BLARE’s Best Live Photos (SXSW 2012)
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST is one giant adrenaline kick. It’s like if Red Bull gave you Superman’s powers rather than wings for four days and said you have the freedom to do whatever you want but note Texas barbecue has the same potent effect and that once you fall asleep at 6 a.m., you have to be up in four hours. Compared to 2011, SXSW left the pop voices at the door and unchained a brigade of new talent that crawled about the streets of Austin,... Read More
Q&A: Workaholics (SXSW 2012)
Coming from Toronto, Portland or even Los Angeles, the state of Texas can be a foreign love affair. Why? Because Austin likes to party. During South By Southwest, anything can happen whether its scaling walls to a see DJs make some wob wob noises, starting a Twitter trend (#cryonit) or asking Norah Jones out on a date, because she’s right there. Getting fully torqued in the middle of it all this year was the main cast of the comedy series WORKAHOLICS,... Read More
INTERVIEW: Polica (SXSW 2012)
The beautiful aspect to South By Southwest is although the helter-skelter festival stages hundreds of artists, thousands of people will unknowingly witness their new obsession(s) perform for the first time. One of this year’s breakout acts, Minnesota four-piece POLICA (prenounced “poe-lisa”, also stylized Poliça) have become one of those with the release of their debut Give You The Ghost, a blues-dripping LP scripted by vocalist... Read More
SOUNDCHECK: Bleeding Knees Club (SXSW 2012)
Hailing all the way from the Gold Coast, Aussie natives Alex Wall and Jordan Malane (plus their drifter drummer) make up BLEEDING KNEES CLUB, a band that give a whole new meaning to the term RGB (rhythm, guitar and blues). Though they’ve only existed for a year, the duo +1 have made a significant impact bringing a new spin on lo-fi and penning more songs about girls than a burn out sitting with his guitar watching a 1980s’ John Hughes... Read More
INTERVIEW: OFF! (SXSW 2012)
Here’s the thing about OFF!. Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag), Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes) have been involved with so many bands, not to mention producing (fun fact: McDonald handled the production on The Format’s 2006 epic Dog Problems), that if you made a playlist with every album on it, your head would explode and death would come knocking... Read More
PROFILE: Black Hippy (SXSW 2012)
There’s always been an East Coast v.s. West Coast rivalry in the underbelly of hip hop and as the genre snatches back its mic, it’s become more prominent, especially with the rise of South Central’s own BLACK HIPPY. More known for its ringleader in KENDRICK LAMAR, the Cali rap collective also comprised of SCHOOLBOY Q, JAY ROCK and AB-SOUL, bring together a street-born flow that’s less swagged out and more Tha Dogg Pound and... Read More
INTERVIEW: Motion City Soundtrack (SXSW 2012)
Back in the summer of 2005, Minnesota punk act MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK ruled high schools, headphones and Warped Tour. And all it really took was a discharge of pop punk chaos, flirting somewhere between love and self-evaluation that cauterized with hooks, tracing a historic third LP in Even If It Kills Me and a portrait for the bands of the future to mimic. To this day, the fivesome are still interacting with the general community, launching proverbial... Read More
PROFILE: The Men (SXSW 2012)
As one mind put it: THE MEN are “more composers than musicians”. Any band blazing off a trail of singles or a singer-songwriter with more self-released tapes than a dude that runs a record shop in Portland can say they’re composer, but there’s also a DIY ethic. That mentality where creations are built from sweat, blood and raw emotions cut from the heart, not taken from radio pop songs that go hand-in-hand with chewing gum.... Read More
PROFILE: Michael Kiwanuka (SXSW 2012)
The thing about BBC Sound Of 2012 winner MICHAEL KIWANUKA is his style oddly resembles a pearl that stands out in a collection of marbles. Instead of being cited next to the common gargantuan comparison, the London native’s appetite for soul has been politely pushed next to names such as Bill Withers and Otis Redding, prompting an instant revival of alternative blues. In this case, Kiwanuka is doing just that. In light of his debut album Home... Read More
TRACK/MP3: BLARE’s SXSW 2012 Mixtape
Before you take offense to the album art above and tear into us for either being juvenile or a hipster cult trying to be grunge, please note: rock and roll isn’t sophisticated. The genre, along with others, doesn’t even know the meaning of the word and unlike it’s rivals, SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST is as rock n’ roll as Spoon’s Kill The Moonlight or Trail Of Dead’s Worlds Apart. That doesn’t even touch the onslaught... Read More