Good news! I did get a chance to make it down to Austin last week for a couple of days of SXSW 2010. It was the shortest, kindest, gentlest SXSW trip yet - we minimized show jumping, and spent longer stretches of time at specific venues catching bands we wanted to see.

A great trip, and like most years it was made up of bands we knew we wanted to see, and then other random bands that sprang up out of nowhere and really impressed us... and to be fair, there was some crap as well, but Im not sure how you can have 1600 bands without a fair amount of awfulness!

There were really two bands, or to be specific, artists, that we wanted to see - Dan Black and Amber Rubarth... and sure enough, even though I saw a couple of dozen bands, it was these two shows that really made the voyage worth while.

We wrote about Dan Black a few weeks ago (here), and he was actually one of the very first bands we saw, at the Spaceland/Echo showcase at the Beauty Bar annex. It was an early afternoon show at 1:35pm, and the venue was near empty - I think there was about 20 or so folks there. I could tell Dan was a bit freaked out by the lack of people, but as far as we were concerned it was Austin that was missing out and we had the benefit of semi-private Dan Black show (plus I'm fairly sure he had a PACKED house later that day at the VEVO/Fontana Distribution party).

And it ROCKED. He was seriously entertaining live, playing with a bassist, a guitarist, and what looked to be a 128 square board that played various samples when each square was pushed. He basically recreated his record, or variations on his record, by punching buttons, tapping buttons, driving up and down the pitch, then rocking out over it. Bottom line, a brilliant show made up of tracks from both his new record, Un, and his mixtape, Weird Science - be sure to check him out if he comes anywhere near you, and if you haven't yet - buy his new record ((UN)) on Amazon for FIVE DOLLARS. It will be the best $5 you spend all month.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Pump My Pumps
U + Me =
Alone
Symphonies
Pass That Head Noize
Yours
Outro

Labels: austin, beauty bar, dan black, electronica, indie, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s, spaceland, sxsw, the echo

I don't think I'll be able to make it to SXSW this year, and I've got to say that I'm already a bit down about that. Every day I get more and more emails promoting artists who are going to be there, and it's not making me feel any better about it.

The good news is that the emails at least allow me to discover some amazing new bands - and Dan Black is one of those. A Brit who specializes in extremely poppy electornica, Dan is part of the so-called "wonky-pop" movement, i.e. seriously quirky but catchy, melodic tunes.

His (solo) debut record, UN, is available on iTunes now, and will have a physical release in the US next week. Check out the video for his single, Symphonies, below and I've attached a link for the free six song mixtape he put out a couple of months ago, called Weird Science, that mashes up all sorts of recognizable samples with lyrics from other well known songs, as sung by Dan Black. Trust me, download and enjoy.

Dan Black - Weird Science EP





Tour Dates:

Labels: dan black, studio mp3s, tour dates, video