Rosi's SXSW 2019, Days 4 & 5

Japanese Breakfast by Rose Lamela

"Dreams" in the Lone Star State

Words and pics by Rose Lamela (with one by Jim)

Days 4 and 5

On day 4, it started to really hit me how much I was loving Austin. Something about the vibe out there made me feel more in tune with myself. I felt part of this foreign city, and I was forgetting my daily routine of adulting. I was becoming less concerned about what was waiting back home.

This also became my favorite day of the trip. I was going to have a chance to film some local Jersey / BK bands in a different part of Austin which was away from the downtown area. When I walked into the Hard Luck Lounge, I was taken aback by how rustic the venue was. It had such a chill vibe that housed picnic tables and resembled a backyard but with no resemblance to anything in Jersey.

Rosi reppin' at Hard Luck Lounge and concentrating on her phone (by CoolDad)

I set up to do what is truly what I enjoy. I love being a photographer, but the dream is to film as many live performances as possible. The sound was absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed talking to the sound guy there. Despite his being super hungover and tired, he was by far very skilled at his craft. Even with some of the equipment issues CoolDad described in his post, the show went on and sounded great.

It was physically draining to shoot all day, but it was cleaned up with a great dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We talked about life, Austin, music, and of course cameras. I got a ride to my new dwelling for the week, and crashed hard.

Day 5 came in fast, and I decided to hang out at the Austin Convention Center. There were some bands playing there that I got to check out. One being the band Trupa Trupa from Poland. I checked them out after buying my cheesy SXSW hoodie, and I really enjoyed their set. They made a few jokes about what their songs were about, especially one specifically written about snow.

Trupa Trupa

"We get a lot of snow in Poland!" said lead singer Grzegorz Kwiatkowski.

I finished off my stay there by buying a couple of things to send home, and I took in a meditative set from Virgin Pool.

Virgin Pool

This day was all about getting a chance to see Japanese Breakfast. I have been really wanting to see Michelle Zauner since I discovered her early last year. I made it in time to the Container Bar only to stand in my first SXSW line.

I walked in at the end of the Cherry Glazerr set and pushed my way to the front. As I mentioned before, getting to the front at a show in Austin is incredibly easy. The people there are just so nice and they end up striking a conversation with you instead of just giving you a dirty look. Not trying to put you down Jersey and NY, but just saying. There were some technical issues that seemed to last a little longer than usual. Michelle's demeanor remained calm, which is something I am always taken aback by when I see shit hit the fan during sound check. At one poin,t she started to do jumping jacks to relieve some stress resulting from about 30 minutes of troubleshooting audio equipment.

She started her set with "Road Head," which is from her album Soft Sounds from Another Planet. She also played the song "Boyish" which was the very first song I had ever heard thanks to a CoolDad post. She continue to climb on the rails around the stage and sing directly to the audience by delivering an intimate performance. I was so excited to hear her do her a cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams" which is one of my favorite high school era songs.

Japanese Breakfast

After the show, I wandered Austin and decided to go to Shangri-La. A few days prior, I heard music booming from there and made a point to go back. There was a midwest showcase going on, and I got to see some pretty cool bands there. I only got the end of VidCo Kult's set but they went well with a beautiful brisk night on 6th St. Drunk and Attics were hysterical between their lyrics and banter. Their bio on Facebook reads:

"Drugs & Attics is the new premier party drug rock band that's NOT FOR YOUR PARENTS!!!!!!!!"

VidCo Kult

Drugs & Attics

Highlight Rivals came on and battled a bass guitar strap issue with charisma and glam while doing shots of whiskey with the host of the showcase. The Velveteers ended my Friday night with their pop vocals dressed in heavy guitar and drums. I especially dug the song "Atlantic City." I am not being biased. I promise.

Headlight Rivals

The Velveteers

I ordered an Uber; and, as usual, talked to everyone in the car. I got the deets on how cool it is to live in Austin and was told to consider moving there. I went to bed thinking about life and moving south. I thought about this great opportunity to come out here and drown myself with music. Somewhere between those pipe dreams, I passed out in a bed in the Lone Star State.

New Stuff from Quiet Slang, Japanese Breakfast, Big Ups

James Alex will be releasing a Quiet Slang LP.

Trying to Swim through the Flood

The South By Southwest music festival starts next week; and, when I signed up, I checked the little box that said I'd be willing to have showcasing artists contact me with information. Hoo boy. Let's just say it's been a lot. I'm pretty much a one-man show here with very poor organizational skills and the flood of incoming information has been sort of paralyzing. A good problem to have, I guess.

Anyway.

I made an effort over the last couple of days to try and make sense of what's coming in, and I'll share some of the SXSW- and non-SXSW-related stuff I find most interesting in a series of round-up posts.

Quiet Slang, "Dirty Cigarettes"

Quiet Slang is the solo, acoustic project of Beach Slang frontman James Alex. In October of last year, Alex released we were babies & we were dirtbags, a four-song, Quiet Slang EP featuring reworked versions of a pair of Beach Slang tracks ("Future Mixtape for the Art Kids," "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas") along with covers of The Replacements' "Androgynous" and Big Star's "Thirteen."

Today, Alex announced that the first Quiet Slang LP, Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, is due from Polyvinyl on May 18th. To coincide with the announcement, Quiet Slang gives us the video for "Dirty Cigarettes." This version replaces the wall of guitars found on Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street with piano and strings. The video features Mynabirds' Laura Burhenn and Heather McIntosh of the Elephant 6 collective.

James Alex is bringing his Quiet Slang to Austin for a couple of sets at SXSW next week, and [Loud] Beach Slang will be opening for Dashboard Confessional on a tour that brings them to The Stone Pony on April 2nd.



Japanese Breakfast, "Boyish"

Japanese Breakfast's Soft Sounds from Another Planet, with its combination of shoegaze, dreampop, and general spaciness, was one of our favorite albums of 2017. Japanese Breakfast is the solo project of Michelle Zauner, but Zauner has collaborated with Adam Kolodny on several videos. Zauner and Kolodny worked together once again on the video for "Boyish," and the clip shows that Japanese Breakfast is maturing visually as well as musically.

The song has kind of a sad, 60s vibe; and its themes of insecurity and unrequited love are captured perfectly by the setting of a school dance.



One of my great regrets has to be that I still haven't managed to catch Japanese Breakfast live. A spring / summer tour makes its way to TCNJ on 3/23, Warsaw in Brooklyn (SOLD OUT) on 5/31, Philly's Union Transfer on 6/3, and Panorama Fest in NYC on 7/28. Maybe I'll check that box after all.

Soft Sounds from Another Planet is out now on Dead Oceans.

Big Ups, "PPP"

I stumbled upon a set from Big Ups at the end of a long day at Northside Festival a couple of years ago. It was a stifling hot evening at Silent Barn, and I was spent. The band's energy, though, was contagious; and I left that show pumped and a fan.

Joe Galarraga (vocals), Brendan Finn (drums), Amar Lal (guitar), and Carlos Salguero Jr. (bass) have been at it for eight years. The post-hardcore four-piece have produced two essential albums in Eighteen Hours of Static and Before A Million Universes; and, yesterday, they announced that their third LP, Two Parts Together, would be out on May 18th via Exploding In Sound.

"PPP" is the first single from that record. The song is thrashing and confrontational. It uses the image of looking into a broken crystal ball as a metaphor for the way people can create their own, biased versions of the truth: "see what you wanna see, you wanna see, you wanna see."

New Video from Japanese Breakfast

"The Body Is a Blade"

We're big fans of Michelle Zauner's Japanese Breakfast around here. Allyson Dwyer absolutely swooned over 2016's Psychopomp as well as Japanese Breakfast's turn as an opener for Slowdive back in May. This summer's Soft Sounds from Another Planet has been receiving rave reviews, and it's been in heavy rotation for both Allyson and me.

Today, Japanese Breakfast released the video for Soft Sounds... track "The Body Is a Blade." Directed by Zauner with cinematography by Adam Kolodny, the video is like a view into Zauner's memory. It has the look of the old snapshots that inspired it, and it pairs shots of present-day Zauner with images of old family photographs. Zauner says that she "wanted this video to commemorate my mother who died three years ago today."

There are several images of our beloved city by the sea as Zauner sings, "Your body is a blade that cuts a path from day to day... Your body is a blade that moves while your brain is writhing."

Yeah. It is.

Soft Sounds from Another Planet is out now on Dead Oceans.

Slowdive Played Brooklyn Steel with Japanese Breakfast, 5/8/17

Photo: Allyson Dwyer

New Songs, New Venue

by Allyson Dwyer

Three years ago, on a Saturday night in Manhattan, I saw Slowdive at Terminal 5. The night has since remained a benchmark in my memory for how much I fucking hate going to concerts in New York. At least, large general admission concerts where you pay so much to feel so uncomfortable.

So, only the return of Slowdive, with a their first new album in a long ass time, could bring me back; and on a Monday night no less.

Slowdive played at the brand new, baby-faced Brooklyn Steel, a venue so cool it has no signs. It's literally an old steel factory. As waves of young, gorgeous youth and aging hipsters lined up for security, regular ol' Brooklyn residents -- aka "normies" -- would drive by and stop to ask what was going on.

As I waited for my friends, I realized, with a slight bit of arrogant joy, that the majority of the people coming in were young, and -- more importantly -- short. Flashback to the fated Slowdive show of 2014: It was like going to Hoboken on a Saturday night. Wine moms and strange, tall men in dress shirts abounded. No offense to any readers right now, but the crowd was just insufferable. I don't think they realized a concert was going on.

Somehow, the people my age were more hardcore about Slowdive than the older crowd at the Terminal 5 show. As I would soon see throughout the night, people were calm, respectful, and excited to see the band on the stage. Throughout the night, people would yell, "Thank you for playing that song!" "You guys are great!" "Rock 'n roll!!!" Slowdive was as endeared to the audience as we were to them.

Anyway, more on the venue: As you walk in, the first thing that catches your attention is the detail. The only other place I can think of that puts that amount of detail into transporting you to a "place" is Disney World. And, honestly, I fucking love Disney World. The venue was just so cool. The atmosphere is laid back. The place is gigantic, so you don't feel uncomfortable. The bathroom is a dream -- endless clean stalls and no line. I promise I don't work for Bowery Presents. This is my honest opinion. And, maybe most importantly, I should mention, the sound was fantastic.

I got in just in time for Japanese Breakfast, a band I've been dying to see since I fell in love with their debut, Pyschopomp. Michelle Zauner was an electric force of energy and joy as she switched between personas of shoegaze rocker and frontperson to a band that was 100% her project and vision. She played a number of new songs from her upcoming new album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, including its first single, "Machinist"

I first listened to "Machinist" on Spotify and was taken aback. Not only is it a bit removed from her initial shoegaze (it's incredibly poppy), but Michelle also sings through a vocoder. I liked it, but I didn't like it, if that makes sense. Anyway, she ended her set with it; and, as I watched her perform it, it clicked with me instantly. Michelle introduced it as a "love story with robots" and proceeded to perform her heart out, and I guess it was just so infectious to watch her excitedly perform this song. The entire room loved it.

So after a long-ish wait (I should mention the venue's bizarre choice to keep the place practically lights out throughout the whole night) and making some new friends in the crowd, Slowdive crept out onto the stage, opening with "Slommo," which is the first song off their new album and my most favorite of the new songs. Of the new songs, they also played their first two singles, "Star Roving" and "Sugar For The Pill," and the track "No Longer Making Time." Of a sixteen song set, it was definitely strange to find only four of the songs performed from a new release, especially because the entire album is incredible and I would've loved to have heard more of them live.

Photo: Allyson Dwyer

But of course they played the classics, a comprehensive and perfectly curated selection of their best songs from their first three albums; and they sounded flawless doing so. "Catch The Breeze" stood out to me as an older song that really blossomed when heard live. The crowd anxiously waited for songs like "When The Sun Hits" and "40 Days." I could listen to Neal sing "Dagger" on repeat, forever.

There were a number of technical difficulties -- especially for Neal Halstead, who at one point stopped singing during "Alison" and had a couple of false-starts on songs. He kept apologizing, and the crowd would yell out that they still sounded great. They could do no wrong. The band held the audience's attention, even as they closed with their cover of Syd Barrett's "Golden Hair." After Rachel Goswell sang her verse, she walked offstage, leaving the remainder of the band to build an explosive, harmonic ending that left my ears humming.

A majority of the songs during the show I also heard when they played Terminal 5. But it felt different this time. Maybe because, then, they had just reunited and were getting back into their groove. Maybe because I was less flustered by the environment around me. This time felt special -- as if Slowdive themselves were excited for the world to see their new-found joy and happiness. We all felt it.

Japanese Breakfast Released a New Video

Photo: Phobymo

"In Heaven"

Back in April, Allyson Dwyer begged me if she could please, please be the one to write a review for Japanese Breakfast's Psychopomp. I was traveling with the family. I love Allyson's writing and really wanted to bring some attention to a great record; so it was a win-win for everyone involved. Today, Japanese Breakfast (a.k.a. Michelle Zauner of Philly's Little Big League) released the video for Psychopomp opener, "In Heaven."

Psychopomp is an album of contrasts as Zauner deals with grief by crafting beautiful pop songs. In her review of the album, Allyson said of "In Heaven:"

The album's opener "In Heaven," is quite a bait-and-switch -- because it just feels like the perfect shoegaze song to drive-around to. In fact, I was driving when I heard it, and I couldn't help but bop along. But returning to the lyrics, you find such heartbreaking lines as "Oh do you believe in heaven? / Like you believed in me / Oh it could be such heaven / If you believed it was real."

The video is full of color, happiness, friendship, and love. In other words, lots of the things that are wonderful about living here on earth.

Japanese Breakfast heads out on tour with Mitski this summer. Stops at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on 6/20 and Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg on 7/27 bookend that one.

Psychopomp is out now on Yellow K records.

Japanese Breakfast, Psychopomp, 2016

Album Review

by Allyson Dwyer

A few weeks ago CoolDad sent me a link to the Soundcloud for Japanese Breakfast (a project of Michelle Zauner, previously of Philadelphia's Little Big League), and I promptly lost my shit. I guess my music tastes are predictable but again for those who may have forgotten, it has been given an official label in the past: "that sad dreamy shit" (credit to Scott LaRock).

I knew from the few tracks I heard that I had a new band to follow. And Japanese Breakfast's newest full length, Psychopomp, exceeded all of my expectations. At just 25 minutes, it is such a fully realized, tightly produced piece of art. And it's easy to listen all the way through, just to start all over again from the beginning. Why have a Netflix binge when you can re-listen to this 10 times in a row?

Through many reviews I've read of Psychopomp, I've learned that the album is a response to the passing of Zauner's mother. It's an album of grief, but through the personal lens of Zauner and how she is processing it. Many songs clearly do not have a direct line to her mother's passing -- as they stray to topics of sexuality, isolation and self-doubt -- but the original catalyst for the album always looms in the background.

That general overtone of sadness and mourning creeps in and out in the lyrics and music. The album's opener "In Heaven," is quite a bait-and-switch -- because it just feels like the perfect shoegaze song to drive-around to. In fact, I was driving when I heard it, and I couldn't help but bop along. But returning to the lyrics, you find such heartbreaking lines as "Oh do you believe in heaven? / Like you believed in me / Oh it could be such heaven / If you believed it was real."

One of the album's highlights is its natural, river-like flow. Songs bleed into one another in such a way as to again suggest that everything in grief is interconnected. "In Heaven" into "The Woman That Loves You," and "Pyschopomp" into "Jane Cum" are my two personal favorite moments of the entire album. "Jane Cum" may also be my favorite track. It has been since my first listen.

Beyond the circumstances, the album also points towards Zauner's pop-writing sensibilities. "Everybody Wants To Love You," which was originally written by Birthday Girlz (another band of Zauner's), is just a little over two minutes long, but it has an extremely memorable chorus (and some backing vocals from Radiator Hospital's Sam Cook-Parrott). "Heft" is a stand-out track, a hybrid of rock and pop that I could easily hear being played on the radio.

I kind of don't want to gush too much, but let's just say I demanded that CoolDad let me write this review. And now, as I write it, I find myself unable to really articulate what it is about the music -- beyond, "yeah, it's my 'thing'" -- that drew me in. But sometimes you just hear something. It clicks, and you just sense something within it that speaks your language. Which explains why the 25 minutes fly by every time, and I replay it once more.

Psychopomp is out now on Yellow K Records.

Japanese Breakfast heads out on tour this month making two Brooklyn stops -- 4/14 at Silent Barn and 4/30 at Baby's All Right -- before returning to NYC with Mitski on 6/20 at Bowery Ballroom.