Equals

Good ol' Free Week. I didn't want to write a recap, but a lot of people asked me if I was going to. So here I am, but I'll keep this brief.

Here's a quick list of bands I saw during Free Week: The Midgetmen, Franny & Zooey, Tactics, Oh Look Out, The Couch, The Nouns, Hour Band, Technicolor Hearts, Black Books, Marmalakes, Stereo is a Lie, missions, and The Tontons. I also saw Tje Austin, but his show wasn't officially part of Free Week.

Best performance of the week (because everyone kept asking me...): Hmm, that's a tough one. I saw a lot of great shows, but I guess the one that sticks out in my mind is definitely Franny & Zooey. This is Eric Green's (formally of Riverboat Gamblers and I followed him for my We Are The Lottery League story) new band. It's just him on drums and Mrs. Glass (real name: Jordan Webster) on guitar and vocals playing blues. Think The Black Keys but way way WAY better. I caught the end of the set, because set times for Free Week were frustrating, but that's another blog post for another day, but what I did catch was awesome. I will sit down with these guys in the future and tell you more about them. That plan is already in motion.

Honorable Mentions: Marmalakes, Black Books, Equals, Tactics and Sorne

The "It's About Time I Finally Saw This Band" Award: The Nouns. I interviewed them almost a year ago (You can read that article here). Timing just never worked out so I made sure to check them out this week. I wasn't disappointed as I dug their grungy garage rock. Singer/guitar Travis Beall's huge grin on his face just added more to the show. They even threw tamales at the crowd. I'm a fan.

Other bands I caught that I've been meaning to see: Oh Look Out, Hour Band and Zorch

Below you can check out the photos I took during the week, including a stupid amount of Equals. Sheesh. This is becoming a problem. I did take photos of Zorch, but they're on my friend's camera.

I can’t believe 2011 is already coming to an end. Where does the time go? 2011 was an interesting year for sure. I’m not a fan of top 10 lists, mainly because it’s hard for me to rank anything, so instead here are some highlights.

Bittersweet goodbye: SPEAK for a Year
Yep, the project that took over my life in 2010 is finally over. And it’s weird. On one hand, I’m sad. It’s like an end of an era. When I held that issue in my hands for the first time, I felt like I had just given birth and then gave the baby up for adoption. I put so much into this project that now that it’s done, I don’t know what to do with myself. On the other hand, I’m happy it’s done. I finally got to show the result of all that hard work and now I can move on. Although, who are we kidding? I will never move on from this band.

But I’ve been thinking about this… those that know me know that whenever I discovered a new-ish local band, I tend to cling to them and basically become their biggest cheerleader. It usually starts with an interview. Then I get the CD and that CD just becomes a drug that I can’t get enough of. Then I start going to as many shows as I can.

This has happened on many occasions with Firekills, The Drawing Board, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, Fireants, Oliver Future and most recently, SPEAK.

You can tell who my latest “baby band” is, which I mean in the most endearing way possible, by the sheer fact that I won’t shut up about them. Could be worse. If it weren’t for these bands, I would probably annoy my friends with conversations about Hanson and Glee (although, this season of Glee has been very hit or miss).

So basically what I’m saying is that since I’ve cover the local music beat for almost nine years (geezus), I’ve seen a lot of bands’ first shows, gotten their first EPs and full-lengths and gave them their first interviews. I’ve kept up with their growth afterwards.

SPEAK for a Year was the first time I documented this trend of mine extensively. Yeah, it’s over and I’ll still attend SPEAK shows when I can and turn into a fangirl whenever they release anything new, but there will always be a new band that grabs my attention.

On that note…

Best band discovery: Equals
As I mentioned in my post about them here, I was not expecting much from this assignment. I thought it was going to be in and out. I interview the band. I write the story. I move on.

Instead, I found myself listening to the album a lot. I hung out with the members a couple of times (of course, it didn’t help that the drummer ended up in one of my classes). And I ended up going to a lot of their shows. It felt like I was slowly starting Equals for a Year, because after all, that’s how SPEAK for a Year started, but I’m not. Though who knows… 2012 hasn’t started yet.

But all this was a complete surprise to me. It wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t create such damn good music and gave me one of the most entertaining interviews I did this year. This instrumental band won over a generally pop-centric music fan. That’s a big deal, y’all.

Getting my associate degree
I also didn’t expect to say I’m an ACC graduate this year. Hell, I didn’t expect to say I’m a college graduate, period. But I am and I’m the first in my dad’s immediate family to do so. It’s a pretty good feeling.

This only happened because always-curious me happened to glance at my degree audit and saw that I only needed one class to get a degree. Shoot, I’ve come this far, might as well go all the way.

I went to advising to see what I needed to take. I applied for graduation and now I have an actual college diploma. It’s insane to think I finally have a degree. Better late than never, right?

My family didn’t get to celebrate this achievement as much as we would have liked because immediately afterwards, I had to pack before I left for PCF11 the next day.

PCF11
When one door closes, another one opens. I applied for TCCJA’s Journalist of the Year award towards the end of the spring semester. The chosen one receives a 10-week paid summer internship for the Corpus Christi’s Caller Times. And I was devastated when I didn’t win.

But weeks later, I discovered I was one of the 30 journalism college students picked to study at Poynter Institute’s 2011 College Fellowship (PCF11) in St. Petersburg, FL. Whoa. I still remember when I got the email. I was waiting at the bus stop to start my day of interviews when my phone informed me “You got mail.”

I was in shock that I just put my phone back in my purse and told myself I’ll deal with this later. My main concern was figuring how on earth was I going to pay for this fellowship. It was a lot of money. But thanks to the support of my family and friends, I got there and had enough money to take care of all my expenses.

But we all know the rest of the story. I met 21 BFFs for life and spent two of the best weeks of my life. I’m ready to go back. I definitely miss the fellows and free coffee.

But mostly the fellows.

Backbeat Magazine
Being an editor for Backbeat Magazine was… an experience, but I learned from that experience, and it was nice to hold that debut issue in my hand knowing I had a huge part in putting that together. Not many people can say that.

Plus it came out sooooo pretty!

Good job team.

NBC’s The Voice
I briefly watched the first season of American Idol with Kelly Clarkson, but that’s where it ended with singing competitions for me. So when I found out my then-roommate, Tje Austin, was going to be on NBC’s The Voice, I tuned in to see him. Of course, the moment Karissa found out, I was assigned to write a story. Tje welcomed the opportunity.

Once the show started, I found myself immersed it. Because there were other Austin contestants, it seemed that a lot of people were talking about the show too. Tje and I would have intellectual conversations (and sometimes debates) after each episode, and we became more than just roommates. We became good friends. Aww.

Through him I interviewed other contestants, including the winner himself, Javier Colon, who by the way is one of the nicest guys ever. My favorite memory from that interview was watching him catch up with Tje on the phone.

I witnessed how this show affected Tje and his music career and yes, an article is coming about that. Mainly because I’ve had to tell the same story over and over again when people find out. “Your roommate was on The Voice!?! What was it like?” It was pretty awesome.

Becoming a Bobcat again
So I’ll be honest. I was not supposed to start at Texas State this semester. I hadn’t applied for financial aid, because I was still waiting for the school to accept me back. ACC took forever to send my transcript. I made them wait until my final grade came in after graduation in May, but still I think it took over a month for Texas State to get my transcript and process it.

As soon as I got accepted, I rushed through the financial aid, advising AND registration process. Luckily, they still had money so close to the first day of classes to cover my tuition. The catch was that I had to enroll in a minimum of 12 hours, which I hadn’t done in a very long time.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep this semester and pushed my coffee addiction to the limit that I might seriously need to enroll in CA, but I adjusted accordingly.

Meeting Jason Dohring
I MET JASON DOHRING! And his face was super close to mine! Ah-maz-ing.

That weekend was seriously the best weekend of my life for sure. I don’t need to rehash that here though. You can read my nerdy blog post here.

Hanson

Yes, I finally saw Hanson perform live at this year’s SXSW, which you can read here. Fifteen-year-old Sarah is very happy about that.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

I can’t believe I almost forgot to include this movie on this list. I freaking love this movie. I first saw it during SXSW and seem to watch it every chance I get. A lot of journalists’ dream is to write for the New York Times. I know it’s one of mine. It’s the freaking New York Times.

And watching this movie gave me hope for the future of journalism during its current state of evolution. Journalists aren’t one-trick ponies anymore. We have to know how to do more than just write an article, thanks to the Internet. So this film gave me some hope.

But seriously, any journalism nerd will love this movie. I love getting that peek behind the curtain, seeing the reporters conduct interviews just like I do: waiting for sources to call back, trying to get them to open up, balancing the phone between their ear and shoulder while they type their notes as quickly as they can (spelling errors and all) during phone interviews.

They’re people just like us. The difference here is that they work for the New York Times.

Albums of the Year (in no particular order):
Mother Falcon “Alhambra”
Sphynx “Human Beast”
SPEAK “I Believe in Everything”
Equals "Equals”
Marmalakes “Even Clothed”
Final Exam “Final Exam”
Payne “Late Night Thoughts”
Quiet Company “We Are All Where We Belong”
The Couch “Old and Touchin’ Blue”
The Nouns “Party With The Nouns” (This also wins Best Album Cover.)

Post-rock band Equals is up for Artist of the Month at The Deli Austin. Normally I don't promote these voting things, because it brings me back to high school politics. You know popularity contests, unfairness, blah, blah, blah. So glad adult politics are nothing like that.

However, I do promote good bands. After all, the tagline for this site is "I write about bands. Good ones."

Equals is a good band. And they need your help. The voting ends on Dec. 1 and it's been pretty close between Equals and Auto Body.

Sooooo do me a favor and vote for Equals, ok? All you have to do is go to the page HERE and click that little circle next to their name. No registration. No email address. You don't even have to prove your citizenship (not that I know of..).

Still not convinced? Listen to their EP below or grab a copy, because after all, it is a free download. And why did they do that? Because they care.



To find out more about Equals, you can read the UWeekly article I wrote about them by clicking on the photo below.