Austin - Days 1 & 2

Day 1:
So I have made it to Austin. The plane trip was pretty painless, though the connecting flight from Phoenix to Austin was uncomfortable, as I boarded last, and the way Southwest Airlines loads passengers is kind of strange. Long story short, I got confused and as a result ended up between an older man and older woman. I began feeling uncomfortable when the man handed the woman one of his snacks over me--no words had been exchanged between them prior to this. I guessed they were a couple and having some issues. Later on the woman hands the man one of her snacks across me. The man was a short and stalky and covered most of the armrest, adding to the discomfort, and every time I moved my legs the woman scooted away from me. Anyhow I landed in Austin to rain and a sweet sweet grassy smell.

From the airport, I took the bus downtown, then caught the 10 going down 1st for about 20 minutes to Karen's house. Karen is fantastic. When I arrived there was a warm greeting and lots of good food--shrimp, pasta, and fruit. I had seconds. Her dog, Rosey, is a female something (not sure what kind dog, collie?), but she's pretty cute, brown and white long hair and she seems to like me a lot.



I learned quite a bit about Karen: she is a liberal, she has a son in the Navy that is in Iraq that will be coming back to Texas soon at Corpus Christi (Karen's home town), not too far from Austin. She has house concerts all the time in her backyard and knows many musicians. She is a bit chatty. I have found the perfect place to stay in Austin.

The rest of the day I spent napping and locking in my SXSW schedule and getting bus and event info. I could have done a bit more to prepare for this trip, but you live you learn.


Day 2:
Today was fantastic. I got up late and went to Tommy Byrd's home and home recording studio. Karen, Tommy, and I sat and talked about music for a while, mainly how to sell it and a bit about Americana. They gave some good insight into Austin music and what local acts to check out. To tell the truth, I didn't have a single Austin band on my list before this conversation. We also talked about how to be successful as a musician, calling for gigs, following up, making contacts, and simply relying on other musicians to help you out. Also, about keeping interest. Giving customers a few songs here and there to keep interest alive. I shared my experiences about being a musician in Seattle and gave some suggestions about submitting songs to blogs and about the beauty of Hype Machine.

After our sit-down, we moved into Tommy's recording studio. He has a great setup. He runs Cubase 4, with three different sets of speakers to get the perfect sound across a lot of different systems. He uses a Mark Of The Unicorn digital pre-amp, which gets a really great sound. It has two mic inputs and 8 quarter-inch inputs. I've heard MOTU was pretty bad ass and yeah, this guy Tommy gets a great sound out of it. What he puts into it great too, he uses an MXL diaphragm mic for vocals and a really nice condenser mic for instrument recording. He knows a lot of musicians and what I've heard sounds brilliant. I've got his latest CD now, Love Broke The Fall. Here's an mp3 I found on his site called "He Tells All the Girls He's a Cowboy".


After Tommy's, Karen and I went to two grocery stores. I stocked up with ground beef, cheddar, milk and pasta. Damnit, I just realized I forgot to get cereal. Anyway, I dropped my jug of milk with the white stuff all over the floor beneath the shopping carts.

Got back to Karen's ate most of two burgers. Ran to the bus stop, went to the Convention center, met a cool girl named Denise and went to bag-stuffing with her. Met some of her friends. Got pizza. Saw a band she knows called The Organics. Long story short, here are pictures:

Time to Get Going

I will be leaving Seattle next Wednesday for SXSW in Austin, an accredited music festival. I will be staying with a woman that goes by the name Karen. She is a manager at SXSW in some aspect, I'm not sure how exactly. I found her through craigslist after putting out an ad saying I'd pay 300 for an 11 night stay as I was having trouble locking down people on couchsurfing.com/hostels. The funny thing is I got offers from both right at the time I sent Karen a portion of her money.

This should be a great festival, I've actually talked to a lot of people that have visited Austin or have lived there recently and they all say I'm going to have a blast.

So to get things in order, I'm going to try and catch some Seattle bands going to the festival. Say Hi has some great recorded material and I'd like to mingle with them. I do know a dude in Mount St. Helens Vietnam Band, another band playing there and going to SXSW. We'll see what happens.

A closing line of original poetry:

Not having written poetry in a long time, I am not ready to write as well as I can. But how good is that if I am just a man? Good enough.

Ree Ree

Okay, I had some thoughts about my last review of the MGMT's, Oraculer Spectacular, album. And I decided I wrote it in a spit of malice, as I had been quite depressed about my stupidity. So, I am now re-reviewing the album (adding the parts I left out and editing some previous thoughts), since I've had ample time to hear it a couple of times.

The work starts with "Time to Pretend", entrusting to the listener that a vain life is a good life (it's not, right?): "Let's make some money/Make some music/Find some models for wives" - an odd way to follow such an upbeat and accredited introduction. In a later verse, the narrator pines for childhood, but retreats again in the succeeding chorus to pretend - hide about the way things really are. Yeah, this is a great song.

One song I did not mention in the previous post was "Kids". I guess it sort of talks about growing up but staying a kid at the same time - (the sound of kids on a playground), then, "Control yourself/Take only what you need from them." If you don't like the song sitting down, try standing up and let the song tell you what to do.

And as for the whole album, I said the last half was not nearly as good as the first, starting with the track "4th dimensional trans". Though the track is strange compared to its predecessors, it is a nice break from the disco-like beats up to that point. The end of the song reminds me of the music in Diablo, a computer game with really cool 12 string guitar music.

"Pieces of What" is simply a good song, with a placid Oasis quality. It could easily drive a montage of a sad sad breakup in a movie like American Pie. But, sadly, it does not. So get that dream out of your head. But do listen to it.

I also said that "Of Moons, Birds & Mon" was a bad song. Now while it is my least favorite song on the album, I think an album needs a shitty song sometimes. Especially this one, because the other songs are so damn brilliant. The last half of the song starts to change its mind however, and starts to pick itself out of the mud, with a gnarly noise jam. Eh.

The album DOES end a bit departed from the brilliance of lyrics in early songs, but it does end the way it started: upbeat. Though, this time, winding upward and outward in "Future Reflections"; a good way for a thing to end, I think. I like it.

Take that, previous post.