Love at 20

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.

There were a lot of great shows in 2010 that I was fortunate enough to see for free. I love my job. I didn't review a lot of shows as I would have liked but here are some that stuck out in my mind.

White Rabbits
I <3 the White Rabbits. When they rolled into town, I was on it. I even paid $15 to see them. I wrote in my ACL post "for those that know what a cheapskate I am know what a big deal that is." And man, they didn't disappoint. I prepared myself for the show by listening to their two albums ad nauseam at work. I also showed up before the show started, waited in line, and stood right in front of the stage just for this band. Again, none of these characteristics are me. Even though I'm press, there are just some bands that bring out my inner fangirl. This is one of them.

Unfortunately, I got some annoying news right before they took the stage but I was distracted by the percussion awesomeness not to care.

Thrice, Kevin Devine, Bad Veins, The Dig
Summer shows in Texas are fucking brutal and this was no exception. I was sweating so much that I could feel it dripping down my back. Yuck. Poor Chantel, who took the photos, was stuck in the front with a crowd of people around her for the entire show.

It was a random line up but it worked. I watched Thrice from the side of the venue away from the crowd and it was surreal to see this sea of sweaty dude bros pumping their fists in unison and yelling out the lyrics. Those moments make shows unforgettable.

Carney and Athlete
Another summer show but this was inside Stubb's. Think that made a difference from the Texas heat? Hell no. Again, I was sweating and with the combination of the sultry tunes from Carney and the charisma from Athlete's frontman Joel Pott, good god. Babies were probably made that night.

New Politics
I stumbled onto this band during SXSW right before Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump was set to play. I arrived early so I could ensure that I would be able to get a good spot for viewing. Nothing is more annoying that trying to see a band from behind a person taller than you or drunk high-pitched hyenas. That's a story for another day.

When I walked in the Dirty Dog bar, New Politics was on stage. The music was fun. Honestly, there wasn't anything too special. Got some pop punk elements to it and catchy "yeah yeah" to sing along to. But the minute the lead singer started break dancing, I was sold. More bands need to incorporate break dancing in their sets. Just saying.

Fun Fun Fun Fest
This is what I tweeted about this festival on the old Twitter:
.@funfunfunfest is the one festival to bring out every journalist's inner fanboy/girl. I've never seen so many of them geek out in my life.
Decscendents, Bad Religion, The Bronx... I was such a fangirl that weekend and so was everyone else. It was awesome.

This had to have been my favorite tweet of mine:
As I look at the red-colored press from Gwar's spray, I'm glad Karissa was in the pit & not me. The things we do for you. Haha. So True.

The Secret Handshake
I felt bad for The Secret Handshake when I found out they had to cancel their tour because of low ticket sales. That's disappointing. It disappoints me that if a band hasn't had their ass kissed by Pitchfork or whatever music blog hipsters consider tastemakers that month, no one gives a shit. Whatever happened to liking music just because it's good fun music?

Anyway, off my soapbox... SPEAK opened for this band for my November show and I was really impressed by them. The Secret Handshake is fun, bottom line. Don't believe me? Here's a video.

Down with Webster, Friday Night Boys, The Bigger Lights, and Cute is What We Aimed For

I won free tickets for this show from Do512.com. Yay. I was a fan of Cute is What We Aimed for and I'll admit it was because I thought the name was witty. I don't know if you could call me a fan though because I didn't listen to them on a regular basis. I had the album but I honestly think I heard it once. Again, that name is adorable.

Anyway, the show was interesting. I loved the first band Down with Webster. The second two bands, not so much. The lead singer of Cute is What We Aimed For though... Wow, what a charmer. I was trying my hardest not to swoon, but I just couldn't resist.

Good in the Sack

I had a flashback at the show from the days I spent in the Backroom, reeking of cigarette smoke (smoking was allowed in venues then), and hanging out with all my friends from the Austin Punk Rock website. Seeing everyone in the crowd again singing along to Good in the Sack's silly little lyrics about wishing to know how to fight and having friends with benefits made me feel like that 23-year-old newbie "blogger" all over again.

The Steps, Love at 20, Bright Light Social Hour
This show was great. Three local bands all bringing some different to the line up. Hearing The Steps' guitarist Sam Thompson perform those guitar riffs impressed me. And he's like 19. Wow. These youngins' are coming out of the wombs with talent these days.

Love at 20 always brings a good show which comes as no surprised with all that determination Mike Groener has in that mind of his.

And Bright Light Social Hour was the reason that brought me to that show. It was their last show before they camped in a studio to record their debut full-length. I wanted to see what the big deal was.

Ever see a Cheech and Chong movie? Those '70s and '80s cult films where those two idiots would get high and hilarity would ensue? If life was a Cheech and Chong movie, the Bright Light Social Hour would be that band playing on stage in the bar setting up the scene. I thought for sure that those two clowns would stumble into Emo's at any minute to entertain me. That funky bass, Jack's moustache, and catchy lyrics... woo, that's a show.

Wakey!Wakey!

Unfortunetely, this show wasn't my favorite in the least, but that wasn't Wakey!Wakey!'s fault. It was completely the crowd. The show was inside the Mohawk so it was crowded. That's not a bad thing. Standing in front of a drunk couple who insisted on whistling and yelling as loud as they could because they just looooove Wakey!Wakey! was. I was so annoyed by the end of the night that I wanted to walk out and leave. It was only a keyboard, a violin and vocals so it was very chill show. I understand you're so moved by the music that you feel the need to express yourself, but geez people, yelling? That's unnecessary. Especially inside the venue. Ugh. But the show was memorable.

Glassjaw

Glassjaw was epic. But I'm sure you've realized by now that "epic" is such a regular fixture in my vocabulary. I say episodes of Glee were epic. I say eating a sandwich is epic. But Glassjaw actually lived up to definition "of heroic or impressive proportions."

I wrote a brief review about the show that never got published. Mainly because it was a hot mess, but here are some highlights:

Its been around seven years since Glassjaw performed in Texas, let alone in Austin. With this date not only being the last show they're playing for awhile, it was also the only U.S. date they had booked this year. So it was no surprise that this show sold out immediately when the tickets became available in late December.

Arriving at Emo's at 8:30 p.m., there was a line wrapped around the corner but it moved rather quickly. Glassjaw was the only band on the bill so the crowd had about an hour to get as close to the front as possible or hang out in the venue until the guys took the stage.

The show itself was an hour and 30 minutes of some favorite songs including “Tip Your Bartender,” “Siberian Kiss” and “Ape Dos Mil” as well as some newer tracks from the upcoming album (release date hasn't been officially announced yet.). Vocalist Daryl Palumbo was drowned out by the tightly packed fans who sang along to his every word. Even with one guitar player missing from the original line up, the band still sounded just as fierce and aggressive as the Glassjaw fans love.

After the last song “Babe,” the band said their thank yous and walked off stage. Unfortunately, the small hope in the air was quickly deflated when the band didn't come back for an encore. However, the overall consensus from the fans that night was that this Glassjaw performance was exactly what they have been missing.

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.

Most of the musicians I've come across all seem to share the same goal when it comes to their music. They want to be rock stars. They want to be successful. They want to be able to quit their day jobs and just tour the world, share their music to the world and sell millions of records. But when it comes to meeting this goal, that's as far as they go. They want to get from point A (forming the band) to point B (becoming a famous mega-millionaire rock star), but never think about what needs to happen in between to make that happen.

And most times, when you mentioned the business aspect to a musician, they are immediately offended that you would even insinuate compromising their art for money. But let's get real people, in order to be successful financially in any given career, you gotta have some business smarts.

Meet Mike Groener, lead singer, guitarist, front man, manager, main songwriter, the brain of Austin band Love at 20. With every step carefully planned and articulated, Groener has worked very hard in the short amount of time the band has been around to get Love at 20's name out to the masses. So does all work and no play make Mike a dull boy? Does it take away from the fun creative aspect of performing and producing music? Well with the numerous shows, press coverage, and blog posts Love at 20 has been receiving, I think it's safe to say that this guy is on to something.

I interviewed Groener a little bit before SXSW 2010, but life has been a little crazy since then for me to publish this in a timely manner. So some of the information might be a little dated or has changed since this interview. However, there are still some nuggets of information that just need to be shared.

All right, let's start by introducing yourself.

Mike: My name is Mike G. Been in Austin a really long time. Played with Clap!Clap! Then until now just a bunch of other bands. Nothing but a lot of great people in Austin and the latest project Love at 20 is the combination of all that stuff. So everything I've learned is kinda like a memoirs of such which I think I've mentioned before but the things that you learn about yourself, the things that you learn about music and how to write songs and all that that all comes to a head and that's what the Love at 20 record is. So done completely at my house. I flew my friend Ed Davis out and he plays with Juliette and the Licks, did for awhile played with Dave Grohl and stuff like that and he just did the drums two days. The rest of the record was recorded in two weeks, I think. I've been sitting on it for months and giving it to people seeing what they think and turns out that it works.

And you put the album free for download.

Mike: Yeah.

What kind of reception have you gotten?

Mike: It's been really, really interesting. It's everywhere you want to buy records. It's on iTunes. It's on Amazon and all that stuff but the thing is that unless you're a really large band, Muse, U2, Rage Against the Machine, something like that, it's really hard to get people to buy music that they've never heard of. So the benefit of having a record for free is that you can give it to anyone anywhere and they're still relevantly open to listen to it. So for example, our Twitter account, I'll just go and pick people that are tagging #nowplaying with bands that are similar to us, start a conversation, say "Hey, do you want to check out this record? Think you may like it." and just by that alone, we've managed to get what I would consider about 30% more downloads for the free records from everywhere around the world and they give me feedback. It's just really nice. I get to find out what songs they like, where they are. They spread it to friends. There's retweets, all that so Twitter's been a very good avenue for spreading the record and being able to just reach out to people and ask people to listen to it because there's no risk factor, just downloading a record. It's been highly positive thus far with people that really really like music and enjoy pop structures and melodies and all that kind of stuff. However, it's in some cases when I feel it's really pretty accessible that doesn't appeal to certain bloggers which is fine. It's not what they're about, you know, but that's been the group that's probably the most resistant to early adopting the record and post about it and stuff like that but for everybody that we can just consider regular people who likes music really pretty much enjoyed it. We're talking like worldwide so people from Greece, people from Spain, Mexico. There's a lot of people from Mexico and Brazil that have check the record out. It's really interesting. Just a really eclectic group of people and Twitter really is that one glue that brought everybody together.

Yeah, I checked out your Twitter before and I've noticed there's like "Hey, this person, you should check out this album." which is one after another. Some people might think that's annoying but considering I don't see that on my feed, I didn't know that was going on.

Mike: Yeah, that's the thing. If you're following us, I don't think you see the at-replies which is good.

Unless I've followed that person you've at-replied.

Mike: Right, yeah. Exactly but unless I forget, I would never hit them up multiple times. Usually it's always calculated out at a time or I'd do a max of 10 a day at once and it's usually no more than five because I don't want to spam people and make it look like that's all I'm doing. But it's really me and I'm actually out there trying to communicate with people and build those relationships. I always ask everybody that downloads the record if there's anything we could do for them because it is a mutual thing. I want to build those relationships to the fans anywhere and anyway that I can.

Can you imagine how that would have been without Twitter?

Mike: It would have been difficult. So we've been through the Friendster era and music industry didn't really embrace that because it was just learning how they could adopt social networking to use as PR. Then MySpace came and that was a really great source of music, PR, endless conversations and that kinda really tapered off so if it wasn't Twitter, I think it'll be something else whether it was on Facebook which has worked very well too. Though now that's a main source of information for everybody. There will always be something and you could say Google Buzz is the next big thing but yet that's not yet proved it's it's reason to be. It's interesting and I know what Google's trying to do and it's merely just a stone in the big large footstep for them to get into more media outlet so it makes sense.

I noticed at your debut show which was at the Independent with SPEAK and missions, you had a full band performing. How did you get that line up and why did you decide to get a full band?

Mike: Yeah, that's a good question. To preface this, I didn't know it would work live. I overlaid so much stuff. So for Smashing Pumpkins "A Midsummer Night's Dream," there's 60 guitar tracks. My Bloody Valentine, so much guitar stuff and you wonder if (live) could really be translated into that organic, simple, just dynamic live performance. I didn't know that it could. I didn't think it could. So I finished it and I just had the hopes that I would be able to adopt it to a live setting. Louis plays bass, knew him from Clap!Clap! We're good friends and he's just improved so much as musician in the time that I've known him. It was immediately the first choice and he was doing the Always Already and all that. This was "I don't know if this is gonna work." Louis is playing. Scott the guitar player, been in previous bands with him. Mark, all that stuff, you gotta try it. I didn't know if it was gonna work. We sat in a room, taught the guys four of the songs. We started playing it and I was thinking "Well this is different. This doesn't feel the same" but then the tighter and tighter we got, the more than it just translated perfectly. It became that kinda cathartic outlook for me that I was hoping that it would be versus sitting in a room recording vocal time and time again until you get it right. So I thought it wasn't gonna work but once we actually did it and jammed it out, for lack of a better word, that really worked out well. The show was exactly what I wanted to be from first note onto the record just all by myself in that little cerebral environment to doing that on stage. Was perfect really so I dunno if people liked it but got relatively good feedback about it.

I thought it was good because I heard the album so many times. It sounded like you said pretty close to the record for a live setting. I mean there's obviously some things you can't pull off just with the amount of people that you had.

Mike: Yeah, it's hard you know. For "Time to Begin," the track on there the chorus had... we recorded almost six to eight people in a room singing this chorus. That's very not feasible live but as I've been motivated by Radiohead and the Grammy's last year when they brought I think the USC band on stage with them to perform, I would like to bring in a little choir to perform that chorus. I think that'll be really cool if we could do that.

So with the other members, is that gonna be a permanent thing or was it a live setting type thing?

Mike: It's hard to determine. I'm a very very flexible person. I like having conversations about music and I'm open to people's ideas but at the end of the day, I'm very very focused about what I wanna do. So right now, the way things are working out, Mark is a wonderful drummer, exactly what I want. Louis is a perfect bass player, exactly what I want. Scott's a perfect... everything is exactly the all-star team that I wanted in the first place. So schedules permitting and the larger that we perhaps will get and more press, if everybody's able to make it work with the current variation, then we're definitely gonna keep it that way. But some of us have families... Not really but some of us, we're married. Some of us have full time jobs, all this stuff and so it's really really difficult to coordinate all that stuff.

And with the future albums, will it still be you as the main songwriter or do you think they'll be helping out with contributing as well?

Mike: It is a good question. A good idea is a good idea. So if Scott said "Hey, I got this guitar part that's really good." That's where his strengths is. We've talked about many times, he doesn't feel as a songwriter. He writes great parts so if he had a great part, it could somehow spawn a really really great song then of course, I'm gonna do it. So I'm open to it of course, but I think at the end of the day, it still comes down to me. Put my food down unfortunately.

Well yeah, it was your...

Mike: Yeah, it's my baby, you know. Every piece of it has went through what we could consider rigorous quality control to make sure it sounded a certain way or that it came off a certain way, that it was pitched a certain way. Even our emails, the way we write them to people. I mean I'm very particular about how we write. This is a business. This is a brand. So gotta control those things.

I saw at the debut show also you guys were all dressed up. Was that for Valentine's day or is that gonna be a reoccurring thing?

Mike: No, that's part of it for me. In addition to me feeling that treat a band like a business and of course, art's hard because you don't wanna make art a commodity but there is a good balance between being creative and taking things seriously and being professional. I like to dress up. I think everybody looks really good when they dress up. It creates this kinda formality to it in a different kind of tone for us. So it's absolutely my intention to all photo shoots will be black outfit. It's definitely the way that I wanna carry on. I kinda think of it as a neo-Madmen look. So when we do the albums and what we talk about and all that, I think it should reflect how I feel about martini's, women, modern music and all that.

So you'll be doing photo shoots with the band?

Mike: Um, so that's another good question. There is a line. Everybody that I'm working with I really appreciate and they're really close friends. However, sometimes I think that the idea of the band and having people try to post in pictures and coordinate all this is incredibly passé. I just don't like it and in the sense, it clouds what the brand can be for the band. So it's possible that I'll just do all the photo shoot stuff and it's not me being egotistical or be wanting to have more control of the things. I just don't want to clog up what I consider a very right now pronounce brand name that hopefully will be larger and will be able to get control on it's own. So it's an interesting thing. Some people might think I'm being really self-centered about it but it's not that. There's different reasons, motivations behind it.

You gave me one video to post on the introduction interview and then there's another one that was posted. I think the plan is overall four?

Mike: Yeah four. So the idea is that there'll be four vignettes short films that are part of an overall larger short film that hopefully for SXSW next year, we'll have a short form short films filmed, edited and then submit that. But it's again, music video performing in a video dancing around singing with a guitar being again what can I possible have to say on the subject, you know? I'd rather just pay homage and film a little short film that has a little tiny plot than dance around with a guitar and sing around.

Who are you producing those videos with?

Mike: So a couple of my close friends, Charles, Matt and Kevin, not musical guys. They're never really musical guys but they were always really keen on aesthetics, design, and film so Benberry Media which is this other group that I play a role in for however I can help with the multimedia for clients, but essentially what it is we film events, we write scripts, we film movies, we do live sound, all those kind of multimedia things. They're good friends. I trust their tastes so it was really easy to bring them in and say "Hey, let's shoot these videos." and at the same time, hopefully bring the Benberry name in a little bit forward too. So I directed two of the videos but the rest of the people are film fans that understand old stuff and they like it. They appreciate film and all that. So close friends you gotta always take advantage of, cooperating with the people that you love and their talents and catering to those. So that's why we didn't have to spend thousands of dollars doing videos because we just "What are you doing tonight?" "Nothing." "Well let's go take the camera and let's go and shoot." It's really fun too.

It's kinda like a spontaneous thing?

Mike: Yeah.

Well the first two I saw came out really well.

Mike: Oh thank you. Yeah. Well the cool thing too if you're in Austin, Spiderhouse has three different, distinctly different landscapes and backdrops and the coffeehouse so we filmed there. We filmed behind the Paramount Theater. Just random places around town and somehow, we managed to get timelessness and modern settings and obscure looks and very direct looks. It's really cool. Austin is such a very varied place. I like it. I love it here. You can always find someone to rally with and "let's write a song." "Let's film a movie." It's a great place to do that.

What else is in the future for Love at 20?

Mike: I look at Google as a source of innovation as I do with Apple and Amazon and things of that nature. But lots of people that I talk to that play in bands, they don't think that those conservative models to develop your own strategies as a band, but it's quite contrary. For example, Google developing these other technologies. Google Voice for example. The Buzz. They're going to at some point start being their own cellular provider. I don't know if they've ever said that but I feel it's gonna happen. But anyways, they're really divesting their talents into other areas and so for us, I kinda wanna use their advancements to think well how can we adopt this new technology too? So for me, what the immediate plans are in a general sense is to incorporate Google Voice into our relationships with our fans in effect be able to text one another, not like mass texting but one on one relationship building. I wanna do that. I also want to develop more fan interaction about where our shows will be, what songs we'll play in a sense like they would be voting for what we do so that they feel that they really have a say. Because there's nothing more frustrating... Here's an example, Fugazi played back in I would say 2002 - 2003 at Emo's outside and they're a very spontaneous band but they are completely isolated from the audience. Now they have this great energy but it's hard to say that they really engage the audience. And that's something that, although I loved the way the show sounded and I loved performance, I just didn't feel like I was part of it. Whereas conversely if you look at Dave Bazan for example, Pedro the Lion, those shows, it's almost uncomfortably personal in that connected with him. So I want to have a nice balance between those two things that if you like the music and you have something to say, you have a suggestion that I want to hear it. I'm not better than you because the only reason the band would exist, our art would exist is so that we can share something with people. They don't like it and they think we're being too pretentious or too self-centered, then we need to do something about that. So it's more immediately about getting larger fan base and really engaging them and asking them what what they want.

I saw you had a song on the Real World?

Mike: Oh, so one of the nice things you can do with a PR release is since I've and Louis had been in Clap!Clap! too is that you can incorporate some of those other milestones that you had in previous acts and that was something that Clap!Clap! had played on The Real World.

Oh yeah? The Austin one?

Mike: The Austin one. Yeah, they played at the Coldtowne Theater, whatever is next to I Love Video on Airport. Yeah, I don't think it was called that at the time but yes, they played there. So it's an interesting bullet point and I also feel it counts because you really do have to inflate your PR press. You just do and it's not like we couldn't do it now. Still could if we wanted to but I've worked with people that are Top 12 American Idol finalists. The Sword is, you know, we're good friends with them and they went off to do bigger and better things so you meet people and say this is who I know and this is who I've worked with. I'm really proud of that so it's a nice accomplishment.

That's all I needed to ask you. Anything else you wanna add that people need to know about?

Mike: So SXSW is interesting because we had started talking about the record, I think I sent it to you in October and it wasn't released until January for all intensive purposes. So it was pretty big block there for three months and we had show offers for Free Week at Emo's but we weren't ready yet. We'd just been practicing. So it's hard because there really is this demand, if you will, for music in Austin for a time that would be appropriate to really ramp up and hit the most exposure and SXSW may or may not be that opportunity for local bands. But I think it's really hard to say, it's like I wanna see Soundgarden. I wanna see Muse. All the rumors. That I can catch any of these local bands, I think you mentioned this awhile, I can catch them any other time. So I think for us although, we just missed that momentum that really launched into SXSW and playing a lot of shows. We met a lot of good people in the past few months and I think that the next six months to 12 months that's really where we're gonna come through and you'll start seeing more about us. So we've already had a really good blog coverage already. Probably like four major blogs have covered it and then with this 3rd video, another blog will be releasing that interview and stuff so it's planned. It's just you gotta go at it but I hope that people enjoy the shows and they realize that we wanna share the music. It's not about creating this veil of pretension or acting like we're too good. It's not about that.

Well I saw that debut show after you guys were done, all of you went out to the crowd "Hey how was it?" or "How you doing?" You were out and about meeting everybody.

Mike: Yeah, I mean it's hard to create art and not want to know what people think about it. Maybe that's the being insecure or feeling vulnerable or whatever but whatever it may be there's no point in doing it unless I can share it with someone else. If someone says "I get that. That makes me feel the same way." That's good because I thought I was the only one and that's really what's important to me. So I hope that the way we view the band, the way we view our strategies trying to move forward is different than our peers and that our music can break the not any like political boundaries or emotional boundaries or anything like that but maybe different types of people can like it. So that's probably the most important thing for me. People actually listen to it and don't judge it beforehand. We're used to doing that.

So how did the Accent team put together our cover and double truck for SXSW shown in this post? Watch the video below.

The making of Accent's SXSW pre-coverage layout for Issue #3 from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

I'm competing in a video contest so I used this as a chance to get some practice before the journalism conference after SXSW. I filmed most of the clips except for the ones I'm in, of course. The video was shot on my Flip Mino and edited myself in iMovie.

Thanks again to the bands that gave me permission to include their songs:
Love at 20
Quiet Company
SPEAK

I headed to The Independent for the first time on Friday night. SPEAK was releasing their debut EP "Hear Here." Love at 20 was debuting live for the first time ever. This would be my first time seeing Josh Mills' new band Missions. A night of firsts all around.

My overall impression of The Independent is that this is a cute little venue. I love that I don't have to cross I-35 to get to there. It's a quick ride from my house and that equals WIN. The intimate room is perfect for shows like this and the stage lighting gave me some awesome photos.

Love at 20
For this show being this band's debut, they were on top of it. I've heard their album "Time to Begin" many times so I was really familiar with the material and more or less knew what to expect. I chatted with drummer Mark Toohey waiting in line for drinks and he mentioned that the band got together in December and had to learned the entire album. Very impressive first show. The addition of female vocals from Amber Zook gave the songs a nice touch. Frontman Mike Groener had a little trouble with those high notes but I'm sure with more practice and less nerves, he'll be fine at future shows. This is definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Missions
This band was interesting to say the least. Not saying I didn't like it, but after seeing Mills performing in a clap happy dance band in the previous years, this was an unexpected change. Missions still has that dance capability to them but compared to Clap!Clap!, it's like a darker goth-like electronica band. It seemed with the crowd that they either loved them or wanted them to get off the stage so they could get their sugary fill from SPEAK.

SPEAK
What can I say about this band? This is my third time seeing them in the last 3 months. As always, they delivered a fun show. What makes them great in my eyes is that they obviously enjoy performing whether it's their originals or their covers. Guitarist Nick Hurt and bassist Joey Delahoussaye are so enjoyable to watch as they continuously shimmy their glasses off their faces.

By the way, how awesome are those names? These band members have great distinguishable names. Alongside Hurt and Delahoussaye, there is also vocalist Troupe Gammage and drummer Jake Stewart. And I learned that Gammage is a IV which mean there are 3 other people out there rocking that name. Amazing.

Anyway, SPEAK did a two part set which means after they did their first set of originals including songs from the new EP and an awesome rendition of Simple Mind's "Don't You (Forget About Me)," the guys took a short break before coming back with a new wardrobe (most likely as a refreshing change from their sweat drenched clothing) and did an entire set of love-themed cover songs in honor of Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately for me, I have Saturday morning class. (Yes I know and lesson learned: I will never ever schedule a class on Saturdays again.) So that meant I had to leave early and ended up missing the entire covers set. I did catch the first song which was Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" but keeping up with twitter, I learned that I missed Britney Spears' "Toxic" and an amazingly on point cover of "I Will Always Love You." The fact that I didn't witness this is now included on my list of "life's biggest regrets" for sure.

If you live in Austin and didn't know that this week was SPEAK week, you obviously do not engage in Twitter and Facebook. Congratulations. Social media hasn't taken over your life yet. However, for the rest of us, we all probably received one tweet in your alerts that informed us that the band SPEAK is releasing their album tonight. Woo.

Throughout the week the band held little events including an album listening party and a Waterloo in-store performance to promote the album. Unfortunately, since my newspaper had to go to print yesterday, I didn't get to attend either one. However, the paper is done! It's been sent off so I plan on having fun tonight.

Joining SPEAK at the Independent is a Clap!Clap! reunion of sorts. For those that don't remember the San Marcos band Clap!Clap!, the name pretty much explains it all. Clap!Clap!'s groovy (yes, I said groovy) electronic dance pop never had a show when the crowd wasn't dancing. How many other bands do you know completely filled the stage with over 10 band members including members that only had one sole purpose, dance and clap. Genius, I must say.

So tonight two other bands, Love at 20 and missions will be opening up for SPEAK. Here's a little preview of what these bands are about.

Not only is tonight's SPEAK's album release show, but also the live show debut of Love at 20. Love at 20 is the brainchild of Mike Groener, who might be a familiar face to fans of Clap!Clap! This band however is also more like an Austin local super group as as part of the line up is bassist Louis Lemur, who's also from Clap!Clap! and The Always Already and drummer Mark Toohey who was in a band a looooong time ago called Slow Motion Picture (bonus points to you if you remember that band).

Mike took time to answer a short email interview in preparation for tonight's show. Stay tuned for an in-depth interview I'll be conducting tonight with him at the show.

How did Love at 20 come about?

As Clap!Clap! achieved its greatest success, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the cathartic aspects of the project. Josh and I were able to write songs together very well, but ultimately, I wasn't able to project my more personal thoughts into the music. I loved writing music that's pure purpose was to make people move. But in my opinion, music lovers can take a one-trick pony for so long. I am always seeking music that both moves me physically and emotionally. In effect, after a good year off from live music, I regrouped and began writing a musical "memoirs" of sorts under the name Love at 20.

With "Time to Begin" available for free download since around October (when I first herad about it), why did it take so long to actually perform your first show?

The strategy for releasing this record has been structured completely different than anything else I've worked on. In most cases, a band plays live shows, builds up a fan base, then finally records a record. However, "Time to Begin" was essentially a bedroom project until it was mastered. I spent April 09-July 09 writing and recording the album without ever really knowing how it was going to turn out. I knew I was shooting for a collection of songs that were incredibly ambitious and varied but had no guarantee that it would be performed live. But after the record was finished, I planned out the marketing, PR, live performance, branding, etc., because I knew that the songs were the best I've written.

Why did you pick tonight's show for your debut?

Jill from Knuckle Rumbler reached out about the Digital Love show a few months ago. I thought it was a great show to debut ourselves and an even friendlier bill due to Missions playing after us. In a sense, it's the "Future of Clap Clap" show we had been talking about for months.

With the show on Friday being your debut show, is there anything attendees have to look forward to?

I think in the current musical climate, especially in Austin, that Love at 20 has a very unique energy and combination of elements. I'm surprised that many bands fail to plan their live show. By this I mean, they don't establish a recognizable visual aesthetic and don't construct what is essentially a "performance". I think that Love at 20 does plan, and will have a visual "brand". I hope that people will be able to find themselves in the songs and share the performance with us. It goes without saying that I'm incredibly excited to finally bring this project to the stage.

By the way, you can download the album "Time to Begin" here.

Here's is a Love at 20 music video to the song, "So Bad."

Love at 20: "So Bad" from benberry media on Vimeo.

Missions was created by Josh Mills, the former vocalist of Clap!Clap!. This band is more like electronica space ride of some sorts. I'm interested to see how this translates live.

Josh also took the time to answer my short email interview about tonight's show. There'll be an in-depth interview with missions tonight as well.

How did Missions come about?

Shortly after Clap!Clap! disbanded, Scott and I started to write songs for a project we were going to call Purple Magick, but as it tends to do, life/work interrupted that dream. We could never meet enough and eventually Scott could no longer continue doing music. I kept writing songs and started to notice that most of them were very dark sounding and reminiscent of a feeling I can only describe as "doomed-to-die-floating-alone-in-space", especially this song I tentatively named "Shuttle". I actually wanted to call the project Shuttle, but the drummer of Passion Pit has that moniker already. I believe it was the day I wrote and completed "Darrk/Blakk" that I decided to put this project into action, bring on my friend Markus and my girlfriend Amber and give the project it's rightful name, Missions. That was April 19th, 2009. Missions, using some of the old material I wrote for Purple Magick and some of the newer, started practicing in August to later have our first show in October opening for Junior Boys.

How would you describe your sound in your own words?

I would describe Missions as dark, spacey, serious and electronic with a slow groove. We keep the tempo pretty slow in most cases, but you can still dance to it. We like that.

What can attendees expect at the show on Friday?

Attendees can expect to feel to the energy of the dance floor and the emotion of the music. They'll hear a lot of the songs we have available online mixed with some newer songs not many have heard. Hopefully they'll be able to hear how our sound is slowly progressing and evolving. Opening the night is a band I did a remix for Love At 20 which includes Mike Groener and Louis Lemuz from Clap!Clap!. Amber from Missions is also performing in Love At 20 and this show is their live debut, so attendees can also expect to see a bit of crossover there.

Here is a free tune from Mission called "Wavelength."

Click here to stream or download the track.

And what about a SPEAK interview? Stay tuned. ;)