music weekend starts in t-5 hours. tonight we are catching grizzly bear at the moore theater. we bought our tickets what feels like months ago for what seemed like a lot of money. i know it will be money well spent. brian and i saw them once at sasquatch a few years ago however we were really messed up and i barely remember their show. tonight we will try to make up for that. although i didn't think yellow house was all that great of a record anyways and veckatimest is just so damn beautiful that this show will easily be memorable.

tomorrow morning we head off to portland with dave, michelle, lisa and maggie for a family vacation. we rsvp'd for a garage rock fest that is put on by Scion. yes, the car company. apparently they think will buy a car or think of their cars while we get our mind's blown by some serious garage bands old and new. garage has been my favorite style of music for a while now. it makes me think of blow-up by michelangelo antonioni. i know i have mentioed him here before but i just love the yardbirds scene towards the end of the movie and the crowd's cute, stoic, mod expressions.


at the garage fest i am looking forward to one band in particular, the intelligence. i saw them at SXSW this past year and although they are from seattle i have never seen them play here. damn! oh well, i will travel to see them if i can.

oh and on sunday night at SIFF cinema we are going to see a spanish film called Ramirez!

a movie about a serial killer that is looks modern and awesome. apparently the movie's budget was just about 50,000 euros but looks spectucular. i can't wait!

what i learned at sxsw - last day

Saturday was by far the most productive. well as productive as one could get on the fourth day in a row of being outside under the texas sun. we met katie at the rachel ray party but alas for the second year in a row, the party was a bust. the line was just too long for us to get in.

no worries though. there's tons of other stuff going on, right? we head to the convention center for a slightly underwhelming flatstock poster event. a lot of the same wonderful artists i love were there but just not very much that i thought was new...maybe i'm going to less shows too and therefore might be recognizing less. oh well. there was definitely less "plain" art but its cool.

after flatstock we headed to 7th and lavaca for our last delicious kebab at the kebab truck that is parked in the pay lot. this kebab truck saved us on many hot afternoons when we drank too many free lone stars and needed something filling but not heavy or greasy.

we said goodbye to downtown and headed just north of the university to a great little (mostly) outdoor cafe called spider house. i think it's safe to call this place an institution for many college students. i know it was a place that i could find solace, what i thought back then was a good cup of coffee and a cigarette. spider house has expanded quite a bit and now hosts sxsw day shows not too mention that they now have their greasy little fingers on a liquor license so a full bar is now available.

at spider house, we sat outside and saw homosexuals, crystal stilts, and a seattle band called the intelligence. although i didn’t know much about homosexuals (i do know they are somewhat legendary) i really loved the intelligence. i would describe it as a bit like surf-esque tunes...not the cheese beach boys versions of surf rock but really cool and a tad post punk. the crystal stilts were super awesome too and were really 60's in a reverby sort of velvet underground way. good thing i never wrote music reviews. only news...i like facts.

the intelligence - seattle, wa


crystal stilts - brooklyn, ny

i can't wait for next year's festival. thanks to brett & vera and katie & derrick for letting us crash at their homes. oh and of course to my awesome buddies for always showing us a good time.