ATX weekend/sxsw memos

sweet, bitter, sweaty. AKA tonite, the last night in the ATX to dance with my besty K-Spot, who will relocate to Atlanta, Georgia next week for the HR dept at the job. super proud of her, and will sadface my last month in austin due to her absence. Sister in law came down for teh weekend and it was pretty much bliss. Dancing tonite kinda ruled, even though the songlist coulda been better..it was grand times all around. Going away party last nite at Shang (duh!) GTBF with Teamfab mate Jen and rocking "on a boat" with damon on the #19 bus late nite style.

This month has flown by it seems... sxsw was just last week...realized a few things. 1)i love public transit. Everytime i get on the bus there's a guaranteed compliment. Thanks fuckies, it really does mean something when you say i'm "lookin' good". plus i don't have to deal with APD or driving or giving a shit about getting to my vehicle. i feel free. this is good prep for new york. 2) i became a Twatter. well, i've had a Twitter acct for a while but never used it. Now i'm following some fuckies and it really is kinda fun. Shitsville on the battery power of the iPhone i will admit. 3)officially hoooked on Instagram. I wonder what real photographers think of all these effects and color washing and framing and such..at the press of a button. prolly haters. But i'm no expert, and instagram lets me pretend. Still in awe of all you people that can shoot the pics w/o the instahelp.
SXSW recap:
Thursday:
*lunch at east side kings w/ RT saved my tummy all day..delicious.
*surprised by Hooray for Earth who i hadn't heard of but caught at the pitchfork takeover at east side drive in. I thought of bear in heaven on prozac. glee!!
*Caught The Fresh and Onlys for the first of a thousand shows they played all week. sheesh!
*worth the walk to see Atlas Sound. homie was seriously painting a canvas of noise right in front of us. got serious chills. Thanks KSpot for the wise decision to try get in..super great timing.
*evening time..on thursday. Beach Fossils and Hunx and His Punx at Shang. Beach Fossils were stunning, as always..the crowwd actually got the fuck into it and John ended up with a bloody bass thumb. Love me some sweet dudes who are appreciative of humble atx crowds. and the townies of course.
FRIDAAY:
*Small Black was a winner...same with last year with guest Washed Out. Made it back this year for teh Rhapsody party, which was pretty grand with the free shirts and guiness and such. Covered THe Sun was High (So was I) by best coast and was super dreamy
*great decision made to skip deerhunter (sorry braddy) to go to the Gorilla Vs bear party.. HRO tweeted that Matt Bonner from the Spurs was in attendance and that was kinda awesome. Made our way down for fucking Summer Camp, which was totally enthralling.. This girl had me cross over for a second. came down into the crowd and we danced, got a lil 3 finger action in..the recording is even better. Thanks kspot! I fancy a duo, but the production on the album fills that shit up.
*Soft Moon: perfection. dark in the club. Pedals fucking everywhere, seriously, how the fuck do you remember what each pedal does?!? holy geez it was perfect. A place to bury a place to bury strangers y'all.
*Longbranch in at night. Another decision with great luck and timing cuz that shit filled up. Saw WEekend and prolly was supposed to like them more or something. BUT the highlight of the fest was Gobble Gobble from canada. These dudes had a Dj on stage making beats..band on the floor with crazy ass keyboards, samplers, percussion out of your mom's kitchen cabinets, glocks, makeshift shakers..plus they had no shirts and wore tutus. carried props through the crowd and totally let us bang on shit. We were seriously grinding against a Nord electro..so fucking up front. sweaty dance party to songs we'd never heard. love love TTM.
*Cloud nothings played right after and we were equally close and it felt houseparty cozy.

Saturday:
east side drive in for mess with texas fest..
*finally saw The Oh Sees, kinda over rated live.but hey, not pissed.
*caught candy claws finally at Gypsy, along with Headless Horsemen. Two dudes face to face with drums and a laptop..by god you must be from NY and practice in your 1/2 bedroom. good job guys!
*Surfer Blood at ESD..view from the top of the #19 Bus (food trailer with upstairs hangout zone). it was nice, but of course the sound not the greatest. Dead Milkmen kinda rocked it though..i think the view and the nostalgia made up for the sound.

*finally say Constantina from Belo Horizante Brazil. Friends of Rapha's, never met, instantly recognized me, bought me a beer and offered me food. GODDAMNIT i love Brazilians! the show was spectacular and they put on a grand party. Mostly instrumental, loungy, somewhat jazzy, but the drums kicked in and hints of Mogwai and noisy, clamorous chaos brought life into it. Streamers and confetti? yup. did i say i fucking loved brazil? shiiiiiit!

So Jen and I had our Team Fab gig for the Thrillist Party on monday. It was kinda the most awesome show we'd ever played. The crowd was amazing, we were treated like queens, if queens like Pop Chips, free Rum, and Durex condoms, hee hee. well, we are those types of queens, and it was great beign on stage with each other, interacting with the crowd, and honestly NGFing. If that was Team Fab's last show (sniff sniff) it was one for the books.

OKAYS, enough about southbysouthwest. its over. austin is normal again, if only for a brief time. cuz this next month is gonna be chaos. i predict a riot. of freakouts. and uncertaintity. But this weekend, as we said farewell to Krissie, its apparent that this place will always be home.

Random thoughts:
-Kanye West i didn't see you live but dancing to monster is fuckin A
-Michael Cera wears a hoodie and a backpack...and this ain't a movie set son. you're still adorable
-bummed about not seeing Foster the People
-Jam of the Week: Oberhofer : I Could Go. justcan'tfuckingstoplisteningtoit!
-the generationals have some great songs, i should just listen to the fucking album more
-fuckies in austin don't need spring break to go bat shit crazy. eeks RE: tonite
-i'm retiring my Larry Bird jersey for Paul Pierce on Tuesday. go celtics! here we go birthday. yay!

<3 all

the itch to hitch

weddings are actually quite fun to DJ when people know how to moonwalk. not just the groom but the groom's daughter, sister, brother, mother,and father. i've never seen a family get down so much..except maybe when my dad and uncle are on guitar and bass, and everyone knows the words to both covers and originals from....whenever. Jen played Kicks tonite. and i thought about when i played the keys to Paul Revere and the Raiders with my Daddy. I missed it. i love that song. these lyrics c'mon:

Girl, you thought you found the answer on that magic carpet ride last night
But when you wake up in the mornin' the world still gets you uptight
Well, there's nothin' that you ain't tried
To fill the emptiness inside
But when you come back down, girl
Still ain't feelin' right

And don't it seem like
Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find
And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind
Before you find out it's too late, girl
You better get straight

No, but not with kicks
You just need help, girl

Well you think you're gonna find yourself a little piece of paradise
But it ain't happened yet, so girl, you better think twice
Don't you see no matter what you do
You'll never run away from you
And if you keep on runnin'
You'll have to pay the price

wow,you'll never run away from you...don't overthink it. STOP IT! so....in other news, if you've never seen jana hunter w/ the lower dens, please do so promptly. K-Spot and myself went to see Future Islands and lower dens friday nite..one of the best shows of the year, and its fucking november. Year end list to come, BTW, but for now, this one is making a good run for top 3. SO go do it, if you are even reading this and you live somewhere within 5 hours driving distance, i recommend taking the trip. You will most certainly be elated the entire way home.

fun wedding playlist tonite, just for grins:

The Beatles: I wanna Hold your Hand
Al Green: Let's Stay Together
Passion Pit: I've Got Your Number
Michael Jackson: Wanna Be startin Somethin
Millionyoung: Calrissian
Rolling Stones: Start Me Up
The Kinks: waterloo sunset
OMD: If You leave
Sebastien Tellier: Divine
Prince: I would Die For You
Bruce Springsteen: Dancing In the Dark
MGMT: Kids
Run DMC, Franz Ferdinand, The Knack: mashup TDF!!

only regret of the evening:
no sad Team Fab wedding photo to document. *sidenote, we're really not that sad ;)

alright, its been a weekend, and lugging around PA speakers and gear has me in need of a kick, AKA sleeeeepytime. gnite all <3

funfunfun weekend

happens all the time, whether it be before a fashion show, DJ gig, SXSW, a music fest, a vacation...I get sick. lay in bed all week sick. Last week was no different. Had plenty of time to rest and cross my fingers and toes that i'd be well enough to go to funfunfun fest with a full and healthy spirit. Luckily by Friday morning (Day 1) i was good to go. Not much to see except weird Al, which i didn't even watch. but it didn't matter cuz i got to hang with my favorite girls..Jen, Krissie, and my sister in law, but still my sister Leah. Let the weekend begin..in highlight form:

Saturday

-Jeff the Brotherhood: i didn't know two shits about these dudes. but seeing the two of them performing was awesome..i walked in on the last couple of songs, but now i'm kinda hooked

-The Antlers: as promised, beautiful, intense, dismal yet uplifting.. and the sound filled the park. Props to funfunfun for the last minute addition because they turned out to be a highlight.

-Wavves: for the first time live. Excellent set, i can listen to most of all the old album, and most def straight through the new one, and was pleased with all the choices.. But WTF with the volume? yet again, like Girls at ACL, how about a lil bit of amplification folks. Sincere and adorable with the crowd. Nathan needed a beer and traded a joint for a 24 oz tecate with a fan. He assured that they had plenty more weed. i expected a more excited crowd..but again, its tough without audible noise.

-Os Mutantes: well, i have an obsession with Brazil and this band has been making music for ages....first heard on a mix tape from boy i was dating several years ago. They broke into mean rock guitar solos under a haze of psychadelia and tropicana..they kept me on my toes. brazil always does.

-Man Man: shoulda watched more. but resting and sidewalk socializing (instead on gravel) backstage with every fucking scenester person in austin apparently took a bit of time, and didn't get everything done. Food and beer need consumption too.

-Delorean: the band i stalked during sxsw,i have much love for "Deli" and "Monsoon" but a lot of older tracks but was met with new and unfamiliar tunes at that particular festival. since then new songs have grown on me. perfect crowd for a dance band, glow necklaces and everything. and my favorite jogging keyboardist on the nord..so happy for these guys...they deserve the bigger crowds and kept the fun coming.. PS- great light show

-MGMT: first time to see live! Oracular Spectacular was a seriously meaningful album to me...it was one of those "get me thru this godddamn depressive breakup state i'm in " albums...i rode around the streets of san francisco listening to it with Raya, thinking, hey, things are gonna be for the moment, ok. and it was most certainly moment to moment then.. anyhow..definitely stoked to see live. Not let down. at that point was having crazy sisterly moments with my girls and doing that dance hug thing that looks really gay, but actually does kinda mean something.

Sunday:

-Black Nasty: absolutely the best way to start the day. without question. Black nasty has collaborated with several indie artists, and he receives death threats. But you know what, sack up, he has a lot of shit to say. PLZ listen to shark tank. if you are offended i'm sorry. truly.. i just think he's either taken too seriously or not taken seriously enough. enough of that talk..Team Fab, Gino, and the K-Spot and Leah laughed our asses off. Its funny to see your friends up there singing about doing it up the butt, festishes, and straight up jizz in the face.. Standouts were...fuckin A the whole set was a standout. congrats kids.

-Toro Y Moi: caught a bit of the action from the sidestage for this one. pretty amazing to watch so close. it was def a chill set, kinda matched the weather.

-Cults: long hair dudes, and lady.. all dressed in black. another decent addition to the fest. had their shit together.

-Best Coast: um, i love this band. i know there's a lot of singing about dudes and weed and cats and general dissatisfaction.. but get a group of girls together and whats likely to enter the conversation? dudes, cats, dissatisfaction, and coping strategies. weed, TV, wine, exercise, prayer.. whatever. i do'tn agree with people who say best coast is whiny...in my opinion bethany can sing about whatever the fuck she wants to...its stilly a beachy blast, even if you're not high. mucho singing along for this set.

-Deerhunter: most anticipated act of festival. it was pretty awesome. Expected to hear all of Halcyon Digest, but set peppered with older songs. longed for "Hazel St." and "Basement Scene" but it doesn't matter, its fucking Deerhunter. no lights, playing as shadows. lovely. i almost got lost.. i wanted to get lost... but most certainly not a letdown. a longer time slot woulda been really nice.

Weekend highs:
-attending a festival that's actually easy to get around with HQ bands and people
-Best coast guitarist stopping set to swig off the whiskey bottle in his backpack
-high fiving my favorite spaniard AKA delorean keys dude.
-Delorean saying we "De-yay" at beauty bar tonite.. AKA DJ awww..language barriers
-making friends with security homeboy
-meeting two members of wavves
-jen meets milo
-Seeing austin icon Leslie fully clothed for once eat a piece of pizza out of a trashcan.. 2 seconds later pulled a gnawed on turkey leg out of another trashcan and started chowing away. my stomach hurt from laughing.
-free beer and free burritos
-black nasty
-aftershow at mohawk with sonny and the sunsets..
-hanging out with blip friend igetfreepie
-seeing buffy
-clean port o lets
-K spot yelling penis! and being rewarded with vagina!
-jen getting on my shoulders for the descendents
-getting drilled

weekend lows:
-shitty sound at wavves
-missed most of man man
-missed most of jeff the brotherhood
-no afterparty dancing
-jen's camera lost
-egos and general douchebaggotry
-short sets
-my little bro not being around...but i had my sister

ok, i'm late for a meeting with ...guess who?

weekend warriors

i drove home from a miraculously weird evening..covered in dos equis and sweat from strangers. but i shall explain. spent a fantabulous weekend in bryan/college station with K-spot and my sister in law, plus 5 other girls...yes i said 7 girls in one house.. wowza! I learned that i'm really not girlie at all, i should probably take care of my skin better, and that i can smoke cigarettes "on vacation" and not make it something that has to seep in to normal routine...this is good. its good that i can set boundaries on my vices and stick to my guns. back on track after tonite... and gonna pay for it in a straight up BTW (balls to the wall by the way) work week. so as long as i can get thru this week of manual labor, i will indulge in a wonderful weekend november 7-9 AKA fun fun fun fest. Team Fabrication was asked to design/fabricate a DEVO inspired T-shirt for Transmission Entertainment...creators of the festival ...rendering me full access to fun X 3. let's hope we can find time to squeeze in the sewing and fabric shopping together....its always better that way...more blogs on FFF to come.. In other news..had a meeting with a bride and groom tonite..wedding ETA a week after FFF fest..everythign went smoothly, should be a piece of cake, and a smaller, younger crowd means a lot. it also means "we don't want any country because our parents like the rolling stones and prince and hall and oats" OMG, thank you veeerrry much! what a lifesaver..and a big plus is that the actual ceremony music will be handled by an ipod. i couldn't be happier with the couple to be. its one of those nonchalant weddings where the bride and groom would rather see people having fun than stress out about that GODDAMN ONE PERFECT SONG that has to be played.. srsly, let's get the traditionals outta the way and then get the shit on straight. its gonna be good. in other very important news, listened to Lower Dens from Baltimore this weekend.. krissie and i went to see Future islands at Deville less than a year ago.. we liked the openers but didn't know WTF they were.. sure enough K-Spot researches and breaks out with the full length lower dens and confirmation that we both enjoyed the shit out of then unknown to us band...for the way in and the way home..YES!! home route: i lamely play iphone girl and manage to access the internets in the cuts and wouln't you know it, Lower Dens are opening yet again for future islands..and Astronautilus is playing outside (prolly spelled that wrong, but shit). super excited for this nite...Astroman has never let me down in a live environment..freestyling and flowing..gentlemans insane..counting the seconds.
OTHER THINGS TO NOTE:
-must make mix of old elephant 6 recordings for krissie cuz damnit that new cloud nothings she played for me is so genius.. and i heard influences out my ass...stuff i want to get all nostalgic and gaytarded about..who better would i do that with?!?!
-must listen to more kesha (i prolly misspelled that)
-tonite i went to a gay latino nite that happens every sunday in the ATX. My friend grisel asked me to go since she deems sundays sungays.. haha. I love that in existence was a pretty hot dance routine that everyone knew..and that it only took two tries for me to almost master that shite. Thanks to my grizzle! must dance more.
-saw my gunner tonite and discussed his new recording school project about muted bass drums and why that happens and why that is totally wrong most of the time
-listened to sea wolf and starfucker on the way home and decided that Starfucker is amazing is either underrated or pussyrated (most likely pussy rated since when i went to see them at mohawk, everybody was 20 or some shit)...either route is wrong, and they are TFA y'all.
totally fucken awesome
erin

festivus minimalist

sooo. its almost ACL weekend past. i felt the desire to blog about this for a few reasons. But right now the most important one: Me and Jen AKA Team Fabrication were asked to DJ an ACL afterparty with Dan Black. so we went to the venue and somehow i was hustled into arm wrestling this nice dude from DC who was in for the fest with college friends from Utah.aside from the fact that i love the idea of getting together every two years (as they said they did)they were extremely amiable and wonderful people. so wonderful that they offered their sunday VIP ACL passes to us for free. me, jen, and Krissie (K-Spot). More than happy to take part. for anyone interested, the arm wrestling was ended in a draw. nobody could win, even though i was talking a mean game, haha. so we're going tomorrow. with free food and drinks, all girls, talking shit/props/gossip about what we're gonna see. weeks end recap: Thursday nites spoon could not be beat. it was intimate and glorious, as a spoon show should be. Friday ACL left a bit to the imagination. after parking hassles and whatnot, we missed half of soft pack. But finally it was time to see Girls for the first time in my life. Def wished for more tempo but was charmed to the socks off degree by the end of the set. wish they woulda rocked out more and played with a bit more feedback as they did in the second half of the set.. but that just makes me curious and excited for the next album. and how adorable were the roses taped on each mic. Plus the standin keyboardist had a texas longhorns jersey on. Hookem MuFuck! so next was Beach House who completely brought the TTM effect. 1/2 a valium and a beer = me and k-spot ready to roll. it was glorious. and they were so gracious. Take Care was played, my abs favorite..as was zebra, silver sould, oldies, and a new song and damn if they didn't say the crowd was beautiful and so were the breakfast tacos. haha. Luckily we'd seen spoon in a proper setting the nite before cuz that shit was unbearable. the amount of people there to see spoon was insane. same with black keys. so we didn't get to see spoon up close as we'd wished. but jim and britt were so graciously wonderful the nite before...it really means more to see a band (like spoon or beach house) who are not ego trippin balls. speaking of...The Strokes. No bad feelings, well.. but shit, don't start your set 15 minutes late and be on drugs. its only 830, its not 100 degrees, you've got plenty of afterparty time. so post ACL saw Mates of State for free at Mohawk. Dance party on the balcony, yeaaah! so ACL made me realize that the shows don't mean shit unless they are small or you post up early enough to be close. FFF fest is so much better because the tix aren't oversold and you can completely navigate w/o missing a beat. plus the lineup is sick. bring it on November. either way, i am excited to go to acl tomorrow with free food, drinks, and perhaps a massage. it is relaxation day. no expectations, just hanging with the girls and our boyfriends (AKA music) anyways, so much more to rant about acl, but i'm tired. so i'll close with a happy thought of a good nites sleep and a lucky blessed day at acl tomorrow. some times i really do love this town, and especially the out of towners <3

interview

so. it was a first tonite. DJ gig with one of my favorite local bands The Laughing, Incredible show, but not the first.. The real deal was though, an interview with MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE magazine Nylon in the works. Not sure how or why this whole interview/photoshoot came to be, but i will admit that the tunage and the frocks are sorta my thing. And Nylon had come to the ATX to interview the scene, and somehow Team Fabrication made the cut. And Nylon is a publication that encompasses my for way lack of a better term, passion for both. completely on the up and up on the whatsgoingsons in terms of parties i'd like to attend, food i'd like to eat, bands i'd like to see, clothes i'd want to layer, etc forever.... plus half the bands i like are from brooklyn, and well, the nylon offices are not but a coupla trainstops away. plus the spreads are always TDF!!! to die for. so anyways, not gonna talk too much about something that shouldn't be talked too much about..mostly for fear of ruining what a fabulous nite it was (despite my swearing/acronyms/lack of ability to convey my opinion and attitude about the whole thing ...the whole thing being how i felt about fashion, austin, music, etc..... but whatever) i think it went really well! i just don't wanna write too much cuz really maybe we were annoying, or not as exciting as teh GODDAMNED huge list of bands/ppl they were scheduled to hang out with while here. anyhow, Jen really took the reigns and we really worked well together. Usually it is me who does the bulk of the interviews..but tonite she shined, and i was so proud of her. and i guess it comes from years of knowing someone to collaborate and communicate and cut each other off and tell each other to fuck off at just the right moment. it makes sense. if we were a band wed be perfect tourmates. anyways, we'll see what comes of our moment in the sun, something or nothing. either way, it felt good that we'd stuck to our guns for all these years, and someone outside the regs noticed. and trust me i love the regs, but it can hurt to see the irregular side of things once in a while. more to come... xo