Reports from the scene

Locals Only

In local South by Southwest news, Crocodiles were featured in the March 20 edition of The New York Times. The story, headlined “Finding Fame in Austin in the Internet Age” focused on Crocodiles finding success via media outlets like MySpace. Wavves also got some love, landing on MTV’s Top Ten Moments of SXSW, alongside Metallica, Kanye West, Grizzly Bear and the fully reunited Jane’s Addiction.

New wavers Qu’est-ce Que C’est (QQC, for short) will release their debut EP at a show at Belly Up Tavern on Friday, March 27. Jamuel Saxon and Lord Selson are also scheduled to perform.

Also competing for your debut-EP dollars is Better Class of Flying Men, who play a release show on Friday, March 27, at The Radio Room with Incomplete Neighbor, The Alpha Channel and Wizard Wolves!.

Apparently, the song “Fetus Among Us” just wasn’t good enough. Hard rockers Aepnia are taking audience participation to a new level by letting their fans pick the title of their new album. Anyone interested in putting in their two cents should visit www.myspace.com/aepnia.

Reunited ’90s rockers No Knife and Three Mile Pilot have both announced shows at Belly Up Tavern—they’ll be on June 18 and July 16, respectively.

View from a Stool

Whether it was the promise of new songs from Grand Ole Party or the debut of Ale Mania (the new musical project from three-fifths of garage punks The Sess), a hefty crowd showed up at Soda Bar on March 20. Some even skipped happy hour to come down early and snag $10 tickets for the night’s show, the first time Soda Bar had done any kind of pre-sale for a show.

Depending on whom you talked to, Ale Mania either wholly lived up to expectations or were disappointing compared with the members’ last band. Comparatively, if The Sess were Joy Division, then Ale Mania are undoubtedly New Order, both in sound and approach. The quartet play a bastardized incarnation of new wave with former Sess drummer Andrew Montoya now doing his best Peter Hook impression on bass and vocals, accompanied by succinct drumming from Christy Beats. The show was rough at times (there were some false starts, and guitarist Jeremy Rojas broke a string about two songs into the set), but whether or not they live up to the hype left behind by The Sess, Ale Mania are certainly making an original statement.

As for GOP, their new sound didn’t seem to dishearten fans who would have been more than satisfied to hear “Look Out, Young Son” for the 100th time. Their set consisted almost entirely of new songs, like “Catfight,” “All Night Long” and “New Medication,” and drummer / vocalist Kristin Gundred debuted her new stand-up-drum-kit set-up that allows her to be front-and-center.

The night’s show was rumored to be their last for awhile, and the band made it clear that they were off to Atlanta in a few days to record the songs for a new album. The tunes seemed more catchy, almost funkier, than anything the band has played before, and I left with the feeling that anyone disappointed that GOP’s last album didn’t get as big as we all thought it would may yet see their next album getting national accolades. Look out, indeed.

The Enrique Experience

If I had to choose a perfect Friday-night activity, loitering inside a bookstore awaiting the midnight release of a teen vampire DVD would probably rank somewhere between purchasing my fourth ShamWow after repeated viewing of infomercials and running a San Ysidro-based Ponzi scheme. But this is not your average flick. Say it with me: Twiiiiilight.

One could argue that 1972’s Blacula was the last great bloodsucker flick, but then Robert Pattinson in his role of Edward Cullin came along with his perfectly coiffed ’do and all-around dreaminess and ruined it for everyone else, making endless preteen girls react, as our own Anders Wright put it, “like desperate meth addicts.”

Twitching to cash in on the trend, retailers far and wide, like Borders in the Plaza Bonita mall, staged midnight-sale events, and just like Comic-Con is Mecca for awkward boys, the nerdy headgear-orthodontics-girl set—which should perhaps leave the garlic at home and arm themselves with OXY pads instead—came out in droves. The night, awash in sheer pandemonium, included a movie-vs.-book trivia challenge and a people’s-choice-style Twilight Movie Awards, with categories such as best quote, best vampire effect and best OME! (Oh My Edward!) moment.

“We have about 300 guests, which is a nice surprise. If I had to describe it in one word, I would say ‘crazy,’ but in a good way,” sales manager Brian Ball told CityBeat at around 11:45 p.m., as members of the crowd—some dressed up as their favorite characters—started getting restless.

“This is nothing compared to the scene a few weeks back with that Biggie Smalls movie, and that Paul Blart: Mall Cop one—that made my life miserable,” Mike, a Westfield mall security enforcer four months on the job, told me a few stores down outside Hot Topic, where it was much tamer scene, as 200 or so customers waited patiently. Their secret? An endless supply of Chips Ahoy—because just as music can calm a savage beast, cookies, it is known, tame the most non-conformist of emos.

Text Confessions

What’s a text confession? Well, if CityBeat’s Will K. Shilling happens to have your cell-phone number, you’ve likely received a text or 10 from him asking random music-related questions. Shilling has lots of numbers in his phone so we thought: Why not publish some of their answers? This week’s subject: The ’90s are so back, and Seattle grungers-come-lately Candlebox seem to be the last band standing from that scene. They bring their flannel-friendly show to ’Canes Bar & Grill on Saturday, March 28.
Will’s text: What’s in your Candlebox?
Responses (unedited):
Allison Gill (singer-songwriter): Shitty 90s music.
Emily Joyce (Bunky): kreamed korn!
Eric Howarth (owner, M-Theory Records): a ninety nine cent bargain bin cd
Karissa Harvey (singer-songwriter.): I’ll show u my candlebox if u show me yrs.
Ed Decker (CityBeat columnist): A whole lot of mudhoney
“Mocha” Joe Camacho (El Monte Slim): Jimmy Hoffa’s right eye.
Chris Cantore (deejay): my smurf collection.
Brian Desjean (No Knife): My flannel collection
Tim Pyles (deejay): The dream of a brighter tomorrow
Chris Leyva (Blizzard): Chocolate cookies & exgirlfriend pics Along with cd Album covers. Of cds I lost & random tix From Dylan The who & Oasis tix pic of me & noel ghallageher. He was such a dick & an autographed Concert report from steve poltz.For my music class