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There aren't enough beefs in hip-hop anymore. I seriously miss the golden era-- back in the days of East Coast/West Coast feuding and Pac/Biggie rivalry-- when there was a new beef starting up damn near every week. Not only did that era inspire the best diss track of all-time, Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up," it was a real-life soap opera turned tragedy that gave people something to talk about.

Where to begin? I should start with the ornamental comb, like three white gleaming stakes from some Gnostic purification ritual, holding a jet-black stack of hair atop the fiery head of Polly Jean Harvey. She's never wanted for making an impression. Wrapped in white, backed by a hard avant-garde blues band (the warm up music was a Howlin Wolf mix) that looked like they'd just gotten away clean from an S & L hold up circa 1945, PJ approached her "showcase" (a ridiculous concept in her case) like she knew as well as anyone else that a landlocked date in the states is as rare as diamonds. Not everyone gets it. "What's going on here?" a 25 year-old neo-preppy with a press-credentialed badge asked as I waited in line outside of Stubb's. Informed it was PJ Harvey, dude says, and I quote, "Never heard of him. Doesn't sound like something I'd listen to. It's probably from a different era."

Roy Kasten

Otis Gibbs

Saturday afternoon at SXSW 2009 started early this year, with the second of the 10th annual Twangfest and KDHX parties at Jovita's (disclosure: I'm a KDHX programmer and Twangfest volunteer), and Nashville-based songwriter Otis Gibbs, whose protest sing-a-longs, earthy folk and best beard at SXSW have more of a following in Austin that I would have guessed.

The small crowd at the outdoor stage bonded with the singer, which only made me wonder how the relatively unknown Minneapolis band Romantica would fare. Fronted by Irish-born singer Ben Kyle, the group plays sly singer-songwriter country folk, sly because no one expected Austin-born violinist and singer Carrie Rodriguez to sit in, and I definitely didn't expect the band to hit the noise, Americana-style, as hard as they did for their final number.

Going into SXSW this year, I was curious to see how the economic meltdown was going to affect the festival. I had heard that fewer labels were having showcases, and fewer journalists and label employees were attending. More people I know personally went down to Austin on their own dime, with no plans to buy the badge or wristband needed to attend many showcases and events.

Despite such ominous portents, the festival rarely felt different than it has in years past. The main drag, Sixth Street, still teemed with partying college kids and drunk denizens of the music industry. If anything, it felt like fewer people decided to pony up for the expensive admission free-pass, and instead preferred to pay money to get into a show - or just cruise around the many free day (and night) parties happening in Austin.

 

Annie Zaleski

The Pragmatic

The St. Louis music scene was well represented at SXSW this year. On Wednesday night, the Pragmatic suffered through some serious equipment problems - a laptop and keyboards refused to cooperate with each other - but turned in a solid set of its Rubik's Cube electro. The band is always a pleasure to watch live, mainly because each member is having so much fun onstage; this show was no different.

Annie Zaleski

Liz Anjos, The Pragmatic

Magnolia Summer played the Twangfest/KDHX party, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Austin. Here's "The Wrong Chord," from last year's Lines from the Frame.

On Friday, St. Louis rapper Rockwell Knuckles opened up a day party called the Grand Ole Party of Bootleggers and Tastemakers, a show sponsored by the Smoking Section/Nah Right. Despite the early (1:30 p.m.) start time, he impressed an enthusiastic crowd of St. Louis pals and curiosity seekers with a typically high-energy set.

Here's video I took of "See 'N' Say" -- a diss on St. Louis Mayor Frances Slay available on this new mixtape, The Glow, which you can download here. Check the MP3 below too.

MP3: Rockwell Knuckles, "See 'N' Say"

Anyone with doubts about the '90s resurgence had them laid to rest at SXSW this year, where a long list of the decade's biggest acts tried out new material or trotted out old hits for kicks. The list of these performers makes me nostalgic for the simpler days of 120 Minutes and Doc Martens with dresses: Metallica, Marcy Playground, Dinosaur Jr, Crystal Method, Primal Scream and Tori Amos, with Peter Murphy and Echo & the Bunnymen on the margins of the decade's influence.

The latter half of the Saturday night lineup at Stubb's BBQ might have seemed like the most egregious example of retro rehash. Just before a set by folkies the Indigo Girls(!) and emo-kid patron saints Third Eye Blind (!!!) was a rare U.S. date from PJ Harvey and John Parish. However, anyone hoping for Harvey's MTV glory days would be disappointed, because the long-time musical foils stuck mainly to new songs from A Woman a Man Walked By, a collaboration album due in stores tomorrow.

Annie Zaleski

PJ Harvey at Stubb's

Anyone disappointed by Harvey's performance on Saturday is also, frankly, a complete idiot. Clad in a white dress with belts wrapped around it, a spray of peacock-like feathers and stylish black pointy shoes, the reed-thin Harvey was every bit the theatrical, mesmerizing performer. Although limited somewhat by an unorthodox stage set up - keyboards were on the far left and a wall of speakers/amps sat in the center where the drums usually are, with the kit set up on the far right instead - she obviously felt the music in a primal, spiritual way.

Imagine, if you will, the worst possible way to spend a day at SXSW, one that doesn't involve an emergency colonoscopy or a Marnie Stern showcase, and then imagine something even more tedious and despairing, a day of utter humiliation and loathing. And then it really starts to go downhill.

I should have spent the afternoon at Flatstock and the night shooting kamikazes in one of Austin's 43 slut bars.

On Sixth Street in Austin, it's Day One of SXSW 2009 (for Day Zero, go here) and the promotional and busking stunts are on: A couple of kids dressed in epidermally fused body suits to hype (sweetly) their outer space band Frontier Brothers, some Transformer mechano-dude on stilts, a posse with a sign for "Free Hugs," and more hippies banging on pickle jars than I care to recall with a hangover. Not bad, but I want fire next time. And Secretary Geithner, since you've thrown everything else at the markets, try this: Turn AIG into a bratwurst stand on Sixth.

(View more SXSW Day 1 photos in our slide show and here: "Live at the Red Eyed Fly and Stubbs BBQ")

Roy Kasten

Caitlin Rose

My day started at 1 pm in Emo's parking lot tent for the Swedish indie pop of Marching Band, whose album Spark Large was a sweet surprise last year. But with a pick-up rhythm section from LA and no horns or strings in sight, the group was merely charming, without the zing or zest of their record, though the hooks in songs like "No Plans" remained. Up the street at the Austinist party at Mohawk, Caitlin Rose was finishing a solo set of rather cloying folk twang (when will the tryouts for the next Juno soundtrack close?), but J. Tillman, Fleet Fox drummer and intense songwriter in his own right, was next, and he and his beard cut through the metal din grinding from the stage next door.

Roy Kasten

J. Tillman

In an unwashed undershirt -- rocker dudes, enough with the bogus aesthetic statements -- Tillman still sounded searing, his voice and lightly strummed Martin guitar rang resiliently. A dis of Kanye West -- who had just announced an appearance at South By -- might have been gratuitous but Tillman's songs weren't.

A to Z is hightailing it down to Texas for some delicious Mexican food, free beer and more music than you can even imagine. I'll be gone until Sunday, but I will be Twittering the festivities at www.twitter.com/rftmusic. Feel free to add us and follow along! Roy Kasten will be providing some posts here and over at KDHX's blog too, and I'll pop in every once in awhile with some St. Louis reports and photos. Be well, have fun and don't forget to check back in here, because we won't go dark while I'm away.