as SXSW 08 descends upon us...

SXSW 08 descends on us... and my story So the SXSW music festival has to be one of the most energetic times of the year here in Austin Texas (our humble home)... we have SXSW in the spring and ACL Fest in the summer... both events just completely infuse the city with an energy that doesnt exist any other time of the year... and honestly its amazingly refreshing. For one week during the spring we rock n roll kids are able to reclaim the downtown district of Austin which used to be full of music and life and is now sadly over run by shot bars and human meat markets. For those of you that don't know... the famous 6th street in Austin texas is no longer a haven for live music... there are 1 (maybe 2) bonofide venues on 6th... the rest have either closed or moved elsewhere... BUT during the SXSW music fest the musicians and artists reclaim the territory and reinfuse the city with what makes Austin special... with what drew me to this fine city in the first place. Good bands and great music can be found billowing out of every doorway and every window... enthusiastic and energetic people can be found running to and fro in search of that great unknown band that they're going to see and brag about later... i will digress and tell my story of just that;

5 years ago Bradley was playing a SXSW showcase with another band and i was guitar teching for the show (this was just as we were beginning to dream up the idea of Sounds Under Radio mind you)... and I remember it quite vividly... we were at Hickory Street Barbeque, a little place down on S. Congress Ave that held maybe 50 people... a place that was and still is 360 other days out of the year NOT a live music venue, a place where the 'stage' was cut in half by a tree planted right in its middle... and a place where you smell like bbq after you leave for many many days later.

anyway... Bradley played a great show with the band he was showcasing with and we decided to stick around for the next band... I had met the lead singer Karen earlier in the evening and she had humbly given me a copy of their EP for free which i thought was very sweet of her to do... i tried to pay her for it, but she wouldnt accept my 5 dollars. So we decided to stay for their show.. she was a very shy and very modest woman... and I remember really liking the hat that she was wearing.

Karn had a 3 peice band (which i remember in the beginning thinking was rediculous because... how could any band play a show without a bass player right?), there was a super skinny guitar player with 2 little amplifiers and a kinda geeky drummer with thick horn rimmed glasses and he appeared to be playing a jazz kit. interesting.

So they set up quickly and Bradley, myself and a few other friends (with about 20 other folks) crowded around the front of the stage just to see what it was all about... and mere moments later we were all having our heads absolutely ripped off by these amazing sounds, this fantastic energy and this brilliant front woman who became an entiery different person when they began playing... singing, screaming, yelling, chocking herself with the mic cable, spitting beer and slinging sweat everywhere and on everyone... it was without a doubt, hands down, one of the most amazing live shows that I have ever seen and for the rest of my life probably will ever see. The PA cut out twice in the middle of the set... but it really made no difference... everyone in the place... absolutely everyone had their eyes and ears glued to the stage.

So 40 minutes later they played their last song and this quaint little front woman said to the crowd in a very soft and shy voice, "ummm sooo thanks for listening everyone... we drove a really, really, really long way to get here... from New York actually... so thanks... i hope everyone liked it... we're called the Yeah Yeah Yeahs."

4 months later I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone with them on the cover. Thats right folks... I saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with about 25 other people at a crappy BBQ joint in Austin TX... and it was one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life.

These are the moments that I search out every SXSW... that to me is what the festival is all about.

So yes folks... we will be playing the festival this year (several times actually) and hope to have some more discoveries and more stories to tell by next week... we couldnt be more excited for the weeks events... and if you are by chance in town for the festival, come out to a show... we have a few--

Sounds Under Radio SXSW 08 Show List

Wed March 12
SXSW Official Showcase (wristband or badge required)
Blind Pig Pub Rooftop
317 E 6th St., Austin, Texas
8pm

Thurs March 13
Planetary Media BBQ/ Day Party (must RSVP)
Maggie Maes (upstairs stage)
6th and Trinity.

Ground Floor Stage
12.00 Plushgun
12.35 Throw Me the Statue
1.10 The Shackletons
1.45 Gran Ronde
2.20 Leopold & His Fiction
2.55 Portugal. The Man
3.30 Elf Power
4.05 The Dykeenies
4.40 South

Roof Stage
12.10 Mostly Bears
12.45 Edison Glass
1.20 The Red Romance
1.55 Cloud Cult
2.30 American Princes
3.05 Sounds Under Radio
3.40 Look See Proof
4.15 Longwave
4.50 Starsailor

Friday March 14
Sure Fire Media Day Show (RSVP at www.do512.com)
5th and La Vaca
10:30 AM ­ Run Run Run (Los Angeles, CA)
11:15 AM ­ Jets Under Fire (Austin, TX)
12:00 PM ­ The Soldier Thread (Austin, TX)
12:45 PM ­ The Mercers (Austin, TX)
01:30 PM ­ Johnny Goudie & The Little Champions (Austin, TX)
02:15 PM ­ Dremnt The End (Austin, TX)
03:00 PM ­ Mothers Anthem (Austin, TX)
03:45 PM ­ Sounds Under Radio (Austin, TX)
04:30 PM ­ Alpha Rev (Austin, TX)

burritos and tacos

so we are home for a short bit... back in the warmth of the texas winter. i noticed its been about a week with no blog updates... well lets recap;

Wilmington NC- played a great show at the Laundrolounge... Wilmington is a great city. Kinda like a mini Austin in many ways. Played with a band called Jackaroo... the guys in this band were all in high school... but they rocked unbelieveably hard.

Jacksonville FL- played with the band Retardobot... great crowd, great room. very good close to the tour. ate at quiznos twice that day... the sammies at quiznos are genius.

drove 8hrs to New Orleans (about halfway home), pricelined a hotel in the French Quarter... cajun food and drinks a plenty... stayed up super late, made our next days 12 hr drive not th emost enjoyable thing ever.

drove home... it took 12 hrs to drive a normally 8 hr drive. it too 3.5 hrs to drive the last 30 miles of Louisiana... road construction and a massive traffic jam. that was miserable... all we wanted to do was get back in to texas and it seemed like some unknown force was keeping us at bay. finally made it back to austin near 10:30pm... found that we had blown a trailer tire at some point on the trip and had not even noticed... we must have a stellar pack in our trailer... good weight distribution.

about 10 min after returning home, dropping our bags we all jumped back in the van and headed to our favorite mexican food restaurant for a good ole fashioned tex mex throwdown. ohhhhh how i had missed a good burrito, a good taco and a good enchilada. see what you have to understand is that living in austin, about 95% of ones meals are served in some form of tortilla... its just how it is... we missed that.

so back home for a short bit before sxsw... writing a lot of new material, rehearsing a great deal... enjoying the non sub zero temps. ahhh the midwest and the northeast... how we miss you, but i must say... i do not miss the cold.

been busy...

... sorry... been bad about posting the last week. its been quite busy. i'll do a brief recap;

nyc day 1- day off... it was so cold that we were forced to stay in doors all day. coldest day in nyc all year from what we heard. snow snow snow.

nyc day 2- GREAT show at the mercury lounge. we love that venue... such an amazing place. played with some great bands... God or Julie opened the show and were brilliant. their guitar players amp exploded in sound check so he used out back up amp... we try to be the band with a backup for pretty much everything... amps, cables, even socks.

anyway... love nyc, wish we could have stayed longer. only bad thing about nyc is having a big ole van and trailer... its a bit of a pain but we managed. our tour manager ryan knows someone in every city and was able to secure us a great place to stay with his friend (and now our friend) Lea who has a great little apartment in queens with a driveway where we were able to park our big beast of a van and trailer. she also has charpe dog... awesome day, but never seemed to warm up to us... it was unfortunate. she had an amazingly schrunched face.

washington DC... great show at the rock n roll hotel. very enthusiastic crowd... also some old friends came out to the show... great getting to hang with folks. after the show we loaded up and went to a bar called tattoo that Sonnys friend (and now our collective friend) Patrick owns. This was an amazing place... VIP treatment... im not normally in to DJ's, but we went and hung out up in the DJ booth and watched this guy spin... he was sick... just sick... he amazed us all. When we walked in to the bar the dj started blasting 'portrait of a summer thief' and then scratching etc on top of it... it was actually really damn cool.

philly... it was valentines day. not many folk go out to rock clubs on valentines day so it was a meager crowd. we played a great show though regardless... we just love being on stage no matter what.

day off... drove to richmond VA... did laundry, ate bison burgers and took it easy. and yes... i did just say ate bison burgers... they were great.

today... drove to Wilmington North Carolina... right now we're just chilling in the venue (which doubles as a laundromat... yep... laundromat... we should have waited to do laundry till today). interesting place.. should be a good night regardless though. Several of the guys watched the second episode of this seasons LOST and said its amazing... im watching it in the van tomorrow on the drive to Florida. I cant wait... im obsessed with LOST. i think my time travel theory has been blown out though... we shall see.

ok my chic file dinner just arrived... im going to go and do some eating. more soon.

i found the culprit... smelly converse

so something was stinky in the van this morning as we drove from albany to boston. it is worth noting that bradley drove in what could only be described as blizzard like conditions... 10 ft visibility,traveling no more than 30 miles an hour on the freeway. it was intense. anway... back to the smell. so my converse got wet somewhere in ohio, i cant remember exactly where... there was a load in to a venue in the snow and i forgot to put on my boots. soooo... i dried out my cons and didnt realize how badly they smelled after they had been dried. something was stinky in the van today and no one could figure out what it was... i then realized that it was my cons as i lifted my foot up to cross my leg late in the afternoon... sadly. i love those cons... they're not normal cons either... they are quite expensive so i cant throw them away... but what do i do, they smell??

ok... important things. played a show in boston tonight at the middle east upstairs... which one might think is actually UP a flight of stairs... well its not... its actually on the surface level. the middle east downstairs is on a basement level, thus the upstairs is on street level. we were very relieved to find this our when we arrived to the venue. up stairs load ins are never fun.

heading in to nyc tomorrow... excited about that... we love new york. show at the mercury lounge on tues... love that venue. going to spend the day tomorrow driving, then at guitar center (buying things to replace things we have broken while on the road), meetings, fooding and enjoying the city. nice relaxing monday.

waffles

so we played in syracuse ny last night... it was the first time i have ever stepped on to a stage to play a show and have been overwhelmed with the smell of waffles... yes you read that correctly waffles. not beer, whiskey, or the normal dank smells of a rock n roll venue... but waffles. the venue, a room called 'funk n waffles' hides no suprises in its name... between sets they play old 70s funk music on the PA and the also serve waffles and other food items. ryan our tour manager got a plate of fried chicken and waffles... this is a combination of foods that i will never understand. i mean when presented on a plate... it is just that... friend chicken atop waffles... its served with both syrup and hot wing sauce. i dunno about it all... still seems strange to me.

ohhh also... the night before we had a day off and we stayed in Erie PA (it was halfway between where we were and where we needed to be). we walked to a bar across the street from our hotel to find ourselves entering in to a country karaoke bar... yep... a country karaoke bar in pennsylvania... it was comforting to find the fruits of home just a few paces away.

Lost

some highlights from the past few nights...

Omaha... our tour manager Ryan flying in to meet us and walking through the door of the club mere moments before we hit stage, running to the front of house console and mixing a damn good show! good job Ryan. Opened for Ludo... that is one crazy ass and entertaining band.

Minneapolis... we played on the same stage where parts of Prince's 'Purple Rain' was filmed. how cool is that?

Chicago... sold out show at the Double Door opening for Buffalo Tom.

Colombus OH... rush on to stage for our middle slot opening for Year Long Disaster (fronted by the son of Ray Davies of the Kinks), line check, begin show... at the first downbeat of the show the power on half of the stage goes out. Lucky our amps were still function so we all quickly plugged our guitars and basses in to our amps directly (bypassing all of our fun effects and noise secrets). got through the first song and then took a moment to suss the problem. Fault wiring on the stage. Danger zone.

Toledo OH... showed up for load in at 7pm to find that an early metal show had been schedueled and we had not been informed. Came back at 10pm... loaded in to the venue in the cold and pouring rain. we were wet and exhausted but had a great show. One of the bartenders spit fire during the middle of our set and scared us all shitless. Ya, you read it right... spit fire. It was intense.

Dayton OH... there was a guy at the bar who was so intoxicated that he kept falling asleep on the bar... on the pool tables in the back... on our merch table. it was hilarious... and kind of annoying... but funny nonetheless.

Erie PA (day off). the highlight of this day... watching LOST. We are all absolutely obsessed with this show... obsessed. I have some new theories after tonights episode... it has to do with time travel... i need time to gather my thoughts, maybe i'll share them later.

heading in to New York state tomorrow... ahhhhhhh we love New York.

LAng

The Great Upper MidWest

Rock Poses backstage before our show in Minneapolis at First Avenue...Ryan, is, of course, the consummate tour manager, even during these moments.
Sonny, backstage at First Avenue, prepping before the show


Snowy drives notwithstanding...

We rocked Minneapolis last night with Buffalo Tom at the historic First Avenue...why historic, you might ask? Well, it's the location where part of Prince's "Purple Rain" was once filmed. Not to mention, everyone from Death Cab to NIN to Wilco has played there. All around fantastic venue, great crew, and, of course, everyone had the "Minnesota Nice" accent - which was exciting for the for Central Texans.

I'll keep this post short, as Lang, Doug, and Sonny are sleeping - but I wanted to add some video and photo footage for ya'll, to give you more images, sights, and sounds of the road, as we see them. Granted, we're novice video makers at best, and trying to do this all with an oft-dodgy wireless card in rural Wisconsin is, well, challenging.

Lang is feeling better, though, and everyone is looking forward to a day off in Chicago (starts with a "C", ends with an "O", and in the middle, there is a "HI-CAG") tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be watching the SuperBowl, though we'll show no particular patronage. One of our managers is from Boston, the other, a born and bred New Yorker - so, the band will stay neutral.

Go Giants...

-BO