SXSW 2010 - day three

Bands seen: Sondre Lerche, Holly Miranda, French Revolution, Frightened Rabbit, Freelance Whales, Local Natives, Suckers, An Horse, The Antlers

(most of these photos are digital and I haven't been brave enough to edit and upload them all yet)

amazing food consumed: killer omelettes and carrot cake french toast and even more amazing coffee at South Congress Cafe, pizza (shamefully)

bourbon count: YET ANOTHER DAY OF BOURBON DROUGHT OH THE SHAME

key moments:

- creating havoc at South Congress Cafe and ending up with two waiters serving our one table

- discovering there is such a thing as a worm costume at Lucy in Disguise

- almost wetting ourselves laughing at a stand up comedian that no one else was paying attention to

- seeing Local Natives live for only the first time that weekend, and they were seriously amazing

- being able to strategise some time on South Congress in between all the havoc

- hearing two girls recalling how AWESOME Man Man are and how having their photo taken with Honus Honus was just like the best picture ever taken of all time

- being smart enough to realise we were beat, go home, drink bedtime tea and watch Entertainment Tonight to discover we have no idea of what is going on in tabloid culture right now

SXSW 2010 - day two

bands seen: The Sandwitches, Fitz and the Tantrums, YACHT, The Morning Benders, Light Asylum, Magic Kids, Tanlines, Lemonade, Delorean

amazing food consumed: avocado tacos from Chuy's, carrot cake cupcake (it's the healthy option) from Hey Cupcake!, Frank's vegetarian hot dogs

bourbon count: NONE, we were obviously not keeping our eye on the prize this day

key moments:

standing in the American Apparel flea market line... thinking it was the line for something else

cupcake for lunch and hot dog for dinner (see above)

spotting the dude from Diamond Rings in full regalia

getting kinda heckled by Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums and remaining totally oblivious regardless of all the people telling me to pay attention, subsequent beetroot face

later beetroot nose from too much sun

SXSW 2010 - day one

bands seen : best coast, these are powers, javelin, cloud nothings, fluffly lumbers, light asylum, coasting

bourbon's drunk : 2

level of bananas hipster fashion : oh so very high

hot dogs cold beer

I effing love hot dogs. I LOVE THEM. It's a point of notoriety. Gah hot dogs.

So when in Austin we went to Frank's "by mistake out of desperation" I was a happy happy girl.

The food was scrummy and super inexpensive, the wait staff was amazing and the venue is adorable.

It is a very good thing that there's nothing like that closer to home - my hot dog rationing system would be out the window...

But please note, we may have had a hot dog fest, splitting two between us (the slaw dog was AMAZING and the Chicago style was no loser either), they were in fact veggie dogs AND, as you can see below, we got a salad too. With grits croutons.... waaaaaaaaah

the beginning

back from Austin

excited to recap on the 34 bands I saw over the four days, the umpteen adventures and the giant biker dude with the teeny tiny kitty cat

in the meantime this is the bit of Florida I got to see on the way down

cupcake showdown

Austin has no shortage of cupcake joints so in the aim to be fair and good Sarah and I sampled a number of them.

1. Hey Cupcake. The cupcakes live in an AIRSTREAM just like we did. And for FREE you can get icing shot into the middle of your cupcake (unless of course they have sold out of said icing, which is technically impossible as you can't sell something free, so DO NOT LIE TO US HEY CUPCAKE JUST GIVE US MORE SUGARY ICING BECAUSE IT IS AMAZING AND I MUST HAVE MORE).

See, I point to the icing. It is cream cheesy and delicious, though this was around 2am so judgment is less sound...

But the inspection was thorough and I made sure that other people eating them enjoyed them too:

We were advised, however, that there was another mecca for cupcakes in Austin, a little off the beaten path, where something lemony and sugary and CUPCAKEY lived...

So off we went, actually using google maps, and eventually...

We done found SUGAR MAMAS BAKESHOP

And lo the cupcakes were good....

Behold, the Pinup:

There was another cupcake AND a shot of cream cheese icing but we gobbled those up too fast for me to get photos...

There were SO MANY good choices that I'll admit we had ever so slightly sourpuss faces knowing that having any more would make us ill..

Cupcakes are magic. I'm daydreaming now...

(BTW - there are no knives at Sugar Mamas but there are spoons. If you have knives on the premises then you have to pay sales tax... WACKADOO)

white denim @ radio room sxsw

White Denim was one of the bands I was most adamant to see at SXSW, in part because they're from Austin but mainly because they have so much energy. I had a hard time not tackling them when I saw them at another show the next night to tell them how much fun their show was.

crystal stilts @ ms bea's

I think these girls are in looooove

friday @ sxsw

Human Highway - "The Sound" from Secret City Records on Vimeo.


Afternoons - Saturday Morning (after the funeral) from Afternoons on Vimeo.




BEACH HOUSE - USED TO BE from matt amato on Vimeo.




White Denim - (behind) closed doors, Paradisolift, 14-11-2008 from VPRO 3VOOR12 on Vimeo.

biiiiig crush on mr white denim there

They were my favourite show of the day for sure, I was REALLY anxious to catch them.

Deastro was NUTSO and did an amazing cover of I Will Die For You with two ladies that were pulled out of the audience. They had amazing coloured wigs on.

I "saw" Beach House and Pete and the Pirates from outside the actual venue as I found myself a killer vantage point and didn't see why I should pay $25 to get in. I'm only a little regretful I didn't because by the time the shows really got going it was crazy packed and got insane from outside. It would have been nice to catch Grizzly Bear and Peter, Bjorn & John...

Golden Filter @ Peacock

This is a sexy lady right here. I keep on trying to pick my favourite shows of the weekend and this was definitely one of the coolest - the Gorilla vs Booze party that I walked about 40 mins out to in east Austin. I'm not kidding when I say the place was filled with probably the hottest bunch of people I've ever hung out with. Sweaty sexy people listening to some hot dance music in a teeny room in crazy Texan heat.

Just how every hipster party looks in my head.

As with most of the shows, I was elbowing my way to the front. I ended up behind the DJ booth and the DJ gave me a weird look when he came back. I'm pushy and big. Let's be friends.