Molly Bergen

It was almost as if a giant, grumpy deity wielding a garden hose came down from the sky on Saturday morning and announced, "You kids are having too much fun! Cool it." Rain poured from the sky in the early morning, and the gorgeous seventy degree weather evaporated over night. Austin was suddenly engulfed in forty degree temperatures and high wind, turning the summery celebration into a chilled autumnal fest. Not that it stopped anyone from attending shows outside. The masses were out (granted in slightly decreased numbers) wrapped in scarves and hats, ready to rock out.

It was almost as if the arrival of GWAR sent out a silent signal to all those who brought their own costumes to SXSW to don them and let their freak flags fly. The esteemed rocker monsters (aliens? beasts?) were walking around 6th street with their spiked appendages flapping in the breeze amongst the masses, delighting most of us, and scaring a few children. After that moment there seemed to be at least one guy in costume at every show. I saw lion headdresses, horse head masks, and even one full on bear suit (which in the heat must have been sweltering). It was almost as if the festival had seen GWAR and thought, "Oh game on!"

Day two began right with pizza for breakfast at Homeslice Pizza and rock 'n' roll from North Carolina. Outside on the gravel patio they had set up a small stage where families were able to groove to The Love Language's set while enjoying their gooey cheese and sauce. Despite the rickety sound system, The Love Language sounded sharp. They've had a very good year. After self-releasing their critically acclaimed self titled album, The Love Language signed to Merge Records and have begun work recording their new album. We were curious to see if the new material they have been working on was worthy of their first album and are happy to report that...yes, yes it is.

Yesterday was the official kick off of the music section of the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX. Every bar, house, and parking lot in town had a band in it, near it, or sleeping on it. The streets were teeming with literally thousands of musicians, who were looking for their big break, desperately trying to stick out of the pack, as well as all of the support system clamoring for your attention. Every radio station, blog, publication, record company, pr company, and book agent has decided to put on a party here, each competing for the crowd's favor, wooing them with free beer and bbq and trying to put on the best show possible. We waded into the fray with one mission on our minds: finding you those bands who were actually worth seeing and reporting back with details on when they would be playing in Los Angeles.

We caught up with bassist, Robert Levon Been, the weekend before their sixth album, Beat The Devil's Tattoo, dropped. We talked about the state of the music industry, BRMC's new drummer Leah Shapiro, and why we don't appreciate things that come to us easily. Here is some of what was said.

As with a lot of good things, the band The Big Pink wasn't supposed to be a band at all. Friends, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze were already distracted with other projects when they started messing around in the studio.

Enigmatic mastermind behind the Magnetic Fields, Stephen Merritt is notoriously difficult to interview, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy. Anyone familiar with the brutal honesty of his love songs knows that he has absolutely no interest in sugar coating. Anything. Period.

When Dante vs. Zombies took the stage, from a purely visual standpoint, it looked as if someone had gone to a hipster party, picked out five random attendants, and said, "You guys are now in a band." There was the bassist in a full on red jumpsuit with a cowboy hat and boots, the guitarists who were in nerdy prep garb, the keyboardist who had a folk vibe about her, the drummer who looked like he just got off his shift at the hospital, and the lead singer who was dressed in a golden nightie and a hat that looked like it may have belonged to Paul Revere. None of which left any clues as to what sort of music they were going to play.

Power pop is a tricky genre to do right. The line between a fist pumping anthem and grotesque, easy cheese is very, very thin. Fortunately a couple of Minnesotan guys living in Philly have been studying the greats and have put forth a deliciously catchy power pop album. In the vein of Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, and T. Rex, Free Energy will make you want to cut off the sleeves of your t-shirts, soup up your Chevy Camaro, and cruise for babes.

The infamous reputation of the Black Lips' live show stretches far and wide. Their music itself is actually pretty straightforward, by the book, catchy garage rock. There are the usual songs about teen angst and political strife, but nothing too shocking. Black Lips' shows, however, cover everything that would make your mother die of shame. Public urination, vomiting, crowd surfing, stage diving, eating firecrackers, inciting riots, and nudity are all not only possible events at a Lips show--they're expected. Last year they were kicked out of India for exposing themselves in public. (Although why the promoters booked a band who is famous for nudity in a town where it's considered a crime is a mystery.) We caught up with guitarist, Cole Alexander, before their show at the El Rey to talk about their upcoming album, learning chords from Buddy Holly, and what it's like to flee a country in the middle of the night. Here is some of what was said.