So Many Bands

During this past SXSW, Dead Confederate's singer/guitarist Hardy Morris and bassist Brantley Senn chatted with me about Austin, TX and some of their experiences here and about the upcoming album "Sugar" which will be released on August 24th.

Click here to read the rest at Amped Reviews.

Before SoManyBands became the blog format it is now, I usually just posted unedited Q&A interviews and every now and then, a review of some sort. However, if blogging was the thing during 2003-2006, Good in the Sack would have been one of the bands (along with Air Tight Alibi, Natchet Taylor, and Firekills) that would have regularly been blogged about on my site.

Good in the Sack was a pop punk band from Austin (of course) that wrote silly hilarious songs to some pretty decent melodies. They weren't revolutionary by any means nor were they the best musicians to ever to walk on the face of the Earth, but the tunes were fun, relatable, and catchy. The guys always provided an entertaining show with their drunken antics on and off the stage.

My personal favorite song "I Need to Learn How to Fight" (which you can see a performance of the song at the bottom of this post) is about that first moment you see your latest ex with a new person and the anger and jealously you feel that makes you wish you knew how to fight so you can beat that new person up. Very therapeutic song for those geeky insecure types out there such as myself. Especially when you yell out "And I hate you!." However, it's played to pop punk music so it's makes you feel happy.

So it goes without saying that I was a huge fan of this band back in the day. I went to many of their shows at the Backroom, both Redrum locations, Red Eyed Fly, Flamingo Cantina and wherever else would book them. Hung out with the guys whenever I ran into them. I interviewed them twice for SoManyBands because let's face it, they always deliver hilarity every time. I really don't remember how this band's run ended. I don't even remember a farewell show. It just seemed like they fell off the radar one day.

So imagine my surprise when the drummer Jorge nonchalantly announced on Facebook that his bands, 3 and Good in the Sack, were playing during 2010 SXSW. Say what? I immediately replied to confirm that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and that it was indeed Good in the Sack who was performing and sure enough, it was.

Oh dear god.

I immediately texted Marlee who tagged along with me to many of these shows during those days and we were both in excitement. Man, it has been too long. Four years to be exact. I immediately added the show to my SXSW schedule not caring if anyone else of importance was playing or an interview needed to happen. I didn't care. It's Good in the Sack.

Of course, I messaged Jorge and told him that an interview needed to happen. It has been too damn long and this caused for a celebration. Of course, they were in.

The show itself was at a small bar on 6th Street called Aquarium. Not usually a venue, the stage was super small and the bar layout was awkward for any crowd larger than 20 people to see a live show. But people showed up and they showed up in droves. I got there early so I could get a good spot. Smart move as not only was I in the very front, the place got super packed super quickly. Guess I wasn't the only one that missed this band.

There were a ton of familiar faces from those days. Members from the Riddlin Kids, Born to Lose and Rubberhed showed up as well as some of the other members from the bands I mentioned earlier in this post. It seemed that everyone looked the same for the most part except we all looked a little bit older and a little bit heavier. The original line up (well the only line up) was on stage to perform all the hits except for the guitarist Dipto, but one of Jorge's bandmates filled in and did a pretty great job. However, Dipto still showed up to watch the show. He told me afterwards that there was no ill will between the guys. He just couldn't commit to the practice that was require in preparation for the show.

After the guys took me down memory lane, we went to the back of the bar to do our interview, mainly to catch up on the past four years. What exactly were they doing when the band was dunzo and why didn't Dipto perform? And most importantly, do we sense a comeback? Of course, in true fashion, this interview was just like it always is in a Good in the Sack interview, I held the camera and the guys just chatted away until I told them to stop.

Sean: I'm Sean. I play bass and I sing. This is Jorge.

Jorge: Hi.

Sean: Jorge plays drums and he doesn't sing. We actually don't allow him to sing because he should never sing. So we are Good in the Sack. We are a crappy punk rock band that made our return for SXSW 2010.

Jorge: We're a semi-crappy punk rock band. Semi.

Sean: Hey, I'm not even sure if we can say we're punk rock anymore. So I really don't know what we are now.

Jorge: I think we're progressive metal.

Sean: See. The way that we've always said is we are across between Color Me Badd and Slayer. So somewhere in between there, that's Good in the Sack.

How long as it been? Four years right?

Sean: It's been four years since we played.

What have you been doing in the past four years?

Sean: Drinking a lot. You can kinda tell.

Jorge: Yeah, drinking a lot and fucking around.

Sean: A little. See, the thing with being in the band is like you end up learning how to drink really, really well and then you make that a profession after awhile and you put down your guitar, stop playing and that's kind of what happens. So the thing that got us back to do this is we've been talking for a long time. We missed it so we wanted to play again and we really didn't know when we were going to do the reunion show. We were always talking about it. "Oh we'll do a reunion show. We'll do it later." All this stuff. So we were drinking here at Aquarium when Amir the owner's like "Hey, you're playing during SXSW." And we're like "All right, that's it." That's what made us play was being drunk at Aquarium having Amir telling us we're going to play.

Jorge: Yeah, nothing like being smashed in the corner of the old hangout spot having your buddy go"Hey, you guys want to play in my bar during SXSW?" "Sure." Shots. Shots.

Sean: The thing that was awesome though that when we decided that we wanted to play, we just got it together and decided to do it. What was awesome was that everybody came out to see us. Everybody actually, all of our friends came out, our drinking buddies were here to booze it up with us and that was awesome.

And how long did it take for you to prepare for this show? To relearn everything?

Sean: Four practices.

Jorge: One acoustic practice. One plug, two plugged in practices. Three.

Sean: Three practices?

Both: Three practices.

Sean: Yep. The thing was like once you plug in again, I was kind of worried. I thought it'd be real rough but we played for so long and we've done these songs for so long and it just comes back to you right away. You remembered it all.

Jorge: Yeah. I know I look like a god damn pilot right now.

*both laugh*

Sean: dun-dun-dun-daaa! And that was us. I mean you gotta remember like how it was back in the day. We were always jackasses and that never stops. Our band never depended on sounding really good per say as just drinking a lot and playing really loud so that never goes out of fashion.

How did it feel the first time you started playing together?

Sean: Um, great. The first practices were awesome. I was surprised actually how well it all came together and then it was just...

Jorge: ...amazing.

Sean: ...all there.

Jorge: Unfortunately, Dipto could not play because he was studying for his GMAT which is understandable. So we got my buddy Isaac, one of my good friends, that I moved up with here in '99 and actually play in a band with. We got him to fill in and he learned everything like that. So that made it even better.

Sean: It was amazing. One of the things that was great was getting back on stage today and seeing everybody there and all of our old school buddies there. It just felt like family reunion so that's one of those things.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Sean: And it felt awesome to have everybody there. Playing the songs. It felt good.

Well you kind of did it like nonchalant on Facebook like "Thanks to some guy for booking this band and Good in the Sack for SXSW" and I'm like "Whoa whoa wait."

Sean: Yeah, well we didn't know. It's been fours years. We don't know if people care anymore or want to hear this. They want to hear our music in general. So really walked into it really tentatively and just after awhile once we announced it, then we saw the ball started rolling. People like "hey, dude uh we're coming. We're coming." So then everybody liked it and the fact that they all showed up was pretty badass.

Jorge: Definitely.

Sean: So I was pretty happy about that. Old school good times. So that was good. I mean the fact that we got to do that, it felt like everybody was with us through it.

Jorge: It was a barrage of old bands. Old people that we've always been playing together in shows. Different bands and stuff.

Sean: Yeah, we got our boys here. We've got Rubberhed. We've got Riddlin Kids here.

Born to Lose.

Sean: Born to Lose. Just looking across that you see all your friends here and that was awesome.

It was like being in the Backroom in 2004 all over again.

Sean: Seriously. It was like time travel.

Jorge: But it's Aquarium. It's the fish bowl.

Sean: Aaron even said that. He's like something like memory, you think of taste or smell or things like that. He's like "No, this is memory," when he was looking around and so that's the thing. I mean everybody says that but getting everybody together again, it was like us with everybody. I think everybody was in it, you know. Like dude, we're back. It's like 2002.

Jorge: And we had been planning a reunion show for awhile. We just didn't know where to do it and it was kind of like here and there cause we all work now a lot. Then we got the offer to do SXSW. It's like ok. What better place to do a reunion but then the fucking music festival as well.

Sean: Nothing better. Nothing better. So what are we going to do from here, we'll see but that was awesome. That was awesome.

You'd think they'll be more reunion shows in the future?

Sean: (looks at Jorge) Any more reunion shows in the future?

Jorge: Yeah.

Sean: I think we like it. I think it was fun. I think we got to do that again.

Jorge: There was a Ghostbusters 1. There was a Ghostbusters 2. They're making a Ghostbusters 3.

Sean: Boom. Hey we're back. We couldn't go away for long. We're such jackasses.

Jorge: You know that's not gonna end because that shit just keeps on happening.

Sean: Hey so you can buy us on iTunes now. We started playing again. I think we got a second wind. I think we're back. I'm calling it now. We're back. I'm calling my shot. Boom.

Jorge: I know Thomas is definitely planning on trying to get us playing around everywhere.

Sean: Yeah, so look for us.

Do you think Dipto will be apart of that too?

Both: We'll see.

Sean: We'll see what he's doing. He's got a lot of work to do. Trying to get into grad schools so you know, if he does, we got the four back together. If not, then we got one got stuff going.

Jorge: It's completely respected. Completely respected. Everything he's doing, awesome.

Sean: I don't know if you know this but Isaac freaking killed it on guitar.

He was really good.

Sean: He was going meanly solos on the top and on the bottom. I was like "Wow."

Jorge: Yeah the shit.

Sean: I was like "That's how it should be." Rocking out.

Jorge: Isaac is the shit. That guy makes his own guitars too.

Sean: Yeah, he's pretty badass.

All right. Any last words?

Sean: Hey Good in the Sack. We're back.

Jorge: Yes.

Oh, last time I interviewed you, we did a true or false question. So true or false: are you still good in the sack?

Sean: Absolutely. Better.

Jorge: Yes. (laughs) Yes.

Sean: That was awesome.

Good in the Sack from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

If you know what I look like, then you're probably wondering why a skinny delicate girl such as myself was spending a Friday night in the cramped Beerland filled with sweaty punk rockers?

Easy. One band, two words. Riverboat Gamblers.

Now I've seen Riverboat Gamblers before at various music festivals but that Friday's performance on May 28 was special and a must see event for any RBG fan. Why you ask? Because they performed one of their earlier albums "Something to Crow About" in its entirely.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now I want you to use that gift that Mr. Rogers so verily gave you called imagination and I want you to think back. I want you to forget what going's on right now. Forget that all our shores are filled with oil. I want you to think back to the year 2003 when you only knew one guy who had a cell phone and text messages wasn't there and there's a young scrappy band from Denton, TX..."

-vocalist Mike Wiebe

Drenched in sweat, the band and the fans relived 2003 all over again. Of course, no Riverboat Gamblers show is complete without Wiebe invariably jumping into the crowd. I think he secretly does it to make sure the fans are still paying attention. I wouldn't want one of his boney elbows hitting my head. Luckily for me, I was secured on top of an amp witnessing all the action.

After the quick 30 minute album was performed, the fans still wanted more. So the guys, not letting them down, gave them a two song encore from the more recent recordings.

Click on the photos above to see more from the Beerland set.

I've been a music fan since birth.

Reason #175 why I love being a journalist: To explain why I did the crazy thing that would under different circumstances classify me as a fangirl of driving over three hours to see an Austin band in Dallas even though I've seen them for the past five months can simply be said like this: "It's for a story."

This month's show for SPEAK required a field trip to Dallas as it was the only show scheduled for the month. I was invited to a house party they were playing at earlier in the month but I scheduled an interview with another band at the same time they were scheduled to perform. Oh well, a trip to Dallas it is.

The drive wasn't too bad as one of my best friends Marlee came along. We chatted during the entire ride over, stopped for lattes and kolaches and sang off the top of our lungs to old school Austin Punk Rock tunes (Air Tight Alibi, Firekills, A Still Second) and other randomness (Vampire Weekend, Audioslave, Riverboat Gamblers, etc.) on the way home. It was fun times all around. I haven't been to Dallas since last year when I was there with the Accent staff for the 2009 TIPA Conference. It was a nice blast from the past to drive by the hotel we stayed at.

Anyway, the guys played at the House of Blues which is a pretty cool little venue (well the room they played in anyway) and the sound wasn't bad at all. I got an amazing spot right in the front so I took a lot of photos. The show overall was like being at another SPEAK show except we were in Dallas. The guys sounded tight as usual. No catastrophes occurs and the stage was large enough for all the high energy they always produce. Good show all around. I think there was a new song thrown in the set list because I didn't recognize it at all and they didn't play "Foreign Love" (which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Ah well.) I saw a few familiar faces from the Austin crowd at the show but it seemed to be that the majority of the crowd were new listeners as well as seemed to be an older crowd than what they usually draw.

The cover of the night was Bee Gee's "Stayin Alive," but instead of describing how awesome it was, how about I just show you. My camera is in desperate need of a better SD card so I only got 40 seconds of the song but those 40 seconds are totally worth sharing.

SPEAK covering "Stayin Alive" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

And as for the guys' reactions to seeing me at the show... They were surprised, but not because of they weren't expecting me. After all, they know all about this series. They seemed to be surprised I actually made the trip. Luckily for me, the next show in June is at the Parish in Austin down the street from my house. Phew.

Pretty much everyone who reads this blog is a music fan like me (unless you're my family... Hi Mom!) so you should know by now that the ACL line up has been announced. Woohoo right? That depends on who you ask...

Now I've been to ACL before and frankly, I wasn't all that impressed. Huge crowds. Uncomfortable weather (so glad I wasn't part of the dillo dirt extravaganza last year). Expensive EVERYTHING. Bad.idea.all.around. However, when I read the upcoming line up, I couldn't help but be a little excited.

Not only do I recognized some of these names for a change, I've seen some of these bands live and LIKED them. What does that mean? Am I turning into a blogging hipster? Have I found the error of my uncool journalistic ways and turned to the elitist dark side? I do own a pair of skinny jeans. Good god. I blame Ian and Ajay for this. What makes this worse is that I might actually want to put up with the large crowd, expensive food and awful weather, just to see some of these bands live. What is happening to me?

If I start finding a way to make it all about me when I'm plugging a band with no substance and disregarding the AP stylebook, please strip away my press badge and called me a "blogger." *shudders*

So who are these people that are responsible for my erratic behavior? Let's see...

Broken Bells - Frankly, I want to see this band because of all the buzz they caused on Twitter during SXSW. People climbed fences and waited in line for hours just to see this band perform. What is the big deal besides the two people who make up this band?

Cage the Elephant - I saw them back in December but only caught a little bit of the set (as I was interviewing another band), but from what I remember, I was somewhat impressed.

Lissie - Ian loves this girl. He talks about her a lot. I finally heard some of her stuff, especially her Lady Gaga cover. She won me over. I want to experience her amazing voice live.

M.I.A - Dude, it's M.I.A. I'm just sad that I won't witness her performing around stage while nine months pregnant on the edge of popping out a baby at any moment.

Muse - I don't care what people say or that it doesn't make me cool (because we all know I'm really not). I freaking love Muse.

Portugal. The Man - I saw them the same night I saw The Dig opened for them and some of the songs were pretty awesome. I think I would have enjoyed the rest of the songs if I was as high as the rest of the crowd that night though.

SPEAK - Um yeah, this doesn't need an explanation.

Spoon - After I wrote that lengthy review on this band for Accent, I'm somewhat a walking talking Spoon wikipedia page who's heard the entire discography way more than I wanted to.

Switchfoot - Wow, hello 2003. Nice to see you again.

The Eagles - Ok, I know everyone is calling them a dad band, but hello, our dads, especially mine, raised me on this band. I want to watch them as a tribute to my childhood and have something music-related I can talk to my dad about. And if they play "Desperado," I'm seriously gonna cry. Now loosen up your tight jeans so the blood will flow freely and you'll stop being so uptight.

The Soft Pack - Andy Langer mentioned this band in a tweet once and his recommendations are usually concurrent with my taste. This band is just good. I really want to see them live.

The Sword - My bro is usually the metal guy and again, Ian kept talking about this band so I decided to see them for myself during Fun Fun Fun Fest and have won me over ever since.

The Temper Trap - I have the album on my iPod which means I like it as I have a whole filtering process when it comes to loading music on my iPod. Did I mention I'm a little bit weird? Anyway, the album is pretty decent which means the live show will either be really awesome or really bad. Either way, I would like to find out for myself.

The Verve Pipe - Am I the only one out there that remembers "The Freshman?" I seriously only remember that song because it came out when I was a freshman in high school and I really thought that made me cool. See? This nerdiness has been around for ages.

Vampire Weekend - I'd admit it. Vampire Weekend is a guilty pleasure. Sarah had a guilty pleasure? What? The same girl that proudly admits she likes High School Musicial and Glee? This band is just sometimes too adorable for me. I know, that's pretty bold to say, however, I wouldn't mind bobbing my head with the rest of the crowd who doesn't give a shit.

White Rabbits - Man, every since I saw this band live, I can't get enough of both of their albums. Such amazing stuff. So amazing that I actually paid the $15 cover to see them live a while back. And for those that know what a cheapskate I am know what a big deal that is. I want to see this amazement again.

Balmorhea, Band of Heathens, Band of Horses, Devendra Banhart and the Grogs, Local Natives, Lucero, Manchester Orchestra, The Black Keys, The Constellations, The Morning Benders, The Mountain Goats, The National, The xx, Yeasayer - These are what I like to call blogger bands or also "hyped bands" so that means I want to see why these bands have recieved said hyped.

Everyone deals with a breakup in different ways. Blaring the "I hate you" songs, some people head straight to the chocolate and some to the booze. But letting out the aggressive hurt is all part of the process. Lucky are the musicians who get the sweet revenge of publicly blaring their heartbreak through song like Gwen Stefani did with "Don't Speak."

Vocalist and guitarist Ryan Hamilton did just that. The odd (and awkward) twist is that the ex-lover who jilted him is his current (and only) bandmate. They were a couple when they formed their band, but Hirunrusm cheated on Hamilton with a predominant figure in the Dallas music scene. Music business drama like this never stays a secret, and this sticky history became a comic strip in a Dallas entertainment newspaper.

This is the world of the Dallas indie duo Smile Smile. In their latest album, Truth on Tape, Hamilton chronicled the aftermath of his breakup with keyboardist and ex-fiance Jencey Hirunrusme. Hirunrusme also sings back up vocals to these songs.

A sane person might wonder how these two could still create music together, let alone be in the same room, after all that went down. I sat down with Hamilton and Hirunrusme to find that out for myself.

Click here to read the rest at Red River Noise.

Photo by Mary Rehak

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.

The Dig was ahead of the curve when most musicians pick up that first instrument, during those formable high school years. Bassist Emile Mosseri and guitarist David Baldwin were playing music together since they were 10 years old. Keyboardist Erick Eiser joined the two after meeting them at a summer music program in high school. Although he didn't join the band until a year ago, drummer Jamie Alegre grew up around music because of his father and uncle.

Years later, with the combination of their musical experience and teaming up with producer Bryce Goggin (The Ramones, Akron/Family), these four guys are getting ready to deliver their full-length debut Electric Toys on June 8.

Click here to read the rest at Red River Noise.

If you don't want to read my novel below, here is the audio slideshow! Man, this was a bitch to edit. Just saying...

We Are the Lottery League photo slideshow from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Trying to fit what I saw during the We Are The Lottery League in the allotted 550 words was not enough. A lot of good stuff was sadly left out so I decided to write a more in-depth recap.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I immediately wanted to cover the We Are The Lottery League show the moment I read about it on Facebook. What a great idea. 30 musicians randomly forming bands and making music. Sounds freaking awesome. However, the original game plan was to just cover the show and interview a musician or two afterwards. I never thought I would be allowed to follow everyone through the process, but luck would have it that my friend James would not only agree to an interview but suggest I talked to Johnny, who helped put this event together.

After emailing Johnny, I was given clearance to document the entire process from the initial drawing to the final show. Dude, you have no idea how excited I was when I got that email. I've been wanting to do a story like this for a long time and now it was gonna happen. But there was a problem. I sold my camera because I needed the money to buy my new upgraded camera. So I was camera-less. I borrowed a Canon (which I've never used before) and a voice recorder from the Accent's office for the weekend and off I went.

THE DRAWING

I was instructed to show up at Red 7 at 8 p.m. for the drawing. So I rushed over there so I wouldn't be late and no surprise that I was one of the first three people there. You would think that after working with musicians for the past seven years that I would learn by now that musicians are NEVER on time. Ha. So needless to say, the actual drawing didn't happen until 8:30 after everyone showed up and hung out beforehand.

So one by one, each of the six drummers picked the names of their new bandmates. I was a little disappointed that the drawing only took 15 minutes though. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be more eventful than it actually was. Kinda like the NFL draft with people clapping, speeches made and confetti thrown. However, we all got a laugh whenever someone had trouble deciphering Johnny's hard-to-read handwriting on the slips of paper.

PROMO PHOTOS AND BAND NAMES

So now that the bands were set, everyone hung out some more and got to know one another considering they were going to spend the next 24 hours with these people writing and practicing their new music. While that was going on, my new show buddy Devaki shot promo photos of each band and I walked around getting interviews and taking photos of all the action.

As for band names, a lot of silliness was thrown around such as “MazelTov Cocktail” and “Kung Fu P” but once everything was said and done, the six bands names were Vacation Bible School, Black Mike and the Make a Holes, Boner Patrol, So Long, Judas, Drug Sex, Afrobocop and the Tjöõrd Bjöõrglars.

Dont ask me where those names came from as I am just as dumbfounded as you are. However, I know how hard it is to come up with an original name with the million of named bands already out there so I can see how pulling something out of your ass is the quickest way to get that checked off the "Forming a Band 101" checklist.

It was during this time that James' band Black Mike and the Make a Holes and Clay's (Ideal Soul Mart) straightedge hardcore band Drug Sex both gave me permission to stop by their practice the next day to document it. Fain was teamed up with Eric who just recently quit drumming for the Riverboat Gamblers, Darin from The Dugat Project and David who has this awesome solo project called DFI.

And James got a pretty good luck of the draw by teaming up with two fellow friends his progressive band Consider the Source affliated with in the past, Tyson and Josh as well as teaming up with former Brothers and Sisters, David who's had some of the harder rock experience under his belt. So the genre for that band came naturally.

PRACTICE

The event page on Facebook said that bands would start practicing at 11 a.m. Yeah, that didn't happen. I'm not sure when the other bands started working on material but the band I got to hang out with, Drug Sex started practicing at noon. Clay texted me to come by at two p.m. so I could take photos and sit in during the rehearsal. So I headed towards North Loop where they were practicing.

I found the place pretty easily considering Darin opened the door as soon as I got there. He was going out to get something so that was perfect timing. Clay told me to make myself at home as I was walking in and I immediately noticed the typed up lyric sheets on the music stands. Turns out when David went home the night before, he wrote the straightedge lyrics (as they were a hardcore straightedge band) to all the songs and then typed them up for the band. Now that's organization.

So while I was there, I recorded some of the practice to include in my audio slideshow and then interviewed the guys during their breaks. During one of the interviews, one of the guys made a comment about how they wanted to record these songs. Then one of them asks me "what does (my recorder) record in?" I told them in .wav files and it was like a lightbulb lit up in all their heads. After they asked me if it was cool to use my recorder (of course I was ok with it), then another idea came up. Let's have homemade t-shirts along with the cds. So yeah, Drug Sex was gonna have merch. All in 24 hours. Amazing.

After the songs were written and tightened, I produced Drug Sex's first album. And when I mean I produced, I mean I pushed the record button.

As for the other bands, well I waited for a text from James so I could sit in during their practice but I never got it. Oh well. The recording wouldn't have happened if I left.

BEFORE THE SHOW AND THE LINE UP

I rushed over to get to Red 7 on time so I wouldn't miss the drawing for the line. WTF. I'm early again. Seriously, what am I thinking? Anywho, so I spent my time hanging out with the few band members who actually showed up on time as they shared stories with me about their practices. The overall vibe seemed to be that everyone had a pretty easy time coming up with the direction their music was going as well as pumping out music in time for the show. Then some of the bands were showing me their merch and posters they designed for this event. And here we thought Drug Sex would be the only band with merch that night. Rockstars are so creative.

Johnny arrived and wrote names on slips of paper and picked random people to draw the bands for the line up. When he came to me, he asked me after I grabbed a name which band was I choosing... the fourth band or the headliner? I looked at Devaki hoping she would have an idea, I thought about it and then said, “you know, let's do the headliner” and started opening up the folded paper. I couldn't believe it when I saw that the words "Drug Sex" staring back at me. As I was laughing, I ran over to the guys to tell them the news, but in my amusement, I pretty much mumbled what just happened so the guys didn't comprehend at all what I was trying to say. I think they just heard “I... mumblemumblemumble... picked... mumblemumblemumble... your band... mumblemumblemumble... headliner.” I later talked to Clay and Eric about it which Eric told me that he thought I picked them as the headliner since I hung out with them all day, but once I cleared up that I actually didn't know I had their name in my hand when I said we're picking the headliner, Eric's face lit up in amusement.

THE SHOW

Overall the show was impressive. None of the bands sucked. Seriously. The quality of songs were better than most bands' debut shows and I've been to A LOT of those. And those bands had months, even years, to prepare for their first show. That just showed the quality of musicians that participated in this event.

Anyway, the turnout was pretty small but with Vampire Weekend and Girl Talk also playing in town, there was a tough competition for bodies. But nevertheless, those that did show up laughed, cheered, just overall had a good time.

As a reporter, I have to be fair and unbais so I won't choose a favorite. However, if I HAD to choose my favorite band of the night... Man, I have to say Boner Patrol kind of won me over. Come on! They wrote a song about Johnny and had a self-titled song. That equals win.

Drug Sex definetely ended the showed pretty freaking well with the closing cover "Baba O'Riley." The crowd immediately cheered when they heard the first note and sung along and there was maybe a hint of crowd surfing. Drunk people crowd surfing basically means holding someone half-assed up for like a millisecond.

But all the bands seriously were awesome. Seriously.

AFTERSHOW

So after it was all said and done, I walked around getting last minute interviews, final thoughts, etc. All the musicians that participated all seemed to have a good time and many told me they would do it again. I found it highly amusing and adorable that most of the bands hung out with each other the entire night and added each other on Facebook considering most of them met each other the night before at the drawing. Especially Drug Sex. They're like best friends now. How cute.

As for me, I had a great time. This story went rather smoothly. Everyone was willing to talk to me about the whole process and didn't mind when I took their photos all the time. I wasn't used to the camera so I had to use the flash which can be annoying when it's dark and you have this bright light continuously in your eyes.

So thanks to Johnny for letting me tag along. Thanks to James for pointing me to Johnny's direction. Thanks to Mike for letting me interview you days after the lottery when I discovered that none of your quotes that night were useable. Ha. Thanks to Devaki for hanging out with me when the bands were all doing their thing and showing me what later became my new camera. And thanks everyone who participated, especially Drug Sex (Eric, Clay, David and Darin), for letting me be all up in your business for 24 hours.

Here are some more posts/articles/whatever to read that have grabbed my attention.

My masculinity led a vigorous life that included frequent discussions of hot swimsuit models, defending the honor of my friends and having their back in fights, semifrequent uses of the words bro and bitch, some heavy weightlifting when softness occurred, and the occasional fist pump.
Shameful Obituaries of 2010: My Masculinity

This year's Coachella felt like that cousin had lost control of their problem and was completely off the rails the entire time you were together.
An Open Letter To Coachella

Stuff Journalists Like is one of my new favorite blogs. We've been reading this religiously in the newsroom. I linked to their April Fool's post about PR reps. Pure gold.
One of the things journalists like best about PR reps is when one tells a journalist how to do his or her job. For any PR folks out there that want to build a better relationship with their local journalist, recommend to a journalist how to write a story, who to talk to and especially what to leave out of a story.
#123 PR reps

A new website has been formed called Red River Noise as a response to Austin's poor quality music coverage. I could write a rant about this, but I think my editors Ian and Ajay got it covered. However, I'm completely honored to be a part of the writing team.
Our "alternative" newspaper mostly covers music that people under 40 don't care about, while the alternative radio station won't stop playing the same five Pearl Jam songs its been playing since 1992. And our blog scene is mostly concerned with nightlife and see-and-be-seen parties.
Red River Noise is here.

You all talk about the same parties or shows, but I get some are worth talking about. That and the lack of effort or quality of your work tell me that you blog to escape your crappy day time life so you can get into the cool kid parties or shows for free at night. You're not fooling anyone, especially not me.
The State of Austin Music Media Brings "Red River Noise"

This isn't an article but a really awesome interview you need to watch.
A lot of punk rock fans and stuff are really narrow-minded and really, it's like everything has to be in a certain... there's a lot of rules. For a type of music that was created to break rules and to not follow boundaries, it's like the most rules specific and like rigid structure of what you're supposed to can and can't do.