SXSW: Day Two | 03/15

St. Vincent + The Octopus Project + Voxtrot

Wow, just came back from the Kork showcase mainly cheering on The Octopus Project and Voxtrot! It's three minutes away from 4AM, so I'll try and make this as short as I can. For anyone who might have gone to the Tonewheel Collective's show at Progress Coffee today from reading the post from yesterday night, I'm really sorry and I'm doing the best I can to double-check everything. Thank you so much for reading...okay here we go.

First off, not only were we turned away at shows/parties that did not mention it was RSVP or 21+ on their websites, we spent almost the entire half day going back and forth causing us to miss a key artist, Andrew Bird. But enough complaining, just make sure and double-check if the event needs RSVP or if it's invite only or it's 21+.

We ate breakfast at a neat place on W. 4th Street called Halcyon, the blue sign has a drawing of a couch! It has really nice seating, couches, sofas everywhere, but also big tables for larger groups and tables for two and higher level small round tables for people with laptops nursing a cup of coffee. The food and beverages aren't bad either and there is a wide variety, if you're a sweet tooth like me, their chocolate cake is heaven.

Anyways, we found ourselves at Jo's Coffee to see St. Vincent and also saw the band before them called The Missing Tapes. St. Vincent is from Dallas and is also one of the guitarists for The Polyphonic Spree, her solo stuff is definitely different from the Spree. Annie Clark has darker songs under her belt, just listen to "Paris Is Burning", "Your Lips Are Red" and "Bang Bang". She played a slew of new songs off her upcoming album releasing sometime in June, songs like "Bang Bang" and "Now Now" gives me shivers to think what the album will be like. She alternated between two mics, one regular and the other was this strange neat vintage sounding one. She stomps with one foot as makeshift drumming giving her set an attention-grabbing sound.

Now she'll be playing two events on Friday (today), first one is a 21+ event at Mohawk for the Hot Freaks!: Blogger Curated Music Experience hosted by some of the best music bloggers out there sharing a stage with Bishop Allen, Sea Wolf and many more! The second one is the Billions showcase at Antone's with My Brightest Diamond and more! After that she'll be getting ready for her wide-range April tour with John Vanderslice!

Download + Purchase:

Paris Is Burning | St. Vincent

Links:

>>> St. Vincent's Official Site
<<< St. Vincent's MySpace
>>> More info on Hot Freaks! show
<<< More info on Billions showcase
>>> Read more on St. Vincent with our three minute entry
<<< St. Vincent's blog
>>> See tour dates for her April tour with John Vanderslice!
>>> More photos of St. Vincent's set


We missed Andrew Bird's free show at Emo's by mere minutes! After going on a shopping spree at Waterloo Records to cheer us up, we speed walk-ed all the way back to Emo's to join a huge line for public tickets to the Kork showcase. Thankfully we got in and slowly made our way to the front of stage after each band finished their sets. The Octopus Project was incredible, the absolute genius of the band's use of keyboards, theremin, laptop, multiple keyboards, drum machines, samples, basic drums, guitar and bass shone like a beacon. They give electronic music a nice makeover glazing it with a bit of energetic rock vibes. They played a lot off their latest album, The House of Apples And Eyeballs and also of course the popular oldies "Music Is Happiness" and "The Adjustor".

Also they make their sets more unique by decorating the stage with cute ghosts made from white sheets over amps draped over Christmas lights and sometimes if you're lucky they'll have pinatas! Even if you don't know their songs, they are after all instrumental making the set more comfortable with strangers to The Octopus Project, all in all extremely fun and energetic!

They're playing at a 21+ venue called Elysium [ 705 Red River St. ] on Saturday the 17th with 65daysofstatic, Girl Talk and many more. For more info go here! After that they're traveling to Taiwan for the annual Spring Scream Festival! Also if you haven't gotten it yet grab the latest issue of the Austin Chronicle that has The Octopus Project on its cover, hint: it's purple.

Download + Purchase:

Lollipopsichord | The Octopus Project

Links:

>>> The Octopus Project's Official Site
<<< The Octopus Project's MySpace
>>> Purchase their new album, The House of Apples and Eyeballs!
<<< Info on their show at Elysium
>>> More photos of The Octopus Project's set


Sometime after 1AM, Voxtrot's set started and I think that the audience was amazing, it seemed like everyone was singing along to their songs and cheering like there was no tomorrow. They brought in the Tosca String Quartet, which is the same group that you've heard on the past EPs and will hear on the upcoming Voxtrot album due out on May 22nd. I really thought they were going to play "Sway", but nevertheless their set was amazing. I loved the new songs they played, "Kid Gloves", "Brother in Conflict", "Steven" and many more which I can't remember the names. Though I think "Steven" was written a long time before, maybe they touched it up a bit. I would do anything for them to include "This Is Not My Bloody War" on an EP or something tangible!

Anyways, they included old songs like "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives", "Soft and Warm" and "Raised By Wolves". I think one more, due to my carelessness of forgetting my journal on the Emo's stage which has a concrete, fuller setlists of the bands I've seen so far and just a lot of past journal type writings/sketches. I'm going to go back and see if they didn't trash it, just in case anyone picked it up please be kind enough to leave a comment so I can get my journal back.

Also, Voxtrot will be having a listening party of their new self-titled album at the backroom of The Whisky Bar [ 303 W. 5th St. ] from 5PM~6PM this Friday(today), yes it is 21+. The only other show they will be playing until their summer tour is going to be in Mexico City at Pasageuro celebrating Ibero 90.9FM anniversary show on March 22nd. For what info I can find on this party, please go here. The anniversary show for 90.9FM was canceled, sorry guys!

Download + Purchase:

Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives | Voxtrot

{ Tip: if you want to buy their latest EP, Your Biggest Fan from InSound, go ahead and get 15% off just by typing in voxtrotdiscount!!! }

Links:

>>> Voxtrot's Official Site
<<< Voxtrot's MySpace
>>> Purchase any/all of their 3 EPs
<<< Read about Voxtrot's upcoming summer tour
>>> More info on the Ibero 90.9FM anniversary party
<<< More photos of Voxtrot's set

I am so elated that I got to see Voxtrot and we caught the 2:10AM bus just barely! Okay I will have more photos hopefully uploaded by tomorrow morning before I leave for Day three of SXSW. It is time to catch some sleep.

~anne