SXSW Thursday - a good day for alt. rock gold

Carbon/Silicon at KGSR

In addition to R.E.M., Lou Reed was on the prowl and alternative gold was in full effect at SXSW 08. Maybe Pete Townshend closed the door on the British Classic Rock folks last year. I'm still waiting for the Chris Squire keynote myself.

Thanks to Jody Denberg at KGSR, I had the opportunity to see them and do some chatting with the god himself, Mick Jones. They play with a ton of exuberance and Mick's voice and guitar haven't lost any of their appeal. He has a lot of style with those fuzzy melody lines...

But what a cool dude. There are going to be some Clash reissues coming from Sony/Legacy shortly, including a recording of their show at Shea Stadium from September 82. The picture above shows me bending Mick and Tony James' ears after their rocking radio show.



Thurston Moore Groop at Threadgill's

Later that afternoon, I scammed a little vid from the other side of the fence while listening to Thurston and his solo band play. I wonder what the idea is to do it on an acoustic guitar? Seems to just illuminate how unique the man is on guitar... the visual doesn't fit the sound Thurston! I hope it's not for the Neil Young reason of having a bad back or something. I'm a huge fan of this guy and it comes back every time I see him play. I hope Yes gets into the Hall in the same year!



In the next entry about R.E.M., Rev. Coes loses his jacket at ACL.