SXSW 2001

South By Southwest is always a good time of year to experience live music. Bands that almost never come to Austin show up, bands you might be curious about play with other bands you love, and artists with whom you're already familiar get caught up in the spirit and play the concerts of their lives. It's hard not to see at least one phenomenal show a day.

I saw a lot of great shows and heard a lot of exceptional music this year. The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs and the BellRays, two of the best live rock 'n' roll bands in the USA, were their usual balls-to-the-wall selves and received deservedly rapturous receptions. Georgia-by-way-of-Alabama Southern rockers the Drive-By Truckers were every bit as good as I hoped they'd be. Canada's surf power trio Huevos Rancheros, Scotland's buzz band of the moment Idlewild, Denton, TX's Dixie Witch, Nashville's raucous Bare Jr., New York's premiere blues/gospel troupe the Holmes Brothers and Austin's pop sensations the Bluehearts all turned in sterling sets. Even 80s one-hit-wonder Tony Carey was interesting. Good music was everywhere, ready to be tripped over.

That being the case, rather than explain every show I attended, I'm going to instead detail the unexpected pleasures, the acts who took me by surprise, either by virtue of being better than I expected or by playing at a time when I wasn't even on the lookout for them. Some of these artists are somewhat well-known, while most of them are only just crossing over the edge of obscurity, at least in this country. Regardless, they're all artists to keep an eye and ear out for. (more)

Aural Fixations

EVELYN FOREVER
Good To Be Alive
So why is Evelyn Forever's new album Good To Be Alive so gosh-darned good? There's little on here that hasn't been done before—familiar melodies and guitar riffs, conventional vocal harmonies, the usual songs about getting, keeping and losing girls. But they do it all with such spirited enthusiasm and slavish devotion to maximizing melody that they destroy any hint of an attempt to visit the past. To these young men, power pop is here and now, it's happening, it's their purest form of self-expression. "Imagine My Surprise," "I Know a Girl" and the remarkable "Indecision" ('N'Sync with guitars!) aren't desperate attempts to regain innocence—they're genuinely innocent. (Note: innocent, not naive. There's a big difference.) The boys also know how to add just the right effect to lift their genre-perfect creations above the norm—dig the "Eight Miles High" 12-string solo and castanets in "Little Girl," the bedroom acoustic guitars and bongos of the lovely "Maybe," the percolating drum loop of "Indecision." Little touches like these make all the difference. (full review)