Day Drinking

Aah day drinking at festivals can be good or bad depending on your goal. If your goal is to "catch up" to everyone because you got to the Gnarls Barkley show late so you proceed to pound four tall boys in a 40 minute set in the middle of Texas heat and an hour later are passed out in the middle of the park while Thievery Corp is playing and people are stepping over you, then hey go for it! But if your goal is to get warmed up for the bigger acts later in the day while saving your energy at the same time, then I think I have found the band for you.

Alabama Shakes are a 4 piece band from, surprise surprise Alabama. I first heard of them when SXSW announced their lineup but the only footage I could find was that of 3 hairy chubby dudes playing country esque songs. And when you're sifting through 2000 bands, you quickly give up weakness such as that. But I kept seeing more and more of them and this time every ad or photo included a chubby girl with them as well. Well as it turns out this female lead makes the difference between them playing Jethro's juke joint on a Wednesday night and them playing festivals like Lollapalooza alongside the Chili Peppers. She has such a commanding soulful voice and it's complimented wonderfully by the at times bluesy guitars. But at times they also resort to the hipster style of guitar playing where they just playfully pluck at the strings to keep things fluffy and light (see any hipster band in the past 6 years or specifically Vampire Weekend). Anyway I'm not too sure how long they will be around but if they stick to making more music with substance and kind of drift away from the daytime festival band sound I think they can be pretty good. You'll catch me sitting on the lawn at 2PM with a, as in one, tallboy checking them out. For now I will rate them as only kind of WEAK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw

For those of you who are getting ready for Austin Psychfest, get started early this Tuesday at Mohawk and check out White Hills. I saw them last year during SX at Emo's (aah you'll be missed). I went in expecting to hear some old has been's who never really made it big, and essentially you can kind of still accurately describe them as that but man, how these guys never made it big escapes me! Maybe it's because the lead looks too much like Alice Cooper. These guys rocked my socks off! Their music is very much psychadelic but when it comes time to rip the solos, Dave W can hang with some of the best! And he also has the crazy Ozzie Osborne look on his face while doing it! Their songs are at least 8 minutes long and you would think you would get bored or need to be stoned to enjoy them but you really dont, which speaks to their creativity and talent. Just know what you're getting into though, their bassist looks like the female version of Marilyn Manson, just with bigger boobs. I definitely recommend this band and rate them as kind of FRESH.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChARPluyy8k&feature=related