Elepent

Some random stuff that happened in Austin:

The AEV got broken into.  One evening while we were downtown, thieves smashed out the passenger side window and made off with everything they could grab, namely our navigation system, iPod, some towing accessories, a box of crackers, a travel blanket and a couple of CDs.  For some reason, they stole the Jeep’s registration and owner’s manual as well.

The most irritating part was the loss of the AEV for almost three weeks while the window got replaced.  By means of offering a one-finger salute to the unknown thieves:  y’all should’ve looked in the cargo area, because you missed a $300 LightStick towing light, a $1100 Brake Buddy auxiliary towing unit still in the box, a $100 emergency kit and a six-pack of Lone Star beer that we forgot to take inside after a grocery trip that afternoon, you larcenous shitheads.  Just to show the world that it wasn’t going to get us down, we even gave that beer away to some homeless guys.

On a considerably less aggravating note, we also discovered new music.  Literally–while tromping through a riverbed in the park, looking for photo shoot locations for Lexie, I stumbled across a still-wrapped CD in the mud.  It turned out to be a disc by a German punk rock band called Oxymoron.  We cleaned it off, gave it a listen, liked it, and added it to the music collection.  How it ended up in the river in its shrink wrap is a mystery of viral marketing that will probably never be solved.  Too bad the band seems to be defunct.

We also discovered thrifting joy in the form of the Goodwill Blue Hanger Store.  This no-frills shop seems to be the last stop for clothing, books and linens that don’t sell at the regular Goodwill stores.  It’s basically a large room full of wooden bins, and if you want to find something, you’ll have to dig for it.  With clothes at a flat fee of $1.25 and books $1, however, it can be worth a few hours of rooting about.  Lexie and I made several trips, coming home with (among other things) a nearly-new Coleman sleeping bag, a serviceable pair of Carhartt overalls for me, a fancy black dress for Lex, and a hardcover copy of Stephen King’s Duma Key, as well as a stack of other readables.

While in Austin, we did a bit of a fashion shoot, too.  Lexie shot some promotional photos for LastWear, a Seattle-based producer of unique steampunk and martial arts-inspired clothing.  The shoots were fun, and the results were, of course, pretty cool as well.   As for the clothes…well, after you’ve worn a pair of hakama pants with cargo pockets, you’ll wonder why you ever wore anything else.

We also got cupcakes from "Hey Cupcake's" roving cupcake truck. That's right, a roving cupcake truck. Awesome.

The White Ghost Shivers perform at SXSW 2009.

The White Ghost Shivers jumped immediately onto our list of Best Bands Ever. That show was, hands-down, the best live concert I’ve ever seen. Period.

The Shivers are a seven-piece band, with an accordion, upright bass, banjo, trumpet, clarinet, violin, guitar.  The music is an insane collision of ragtime, jazz, swing, bluegrass, cabaret, vaudeville, burlesque, Hostess Twinkie, caffeine and Tilt-a-Whirl.  It’s about twenty different kinds of infectious; I was actually jumping around and dancing uncontrollably, which was fairly amazing considering that a) I don’t like to dance to stuff I don’t know, and b) I generally stand pretty still at concerts, the better to pay attention.

Everyone's got 'em.

Just as enjoyable as the music is the stage show.  It’s rare to see a band with such stage presence.  The Shivers have been playing together for a long time, and it shows; they enjoy themselves on stage, and go to great lengths to make sure the audience has fun as well.  Vocalist Cella Blue carries a bag of tricks, including candy, kazoos and whistles to throw to the audience.  Banjo player Shorty Borgasm makes the most of his stick-on handlebar mustache and plays a mean nose flute.

Violinist Curtains and lead guitarist Smokebreak Slemenda take turns at the microphone as well, and when someone’s not singing or playing, they’re apt to be swing dancing or showing off their Charleston skills.  It’s an infectious mix, and there are always people on their feet and dancing at Shivers shows.  This is not music designed to be enjoyed passively.  When the bar closed down at 2am after the SXSW show, the Shivers took their show out the exit door and into the street, performing their encore right there on the curb.

We liked it so much that we made sure to catch the Shivers twice more before we left town, and discovered yet another awesome thing: the stage show isn’t only magnificent, it’s not always the same.  Depending on the venue, the Shivers can be raunchy or clean, lewd or child-friendly.  When we caught their free show at Central Market, they self-censored the raunchier songs (oh, yes, you can combine innocuous-sounding ragtime music with graphic sexual imagery and the F-word, to great effect) and concentrated on getting the kids present to dance.  A month later, down at the classic dance hall in Gruene, the Shivers arrived in overalls and checked shirts and put on an enthusiastic hoedown, complete with a “jug-off.”  Check out their YouTube videos and you’ll be hard-pressed to find them sporting the same look twice.

Lexie and I are thoroughly hooked, of course.  We’ve got T-shirts, stickers, CDs, the whole gamut. The Shivers say they’ll be touring this summer: if they come within a hundred miles of you, be sure to catch them.  Do it.

So much for the semi-professional overview of SXSW.  What really counts, at the end of the day, is what we saw, experienced, and enjoyed.

Hurray for the Riffraff at SXSW 2009

We liked Hurray for the Riffraff, who came to SXSW from New Orleans.  The band consists of a stand-up bass, a dulcimer, an accordion, a banjo and a trumpet; the music has shades of Rasputina and the Ditty Bops, and they have a cool, shy sort of stage presence.  Watching one of their members play accordion and trumpet at the same time was kind of interesting, too.

I liked Tokyo-based Asakusa Jinta, though Lexie was somewhat less than impressed.  This eclectic seven-piece band is an unlikely (and on the surface, ill-advised) collision of punk rock and marching band.  Osho, the lead singer, is mesmerizing as he slaps away at his custom-made, metal-framework stand up bass, and the band’s high-energy set has an infectious exuberance that make it clear why the group calls itself an “Asianica Hard March” band.  At SXSW they performed at the relatively small Elysium, but when they’ve got more room they will reportedly march right into the audience during their show.

Natccu at SXSW 2009. This image is horribly blown out because Emmy took it instead of Lexie.

While we were resting between sets at one of the venues, a Japanese woman in rockstar sunglasses came up, handed us a flyer and shyly asked, “My name is Natccu. Will you please come to my show tomorrow?”  She was so charmingly adorable that I said I would, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Natccu’s sound is a fusion of Shonen Knife and The Faint, if you can imagine that.  She sings in English and Japanese (though she sounds better in her native tongue), and partway through her performance I realized that she was reading her between-song patter from a piece of paper on the floor at her feet. She speaks English, but apparently wanted to be sure she got her words right. “Texas Austin is very big. And very hot,” she said, then looked at her feet. “It makes me want to drink beer. But there is no beer here. So…” She looked at her feet again, then smiled and bent down and picked up her cheat-sheet. “So let’s drink water instead!” And with a “kampai!” she did just that. Super-cute.

Amanda Palmer at SXSW 2009

We were very happy to catch the solo performance by Amanda Palmer, of the Dresden Dolls.  “Showmanship” and “stage presence” are the operative words.  Palmer performed alone, with just an electric piano. Before she started, however, she walked to the front of the stage and belted out an a capella, un-microphoned, goosebump-raising rendition of “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.” This was an excellent way to get our attention. The show was very casual; the venue was actually a local church that had been commandeered by SXSW, and Palmer spent as much time talking to the audience and telling stories about her songs as she did performing. Most amusing was that she had prepared a noisy set based on her past (loud bar with lots of patrons not paying attention) experience at SXSW, only to find herself slotted in at the church.  She said she felt kind of silly, playing loud, angry songs while everyone sat quietly in the pews. This didn’t stop her, of course, but she did a lot of set changeover to play quieter stuff. She also performed a cute duet with Margaret Cho who popped up as a surprise supporting performer.

In the end, though, we have to say that the White Ghost Shivers won SXSW.  Oh, I know what you’re thinking:  “But SXSW isn’t a competition!”  Doesn’t matter.  They still won.  Who, what, why are the White Ghost Shivers?  Stay tuned.