Bill Chapin: Journalist to the [Rock] Stars

Last week, I noticed a blurb about journalists on Salon's gossip column. Rolling Stone has a casting call for aspiring (and not-so-aspiring) entertainment journalists to audition for a MTV reality series where people compete for a one year position with Rolling Stone.

Check out the announcement here. I immediately sent Bill an email telling him that he HAD to audition. While the website says it's looking for "aspiring amateur journalists" the questions in the application are much more detailed, asking the applicant to include clips, including ones which have already been published.

If you're going to be around Port Huron, Michigan, this weekend, stop by to Bill's band, the Juxtaposers, and be on tape for Bill's audition video while he does an "impressive accordion solo." Here's the info:

Juxtaposers will be playing at:

10 p.m. Saturday, April 1
Roche Bar, 405 Quay St., Port Huron, (810) 982-7464
w/ Pixie Dix and a special appearance by Juxtapixeldixtaposers, no doubt

As Bill says, "Needless to say, having a legion of adoring fans at the show will no doubt impress the casting directors, so stop by if you can."

Music's End

And, we've finally reached Saturday, March 18th, the final day of South by Southwest. Today's schedule included the Arts and Crafts/Barsuk party at Pok-e-Jo's. The day was a damp, rainy one, and kicked with with brit pop band Jim Noir. Pok-e-Jo's also had incredible cornbread and mashed potatoes that I appreciated. Rich himself liked the fried okra better.

We got tired of standing around the barn area in the sand and headed over to Waterloo Records. Smart move on our part because we got into the long line there and caught some of Rosanne Cash's set (daughter of Johnny) as well as grabbing some front row standing room for Nada Surf (Bill's pick). Nada Surf's accoustic set was by far my favorite of my SXSW experience. The store was packed, and everyone was having a great time. Plus, they ended with the Meow Meow Lullaby which was just hilarious: a bunch of rockers singing "Meow Meow Meow."

We headed back to the Arts and Crafts party to try to catch The Most Serene Republic. Unfortunately, we missed them, sticking around for Aqueduct and Andrew Kenny of the American Analog Set. I'd wanted to see Jason Collett from Broken Social Scene, but we were tired and headed home instead.

So, here's my roundup:

Best Live Performances: Nickel Creek, Nada Surf, and Exit Clov
Future Shows I'm going to see in Pittsburgh: Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos and Minus 5
New Favorite Band: Nada Surf
Bands I'll Keep an Eye Out For: Kunek, Great Lake Swimmers, Mates of State

Luckily, I'll be able to get my great music fix at Lollapalooza. I'm planning on going despite the heft $130 + fees pricetag. Let me know if you want to go!

Why? Here's my list:
Wilco
Death Cab for Cutie
The Shins
Nickel Creek
Broken Social Scene
Stars
The New Pornographers
Iron and Wine
Andrew Bird
Nada Surf
Calexico
Go! Team
Mates of State

Exit Clov

Friday, March 17

In the morning, I hit Flatstock 8, the big rock poster convention. I'm a fan of vintage travel posters, so I thought it would be fun to check out all the rock posters. Plus, I had an assignment: find a nice poster of either Broken Social Scene, Stars, or Arcade Fire for Paul. The poster show was incredible. There were tons of designers, and I am definately glad that I took the time to go around all of the booths before making any purchases.

Eleanor Grosch had a booth, and I ended up getting the Doves poster and the Seals poster. It has hard deciding between buying from her, or getting this Iron and Wine poster. I did find some posters for Paul, both for Broken Social Scene. See them here and here.

After the morning of poster shopping, I figured out the bus system (only $.50 per ride!) and headed to End of an Ear to listen to the Secretly Candian/Misra Records lineup. I caught the Horns of Happiness from Bloomington, IN. They were all dress in red, black, and white. They and The Office were the only bands I saw who had matching or thematic outfits that they were while playing. (Looks like they're playing Pittsburgh!)

Next up was Phosphorescent; they were a fun group to listen too. They're one of those mish mash bands like Broken Social Scene, with a core group of musicians and then other random people they throw in. This time around, they had 2 trumpets, a sometimes trombonist/drummer, a guy shaking 2 egg shakers, and a girl on tamborine who was also trying to figure out the xylophone. Richard Swift and his band were very talented. They had some songs with a ragtime-y feel to them. They had a contraption the most similar to a full sized piano that I saw. (It did fold up into itself for easy transport.)

The band I was waiting to see this whole time was the Great Lake Swimmers. It looks like they just played Pittsburgh. They were very mellow and quiet. (Almost too mellow and quiet?) I liked them, and I'll go to see them when they come back to Pittsburgh.

I hopped back on the bus, and tried to make my way to the Insound Party to see Clap your Hands Say Yeah (Suzanne's pick), but the party was packed and they weren't letting anyone in. I headed back towards the Warehouse District and Convention center to meet up with Rich. On the way, I caught a bit of the Thrift Store Cowboys playing in a restaurant parking lot.

Rich and I grabbed some dinner at Cuba Libre, where they waited long enough to take our order until just after Happy Hour ended, but then gave us very fast service. We met up with his friend and fellow post-doc Masa to catch Exit Clov at the Industry of Music party a block down. I'd made some cupcakes to give to Emily and Susan, fellow NU grads. I've seen them a bunch of times in both NY and Washington, DC, and their music just keeps on getting better.

Schuba's SXSW Roundup

It was another great day of music. I started off the day at noon at Schuba's SXSW Party. I saw Office, a member of Hanalei, and Tapes n' Tapes. The surprise of the Schuba's show for me was Nickel Creek. Dargan had recommended them, and they were so much fun and so great to listen too. Nickel Creek is a bluegrass band with a fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and an upright bass. They really had fun chatting up the crowd. The worst part of the show was the $2 bottles of water when they were offering Miller Beer and wiskey sours for free. I did get a nice poster of the show.

In the middle of the day, I headed over to Factory People to catch Mates of State. I thought they were going to be playing a set there, but instead, they were DJ'ing for an hour. Bill was adament that I go see them, so I'll have to catch them another time. At Factory People, I got another poster from Keds. They partnered with a rock poster designer Eleanor Grosch to do some of their new shoes, so she was there signing posters that she'd designed. They are brown with gold owls in a tree.

Afterwards, Rich met up with me and we headed over to Jovita's for Twangfest to catch Jolie Holland and Adrienne Young & Little Sadie (more of Dargan's recommendations). Adrienne Young was really incredible, and her fiddle player was also excellent.

SXSW - Wed.

Once Suzanne directed me to Oh My Rockness for its list of free SXSW (i.e. no badge/wristband required) shows, I knew I had to make a plan to catch some bands. Since I was only familiar with about 3 bands (including Exit Clov), I turned to Bill Chapin and Dargan for some recommendations. So, after finding this other list of comprehensive free shows, I RSVPed for a few shows and printed out some other invitations.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006.

Bill recommended Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos. I noticed that they have a cello, so I figured they must be good. I RSVPed for the show at Beauty Bar. Beforehand, Rich and I hit Cafe Josie for some dinner. There, I had the first polenta I actually really liked. We then headed to Beauty Bar about an hour early because I wasn't sure if we'd have to wait in line or not. Fortunately, we didn't, and were so early that we also caught the party before the party we wanted to go to, and got to skip the whole "checking your name on the guest list" process. For the Death and Taxes (magazine) party, we saw Say Anything, and Rich and I had a debate of whether or not the guitar player was a girl or just a really skinny guy with long hair. (Really skinny guy with long hair won.) The other big debate of the evening was whether the guy in front of us was Zach Braff or not. It probably wasn't, but the guy really looked a lot like our favorite NU/Garden State star.

For the Jet Blue/AM/something Tiger party, we caught another band named Kunek, who we thought was Margot. Instead, Kunek is another band with a cello and piano. They were really good, and I bought their CD.

Afterwards, Margo and the Nuclear So & Sos came on, and they were as good as Bill promised. We scored some free promotional singles for their new album coming out, "The Dust of Retreat." I'm also happy to report that they are playing a concert on April 8 at the Club Cafe in Pittsburgh.

One of the few bands I recognized playing at SXSW is the Minus 5. While looking up shows at the Club Cafe, I noticed that the Minus 5 (with Peter Buck of REM fame) is playing a show there as well on Friday, March 24th!

Austin

I made it through the beginning of March. I'm in Austin now visiting Rich for Spring Break. Luckily, this visit coincided with SXSW! I'm going to try to catch a bunch of free shows!

Also, Happy Birthday, Brian! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!