SXSW 2012 Roundup

Jamie and I recently attended the South By Southwest music festival, the annual mass gathering of musicians, aficionados, and drunken UT students held in Austin, TX. There were thousands of artists playing all day, and during some time slots there are literally a hundred acts at a time.

It is impossible to see—or even know—all the good acts, and this year we were pretty hard-core in our planning. Through a series of listening parties with a couple of our friends, we used Spotify to get a taste of every single one of the 600+ artists part of the official showcase this year (there are many more than that doing unofficial shows, but we had to draw the line somewhere). We gave each a score and recorded our notes in a spreadsheet to help us remember them later. Many of the bands were just not our thing .. or were downright awful. But we found a number of promising acts that we then tried to catch at the festival.

We ended up seeing 45 different bands in 4-1/2 days there, and I've written a little bit about each. You can listen to my favorites on my Best of SXSW 2012 Spotify playlist. (Most of the others are also on Spotify)

Best New Acts

Doomtree
This is a stand-out 7-piece hip-hop group from Minnesota. They've been around a while and put on a really tight show. This isn't B.S. gangsta rap—it's real and it's damn good. I don't usually even like hip-hop. So good, it's one of only two shows we saw twice.

Ume
They rock. At the front is a little blonde girl who makes big sounds. Metric, meet Les Savy Fav and Denali.

Housse De Racket
French guitar-synth pop, reminiscent of (but distinct from) Phoenix. Dance, bounce, be happy.

Conner Youngblood
Bluegrass-club music. Huh? That's right, check it out. Feels as bit like Dolorean but with more oomph.

This Will Destroy You
A solid post-rock foursome. Deep bass lines and a slow, determined build. Watching them was like watching a factory floor, workers absorbed in their roles, busily constructing a massive soundscape.

Chairlift

Maybe it was the incredible sound quality at the Empire Garage that evening, or that Caroline Polachek has a great stage presence, but this was one of the best shows we saw.

Honorable Mention

Beach Fossils
Great live show if you're in the mood to jump around.

Cloud Nothings
Of course, a solid rock / punk act that puts on a great show. The feedback-laden jam at the end was actually pretty good.

Craft Spells
Nice shy dudes playing some chillwave.

El Ten Eleven
A post-rock duo that's garnered some commercial success. I like them a lot, and it was impressive watching them layer all their sounds live. Well done.

Ettes
Fun girl-punk trio.

Gardens and Villa
Very kooky. The frontman looks like a young Indiana Jones and carries a quiver (yes, a quiver) full of various wooden pan flutes. You would not know this from their music.

Grimes
I don't think I like much of Grimes' recorded stuff, but her show at the church sounded awesome. However, it was downright stressful, with her racing back and forth between samplers, keys, and mic, and gesticulating frustratedly at the sound guy many times mid-track, occasionally missing a cue and being all "fuck, sorry, one sec". Get some help, girl. Or more presets.

Lower Dens
One part Yo La Tengo, stir in some structure and add a dash of rock.

Nas
I didn't know much about him, but it was pretty cool to see an old-school hip-hop artist play his breakout album (Illmatic) start-to-finish. The best part about this was probably the Illmatic cocktail we sampled earlier in the weekend (long story).

Purity Ring
They only have like five songs, but we saw them in a church and the sound was amazing. The "keyboardist" had rigged up these glowing lights that played notes/samples when he hit them. Wild.

Shlohmo
I'm not usually big on DJs, but this guy kept it interesting and had a good stage persona.

Sleigh Bells
We've seen them a bunch already, but this was a pretty good show—and opening for Nas in a big auditorium, great exposure for them I'm sure.

Turbo Fruits
A Nashville hair punk band. Definitely a longshot, but their show turned out to be fun.

Wished I Had Seen

Caged Animals
I'll describe them as surf-synth rock. Would have been neat to see what they're like live.

Voltaire Twins
I like anything that reminds me of Woodhands. This group mixes that sound with a snarky guy-girl duo like a darker Postal Service.

The Rest

We also saw a bunch of other bands. Some of them were pretty good, others just were not a fit for my taste. Take a listen if you're interested, but here's the list:

8-1/2
12th Planet
Andrew Bird
Bass Drum Of Death
Ben Kwellar
Blouse
CHLLNGR 
Class Actress
Cold Showers
College
Exitmusic
Fat Tony
Friends
Guards
Love Inks
My Education
Niki & The Dove
Poliza
Radiation City
Sharon van Etten
Sleep Over
Soft Swells
Temper Trap
Two Gallants
Wavves
Young L

wine country

So our trip has all but come to an end, and I'm happy to report it's been on a very high note. The last leg is in the wine country near Adelaide. The Barossa Valley was our home base, and we took some very memorable day trips from there.

Our first outing was to the McLaren Vale appellation, home of some of the world's best Shiraz. I should say first that the wine country in South Australia is far more like that of the California central coast (Santa Barbara and environs) than Napa or Sonoma. It's low-key, tastings generally consist of ten or so wines and are completely free, and the wineries are somewhat spread-out.

When I say spread-out, I mean it. There's no "main drag" where you find tons of wineries like Highway 29 or the Silverado Trail. The directions from our hotel to the McLaren Vale should illustrate this point (and of course, reminded me of this colorful episode of xckd). But having to wind your way through scores of unmarked backroads which traverse the heart of wine country makes it more of an adventure - it feels kind of old-school. And by the time we arrived at our intended destination we were usually ready to drink.

Mollydooker was our first stop and we had probably the most amazing wine-tasting experience ever. They don't have a tasting room so we had to make an appointment for a tour, but without a cellphone we couldn't confirm an appointment the day of. So we just figured we'd drop by and see if/when they could take us.

We arrive and they told us to join a tour that had just left (which was only two other people). This tour consisted of the winemaker's mother Janet showing us around their brand new facility, letting us taste some upcoming vintages from a bunch of different fermentation tanks. Then she invited us back to her house, which was on the property, where she prepared us a meal and opened up three of their best bottles of wine and let us pour whatever we wanted. And all of this with no charge and no pressure to purchase anything (they don't sell bottles there anyway - it's not a tasting room). And to top it off, their wine was amazing (it's no surprise that one of their wines was rated in the Top 10 in the world by Wine Spectator). Um, wow. We were floored. I see us buying a few cases in the near future.

Spending our days riding through the hills and valleys, surveying the beautiful countryside, eating delicious local food and sampling fabulous wine, suffused us with a much-needed sense of calm that was perfect for winding down our honeymoon. For many stretches of the road between towns there were no other cars in sight.

Other highlights of our stay include Maggie Beer's farm shop, the Angaston farmer's market, and some other wonderful wineries such as Petaluma, Longview, Coriole (which, oddly, produces one of my favorite Italian white wines, Fiano!), Shaw and Smith, and Henschke.

Our final nights were spent at the beautiful hotel The Louise, where we had an amazing suite that was literally feet from a huge vineyard. We dined at Appellation, the restaurant on-property, where they offered us a multi-course prix fixe meal designed around the "Garden Series" of wines from Two Hands. Two Hands is another amazing producer we had visited with special treatment, thanks to a hookup from my cousin Brian who knows the owner. They create some amazing Shirazes, and although we usually don't drink much Shiraz because it's hard to find vege/pescetarian food that pairs well with it, Appellation turned our view upside-down.

Course after course of clever integrations of earthy and spicy flavors that paired beautifully with the deep fruit of the wines were delivered to our table. It was a tremendously enjoyable dinner - and paced properly to boot. :)

We can't say enough good things about The Louise - we even met the owner, Jim Carreker, who is a Silicon Valley expat who travelled to Australia with his wife to do something different. He's a jovial fellow who clearly loves what he does. He even delivered us breakfast in person one morning to our room - talk about service!

It's with a sense of melancholy that we prepare for our trip back to Sydney, and ultimately home. Our honeymoon has been relaxing and energizing, and pretty much everything we intended it to be. But I think we're ready to get back to our friends, our apartment, our favorite city, and real life.

Pictures of the moment (from top to bottom):

1. Janet at Mollydooker. She's Sparky (one of the winemaker)'s Mom, and was delightful and gracious. We spent more than two hours with her talking about their wine, their business, and many other things.
   
2. Fields of lavender. It's cultivated here and so there are hills that are literally completely purple. Cool.
   
3. Angaston farmer's market. Convening Weekly on Saturday mornings, this market had all kinds of droolworthy local confections. It definitely seemed to be heavier on baked goods than produce, but I didn't complain. One of the favorites is Rich the Chocolatier, who we had met the previous day pouring wine at Maggie Beer's.
   
4. Shaw and Smith. One of the many beautiful outdoor tasting rooms we visited.
   

harbour bridge : brides :: cassowary poop : flies

One thing you may not know about the bridge - it's a bride magnet. On Saturday evening as we walked back to our hotel after a day of shopping and exploring, we saw no fewer than six brides and their parties either getting married or having their photos taken near the bridge, with it and/or the Opera house in the background. Our hotel hosted three weddings that night, and since they weren't as anal as The Carneros Inn about music, we had to listen to "Rock the Casbah" until nearly midnight.

For the first couple of days here we met up with Billy, who is serendipitously in Sydney on business. We did the Paddington market, which is an amazing collection of local crafts and delicious food - lots of really interesting, different stuff here, both the arts and the cuisine. Billy also joined us for our aquarium and wildlife habitat visits, where Jamie finally got to pet a koala! It was nice to see a familiar face for a bit after nearly two weeks so far from home.

Sydney has been great, though it reminds us quite a bit of our own San Francisco, so it doesn't really feel like much of a change. The climate, the integration of water, rock, and structure are all present here, but in a different form. "Modern Australian" food could pretty much be described as "California" food - just substitute barramundi for salmon and call things "capsicums" instead of "peppers."

Darling Harbour and The Rocks neighborhoods got a lot of our attention - the former because it has a lot of attractions, and the latter because it's such a great neighborhood to stroll around in, full of shops and great restaurants, and surrounds our hotel. We have some gripes with our lodging, but location definitely is not one of them.

We took a walk around Bondi Beach - amazing views and a great surf culture around there, but it was too cold for us to lay on the beach much less go in the water for a surf lesson. Still, a worthwhile trip.

Our final dinner was at Quay, an award-winning restaurant at the top of the International Passenger Terminal, offering sweeping views of the harbour. The food was fantastic. I had a mud crab congee that totally changed my views on congee (that is, I actually know what it is now). Jamie had "the best risotto she's ever eaten." The dessert was an "eight-textured chocolate cake" which really did have eight different textures. The food deserved its every reward.

But in spite of the tremendously good cuisine, the service was oddly off. The three courses in our fixed-price meal came so far apart that Jamie and I decided to start timing them. We were literally ignored (except maybe the occasional refill of our water or wine) for a full twenty-five minutes between each course. We've had slow, leisurely dining experiences, but this place is the SNL of restaurants, offering three great rewards spaced way too far apart to approach comfort. What's astonishing is this is by design, as our waiter defended the pacing when we asked about it.

Overall I think we both enjoyed our dinner the previous night, at Rockpool Fish, much better. Superb seafood, classy and friendly service. Anyway, enough foodie rant for now. Tomorrow, off to the wine country!

Pictures of the moment: from top to bottom:
1. Drinks at the top of the Shangri-La hotel.
2. A new friend at the aquarium. He's crafty.
3. Us at Paddington market.
4. A swimmer at The Bergs, a swim club that's built right on the rocks at Bondi Beach. You can see how the waves from the ocean splash right into the pool itself.

The toothless concierge

Note on 10/13: Internet access was expensive and unnecessary for a chunk of our trip so we opted not to connect to post blog entries. We did still write some, though - over the next day or two as we recover I'll try to upload them.

After a harrowing shuttle ride from the Sydney airport (no thanks to the disgruntled, racist curmudgeon that posed as a driver) we arrived at our hotel, the Sebel Pier One. The views from here are breathtaking - it looks out across the harbour and is about 100m from the bridge.

We've rapidly learned that unless you're at an absolutely top-tier establishment, service in Australia pales in comparison to that in a comparable American establishment. One possible reason for this is the lack of a tipping culture: gratuity is included in just about everything, and unless someone has a passion for service there's little reason for them to go out of their way to help you.

The Sebel's concierge is the poster-boy for bad service. We had passed a burger place on the way in, no more than a couple minute's walk from the hotel on the main drag, George Street. When we asked the poor lad (whom I refer to as such because he was missing several of his front teeth) if it was any good, he shrugged and said "Where's that?"

It's great to be in Sydney, though. The weather is not cooperating but on our first evening we stumbled upon this amazing place named Sailors Thai (again, no thanks to the concierge, who's best restaurant recommendation was a nearby pub). It's a fine restaurant that has a more casual annex with a smaller menu served at a single communal table. I had possibly the best shrimp summer rolls ever made, smothered in sweet chili sauce.

So, we're definitely looking forward to better food here. It happens to be "Good Food and Drink" month in Sydney, which means tons of restaurants are offering special meals, cocktails, pairings, and even high tea. Score!

Ulli's gold

We arrived at our hotel (Sea Temple in Palm Cove) to find - surprise! - they had overbooked our room. Apparently this happens sometimes in Australia, and this isn't like a U.S. overbooked flight where they start the bidding with. Nope, this is "Sorry, no room for you, even though you've already paid for it. But we can send you to one of these other hotels which have rooms."

It turns out they had availability at their property 30km north at Port Douglas, and it's newer and nicer and actually closer to the various rainforest-y things we want to do. With some pressure they gave us free breakfast and a room upgrade to a 2-bedroom suite, for all four nights. The staff here is much friendlier to boot. A perky German girl named Ulli has helped us do everything from getting to the beach, into town, giving us restaurant recommendations and booking tours for us. So in the end, it's all worked out for the best.

The pool is great, when not infested with 6-year-olds. We made a note - whenever we get to build a pool into a house, somehow incorporate fire into it.

Yesterday we took an amazing tour of the Daintree Rainforest with Tony's Tropical Tours. Our guide, Chris, was very knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy teaching us the best way to extract poison from the various local flora (90% of the plant species in the Australian rainforest contain some kind of toxin that's deadly in sufficient quantity). We got lots of great scenery, sweeping views of completely unspoiled rainforest rolling across the hills of northern Queensland and into the Coral Sea.

Sadly, we only caught the faintest glimpse of a crocodile - but a closer encounter was available for us at the wildlife habitat, where we also saw koalas and cassowaries, and got to feed kangaroos.

Today we embarked on a cruise to the Low Isles, a small group of islands between the mainland and the inner reef. There's a beach and coral about, but it was rainy so we didn't get much sun in. However, the snorkeling was excellent - we saw lots of soft coral and giant clams, as well as three large green sea turtles, one of which was close enough to pet! It's pretty cool to be literally just a few feet from the nifty marine life you saw in aquariums as a kid.

The sheer immensity of this ecosystem in both time and space is awe-inspiring. It got me thinking, wouldn't it be neat if some product like Google Earth let you browse through time as well, and let you navigate through prehistoric environs? Whenever I hear talk of Gondwana and Laurasia it triggers that desire to immerse myself in some fantastical world of legend, made all the more compelling by the knowledge that it was real - it actually happened. Like, this world is cool - where's the cloth map?

On a lighter note, I've discovered two delicious new tropical fruits - jackfruit and the custard apple. And tomorrow we leave for Syndey!

Pictures of the moment (top to bottom):

1. View of the inlet adjacent to Whitehaven Beach, from a seaplane.
2. Greg feeding kangaroos at the wildlife habitat.
3. A view looking upward into the trunk of a strangling fig tree. The seed is dropped by a bird into the canopy of any other tree; the strangling fig sprouts and gradually drops roots that twist around the host until it is choked to death. When the host rots it leaves a hollow.
4. Jamie, swimming in a clear freshwater creek in the Noah Valley rainforest, her face painted with ochre rock.
5. Sand designs formed by ghost crabs at Cape Tribulation. They pick up a pile of sand, filter through it for nutrients, and when they're done with it they roll it into a ball and put it aside.

honeymoon, part the first

Greetings from the other corner of the world! The toilets still flush the same way, but Channel 8 comes after Channel 10 on the TV for some reason.

The 23-hour epic voyage across the Pacific was actually fairly comfortable. Asiana's business class was comfortable if dated, and the food was a surprisingly successful attempt to provide good vegetarian plane fare - with some exception (can the words "vegan breakfast" really be used together in a valid sentence? The answer is a resounding "no.") Our journey terminated rather unceremoniously with a domestic flight from Sydney to Hamilton Island, aboard which were several gentlemen of questionable social grace. That's a polite way of saying "rugby players who quaffed three beers apiece, cussed unabashedly in front of the small children sharing their row, and belched for seconds at a time without breaking a sentence." Welcome to Australia, mate!

Thankfully the honeymoon aesthetic was restored when we were met at the Hamilton Island airport by a Hayman Island representative, who told us they would take our bags and we should board the launch to the island, have a drink, and wait. The "launch" is actually a 70-foot yacht, and we sat in the wheelhouse while they poured champagne for us and the five other couples being picked up that day. So, it begins.

Hayman Island is pretty luxurious. It's difficult to judge coming from the near-perfection that is The Carneros Inn, but in terms of visuals it's absolutely stunning. They've given us a fair share of complimentaries, including a room upgrade (we now have a lanai overlooking their beautiful pool), champagne, chocolates, and daily breakfast buffet. They've got honey straight from the comb here - why don't all breakfast places do that? Also, fresh passionfruit, and I mean the fruit itself.

So far we've definitely taken advantage of the setting, and the weather has more or less cooperated with a pretty good showing of sun. The Whitsunday Islands are a beautiful retreat; they are almost completely uninhabited save for a few resorts. It has taken us a couple of days to really get relaxed, but the sun+water+sand+alcohol equation has been proven yet again. The best part is due to the way our travel worked out, we're waking up at 6am with the sun. This is unusual, especially for me, but it's perfect since everything we want to do here is just during daylight hours.

Today (Sunday) was a day of adventure. In the morning, we climbed in a tandem kayak and paddled out to the rocky point at the end of the beach, where we found ourselves surrounded by stingrays. Literally, dozens and dozens of their shadowy hooded forms, large and small, skated the bottom beneath my paddle. I love swarms of things, but this was a bit creepy. The crazy thing is that entire area and what must be a kilometer in each direction becomes totally dry at low tide, so clearly they migrate in and out of that area daily at least.

After lunch we hopped on a seaplane which whisked us to Whitehaven Beach, home of arguably the most beautiful beach in Australia: a miles-long stretch of white powder that looks and feels like baker's sugar. The plane then took us to a boat docked in the outer reef, where we snorkeled for an hour and saw ridiculous reef-y stuff, like a massive forest of stag coral, too many exotic fish to count, and a giant clam with an ultraviolet beard. Some other people in the group saw a morey eel - I'm actually kind of glad we didn't.

We leave tomorrow for Palm Cove, which is a coastal town further north, from which we'll be able to make forays into the nearby rainforest. Better pictures to follow.

buh bye

I write this from the floor of our new apartment, furnished with a single lamp and an air mattress.

After a long process of researching, packing, making phone calls, and tearing our hair out, we've finally managed to complete all the necessary steps to properly move ourselves and all of our possessions to the opposite side of the country.

Some crowning moments of the last couple of weeks include:

• Lots of good outings and meals with friends that we will miss.
  
• Surviving the "farewell roda" from my capoeira class without sustaining significant physical injury.
• Convincing the movers they had to absorb the $600 cost of the two parking tickets they incurred while transporting our stuff.
• Acquiring a satisfactory apartment in SF, sight-unseen, having Internet hooked up the day we moved in, and not paying even a single day's worth of double rent.

We're in town for good now, so if you're local feel free to look us up. I'll be sending an email out in the next couple of days with our new address, etc.