SXSW 2009, Day 4: plum panels, Perfect Pants

It's Saturday, the last day of SXSW. And for me, it begins with three tech-oriented panels and ends with one more musical blast. (Shown above: Perfect Pants.)

Panel No. 1: "The Archival Restoration Preservation Society." From that title, I'm thinking that the Society actually exists — especially since two of the panelists are producers George Massenburg and Sandy Pearlman, longtime champions of good sound. But no, there's no such formal organization; the guys are just having fun with a certain Kinks album title. That said, they're dead serious about archival preservation, particularly for original analog recordings — which will require new forms of analog storage. As for sound quality itself? Says Massenburg: "No resolution is high enough." Which brings us to . . .

Panel No. 2: "Neil Young Archives." Volume 1 is finally coming, on June 2. (For details, see my previous Bitstream post.) "It's not a boxed set," says manager Elliot Roberts. "It's a biography. It's actually a life." Roberts is so enthusiastic about sharing a preview with the audience that when his cellphone rings — and it's Neil himself — he doesn't take the call! But, referencing the project's incarnation on Blu-ray Disc, Roberts does share with us Neil's motto: "Quality, whether you want it or not."

Panel No. 3: "Wax Attacks!" Vinyl resurgence? Only 15 people (including yours truly, Ken Richardson) attend this panel, which is moderated by John Kunz, owner and operator of Austin's landmark shop Waterloo Records. There's lots of talk about value-added bonuses (artwork, liner notes, posters), the social element of playing LPs, and even their "sex appeal." But the "superior sound quality of vinyl," as one panelist put it, is mentioned only once. I hope to post a rebuttal to that supposed superiority at some point soon.

And I also hope to give you more details on all of those panels in a future issue of the print magazine. In the meantime, however, there's one more night of SXSW music to be heard . . .

Neil Young Archives on Blu-ray: June 2

BREAKING NEWS: At a SXSW panel on the Neil Young Archives, manager Elliot Roberts announced that the first volume of the long, long-awaited project will indeed appear on June 2. Of course, previously announced release dates have come and gone — but this time, as they say, it's for real. In fact, actual packages (not mockups) were shown at the panel.

Roberts was joined by Larry Johnson, director of Neil's Shakey Films, and Ola Lutjens, creative director of MX Production, the San Francisco company that devised the Blu-ray platform for the Archives.

Yes, Vol. 1 — covering the years 1963 to 1972 — will be released on 10 Blu-ray Discs. It will also be available on 10 DVDs or as a set of 8 CDs.

But Blu-ray's the thing here, and at their SXSW panel, the trio of Roberts, Johnson, and Lutjens dazzled the audience with a preview of the set, playing discs on a PS3. The wealth of material is even more than we could have imagined. Trust me.

As of now, you can preorder Vol. 1 from neilyoung.com, where you'll also find a personal message from Neil on why you should buy the Blu-ray version.

S&V will have in-depth coverage of this important project in print and online, so stay tuned.

— Ken Richardson

SXSW 2009, Day 3: Disaster, but Zimbabwe rules!

Say what? Well, here's what I'm saying: My third night of music at SXSW was a reminder that, when things go wrong, they can go really wrong. Until they're saved by — but I'm getting ahead of myself. (Shown above: Chiwoniso.)

Ken Richardson here, and I can also tell you that the actual day of Friday started out fine. Smashing, in fact. In my continuing quest to follow the exploits of one singled-out band at SXSW, I had made a date with the Grates (see my posts for Day 1 and Day 2). First, we did a photo shoot, courtesy of our famous rock & roll photographer, Ebet Roberts.

(That word "famous" was applied to her yesterday by none other than Devo, who are speaking and playing at SXSW this year. At the beginning of her photography career, Ebet shot the likes of the Ramones, Talking Heads, and yes, Devo. And when she saw the band yesterday at their press conference, they recognized her and said: "Look at you now. You're famous." Ebet demurred, but they insisted. "No, really, you're famous!" And so she is. But I digress . . .)

After shooting the Grates both inside the Convention Center (where we covered them with Legos!) and outside, we all strolled to Brush Square Park for the band's gig at the day party known as the Aussie BBQ. Once again, it didn't take long before they had the audience in their hands, despite the warm day under a hot tent.

We then returned to the Convention Center for a sit-down interview in the Artists' Lounge. You'll be able to read that interview soon in the print mag. For now, suffice it to say that Patience, John, and Alana are as charming offstage as they are giddy onstage.

But then, the night fell. And it fell hard.

Come with me now, if you dare . . .

SXSW 2009, Day 2: Quincy, Unlearn Guitar, more

Welcome back, my friends, to the post that never ends — or at least it seems that way. For here I am, Ken Richardson, back at the laptop at the end of Thursday, to give you the very latest from SXSW (including U Can Unlearn Guitar, shown above).

The day began with the conference's "Keynote Address" by Quincy Jones. Note the quotes; it was indeed an address (complete with TelePrompters), but instead of dealing with the state of the music industry at large, it was mostly in the key of Q. Or, as Will Smith said in one of the many video tributes that accompanied the address, "It's the power of the Q."

In other words, Quincy's speech was nearly entirely about Quincy. Admittedly, the man has had a genuinely historic career for 60 years. But after so much name-dropping of his "homies" (Sinatra! De Niro! Bono!) and all of the birthing technologies that he witnessed firsthand (stereo! cassette! optical disc!), my ears tended to gauze over.

What was slotted as a 75-minute speech ended up running more than 2 hours. And it wasn't until 1.5 hours in that Quincy said, "So, let's talk about the state of the music business." Sigh. It's certainly not the first time that SXSW has booked a keynote speaker who would spend most of his or her speech going off on a personal tangent, but this was . . . a bit much.

However, something remarkable happened at that 1.5-hour point . . .

SXSW 2009, Day 1: Bob Ludwig, the Grates, more

My feet may be aching already, but my fingers are eager to give you the scoop on the first long day and night at the South by Southwest Music & Media Conference. Ken Richardson here, your faithful Entertainment Editor, down in Austin for my 12th straight year of covering the world's largest music festival. And even though my company laptop and my hotel Wi-Fi connection seem to be fighting me every step of the way, here we go. (Shown above: The Grates.)

Wednesday began with a chat and a panel of special interest to S&V readers. First, legendary mastering engineer Bob Ludwig "interviewed" getting-to-be-legendary mixer/producer Bob Clearmountain. Among other things, they discussed BC's work with Chic, Bruce Springsteen (The River), and the Rolling Stones (from "Miss You" to the Shine a Light movie). Some people think BC has an identifiable sound — but surprisingly, he said, "I hope I don't have a sound."

Later that afternoon, Ludwig moderated a panel (actually, he alone was the panel) on "The Loudness Wars." You may recall that, a while back at SXSW, he led a panel that was bluntly called "Why Does Today's Music Sound Like Shit?" (see story). This new panel was an extension of that one, complete with audio examples. And graphs! (Er, waveforms.) Ludwig fascinated the audience by going through numerous versions of Beck's "Gamma Ray," but the coolest comparison was Metallica's Death Magnetic vs. Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, with the latter sounding far more accurate. Attaboy, Axl!

I'll have more to say about those two Ludwig talks in a future print edition of S&V. But now, without further ado, on to the live music festival:

SXSW, Day 4: Saturday, 3/15

Welcome to International Night! No, that's not an official SXSW designation for the last night of the festival. But even though I've already taken you to places as far flung as Australia and the Faroe Islands, tonight I'll take you to Brazil, Norway, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, and even Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. — all in one night! So, fasten your seat belt and click below as your humble tour guide, Ken Richardson, takes you spanning the globe in search of rock & roll & what have you, wherever we may find it.

SXSW, Day 3: Friday, 3/14

Yes, it's Friday! And that means: It's the weekend! And that means: The Vampire watch begins!

But first, in order to guarantee that I'm inside the famous club Antone's when VW takes the stage at 11 p.m., I need to get there for the first act and stay put. Will I be lucky with the three unknown-to-me bands leading up to the main attraction? Ken Richardson here, yet again, inviting you to read on.

SXSW, Day 2: Thursday, 3/13

As I warned you in SXSW: The Night Before (under Rule No. 4), tonight is the night I make my pilgrimage to Soiled Mattress & the Springs. The photo at left is the opening image on the band's MySpace page — and I can't think of anything better to sum up their . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself again. Ken Richardson here, folks, inviting you to click below for another wild night at SXSW.

SXSW Keynote: Reed on Sound

"I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

That, of course, is the line extracted for today’s front page of The Austin Chronicle, reporting on yesterday’s SXSW keynote interview of Lou Reed, conducted by producer and friend Hal Willner.

And sure, it’s a great quote, but it’s even better when you get the full context that preceded it, which the Chronicle never gives:

After reciting lyrics from "Rock Minuet," Reed said the following: "People say, 'Is this stuff real?' Dance to a rock minuet — when you dance hard, slow-dancing, repetitive, when you dance to a rock minuet. People say, 'How would you know that? You’re joking, right? You're supposed to give qualifications for lyrics. You gotta be joking.' "

And then came the answer: "I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

Reed is indeed a man of many things. He and Willner were ostensibly at the Austin Convention Center yesterday morning to promote Julian Schnabel’s film of Lou Reed’s Berlin. But the musician aired out many of his passions in his talk with Willner. Most intriguing for readers of Sound & Vision, he spent more time discussing sound quality than anything else.

SXSW, Day 1: Wednesday, 3/12

Hey, here's an official SXSW logo! As you may have seen from the S&V home page, our Web man Rob Medich was able to grab one (those computer guys are, y'know, adept). So, inspired by his adeptness, I finally found one, too. No more ripping off The Austin Chronicle (see my previous post).

Anyway, yesterday was indeed Day 1 at SXSW 2008, and here's my report on what I heard. Apologies for the delay, but if you think it's always quick and easy to blog, think again! Computer troubles, band Web-site troubles, download troubles — you name it! Not to mention the fact that I did have to check out Lou Reed's keynote interview this morning, which included much of interest for S&V readers. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Read on for Day 1, by yours truly, Ken Richardson.