Everything is going south, but Vic Galloway is delighted.
South by South West in Austin, Texas is somewhat overwhelming. This year was my third visit to the event and saw it celebrating its 19th birthday. Once a small underground showcase for burgeoning indie, punk, rock, country and roots music ignored by the US industry on east and west coasts, it has grown into a sun-bleached, beer-soaked. bar-b- q-marinated, ear-blistering behemoth. imagine all the gig experiences you could muster in a year crammed into four days . . . . it's that mental.
It's a strange beast though, in that it manages to (only just) balance the spirit of rock'n'roll with an acute and knowing business sense. On the down side it attracted 2000 more delegates and huge amounts of punters this year, making it nigh on impossible to get into half the venues and see the bands you're there for. It could be that it’s approaching corpOrate meltdown with the amount of labels. brands and sponsorship dwarfing the initial concept.
Regardless of that. for the second year a very commendable number of Scottish bands were invited to play and seemed to have made a great impression. Rumours are circling about showcases from Aberfeldy. Biffy Clyro. the Rezillos and Dogs Die in Hot Cars. but it's perhaps too early to know if the careers of the ten artists will be affected by their performances. They all certainly seemed to be having a blast out here. Luckily, I was documenting their progress. and also trying to discover some new international talent for your listening pleasure. I've definitely got a load of new favourite band names to tell you about — anyone for ‘The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower', ‘Hitler Hated the Moon', ‘An Albatross' or 'Superheavygoatass'? They all played out here at SXSW and I managed to miss them . . . ah well, there's always next year!
We Ga/loway presents ‘Air' on BBC Radio Scotland every Monday from 8. 05—10pm & on BBC Radio 7 every Thursday from 7.30-9pm wwwbbc.co.uk
68 THE LIST 31 Mar-14 Apr 2005
1‘ 3 Q ‘3
. .‘ l t ".1 . . -, I "5.3: , 9’ ‘ -- ) /
‘33
/
PUNK ROCK JULIETTE & THE LICKS King Tut‘s. Glasgow, Thu 14 Apr
‘I never even thought about it. It was my friends who said the press might have a go at me for being an actor trying to front a band,‘ explains Juliette Lewis, perhaps somewhat naively, in that distinctive California drawl of hers. But as we all know, the long road to hell is littered with the musical side projects of actors thinking they can bank on their box office draw and movie star good looks. Shame that most of their bands are shite. Stand up Russell Crowe and your 30 Odd Foot of Grunts or Keanu Reeves and Dogstar.
Recently we had Minnie Driver and her surprisingly competent MOR strumming. Now here‘s the flipside, the twisted punk rock side, that we always wished Hollywood could deliver. And they don’t come more ferocious than Lewis, an actress who screams rock‘n‘roll. Just watch her in the brutal yet brilliant Natural Born Killers or her on-stage slinkery in Strange Days. Now imagine that character and power harnessed on stage and spewed out through a mic.
‘It was something I‘ve always wanted to do, it‘s just the acting came up so I stuck with that for 15 years,’
JAZZ PHIL BANCROFT QUARTET Henry‘s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh. Fri 1 Apr
Phil Bancroft’s excellent Quartet played their first gig in Edinburgh back in 2002, so it seems appropriate that they kick off a slightly divided Scottish Arts Council Tune Up tour in the city (the main block of dates, including Peebles, Stirling and Glasgow as well as several Highland venues, arrive in
late May and early June).
Bancroft‘s original line-up featured the bass playing of the Bad Plus‘ Reid Anderson, and he also featured on their debut album, Head/ong. Even at that point, though, Bancroft suspected that the bassist’s commitments with the American trio would make a long term relationship unlikely.
‘I knew that was a strong possibility, and it became obvious that it wasn’t really going to work because he was so busy with the Bad Plus. I brought Steve Watts in at that point, and he has grown into what we are doing really well. I wanted to work more with Steve anyway, so I‘m totally happy
with how it has turned out.‘
The band is completed by guitarist Mike Walker from Manchester, and Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen. Phil had known Mike for years, and Thomas quickly adapted to the melody-over—rhythm approach of their early
gigs. That approach has now been modified a little.
‘Early on it was very much an anti-chord approach, but it’s moved on a bit. Even then there was a fair bit of harmonic information in there, but it was definitely focused on melody and rhythm. We are really looking
she says down the line from her California residence, which she shares with assorted band members. “For the last two years the Licks have been all. I love that you can touch someone instantly with a single guitar riff rather than having to rely on the 90 minute running time of some movie.‘
She seems to thrive on the stage, a rattlesnake oozing barely concealed sexual venom, squeezed into a selection of criminally tight outfits. The music‘s raw and impassioned; her voice at turns melodic then acidic. And one name crops up in every review of her live shows: Iggy Pop. ‘Wow, it’s amazing to be mentioned in the same breath as Iggy Pop. I‘m just trying to do something new as a strong woman in rock, I‘m training like an athlete. It‘s unbelievable how few of us there still are.‘
King Tut‘s is a far cry from the luxury trailers most actors have grown accustomed to. ‘I love the small venues, the graffiti on the walls, the broom closet you get as a dressing room, if you even get a dressing room. I just love connecting with the audience.’
She leaves you with no doubts, this is the real deal. ‘l’m just some crazy fucking chick fronting a kick ass rock band.’ (Henry Northmore)
forward to this tour. The thought of doing a string of gigs is very exciting musically, and I think the music will move on quite a bit as we go. My
challenge is to keep it moving along.‘ (Kenny Mathieson)