Another stunt podcast for you, this was recorded on Sunday night after and afternoon of beer and Margaritas on South Congress in Austin – probably the most enjoyable day of the whole festival for me actually, and one which involved no more music than walking past the queue for an Alejandro Escovedo show.

What it did involve, however, was breakfast tacos, a splendid Mexican tat shop, a Western supply shop full of incredibly cool cowboy boots and shirts and so on, and then an afternoon sitting in the sun and shooting the breeze with Peej, Vic, Alex from Fatcat and Ben from Instinctive Raccoon.  Oh, and repeatedly having people spill beer on my jeans, there was that as well.

Anyhow, in the evening we were joined by Stuart from the Scottish Arts Council (who does a highly passable impersonation of Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons) and recorded this rather messy podcast before, erm… going bowling with Broken Social Scene and We Were Promised Jetpacks, sort of.  Actually, that’s rather an exaggeration.  We went to a fantastically cool bowling alley place to eat, and then those two bands, who seem to have become friends, wandered in, ate something, said hello and then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening bowling.  I wouldn’t recognise Broken Social Scene of course, but apparently that’s who they were, and it did lend the evening a slightly surreal tinge.

Toadcast #114 – The South by Southcast

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01. We Were Promised Jetpacks – It’s Thunder and it’s Lightning (02.53)
02. The Entrance Band – Grim Reaper Blues (11.33)
03. Shearwater – Black Eyes (20.49)
04. Broken Social Scene – Let’s Get Out of Here (Live at Radio Aligre) (24.17)
05. Hudson Mohawke – Fuse (33.59)
06. Midlake – Young Bride (41.31)
07. The Real Heroes – Baby Must’ve Known (46.07)
08. Plants & Animals – Jacques (56.19)
09. Dan Mangan – Robots (63.09)
10. Gay Witch Abortion – Down With Giants (73.07)

So, erm, I’m back from Austin and trying desperately to grind out a day at Proper Job, after flying into Edinburgh at seven this morning and coming straight to work without even time for a shower.  My colleagues, particularly the ones who sit close to me, will no doubt be thrilled I made the effort.

So, how did Friday, Saturday and Sunday at SXSW go?  Well only Friday was much of a music day, to be honest, with not all that much on on Saturday in the first place and the revenge of the ten-day cumulative hangover destroying all energy for anything other than drinking Margueritas in the sun on Sunday.

Friday was a very good day of tunes though.  I got up at about two in the afternoon (I did this all the way through the festival, and highly recommend it as an excellent tactic for avoiding hangovers) and sauntered into town to catch the tail end of the Scottish Showcase at Latitude 30, and then scarfing some dinner with Peej, C&B and a stray New Zealand lady called Michelle and heading up to Antone’s for the evening showcase.

It seems to me that this is the best way to do SXSW, I reckon.  Instead of spending a pile of cash on a badge or a wristband, just catch a lot of the free day parties, and then pick one really good evening showcase and pay your way into to it for about fifteen dollars.  As long as you don’t particularly want to gig hop in the evening and don’t mind missing the odd thing here and there, this seems like the cheapest and most sensible tactic to me.  And when I say missing out on some stuff all I really mean is that you might have to compromise and see something merely excellent instead of truly amaaazing, so it’s hardly a tragedy.

At Antone’s we caught five bands: Plants & Animals, Basia Bulat, Quasi, Shearwater and Liars.  I’d heard talk of Plants & Animals before but never listened to their stuff, which is something I will be putting right asap, as they were really excellent – top guitar-bothering and loads of energy.  Basia Bulat was just boring, basically, and genuinely disappointing as I was hoping her live performance might help me see what other people see in her recorded material, but if anything it was even more dull live.

Shearwater – Landscape at Speed

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Quasi are a band I know nothing much about, but they were spiky and noisy and most enjoyable, and I know I was pretty wasted by this point but the two main attractions – Shearwater and Liars – were both brilliant.  Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg has always been one of the more impassioned performers you’re likely to see, and I really like their material as it is, so seeing the two combined has been an absolute treat both times I’ve seen them live.

Liars were equally furious, but present a somewhat surreal image, as a band.  Basically, they are fronted by a deranged Australian who, were he in a less well-establised band, would instantly be accused of being a cut-price Nick Cave.  The rest of the band basically just look like a rather young bunch of polite Manhattan design students – preppy and polite and like their conversation might be just slightly too pretentiously intellectual to be all that bearable.  The look of them is at such odds with the raucous, dirty noise they make that I spent the whole gig wondering just a little if someone was maybe playing a joke on me.

Liars – I Still Can See an Outside World

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Waking up (late, again) on Saturday I was rather shocked to find that Austin was fucking freezing, all of a sudden.  After two days of splendid sunshine this was something of a rude suprise, and after three nights of brutal drinking it seemed to knock the stuffing out of pretty much the whole festival.  C&B was up early enough to catch an excellent Wave Pictures and a rather jaded-sounding Slow Club at a day party, but we basically spent the day supping beers and shooting the breeze with Peej, Mrs. Peej and Mrs. Peej’s sister.

The bars were really nice, and confirmed my growing jealousy at the sheer number of excellent music venues Austin has at its disposal, most with big, wide, accessible stages and  really meaty sound systems.  Lucky fuckers.

Sunday was a lot warmer, but with little to no music on and even less will to seek it out, we basically spent the day wandering around on South Congress, eating breakfast tacos, contemplating the purchase of ludicrous cowboy boots and finally settling down to drink Margueritas in the sun.  I didn’t really suffer from hangovers because I generally slept them off, but by Sunday I’d lost any real drive to traipse around seeing bands, and a day spent chilling in the sun listening to Vic Galloway telling massively inappropriate jokes and erm… drinking even more Margueritas was a perfect way to bring the expedition to an end.

Trying to get yourself heard, as a band, above all the extraneous noise and attention-whoring must be a nightmare but for a music fan, provided you relax and don’t take the whole thing too seriously, SXSW is a pretty fucking brilliant festival.

Hello You.

This Wednesday 24th December (Christmas Eve, naturellement), at or around abouts 10pm GMT (USA: 2pm PST + 3pm MST + 4pm CST + 5pm EST; Europe: 11pm CET), splashed all over the interwaves via the usual birdshit splatter pattern, for your listening consideration, will be The Waiting Room Christmas Eve 3hr Best Of 2008 Round-Up Show.

On this very (quite, in this case, literally) Eve we, one half of Drunk Country & The Woman of The House, will be dishing out thoughtfully considered Gold Guitar Pick of Excellence ‘Awards’* to the lucky Nominee(s) what is found to be the Best Of in their particular category.

It’s almost like a real end of year music award’s show but with less drinking & no Gallagher brothers.

Below, then, is the list of Categories & Nominees, 34 Artistes + 34 Songs. We have rather cruelly (although this is clearly a cynical attempt at injecting some tension into the proceedings) refrained from listing the Nominees in the last 2 Categories. Those will be revealed on the night. Mwah, I believe, Ha Ha, indeed, Ha.

So, there you go.  This took us AGES to compile from thousands of songs listened to & playlisted over the whole of this past year. *PHEW* just does not cut it. 2008 was simply awash with brilliance, surprises, genius & plain old breathtaking musicalisation. Oh, & singing.

The list, then:

Best “What The Fuck Was That?!”

1) Celebrity Chimp – Celebrity Chimp

2) The Just Joans – Hey Boy… You’re Oh So Sensitive

3) Aidan John Moffat – Cunts

4) Eagleowl – Motherfucker

5) The Theatre Fire – Coyote

6) Joe Rodger & The Velcro Quartet – Suddenly They Realised…

Best Cover Versions

1) Robin Grey – There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis (Kirsty MacColl cover)

2) Erlend Ropstad – 7 (Prince cover)

3) The Miserable Rich – Over & Over (Hot Chip cover)

4) Taken By Trees – Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns ‘n’ Roses cover)

Best Contenders for a Bond Theme

1) Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Come On Over (Turn Me On)

2) The Last Shadow Puppets – In My Room

3) Get Well Soon – You/Aurora/You/Seaside

4) Hour Of The Shipwreck – Unclouded Eyes

Best Emotional Blackmail

1) Porlolo – Turning On Heels

2) Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers – Beloved, We Have Expired

3) The Dø – Stay (Just A Little Bit More)

4) Meaghan Smith – 5 More Minutes

5) Ane Brun – Don’t Leave

6) Plants & Animals – Bye Bye Bye

Best Pound Down The Back of The Sofa

Nominees 1-8 = a big fat question mark

Best Song of 2008

Nominees 1-6 = a bigger, fatter question mark

The podcast will be available, as we say, sometime tomorrow around 10pm (we have very limited access where we are headed for the holidays, so bear with us).

It remains only for us to wish every one of you all the very best this Christmas holiday & to remind you that our 3hr New Year’s Eve 2008 Jukebox show will be on (just like the title reads) Wednesday 31st December, from 10pm-1am GMT. See the New Year in with us, why don’t you?  (Yah, fucking right…).

Thanks for tuning in & listening. It’s been a heck of a year.

MC & a HNY,

½DC + TWoTH

*when we say ‘Awards’, what we really mean is  we will email a picture of a solid Gold Guitar Pick of Excellence – we’re not that unhinged that we’d actually fork out for 6 solid gold plectrums. Jesus, no.