Georgia’s Dead Confederate first hit our airwaves early last October and, truth be known, were the very first act we confirmed for a Lounge Act during SXSW. Five more down to earth guys you’d be hard pressed to meet, they were returning to Austin not long after they’d spent time in town recording their full-length debut, due later this year. With only a five-song EP to their name, they band surprised us by playing four brand new tunes in addition to a blistering rendition of “The Rat”.
The band had been playing gigs en route to Austin and, talking to Mike, made light of a few under attended shows along the way. Not to worry, the guys arrived at EAR Studios on a natural high after playing their biggest concert to date as handpicked openers for R.E.M.’s sole festival performance at Stubb’s the night before.
Brooklyn duo Project Jenny, Project Jan made quite an impact on our listeners last year after the release of their full-length debut xoxoxoxoxo. Several tracks off the record became frequently requested here at the station and the airplay secured them the #84 spot on our 97 Best Of 2007 countdown.
Jeremy Haines and Sammy Rubin have been playing together since late 2004 and already had an EP under their belt by the time we were introduced to their debut disc. Their performance from Austin mixes tracks from both releases and the guys showed up incredibly prepared. Just as they do with a regular live show, they projected videos behind them in the studio that corresponded to each song (you’ll get to see a bit of that in the forthcoming live video footage). Even though it was 11 in the morning, the guys had more energy than almost any band we met during the week!
Be sure to listen today at 3pm ET for a special MusicNOW 2008 preview with Bryce Dessner of The National, Clogs and of course the curator of the MusicNOW festival. This is the third year for MusicNOW and another great lineup will be taking the stage this week over at Memorial Hall here in Cincinnati. And it is the second time we have had Bryce in to preview the festival.
Working For A Nuclear Free City are the latest subjects of our Lounge Act Video Recaps from SXSW 2008, have a look and listen at this great video of them performing “Quiet Place” at EAR Studios in Austin.
Right in the middle of scheduling our Lounge Acts for SXSW, we came across this video for “No Surprise” which served as our introduction to James Yuill. Eager to hear more, we snapped up his latest disc Turning Down Water For Air, added it to our playlist and a few e-mails later, he’d accepted our invitataion to play live for WOXY listeners worldwide.
A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from London, James’ music has been described as ‘folktronica’, which blends the influence from two of his favorite artists: Nick Drake and Radiohead. Not surprisingly then, his session saw him shifting ably between an acoustic guitar and some electronic machinery, usually during the same song. He’s also been in-demand for his remixing skills, recently adding his touch to songs by Au Revoir Simone and The Answering Machine.
Three of the four songs in his Lounge Act appear on his latest CD while the fourth, a cover of Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”, has become a trademark of James’ live shows. Turning Down Water For Air is available digitally in the US and directly from his own Happy Biscuit Club label. Definitely an artist we expect to hear a lot more from in the future.
Setlist
She Said In Jest
This Sweet Love -interview-
Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
No Surprise
Another great video from our time at SXSW to share on this Friday. It’s These New Puritans, doing their song, “Elvis.” Here’s hoping it helps get your weekend started right…
Yet another successful episode of the blogger hour hit the airwaves this week as we had Jared from 5acts, a great Washington D.C. based music blog in for the show. Jared made a point to choose artists that have yet to make their debut on the WOXY airwaves in an attempt to expose our audience to some new musicians.
It was a great hour, listen in below, and check out the setlist right here as well…..
From the moment we heard “Lightbulbs” on the Artrocker radio show last Fall, we began to seek out more about The Answering Machine. Martin, Patrick and Gemma formed the band in 2005 while attending the University of Manchester and initially used a drum machine, Mustafa Beat (get it?), before adding Ben to round out the quartet.
After releasing just two singles, “Oklahoma” and “Silent Hotels”, they were invited to play the 2007 Glastonbury Festival. “Lightbulbs”, their third single, appeared in November prior to making the trip to SXSW in 2008. Their Lounge Act session at EAR Studios marked their first performance of any kind in the USA and includes all three of their singles. Obviously, we think they’re awfully special and have an extremely bright future.
As a matter of fact, the band has attracted the attention of producer Tony Hoffer, who’s previously worked with Beck, Belle & Sebastian and The Fratellis, and has expressed interest in possibly recording the band in the future.
Enjoy another great video today from Ed Harcourt, performing “Shadowboxing” during SXSW at EAR Studios in Austin. Thanks again to the good people at Soft City Lights and PROJECTMILL.
After relentless worldwide touring due to the great success of Peter Bjorn & John’s Writer’s Block album, Peter Moren has slowed things down a bit for his solo debut. The Last Tycoon is released April 8th on the Quarterstick label here in the U.S. and it is a stunningly simple record. Inspired by folk pioneers of the 1960’s & 1970’s, Peter worked with his friends Daniel Varjo (of the Concretes) and Tobias Froberg and it’s obvious that he had fun working on some songs that wouldn’t really fit for PB&J.
In this intimate performance, the songs are presented as stripped down as possible: it’s just Peter and an acoustic guitar. He only made a few appearances down at SXSW this year and we were thrilled that he spent some time with us and played a few tunes off The Last Tycoon. You’ll hear four tracks from the new cd and then he presents a reworked version of an old PB&J song to close out the set.
