Finally, SXSW08: Tuesday night
[Ed.’s Note: This is the first post by Jesse Jarnow, who will be assisting us with our coverage of SXSW 2008. Jesse’s bio follows: Jesse Jarnow is a contributing editor at Paste and Relix. His writing has
appeared in the London Times, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He has written children’s books about Presidential politics, Mark Twain, the Grateful Dead, Prince, Johnny Bench, socialism, telegraphs, Davy Crockett, and other topics, and once helped curate an historical exhibit titled Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam. His original songs and field recordings occaisonally appear under the name Funny Cry Happy. There’s a novel, too. Based in Brooklyn, he blogs about books, b-sides, and baseball at wunderkammern27.com.]
No fiddle, not afraid: YLT in TX.
Hoboken’s Yo La Tengo and Louisville’s My Morning Jacket showcased two stances on South by Southwest during their performances at the IFC Crossroads party on Tuesday night at the Parish. “This song is called ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’” guitarist Ira Kaplan announced straight-faced as the band began “Mr. Tough” from 2006’s I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass LP while IFC promo footage flickered on flatscreens around the club. He introduced “Beanbag Chair” as “Jaws 3D.”
Perhaps lost on the non-plussed crowd was Yo La Tengo’s members’ four decade (and literally genetic) connection to independent film via drummer Georgia Hubley’s family of animators, including sister Emily, whose feature-length debut, The Toe Tactic, debuted in Austin earlier this week with a YLT score. Later, the band played “Demons,” which appeared (along with the band themselves, in Velvet Underground drag) in 1996’s I Shot Andy Warhol. The trio, who turn 25 this year, hardly need South by Southwest (and wryly closed their 2003 appearance with a sloppy cover of “Takin’ Care of Business”), but whose presence is undeniably relevant.
My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, on the other hand, was a bit more effusive, bantering about “sweet, delicious, pure, unspoiled Austintown,” which must be somewhere near Riddle, the mythical 19th century burg in which James delivered Bob Dylan’s “Goin’ to Acapulco” in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not
There. His quintet was practically hegemonic in their performance, lights and smoke machines turning James’ every head twitch into iconic blog-ready moments while his band evoked the reverberated stadium twang of U2, the harmonies of the Eagles and other tropes. Though a pedal steel-abetted version of “Golden” was lovely, by the end of the set, James was soloing on a Flying V with his foot perched like a conquistador on his monitor. And, born of the same hype cycle ecosystem as South by Southwest, perhaps he is.