|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
SXSW DAY III: Cleveland's Vacancies light up festival
from: cleveland.com
by John Soeder
The Vacancies did us proud Friday night, making their South by Southwest debut at the venerable Austin, Texas, institution Emo's.
The punk quintet from Cleveland performed as part of a showcase for BLACKHEART RECORDS, a label run by JOAN JETT. Singer Billy Crooked and his bandmates tore through a high-octane set, previewing a handful of selections from their upcoming album "Tantrum," out May 29.
Jett took the stage, too. She was backed by members of the Vacancies and other Blackheart groups, including Girl in a Coma and the Dollyrots, on a handful of her hits. The inevitable "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" turned into one big singalong.
On the Americana tip, I dropped by a private function at Las Manitas Avenue Cafe, where Alejandro Escovedo (who might as well be this town's mayor), Rosie Flores, Charlie Sexton and others were on the bill. I ran into Bob Dylan's old pal Bob Neuwirth, who told me he's putting together a career-spanning boxed set. Also in the crowd were record producer Joe Boyd, film director Jonathan Demme and Luca Mundaca, a South American singer-guitarist (born in Chile, raised in Brazil, now based in Cleveland) who is at SXSW for a couple of unofficial showcases.
I tried to squeeze into an in-store appearance by the Stooges at Waterloo Records, but the line was hopelessly long, hours before Iggy Pop & Co. were scheduled to make their entrance. Bummer. On the bright side, at least I got to hear Pop and the Asheton brothers -- guitairst Ron and drummer Scott -- reminisce about their career during a SXSW session earlier in the day.
I also took in an interesting panel discussion, provocatively titled "Why Does Today's Music Sound Like (Expletive)?," about the increasingly poor audio quality of recorded music. The norm these days is to crank up every drum, bass, guitar, vocal, etc. as loud as possible in the mix, destroying any semblance of nuance and dynamics. One of the panelists was ubiquitous mastering expert Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine, whose credit probably appears on many of the CDs in your collection.
On latter-day recordings, "the soft spots keep getting louder, until we approach totally boring," Ludwig said.
Satellite Party, a new band fronted by Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction fame, proved anything but boring here at SXSW. Farrell is slathering his voice with fewer special effects these days, atop funky grooves reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at times.
|
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
