News for the ‘sxsw’ Category

Blood Bath Recap Pt. 4

TREASURE MAMMAL – BLOOD BATH

If you’re familiar with the Cannibal Cheerleader cult at all you’ll know we count ourselves among the biggest devotees of Phoenix’s favorite son Treasure Mammal aka Abe Gil. With experimental tendencies wrapped in electronic warbles coated in inspirational by-way-off ridiculous lyrics packaged in a hip-hop candy coating, T. Mammal defies easy definition, as his performance at our Cannibal Cheerleader Blood Bath clearly demonstrated. Blasting through some unbelievably awesome new tracks, Abe left the audience at the Peacock literally speechless.
Despite having initial difficulty getting sets for SXSW, the Treasure Mammal eventually found him self playing a half-dozen parties across Austin. We’re not sure if he survived the events of the craziest weekend in Austin, but we’ll undoubtedly be seeing more of this awesome artist soon. Check it:
Treasure Mammal – “Can You Dig It”
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VERMILLION LIES – BLOOD BATH
Another one of our favorite acts of the Blood Bath was undoubtedly Vermillion Lies, a wonderful duo out Oakland who opened the show to a small but devoted crowd and absolutely rocked the Peacock to its foundations. Playing a brand of Victorian-era inspired punk rock with a heavy dosage of bizarre instrumentation to boot (toy drums and accordions anyone?) these ladies knew how to start a party off right.
Playing to a tiny bar as if they were opening for a stadium tour, Vermillion Lies left Austin to prepare for their upcoming tour with Amanda Palmer. However, they couldn’t leave the Lone Star State without getting themselves involved in the massive pillow-fight that occurred on Sixth Street that afternoon. Definitely a crazy group, check it:

Vermillion Lies – “Circus Apocalypse” 
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SXSW LIVE REVIEW – THERMALS, CURSIVE, and THAO
Had the opportunity to check out a ton of bands at Mess With Texas on SXSW’s final day of Saturday and it turned out to be one of the best days of the whole fest. Starting with Cursive who blazed through their seminal Ugly Organ album almost start to finish and crashing through a wonderful set by CC fave Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, we knew we were in for a wonderful afternoon. After a set by the Vivian Girls (maybe a little too blog-buzzworthy for our taste at the moment) we were privvy to a set by the absolutely incredible Thermals who blazed through tracks old and new to the joy of a crowd-surfing audience below. One of the best (and hottest!) days of South by Southwest ever!
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THE HORRORS RETURN
With a blog called Cannibal Cheerleader you can imagine how enthused we are about any band that calls themselves the Horrors. Truth be told we were among the first in our small group of indie-centric friends who jumped on the group’s self-titled EP and proclaimed them as the heir-apparent of goth-rock as we know it. We still love that album and Strange House and we can say unequivocally that the video for “Sheena Is A Parasite” ranks among our top 5 of all time. 
And now, we’re getting news that the Horrors are resurrected, plucked from the grave of UK obscurity with their new album Primary Colours and it’s first single “Sea Within A Sea”. Definitely a slow-burner, clocking in at over 7 minutes, it seems the London quintet has shifted gears from the hellfire immediacy of their debut to a creepy-crawly, Zombies-by-way-of-the-Cure spookfest that sounds like a titilating ghost story rather than a slasher horror. Check it out below and count us among the group who can’t wait to hear the whole album.
Couldn’t resist this video. Comments?

Blood Bath Recap Pt. 2

THE ACTION DESIGN – BLOOD BATH
Regular readers of Cannibal Cheerleader will be familiar with one of our favorite acts the Action Design who played our inaugural Blood Bath SXSW day party a week ago. The band rocketed through a seven song set of classics, even throwing in a Misfits cover for good measure! Seriously, this group bleeds cool in classic style and got the whole of the Peacock dancing in fine form. This group has come a long way since Tsunami Bomb and because of that we feel they’ll all the better for it, having improved their sound immeasurably to the tune of a dance-rock powerhouse.
A funny story must be included about the group whose guitarist Jaycen woke up last Wednesday morning with a terrible stomach pain and had to be rushed to the hospital. We were called in the midst of the performance of opener Vermillion Lies with the news that the band’s attendance might have to be an acoustic set, if anything at all. That said, once Jaycen was freed from his IV tethers, the group raced up to Austin from San Antonio at breakneck speed and despite some delays managed to play a scorching last set of the day. Definitely worth the wait, and let it never be said that this band isn’t a troupe of troopers. Check out some videos and more pictures below!




The Action Design – “Half A World”
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SXSW LIVE REVIEW – THE HOLD STEADY/LUCERO

Our Thursday at SXSW involved a wonderful stint at Red 7 where we were witness to an astounding double-bill of Lucero and the Hold Steady. Seems that this was the first time these two great and very similar acts were on the same bill and the set did not dissappoint, with classic tunes played by both bands. Still, it was the Hold Steady that took the cake, rampaging through songs old and new with a heavy concentration of rockers from Stay Positive including personal favorite “Slapped Actress” and barn-burning opener “Constructive Summer”. The crowd responded in kind to the band’s inclusive nature, featuring crowd-surfing, a surprising amount of moshing, and plenty of sing-along choruses. Definitely a sight to behold and worthy of the trip downtown during the busiest weekend in Austin.

The Hold Steady – “Constructive Summer”

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NEW CRYSTAL CASTLES TRACK

Long time fan-favorite and live-show standard “Baptism” from Crystal Castles has managed to weasel its way onto music sites over the past 24 hours. No one’s quite sure if this track is a result of any new recordings or if the wordless track (live the track is accompanied by Alice Glass’ trademark shouts) is off of a mysterious release. What we do know is the noodling synths and breakbeat riffs make this track a monster jam and we’re happy to finally have a real version swimming through our shuffler. Check it out below:

(turns out this mp3 was a fan-made cover – thanks Andy from Lies Records for clearing that up!)

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Feeling Like Murder

SXSW BLEEDS AUSTIN DRY

…and we love it. Definitely having a great time here at SXSW, Rolo Tomassi melted our faces off at their first US show ever at the Cannibal Cheerleader Blood Bath, Lissy Trullie left us starry-eyed at Red 7, the Hold Steady played their first ever dual-header with Lucero, M. Ward and the Cold War Kids burned up Auditorium Shores, and that’s of course just the tip of the iceberg.
We here at Cannibal Cheerleader don’t profess to have the biggest staff that can cover an entire festival – however, the one thing we definitely do better than anyone else is videography and we’ve got killer video for Rolo, The Whispertown 2000, The Action Design, and more from our day show, all of which we’ll roll out next week. We plan on giving a massive update on Monday where we’ll talk about every little experience from the weekend and our day show. Stay tuned until then and enjoy your SXSW experience!
PS. Check out this indie video from NME of the Rolo Tomassi bassist Joseph Thorpe coming THIS close to smashing his bass all over the Peacock. 
Be prepared for this, only with sound next week! 
Rolo Tomassi – “Scabs”
Comments? For the record, the guys in Rolo Tomassi are the nicest, most thoughtful, and humblest band we’ve ever come across that can turn around and shred the shit out of a venue in a 30-minute set. A class act through and through. 

Rioting – Best Eats of ‘09

SXSW 2009 – ‘09 BEST EAT

The lineup for the SXSW 2009 is slowly building, with a recent announcement naming Cannibal Cheerleader favorites like Ben Harper, the Courteneers, Beach House, White Lies, and the awesome Ra Ra Riot. 
Check out the rest of the released lineup here and be prepared for an awesome SXSW 2009. Any other blogs out there want to do a joint Cannibal Cheerleader/OtherBlog party? Let me know!
Ra Ra Riot – “Dying is Fine”
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Posted: December 24th, 2008
Categories: ben harper, cannibal cheerleader, ra ra riot, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 09
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Comments: 1 Comment.