Finally we are back to getting up some more SXSW stuff… I hate that I am so behind on everything…

One of the cool things about Austin is that they have a lot of generator shows on a bridge. It’s not quite as epic as the shows on the Williamsburg Bridge, but at least the cops show up less often. One of the nights I was at SXSW my friends dragged me to the bridge. I wanted to go to this Ranch where people were having after parties, but they didn’t want to go that far out of town so they took me to the bridge.  None of us had any idea who was playing, but when we got there they were really psyched to see the Thee Oh Sees were playing. I heard about them for the first time just hours earlier in the day, but my friends were big fans.  She show got pretty out of control, but only for three songs at a time.  Thee Oh Sees were switching off every three songs with another band that was set up right next to them.  The other band was pretty good, but no one seemed to care.  Everyone just stood there looking bored until Thee Oh Sees started back up and then people went fucking crazy.  I didn’t even bother shooting the other band, but I wish I at least remembered their name. Oh well…

Click here to see pictures of Thee Oh Sees playing the Lamar Boulvard Pedestrian Bridge in Austin at SXSW.

Okay, and we are back with pictures of all the bands that played the party.  If you want to see who they all are, check out the list of set times.  Highlights for me were VV Brown, Alphabeat and Marina and the Diamonds.  VV Brown was crazy playing some funk fusion madness, dressed totally insane and just being amazing.  Alphabeat were total pop goodness and a lot of fun to watch.  And before they played everyone told me that Marina and the Diamonds would be awesome and they were.  That chick is so rad.  You guys probably all know about all these bands already, but if you don’t you might want to check them out asap. But that was the unexpected highlights.

The reason I went to the party in the first place was for Snoop and Hole.  If this concert took place in 1994 I would have lost my mind, but it was still pretty awesome to see it.  I only got to see one song of Snoop’s as I mentioned before but it was fucking awesome.  I really wish I saw the rest of it, I mean just look at this set list!  Amazing.  I had the biggest crush on Courtney Love when I was obsessed with Nirvana and although I don’t really listen to her music anymore, I would still go on just tons of dates with Courtney (or her daughter, whatever..). I got to watch all of her show from the crowd once I told the press people I was leaving. I might have missed photos of Courtney backstage, but I was very sick of being held in a press pen.

I split the photos into three galleries so click below to see the photos you need to see:

Click here to see the photos of Snoop.

Click here to see the photos of Courtney Love & Hole.

And click here to see the rest of the bands who played at Perez Hilton’s One Night In Austin at SXSW.

So Perez Hilton did his big party in Austin and a ton of bands played and there was an insane crowd of people trying to get in and total madness and all that.  I just sort of shoved my way through until I was somehow over a barrier and the security grabbed me and I started yelling shit about the Village Voice and they brought me to some table at which point they let me in without even asking my name or to see any ID. Then again, as media you didn’t really get to actually enjoy the party.  They sort of ran us around like sheep, keeping us in this caged off back area. At one point before Snoop came in we had to all stay in one room that was about 100 degrees and all of the photographers missed shooting Estelle because of it. We also didn’t get to see more than one song of Snoops set.  I was pretty annoyed.  So I did get out a little bit to shoot the crowd but I had to keep coming back to get lined up for shooting the bands.  But it was much better set up last year, which is why most of these crowd shots are actually back stage shots, with just a handful of actual crowd pictures.  I’ll be back with the band photos in a few minutes, until then…

…Click here to see all the crowd and backstage photos from Perez Hilton’s One Night In Austin party at SXSW 2010.

You probably have seen Bad Brilliance around in his crazy costume showing up to parties and posing for camera phone photos, or in weird videos on the internet, but what you might not know is he actually makes music.  Weird rap music.  Honestly while the music is important I am sure, clearly it takes some sort of back seat to the performance.  He came out with security guards and they put down a red carpet and backed the crowd up. Then they pulled out their guest list and brought those people dancing down the red carpet all while Bad Brilliance did his thing.  At some point more security guards brought this rad chick Emily and her inflatable microphone out on a couch.  She got half naked and made more crazy raps. Emily must have a stage name, but I am an asshole and don’t know it. During their whole set Andrew WK was screaming shit into a mic and people were just doing weird shit all over the place. Amazing.

The whole thing was pretty brilliant and I guess now that you think about it, pretty bad. So I guess the name makes a lot of sense. Andrew the artist and mad man behind Bad Brillance (He does the Girl Talk cover art amongst other things) told me after that as far as the music goes “he’s just trying his best” which is amazingly honest thing to say.  Still, the music gets people fucking going.  Everyone was dancing and having a blast, so while it might not be be the most amazing music you have heard all week, it will probably be the best time you have all week. And for me that wins out in the end every time.

Click here to see photos of Bad Brilliance at the IFC Food Party/ Dinner With The Band Premiere party at Santos Playhouse.

So IFC has two amazing food shows right now and they had a big premiere party for them on Tuesday at Santos Party House.

So the first of the two amazing shows is Dinner With The Band. DWTB is a show created by my friends and oddly similar looking people Darin Bresnitz and Greg Bresnitz (I wonder if they are related?).  I actually met the guys when Greg offered a band I managed a slot on their show when it was just a web series.  The Gaskets couldn’t make the taping and now they are broken up and the Bresnitz’s have their own TV show.  Coincidence? I think not.  Anyway, their show is hosted by rock and roll chef Sam Mason who cooks food with bands, and then the bands play music and eat the food.  Sounds pretty awesome.

The second show is called Food Party. I really have no idea what Food Party is, but it seems like a mixture between Julia Child, Pee Wee’s Playhouse and something weird and Asian that I don’t understand. It is hosted by this clearly insane chef/performance artist named Thu Tran.  I am pretty sure I have a crush on her now. I have watched a few of the videos on her website and it could possibly be the best thing ever.

The party itself consisted of kids dancing to DJ sets by Vega and Au Revoir Simone mixed with Andrew WK yelling things at the audience from stage, mixed with sets from Gators, CX Kidtronik and fucking Bad Brilliance.  The Bad Brilliance performance was so nuts that I am actually going to put it in a post by itself that will immediately follow this one. So, stay tuned for that.

Okay, so yeah, the shows are amazing, the party was fucking insane, and I got to eat free bacon wrapped meatloaf sliders all night. I am not sure how you could beat that for a food party.  Hats off IFC.  You are delicious.

Click here to see the equally delicious photos from the IFC food party.

Finally, we have reached the end of the epic Mog.com SXSW party at Mohawk.  All the band photos are up so all we have left is the crowd shots.  I don’t have a lot to say that I haven’t said yet. There are some shots of the bands and stuff in here, plus you know, the kids, always with the kids. My editors boss at the Village Voice came, and brought his boss.  So there are pics of my boss’ boss’ boss, who is the CEO of Village Voice media. He was cool to meet, and he told me he was a fan of my work.  So that’s something. Also Mary Louise Parker from Weeds was there. She is obviously a babe.  Lastly, if you are wondering why everyone is wearing coats inside in March in Texas, it’s because it was fucking 40 degrees and raining out. Boo.

Anyway, click here to see all the crowd shots from the Mog party at Mohawk at SXSW. Peace.

Sorry for the break in posts. I haven’t been feeling so great the last couple of days so I mostly just watched movies and such and hung out in bed. But let’s pick up where we left off…

Aside from the headlining bands of The Black Keys, Broken Bells, and Demolished Thoughts the Mog.com party had a bunch of other good bands play.  The list of bands included a wide range of interesting bands. Here’s the list: Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, Freelance Whales, Real Estate, Javelin, Free Energy, Rye Rye, Dum Dum Girls and The Antlers.

I took a bunch of shots of Rye Rye and The Dum Dum girls so they have their own galleries.  The other bands I only had a few shots from so I put them in a gallery together.  It was hard to shoot any band for too long because it was completely packed and there were two stages so I had to run back and forth and shoot crowd photos in the meanwhile. Anyway, check out all three galleries.

Click here to see the shots of Rye Rye.

Click here to see the shots of The Dum Dum Girls.

And last but not least, click here to see shots of the rest of the bands from the Mog SXSW Showcase at Mohawk.

Continuing with my coverage of the Mog.com SXSW party at Mohawk I bring you the Black Keys. I have to take a moment to admit here that I really had no idea who The Black Keys were.  I mean I have heard their name a million times but I had no idea what they sounded like or that people would be so ready to completely lose their shit over them.  I mean seriously, it was raining and 40 degrees out and when I got to the club an hour before it opened there was a line of 200 people waiting to get in.  Unlike me, they were not there to see Demolished Thoughts. It was honestly completely insane.  Mary Louise Parker was there to see them.  Broken Bells seemed more excited about the Black Keys than they did their set. People kept telling me all day how excited they were for it and when the whole thing was over people were talking about it like it was the greatest show they had ever seen. I have to say I thought they were pretty good, but people were like weeping.  It was a strange thing to see.

Click here to see the shots of The Black Keys at Mog.com’s SXSW party.

Now that we have all the WMC stuff out of the way we have to go back and put the massive amount of SXSW photos I have up.  I am going to start with Mog.com’s end of SXSW blow out at Mohawk.  I worked for Mog during SXSW Music and they pretty much paid for my whole trip. It was pretty great.  They also threw one of the best parties at SXSW and over the next two days I am going to give you five galleries from that party.  I am going to start with the three headlining bands and then move into everyone else, plus the crowd shots. Get excited.

First up we have the Broken Bells.  I didn’t shoot a ton of shots of them, but people were extremely excited about them.  Broken Bells are a colaboration between James Mercer of the Shins and Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse). They got the crowd pretty amped up and I met a few of them and they seemed to be good dudes, so I support them.  Danger Mouse evidently is weird about having his photo taken but he wasn’t a dick about it.  Plus the Grey Album was awesome, so again, I am pro Broken Bells.

I think instead of me talking about it, you should just check them out, or at the very least look at this small selection of photos I took of them. It would be the only reasonable thing to do.