it’s exactly what it sounds like, folks. and in true sxsw fashion, don’t bother getting your hopes up for a lot of these unless you plan on buying a badge. hit the jump for a biiiiiiiiig copy and paste theft job by way of CoS.
-grizzly
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well, even though vevo were nice enough to put up these incredible quality clips of the mega-event from this past year’s sxsw, i gotta say i’m a little disappointed in the QUANTITY of the output. three kanye songs, a mos def song, a pusha t verse, a kid cudi a capella and a live clip of “h.a.m.” is all we get? i know they’re hoarding more, and i want to see it all, plz.
watch the rest of the videos here.
-grizzly
while the whole thing is premiering tonight, the folks at vevo decided to throw up a preview clip – and it definitely delivers to say the least. i plan on watching this and gettin’ drunk tonight. unrelated, of course.
-grizzly
so this is what everyone missed. i’m still sour about it. the whole show premieres on vevo, july 12th.
-grizzly
yes, if you look at the artwork below. you can see that middle brother were joined by a very literal johnny corndawg for their earthy and acoustic daytrotter set. download the two-parter set below.
middle brother is out now.
download:
- sunbear
god bless grizzly for waking me up at 1am with a text about charles bradley. up top we have a video from the soul singer featuring daptones’ menahan street band (dap-kings, el michels affair, etc) live from sxsw. if watching that doesn’t win you over, then a). you have no soul, b). pick up his recently released album, no time for dreaming, and c). i hate you.
- panda
photo credit: kelly mason.
This interview was easily one of the greatest things to happen to this blog. There’s always that one band who you loved unconditionally through all of their releases and shows, even if everyone else didn’t. As a collective, we’re all fans of Gatsbys American Dream and had all had our own memories of the band long before we started weworemasks and even longer before we became friends. After seeing two reunion shows at this year’s SXSW festival, we made sure to get our contacts in order to make this interview happen.
In the 20 minute interview we had on the phone, singer Nic Newsham and I discussed the reunion shows, among other things, which include their future musical endeavors with GAD, as well as who’s releasing the album and of course, Nic’s perspective on the music industry. Hit the jump and read the interview. Follow em on twitter and lets get excited about rock music again.
Edit: I just realized, I met Panda and Sunbear for the first time at two different GAD shows. Panda was at an As Cities Burn/Gym Class/GAD tour, and Sunbear was at the Starting Line/GAD tour. Insanity. Nostalgia doesn’t get any cooler than that, folks.
-grizzly
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if you’re like us, you had hopes of getting into the killers, lasers and papers showcase at sxsw. originally slated to be lupe fiasco, cee-lo green and wiz khalifa, a sickness took lupe out and i’m sure sheer laziness took cee-lo out, who were then replaced by b.o.b. and janelle monae. i was definitely still bummed i didn’t get to see the show, but now we have a consolation prize. as the headliner, it’s definitely cool to see this – janelle’s full set from the showcase can now be downloaded for free. hit the jump for the tracklist and enjoy a live set from one of the best current performers.
download:
janelle monae – killers, lasers and papers [full set; live album]
-grizzly
This time of the year is always pretty hectic. Between not paying for badges and getting into half of the shows we wanted to, getting drunk and finding free shit, SXSW can be a pretty pressing time. Luckily, we don’t complain that much. We threw up a mixtape prior to the event, but in any case, this recap will be quick and to the point. You’ll find each day broken down into who and what we saw, accompanied by blurbs written by Sunbear and I — all will be marked for your convenience.
You’ll also find some photos we took, many from Sunbear’s Instagram binge and some from my shitty point and shoot. Enjoy!
-grizzly & sunbear
thankful for this. IPS has one of the best live shows around, and the PV house website has some of the performance from 3am up on their site. watch the “american trash” clip here.
-grizzly
welcome back, gentleman. here is the band’s first ever performance from the reunion show. sorry the footage ain’t hot, but i was using a point and shoot to capture this. also, it was loud as eff in there. hit the jump to see the video for “recondition. reprogram. reactivate.” as well.
-grizzly
clip of jermaine kicking some knowledge at a panel during sxsw.
-grizzly
gonna run through these posts quickly to catch up on ish. didn’t catch these two, but i’m sure it was a good show.
-grizzly
super jelly about anyone who got into this. at the same time, HUUUUUUUUUUGE fuck you goes out to vevo for sucking the life out of the festival. dropped the ball with the promo. but the whole thing will air on good friday in april.
some sxsw shit coming tomorrow, readers. stay tuned.
-grizzly
that time of the year again, folks. sadly, our bb panda will not be joining us, as he is an old man who is busy moving into a new place and tending to things such as being a grown up, working, and other boring shit of that nature. fear not, we will definitely visit him as soon as possible to make up for all the drinking and hugging he missed out on.
sunbear and i will be trekking to austin to see a various array of shit, and the duties of weworemasks will be bestowed upon jerome. so don’t be upset that the posts will be few and far between from now until sunday evening. for your convenience, i’ve set up a neat little sidebar/widget for you to keep up with us while we’re in austin for the fest. sunbear will be taking care of the instagram/photoblog and we’ll also have our twitters (both weworemasks and sunbear’s personal) going at full throttle.
and what kind of bears would we be if we weren’t leaving you with a mixtape?
tracklisting:
1. childish gambino – freaks and geeks
2. kanye west – looking for trouble f. pusha t, j. cole, big sean and cyhi the prynce
3. smith westerns – weekend
4. the niceguys – ari gold
5. the pains of being pure at heart – belong
6. gatsbys american dream – untitled
7. the cool kids – free throws
8. chromeo – i’m not contagious
9. big k.r.i.t. – hometown hero (grillade sessions)
10. ellie goulding – heartbeats (the knife cover)
11. theophilus london – strange love
12. river city extension – friends and family
13. wiz khalifa – the race
14. toro y moi – new beat
15. xv – finally home
we weren’t there for this, unfortunately. however, npr was on hand to get the soundboard of the performance, and now we can all enjoy this fresh bastard’s 40 minute set. i’m about 10 minutes deep and it is fantastic.
stay tuned to npr’s ongoing coverage of the festival and check back for more updates on new sets from artists. we won’t be here to constantly update you on it, so that’s on you folks.
tomorrow: smith westerns, the antlers, tune-yards
friday: bright eyes, man man, kurt vile and more
stream:
raphael saadiq – live at stubbs (sxsw 2011)
-grizzly
it’s that time of the year, folks. sxsw is upon us, and we’re quite aware that you can’t join all of the festivities. thankfully, the people at fader and fiat are back again this year with full video streaming coverage of the fader fort and all that it entails. over the course of the next four days, you can catch sets from a bunch of notable artists, including but not limited to:
ellie goulding, raphael saadiq (today at 6!), matt & kim, the cool kids, wiz khalifa, smith westerns, currensy, and so on. and for all you people who like douchebag rap, the likes of odd future, lil b, yelawolf and mac miller all have sets as well. for the full lineup, hit the jump.
stream:
LIVE: FADER FORT in AUSTIN, TX
-grizzly
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a second gatsbys song? very excited to see these guys thursday (hopefully, that is) while getting silly drunk in the afternoon with an open bar. absolutepunk had the exclusive stream to the track, but i’m a pirate, sorry guys.
so – when’s this new album dropping?
download:
gatsbys american dream – untitled
-grizzly
imagine my surprise when, tirelessly rsvping to the hundreds of sxsw shows for next weekend, i spy former sleater-kinny/npr blogger/portlandian carrie brownstein looking at me from behind a new wild flag banner. with members of sleater-kinney, helium and the minders, wild flag have not only dropped some sxsw appearances, but a new song, the 60′s inspired “glass tambourine.” the track, as well as the album was produced by spoon’s britt daniel and is due out in early fall. check out the song below.
listen:
- sunbear
ok so, remember winston audio? that band’s on the fritz, and my good buddy daniel has resurfaced in a new band, death on two wheels. these dudes rock some serious balls off. vocalist trae vedder (i mean seriously, the last name?!) has a gritty ass voice that was made to be highlighted with good old rock n’ roll influenced by the 70s and what not. they’re signed to favorite gentleman, a label we love and are very cool with. i’m looking forward to (hopefully) catching one of their sets at SXSW this year.
a few more awesome things:
stream their entire album, the separation of church and fate.
a ridiculously awesome cover of springsteen’s “state trooper.”>
a video interview/feature they did with comcast!
a free EP they did with the rocketboys and paste magazine.
-grizzly
the wwm vs. sxsw video invasion continues, better late than never, with this installment featuring los angeles natives, local natives. filmed at stubb’s indoor stage during the the rachael ray day party, the local natives played to a packed house and more than won over a whole slew of new fans as well as made the wwm bears very happy, not that the free food and drinks weren’t doing their part. easily one of the most impressive sets we’d see all sxsw.
be sure to check out grizzly’s coverage of last weekend’s local natives show here in houston. check that link hereas well as the additional local natives live videos after the jump.
i wish i could sing in three part harmonies. by myself.
- sunbear
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here’s the second installment of our live series at sxsw. fang island came through and turned this shitty primo bar into a complete mess. their live show is definitely amongst the cream of the crop as far as young, new and entirely magnificent new bands go. throughout sxsw, we were pretty pissed to see tweets and updates about how great their live show was, especially since we were unable to catch them.
however, one random sargent house tweet led us to a hole-in-the-wall (which is a compliment) bar on the outskirts of the sxsw festivities, in which we’d see fang rip through gems on their self-titled record in thirty minutes. a joint video of “dreams of dreams” and “careful crossers” is up top and for your enjoyment, five more clips after the jump.
listen to this album. magic everywhere up in that bitch.
-grizzly
sxsw is a lovely time of year where all of our friends from various cities in texas decide to congregate in austin for all of it’s lush atmosphere (think about it) and an endless lineup of flavor-of-the-year bands. all three bears, along with our videographer of the week josh, @klainep and grizzly’s main squeeze would become the wolfpack to scour the streets of austin in hopes of catching something memorable and damaging our livers.
this year, we’d spend a lot of time at rachael ray’s showcase (a first), walking (typical) and waiting in hopeless lines. we faced our share of challenges this year, but the bears prevailed and left austin alive with most of our parts in tact. as if this 3000 word recap isn’t enough for you all, then we will have full sets (yes, full!) of theophilus london, japandroids, fang island and local natives coming soon. stay tuned for those.
now grab a PBJ or PBR and enjoy the tales from beyond the bears.
-sunbear y grizzly
a follow up to the already posted “sticky thread”, the local natives perform their gorilla manor opener “wide eyes” in a quiet little austin scrapyard far away from the drunken streets of austin’s sxsw.
download:
local natives – wide eyes
- sunbear
