Austin chronicle

CHASING AMY Getting in to see Amy Winehouse, here going acoustic at Austin’s Brush Square Park, often meant waiting for hours in line.

Photo: Antonia Simigis

Once a year, hundreds of bands and thousands of rock fans from around the world descend on Austin, Texas, for its annual South by Southwest music conference. We checked out some of the most buzzed-about performers heading to town soon.

The Besnard Lakes
The line to get into the Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans showcase snaked around the block, and it was a shame more people were still outside once Montreal’s Besnard Lakes came onstage. “Actually, it’s much better in here,” taunted guitarist Jace Lasek, as clouds from the band’s smoke machine wafted over the fence. “There’s a hot tub, the songs sound much better…and we’re really cute.” Soon fans started tearing at the barriers to peek in at Lasek and his wife, Olga Goreas, as they led the ensemble, her thundering bass-plucking intertwining with his thick ’70s monster riffs. Their sparkly, late-’60s Brian Wilson harmonies had a nice twist: She held down the lower part while he sang in falsetto, a pleasing gender flip to their swirling slabs of no-fuss rock. The Besnard Lakes play Schubas March 29.

Deerhunter
The crowd at Pitchfork’s day showcase was patient as Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox tried to fix his problematic microphone—one woman even ran up to him, mid-song, to tell him the volume was too low. In the end, his quietly roaring vocals, intentionally drenched in reverb, gave the set a dreamy, almost instrumental texturing that might have been lost at the intended intensity. The Atlanta fivesome has a relaxed, down-home vibe—whiskey was being passed around, and Cox proudly wore a bad to the bone T-shirt—that made the sophisticated Velvet Underground/shoegaze-infused songs from its new Cryptograms (Kranky) even more warm and enveloping than on record. Deerhunter plays Empty Bottle April 4.

Thurston Moore
Moore continues to demonstrate his good taste on his label, Ecstatic Peace, which has signed some of the finest experimental, noise and freak-folk artists. He’s a savvy marketer, too, generating buzz for his imprint’s showcase by playing it himself—twice. The night started off with a jam session that included C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) on violin, Pete Nolan (Magik Markers) on drums and Nancy Garcia (Monotract) on guitar. Jam session may be putting it gently; it was an aural freakout, with Moore grinding his strings with his trademark drumstick and Yeh playing his violin with two bows, then sawing at it vertically, then putting it down and grunting monstrously into the microphone as if possessed by some demonic, backward-spinning record player. Later the mood changed, as Moore did something even more revelatory: He brought out an acoustic guitar. It turned out his second set, which had been billed as “Thurston Moore with Special Guest,” included none other than Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley on drums; the two meditated over tracks from Moore’s forthcoming solo album in psychedelic, trancelike unison. Sonic Youth will perform Daydream Nation in its entirety at the Pitchfork Music Festival July 13.

Rosie Thomas
Austin’s dark and still Central Presbyterian Church was the perfect venue for the week’s acoustic, mellower acts. The solemnity was quickly shattered by the Seattle singer-songwriter, all smiles in her kewpie-doll dress, who perkily announced, “I get so nervous before I perform. I can’t tell if it’s nerves or excitement, but I’m so spazzy right now!” Once Thomas settled down and got a guitar in her hands, though, her Betty Boop chatter tempered into a rich, lower singing register that buoyed her songs from the new These Friends of Mine (Singalong) up to the rafters. Later she joked that she was going to cover “Margaritaville”—but the crowd didn’t groan, because even that wouldn’t have sounded half bad. Thomas plays Beat Kitchen April 15.

Amy Winehouse
“Amy Winehouse?” someone asked us while we stood in line to see Moore. “Isn’t she sort of like Lily Allen?” Yes and, well, no. Both young, retro-minded British divas were playing the festival, it was true. Both have adorably sassy images, enjoy mouthing off to the press, and have new albums that display scores of talent—the kind of talent that sends lesser songstresses such as Joss Stone and Corinne Bailey Rae back to the Starbucks checkout register. But while Allen has trouble conveying her sweet reggae-pop outside the studio, Winehouse is the real deal, as powerful live as she is on her new Back to Black, and deservedly one of the fest’s biggest draws. Her nouveau R&B is gritty and real—if the Shangri-Las had written their own music, maybe they would have sung about sex, pot and rehab, too. We were lucky enough to catch her at an intimate day showcase; she sang five songs, accompanied only by acoustic guitar, and still sounded larger than life. Winehouse plays Schubas May 3.

Want more? Visit our SXSW blog at www.timeoutaustin.com.