FRICTION NYC

This year’s recap has taken me almost a month to write since we had such a festive time down in Austin (plus I never completely got around to write about it). It took a while for my heart to beat normally again and to gather my thoughts. Plus all the free Red Bull & vodka, Sparks, beer and whatever else we could get our hands finally wore off. Not sure how we were able to function during the day when we went to bed at 8 in the morning everyday. SXSW 2006 was explosively fun even though I thought the music part was so-so cause no one new really blew me away. Got to show that hotel room voyeur/exhibitionist Justin around the easier to navigate parts of Austin, he ended up loving Trudy’s (he was like WTF!? last nite when I told him I was still gonna do this recap). Ran into and hungout with the Let’s Do This kids like I do every year, plus Julie and her crew, caught up with the Underrated and randomly met the man about town, VI (I just realized his blog looks just like a Zagat’s guide, doesn’t it? ha).

Launching your band or being signed by a label is pretty much dead at SXSW these days, its just a chance for labels to pre-hype and ready their new releases and artist for the new year. This isn’t necessarily bad because it just becomes one big party, but you’re not really gonna find some gem because the bands will probably have the means to tour. (It was frustrating one nite when we went to see Boy Kill Boy, but the rumored to be true special guest was The Flaming Lips at the same venue a couple of hours later. They caused a line that stretched down the block, 2 hours before they were supposed to come on. We couldn’t see our lessor known band because the Lips wanted to pull a stunt. WTF?) It was pretty disappointing that wristband holders had such a hard time getting into venues this year, because the excessive number of higher priority badges waiting in lines. There were alot of marketing, PR, magazine, media and product placement types running around.

My favorite part this year were the day and night parties. ‘Tha bomb!’ “When the alcohol kept flowing, water was like liquid gold,” thats what Paul the HumanCockblock would say. It got so ridiculous we started drinkin’ up to half cans of Sapporo and tossing the rest because they were getting warm. Ka-blam! You’d meet some fun characters at these parties too. Does a drunk hi-five and a handshake from Emily Haines at 4:30 in the morning count as a handjob? Hanging out, drinking and shooting the sh*t with the other Crackers all day long was explosive fun.

Justin took almost all of these Pics, His recaps: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Here are the bands I advertently and inadvertently got to check out this. The performances that especially stuck out for me are in bold or I just really like them, so you should check’em out.

Day 1 Wednesday, March 15th
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (Emo’s day show)
We Start Fires
Envelopes
(Waited in line for Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai for nothing so we didn’t get in, what a bust.)
Tapes n Tapes, Echo and the Bunnymen (Blender party. Theo and I were bored so we skipped Spoon and made a pit-stop at Sugar’s for an hour. Ka-Blam!)

Day 2 Thursday March 16th
Eastern Conference Champions, The Cribs, Metric (Filter day show)
Serena Maneesh, Of Montreal (Emo’s day show)
Immaculate Machine
The Organ
The Exit
People in Planes
The Capes
Shiny Toy Gun, The Gossip, The Presets (Nylon party at FactoryPeople)

Day 3 Friday, March 17th
The M’s (Jane party)
BATTLE (Transgressive day showcase)
Towers of London (Vice day party)
Isobel Campbell
Tilly and the Wall
Silversun Pickups
5 O’Clock Heroes
Gliss
Damone, Foreign Islands (Stolen Transmission party)

Day 4 Saturday, March 18th
Tapes n Tapes, Voxtrot (NY2LON party)
Hot Chip
Camera Obscura (the band was sick so they sounded lousy)
Voxtrot, White Rose Movement (FIXED party at FactoryPeople)

People that I really wanted to checkout but didn’t: Headlights, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Magnet, Pink Nasty, Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, The Stills, Sound Team, Morrissey, Helmet, Rhett Miller and The Subways.