Pitchfork

Press Here, Harp magazine, and Ground Control Touring hosted a "Garden Party" at the hilltop French Legation Museum on Saturday, corralling a diverse but solid cavalcade of acts from both sides of the pond. And, being the French Legation Museum, we were treated to plenty of Serge Gainsbourg and old yé-yé classics while the performers set up. I mention this because my goodness was it ever a balm after enduring some truly god-awful bar rock between sets the previous three nights. (Did Habana Calle 6 really need to play the Spin Doctors' Pocket Full of Kryptonite all the way through?) Anyhow, one spin of "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles"-- even the English language version, as was heard here-- more than undid the damage.

Noah and the Whale [French Legation Museum; 12:50 p.m.]


Laura Marling [French Legation Museum; 1:40 p.m.]


Lightspeed Champion [French Legation Museum; 2:20 p.m.]




Lightspeed Champion, Laura Marling, and Emmy the Great (who performed earlier in the day and joined Lightspeed for most of his set) would seem to constitute a sort of UK anti-folk scene (appropriately, the Garden Party bill also featured anti-folk queen Kimya Dawson). I suppose we could also lump in Noah and the Whale, for whom Marling sang back-up vocals and shook a shaker.

A lesson learned: don't judge a band by its ironic sunglasses. Noah and the Whale sure as hell looked like another rag-tag bunch of Brooklyn hipsters appropriating world music or whatever, but they actually hail from London, and the music that came out of their mouths and instruments was in fact earnest and innocuous folk/bluegrass with the occasional Magnetic Fields-esque ukulele ditty thrown in for good measure. Pleasant enough for a Garden Party.

Despite her kickass Spice Girls t-shirt, Marling looked more or less catatonic as she returned to the stage with a three-piece band (including Noah's fiddler) to serve up a series of shanties marked by a very English brand of melancholy. While the lyrical themes ranged from dejection to, um, resignation, the songs themselves were actually rather lively. In one of them Marling asked, "What will you do with a girl who refuses to be alive?" to which I reply, "find myself oddly captivated by her."

I must confess I don't much care for the Lightspeed Champion record, but live the one-time Test Icicle's appeal began to make sense. There's just something so dadgummed endearing about his way of doing things, whether it's his choice of headgear, his polite and slightly awkward interactions with crowd and bandmates, or the way his songs struggle to go places they really oughtn't. It all feels very "real", for lack of a better way of saying it, and that feeling is not unlike one I felt some years ago when first embracing the early Saddle Creek roster (whose ranks, not coincidentally, contribute to Lightspeed's recordings). During a cover of Weezer's "Perfect Situation" it became clear: this is music for people to relate to, imperfections and all, and we could perhaps use more like it right now.

Sons & Daughters [French Legation Museum; 3 p.m.]




Scotland's Sons & Daughters look damn good and play some decent enough foot-stomping rock, but the most interesting aspect of this set by far was the way singer/guitarist Scott Paterson's hair matched the head on his Burns six-string. I've heard of people resembling their pets, but that is some next-level crazy shit right there.

J Mascis [French Legation Museum; 3:50 p.m.]


Thurston Moore and the New Wave Bandits [French Legation Museum; 4:30 p.m.]






J Mascis and Thurston Moore


From UK upstarts to American indie demigods, the tone of the Garden Party took an abrupt turn with the arrival of a seated, solo J Mascis. The long-haired one unloaded several Dinosaur Jr. cuts-- including "Quest", "Get Me", and "Not You Again"-- plus Mascis/Fog tune "Alone", which culminated in one ass-kicker of a five-odd-minute solo. With bass and drums stripped away, I found myself marveling at how well Mascis' chord changes and distortion resonances work in tandem to generate mood in his songs.

This was a "party" after all, and Thurston Moore came feeling festive. For starters, he introduced the band as "Bromance", meaning something along the lines of "the way two dudes show each other love." Thurston then demonstrated by bro-ing up to bandmate Chris Brokaw (or should I say BROkaw). "Bromance", rounded out by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley on drums, Samara Lubelski on violin, and No-Neck Blues Band's Matt Heyner on bass, delivered some material off Thurston's latest solo album Trees Outside the Academy, but it was Moore's freewheeling banter between songs and during times of technical difficulty that made for the set's highlight. "I'll see you animals in the streets," he declared in closing. "Either that or I'll see you at Jandek."

Misha [Lambert's; 8 p.m.]


No Kids [Lambert's; 9 p.m.]




Thurston didn't see me at Jandek (who I caught last year and enjoyed very much, thank you), but he might have seen me smiling a bit had he wandered over to Lambert's for the Anticon/Tomlab showcase. First up was New York City's Misha, who were perhaps a bit too giddy for their own good. I felt like I was watching a group of youngsters showing ma and pa this neat music they'd been making, and like ma and pa, I feel compelled to be nice and encouraging. Keep at it, Misha, and some day you'll dazzle 'em!

A childlike glee of another sort underpins the genre dalliances of Misha's Tomlab labelmates No Kids, who performed next. Let me first say that I really rather like this Vancouver trio's debut, Come Into My House. What works for me is the sense of fascination, curiosity, and playfulness, manifest both in the lyrics-- which consider even the littlest things with a thoughtfulness such things so seldom receive-- and in the band's willingness to venture outside their presumed comfort zone sonically. It's like, hey, on this song, why don't we pretend we're Usher? Okay! That spirit, ultimately characteristic of childhood, poked through often during this performance, though I suspect the Anticon heads weren't feeling it so much, as evidenced by the din of chatter enveloping the room.

Nadja [The Ale House; 10 p.m.]




I may be guilty of getting a wee bit too excited about this gig. My favorite things about Nadja-- the dynamic sweep found on compositions like "Memory Leak" and "Incubation/Metamorphosis", and all those doomy layers that threaten to swallow the listener whole-- were largely absent from Saturday night's program. Instead, Nadja played a pair of pieces that fell more on the drone end of their sonic spectrum and emphasized subtle changes. And while I'd have happily submitted to these sounds, the volume level was simply too modest to allow for such a thing. On the bright side, Nadja did inspire at least one freaky goth person to interpretive dance through their set.

White Shoes & the Couples Company [Habana Annex; 11 p.m.]


And now for something complete different...indie pop! From Indonesia! Jakarta sextet White Shoes & the Couples Company (minus a guitarist here) came from halfway around the world to entertain, and entertain they did. Between the slick matching wedding band getup, the highly danceable retro pop stylings, and the picture-perfect poise of charismatic vocalist Aprilia Apsari, there was much to love about this Minty Fresh-signed act. Separated from this adorable performance, the music may have come across a bit hokey, but give these kids credit for their willingness to put on a show, complete with sing- and clap-alongs, much moving of feet, and even a cute drum solo bit.

So long, SXSW 2008! It's been real.

Additional Photos:

She & Him [French Legation Museum; 5:15 p.m.]






Okkervil River [French Legation Museum; 6:05 p.m.]




Minipop [Bourbon Rocks; 1:20 a.m.]