After a pretty killer first day (for us) of SXSW 2009 we awoke and enjoyed our free continental breakfast in anticipation for day 2 of this extravaganza. I think after day 1 I was already pretty much convinced this whole thing was awesome so I was already just riding the dream at this point. We went through the usual debate of which day parties looked good and which ones we should make an effort to see.

On day 1 it seemed like the day parties got pretty crowded so I wanted to make sure we got into whatever day party on Friday without much trouble. We eventually decided on the Pitchfork day party at Emo’s as our hotspot mainly because it featured a lot of bands I wanted to get a taste of, none of which I had ever seen before. So we jumped on the shuttle early and got to the convention center at about 11:30. I initially thought since we have time lets go catch The Wrens at the Hot Freaks! party before heading to Emo’s, but when we got there they hadn’t let anyone into Mohawk yet and the line was huge so we turned around.

Here is where one of my minor regrets of the festival occurs. As everyone on Earth knew at this point, Kanye was going to be doing a show the next night at Fader Fort, and having seen him do a pretty incredible live show at Lollapalooza last year I was very interested in seeing it. So I figured we would try to go get wristbands for the Fader thing sometime early on Friday, however I also wanted to really see the bands at Emo’s and Fader wasn’t handing out wristbands according to their website until 1 PM. So we were standing outside Mohawk at about 11:45 deciding what to do, go into a show or go wait for the wristbands. Well, like an idiot, I figured let’s go over to the Fader thing and see if they are handing out bands before 1 PM because if we could just get them early and head back over to Emo’s everything would be peachy. Well we got over there about 12:20 and were totally shut down on any hope of getting wristbands early, so that kind of killed the dream. Once we had walked over there and walked all the way back I figured we would just give up on the Fader thing, so we did. Probably in hindsight we should have just waited it out for wristbands and seen Kanye, but oh well, life goes on.

Anyway, so after my failed attempt at Fader wristbands, we journeyed over to Emo’s for the Pitchfork showcase. Upon arrival we saw maybe half of one song from Girls, not enough to really get a gauge on anything, then they finished and we walked outside for The Mae Shi.

The Mae Shi – Emo’s – 3/20/09

The Mae Shi is one of those bands I had always heard puts on a really good live show but didn’t really know too much about beyond that. I figured high energy, but had no real expectations beyond that and they were really good. They play very quick catchy indie-punk kinds of songs with really high energy and a lot of jumping around and crazy looks, etc. They even busted out a parachute on one song and distributed it over the whole crowd so the whole crowd is under this tarp/parachute the whole song. Definitely unique but kind of cool too. These guys had a great sound and a great repore with the crowd so it was a nice, upbeat start to the day.

Little Boots – Emo’s Jr. – 3/20/09

So this was yet another artist I really wanted to see on this lineup and she was awesome. After Mae Shi finished we headed to the inside part of Emo’s to catch her set, and it was greatness. Extremely danceable songs with great beats. The crowd initially kind of didn’t really get that into it and most were kind of bobbing their head along but by the end of her set she had converted most people in there into dancing and it got pretty awesome by the end. She has some great songs to bring to the stage and they all have a nice groove and can really get the crowd dancing and I would certainly expect huge things from her in the future. She kind of has the total package. Very high energy, very cool stuff. I liked this one a lot.

After she finished we heard about 4 or 5 minutes of Max Tundra, which seemed a lot like a one man dance party band, but I really wanted to catch the next band inside so we headed back in.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Emo’s Jr. – 3/20/09

This may very well have been my favorite band of the week right here. This was a band I didn’t really quite know what to expect from other than that I had seen their name everywhere and that they were getting a lot of attention various places. I have to say they absolutely killed it with this. They have a very 90s alternative rock/fast paced shoegaze kind of sound (which as you know always wins me over) with very high energy, fast paced songs that just throw the rock down all over you. I have been listening to their album quite a bit since this, and while the album is awesome it doesn’t really do justice to the live set. The live sound is so much more full and developed and really is a great wall of sound kind of feeling. They went on early (bonus points) and blew through their set and pretty much everyone in the house was feeling the love for these guys. The sound is kind of Teenage Fanclub and My Bloody Valentine meet The Smiths, but live it sounds even better. It is always awesome to see a band that is so on fire like these guys were at this moment, even more impressive considering how many shows they played in Austin. Everything I have seen post-SXSW says these guys are for real and I would 100% have to agree with that. They were really, really good. Now I’m just even more excited to go to Pitchfork Music Fest this year and catch these guys again.

Woods – Emo’s – 3/20/09

We didn’t get to see a ton of Woods’ set since I wanted to check out SOSB, but these guys were actually really really good and in hindsight I kind of wish we had stayed a bit longer. They had a kind of eclectic off-kilter indie rock sound that had some room for hooks and solos in there, especially on their second song which dove into about 5 minutes of rock out noise solos which were totally awesome. This is definitely a band I would want to see again sometime, I feel like I didn’t get enough time with them but the time we were there was some really solid stuff.

School of Seven Bells – Emo’s Jr. – 3/20/09

I had heard part of a Black Session featuring these guys recently and was not really that blown away by it, but people at SXSW were mildly buzzing about these guys still so I figured they would be worth checking out. They were actually pretty solid but I still kind of remain slightly unimpressed. They don’t really seem to have a ton of energy on stage and the songs themselves can be kind of wandering and there is a lot of slow-building involved. They certainly weren’t bad, but I still remain on the fence on these guys. I think maybe if I had seen them in a different setting it would have been better, but nevertheless. Hopefully I will catch them sometime this summer again.

Wavves – Emo’s – 3/20/09

Probably the most notable buzz before SXSW was about these guys, or I guess more specifically Nathan Williams, who really is Wavves. I will say that with the amount of hype these guys got it is always tough to live up to it, and I wouldn’t say they were bad at all, they actually sounded pretty good I thought, but in the live setting they kind of showed that they just need a little seasoning. Their sound is very similar to No Age, just maybe a little more punk rock, and I’m sure No Age is the band that Wavves will get compared to the most. It is a similar live setup with Williams on guitar and one drummer, so two people total, just like No Age. They tore through a few of the songs on the new album that just came out and were sounding pretty solid, but I have to say that there was not a lot of stage presence and the crowd just seemed unmotivated by the whole thing. Maybe it is that I had just seen No Age dominate the crowd the previous afternoon, but I felt like Wavves just wasn’t hitting on all cylinders or something was off. Anyway, the actual sound itself was quite good and I think that these guys certainly have the potential to really throw it down, but I think they just need some more live seasoning to get to where they have the crowd in the palm of their hand like No Age does.

Dirty Projectors – Emo’s Jr. – 3/20/09

I have heard of Dirty Projectors many times to be sure but wasn’t really super familiar with them, but I was certainly interested in seeing them so I met Jill inside to check out their set, and wow they were really really fucking good. They bring a very high energy prog-rock kind of flavor to the table with some interesting harmonies and combinations of sounds that just work awesomely together. They also had the largest band on the inside stage at Emo’s we saw all day so it was rather impressive seeing all 6 of them crowded up there, reminded me a little of every time I’ve seen Los Campesinos. They also throw a great deal of variety into the songs which really keeps the set sounding fresh, and I definitely was loving pretty much everything they had going for them. I would really like to see these guys again sometime this summer, they were phenomenal.

King Khan and the Shrines – Emo’s – 3/20/09

With a name like that you kind of know what to expect and that certainly was not far off at all. Coming to the stage throwing down James Brown style numbers with a voodoo twist was King Khan with a shitload of people and a go-go dancer. The band was spot on and the King himself tore it up as well. This was basically just a great party band atmosphere as they tore through classic R&B type grooves with a lot of James Brown-ian screams and evil laughs. He even jumped down into the crowd for a while with some of the musicians. This was thoroughly enjoyable, if not fairly predictable, but sometimes you just want something that is a known quantity and you know that it is party. This was a fun set.

Department of Eagles – Emo’s – 3/20/09

I was actually pretty excited about seeing these guys, not knowing entirely what to expect, but I was certainly a big fan of their album “In Ear Park” from late last year and felt like even though the album was a chilled out album that they could probably translate it pretty well live, and I was certainly right. The songs really take on more weight and feeling in the live setting and they did a great job fleshing them out and pretty much killed on almost all of them. They even managed to drop a brand new song on us called “You’ll Never Know” that was definitely really tight. I think given the style of the album they really bring it to the stage extremely well.

During their set we had yet another surprise guest come up as Victoria Legrand of Beach House came up on stage to sing a version of the Grateful Dead’s “Blame it on the Mountain” with the band (see the top photo). This was very cool and it was actually a really good version of the song they had going til the time nazis shut them down because it was after 6 and they had to turn the club over for the night showcases. Too bad because they looked like they were going to jam it out for a while. But all in all, Department of Eagles was incredible stuff live and though I know their shows are rarer than Grizzly Bear shows at this point I would really recommend checking them out.

Anyway, Emo’s kicked us out after they cut Department of Eagles off and we were off to make quick time over to our night showcase of choice. After another quick stop at Taco Shack, we headed towards the Blackberry showcase at Cedar Street Courtyard……

Check out my other writeups on our time at SXSW 2009:
Thursday Day Parties – March 19, 2009
Thursday Night Showcases – March 19, 2009

Check out all of our photos from the Pitchfork day party here!

Department of Eagles – Phantom Other – From In Ear Park
Dirty Projectors – No More – From Rise Above
School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep – From Alpinisms
Wavves – So Bored – From Wavvves
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Come Saturday – From The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Woods – The Dark – From Captured Tracks
Little Boots – Meddle – From Arecibo EP
The Mae Shi – Run To Your Grave – From Hlllyh