Big Pimpin' in Texas
- Posted on Mar 19th 2008 10:00AM by Bill Crandall
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SXSW Rule #147: When in doubt, stay away from the road-weary indie bands (you can always catch them two weeks from now at that cool club up the street) and seek out the weird stuff.
This strategy paid dividends for me three times this year:
1) Goat the Head (left): I wandered down a broken-bottle-strewn back alley to catch these Norwegian black-metal men. Amid the bowling-ball-like round dudes in black smashing into one another, I (in my flowered shirt) got walloped by ferocious sounds that can only come from men dressed in animal pelts and smeared with mud. I followed this show with She and Him, the cutesy indie-pop band featuring M. Ward and 'Elf' actress Zooey Deschanel. Goat the Head could snort them.
2) White Shoes and the Couples Company (right): This Jakarta sextet sounds like what you'd hear on the Love Boat if it sailed through Indonesia. Two girls, four guys all dressed in white singing lots of irresistible ditties that have lots of "ba-ba-ba"s. And good thing the band was hopping on a plane right after the show, as singer Aprilia Apsari would have had to take out a restraining order on half of Austin.
3) Dorando (left): After scoring a local hit with 'How I Got Over' in the early '70s, this Bay Area native's career tanked so badly that he turned to pimpin'. It's a damn shame because Dorando's got some serious vocal (and guitar) chops. Moving easily from global concerns to more, er, specific ones ("We need love ... in the morning"), the sharp-dressed crooner slayed the hipster crowd at Club Deville. He got down on his knees, he rolled on the floor and he even shook the hands of all the people hassling him after the show ... like me.
Who did you see? Vampire Weekend?
This strategy paid dividends for me three times this year:
1) Goat the Head (left): I wandered down a broken-bottle-strewn back alley to catch these Norwegian black-metal men. Amid the bowling-ball-like round dudes in black smashing into one another, I (in my flowered shirt) got walloped by ferocious sounds that can only come from men dressed in animal pelts and smeared with mud. I followed this show with She and Him, the cutesy indie-pop band featuring M. Ward and 'Elf' actress Zooey Deschanel. Goat the Head could snort them.2) White Shoes and the Couples Company (right): This Jakarta sextet sounds like what you'd hear on the Love Boat if it sailed through Indonesia. Two girls, four guys all dressed in white singing lots of irresistible ditties that have lots of "ba-ba-ba"s. And good thing the band was hopping on a plane right after the show, as singer Aprilia Apsari would have had to take out a restraining order on half of Austin.3) Dorando (left): After scoring a local hit with 'How I Got Over' in the early '70s, this Bay Area native's career tanked so badly that he turned to pimpin'. It's a damn shame because Dorando's got some serious vocal (and guitar) chops. Moving easily from global concerns to more, er, specific ones ("We need love ... in the morning"), the sharp-dressed crooner slayed the hipster crowd at Club Deville. He got down on his knees, he rolled on the floor and he even shook the hands of all the people hassling him after the show ... like me.Who did you see? Vampire Weekend?
