Nearly a decade after a group of D.C.-raised schoolboys uprooted themselves to Harlem to have their shot at New York's burgeoning rock scene (thanks to The Strokes), the five members of The Walkmen experience a bigger platform in Austin. When their first album
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone was released in 2002, critics drew comparisons to U2 and The Cure. But when the masses first heard The Walkman's sound in a Saturn commercial and on
The O.C., they were exposed to a revamped sound. After bandmate relocations, Chinatown bus trips between residences in New York and Philadelphia, and three more albums, including an homage to their predecessors with a track-by-track cover of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's
Pussy Cats from 1974 and another from which all proceeds went to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, this crew is finally ready for another long-awaited release. "You're always trying to find
new stuff and new inspiration," frontman Hamilton Leithauser told Pitchfork. "If you don't really push and you don't try something that feels exciting, then it's not worth doing."
Wednesday, March 17 at Stubb's at 8:45 p.m. and Thursday, March 18 at Day Stage Cafe Austin Convention Center at noon
While many may still find it difficult to believe that indie movie darling Zooey Deschanel was actually singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in the shower in
Elf, the actress has since taken her vocal abilities to another level by partnering with singer/songwriter M. Ward to form the duo She & Him. Two years after the release of their first soulful record
Volume One, which includes an incredible cover of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," the pair is back at SXSW for the second time—and just before the release of
Volume Two. Though the dark-haired, saucer-eyed singer and her partner in musical crime again include two classic covers on their second 13-track album, their original first single "In the Sun" has already won over audiences with its recently
released video, a hipster take on Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" (literal hand motions included). And Deschanel is quick to affirm her band's chipper, yet mellow vibe. "We're not exactly a party band," she told Blackbook. "We
drink tea."
Thursday, March 18 at Cedar Street Courtyard at 10 p.m., Friday, March 19 at Lustre Pearl at 10 p.m., Saturday, March 20 at Auditorium Shores Stage at 8 p.m.
Known for the incredibly catchy hook on her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kanye West, "American Boy," English songstress Estelle is finally reaching a level of recognition in the American music industry a decade in the making. "When I got to
No 1, I called my mum and we cried a whole lot because it took me almost 10 years to do it," the rising British singer told The Mirror. "She was like, ‘I always knew you would.'" Estelle has collaborated with some of the most iconic names in the rap and R&B game—from Busta Rhymes to Robin Thicke to John Legend—but she's finally focusing on flying solo with her latest effort. "The album's called
All of Me, so I didn't want to put too many people on it," she asserted to Rap-Up.com.
Friday, March 19 at Latitude 30 at midnight
They may look like another trio of tousled-hair boys from Brooklyn trying to make it big in the indie music industry, but We Are Scientists don't take themselves too seriously, despite their legitimate success. "I'd just say that we sound like a bunch of guys trying to filter their desperation to create pure
pop music through their crippling historical fixation of indie rock, college rock, shoegaze and other genres that kind of ultimately can be reduced to Pavement and My Bloody Valentine," frontman Keith Murray told Spinner. Lonely Island member and mastermind of
Saturday Night Live's digital shorts, Akiva Schaffer, has directed four of their music videos, not including their most recent low budget, high effect "
Rules Don't Stop" from their upcoming album
Barbara. Besides their fourth full-length CD, We Are Scientists also recently premiered their MTV U.K. show
Steve Wants His Money. "We had been begging any TV station [to] give us money to
make a show, for about a year," bassist Chris Cain told ThereGoesTheFear.com. Looks like 2010 could be their year.
Friday, March 19 at The Phoenix at midnight and Saturday, March 20 at Emo's Main Room at 12:15 a.m.
Returning to SXSW for their second stint, the five-piece, California-based Local Natives are enjoying the ride and coasting off the critical
success of their debut album
Gorilla Manor. With vocal harmonizing reminiscent of other indie acts like Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend, Local Natives know how to utilize their gentle voices and they do it well. "It seems like in the U.S. every time you go to a festival it's, ‘You can wear shoes and your shirt and that's all you can bring in,'" bassist Andy Hamm told Spinner. "So it seems like I bring in a lot of cash and spend it all on
booze, water and sunscreen." These five seemingly non-descript guys are not simply your average indie rockers. "It's a rare band that can use its
chemistry as its own instrument," the Los Angeles Times reviewed.
Thursday, March 18 at Emo's Main Room at 11 p.m. and Friday, March 19 at Galaxy Room Backyard at 9 p.m.
Two "Long Time Gone" members of the Dixie Chicks are reemerging without frontwoman Natalie Maines. Guitarist/banjoist Emily Robison and fiddler Martie Maguire have downgraded from a country power trio to a sisterly duo with their newfound band, a nod to bestselling novel
City of Thieves. Robison and Maguire will test their material out for the SXSW audience in Austin, where they recorded their album, which is due in May. "Emily and I had
the itch," Maguire told Rolling Stone. "Every time we'd call Natalie and say ‘Are you ready?' she wasn't ready." While they may be down a lead vocalist, The Wallflowers' frontman Jakob Dylan, also known as Bob's son, joins them on one track off of their self-titled album, called "See You in the Spring." With 13 Grammys under their belts, these two women were prepared to try new territory and are hopeful about the reception. "I think the
fans will be curious, if nothing else, and give the music a listen," Robison said.
Thursday, March 18 at Antone's at 11 p.m., Friday, March 19 at Day Stage Cafe Austin Convention Center at 4:30 p.m. and later at Beauty Bar/Palm Door at 11 p.m.
After cutting her teeth performing with "Paper Planes" megastar M.I.A., fellow female rapper Rye Rye is bringing similarly infectious beats and quirky lyrics to SXSW. This 17-year-old has also collaborated with Baltimore's biggest names in hip-hop, including DJ Blaqstarr, for whom she sang vocals on club banger "Shake It to the Ground." "Going to school and touring is tiresome," the young budding rapper told GrooveEffect.com. "I'm the
coolest person in the school, so all my peers are really supportive of me. But I was pretty popular before I started touring and I act normal when I'm in school." The beats that comprise Rye Rye's debut album
Go! Pop! Bang! come from the likes of Diplo and Egyptian Lover. If you haven't already heard Baltimore mentioned in the same breath as hip-hip meccas like Atlanta, Chicago, and California's Bay Area, it's only a matter of time. "B-side" rap, often called "Baltimore Bass," is characterized by booming bass lines and scandalous lyrics—which play well with the city's infamous all-ages party scene. Signed to M.I.A.'s own Interscope imprint, NEET, Rye Rye seems destined to take off.
Friday, March 19 at the Beauty Bar/Palm Door at midnight
Life can't be bad when you're touring with Spoon and Okkervil River; and Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears are certainly making the most of their welcoming party. Formed in 2007 shortly after Joe Lewis picked up a guitar in the pawnshop where he worked, the band recalls James Brown-esque vocal energy and hip-moving bass lines and trumpeting. Spoon drummer Jim Eno was so enamored by Joe Lewis and his bluesy friends that he produced their full-length debut,
Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is, which was released last year on Lost Highway Records. Coverage in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Austin Chronicle have upped their profile, and performances at Lollapolooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festivals certainly didn't hurt; nor did Lewis' determination. "I just want what we do to be
better than anything else out there," he told the L.A. Times.
Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20 at the Austin Music Hall at 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
Sometimes it only takes two people to produce amazing music, especially if they're The Shins lead singer James Mercer and the man behind the music of Gnarls Barkley, DJ Danger Mouse. The duo bring the critical acclaim each has garnered over the years together for Broken Bells, an indie-rock operation that is effortlessly listenable at worst and pure magic at its best moments. The pair released their eponymous debut album on Sony, with Danger Mouse (also known as Brian Burton) helming the drums and keyboards, while Mercer provides his signature vocals and lead guitar for 10 tracks of intrigue that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes foreboding, and always new. The album received a strong four stars from Rolling Stone and Mercer told the magazine, "When you're the
master of your own domain, it's easy to fall into patterns. But with this, there was a freedom to try stuff and not worry about what it would mean for this identity I've created." Danger Mouse echoed their experimental attitude to create what Rolling Stone dubbed "hip-hop for turned-on shut-ins."
Wednesday, March 17 at Stubb's at 11 p.m. and March 19 at Lustre Pearl at 11:15 p.m.
Ten years ago, Chi-town MC Naledge and DJ/Producer Double O of New Jersey met at a talent show at the University of Pennsylvania. A decade full of critical acclaim, a brutal fight with bouncers at a venue (leaving Double O with a broken eye socket), three mixtapes, and three albums later, the hip-hop duo will return to SXSW for one of the festival's most anticipated performances. Though they've featured names as big as Estelle on tracks and inked a Reebok sneaker deal, their focus is always on sincerity. Double O describes their music as "nostalgic, and genuine. I think there's
a realness and a soulfulness to our sound that makes it familiar to fans." Naledge, for example, lists Avril Lavigne as one of his guilty pleasures and Double O says there is nothing he'd be embarrassed to listen to. But their tracks recall hip-hop icons such as A Tribe Called Quest more than a sk8r loving teen pop punk rocker.
Friday, March 19 at Scoot Inn at 10:45 p.m.
