I spent a great deal of time walking around to various day parties and nighttime showcases on Friday, more than the other two days of SXSW 2009. Thankfully, my ears and eyes appreciated all of the hard work that my feet and legs were doing. From hip-hop and reggae to noise pop and shoegaze, this was definitely a day of music well spent.
Tha Fucking Transmissions (1:30pm)
One of Houston’s finest new-school hip-hop acts was in Austin to show the world that Space City was still the bastion of great music. This group’s sound is propelled by a live drummer and a guy who manages to play bass and guitar at the same time, though the bass does receive more attention in the mix (not to mention there was another guy wearing a Bona Drag-era Morrissey shirt as he tweaked a sampler and spat out rhymes). As visually arresting as that setup is, it would be remiss of me to not bring notice to Cornbreadd and the rest of the vocalists in the group, especially in terms of how their collective swagger filled up the stage and venue. Song after song, Cornbreadd and crew brought the noise with big sonic grooves and stellar lyrical flow as everyone’s personalities and voices complemented each other quite well. On the whole, this group has the charisma and on-stage aggression to both back up its words and move on to larger stages in the future.
Continue reading “SXSW 2009 – 03/20/2009″