, whilst not a full kit , were stage front with guitar behind the synths. Identically dressed twin keyboard players led the vocals, but the whole band sang throughout.

There was a near-country tinge to the vocals, and the band made a very rounded sound that filled the cavernous room. They played a fun uptempo song  from their new album, which featured some enjoyable hand clapping. The whole set was high quality and fun, and got the audience dancing in their seats.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith

Damon Albarn, Radio Day Stage , SXSW, Radio Day Stage, Friday 14 March

Damon opened on guitar, accompanied by two acoustic guitars, percussion, piano, three violins, a cello, and the click of dozens of press cameras, in a room full of those taking refuge from the Lady Gaga keynote.

He played a set of entirely new songs from his upcoming album. He started with a lovely song with the refrain "When I'm lonely I press play", drawn from similar landscape to Blur's Out of Time. The tunes were understated, melodic and beautiful. They focussed on the disconnection from life brought about by contemporary attachment to technology. "Everyday robots getting old, looking like standing stones out there on our own," he sang. The effect was like bringing "End of a Century" up to date for the concerns of an older musician and a different age, or a more pastoral OK Computer for the current decade.

After a few songs on guitar, Damon moved to the piano, and sang a song about moving to Land's End and reflecting on memory and photography in the digital age.

When he moved back to guitar, he sang a lovely song with a great swelling string part, after which there was a big cheer. He was then joined by six local Austin gospel singers, bringing the total number of people on stage to 15.

Accompanied by ukulele he sang a song he'd written for an injured orphaned baby elephant called Mr Tembo who he met in Tamzania two years previously. The song was up-tempo and had a joyful, gospel sound. He closed with a spine tingling solo version of the duet he performs with Brian Eno on Everyday Robots. The whole performance was very intimate and created a wonderful atmosphere. It was  great way to experience these new songs for the first time.

Other SXSW 2014 reviews from Broken Biscuit Records:
Damon Albarn
Gruff Rhys
Woman’s Hour
Wolf Alice
Jeremy Messersmith