Ice Cream Man

As you’ve probably heard us say before, The French Legation in Austin is our favorite venue for South by Southwest day parties. We’ve been slinging cream there for six years now and the Dig for Fire/Other Music party that takes place on Thursday and Friday just keeps getting better. To top it off, they were working with YouTube this year and they recorded a bunch of songs that got released last week. I’ve seen everything that’s been posted so far and it’s all worth a spin. I haven’t been much of a fan of James Blake but his live performance makes him out to be more of a crooner than a next-gen dubstep, electro wonder kid. Twin Shadow is a bit similar too. Ever since The xx blew up last year, everyone’s been riding on a synth and a ‘live’ electronic drum wave . On album it doesn’t excite me so much but when a band (like The xx, who’s full performance at the Lawn Party from last year can be watched here) pulls it off live, I understand why people dig ‘em so much. I saw Twin Shadow a couple times during SXSW and am def a bigger fan of their live set than on album. Check out “Slow” to get an idea; yet another crooner!

Possibly my favorite performance in Austin was Tune Yards who played the smaller lawn stage at the party. They waited till the very end to play their new single “Bizness” then encouraged everyone to get up and dance around. I was in the back groovin’ and was surprised I showed up a tiny bit bopping around towards the end of the vid.

Other highlights are Cass McCombs’ “County Line”, !!!’s dance party, John Vanderslice and a rare performance from Edwyn Collins. Check them all out at youtube.com/sxswlawnparty. Hopefully they’ll release some more in the near future.

Also… you should check out this Tune Yards clip from Sam’s BBQ a couple years back, one of my favorite music videos.