The Dig

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

Since journalism became my day job, I did my fair share of interviews. While this is my favorite part of the job, transcribing, which is how you get those words into text, is probably my least favorite part of the job. It's too time consuming and requires a lot of individual attention my short attention span can't handle.

One day, someone will invent that helpful software that transcribes word for word for me so I don't have to spend another minute in that grueling process, but in the meantime that's what interns are for. ;)

Here are some of my more memorable interviews from 2010.

Wakey!Wakey!
Ian always assigns me the indie pop bands for Red River Noise and this one was no exception. Michael Grubbs, the man behind Wakey!Wakey!, won me over with not only a great album filled with adorable crush-inducing lyrics, but also with our interview. He was very approachable and easy to talk to.

The album he had just released "Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You" is filled with so many great lyrics that make the girls swoon. Taylor Muse has some competition. My favorite? "Sometimes I wonder how you stay so sad when you're so beautiful." Aww. Doesn't that just make you think he belongs on a CW TV show? Oh wait, he was.

Zoe Cordes Selbin
I've known of Zoe for a very long time. A high school teenager deeply involved in the business aspect of the Austin music scene? It's only natural that every journalist and blogger in this town wants to write her story.

I was trying to find a band to cover for my next College Sound feature for Accent Newspaper and while I was hanging out before the music started at Fun Fun Fun Fest, I noticed Zoe running around with her festival credentials hanging around her neck and a walkie-talkie in one hand. Then it dawned on me. Why don't I feature her? I knew she went to ACC because I had seen her around campus. It was a perfect fit.

We did our interview on the outside patio of the Rio Grande Campus where we talked on and off the record for almost an hour about the Austin music scene and let me tell you something, this girl knows her stuff. I'm extremely jealous that this girl has it more together than I ever did at her age and she's gonna put us all to shame as she gets older.

Smile Smile
Man, when this band was on the list of bands to interview for Red River Noise, I jumped on it. I was pretty familiar with the background of Smile Smile and had so many questions about how this couple, who used to be engaged, still managed to write and perform music together. It wasn't even a "happy" break-up (do they even have those?).

So my first interview of SXSW was with Smile Smile and it really set the bar high for the rest of the week. Because I was so knowledgeable with the history (turns out I know the third party personally that came between the then-engaged couple), I felt like I was the counselor of this therapy session with the band. I was really surprised with how open they were about the whole situation. None of my questions were out of bounds and there wasn't as much awkwardness you would expect.

I really do think this was one of my best interviews of 2010.

Rocky Votolato
This was assigned to me by Spinner for the SXSW interviews. We conducted this interview on the phone while Votolato was on his way to a show. Since he and his wife were driving through empty fields in some podunk town, the signal kept cutting off. Luckily, we all had good senses of humor about it so the moment one of us would call each other back, we would just laugh and keep going.

What made this interview memorable though was that one time Votolato called me back, he asked me how old I was. If you've met me, you would understand why this question always comes up. I look and sound a lot younger than I really am.

When I told him my age, he of course laughed and said, "Wow, you sound a lot younger. Do you get that a lot?" Oh yeah.

Roky Erickson
I was intimidated to interview Roky for a SXSW interview for Spinner. It's Roky Erickson for crying out loud. It was another phone interview and joining us was Will Sheff from Okkervil who ended up serving as a catalyst which put us both at ease.

The Dig

The guys from The Dig cracked me up throughout the entire interview. I think my favorite part has to be:

So for those who haven't heard of The Dig, what would you tell someone who's like...

Emile: Who hasn't heard of The Dig? Do those people exist?

David: Well by that, you mean everyone?

Emile: Yeah, every single person.

Ross Dubois

When I interviewed Ross Dubois, he had recently decided to become a solo artist so his story was pretty new. I didn't know what to expect. I had never met him before. I didn't know anything about him. There wasn't much to research, but this was easily one of the most informative interviews I've ever done in 2010.

Dubois had a lot of say about his musical background and his solo music without repeating himself or going on never-ending tangents. I felt like I was having a conversation with him instead of just going with a question and then an answer. The article came quickly together after that.

Here are some memorable interviews that were never published but happened during 2010. Don't worry, they'll see the light of day eventually and when they do, I'll explain why they are awesome in my eyes. Just by reading the names though, you'll probably guess why.

New Politics
Tyler Hilton
Prayer for Animals
Ghostland Observatory
Eisley

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

January: Free Week
I went to Free Week just to watch some great bands for free and hang out with friends. If a band caught my attention, I would keep them in mind for future coverage. So I had no intentions of actually working with shooting photos, writing reviews, etc.

But after the week was over, I realized I saw a lot of bands that should be shared so I wrote up this quick post with my debut of Twitter-style reviews. Writing a review in 140 characters or less is a great writing exercise I recommend for any writer. You have to be to the point and consise.

February: 200 music interviews
I have an excel sheet that I use to keep track of all the coverage I've done. Yep, I can be that anal retentive. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since I've posted this blog about reaching 200 interviews. I'm sure if I update it now, I'll be pretty freaking close to 300 if I haven't already hit that mark yet. What can I say? I get around.

March: The Dig performing "I Just Wanna Talk to You"
I fell in love with The Dig the moment I interviewed them. The first thing I heard out of one of their mouths that wasn't "Are you Sarah?" was "There are cute girls over there." See, our interview was at the Parish hours before their show and there were already teenagers lined up at the door.

During their set, I happened to pull out my Flip cam right before they played this song which is one of my favorites. I knew I was in for a treat when band members of the other two bands hopped on stage with them. Such a good song.

April: SPEAK covers "Toxic"
I was trying to refrain from including any SPEAK posts in this but this band affected a big chunk of my year that it was hard to resist. It was this post when I decided that I was actually going to go through with SPEAK for a Year. As I was writing for it, I kept debating in my head if I should just go ahead and announce it or wait until I've covered more shows. I must have click the preview button like 5 times before I decided that yes, I was going to go through with the crazy project.

It was published right before the April show so after the set, some of the guys asked me what was this project I was going to announced. Once they all showed they were ok with it, it motivated me to go home and write up the first post for SPEAK for a Year. I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning getting it all ready.

May: In-depth We Are the Lottery League
This was a fun assignment. It was my first time doing a story like this when I was just a fly on the wall, covering this type of event from beginning to end. I didn't know what to expect, but it came out pretty well.

June: Good in the Sack interview
One of my favorite bands during the APR days was Good in the Sack. Since I worked at a childcare center, I could never wear their shirts at work but man, I loved this band. It's pop punk with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about breakups, drinking, etc. Wow, I just made them sound like Blink 182, but rest assure, they weren't.

The moment drummer Jorge announced the band's return during this year's SXSW, I informed him we were doing a reunion interview. Of course, the band was all in (who could say no to this face?) and after their set, we walked towards the back of the bar and chatted just like old times. Only this time, some of us had less hair and more weight as before.

July: Giant Steps interview
I interviewed James through email to promote his SXSW showcase but once I took on the Spinner job, my time was very limited. Hey, I got paid for Spinner though. I felt bad I didn't get the interview out but once he announced his anniversary show, it saw the light of day.

August: Art vs. Industry interview and Love at 20 interview
I had two interviews published in August and I liked both of them so I'm choosing both.

Art Vs. Industry were some of the nicest guys I've ever met and very knowledgeable on not only music in general but also where they stand with their genre of music. I felt so out of place at Elysium where I interviewed them but they treated me like anyone else even though I was wearing pastels.

With Love at 20, Mike and I met for coffee and just ended up having a very long conversation about music. The man knows what he wants and has planned his way to get it. Why can't more bands be like that?

September: SPEAK
October: SPEAK at ACL
I only posted one thing during September and October and they both have to do with SPEAK. September was a fun one because I got to make fun of dude bros and my October post was about my experience with SPEAK at ACL.

November: NaNoWriMo
I wrote a novel this year.
I. Wrote. A. Novel. This. Year.

It blows my mind that I went through with NaNoWriMo this year and actually made the word count. I've been editing the novel when I'm not watching Veronica Mars or posting things for Red River Noise. I have a long way to go before anyone reads the finish product.

December: Zlam Dunk
Besides the obvious posts with SPEAK singing at my birthday party or the 2010 review for December, this was a fun post to write. I interviewed the band during Wild Frontier Fest in September but only used two lines from it in my article for Accent.

Since we spent most of the brief interview talking about recording, I figured it was time to bring it out for Zlam Dunk's CD release show.

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

I didn't have much time to write reviews this year. It's not a bad thing but there were a lot of great albums that came out. So now that I have some time, I finally sat down and got to writing. I'm completely rusty so a lot of these reviews make me sound like a fangirl but you know what? This is my blog and these albums are good.

I just wished I had more time to go more in-depth or review more albums more often. Maybe that should be my resolution for 2011.

By the way, these are in no particular order.

SPEAK "Here Here"

This EP came out in February 2010 and I still can't stop listening it. It gives me the same cravings as those red sour belt candies where no matter how much I eat them, I just can't seem to get enough. I always want more and when I'm not eating one, I'm thinking about how I'm gonna get more. SPEAK's EP gives me that same kind of addiction.

It seems that once the last song "I'd Rather Lie" is over, I'm ready to hit the play button (if I haven't already done it) so I can listen to the five songs all over again. And yet almost a year later, the songs haven't lost its charm on me.

Quiet Company "Songs for Staying In"

I've been waiting for this EP ever since Taylor Muse mentioned during our April 2009 interview that this was in the works. I discovered this band last year and left such an impression to be included in my best of 2009 post last year.

I was hooked the moment I heard the first single "How Do You Do It?" and apparently so was the rest of Austin. I guess someone took note when I posted in my Best of 2009 post, "Pay attention to this band ya, I expect 2010 to be the year for them," because they gathered a pretty big following with radio airplay and playing some gigs with big headliners.

I've probably said it before and I'll say it again, but vocalist and main songwriter Muse has perfected the skill of writing enchanting lyrics about falling and being in love. What girl wouldn't want a guy to sing out to them "I just want to see your smile in the morning. I just want to wake up next to you, love?"

Swoon.

Ghostland Observatory "Codename: Hondo"

Ah Ghostland Observatory, one of our hometown heroes. I hopped on this train later than most people but man, these guys are great. This is one of those bands that presents the complete package. Sure, the music could be called the run-of-the-mill electro rock that everyone seems to be playing nowaday, but these guys have been around since 2004 so they know how to do it well. Add a cape and pigtails and you got yourself a show.

Zlam Dunk "Noble Ancestry"

Every hear an album that affects you so much that once you hear one note from that album, it's stuck in your head? So now you have to hear it. That's what Zlam Dunk's Noble Ancestry does to me and it drives me insane, but in a good way.

The band is all in their early 20s which is a little obvious when reading their song titles and lyrics. "Castle Beyond the Goblin City?" A song about Shark Week and the '80s movie Top Gun? Really guys? But it's also that youthful spirit that reminds me of that age before I had to start worrying about mortages, paying bills, getting a "real job" that isn't in retail. It's the time when it's about having a good time and sometimes I just need a reminder.

And that's what Zlam Dunk accomplishes. They have fun, they cut loose and every show brings a good time. Not many bands can do that.

AutoVaughn "Science of Our Time"

I met these guys during SXSW in 2006 or 2007 (it's been so long that I can't remember) and my my, how much they have changed. For the better, of course. The album they released this year Science of Our Time went beyond my expectations.

I have to be honest. During the first listen, I was put off by it. It didn't sound like them. It sounded like an overproduced version of AutoVaughn. That Nashville edge they had was blurred. There was hints of it throughout the album, but I guess when you win Fender Road Worn competition and tag along with Cage the Elephant, it was bound to happen.

Granted, I haven't seen this album performed live, which is where it's at, so I don't know if this is just studio magic or the commercialized route they're heading. Either way, this album is still great and full of catchy hooks.

Through the Trees "Dig It Up"

Through the Trees' Dig It Up blew me away this year. After hearing so much indie blogger bullshit for the past three years, I loved that this band brought it back with their straight-to-the-point rock and roll. Just good old school rock music. There is no pretentiousness here. And that is no surprise that the band is extremely talented given that they've been playing music way before most of these blogger bands were born.

L.A.X. "The A EP"

Can you believe I didn't want to like this album? For reasons unknown to me, I honestly thought I wouldn't like it. After a couple of listens though, this album grew on me.

It reminds me of the days when my dad was a DJ and listened to a lot of electronica dance music in my house. Sadly L.A.X. is a niche band. A lot of people aren't going to give them a chance because of their genre alone. But for what they are, they're pretty good.

My only pet peeve is with the song "Don't Push Me." I rolled my eyes when I heard the lyrics "Don't push me. I'm close to the edge. I'm trying not to lose my head." I can name three songs off the top of my head with those direct words. How many times do those lyrics need to make an appearance in a song? Seriously. Bands, don't do that.

I don't think L.A.X. is there yet but I like what I've heard so far and the vocal stylings of Erin Jantzen and Yadira Brown are the right fit for this.

The Dig "Electric Toys"

I've said what I already wanted to say about this band in my interview with The Dig. So I'll just rehash it...

"I've been thinking for days on how to describe New York quartet The Dig without sounding like a complete fangirl, but the bottom line is this: This band is freaking awesome. Whether it's a straightforward indie-pop song such as "You're Already Gone" or a moody alt-rock tune like "She's Gonna Kill That Boy," or even a mixture of the two as in "He's a Woman," these guys just nail it every time. And when they perform these songs live, it's even better."

With an earlier-than-normal start time for the show, the Emo's outside stage was a bit slow to fill up. But hardcore Thrice fans were there early, keenly aware of vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue's promise that the band would be playing older material on this tour, including "a couple shredders." These fans were smart to claim their front-row spots after doors opened, though they may not have expected three young indie acts—The Dig, Bad Veins and Kevin Devine—to be opening for these post-hardcore veterans. By the crowd reactions, no one seemed disappointed. Those who just wanted to see Thrice stuck it out or hung out in the back.

Click here to read the rest at Red River Noise.

You ever hear a song and immediately think "damn, that's a great song."? This is one of those songs.

I caught The Dig earlier this month when they opened for Portugal the Man at the Parish. "I Just Wanna Talk to You" was the closing song of the night and they had help rockin out with tourmates Port O'Brien.

This song is just simply amazing and goes without saying that it's been on heavy rotation on my ipod.

The Dig "I Just Wanna Talk to You" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Recorded on my Flip Mino.