Video Du Jour: The Mavericks

The Mavericks, partyin’ in the parking lot at Waterloo Records.

More stuff from SXSW: The Mavericks, a country rock band fronted by Raul Malo, have a new album out – In Time is their first studio work in about a decade. It’s heavy on the melodic, danceable stuff for which they are best known.

We caught their free set during SXSW at Waterloo Records. They played acoustic, and they quickly turned the record store parking lot into a party zone. Here’s “Back In My Arms Again,” from the new album.  Thanks to headonfire1105 for loan of the video.

The Mavericks official web site

SXSW: Time for the Craziness – and the Commercials

Yeah, there really is a six-story-high Doritos stage that looks pretty much like this.

Although the big South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival starts today (Tuesday), we won’t have sneakers on the ground in Austin, Texas, until Wednesday. That’s okay – we won’t miss much.

Truth is, even if you don’t make it to Austin at all this week (and that’s probably a good thing, because Austin is kind of at capacity) you probably won’t miss much either, because some very big companies have stepped up to help you keep abreast of all the cool stuff happening at SXSW.

For example, one of the most noticeable landmarks in downtown Austin last year was a 62-foot-tall stage rigged up to look like a really huge Doritos vending machine. It’s back this year, and in addition to helping hawk all sorts of Frito Lay products, the stage will also host some cool music.

On Thursday (March 14), the Doritos #Boldstage will host a special concert by LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Doug E. Fresh. But the lineup is the only thing that’s old school: fans can interact with the show by using social media. Doritos will allow fans to choose the opening act, as well as special lighting effects and even LL’s set list.

Concertgoers are encouraged to start making suggestions about what they would like to see at the show by using the hashtag #BoldStage on Twitter prior to the main event. The concert will also stream online at Doritos’ Facebook page.

Perhaps you’ve mellowed a bit since high school, and instead you enjoy some soothing Americana music. Well, Austin’s venerable Waterloo Records is the place for you, with four days of “day parties” March 13-16 featuring live music from a great lineup of artists.

If you get lost, helpful signs like this remind you where you are.

If you’re into that Americana we mentioned above, Friday’s the day for you – the lineup includes the great Richard Thompson, Billy Bragg, The Mavericks and Emmylou Harris/Rodney Crowell. If you’re in the mood for a little more modern stuff, try Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and Tegan and Sara on Wednesday, The Airborne Toxic Event on Thursday and The Zombies and Dawes on Saturday.

Click here to see Waterloo Records’ full in-store lineup, and while you’re there download a free digital sampler of artists performing there for SXSW.

One of the more exclusive parties each year is at a place called the Fader Fort, which is basically a big tent on Austin’s east side. The number of people lined up trying to get in is testimony to this party’s always-sturdy lineup. This year the Fort’s brought to us by The Fader blog and Converse and features acts like Sky Ferreira, French Montana, Delorean, Ra Ra Riot, The Afghan Whigs and Solange (Knowles), among others.

Click here to check out the full lineup for Fader Fort, then go to this place to watch the whole thing live on the internets.

The shoes/apparel company Vans is also a strong presence at SXSW every year, and this year the company is presenting a huge bill at The Mohawk club along Austin’s busy Red River Street.  The roster for the March 13 show includes Ghostface Killah, The Specials and Iggy and the Stooges, along with rising stars Japandroids join Middle Class Rut and Sky Ferreira. Check out the entire roster here, then tune in at the Vans SXSW site on March 13 for a webcast.

Pandora Radio and the TV show “The Voice” present the 2013 Pandora Discovery Den, with live streams of performances March 12-15. Artists include The Mavericks, The Lone Bellow, Surfer Blood, the Eagles of Death Metal and Third Eye Blind. Click here for a full lineup and to get hooked up with the live streams.

The official female uniform of SXSW.

Some other live streams: IROCKE features a full schedule of concerts including radio simulcasts from Austin’s KGSR-FM each morning, and Southern California’s KCRW-FM.

National Public Radio will offer streams of a number of events, including Dave Grohl’s keynote speech on March 14, and the official showcase on March 13 featuring Nick Cave, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Alt-J among others.

The über cool public radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle will offer live broadcasts from Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop (yes, a real bicycle shop) March 13-16 with acts including Robyn Hitchcock, Chelsea Light Moving (one of our bands to watch this year), Iron & Wine, Telekinesis, The Zombies (yes) and Ozomatli, among others.

And finally, Austin’s own KUTX-FM has an awesome lineup of artists performing each morning March 13-16.

So you don’t have time to watch/listen in real time. You can still score some great downloads from artists playing SXSW:

SXSW 2013 on BitTorrent: 7.39 GB of Free Music

NPR’s The Mix: The Austin 100

Don’t Mess With Texas: The Daily Rind’s SXSW 2013 Music Sampler

SPIN magazine’s 60-Track Mixtape of SXSW 2013’s Hottest Acts

HGTV/Paste SXSW 2013 Sampler

Finally, you’re actually going to be here in Austin for SXSW this week. But you got in a hurry, became a little too careless and forgot your camera.

Don’t worry, you can still use your iPhone for photos. They won’t be super sharp like the pictures you see in your favorite music magazines, but you can still snap a few to show the folks at home which acts you caught.

Our friend Art Meripol has been a professional photographer for more than three decades. The former Southern Living shooter got his start snapping rock concerts for newspapers in Arkansas and Texas back in the day, and he has some tips for instantly improving those iPhone photos:

1. The photo is taken the moment you let off the button, not when you push it. So to better time a shot keep your finger on the button and let off at the best moment.

2. Before shooting, gently touch your subject on the screen to focus and expose for that exact spot. You’ll see a quick pulsing box as you do that lets you know it’s done. Then let off the button.

Photo of Robert Earl Keen at John T. Floore Country Store, taken with my “eyePhone.” Should have gotten closer.

3. You can ‘lock’ the focus and exposure for your subject and then recompose a shot. When you touch the area you want to be correctly exposed and focused, keep your finger on it a bit longer until you see a second larger ‘pulsing’ box. You can then move the camera around for better composition and keep focus and exposure where you want it.

Lots of people use the Instagram app on their phones to shoot photos. However, Art isn’t a fan of Instagram for image filtering. “You end up with photos that look like everyone else’s,” he says.  “Too narrow a field.” Besides, Instagram wants you to edit a photo right then and there, which is inconvenient for location photography.

He uses Google’s Snapseed, which allows multiple ways to adjust an image depending on what look the photographer seeks. “That way my images don’t look like anyone else’s and thus stand out,” Art explains. “It takes some practice but it’s well worth it. And I can adjust with forethought at my leisure and just concentrate on shooting in the moment. I do use Instagram for sharing, not filtering or adjusting.”

iPhone photos taken in broad daylight look a lot better.

Now remember, when shooting with an iPhone (or “eyePhone” as Art calls it) you are going to need to get as close to the subject as you can. Wait for a peak movement or a pose to snap, to avoid blurring. And for gosh’s sake, put away the darn phone after a few snaps to enjoy the music and avoid irritating your fellow concertgoers. As Tom Morello said at SXSW last year: “Put away the cell phones and live in the moment.”

Good stuff. Check out Art Meripol’s online photography gallery, and his blog.

Check out our coverage on Popdose

Our special Flickr photo account for SXSW

Video Du Jour: Jimmy Cliff

Let us take you back a couple months, to Austin for SXSW – and the great Jimmy Cliff, playing a brief concert in the parking lot of the esteemed Waterloo Records. Clearly losing his voice, Cliff digs deep to deliver a glowing version of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.” Cliff himself had a hit with the song in 1993.

Jimmy Cliff official website

Spring Break! And SXSW Free Music!

This is Austin's version of spring break.

In most places, spring break means warm weather, scantily clad college girls and drunken frat bros with an effective projectile puke accuracy radius of 20 yards. Not in Austin, Texas. Here, spring break means lots and lots of live music, free food when you can find it, and sheer insanity. Plus all of that other stuff above.

Next Wednesday, the big ol’ South by Southwest (SXSW) music event kicks off, and in this year of Twenty Aught Twelve the SXSW has grown to such incredible proportions that “epic” is simply not sufficient to describe it. What started out 26 years ago as an industry conference designed to spotlight unknown and unsigned music acts has morphed into an orgy of superstars, has-beens, wanna-bes and never-wills. And that’s just the music event – the SXSW interactive and film conferences start today.

This year, more than 2,000 music acts will play the official part of the festival, but there are hundreds of unofficial side parties that will feature at least a couple thousand more performers. SXSW music emanates from Austin’s downtown area to its South Congress neighborhood, to spacious Auditorium Shores park, to the up-and-coming east side and beyond.

Spotted in Austin just last week!

Start at the top of the list of performers and you have Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Lionel Richie, Jay-Z, Santigold, The Roots, Jimmy Cliff, Norah Jones, the Cult, Counting Crows, of Montreal, The Shins, Mumford and Sons, Blitzen Trapper, the dBs, Skrillex, Ingrid Michaelson, the Alabama Shakes, Best Coast, Fiona Apple, Dan Deacon, Andrew WK, various members of R.E.M., Alejandro Escovedo, Jesse Malin, Garland Jeffreys, Billy Joe Shaver, Gary Clark Jr., Chuck Prophet, Lil’ Wayne, Nas, Big K.R.I.T., Tom Morello and many, many more. Multiply each of those names by about 10,000 fans and you will get a picture of what it’s like.

Wish you could be here – you might be better off if you aren’t. So here’s the next best thing: some links where you can get free music from acts playing SXSW. In past years friendly corporate sponsors allowed you to download free MP3s of acts, but this year they seem to have figured out how to stream more stuff live. We have listed as many as we could find here:

Spinner’s SXSW 2012 Free Songs

Ioda Records SXSW sampler (via Amazon.com)

SPIN magazine’s 32 Songs From Must-Hear Artists at SXSW

Stereogum’s 25 Bands We’re Most Excited To See at SXSW 2012

Paste magazine’s Twenty Must-See Bands at SXSW 2012

NPR’s “The Austin 100: A SXSW Mix” (some songs downloadable)

“Let’s Get Messy” SXSW party mixtape

Canadian Blast @ SXSW artist sampler

And here are some streaming events (local time, ya’ll):

Jay-Z – Sponsored by American Express and YouTube, Jay’s concert will be streamed live on Monday, March 12, at 7 p.m. CDT. Here is the link. Go early and Tweet your request, maybe he’ll play it live. Here is another link.

Bruce Springsteen – His keynote speech will be streamed live on Thursday, March 15, at noon CDT. The entire event will be available at NPR Music, via the NPR Music iPhone and iPad apps and at SXSW.com. The NPR Music broadcast will also air on many public radio stations across the country, including WXPN Philadelphia and WFUV New York (check local listings). NPR Music critic Ann Powers will host a blog during the keynote, and will take questions from audiences around the world.

Warner Music Showcases – Warner Music and Nikon will stream SXSW showcases at La Zona Rosa for three consecutive nights at 7:30 p.m. CDT starting on Tuesday, March 13. Headliners on Tuesday include Santigold and Chuckie; Dr. John and Gary Clark Jr. on Wednesday; and T.I. and B.o.B on Thursday. Go to The Warner Sound captured by Nikon site for updates.

The Fader Fort – One of SXSW’s most popular side parties, the Fader Fort will feature 50 Cent, Santigold, Big K.R.I.T. and many more. Fuse TV will stream music from The Fader Fort Wednesday through Saturday March 14-17 . Go to the link for the complete lineup.

Mess With Texas – Just a stone’s throw from Fader Fort, the Mess With Texas party is another very popular unofficial SXSW event, featuring alternative/punk/rock acts. Vans and Stickam.com will stream daily select sets live Thursday-Saturday at the Mess With Texas official website. Among the artists planned to perform are Built To Spill, ASAP Rocky and Cults (check the site for schedule).

South by San Jose – One of our favorite unofficial side parties, this year’s event features Alejandro Escovedo, the Alabama Shakes, Billy Joe Shaver and more. Check the schedule here then go to Radio Free Texas and listen (requires a free registration).

KGSR Live Morning Broadcasts – The hip-cool Austin station will commence its live morning broadcasts at 6:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday-Friday, and 8 a.m. on Saturday. This year’s lineup includes Kat Edmonson, Tom Morello, Bob Schneider, Delta Spirit, Ingrid Michaelson and more. Check the complete lineup here and listen live to KGSR from its home page. You can also play music from a bunch of SXSW artists here.

Waterloo Records– Austin’s coolest independent record store sets up a big stage in its parking lot and lets fly with great in-stores all during SXSW. This year’s performers include Jimmy Cliff, The Little Willies (with Norah Jones), Chuck Prophet, Ruthie Foster and more. The fun begins Wednesday, check the lineup and the live stream at the Waterloo official website.

Orchestral Maneuovres in the Dark in Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop.

KEXP Live – Another one of our favorites, the Seattle radio station does its live shows in Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. This year’s performers include Howler, Of Monsters and Men, Shearwater, Youth Lagoon and others. Check out the lineup and tune in Wednesday-Friday at the KEXP Blog.

KUT Morning “Live at the Four Seasons” – The radio station of choice for many Austinites, KUT-FM will feature 30-minute sets from the likes of Justin Townes Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and others with only two names.  They go Wednesday-Friday at 7 a.m. CDT, and 8 a.m. Saturday. Check the schedule here; KUT’s complete SXSW coverage schedule is here. To listen live at any time, just mosey on over to the KUT official home page.

NPR Live Showcases – Yeah, NPR again – this time they will stream live Wednesday and Thursday nights. Wednesday’s lineup from Stubb’s BBQ begins at 7:45 p.m. CDT and is scheduled to include Fiona Apple, Andrew Bird, The Alabama Shakes, Dan Deacon and Sharon Van Etten. Thursday’s showcase from the Parish begins at 12:30 p.m. CDT and is scheduled to include The Magnetic Fields, Polica, Sugar Tongue Slim and La Vida Boheme. Check ’em out at the NPR Music website.

Springsteen week kicks off tonight

Bruce Springsteen charges into Austin on Thursday. (Photo by Jo Lopez)

If you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, life is very good right now. With the release of the excellent new album, Wrecking Ball, comes a bevy of appearances before the world tour begins.

Lets start with a biggie tonight. For the first time in Bruce’s 40 plus year history, he and the E Street Band will grace the stage at The Apollo Theater in Harlem. It’s part of Sirius/XM’s tenth anniversary celebration of satellite radio (once you get it, you will never go back. Trust me.).  This will be the band’s first full gig without the “Big Man” Clarence Clemons, but if the appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week are any indication, the horn section, featuring Clemons’ nephew Jake, can cover his parts nicely.

What they can’t do is replace Clemons’ massive presence, and his interaction with Bruce. That will be sorely missed. It will be interesting to see how Bruce handles the band introductions (if he does them at all) because Clarence was always “last but not least.” The show is set to start at 8 p.m EST with a pre-show featuring Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh at 6 p.m.

If you don’t have Sirius/XM, you can get a seven-day free subscription by going to their website. You can also win tickets to that last show of the U.S. leg in Newark,  by tweeting a photo of your “Springsteen Apollo Listening Party.” You can enter that contest here.

Update: Video from the Apollo show

Next Thursday, Bruce will be the keynote speaker at the SXSW Music Conference in Austin. The format of the presentation is kind of up in the air. My guess is that he will have someone interview him, then take a few questions from the audience, then pick up the acoustic guitar and play a few tunes. That scenario would be ideal, but it remains to be seen what will actually happen. We here at 30 Days Out will be there to provide complete coverage and if you want to experience it live, NPR will stream the keynote address. Check NPR’s website for the schedule.

Later that evening at a secret, intimate location in “Live Music Capital of the World,” Bruce and the band will do a private show for badge holders and media who are lucky enough to win a drawing to get in. Our guess is he will play Stubb’s BBQ, a venue that is no stranger to big acts during SXSW. Metallica played there three years ago and John Mayer and Train are set to play there on Saturday.

We are hoping for this location because if we can’t get in, we can at least listen to it “out in the street.” There is also a chance he will play the new ACL Live venue, but that seems unlikely unless they were going to tape for TV or DVD or do an Austin City Limits show, which would be great if that happens. However, if he wants to create a huge buzz, Stubb’s would be the best place to do that. Also, we bet Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine will hop on stage with the band at some point. He’ll be in town doing his own shows during the four-day weekend.

Other possible sightings around Austin might include an appearance with friend and manager-mate Alejandro Escovedo at the Austin Music Awards on Wednesday night or with his buddy, Garland Jeffries, at Antone’s on Thursday. Should we cross our fingers for a surprise acoustic set at Waterloo Records ? Not likely, but we’ve got nothing to lose.

Finally, the Wrecking Ball World Tour kicks of March 18 in Atlanta, then heads overseas and hopefully back to the states in the fall. Like I said at the top, it’s a good time to be a Springsteen fan.

Bruce Springsteen official website

Backstreets magazine

Bruce Springsteen News on Facebook

Clips from “Wrecking Ball”

Bruce Springsteen met with the foreign press in Paris yesterday.  He spoke about his forthcoming album Wrecking Ball, and how the death of Clarence Clemons was like losing the rain. Included in this video are some clips of “Easy Money,” “Shackled and Drawn,” “Wrecking Ball,” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.” We here at 30 Days Out are eagerly anticipating a Springsteen gig in Austin during SXSW. We will be there to cover his keynote address and, if we’re lucky, a live performance.

Bruce Springsteen official website

Backstreets magazine

Bruce Springsteen News on Facebook

Video Du Jour: The Stooges

Iggy Pop, Mike Watt and Ron Asheton of the Stooges

A little Austin-tacious memory for you: Iggy Pop and the re-formed Stooges playing an in-store at Waterloo Records during SXSW 2007. The four-song set was as rambunctious as the preshow process – limited by fire marshals to a maximum of 250 people, Waterloo employees had to juggle a line of about 1,000 people before letting just some of those inside.

We got in, luckily, but hundreds more stood in the parking lot and peered through the record store’s windows. Iggy didn’t forget them, he jumped off the stage and performed a few bars of a couple songs in the parking lot. And we got to see the great Ron Asheton on guitar. R.I.P. It was a great show. What a day.

Here’s a bonus video from the same day. Look closely and you can see us in line!

And here’s a couple of my own short videos:

Iggy and the Stooges official website

Bonus: Earlier that day, the Stooges performed the same four-song set and gave a raucous interview with Seattle’s KEXP-FM. They have put together a podcast of the whole show that you can download and hear.

MP3: “Trollin’/ATM/My Idea of Fun/She Took My Money” by the Stooges

Yeah it's blurry but it's so punk!

Bonus Video of the Week: Alejandro Escovedo

Sorry about that metal video earlier this week – here’s something a little more appropriate.  Alejandro Escovedo has an excellent new album, Street Songs Of Love, and if you love rock and roll you need to get a copy.  Escovedo is touring with a stripped-down version of his band – dubbed the Sensitive Boys – and by all accounts they rock out like nobody else.  Here’s the anthem “Anchor” as performed Wednesday (July 7) at Waterloo Records in lovely Austin, Texas.

Alejandro Escovedo official website

SXSW: Music’s March Madness

Trombonist on the roof, SXSW 2007

In just a few weeks central Texas will once again become the hipster capital of the world, attracting thousands of music fans, old guys, posers and wannabes for the big bacchanal called South by Southwest.  Officially SXSW is a conference for people in the music bidness with a bunch of “official” events supposedly showcasing new and emerging talent for record label types, radio station types, music writer types and so on.

But let’s face it – the week that usually coincides with Spring Break in Austin, Texas, is about the stuff that goes on beyond the “official” confines of SXSW.  I believe this festival stopped being about showcasing emerging new talent a few years ago, now it’s a massive tourist draw for the city of Austin.  Don’t get me wrong – the event does manage to preview some breaking new talent but more and more that task falls to the unofficial shows, which have exploded to eclipse the main event.

Allen Oldies Band take to South Congress, 2006

Let me try to explain – officially SXSW sponsors conferences and “showcases,” short (around 30-40 minutes apiece) sets in a number of venues around town where acts can play.  (In addition to the music festival, there is also an interactive event and a film festival, but we’re not talking about that here.)  There is usually a mix of new stuff, established artists with a new album coming out and big names who just want to drop in and  share the vibe.  This year, about 2,000 musical acts will play in 80 spots around Austin.

30 Days Out Exclusive Interview: Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo is the greatest musician working out of Texas today.  For more than 20 years, he has been a premier songwriter and a crack bandleader.  But his roots go back even farther – he comes from a musical family.  His father was a musician, his brother Coke (died 1986) was a member of Santana and the rest of his brothers are also musicians.  Alejandro was a member of seminal punk rockers the Nuns, who opened for the Sex Pistols’ last show in 1978, and alt-country pioneers Rank and File as well as the True Believers.

As a solo performer Escovedo has earned many kudos: No Depression magazine named him its “Artist of the Decade” in 1998 while last year’s Real Animal was atop many “best of” lists last year and it was Escovedo’s first effort to chart on the Billboard album lists.  He has worked with some of the biggest and most interesting names in music, and he recently took a few minutes to speak to us from his home near Austin.

30 Days Out: You had a pretty good year in 2008 … how do you turn around and top that?

Alejandro Escovedo:  I try not to top it, actually.  Just go ahead and keep playing gigs and enjoy the warm glow of last year and just try to write good songs, you know?