Shinyribs "East Texas Rust"

SXSW is not a sustainable lifestyle. Pounding it day after day with a skeleton crew and not near enough sleep. We need more teams: edit teams, post teams, shoot teams, sleep teams, though I don't know how much satisfaction there would be from someone else doing the sleeping for you. We awakened this morning to two days down, two to go. I felt like merde, I must say...I was just not in the normal groove, sailing through the Music Fog Marathon of Madness with the usual aplomb. I was not awake, I was cranky, I hadn't had enough coffee.  In fact, I don't think there was enough coffee in the world to wake me. And then an amazing thing happened. Shinyribs played their fourth song. Kevin Russell set it up by comparing West Texas dust to East Texas rust. And the clouds in my head cleared, the sky turned blue, the world was a warm fuzzy place again. I began to pogo.

Shinyribs is Kevin Russell of The Gourds side project. Fun Fun Fun. There will be an album coming out in May. Yay! Here is just a taste of what's to come! The Music Fog stage at Threadgill's was bouncin'!

-Jessie

Stone River Boys "Love On The Dial"

The Stone River Boys grew out of the Hacienda Brothers, the Dave Gonzalez/Chris Gaffney led outfit, which ended with Chris' untimely and unexpected death from liver cancer in April of 2008. Gonzalez assembled an all star band to play Hacienda dates that were on the books for that summer. The new band, like the old, is steeped in country, soul and 60's R&B. Now, there are buzz bands in Austin, TX, as I am sure there are in other music scene cities. But many times in Austin, they enjoy club residencies. The Boys do the Wednesday happy hour at The Continental Club, which is simply THE place to be.

The Stone River Boys legend is growing; look for their album Love On The Dial later this spring. I saw them a few weeks ago, and was immediately captivated. Mike Barfield, formerly of The Hollisters is magnetic. Dave Gonzales is a guitar hero. Scott Esbeck is a monster bassist. There is super solid drumming in Mark Patterson. On masterful steel, Gary Newcomb. And just pure fun! I challenge you not to boogie to this! And don't miss the dance steps, from the stage at Threadgill's WHQ!

-Jessie

Uncle Lucius "Now"

I just deleted 90 emails, and feel like I can face the world again. Well maybe not the world, as we had them in our space yesterday, the back room at Threadgill's South, from 11 am on for day one of the Music Fog Madness---our unofficial showcase at SXSW. And all this on 4 hours sleep...10 bands, countless people in the audience, occasional forays into the sunshine for some world class squinting. Austin is perfect this time of year. California-style sunshine, low humidity, chill mornings and warm afternoons.

The Fog rolled into action early. We filmed Troy Campbell, Rosie Flores, The Wronglers, Uncle Lucius, The Trishas, Sahara Smith, James McMurtry, Jess Klein, The Winchester Twin, and Rykarda Parasol. They were all different, it was a delicious smorgasbord of sounds. The room ebbed and flowed, there was chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken, Dr. Pepper, and LOTS of vegetables. Sitting here thinking back on day one, it is hard to even decide what we should bring you first. So here is one that blew us away. Promise, there will be many more!

Last year we got turned on to this band for the first time. They are Uncle Lucius. They have had quite the year, with a new CD coming out, and of late, have been opening for Leon Russell on some dates! They were solid when we recorded them last year during SX. This year, they have polished it to a high sheen. I love the way they infuse the edgy guitar rock flavor into the feel good Southern jam band boogie. See if you don't agree. Here's a new song that hasn't been released yet, "Now."

-Jessie