SXSW Part 8-The Long Goodbye and even Longer Hello

We headed out on Saturday  at 1PM to Baton Rouge for The Gas, Food, and Lodging Festival.  It's a seven hour trip but it took us eight and a half.  We stopped at some Mexican Fast Food place along the way.  I wish I had some nice memories of the trip there but unfortunately I was sleeping the whole time.  Someone wise once said that the only problem with sleeping is that you're not awake.  True that, true that.

The Gas Food and Lodging Festival is a two week Festival that bookends SXSW.  For a lot of bands, Baton Rouge is a natural place along the way home from Austin and I think Baton Rouge bookers were getting a lot of bands requesting shows so they organized it into a festival.  It's not a 'festival' per se where you need a pass and all that mumbo jumbo and everyone plays on a stage, it's a festival as in just a gathering around a unique idea.  And we are grateful for it.

The show coincided with St. Patrick's Day and our first thought was: awesome.  But one of our friends from the Baton Rouge band We Landed on the Moon said that they played a St. Patty's Day show once and everyone went to a parade in the afternoon and passed out by the time they went on at night. 

 Our second thought was: awesome.

The show was going to be on the patio at the North Gate Tavern in the heart of LSU.  A Patio Show is an exception to my 'outdoor' show theory.  On a patio, there are walls to solidly frame everything.  Also a plus: the show took place at night. 

It was a good, fun set.  Mike was balancing himself on the handrails around the stage and a fella from the bar came over yeliing, "GET DOWN!!!  GET DOWN!!!"  The music was kind of high and I'm not sure Mike heard him or not but he eventually got down.  After the show, we weren't really sure what the big deal was about climbing all over their (fill the blank) but then we found out.  Last year there was a girl who was balancing drunkenly on one of the handrails, fell over and died instantly.  I guess there was a lawsuit or something and the guy was understandably a little nervous.

The Baton Rouge show meant that we were able to talk shop with some friends  and we were able to get paid enough for gas for the trip home.  We had a really good show and sold a coupla CD's. 

At 1AM after the show, we had to decide whether we were going to get a room or just drive home.

We decided to just drive.

The ride home was really hazy for everyone, drive for two hours, trade off with someone, catch a few hours sleep.  Beth and Paul seemed to get the worst shifts on the way there and back.  Beth drove from about 3AM to 5 or 6AM to and fro and Paul drove from about 5 or 6AM to 7AM.  These particular shifts were gruelling.  I stayed up with Beth on the way down, frantically searching for talk radio stations and Mike was kind-of staying awake with her on the way back.

At some point, and Beth will clarify this, but she said, "Mike, I'm getting really tired" and Mike replied:

"Here, drink this"

When Beth described it to me, I could only think of Alice in Wonderland.  She said she couldn't believe how awake she was after drinking it (it was one of those energy/caffeine drinks), her eyes bolting open and she was able to drive another half an hour or so. 

We stopped at a rest area and Paul took the wheel.  I shut my eyes for at least a relatively relaxing three hours until the familar motion of a moving van stopped.  Paul needed to switch. 

"How far have we gone, Paul?"

"About seventy miles"

It wasn't the three hours that I imagined, but only one.

On the way down to Austin, Brian offered to drive during these late evening/early morning hours. 

After fifteen minutes he had to switch.

I know of a friend who went cross-country with a buddy of his.  They initially started doing six and seven hour shifts.  By the end of it, they were switching off every half an hour.

In the end, we did about 1500 miles on the way back.  We started at 1PM on Saturday, played a show at midnight and got back on the road.  We arrived in Durham at 6PM on Sunday, everyone completely delirious.  At work the whole next week, we would all be a bit delirious.

We would've maybe been able to get away with flying to Austin.    Paul didn't need to take his drums.  I could've just taken my guitar and guitar head.  The Rhodes presents a bit of difficulty but if we knew of a band that was going down, we could potentially pay them a transportation fee to bring it down.  It may not be much more money when you balance the gas with the rental but then again it would've meant at least $70 in taxi cab charges everyday.  But I don't know if I'd do the road trip part of it again without at least a couple of stops in between for the way down and the way back.  Then again that means taking off vacation time for work and it means more money to pay for hotels. 

In our position, it's really tough to rationalize some of this.  Any band in our stage of their careers pretty much makes the decision that this whole venture is going to lose money.  It's been 18 months since we've been together and I think if you did a real hard audit of our expenditures, we're nowhere close to breaking even.  I did a real ahrd audit with my twenty year career in music and I am down exactly $2,032.16.  I have a couple of used guitar pedals I'm selling to finally, finally get that number below two large.  In general, not many bands can say that they have broken even.  I'm just stating facts here, I'm not judging whether this is good or bad or neutral.  And I'm definitely not complaining.  This all falls under the No Shit Catagory for some people.  For others, they have no idea.  So again, just stating facts.  I greatly admire anyone who is making a living at playing music.  It takes a lot of time and energy to finally get your head above water.  But it will take some heavy duty thinking if we are so fortunate as to be given the opportunity to play SXSW next year.

Our old, excuse me, previous, drummer Simeon, sent us a congrats and a little article about the Black Lips being the hardest working band at SXSW.  They played, and I am not kidding you, nine shows in two days.  But that was not the fact that startled me the most.  The fact that startled me the most was that they have been together for seven years.

These are the days of American Idol-one day you are a selling cars, doing Karaoke every month or so when you can afford the babysitter and then within a few months you are sellings millions of albums.  All our lives we have heard the term 'overnight sensation'.  Tune into any reality TV show and you see people looking for a way 'in' to some system, (out of all the 'systems', the most likely association is with the movie studio system).  Bands will be hyped online and then they catch some fire only to be christened with 'From Out of Nowhere Comes The So-and So's".  

And I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.  Or rather, the best thing.

You have to allow yourself as a person to grow and change when you are in a band.  You have to do this individually but then you have to go through this as a group.  At every step of the band process, people rethink their values.  It may be during the first show and someone says, "Guys, I'm not sure if this is for me" or it may happen during the first recording, "Sorry gals, but my heart just isn't it" or when you're sending out press kits "Holy shit, this is a lot more serious than I thought it was ever going to get".  The first out of town gig, the first tour, the first car payment on the van, the first 7", the first EP, the first record.

SXSW I'm sure has been a great tool for labels and bands and fans throughout its existence.  And I guess at least a small part of me, like anyone who goes, entertains the "What if..?" 

But as I'm sure you have gathered by reading these the past week, this trip has effected me in a way that I never imagined... 

...a good way, a very good way.

j

I'll leave you alone with my tales for a little while.  Your boss is secretly complaining about you, wondering how your TPF reports are coming along.

SXSW Part 7-A Good Van Is Hard To Find

Red Collar is looking for a Passenger Van, one of those 15 or 12 passenger church vans.  Under 120,000 miles and under $4000  (please don't laugh too hard at the implausibility).  If you know anyone that's selling one please let us know.  We have another road trip to the 6 Points Festival in DC in April and then a tour in August sometime.

Back to  our story...

The weather was wonderful the whole trip.  No rain.  Plenty of sunshine.  I think in some of the pictures from our show you can see a little bit of a sunburn on my left arm from walking around for hours the day before.  Our show was at 2:00PM and our hotel was about 10 minutes away from the venue.  You can never be sure what the traffic is going to be in an unknown city so we woke up early to get to the Dirty Dog Bar at the very unrock and roll hour of 10:00AM.

The Dirty Dog is about the size of the Cat's Cradle which I think has the capacity of about 650.  This fact made us a little bit nervous because even though there's free food and drink at this event, 650 is a lot of people to try and get into a place.  I think our band like most bands thrives on the audience and if there's some space between the stage and the first member of the audience, it makes the place feel empty even though there may be 200 people behind that first person.  I'm not sure about the rest of Red Collar but I think in general it's much easier to play to 40 people in a 30 capacity place than to 200 people in a 650 capacity place.  It has better 'feel' to it when people are crammed right up against you.  Bigger rooms can sometimes mean bigger echos:

Thank you thank you thank you.  We're Red Collar Collar Collar.

Most of the action in the venue was around the bar area where the bartenders were stocking up their beer and whatnot.  It was a little dark in the place but  I thought I saw something moving on the stage.  A muskrat?  Something was definitely moving on the stage!  I saw this wiggling and then a scruffy bit of hair and then a human head poking out from underneath a sleeping bag on an air mattress.  My first thought was that the show had already began and I was walking in on someone's performance art (...these days, you seriously never know...).  I wasn't sure if I should clap and ask for 'ONE MORE!!' or if I should ask if he'd like a couple of Excedrin and a raw egg in orange juice for the hang over.  After what was most defintely a late night, an employee decided to just sleep over as opposed to going home.  One employee at another venue had on a shirt:

Welcome to Austin.  Please remember to leave. 

Before our show, the band went to get some coffee and I was shocked to run into someone that I used to work with at the Chelsea Theater and Carolina Theater in Chapel Hill (both are owned by the same person).  I hadn't seen him in years since he moved to LA with another mutual friend of ours.  Our mutual friend got into USC's film school and I just saw his Master's Thesis film (at I think that's what it was for).  We briefly caught up but I couldn't help but wonder, "What the hell are the chances of that happening?"  Small world or just small industry?

The turnout for the first band of the day wasn't great but what I did expect for a noon show?  I just read an article somewhere that actor/rock star (I use the term 'star' very lightly here)/paramour of Mischa Barton/supposed douche Cisco Adler played a show at SXSW this year.  This guy seems to always be in the Enquirer or US Weekly and no one can quite pinpoint why this guy is famous.  He's in that whole Paris/Lindsey crowd.  He played SXSW and fifteen people came to rock out. 

In a tent.

First time that I've ever felt bad for someone and felt guity about feeling bad for them. 

There are a few things much worse to playing in a 650 person venue with only 15 people in it.  One of them is playing in a tent with a capacity of whatever number you wish to imagine and only 15 people show up.  That would be frightening.  At least you have nice solid walls in a club.  But a tent?  It's just you, grass and a big white sheet.  There's no echo, but worse: a vacuum. 

But at least with a tent you have the, um, tent.  The only worse that it could be is if there's no tent at all and it was outdoors and only 15 people show up.  I know this from personal experience.  Most outdoor shows have the capacity of, well, the world's population.  And when there's no one there, it is very very tough.  You can't stop but think, "Man, look at all that grass.  It'd be so awesome if the stage was as big as the lawn and the place for the audience was as big as the stage.  Man, that'd be awesome" and then someone off in the not so far distance says, "Git yer country fried snickers here.  Country fried snickers everyone" and then you think, "Man, what an awesome name: Country Fried Snickers.  We can have stickers that say CFS and this guy over there can go around the country with us cross-promoting on the Unhealthy Food/Music Tour 2007.  Man, that'd be awesome"  Your mind starts to wander and it does become tough to concentrate.  I've seen plenty of bands just die onstage at these things. 

Have you ever caught those peace rallies or rallies for green energy or something on CSPAN?  Don't they always look like miserable failures?  The camera angles are all wrong.  Doesn't matter if millions showed up to this thing.  It's always these full body shots of someone on stage in front of a microphone where all you see is a lot of green stuff behind the person and a lot of blue above them.  If you ever have the opportunity to film an outdoor rock show, please, please, please only include medium to close shots and if you do include full body shots, make sure the audience is seen in the picture (like a shot from the drum riser or from the side of the stage).  This goes for public speeches too.  Tim Robbins gets up to the podium to talk about Soldiers dying.  It's always miserable and ineffective not because it's Nuke LaLoosh saying these things but because of the producer of the thing.  Remember Dr. Martin Luther King's I have a Dream Speech?  Of course you do.  It's always him in close up and then cut to the crowd.  Magnificent close up.  And then cut to the crowd.  The filmmaker's rightly decided that Martin's wingtips would probably not do much to further the cause of Civil Rights but for some reason CSPAN thinks the anti-war movement would briskly be moved along if we knew the hem length of Joan Baez's skirt. 

Rock music is so much better when it's dark out.  When it's light out in an outdoor venue, people look around, there's birds in the air, leaves are falling, cars whiz by, the sun is out, kids are playing 'what's that cloud?'.  For poets, this is a cuisine.  For bands, this is spoiled milk. 

 Don't let any musician fool you, we're all attention whores.

At this point I was grateful to be playing a show in a 650 person venue and not in a tent.  Or outdoors.  With Jewel.  We'd play with her later on in the night. 

We prepared ourselves for 15 people but slowly people started trickling in.  Free breakfast burritos will have that effect on people.  So will free beer.  For our show, I'm guessing around 100 people were there (author's full disclosure: I'm horrible at guessing this shit).  At the end of the set, maybe 80 people stayed but again, I'm horrible at guessing this stuff.  Our show was happening at the same time as some other really spectacular lineups so I think that's pretty good.  Brian (our friend who came along for the trip) said that it sounded great and that Used Guitars never sounded better.  I'm awful at evaluating how we sound because I have had many experiences where I thought we sounded great but then people have said, "ahhh, not so much" and other times I think we sounded awful and people thought it was the best that we've ever sounded.  It seems like the response was a mild lukewarm to warm but I don't know.  I've already written about the crowd's responses in previous posts so take away from that what you will. 

There's a weird phenomena that I noticed at SXSW.  When we first arrived, when went to see a couple of shows and I leaned over to Beth and said, "No one has any merch".  It was true.  Out of the dozen or so bands that I saw, no one ever said, "Thanks a lot for coming out tonight.  We have CD's and T's for sale right over by the South Park pinball machine."

I thought that this is what SXSW was for but I guess not.  There wasn't hordes of people waiting in line to talk to bands after their sets, no one was carrying around CD's from bands they just discovered.  It was really really strange.  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of other Merch that people were carrying around: from DirectTV, from Verizon, from AmEx, from IFC, etc.   I'm sure Labels were giving out plenty of sampler CDs.  But as far as bands proper were concerned?  Nothing.

There's a band that I have been a fan of for years and I heard that they swore off SXSW because economically it didn't make any sense.  This was a band that traveled the world and in my opnion had a pretty significant impact on indie rock and they swore off SXSW.  Never sold any merch at this thing.  Never got paid (enough).  Never meant any more exposure for them.  Why go to Austin when you can go to San Antonio and play for your fans and make some good money?  The only reason they were playing SXSW this year was because their record label paid for them to do so.  Some of you may think that this may seem totally against the whole 'artist' mentality and it's against the whole 'community' mentality.  'Hey man, it's a festival, dude, don't be such a capitalist'  It's really easy to say something like that when the cost of your festival ticket is kept down by the 'artist' and 'community' friendly sponsors of Miller Light and Verizon.  I'm not saying SXSW is wrong for getting sponsors.  I'm saying it's wrong to not see this band's particular point of view.  These people have to make livings somehow. 

Regardless, we sold some CDs and T-shirts and we had a blast.  We had some strangers come up and introduce themselves to us at the end of the set so that was nice.  I got to see a former student of mine who is stationed at Ft. Worth and came to the show.  We're going to be posting a video of the show at some point but I can't be involved in that stuff.  When I look at our video, all I see is the chinks in the armor, the weak spots and the things we have to work on.  I'll defer that to everyone else and stay out of it.  Stay tuned, it'll be up here soon.

One extra surprising thing came out of our show: there was finally, finally a bad picture taken of Mike.  I've seen hundreds of pictures of him from our shows and that guy does not take a bad picture...except this one.  Thank god he didn't go into modeling or something, I'd still be trying to do my Eddie & the Cruisers imitation.

We had anther show that night for gogirlsmusic.com (WARNING: DO NOT GO TO GOGIRLS.COM, MAKE SURE IT'S GOGIRLSMUSIC.COM).  It's been two weeks and I keep on checking gogirls.com every day, sometime two or three times a day to make sure that it's still there.  It still is.  I'll check again today for you and let you know.  But go to gogirlsmusic.com.  Oh the extent of research that I'll do for my dear readers. 

Anyways, their festival idea is a very very interesting concept: 20 bands and every band plays 2 songs.  All the equipment is backlined, just bring your guitars and cymbals.  We got to the bar early and I think the whole thing just started.  I don't mean this to come out how it is probably going to come out (re: sexist) but please bear with me:

Imagine a lineup for a festival for women.  Close your eyes and do this now.

Now I realize some of you out there are saying, "I imagined The Breeders and I imagined The Runaways and I imagined des_ark and are you implying what I think you are implying mister sexist pig?"  Well half of you imagined just what my imaginary feminist friend did in the previous sentence.  That is a festival that many of us (including myself) would like to see.  The other half of you imagined the Lilith Fair half.  The Jewel half.  

Half of you imagined exactly what we walked into.   

Mike turned to me and said, "They are going to hate us."

Fortunately like all good festivals that decide to book a wide variety of acts, they sensibly started with the Jewel half and ended with the Joan Jett half.  We were preceeded by some acts that didn't mind turning it up and screaming it out.  We did Witching Hour and Hands Up and we had fun and had a good reception (I think a better reception than the earlier show), met some great people and sold a couple of CDs.

The morning next, after a day of being unsure of how to receive our reception and frankly unsure if we're supposed to grade our reception on a sliding scale  and frankly my dear unsure if we should even give a damn, we ran into someone from another band who saw us the day before. 

"You guys sounded great.  I though, 'Wow, these guys really mean it'"

One of the greatest compliments I've ever heard in my life.

And in a few hours we would be in Baton Rouge to play the Gas, Food and Lodging festival.

SXSW Part 6-Oh Vanna!

So yesterday in the previous post I had mentioned that I'd rather play music than watch music and Beth said it made me come off as cocky prick.  Then Paul said, "If the shoe fits..."

I didn't mean it in the sense that my music is better than others.  I meant it as...well, I'm not sure if Terry Bradshaw would rather be a football commentator in the booth than a player on the field.  That's how I meant it.

All of this past blog stuff has lead up to today when I talk a little bit about our show at SXSW.  It's taken me a little while to wrap my head around it.  Then again, maybe there's nothing to wrap my head around. Still, I like to sort this stuff out and give it a little bit of thought before I might dismiss it as 'just another gig'.  And I'd rather write it down so I don't forget.  If I don't and someone asks me a coupla months from now, "How was Austin?", I don't want to just say, "Uh, it was cool..."

When we first found out we were playing SXSW, man...I just wish I could've recorded the phone conversations.  Have you seen Little Miss Sunshine?  Do you remember when Abigail Breslin (the little girl) finds out that she qualified to be in the Little Miss Sunshine contest and gives out that unbridled scream? 

It wasn't like that. 

It was better. 

To hear my bandmates' reactions is something I'll treasure for a long, long time.

But why were we so excited?

Was it because we were going to Austin and it was a chance to meet our idols that may be wandering the streets?  Would we meet a big label that would sign us and carry us away from our 9 to 5 world in it's loving bosom?  Was it all the cocaine and hookers that they most suredly provide for all the bands just like Chaz used to?  Would we meet a manager or publicist or a blogger that would finally...finally...after seeing all these shows and coming to SXSW for ten years, they would FINALLY find, no, finally discover us to be all that they believe to be what rock and roll means and stands for and present us to the world with a big red ribbon saying, "Finally...finally I have found what the world not only wants but needs"?

Or was it just another gig?

I've been trying to sort this out in my head and I really do believe that we just looked at this as an opportunity to play SXSW and sincerely nothing more.  I hate to boil it down to something so simplistic as a resume builder, but I think that is exactly what SXSW is. 

Booking gets very very very frustrating.  It is the part of being in the band that I hate most. I realize that it's not the venue's or the booker's fault.  I do not put the blame on those poor bastards.  I really don't. When I/we book, we realize that Red Collar is just one of a hundred unknown bands that contacted this guy this week about getting a show.  We are no better or no worse than any of those bands.  We are just another band. 

Except now we have four letters to include in the request for shows:

Red Collar, sxsw

Kinda looks like it should be on a doctor's office door, huh?  Well, that's kinda all it really is.

I don't mean this to come across to other bands that are reading this as a "Nya nya!  Look what we got and you don't".  I mean in the sense that now those Bookers and Venue Owner's ears will prick up a bit and it may make getting shows a bit easier.  We're the exact same band and we're going to be sending them the exact same myspace message or press kit or horse's head that we did in the past...

...except now it'll have those letters. 

May or may not be fair but that, ladies and gentleman, is what SXSW is and 99.9% of the time I really don't think it means anything more.

Grayson Currin from the local RDU city paper The Independent wrote about some young hopefuls at this year's fest:

http://www.indyweekblogs.com/scan/sxsw07/sxsw07-find-your-gimmick-no-1/

I suppose bands do look to SXSW to find a label that's going to make all their dreams come true.  I guess that people go there looking for management.  Admittedly, in the past I would've probably felt the same way.  Or maybe in the future when I just can't stand taking a look at my TPS Reports*  and by chance if the heavens smile on us and we get the opportunity to play SXSW in the future, we'll be 'goal-oriented'.  I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that with a band.  Some people want it to grow organically and others want the machination to turn its gears.  I mean, I've worked shitty jobs that would grind the hell out of my psyche and I would've done most anything to get out of them.  And if that meant soliciting managers and publicists and what not and do the whole back slapping thing with them over some mimosa's, well, maybe I would've.

But things are different now.

Very recently, I've felt a bit of a sea change with the way that I look at music.  The music industry, from the top to the bottom, from the offices in LA to the streets of the Triangle, presents an illusion.  Some of the fault lies in the Magician for presentig it (and sometimes the Magician doesn't even know he's presenting an illusion), but a large part of the blame is with the audience who walks away thinking, "Gosh how did he DO that?  It must be magic"  The 'SXSW' that will go into our little resume, or press kit or myspace message to venue owners asking for a gig? 

An illusion.

In the past, I've seen plenty of those bands that have those letters after their name and I outright thought they sucked.  Rest assured there are and will be plenty of people who think the same thing about us.  Doesn't matter to the venue and bookers.  Just those letters.

For fifteen years, I used to be so concerned about playing at certain venues and being on a certain label and playing certain festivals.  I thought that there's these posts, these markers that you have to get to to be successful.  I'd see all these other bands playing SXSW or CMJ or playing at the Cradle and I would feel the pangs of jealousy.  Why can't that be me?  I couldn't help but think every time a label turned me down or I wasn't able to get into a venue that I was failing myself in some way.

I looked at music as if it were a game show with prizes behind every curtain and if I just...got...on..to...the...next...round...then everything would finally be right in the world.  I would be vindicated!!!  I would be professionally satiated!! Satiated?  Are you kidding me??  I'd be ecstatic!!!  Please, please Bob Barker, if I could just get the prize behind curtain number two-the gig at the Cradle or if a great local would just put my stuff out or if I'd open the mystery envelope to find...a spot at SXSW or in the suitcase is...a deal with Matador!!!  A spot at Coachella!!!!!  A trip to the couch with Oprah!!!!!!

Although I realize the gravity of the situation that is the beast of SXSW and although I've been excited about every single step that's happened to us, I've realized that the venue isn't the prize or the festival isn't the prize or the label isn't the prize...

...the prize is the band itself.

Sure, a part of me would love to be able to do this lifestyle at least as a semi-living at some point and believe me, I realize what SXSW has meant to bands in the past and I am appreciative and grateful for everything that has happened for the band so far.

But before the Cradle gig and before SXSW and before 307 Knox I realized that the band, this band, is all I ever wanted.

A little more than year ago we played The Dirty Little Heaters CD release party and we had a blast.  It was our first good show and I think it was the moment we all realized that this thing just might work.  After the show, Mike turned to me and said, "Now what?  We just had a great show.  This show was everything I could've asked for.  Where do we go from here?  What else is there?"

I really didn't have an answer. I still don't. 

All I know is that mysteriously, all the things that eluded me for fifteen years started happening, ironically only after I stopped be concerned whether or not they would happen.

 

j

 

                                                              *http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes

SXSW Part 5-Valiant Fav and the Shit Fishsticks

I sincerely apologize about the downer yesterday.  However, like any story, there should be an Act 2 where there are obstacles that prevent our main character from achieving a dramatic need, a culmination where everything falls apart and the main character reaches his/her lowest point and seems farthest from fulfilling some objective.

We're not quite out of Act 2 yet folks.

Before we went to SXSW, I had no idea what it would be like.  I figured a chic Woodstock maybe. An Apple Chill with music.  I don't know. But there were a few obvious things I should have considered before I reached those expectations.  The first is the cost.  Full coverage tickets for SXSW are $600 I think.  Include the airfare and hotel and we're talking about a $1500-$2000 trip.  It's not a cheap trip and that fact immediately leaves out a large demographic of concertgoers.  I'm not saying these attendees have cash to spare, but they are people that have at least a little bit of disposable income.

There is also the consideration that this is an industry event-for managers, for publicists, for bloggers, for labels, for writers.  All of these people want to know what the next big thing is.  It's their job.  They are the ones that will tell us what we should be listening to or rather what is worth listening to.  For this, I applaud them.  Most of us don't have time or energy to troll the web looking for bands.  SXSW may be 'work' for some of them, but it also a little bit of a vacation.  They'll get plenty of free beer and food along the way.  Yet this crowd is not the type of crowd that just got off work, hired the babysitter and wants to go to a show to let off a lttle steam.  And for this reason, a band could feel a bit like a fish in the aquarium.

Yet they don't even tap on the glass.

I won't use our show as an example, speaking subjectively about the band is a very tough thing for me to do.  So I will use some other tried-and-true bands.

We went to see the French Kiss Showcase.  French Kiss is a great label with some great bands: Call Me Lightning, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Fatal Flying Guilloteens, The Hold Steady and of course, the mothership, Les Savy Fav from New York.  We met a couple of people that were working the streets for some other showcases but they had to take a break from their soliciting to come to this show to see Les Savy.  By the end of the night, the place was packed with people who wanted to see Les Savy.  There was an intense line outside for people who desperately wanted to see Les Savy.  I have never seen Les Savy before.  Mike (who is a huge fan) told me that "Springsteen ain't shit compared to this guy".

Them's fightin' words.

After the show, I can honestly say that if you went to see Les Savy and didn't have a good time, it's your own damn fault.  The lead singer, Tim Harrington, is one of the finest in the business.  He is a true joy to watch work.  In the past, he has told the hands-in-pocket crowd in the front row to please get out of the way for people who want to dance.  This guy sweats and shakes and has some great patter in between songs.  Mike has seen them four or five times in different cities and I asked him what are the crowds like and he said, they dance, they shout back lyrics.  I asked him if this crowd at SXSW is anything like a regular crowd.  He said he didn't know because he was in the front row and never looked back.

The crowd behind him was pretty much what you would've expected from the above description of what I think is a typical SXSW-er.  Even though it's SXSW, a perfect evening, free beer all day, after the first few rows, it was kind of like a collective 'Meh'.

It's the type of crowd that if you decide to stage dive, they won't necessarily catch you. 

I know this is true because I saw it happen to Mike.

We also saw another band with a great frontman, Raleigh's own Valiant Thorr.  Seems kind of weird to drive 1400 miles to see a band that performs in your backyard a dozen times a year but when you see some hyped bands that don't exactly hype you up, it's best to go to the sure bet like Fav and Thorr.  Valient Thorr seems to be loved in Austin, playing several shows during SXSW which may not mean anything, but one of those shows includes an anniversary party for a local rock paper.  If the Independent had an anniversary party, I'd assume it would get bands that it loves.

And it's pretty much the same deal that if you go see these guys and don't have a good time, it's your own fault.  For this show, the reception was more enthused than the Fav show even though I consider both Valiant and Fav's skills to motivate the crowd about the same.  Maybe it was because it was in the middle of the afternoon in what is probably considered an Austin bar with what I think was probably a lot of locals.  I tend to think that this crowd was more local heavy as opposed to festival goers.

Bands can only do so much at a show.  Bands are not just jukeboxes.  You desperately rely on the ebb and flow of the crowd.  There's something there between the two of you-the band and the audience.  I have played hundreds of shows in my lifetime and there was no experience that even compares to our week before last's show at the Broad Street Cafe.  We didn't play any differently, we didn't play harder or better.  But the crowd found the string in between our paper cups and they shouted back.  I'm glad that I got to experience it at least once in my life (Thank you!). 

If you came to SXSW to look for buzz or a contract or a publicist for your band, well I guess you need that experience to happen there in Austin but most of the time it seems to be fairly sterile shows and I don't know if the crowd's are always willing to sweat and shake and shout, they just seem willing to be entertained.  Maybe they have to pace themselves to get through the day to see all the bands so they conserve their energy.  I'm not really sure.

Philisophical musings of The Crowd aside, I really needed to see both of these bands.  We saw a number of hyped bands that I thought were just okay and then when that happens, I always feel a bit cheated or something.  Maybe it's because I feel like I can't communicate with the people that hype them up.  Like most kids growing up, there was a time in my life when I couldn't feel like I could communicate with anyone and the guitar helped facilitate that a bit.  And now, here I am, unable to receive the messages that these people are sending.  And sometimes I just don't get it even though everyone seems to think that they are 'amazing'.

Then again, maybe I have shitty taste in music.  I don't like Human Touch or Lucky Town, so it can't be that bad.

People come to Austin to find the next big thing but then it becomes a competition where people are going to all these shows just so they can say that they saw 'The _______s and they were AMAZING'.  And then they talk and talk and talk about that one band and I don't think it's a case of putting too many eggs in one basket.  I think it's a case of thinking you HAVE to put your eggs in any basket at all.  I think it's a case of people spending a lot of money to get here and well, they have to write about something and they will walk out of this town with basket.

Everyone grows up reading books on rock and roll with the author describing some tightrope rock and roll show and what an impact it had on them and the impact it had on the history of rock and roll itself.  I believe that everyone wants their own Elvis.  Everyone wants their own Punk Rock.  Everyone goes to shows wanting to feel that exhilaration, that "Oh my god I can't believe I'm hearing this.  I saw the future of rock and roll and it's name is The Shit Fishsticks" thus ensuring their own history in rock and roll as being the first person to ever write about the Shit Fishsticks. 

I think that I simply enjoy seeing local bands play more than national bands.  I'd rather see Valiant Thor or Tooth than Mastodon.  I'd rather see Sleepsound and The Dry Heathens and Spider Bags and The Dirty Little Heaters (*sniff*) and all the rest of the lot of you out there. Years ago, I gave up on seeing national and regioanl bands that came to the area a long time ago.  Maybe that's unfortuantely reflected in Red Collar's music or how I personally sing or play guitar or whatever, but I felt that a lot of the time, it's a case of the Emporer's New Clothes. 

Given a choice between playing shows and seeing them, I'd much rather play.

Or maybe what I'm trying to say is given the choice between watching someone else wear the Emporer's New Clothes or me wearing them, well...

...jacket size 42, regular, please.

j

SXSW Part 4 - South By South Pissed

I'm really proud of Troika, the local music festival that's held in Durham.  This past year, there were several 'name' acts that played the festival and went on to play SXSW this year: Elvis Perkins, Okkervil River, Two Ton Boa, Asobi Seksu, Mountain Goats.  Credit goes to Melissa Thomas.  She's the one who selected them and got them here in Durham.  I think the hope for Troika is that every year we're/they're able to bring in a handful of acts that will be going on to CMJ and SXSW. 

I'm also proud of Troika not only for the 'Name' acts but also for the locals that played it.  Out of the seventy acts, virtually everyone else that played the festival was local and I would say that all the acts were at least a 'C', using the ol' Grade School rubric.  I'm really thinking back on it and I can honestly say I don't think anyone outright sucked.  Even if I look at it objectively and distance my emotional self from it, I truly don't think anyone was awful.  Everyone got at least a C, or an 'average' mark (subjectively speaking, most everyone in my opinion was at least a B-).  However, this is the advantage of having a festival with only 70 acts.  Once you get above say, oh I don't know, the 700 mark, even if you are using nationwide bands, the quality must certainly go down.  

As I said in a previous post, I estimated the total number of bands in Austin this week at 1800 to 1900, well over my 700 mark.  In regards to SXSW, or rather the music I heard while at SXSW (you must pardon me here because some of the music that I am using to judge SXSW was not part of SXSW but other festivals going on in the area)...

...I can't do this...

I was going to go on and on and on about how bad some of the music was.  But I can't.  

What must it be like to run a radio station?  Or a label?  Or even a venue?  All of these people clamoring for attention, grasping at just a chance.  Sending you their CD or their myspace page and saying, "We're not asking for much, just a show and some gas money" or getting the press kits ready...just like every other band in the country. I can only imagine the depression that must come along with being in that position.  You grow up listening to the radio, falling in love with the radio, falling in love with music and desperately wanting to be a part of it only to find yourself listening to a lot of people that are doing a half ass job. 

How can you not become pessimistic?

Beth and I are Catholic.  When you get married in the Catholic Church, you have to do some pre-marriage counseling.  It's not that big of a deal, just a day retreat.  You may see some presentations on finance and  presentations on crappy marriages and how to make them better or presentation on budgeting time with a family or some such thing.  There's a lunch and everyone gets to talk with one another and I'm sure it really does some good for people.  We talked to a couple who were getting married and we asked how long have they been seeing one another and they said, "Two months".  They asked us the same thing and we said, "Two years".  Maybe, just maybe, after talking with us they decided to hold of on the wedding for another couple of months until they were sure this is what they wanted to do, before kids were involved and mortgages and all the other complicated stuff you have to worry about in divorce.  So, in my opinion, even though I'm sure it sounds a little weird (it did to me before I did it), I'm sure it has been valuable for some people.

At the end of the retreat, a priest comes to the front of the classroom.  He says something to this effect: "You are all here because you have to be here.  You don't want to be here.  Some of you, I have never seen before and will never see again.  Others of you, I haven't seen in ten years.  And almost all of you I will not see for another three years.  When you were a child, you came to church because your parents made you come.  For eighteen years, I saw you, every Sunday. Then you went off to college, and I did't see you anymore.  I didn't see you for five or ten years.  You forgot about me...until you wanted to get married.  Then I see you on days like today but I won't see you till the day you get married.  And then I won't see you for a couple of years...until you have children and want to get them baptized and then the cycle will start again."

The point of his story was to say, "Please understand MY position.  Please understand where I'M coming from.  This is stressful for the two of you but understand, I realize I am only valuable to you when it is convenient for you".

I felt so sad to hear this man say this story.  A lot of sacrifice was involved for this man to be the person he is.  Being a priest was a calling for him.  This is what he is meant to do, something that he felt compelled to do for whatever reason (please, no alter boy jokes).  And yet after all these years, he realizes that he's just a milemarker or a timecard.  But he won't stop being a priest, even after this realization.

This image stuck with me for all of these years.

I know plenty of musicians that can't explain why they play music.  They are compelled, for whatever reason, to play.  They try and quit and move to something else (I certainly have tried) but you can't.  I can only guess that the Rock Peripherals, the radio station managers and the critics and the bloggers and the venue owners and the label owners, are the same way. 

I finally understand how they can become disillusioned and saddened by the whole industry and how they can become hardened and pessimistic about the whole deal.

I can't imagine what it's like to run something like SXSW, to get all of those submissions.  Nine thousand submissions or a minimum of twenty thousand little rock and roll dreams and a vast majority of them dashed (including Red Collar's and plenty of my bands in the past).

I really and truly try and remain non-judgemental about someone else's music. Usually there is at least one thing good you can say about a band.  As I said before, this is a tough racket.  And in my opnion, it's important to be supportive.  You don't want to lie, you don't want to bullshit, you don't want to be Paula but you don't want to Simon.  However, I must have had system overload or something because I felt myself tangled up in pessimism at SXSW.  It was our last night in Austin and a band was playing and these songs just went on and on and on and on and on.  Just when you thought the song was over, they kept on going.  There were so many false endings and I was on the verge of totally losing it, laughing hysterically in the middle of the band's set.  This certainly didn't happen but after the show, I went outside and I felt like Peter Seller's boss in the Pink Panther that gets the eye twitch and can't stop laughing and mumbling to himself.

And I felt horrible about it. 

I guess a part of me recognized the fact that as a pre-teen, I was the guy on stage and there was someone else in the audience secretly and not so secretly laughing.  You grow older and eventually realize why you're doing this is not for the reaction of the audience and even if they were all laughing, it wouldn't matter.  But eventually, if I were a critic or venue owner or blogger or manager and I heard enough of those bands, I could totally see myself bottling up all that laughter inside and channeling it through other negative means.  I could see myself going to shows or listening to albums with a cold disdain.  I can see why bands with an ironic distance become de rigeur on Critics lists'.  I can see why the sad story of the great rock critic Paul Nelson can happen, how you can just kind of fade away, withdrawing from an industry that needed you and respected you and loved you.  I can see why people like Chuck Klosterman.

Actually, I still can't see why people like Chuck Klosterman.  It may get bad folks, but it'll never get THAT bad.

This blog wasn't meant to end up a downer. 

Sorry about that,

j

SXSW Part 3-Irony Mullet

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."                                                                     -Oscar Wilde

At SXSW, there's a huge sea of bands.  1300 bands playing SXSW and, I'm totally guessing here, probably another 400-500 for other festivals that are going on around town too.  So we're talking about easily 5000 people that are looking to be heard and by god if they can't be heard then they will be seen.

Admittedly, I wasn't sure what 'skinny jeans' were until last week.  I assumed they were just 'tight jeans' but they are not.  Skinny jeans are tight but they are narrow at the ankle.  From what I gather, they are also women's jeans but they are worn by men.   Like most things fashionable, it is not a good look for most of the people that wear it.  It did work for the Ramones although I highly doubt they were women's jeans.

Except maybe Dee Dee's.

I saw a poster for some Japanese Showcase and then I started to recognize the bands as they walked around town.  For some reason, no matter what they wore, no matter how ridiculous it was, it was always perfectly acceptable.  They could pull off a Bjork if they wanted to. Even Bjork can't always pull of Bjork.

There were plenty of mullets.  Plenty of Elvis sunglasses.  Plenty of rat tails.  Plenty of waffle cuts on one side of the head but then the other side is perfectly feathered.  Surprisingly, not a lot of eyeliner.  Not alot of make-up for the boys.   And not so surprisingly, TONS of skinny jeans.  I once read Ian Svenonious (from the bands Nation of Ulysses and the Make Up) say something brilliant.  He said that if you want to always remain in fashion, always do the exact opposite of what is popular.  So when Pearl Jam and Nirvana were dressing down, The Nation of Ulysses dressed up.  I can't believe it's taken this long but even though this skinny jean thing isn't the greatest look in the world, I am forever grateful that someone has decided to start wearing tight jeans as opposed to loose, baggy jeans.  That's been in fashion for what, like twenty years?  Please hip hop, please stop.

I get why bands play dress up.  I totally get it.  I participate in it.  I have my gold spur boots, my dark jeans and T's (although the latter's purpose is a little more practical than fashionable)  It's another creative outlet for people.  I am creative with my band, I am creative with my paintings, I am creative even when it comes to working on my house.  So why should my creativity stop with how I dress?  If go to a wedding, I dress up.  I go to a job interview, a baptism, a date, a funeral, to church, to a dinner party, to a Halloween parade, to a New's Year's Ball...

...rock shows are all of those things on a ten foot by twenty foot stage.  So why not dress up then as well?

However, I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be in a band that stands out in their city, whether it's New York or LA or London and when they get to SXSW everybody starts looking the same and everybody stops giving a damn.

________________________________________________

"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."  -Quentin Crisp

I also get why bands don't dress up.  Why can't the music just speak for itself?  Why do I have to dress it up and hide behind something?  Can't this ten foot by twenty foot stage just be about the music and nothing else?  Should it be about anything else?  The music is what matters. There is a need to not seperate yourself from the crowd and become one with the crowd and I get that school of thought and admire it as well.

I personally believe that on that stage you should do whatever the fuck you want.  Dress up or don't.  It takes guts to get up on stage and say to the world things that you may have buried for years.  It takes guts to play for a room full of strangers.  Do what you want.  I heard the Strokes did that kind of gutter punk thing only when they were on stage but dressed differently on the streets and then and only then they decided to make it part of their everyday street style.  That's okay too.  This is a tough racket.  It really is. Granted, some people make it out to be a lot tougher than it really is, but nevertheless it's not easy.  And from Fugazi to Gwar, whatever it takes for you to get your rocks off, by all means, do it.

Fashion in rock becomes a real downer when the attitude that comes along with the fashion continues off the stage, when it becomes an elite club or something, when it is a societal expectation and then it's the Fashion Rat Race instead of the 9 to 5 Rat Race.  It becomes WORK.  It becomes a standard that everyone has to achieve or else you are simply not good enough.

The following may seem a little judgemental here so I do apologize.  I more mean it as an observation.  When we were ready to leave Austin on Saturday morning/afternoon, there was a fellow with his hair nice and teased, but still tastefully 'messed' and some makeup carefully applied but still tastefully 'messed' and I thought, how early did you get up to do that?  How do you have the energy to do that?  Maybe he was on his way to play his two shows or on his way to catch a plane or on his way for some breakfast burritos, I don't know.  In my book, if it's good enough for Motley Crue and the New York Dolls, it's good enough for this guy.  I'm not saying he was wrong or anything but he looked like a Bangkok hooker on Friday night before the Navy pulled into town.  After a day of playing two shows, Red Collar looked like a bunch of hookers on Sunday after the sailors left. 

I'm just grateful that I live in an area where it's not a prerequisite.  I LOVE Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill because it is totally and utterly about the music first and foremost.  I've heard that you HAVE to do this kind of bullshit to get shows in LA and New York and London and San Francisco.  You HAVE to dress the part to get shows, you have to be part of the clique.  The irony of bands hating high school and college because of the cliques of football players and cheeleaders and fashionistas and frat guys only to become a sadder adult version of this is not lost on me.  They wear the Irony Mullet to be different but in the end hopefully it doesn't become a uniform or a lettermen jacket or a Swatch watch or some greek letters.

Not so surprising but still disappointing: for the sixty first year in a row, the winner of the Rock Demographic (Fan AND Band Catagories): White Guys. We played a festival in my hometown in Pennsylvania a few years ago (when it was just myself, Beth and Simeon and we were The Red Collar Company) and I think twenty bands played.  Beth was the only gal on stage all day. Thank God for Beth, seriously. I'm sure some girl in Johnstown not only watched but was inspired. I thought this festival would be different but it only marginally was.  Even the hip hop were white guys.  If there was an indie rock marachi band there, I'm sure they were white guys too.   I like RDU because you're the anolmaly if you don't have a girl in your band.   

Now only if Paul were black with an Irony Mullet, we'd be awesome.

___________________________________________________

If you haven't read the Independent this week, please do so.  Finn Cohen from the band The Nein wrote a really great article about SXSW and it seems to be a pretty accurate evaluation of the whole thing.  I'll be giving my opinion about it in the very near future but I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. It's located here if you can't find or don't have access to the physical copy:

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A46355

 

 

 

SXSW Part 2-Lily, Lily

I mentioned in the previous blog about me thinking I knew Lily Allen from somewhere and I said it was a whole 'nother blog.

This is it.

When we first heard we were going to be playing at SXSW for the Reverbnation party, there's a billion thoughts that go through your head. You start thinking, 'Okay we're going, now what?' I mean, IS there going to be anyone at the show? What should I do to get more people there? Let's face it, if you're a musician, then you're in a band you probably care very much about and you want it to be heard by as many people as you can without being cheesy...or at least too cheesy.

Should you make flyers? Should you make handbills? Should you email bloggers? Should you email Pitcfhfork and all the rest of them? Or should you just show up? Just assume people will be there?

A week before the show, Reverbnation said that they got 800 RSVP's for the party. If that number is spread out between 12 and 5 then we should expect about 150 people to see us. But should we just trust in that number? I'm driving 24 hours and taking precious vacation time from my 9 to 5 to do this thing. Should I really just leave this thing to chance? Should we try and do everything we can to get people there? Or if we are too agressive, will that turn people away? Would that be seen as 'uncool'?

Ultimately we decided to do only a couple of the above things. The first was print off some handbills. We figured they wouldn't be too annoying if we hung them up and if we were chatting with someone about the show, we could give them a little reminder. Handbills=Awesome.

We didn't want to email Pitchfork or anything because we're just one of two thousand other bands that's playing the festival. I was pretty postive that emailing them would do about as much good as, well NOT emailing them. However I did decide to find if there were any bloggers out there who MAY enjoy our music and to find bloggers whose writing I liked and then maybe email them a personal note about our EP and the show in Austin. I have no idea how this shit works but I figure if I was honest about it and truly thought these bloggers would enjoy our tunes then no big deal. It's not like I'm sending out some blanket email that I'm sending to every single music blogger out there no matter their genre. Again, I have no idea how this shit works. Maybe I should've found out before I started, but honestly, what's the worst that could happen? Well, dickhead, the worst that could happen is that they think you are an asshole for trying to generate some false hype and then instead of word getting out that Red Collar is the best thing since Jimmy Page painted the town Led, the word getting out is that their lead singer is a pompous hole of the ass kind.

Like I said, I don't know how this shit works.

So one of the bloggers I found had a picture of him with a cute petite pixie and he had some comment like, "Here's me with Lily Allen".

But we know what he REALLY means, don't we? He means: "I am soo awesome. I am more awesome than you will ever be because look at me, I am in a picture with Lily Allen. Have I mentioned how awesome I am?"

Then again, maybe he just meant, "Here I am with Lily Allen".

And by seeing this picture, I assumed Lily Allen must mean something to somebody but I didn't bother to look her up although the picture did jog a memory of an article in Rolling Stone or Spin or something or other.

After we met the Lily band, then, and only then did I look her up. Red Collar has had 15,000 plays. She has 7,000,000. I get so stoked when I get a comment to one of our pictures. She has 850 comments to one of her pictures. Well, if I had my picture taken with Lily Allen, I'd probably say something to my friends and enemies that goea a little like this: "I am soo awesome. I am more awesome than you will ever be because look at me, I am in a picture with Lily Allen. Have I mentioned how awesome I am?"

Unfortuantely I didn't get a picture with her so I can brag brag brag to all of my friends in Carolina. But since they are staying at the same hotel/suite complex as us...

...I can still see her using my official Red Collar binoculars and at three in the morning she still looks marvelous. Although I'd try and dissuade her from using that particular nail polish.

-------------------

Ultimately, after emailing five bloggers, I felt like a cheese ball and stopped. I figured, "what am I doing this for? Why do I seriously give a damn? they'll find you if it's worth finding" The best promotion any band can ever do is play a fantastic show or have a fantastic CD. Everything else is kind of fluff. People will find you if they want to. And i'm glad I didn't waste any more energy on it. When we arrived here, we had some time before we could check in so we decided to go downtown. We parked the van and before I had a copy of the city paper in my hand or a coffee and danish or a sanitary napkin...

...that's right...I had some guy handing me a CD and flyer.

Some guy that's just like us, trying to find a way to get his music 'out there', trying to make a someone out of a no one.

If only he had a picture of him with Lily Allen.

Now THAT would be something.


All of this stuff I mention above is the reason that I'm no longer judging people for their promotion, even if they're laying it on a little thick. No one knows what the right thing to do is. It's a big steaming, confusing pile of Tom Cruise.

I was talking to someone today at a coffee shop here in Austin about SXSW shows that they've seen that they liked. This particular person liked British music and she said that she really wanted to see Miss Allen but the show was sold out and they heard she was amazing. I asked what does she like about her and she said that she can do things that I would never recommend to my clients (the lady is a publicist) but she gets away with them because she just giggles and shrugs it off. Like trashing NME or some such thing.

I suggested that it's because she curtseys*

Walking back from the coffee place I noticed on a wall was a sticker. A Lily Allen sticker on a handbill. Even after SEVEN MILLION PLAYS, you still need a little help, I guess.

I'd like to say that this is enough ENOUGH! of Lily Allen but it's not.

Andrew, Mike and Brian were in the lobby the day we got here and one of the guys in her band was stood up by his cab and so he needed a ride downtown so Andrew, swell guy that he is, offered. And what happened next was a pretty cool story simply about THE GOOD LIFE. I (Jason) am normally the Collar that writes this blog but I will try and get Mike or Andrew to write the story if they are willing. They may not want to write about it but I'm sure they wouldn't mind recounting the story for you after or before a show or something.

And then I promise, no more Lily Allen.





*see previous post

SXSW Part 1-Speak now or forever hold your pee

Initially we planned to make the trip in two days, stay overnight at the half way point or something. But since there's six of us, our friend Brian came along for the trip, we figured everyone could drive 3 or 4 hours and maybe we can make the trip in one day. Have some time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Departure: Tuesday March 13th 10:00am Eastern

Arrival: Wednesday March 14th 9:00am Central

Mileage: 1378

Hours: 24

It's kind of crazy to think we drove just a little bit shy of the half way point across the country. There's no way we could've kept on going though. Everyone was really tired and instead of doing four and five hour shifts, we would've only been able to do one and two hour shifts. Our whole system has been off until we were able to catch up on some sleep last night.

The best logistical thing about the journey here is that there's six of us. We couldn't have done this in 24 hours if there was less. Driving is exhausting. I greatly admire truck drivers. However, the worst logistical thing about the journey here is, well, there's six of us.

We actually made horrible time, averaging much less than 50 mph. Because of the number of people of the trip, we stopped every two hours for bathroom breaks. The last road trip the band made was back in March and you may think that The Twinkie/Pork Rind diet sounds like a fun time but trust me, your intestines do not want an invitation to that particular party. There is A LOT of confetti involved in that party. We went up to our trusty Costco and did the very un-Rock and Roll thing of buying a cooler full of water bottles and some snacks. This helped shave some time off the trip but inevitably on a long trip at some point you want to sit down and have a nice sit down meal, preferably at a road-side diner for some nice hotcakes and good cup of coffee from someone named Flo.

This is preferable.

The actual is O'Charley's.

I don't know why we thought this was a good idea but it was an easy hour and a half experience that wasn't worth it. And honestly, O'Chaley's, Fuddruckers and the like are never worth it unless you get a gift certificate to them. In that case, they are totally totally worth the free meal. Do not kid yourself. If the food is free, don't hold back and think about it. Just do it. Life is short. But in this case. Life is not short. It is long. Every step in O'Charley's is a long long journey. "How many of you? Six? Great. We'll be right with you...in half an hour. We're just have to clean off the table...in another fifteen minutes. What would you like to drink? Great! I'll bring that right out to you...in fifteen minutes." It took too long for them to seat us, too long to come to the table, too long to order the drinks, etc. Our per hour average plummeted. I couldn't believe how slow the service was on a frickin tuesday night.

Austin is bigger than I imagined. Someone back home said it's like six Franklin Streets and that's about right as far as distance but they don't even compare as far as style is concerned. Austin's Franklin Street is called 6th Street. 6th Street is by far more bohemian than Franklin. The number of Pepper's Pizza's and Local 506's far outweigh the number of Panera's and Starbucks. There is also no University of Texas storefronts that I have seen along this main street. there is also not huge parking lots along the main street. You'd think that this means parking would be a problem. It is not been a problem thus far. Even with two thousand bands and an influx of tens of thousands of people. Parking is not a problem. In Chapel Hill, if you close your eyes, spin around and throw a rock, the rock will land in a parking lot. And in ol' Chappy, parking STILL sucks.

We pull into the parking lot for where we were staying. It's soggy. It's foggy. There was a few fellows hanging out by the hotel check-in.

ENGLISH ACCENT: "Gawd."
RED COLLAR: "Yeah. This wasn't the weather we expected"
EA: "I feel like I'm back in London."
RC: "Here for the festival?"
EA: "Yeah yeah. You?"
RC: "Drove 24 hours straight."
EA: "24 hours driving! I can't believe how big this country is. Well, the label flew us here from England in 10 hours so I can't complain."
RC: "Oh yeah? What label are you on?"
EA: "Capitol."
RC: "Uh...Capitol Records?"
EA: "Yes. Heard of them?"
RC: "Rings a bell. So, ah, what um band are you in?"
EA: "Lily Allen."

And just as he said this, Lily Allen walks by and says very cordially 'Good afternoon everyone' and I think she actually curtseyed.

EA: "And you?"
RC: "Red Collar"
EA: "Ah. When are you playing?"
RC: "Friday at 2."
EA: "Oh sorry. We'll already be gone. We're doing a tour and then we have to be in California for Coachella and Ellen. Are you playing Coachella?"
RC: "Not this year. We had to turn them down unfortunately. But please give Ellen our best."

I don't think anyone in our band knew who Lily Allen is, it's just not the type of music we'd listen to. I only kind of knew who she is because I think I remember her picture from a 'Spotlight' thing in Rolling Stone or Spin. There's another reason I thought I knew here face but that's a whole nother blog. Regardless, they are completely delightful people.

It's all beside the point though.

The point is, is that we're having a conversation with someone who casually mentions that he's playing Ellen Degeneres and Coachella and at least I think is very sincere in wondering if we are playing either of them as well. As if everyone just kind of does that. As if everyone that plays South By Soutwest just kind of has Ellen and Jay and Dave and Conan booked as well.

I was honestly and truly shocked at the casualness of the conversation. Maybe he meant it in a "We just played Leno and we're going to play Coachella and then Ellen. That's right! Big bad gay Ellen! What'chu got to say about that, Red Collar?? Huh? You want some of this? Come get some, come get some on SNL. Oops! Not gonna be there, Red Collar? Lorne didn't give you an invite? Maybe it got lost in the mail?"

Maybe he meant it that way.

Who knows.

I don't always get English humor either.

Honestly? I only like parts of the Young Ones. God, I buried that for years and it feels so good to finally unburden it. I finally said it, I ONLY LIKE PARTS OF THE YOUNG ONES. And you know what? I truly hated Vyvyan.

But Lily Allen and her band?

Delightful.

j

Thank you! ! !

Thanks to everyone who came out to the EP release party this weekend.  We can't tell you how thrilled we've been all weekend.  We hope you managed to have all the fun yet half the bruises that we did. 

Thanks Melissa from 307 Knox Records!  Thanks Beloved Binge!  Thanks Zach! Thanks James and Michelle, Brendan and Bill of 305 South.  Thanks Maria from Schoolkids!  We (heart) U!

A couple of questions came up throughout the night:

1) Travis at parklifepress.com did the letter pressing for the CD insert

2) Jon O'Keefe did the design layout for the album.  Jon also designed our logo.

3) That is Mike on the cover

4) 'Itching Ho' is NOT a cover of the great Ol' Dirty Bastard tune.

5) Melissa Thomas of 307 Knox did an awesome Limited Press specifically for the show.  Normal Pressed ones in a store are black lettering on a white CD.  The Limited Pressing have a black RED and a brown COLLAR on a silver CD.  I think the first 100 people that came got a copy.  Apologies if you didn't.  It certainly doesn't mean we love you any less.

6) Costco, Costco, Costco

7) The Cassandra Project was unable to play because of Elizabeth being sick.  We hope she is taking her Emergen-C (I am wagging my finger at you right now if you are not!).  Their next show is March 16th at Broad Street with Lactose Quervo, Feeding the Fire and Leah Magner.  I'll see you there.

8) The picture of our treasured crowd is on the second page of pur photos.  Please feel free to pick yourself out at let everyone know where you are.