SXSW 2011 // Jack White

Our unbridled affection for Jack White is well known, and this 'impromptu' performance in a SXSW parking lot only enhances that love.

Cheekily introduced by Ben Swank, former Soledad Brothers and current Mr David Viner drummmer, and fellow Detroit scene stalwart, as a Third Man Records recording artist, White launches into Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away before a brief but impassioned version of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.

New Third Man signing Seasick Steve follows up with his older than time three string blues, completing 10 minutes full of reasons why I must get to Austin in 2012.



via NPR

Brown Brogues // Don't Touch My Hair

There's plenty of bands, Egyptian Hip Hop, Everything Everything, Wu Lyf and Christian AIDS to name but a select few, bursting from Manchester's burgeoning new class set to steal the limelight and A&R attention from their London peers.

Add to that list Brown Brogues. Listening to the duo's two minute blasts of psych garage is akin to feeling the angst striken buzz of early White Stripes demos like Lafayette Blues or Hand Springs, as thumping drums provide the platform for scuzzy lo-fi guitar.

Before they head out to SXSW, the band's debut 7" is out next week on Suffering Jukebox. For your listening pleasure, samples of two tracks from the release are below, as well as a Manchester Scenewipe directed video for Treet U Beta.

Find more artists like brown brogues at Myspace Music

Find more artists like brown brogues at Myspace Music

Little Scream // The Heron and The Fox

You can never go far wrong with a Secretly Canadian signing, the record label home of Here We Go Magic, Yeasayer, JJ and Antony & The Johnsons acting as signpost for innovation and future genius.

It would seem careless therefore not to herald a new SC signing with some attention. Unlike her label contemporaries there's more of the traditional in Little Scream, with a lush, hushed voice that invites comparisons with Joni Mitchell, yet behind the innocent visage lies perhaps a more deviant edge, singing of showing truckers what she's got and that she would be the fox to her muse's heron.

Ok, perhaps not deviant, but there's plenty to love in this celebratory free download that certainly whets the aural appetite for her forthcoming debut 'The Golden Record' out 11th April.

Little Scream - The Heron and The Fox

Cloud Nothings // Leave You Forever

Cloud Nothings is a man. Let's get that straight. To his friends he's 19-year-old Dylan Baldi, and he makes bedroom garage anthems and brilliant record sleeves, such as this. Leave You Forever is but one part of his True Panther released 4-song EP of the same name and, of the host of excellent acts that have already been announced for SXSW 2011 and no doubt countless more to come, Cloud Nothings could well be the pick.

Dylan and band will be trading their wares with Les Savy Fav in London before the month is out, which will definitely be worth a watch.

Leave You Forever by truepanther

Harlem // Hippies

Things that make No Action purr, of late, include this from Austin's Harlem. Following the thrash n' roll path trod most recently by the likes of The Soft Pack and Black Lips, Harlem take bedroom garage to new depths of simplicity. No bad thing that, as Friendly Ghost is by a stretch the most heart thumpingly exhilirating thing I've heard this year.

After infinitessimal listens it still hasn't got old and makes each day a little bit better. New album Hippies is out on Matador on April 6th, containing the equally superb Gay Human Bones and Spray Paint. With the band touring the US until mid-May a cross-Atlantic summer jaunt must surely be on the cards.

Japandroids // No Singles

No Action has quite a thing for twosomes. Something in the base brutality that seemingly only a couple can generate has resulted in healthy obsessions with The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Tiny Masters of Today, Death From Above 1979 (RIP) among many, many others.

Latest and, perhaps, greatest of these is Japandroids, whose Post Nothing LP of 2009 is a gem. The grooves of the aforementioned DFA 1979 are melded with the surging guitar soundscapes of Sonic Youth, creating a devastatingly beautiful noise-blitz on The Boys are Leaving Town and the stunning Wet Hair.

Before all this, though, came a couple of EPs; 2007's All Lies and 08's Lullaby Death Jams, kindly re-issued to us Brits as album No Singles come May. While the tracks are no match for Post Nothing, Darkness on the Edge of Gastown hints at a heavy metal Whirlwind Heat, while Coma Complacency proffers fist punching cries over a brooding base. Much to enjoy, but what's more interesting is where Japandroids are going than where they've been.

They'll be plying their trade at Islington's The Garage on 20th May after February's sold out ICA show and wowing the SXSW-ers this month.

jj // Let Go

A band that could prove the 'find' of SXSW (despite preparing to release their second album, jj no.3), reclusive duo jj's video for Let Go proves there is literally no smoke without fire. Or dogs. Or indeed blood.

If you're yet to have this band in your life, allow in their cross of Vampire Weekend's afro beats with The xx's sombre atmospherics and hushed vocals. Label Yours Sincerely seems to have the knack for sourcing top new talent, with labelmates Memory Tapes producing one of the albums of 2009. Sadly, SXSW's gain is my poor East London existence's loss, so join me in this feast for the eyes until the band come to British shores.

Thanks a-plenty to Abeano for drawing attention to this.

jj "Let Go" from aufgemischt! on Vimeo.