Show Pics: Nada Surf @ La Zona Rosa (6/29)

Third show of the week was at La Zona Rosa. Had to run solo for this one, made it easy to get through the crowd, my stage space locked down by a Lone Star bribe to a group of people in town from all over Texas to see Nada Surf together; no photo pit, but still a three song limit.

We were treated to Austin’s The Zoltars and San Fran’s Waters as openers before Nada Surf played a twenty-three song set.

More after the jump…

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Show Pics: Howard Jones @ ACL Live (6/28)

The wife was feeling nostalgic when she bought tickets to see Howard Jones perform Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action. Think of all the soundtracks, montages, sing-alongs on 80’s night. “Like To Get To Know You Well” makes me want to restore a Camaro with a French girl.

HoJo was one of the guys pushing Synth Pop. Listen back to these early albums and tell me you don’t pick up on Twin Shadow, Chairlift and others currently pulling these new wave tones back up top. And Human’s Lib, despite it’s happy singles, is a pretty dark album.

I figured I might as well take some pics.

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The Bulletin Board: Music Ownership

We have a vendetta to quell cell-phone cameras and non-stop talkers at shows, but another underlying message we sometimes don’t vocalize loudly enough is to support the artists. A recent blog post at NPR and rebuttal by a musician are making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter sparking discussion on the notion of music ownership and what is “stealing” music.

This is the digital age. What constitutes ownership or is it all “Free Culture” once sent up into the ether of the cloud?

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Show Preview: Temper Trap/Crocodiles @ Stubb’s (6/11)

Date Monday, June 11
Location Stubb’s
Doors 700p
Tickets $25 from Frontgate


OK, I know the headliner is Temper Trap, but we here are far more excited to see Crocodiles. I will always love “Sweet Disposition” as one-hit, but Crocodiles killed during Psyche last year putting on a front to back festival set of semi-psyche Jesus and Mary Chain influenced jams, personal favorite being “Sleep Forever”.

Now, they are back with a new album and have an opening spot for a different kind of crowd. Nathan 3.5’ed the latest release, Endless Flowers, which ups the vocal ante and swings away from J&MC and towards POBPAH.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Crocodiles-Sunday-Psychic-Conversation-9.mp3]

Download:Crocodiles – Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) [MP3]

Friday Facts: 40,000 Years Ago

So you may have missed the story a couple weeks back about the oldest musical instrument found to date. It is a flute, 40,000 years old found in southern Germany made from mammoth and bird bones. With a discovery like this, there are typically other things learned about our ancestors.

 

  1. This pushes back the first time someone tried to “talk” during a show. Scientists assume there was grunting from a female about how her caveman wouldn’t “commit”.
  2. Cave paintings of performances were limited in scope. Apparently, they were made during the first three songs, no torch allowed.
  3. Distant relatives of Gerard from Matador was at the first show and bought a band pelt along with early members of Jim Eno’s lineage and the actual Lemmy.
  4. The flutists eventually signed a new tribe and lost all indie cred in the cave.
  5. Flute/penis euphemisms were born.

Image courtesy Oxford: Full Story.

Show Pics: Chaos in Tejas (6/3)

Chased the Indie crowd over to Emo’s East on the last night of Chaos in Tejas. Dreams of a comfy photo pit were dashed, but the staff did what they could for the photographers to help us out.

Why were we there? To see the Mind Spiders, of course. Oh wait, the headliner was Best Coast. Did I care? Not so much, but I wanted to shoot them. So, why not check out an ATH favorite and take in the other “openers” Laura Stevenson and the Cans and Lemuria.

Click through for a few show notes and plenty of pics…

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Show Pics: Chaos in Tejas (6/2)

After taking a night to relax and sweat at Stubb’s, it was back into the Chaos. Primary venue choice was Club DeVille, but I did pop next door to see the goings-ons.

Club DeVille scored a great lineup for the indie kids with Sea Lions, Royal Headaches and The Clean. I saw more Japanese hardcore at The Mohawk courtesy Zyanose, full mosh pit included. Ironically, I took an elbow to the face while shooting Royal Headache.

Here come the pics…

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Show Pics: Two Door Cinema Club @ Stubb’s (6/1)

So Two Door is one of those bands that I can’t help but like. Call me a sucker for Brit Pop done by Irish kids (cue snarky comment from Nathan).

But what was nice to see was Bad Veins opening for them again. They are on the local label Modern Outsider who are friends of the program.

However, the middle support sucked. Think wedding DJ meets karaoke mash-up. Oh my, it was so bad and made worse when I found out the respectable Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would be in the two-slot for the rest of the tour.

Anyway, I love these pics. Enjoy.

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Show Pics: Chaos in Tejas – Ted Leo (5/31)

Chaos in Tejas is that thing when you get ready for a show by not showering.

It is also that thing where randomly selected indie-punk-pop acts get thrown on stage in between hardcore and punk bands. In this case, The Mohawk featured Nathan’s man-crush, Ted Leo, had a set between Japanese thrash by Reality Crisis and old-school punk from The Mob.

To further confuse my ears, I stopped in for a bit of Big Freedia‘s set at Club DeVille.

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