Killer Tofu, Killer Show.

Hey, party people. Or should we say, office chair-ridden, email-sending, blackberry-stressing people, since that's what we are now that we're back in the ol' swing of things.

The days of wearing cutoffs and eating animal parts slathered in BBQ sauce and walking past Isaac Hanson and Andrew WK on the same block within the same 90 seconds have been replaced by the ever-evil routines of early morning alarms and laundromats and office duties that are a far cry from "day parties", unless you count the walk to the deli to go get bean soup a party. (Which, frankly, depending on the selection, I sometimes do).

We've got more SXSW sessions to push into your eyeballs and eardrums, but for now, here's a couple of videos from the KILLER TOFU acts that performed on our outdoor stage on that fateful night. And, speaking of, big thankaroonies to I Guess I'm Floating for being the best blog co-collaborators we could have asked for. The fiesta was unreal, and people waited in a line to get in like it was Rollercoaster Tycoon or something! Without them, I wouldn't have seen the insanity of Gobble Gobble and holyshit, was it madness.

Enjoy, and get ready to enjoy all over again when we post some shiz from High Highs, BRAHMS and our surprise headliner, Blackbird Blackbird.

Til' then, this:

MP3

Hooray For Earth - "Rolling/Nectarine (live at Big Ugly Yellow Couch SXSW Showcase)"

Aislyn - "Invisible Woman (live at Big Ugly Yellow Couch SXSW Showcase)"

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Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Hooray For Earth

Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Aislyn

SXSW Session: Lands & Peoples

SXSW Session: Lands & Peoples

Lands & Peoples, people and things,
we adore these four, but even more when they sing.
Stumbling across their songs mere hours before boarding,
we headed to Austin, unsure of recording.
A few parties later, we were fast friends,
A few days later, they were behind the lens.
While in the South, the band discovered a secret garden land,
that with fantastical objects was nothing short of grand.
In the Saturday sun, as our Texas time reached its close,
we gathered in the morning with videos to compose.
Gongs and enormous chimes aside, these videos are pretty neat,
and not because it's the first we've done without a couch as our seat.
We've made it outdoors, into the bright sunshine,
far from four walls and that wood floor's dusty grime.
So among Mother Nature comes our first taste of outside,
as we present you Lands & Peoples, with tons of pride:

MP3s

Lands & Peoples - "Ghosts (Big Ugly Yellow Couch live at SXSW)"

Lands & Peoples - "Awake (Big Ugly Yellow Couch live at SXSW)"

A special thanks to Fortney's Artful Home Furnishings for allowing us to shoot on location.

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bandcamp

The Four Worst Sites For SXSW Coverage.

For the most part, music festivals typically yield mediocre reviews at best. Hazy recaps, a few blurry photos, and when yours truly happens to be writing it, a whole lot of "wah, it's too hot outside!"

But, with South by Southwest being a veritable haven of up-and-coming blog buzz bands, we've been sitting back in Brooklyn, waiting for word to be spread about new bands to check out and fresh tunes to listen to instead of the same ol' nonsense reviews. And, while some have given us a great glimpse into what's going on in the South, others, well...let's just say they fall pretty short:

Huffington Post. Hiring an artist to convey what the fest is like from a musician's point of view might have been a good choice, but picking one that performs French ballads (a completely unaccessible genre) and is absolutely awful at writing wasn't. With Marianne Dissard's 700 words of complaint about how much money she's losing from performing and even admitting in her column that getting to write for HuffPo was a last-minute fluke, it's a missed opportunity, on both behalfs.

Filter. There's only one update and only four photos of their own freaking showcase. Total and complete fail.

Pop Tarts Suck Toasted: Pop Tarts is one of my favorites, and to go without for a few days because of a forgotten camera cord is a total bummer. Someone get him replacement, quick! We can't wait to see what he's seeing, especially since we'll be refreshing the page constantly once he gets home.

Stereogum: There are three people from the site in Austin, and there are only two photo galleries and a mini-review up on the site. Granted, if they're out having a ball and getting wasted on a mix of BBQ ribs and beer then hey, more power to them, but something more than throwing it to each person's Twitter account for updates would have been nice for us stuck with regular grub and non-sponsored booze back in the borough.

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oh, thanks:

photo via Spin

Mexican Summer, Brooklyn Winter.

Besides the lineup practically driving me to impulsively drain my savings account for a plane ticket to SXSW, the bands at Gorilla vs. Bear's Showcase are literally all terms I would use to describe the world's greatest vacation:

"Eternal summer on the best coast we can find. I grab a handful of sandwitches, some of my dum dum girls, my best friend JJ and we hang at our sick beachside real estate all day. At night, we get totally washed out - it gets like Pearl Harbor up in there - and on the way home delve into memory tapes to remember what we said to that hot mountain man and his woodsman friend when we went out at Tamaryn over the weekend. Ah, to be the young."

I think I have snow day cabin fever...

Some Way Some How South By South West

Actively trying to figure out how many grilled cheeses I'd have to sell from a portable grill on an Austin street corner to subsidize the $400 flight to Texas for SXSW.

(Those days as a rabid Phish fan were clearly not wasted on me.)