Lil B Went to SXSW and Made This Video

Categories: Hip-Hop, SXSW, Video
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When it comes to public opinion, Lil B is working to legitimize himself in 2011. He's doing things like cutting a single with 9th Wonder, Jean Grae, and Phonte. Or peforming at the MTVU Woodie awards. Or being one of XXL's Freshmen class for 2011. But I miss the not-so-distant days of his hastily assembled YouTube music vids, which usually involved one of his patented based freestyles. And, judging by his new video, Lil B isn't ready to give up on that side of his style just yet.

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Easy Fame in the Pitchfork Era: Be Young, Find a Trend, Get a Drum Machine

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Dirty Beaches: This could be you!
Did you want to play at SXSW, but perhaps felt you weren't ready? Are you comfortable with stylish gloss instead of creative substance? Do you know how to work a drum machine?

Well, good news kids: You don't need to work much at making music anymore -- at least not to get Pitchfork-famous or play SXSW. You just need to record some shit and find a cheap way to get attention. (You might also need some tattoos.)

No, seriously. Look at one-man hype-magnet Dirty Beaches. Dude played a show in Austin the other night with just a Stratocaster, a hair comb, and a big box that actually made all the sound happen. Onstage, he muttered nonsense into some crappy microphone, arranged his greasy bangs, noodled a little on his fretboard, and stood around looking arty. The drums, bass, rhythm guitars -- y'know, the song -- came out of the box and went straight into the P.A. It was like a karaoke performance with props. And it sounded great!

Well, okay, not great. Not even really good. But it was enough to keep a room full of blog-weary eyeballs staring at him like some newfound god. The TVs in the club were showing videos of label heads talking about what a genius this guy and his boombox were, and the shill worked. How much effort, songwriting, or innovation did he put into the music, or the show? What creative revelation did he produce? Nevermind -- what you should be worrying about is how to get such a cool press photo.

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SXSW 2011

'Fuck Zooey Deschanel': 10 Great Quotes From SXSW 2011

Categories: SXSW
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Jim Jones wants those fucking transistors out of his amplifier.
No surprise that SXSW -- a four-day confab of cool kids, corporate sleaze, would-be famous people, and free booze -- leads to some pretty outrageous jaw-flapping. Here, 10 of the most memorable quotes we heard at SXSW this year.

"I imagine a lot of you have been doing a lot of sinning this week. This is your redemption."
-- Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, introducing "Sister Mary Says" on Friday.

"Sorry about this. It's too much, the daytime."
-- The Kills' Allison Mosshart, at the beginning of the band's glitch-plagued and awful-sounding Friday set at Stubb's. "This is exactly why I hate playing during the day for sponsors and parties," bandmate Jamie Hince later apologized. "So come see us in a club sometime."

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The South-By Diet: How to Get Hipster-Skinny in Four Days on Barbecue and Beer

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Flickr/ghewgill
Pizza: Still not a diet food, not even at SXSW.
Sure, you ostensibly came to SXSW to see live music. But pick your shows and your meals right, and the week of South-By can also make an amazing body-slimming opportunity. You might even graduate to a new leg-hugging level of skinny jeans! Here's a quick guide to maximizing your South-By weight loss opportunity -- all while living off the Austin staples of barbecue and beer. (Note: This is not good for you, it likely won't even work, and we don't advise it for anything except the purpose of humor.)

- Stand, continuously, for periods of five to seven hours, or so long that you struggle to remember the last time you sat. If at times this begins to feel like torture, just remember where you are and what you're doing and get over it.

- You see one band per venue. Then you hoof it to another venue for another set. But you were doing that anyway, right?

- Grilled meat, served inside a small starchy item (bleached processed white flour preferred), is what you eat now. This can come in the form of hot dogs, barbecue sandwiches, or tacos. Consume at least two servings daily. 

- Fuck fruits and vegetables. If they were any good, they'd be at SXSW.

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SXSW So Far: The Highlights and Lowlights of Two Days in Austin

Categories: SXSW
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The Dodos
Far more occurs in the maelstrom of South-By than bears retelling -- even in just two music-packed days. So in lieu of lengthiness, here's a drive-by roundup of the highlights and lowlights from our last two days in Austin. 

Highlights
Squeezing onto a tiny, cramped balcony at 1 a.m. to catch chillwave magnate Toro Y Moi, only to discover Odd Future's Tyler the Creator standing feet away, gettin' down to the smooth synth-funk from Toro's latest record. Also: Watching Tyler sing along to every word.

Seeing S.F.'s the Dodos draw the biggest crowd I saw during the whole early afternoon at Pitchfork's #Offline show, despite the unrelenting Texas sun. Also: The Dodos' groove-based rock, which is only getting better.

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Last Night's VVM SXSW Party: Wu-Tang Packs It, Wild Flag Rocks It, and Yelawolf Goes Shirtless

Categories: SXSW
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Shannon Cottrell
Wu-Tang Clan
Still only on Day 2 of this ridiculous conflagration, last night forced even more torturous decision-making on festival-goers with a crazy-stacked series of shows. (The Strokes even had fireworks!) But the Village Voice Media party at Austin Music Hall, featuring Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf, WIld Flag, Trae the Truth, Times New Viking, and more, felt like the fusion core at the center of the Austin sun (though thank goodness the blazing sun had set!). The place was utterly slammed with people inside and ringed with lines of more waiting to get in. 

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SXSW Day 2: Mistah Fab Remembers Nate Dogg, Freestyles About Water Bottles

Categories: SXSW
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Mistah Fab in Austin yesterday.
Perhaps 25 people were in the room yesterday afternoon when Oakland rapper Mistah Fab and his DJ started playing inside the Austin Convention Center. That number grew eventually, but Fab blazed from the start, in a set that felt like half spoken-word lecture and half rap show. "I don't care if there's 100 people or 1,000 people, I'ma represent," he spat, sporting his now-signature black "Oakland U.S.A." sweatshirt.

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SXSW Day 2: James Blake's Bass Shakes the Earth, Confounds Labeling

Categories: SXSW
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James Blake at Stubb's in Austin.
British electronic artist James Blake played one of the most anticipated sets of the first day of South By Southwest yesterday. But two songs into his evening show at Stubb's, many were still struggling to describe his mesh of slow, thunderous bass hits and melancholy vocals. "What's he supposed to be sounding like? Soul?" asked one graybearded badgeholder near me. Several nearby heads nodded with less than total confidence. 

Indeed, Blake's singing, on songs like "Limit To Your Love," a Feist cover, and "I Never Learnt To Share," recalled the heartbroken neighing of, say, Al Green, or even R. Kelly -- except much whiter. But to confound things, Blake's songs also delivered punishing doses of bass. These jarring booms, trickles, and stutters drove concerned frowns onto the faces of some near the speakers (faces which, it must be said, looked like they had never seen the inside of a dubstep show, or anything else that might prepare them for this kind of massive low-end).

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Download Three SXSF Mixtapes From The Bay Bridged

Categories: Mixtapes, SXSW
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Yes, but do they have Rainbow Grocery?

Feeling bummed because you're not in Austin right now for SXSW? Buck up, young modern. As our fearless leader Ian S. Port has already discovered, you "pretty much can't spit in Austin" without hitting an act, or a festivalgoer, from San Francisco and environs. So it's like Dolores Park on a Saturday, with better amplification and way more barbecue sauce. And roughly the same distribution of beards.

Fortunately for those of us who stayed behind to enjoy the gloomy skies and BART delays, The Bay Bridged has compiled a three-volume mixtape of SF bands playing at SXSW this year. You may have heard the first in podcast form already, but you can grab two web-only slabs filled with choice cuts by Shannon and the Clams, Personal and the Pizzas, The Fresh & Onlys, Birds & Batteries, Zion I and the Grouch, Sugar & Gold, Hunx & His Punx, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down -- and that's only the bands with conjunctions in their names.
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SXSW Music 2011: Hi Austin, Are You Sure This Isn't SXSF?

Categories: SXSW
SF Weekly music editor Ian Port is in Austin this week covering the sun-glazed sound orgy that is South By Southwest. He will try to keep his reports free from from unnecessary personal details, talk of tacos, the phrase "killed it," and the eliciting of excessive jealousy. Please feel free to comment below or e-mail him at Ian.Port@SFWeekly.com with tips, recommendations, invitations, and disgust. Follow his updates on Twitter @iPORT.

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The scene on Sixth street.
It's on. The drunken bull-riding on Austin's Sixth street, the laptop-toting groups planted on random sidewalks, the unsurprising "surprise" shows, the stuffed sweatboxes, the lines, the hordes of drunks, and all. Starting this morning, SXSW Music 2011 officially commences, but there was plenty going on last night, too.

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