Since we last saw this San Francisco band, they’ve been hard at work on their follow-up to 2006’s No Midnight. They recently signed to the FADER label who will be releasing their 2nd full-length album later this year. We were able to grab the guys for a session on their way in to Austin and they gave us a nice preview of the new disc playing four new songs and an older favorite from the debut disc.

A very cool added bonus was that our video crew (from the PROJECTMILL) followed the band after they cleared their instruments out of the main studio. Peter and Justin proceeded to play another new song called “I Might Have Guessed” outside acoustically, which compliments the main Lounge Act session beautifully.

View the entire photoset here.

Track Listing:
Skeleton Suit
Forever Gone
Untitled in A
- interview -
Born To Be Your Man
The Only 1

Birdmonster - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

Lightspeed Champion is the new project of Dev Hynes, formerly of caustic noise punks Test Icicles, and it’d be hard to imagine any artist pulling a more drastic 180% change in terms of musical direction. For his solo debut, he flew to Omaha to work with Saddle Creek’s in-house producer Mike Mogis on a set of rather intimate, acoustic based numbers which became Falling Off The Lavender Bridge.

Dev was a hard guy to miss in Austin, with his trademark specs and ever-present winter hat (no matter how warm it got), he played nearly a dozen shows during SXSW when he wasn’t being followed around by a film crew or interviewed by MTV and the BBC.

For this highly entertaining Lounge Act session, he played exactly half of the full-length CD in a lovely, stripped down manner, alternating between acoustic guitar and piano, accompanied only by violinist Mike Siddell (ex-Hope Of The States).

View the entire photoset here…..

Tracklist -
Tell Me What It’s Worth
Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk
No Surprise (For Wendela)
Dry Lips
-interview-
Galaxy Of The Lost
Midnight Surprise

Lightspeed Champion - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

See Also - Lightspeed Champion Lounge Act Video Recap

We first caught a whiff of The Whip, a dance rock band from Manchester, last Fall when we started dropping their “Divebomb” instrumental into our playlists. It was one of those songs that garnered instantaneous response from WOXY listeners. So, when we heard they were coming to SXSW, we jumped at the chance to have them play a session for us. As it turned out, this marked the band’s very first performance of any kind in North America.

A foursome comprised of members who all enjoyed label deals with previous bands, The Whip arrived in Texas seeking a Stateside deal for their excellent debut X Marks Destination, released on Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried label in the UK.

They turned EAR Studios into a daytime dance party with five tunes from their debut record and chatted with Mike about welcoming any and all comparisons to the legendary band that inspires them, New Order.

View the entire photoset here…

Tracklisting -
Sister Siam
Frustration
Divebomb
- interview -
Blackout
Trash

The Whip - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

Our first performance on Wednesday morning was from Ed Harcourt. Last year, Ed parted ways with EMI who squeezed out a best-of retrospective disc but never released his final album, The Beautiful Lie, in the United States. Almost two years after its release overseas, this album has been picked up here by Dovecote Records, who are putting it out this summer. SXSW proved the perfect opportunity for Ed to play in the states with a full band for the first time in almost five years.

Our early morning session was not without some mild difficulty. About five minutes before we went live with the performance, Ed’s lovely wife Gita dropped her violin. She tinkered with it quite a bit but the look on her face said it all. She seemed quite uncertain about how she was going to play. The mood was tenuous during the first song after we went live, but she was able to get things back in working order and the show did indeed go on. It was a lovely way to start the day. The session contained a few tracks from The Beautiful Lie, but Ed also reached back to his 2nd album, From Every Sphere, as well.

View the entire photoset here…

Track Listing:

Shadowboxing
You Put A Spell On Me
Fireflies Take Flight
interview
The Last Cigarette
Until Tomorrow Then

Ed Harcourt - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

We last saw The Kills in the spring of 2005 when they stopped in to our Cincinnati studios to play some tunes from their “No Wow” release. Flash forward to three years later: we met up with Jamie and Allison in Austin, Texas during SXSW.

The UK duo were on a whirlwind trip, over just to play at the festival, and were headed almost immediately back overseas to begin a European tour by the end of the week. This appearance happened just a week in advance of the domestic release of their new album Midnight Boom and they were in fine form as they rocked through 6 tracks off the disc.

View the entire photoset here.

Track listing:

U.R.A. Fever
Tape Song
Alphabet Pony
Sour Cherry
interview
Last Day Of Magic
Cheap And Cheerful

The Kills - Live On WOXY.com

See Also - The Kills Lounge Act Video Recap

Several years ago we started playing this band from Austin and their song “Understanding Fire” earned a fair amount of WOXY airplay. Lineup changes and label woes sent the band off for awhile to regroup and decide on how to approach their future. Late last year, they emerged with a terrific sounding EP called “Keep It Light” and we were pleased to finally meet the band (on their home turf no less) for a performance during SXSW.

Here, they serve up some tracks off the “Keep It Light” EP, an unreleased tune, and even play our old favorite, “Understanding Fire.”

View the entire photoset here.

Tracklisting:

Race Rabbit
Keep It Light
interview
Autographin’ Bibles
What You Know
October Rain
Understanding Fire

Zykos - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

For our second consecutive sojourn to SXSW, we set up once again at Austin’s EAR Studios. Owned and operated by James Stevens, we thought it fitting that his band, Moonlight Towers, would kick off our weeks’ worth of live Lounge Act sessions.

Veterans of the fertile Austin scene, the band has released two CD’s and are hard at work on a third. James’ gruff vocals atop the Towers’ guitar-driven swagger recalls bands like The Replacements and The Smithereens, both of whom had plenty of classically melodic chops.

The band’s setlist includes four unreleased songs, along with “I Sleep Alone” from their 2005 release Like You Were Never There.

View the entire photoset here.

Tracklisting:
Can’t Shake This Feelin’
Don’t Throw Me Down
I Sleep Alone
interview
Not A Kid Anymore
Distant Wheels

Moonlight Towers - Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

We hope you are enjoying the broadcasts from Austin this week. Have a look at some of our favorite photos from Day 1 of SXSW as WOXY.com broadcasts from EAR Studios in Austin, Texas. Bryan Jay has been getting some great shots….

The Kills

Zykos

The Kills

Moonlight Towers

More after the jump…..
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