Back to Rockville: KC bands take over a piece of Austin during SXSW

One-fourth of the Hearts of Darkness, who will descend upon Austin this week.

Eric Melin has been to the South by Southwest Music Conference four times, with two bands. One of those visits seemed more promising than the others.

“Ultimate Fakebook had an intense experience our first time — 1999, I think — because the buzz surrounding us was huge,” he said. “We were nervous, but we played well to a very ‘industry’ crowd, who I think we won over. An article even quoted (actress) Janeane Garofalo as saying she liked us. That was the hipster badge of honor back then.”

How times have changed.

In fact, over the past several years, the Austin, Texas, music conference has been less about discovering new music and more a showcase for bands and performers who hardly seem to need the attention — Jay-Z, for example, and Bruce Springsteen.

“You used to go to SXSW in hope of getting signed or at least seen by big industry players,” Melin said. “There’s not a feeling that you’ll be ‘discovered’ anymore.”

For the first time in nine years, Melin is returning to the fest with a band — the Dead Girls — but not as part of the official conference.

The Dead Girls will be on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, as part of the third annual MidCoast Takeover, a two-day independent music showcase featuring 32 bands from Kansas City, Lawrence and elsewhere in the Midwest. Admission to the all-day showcases is free.

The event is organized by the Midwest Music Foundation, a nonprofit collective of musicians based in Kansas City.

The group started the Takeover in 2010 to spotlight local and regional bands that weren’t getting official SXSW showcases. It was a response to a festival that has changed dramatically since 1999, just like the music industry it serves.

Taking it to the street

In late February, conference organizers issued an advisory to all its registrants. They announced that a lottery would be held for tickets to a “special show in an intimate venue for SXSW attendees” on Thursday evening by Springsteen and the E Street Band, who last week released the album “Wrecking Ball.”

Springsteen, who will deliver the conference’s keynote address Thursday morning at the Austin Convention Center, isn’t the only big name who will perform at the annual four-day festival.

On Friday, Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes, will perform as part of a Third Man Records showcase. In April, White will release his first solo album, “Blunderbuss.”

Rapper Jay-Z, who performed at the music conference last year with Kanye West, confirmed that he would be in Austin this week, starting with a concert Monday night for the interactive/technology portion of the SXSW festival, which also has a film component. Since then, unconfirmed rumors have been rampant that he and Eminem will perform over the weekend.

Other stars who will perform at this year’s festival: Fiona Apple, who has been absent from the music scene for years, Norah Jones, Nas, Jimmy Cliff and Lionel Richie.

Given the fierce competition for time and attention — competition that now comes from titans such as Springsteen and Jay-Z — a new tack is required by independent bands like the Dead Girls and Hearts of Darkness, another Kansas City band on the MidCoast schedule. Hearts of Darkness is taking a 17-person crew to Austin. Expectations, said Bob Asher of the band, are broad but realistic.

“I’m 38 years old, and I’ve been listening to SXSW stories for about 20 years,” he told The Star, “so I know it’s foolish to have any expectations beyond having a good time and checking out a bunch of other music.”

But there is a plan to take advantage of the throngs of people out in the streets of Austin. This year, more than 16,000 people have registered for the music festival, according to the SXSW website. That doesn’t include the thousands of Austinites and others who go to Austin but don’t register.

Asher said Hearts of Darkness will follow the example of Bacon Shoe, a Kansas City duo who went to SXSW in 2009 and set up “guerrilla performances” on Sixth Street, the festival’s main artery.

“We’re copying straight out of that playbook and stealing directly from People’s Liberation Big Band and rolling out the ‘HoD Mobile Tactical Unit,’ which will be a Dirty Force-style Afrobeat second-line street band,” he said. “We intend to parade up and down the main drag periodically during the weekend and push out the promo for our showcase set. Anything to get looked at and hopefully stand out from all the noise.”

Artistic inspiration abounds

This year’s MidCoast Takeover is at the Shangri-La, a venue on Sixth Street but east of the hubbub, on the other side of Interstate 35. Last year’s Takeover was in the same neighborhood but in a different venue. The crowd sizes were healthy both days, but particularly on Friday, when the venue was full.

John Velghe and his band the Prodigal Sons were part of the 2011 Takeover. Being in Austin and performing anywhere during SXSW can lead to opportunities, he said.

“The real value in being at SXSW last year was that it gave us the chance to meet people who inspired some of the songs on our new record,” he said. “Playing MidCoast provided that opportunity. So the real value for me was artistic.”

This year, his band is not part of the Takeover, but it will perform at two shows hosted by singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo.

“We’ll share the stage with Lenny Kaye, the DB’s, Peter Case, Peter Buck and Mike Mills (of R.E.M.) and Alejandro. These are all people who … make me write songs to this day, people who made me say, ‘Oh, yeah. I want to do that for the rest of my life.’

“I hope the bands who play MidCoast this year find those opportunities of experience.”

Kansas City trumpeter Hermon Mehari is also heading to Austin for the first time. He’ll perform at the Takeover with Les Izmore (also of the Hearts of Darkness), and with Velghe at the Escovedo shows.

“I know that Austin transforms into a huge music festival, with music literally everywhere you turn,” he said. “I expect there to be tons of artists that I’ve never been exposed to and for it to be a great opportunity to network and to try and play with other groups as well.”

“Network” is the key word these days. With so much social media and so many music-streaming sources at their disposal, bands can promote themselves much better and more easily now than they could in 1999, Melin said. So there are other, even better ways to connect with listeners than one official 40-minute SXSW showcase.

“These days, 90 percent of rock bands like us are on indie labels and have already used touring and the Web to grow their fan base before they ever even go to SXSW,” he said.

“I don’t know if an official slot is better or not, but I do know that all the Austin residents scoff at wristbands and all the industry types that invade their town every year, so I think playing a nonwristband show will make it a lot easier for ‘normal’ people to see us.”

| Timothy Finn, The Star

3 Comments

I'll be there tomorrow thru Sunday soaking it all in. Whatever Tim doesn't see, with 2,200 bands you can't, I'll be spewing my 2 cents. A lot of my faves will be in Austin, so hopefully they're not scheduled on top of each other. Saturday at Stubbs seems to be blocked out with no late band named. Hmmmmm.

Posted by: wadkc | March 13, 2012 at 03:17 PM