SXSW: Day/Night 2

Let’s do this.

Saw Times New Viking at a shindig at the French Legation. Honestly, at the time, I was just hoping to relax for a few minutes with an adult beverage (I’d just walked for a solid hour for no real point). But the band was really great. Steve Kandell from Spin had described their record, not negatively, as “all of the Guided by Voices songs you skip.” Great drummer-singer, kind of an anti-Don Henley, and an off-kilter sound fueled by keyboards and buzzsaw, droney-y guitar. (We Shot JR has been all over them.)

But Times New Viking wasn’t the best thing I saw. That was Jay Reatard. It was nominally garage punk, but it seemed like so much more than that. Even if it was just garage punk, it’s the best I’ve heard in a really long time. Fantastic songs played really loud and really fast. Also, their drummer sort of looked like a cross between these two guys. (Before Jay played, I also saw a band from Toronto called [past tense form of a curse word I probably use way too much] Up, who are probably worth looking into if you like old Black Flag, or that scene in Kurt & Courtney where that guy from The Mentors said that he was hired to kill Kurt Cobain.)

Two local connections for Jay Reatard: the Strange Boys, the now Austin-based band that features two of Bob Sambol’s sons, are going to do some recording with him. And, word around the campfire is that Jay will record his new full-length for Matador Records in Dallas with Stuart Sikes at his Oak Cliff studio.

That’s it for now. Time for breakfast. Shirtless breakfast.