One of the most inspired SXSW sets occurred at high noon on Saturday at our party with PASTE. The slow-build brilliance of Bristol duo Fuck Buttons' psychedelic, sometimes straight-up noise-pop Prurient-isms is what made us label Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power a Band To Watch in January. For those who haven't heard Street Horrrsing yet, watch the guys bring it on "Ribs Out":
"Ribs Out"
You can click back to the aforementioned BTW to hear more.
Street Horrrsing is out via ATP. The guys are on tour with Caribou. Tour dates after the jump.
In the apocalyptic (and wordy) "Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians," Sabbathian Austin quartet the Sword seem to onto something heavier than the sci-fi lyrics suggest. A sampling: "We've crossed the burning wasteland / Sought out forgotten tombs / within this shattered planet / beneath a broken moon." And later, "We seek the fire lances / that slew the ancient race / the world where they were masters / now lays in waste." The ambitious video for the track follows suit, opening with historical war images (marches, air strikes, mushroom clouds) before fading into an animated Road Warriors land, complete with gas masks, volcanoes, a torn map, a stag with burning antlers, and a bloody, treacherous ending. There's also an abacus, but pay it no mind.
In addition to shooting a ton of performances in Austin last week, we subjected many of our favorite acts to Texas music trivia. You saw part one. In this follow-up, we test the smarts of Islands, My Brightest Diamond, Peter Morén, The Cribs, YACHT, and others. Shea Hess lends a hand as our quizmaster, and everyone learns a lot thanks to her. Thanks again to our SXSW video team of Jon McMillan, Raphael Rodriguez, and Matt Neatock. Also, good job Rogue Wave!
The new album's mastered, pressed, and ready for you in a variety of formats (more if you're Japanese!) on 3/25. "Salute Your Solution," the first single, will have its music video premiere that day, too. This info via the group's newsletter...
"Album" meaning: full length vinyl, CD and digital formats; and "everywhere" meaning: local mom and pop Indie retailers, corporate superstores, supermarkets, iTunes, Amazon, the band's own website and any other location that could get the record up and going this quickly (some places couldn't move this fast, so they will join in as soon as they can).
It contains 14 new recordings and is being released globally on Third Man Records in conjunction with our marketing/distribution partners, XL Recordings and Warner Brothers Records.
The album was mastered and completed in the first week of March. It was then taken immediately to a vinyl pressing plant. Then to a CD pressing plant. Then preparations to sell it digitally began. March 25th became the soonest date to have it available in EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE. The band have done no interviews or advertisements for this record before this announcement.
The purpose: to get the album to the fans as soon as possible and as we promised. We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it's availability, reception or perception.
You might have heard about some of the newerfaces in Austin this year. And how they hosted parties. Well apparently Rachael's was delicious, and here's a review of the Perez Hilton show via, umm, Perez Hilton:
Our party was epic. Definitely the talk of all Austin.
Of course it was, Perez. Well, actually we can't speak to how epic it was because we never quite made it. It did seem a lot of people wanted to go, although most wouldn't fess up to more than simple curiosity, or the desire to see Robyn (we can relate). Alongside the Swedish pop princess, Hilton had N.E.R.D. ("He's connected to the kids, he's connected to our demographic," Pharrell tells the AP) and, according to the L.A. Times, "fruity drinks, mini-cupcakes, gift bags ... and hairstylists offering free makeovers." And as he's posted, "Next year, we're doing it again - only bigger and even better!" Which we're pretty sure means makeovers + lessons in Photoshopping cum stains. The blogger talked to NME post-party:
True, Perez was difficult to avoid this year. And not just the "phenomenon" -- we saw him everywhere, once looking as bummed as we were to read this sign, and then outside Stubb's talking about L.A.'s the Smell (which, in fairness, he only knew about because the Gossip had played there the night before ... but still look out HEALTH: you're next).
Between all the video we're posting and every other site's A/V archives, this year's trip to Austin's easily and obviously the most archived South By yet. As mentioned, we'll have the rest of our video clips throughout this week, but if you're looking for straight audio, NPR's SXSW '08 page is a must hit: They have full sets from most of the Stereogum/PasteFriday show at Volume (Kaki King, the Weakerthans, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, and madness via Liam Finn and the Whigs) alongside new-album-preview shows from My Morning Jacket and R.E.M. You've seen/heard some of MMJ's Evil Urges already. After talking with people that already have it this past week, we're expecting Jim's Urges to be a polarizing, ambitious affair. Start your homework at NPR.
Because online niche media demands there be an MTV site for every concept imaginable, meet think.mtv.com, the online community for youth activism that doubles as a place to premiere Eddie Vedder videos. It's a fitting site for this particular song, actually: The acoustic protest tune comes from the forthcoming soundtrack to Body Of War, a documentary about 26 year old Tomas Young, an Iraq war veteran shot and paralyzed from the chest down after a week of military service. Eddie's in good company on the soundtrack (Neil Young, Bright Eyes, and Bruce are involved too), and the clip shows the power of his song to inspire thousands at a concert to chant "No more war," or just to inspire Tomas to stop and smile as the two sit with an acoustic guitar between them.
Indie rock has collectively returned from its annual pilgrimage to Austin which, lucky for your eyes, means seeing the letters S, X, and W a whole lot less. But as you may have noticed over the past few days, we did have a video crew with us (thanks Jon, Matt & Raph!), and we did document a lot of great music. (Wait until you see the Fuck Buttons and HEALTH footage, gah.) So although this week's back to business as usual, we are pulling the best clips of the week's best sets to help everybody ease back into computers-and-headphones mode. Here we've got Kaki King's "Pull Me Out Alive," a tune last seen spread over the course of 5,000 still photos, this time captured at 2PM on a Friday and still killing.
Next it's the fat backbeat/Kaki fret-slapping hands on "Bone Chaos In The Castle"...
You might have heard about some of the 
Between all the video we're posting and every other site's A/V archives, this year's trip to Austin's easily and obviously the most archived South By yet. As mentioned, we'll have the rest of our video clips throughout this week, but if you're looking for straight audio, NPR's SXSW '08 page is a must hit: They have full sets from most of the Stereogum/Paste 
