SXSW Preview 4 : The Bots, Eminence, and Cerebral Ballzy

My head is literally spinning from all of the rsvp'ing that I have been doing lately to get into the hundreds of awesome day parties this year. I'm secretly hoping that Fader Fort decides to come up with another creative musical marriage between R. Kelly and Mumford and Sons so all of the scrubs run over there and I can catch Outkast's secret show, wherever that will be. Actually I would love to catch Sir Robert but the second he started to play Black Panties, I would impregnate someone on the spot and I'm way too broke for all of that. So on the future R. Kellys.

First up is The Bots, a duo that hails from Glendale, California; and lucky for them it appears that Fader has found two more black kids to like. They just so happen to be brothers (not like soul brothers or anything)and one plays guitar or bass while the other bangs away on the drums. Their style is punk music with a garage band feel to it and you get the sense that they fit this in somewhere in between skateboarding and listening to Bad Brains albums. For being kids they certainly seem to have a bright future. And while their music isn't  not quite mind melting yet, they do have the ability to get me rocking from time to time. I rate them as FRESH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb5P4cqsLj0

Next up is Eminence, a band out of Brazil that I hope can bring back my love for metal. Recently I have discovered that all of my favorite metal bands are either racist or wannabe Satan worshipers and clearly I'm not down with either. But since these guys are from Brazil they can't be racist right? Most of the country is actually blacker than I am. And with the gigantic Jesus statue they have on that mountain they'd be too scared to be devil worshippers for fear of lightening bolts coming from his eyes! Well musically they bring back memories of when metal was simple; a time where it had punishing guitars, deep screaming from the lead vocalist, and drums that made you want literally bang your head against the wall in ecstasy. I'm not sure if they will blow up but I give these guys a rating of FRESH.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1EJa4bq-vs

The last act for today is Cerebral Ballzy, a hardcore punk band from the dirty side of NYC. NME mag is apparently in love with them, so that alone will get them a lot of attention. I like but not love these guys as their style doesn't really separate them from most of the decent punk bands that are out there today, but they are still solid. I think their terrible cover of Stone Roses' I Wanna Be Adored is the single thing that's holding them back. But their songs about Cutting Class and being a Junky for a Girl have the typical material that you are looking for in this kind of music. Right now I'll rate them as barely WEAK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTB1XGyTBoo

Owen Pallett , Periphery, and the Deftones

Austin is different from the rest of the U.S. in the sense that when a band comes through everyone gives the opening act their complete attention; for at least the first three songs anyway. If they suck after that, then you finally start to see some people wandering around to go smoke or go on the prowl for a possible hook up for the night. Well the same applied to Periphery, the awful wannabe Deftones band that just so happened to be opening for the Deftones.  Their main problem, outside of the fact that they aren’t as talented as the band they were touring with, is they seemed way too happy to be on stage. It’s like watching the reunion tour of a has been band that was never really that popular to begin with and seeing the bassist grinning from ear to ear because he finally has money for heroin again. Everyone in the band had the “oh snap! They’re actually paying attention to us” look on their face. So what did they do? They rewarded us with a metal cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers By The Way. It was so awful that it actually became kind of fresh. These guys are WEAK and should definitely be avoided.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUltTV3t4OM

The Deftones destroyed as usual and played a 2 hour set. This was probably the best show of theirs that I have seen because they played around 5 songs off of each album. So if you’re only down with their old stuff you would have left feeling like it was money well spent. At no point during the show did Chino look tired and he was running around like his normal self. Gone are the fat Chino days apparently. They played in the ACL Moody Theater which is Austin’s newest and best music venue. The sound in there is perfect and you have easy access to multiple bars. And speaking of the bars, they didn’t quite know how to handle the crowd. This was Moody’s first metal show, so they went overboard a bit by having metal detectors at the door and you could tell that they aren’t used to true Mexicans showing up and partying! They were already running out of beer before the Deftones even took the stage. They literally had to do a beer run and were bringing in tubs of Bud Light and Budweiser and were tossing them around like we were at a frat party! I have been to this venue quite a few times and I have never seen anything like this. But once they played Be Quite and Drive, you knew this was going was to be a special night. I rate this show as TIGHT and suggest that you pop in if they have not hit your town yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ASD-vLKAA

Tonight I am off to see Grizzly Bear and this will be my first time experiencing their new album live. It’s a bit of a departure from Veckatimist as it’s a bit more rocking than that album, so I am a little excited. But  I am previewing Owen Pallet who will be opening for them. He is a Canadian that plays the violin and tinkers with keyboards as well. His music is best described as experimental pop, which is something that  I would normally run away screaming from; especially when a violin is in play. But he’s not awful.  He displays how unique his sound is in The Great Elsewhere and Red Sun No. 5 which are my favorites of his. But then he gets way too fruity and puts me to sleep with songs like E is for Estranged.  Overall I know that he’s talented but he has too many fluffy songs for my taste so I will rate him as WEAK. I will pop in for his set however and hopefully he can change my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=iCMtGQxUlZA&feature=endscreen