Pitchfork

Motörhead notwithstanding, the place to be on Thursday afternoon in Austin was the Parish club. NPR stations from around the country, including KEXP Seattle and KUT Austin, hosted one of the most well-curated day parties of the entire week. With a line of eager concertgoers stretching around the block more than an hour before the show began, only a lucky few of us made it past the door and up the stairs into what was doubling as a monstrous broadcasting station.

Each of five public radio stations had their DJs stationed by the bar, scrambling to interview acts as they left the stage and pumping the entire show around the world via the magic of internet radio. And then they went and saved all the shows (plus R.E.M., Yo La Tengo, and My Morning Jacket gigs) at NPR's web music hub! So now you can go listen for yourself and let me know if I got any song titles wrong.

Jens Lekman [Parish; 1:15 p.m.]

Swedish heartthrob Jens Lekman stole the show early on, with a lighthearted group of songs mostly from last year's excellent Night Falls Over Kortedala. He began the set by introducing his hometown, the album's namesake, as a labyrinthine suburb it's easy to get lost in-- and a lot harder to get out of. Fortunately, as he told the crowd, he found his way out of the Gothen-burb, and the rest is history. The Parish songs included last year's "Opposite of Hallelujah" and "Shirin", which, he explained to some laughter, was written in honor of his old hairstylist.







Yeasayer [Parish; 2:30 p.m.]

For such a drastic change of pace, Brooklyn prog-pop outfit Yeasayer was nonetheless an instant crowdpleaser, as they managed to translate the shouted, soaring vocals of last year's All Hour Cymbals into a live setting. It worked pretty spectacularly, and they even had the crowd singing along to the apocalyptic single "2080".







Bon Iver [Parish; 3:15 p.m.]

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, an unassuming, genial guy in a beard and flannels, somehow managed to match the sonic assaults of the previous acts with his relatively restrained, cryptic tunes. Joined only by a young guitarist (which may or may not have been his little brother, who has played the occasional show with Justin) and a drummer, Vernon switched back and forth from a collection of at least five guitars, two of which looked to be half a century old. His soaring falsettos filled the Parish's spacious room and begged the question, "How long can a grown man continue to tour on such throat-singeing performances?" Whatever, he managed it, and had the crowd shouting back "What might have been lost", louder and louder each time, on "The Wolves".





Vampire Weekend [Parish; 4 p.m.]

It's a good bet the most anticipated act of Thursday afternoon-- if not SXSW altogether-- would be Brooklyn's Vampire Weekend. The sweater-clad Columbia grads certainly have their denigrators, but none of them were to be found at the Parish. Instead, the Ivy League foursome were greeted by a crowd who sang along to almost every line of every song, to the apparent surprise of the band. At some points (like the "Hey hey hey hey!" of "A-Punk") the crowd's shouting actually drowned out the music from the stage, which was as tight and airy as Vampire Weekend's brilliant debut album.



Frontman Ezra Koening was jovial with the Austin crowd, giving a shout out to everyone from College Station, Texas, (a few hollers from the back of the room) explaining, "I've got people there," and dedicating "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" to the state of Texas, which, according to Ezra today, the song was written about. Right.







Bodies of Water [Mohawk Patio; 9 p.m.]

Clubs in Austin have developed creative ways to get around the city's smoking ban, the most popular solution being multi-level venues with patios, balconies, lounges, and outdoor bars. Aside from Emo's, the place that does it best is the Mohawk. Their patio stage boasts an impressive sound system, perfect for the sonics of Los Angeles collective Bodies of Water.



Meredith Metcalf, decked out in her trademark black leotard, led the group in a selection of tracks from their forthcoming album, A Certain Feeling. The record was just finished and won't hit stores for another couple of months, but the Bodies gave a taste of the new Water to the Mohawk's crowd, and for those who enjoyed last year's Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink, the new sound won't disappoint. Their website claims that while Ears Will Pop was "aggressive," the new one is a bit "more passive-agressive." Not sure what that means sonically, but it sounded as boisterous and infectiously catchy as their terrific debut.









Man Man [Cedar St. Courtyard; 10 p.m.]

There's a game they like to play at SXSW in the Cedar St. Courtyard-- which is basically an atrium tucked between a couple of restaurants on 4th Street-- the basic object of which is to try to cram as many sweaty, cranky music fans into one tight space as possible, and the more photographers attempting to squirm their way to the front, the better. But as soon as Man Man took the stage, all the ill will evaporated and the crowd was focused intently on a set of new tunes from the forthcoming album Rabbit Habits.







High Places [Habana Annex Backyard; 10:40 p.m.]

High Places, the Brooklyn duo of Mary Pearson and Robert Barber, make some astoundingly pop-centered tunes out of a small assortment of samplers and drum machines. Judging by the sound of the record, you'd think there was at least a quartet behind the internationally flavored sound. But Pearson and Barber proved tonight that they don't need anyone else's help to cull clever pop songs from the strangest amalgam of catchy, dancy samples, and beats.









El Guincho [Red Eyed Fly; 1:00 a.m. 2:00 a.m.]

Barcelona's El Guincho is a one-man dance party. Not unlike Panda Bear's Noah Lennox in his stage show, Pablo Dias-Reixa's entire setup consisted of a slab of particleboard on a keyboard stand, a Roland sampler, a floor tom, a tambourine, some sleigh bells, and a mic.



From this modest gear, El Guincho recreated the oceans of sound from his excellent record, Alegranza, and whipped the capacity crowd, who had waited through an hour delay at the outdoor Red Eyed Fly, into a crazed mass of late-night dancers. For the duration of the set, Dias-Reixa kept time by pounding his floor tom and the tambourine set on the tabletop; at times he was hammering so hard that little bits of particleboard fell to the floor. But the effect was palpable; by the end of the show, the fans (including all the members of the Ruby Suns) had more or less coalesced into a mosh pit, shouting back and forth to El Guincho, himself looking as happy to be there as the crowd was.