If some of you decided to hold off on downloading that horrid quality leak of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, than you may be interested in snagging a free download of “Cheerleader,” which was made available last week courtesy of Warp.  Listening to it only bums me out even more that I wasn’t able to get into any of their performances at SXSW last week.  Which leads me to this video recording that has been floating around of the band being joined on stage by Victoria Legrand of Beach House to sing backup vocals for the stellar “Two Weeks,” at the Cedar Street Courtyard.

MP3: Grizzly Bear :: “Cheerleader”

Val and I were actually in line for this, as I had been looking forward to this since arriving in Austin.  I think we were there for all of ten minutes before finding out the line had not moved for nearly two hours, or something ridiculous like that.  Of course, we didn’t hang around much longer after that.  This, my friends, is why YouTube is such a wonderful thing.

I ended up seeing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart twice at SXSW (they performed a whopping thirteen times throughout SXSW), with this video I recorded having taken place at Emo’s Jr. during the Slumberland/Cakeshop showcase.  I actually almost didn’t make it into this one, since it required a badge/wristband to enter.  I think the people at the door felt sorry for me or something, because I ended up coming back an hour later after being initially denied and they just let me walk in free.  This is a new song called “Falling Over,” which Kip mentioned would be a future single release on Slumberland.

After a day or two of recuperating from the mayhem that is SXSW, I can tell you that my time in Austin has been truly amazing and exhausting.  Despite my grand plans to bring some form of coverage of the events that unfolded, the fact that it wasn’t until the early hours of Monday morning that I was offered the chance to go to Austin, along with having absolutely no plan or schedule to prepare myself definitely showed once I finally arrived on the crowded fringes of 6th St.

It’s as if I was a deer caught in the headlights, not knowing where any of the venues were and walking aimlessly in the mildly hot sun with absolutely no sleep (I was the only person in our group who opted to not take a nap after our 14 hour drive from Atlanta).

I was telling Val — who will probably provide all of the coverage, since she’s a SXSW veteran — that I probably would’ve been more productive laying in the fetal position in the middle of the street than what I had actually been spending most of Tuesday afternoon doing.

It’s safe to assume that I didn’t see much during the first day of SXSW, as I ended up retreating back to my hotel room around 8 or 9 pm due to pure exhaustion and a lack of sleep.  Not quite the start I wanted to have, but at least I had an idea of where everything was.

The rest of the week was spent seeing many bands, but so much of SXSW is like a dice roll, as you’ll never quite expect to see everything you want.  I found myself walking more than actually seeing anything, as I was low on cash to begin with, so hopping in a cab to various destinations was out of the question for me.  I was there purely as a spectator and nothing else, though, I did get to see a few bands up close that I truly wanted to see (i.e. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, School of Seven Bells).  I even saw Kanye West perform at the Fader Fort (more on this place later) as a secret guest during the last night of SXSW.

Before I end this, I want to give a little love to the Fader Fort, which had been anointed as TYS headquarters for the majority of the duration of SXSW.  After skipping the incredibly long line and receiving our wristsbands — which I heard people would get their wristbands and sell them because of the not-so-secret Kanye performance I mentioned — I would just chill out in the blogger lounge, where I did a lot of my twitter updating.  If you had been keeping up with that, it’s probably the only place where I provided any sort of updates.  Plus, free water!  Good grief, if it wasn’t for this place, I probably would’ve died from dehydration.  Before even attempting to walk anywhere, I would start my day off at Fader Fort to load my messenger bag with ridiculous amounts of bottled water.  So yeah, the must’ve known they were saving lives with the free goods.

So after finally experiencing SXSW, would I be willing to make it next year?  You bet your ass I would!  Even though this has been the most overwhelming event I have ever attended; and I know for a fact that I didn’t make the most of my time there; there’s just no question that I’ll be back again in 2010 and will be fully prepared to experienced it to the fullest.  Special thanks to Preston at Kissatlanta for giving me the opportunity to attend this year!

If you happened to read Val’s latest post than what you’ve read is correct: I am officially going to SXSW. How the hell did this happen? Because as of this past Sunday, I had come to grips with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to attend for a third straight year, despite promising myself that I would make a very strong effort to try and go. Well, due to what I would call a miracle, I was offered a chance to go with Preston of Kissatlanta, who had just decided himself to make the trek only yesterday. Very many thanks to him for letting me come along, and even though I’m completely broke (I have maybe $300 at my disposal), I will be enjoying this opportunity to the fullest. This I can guarantee.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to update while in Austin, but I’ll be sure to drop in a few posts or photos as time permits. Not sure if ‘The Daily Graboid’ will be up this week, but I’ll try to get that up if possible. If not, I’ll just have a double post for this week’s releases and next.

Anyways, I’m hoping to meet as many people as possible while I’m there so do say hello if you see me!

As PJ mentioned in the Sunday Shuffle, he’s not making it down to SXSW for the third year in a row.  That is no longer the case.  While he continues to collect his thoughts and thank yous (and I retract any comments that I made about him being lame), I’ll let you know about the one and only place where you’re guaranteed to find me during the week, and that’s the second annual DC Does TX Party. We’re at Friends Bar on Wednesday the 18th and I’m basically going to copy the top ten reasons from our Facebook events page on why you should go.  Other than to say hi to me (and PJ for as long as he decides to stay at that particular event.)

1) Because now that you’ve seen their claymation alter egos, you’ll know what Middle Distance Runner looks like in person. At 2:50pm.[Tripwire]

2) Friends Bar is right on 6th Street..we’re not making you cab out towards the University this year and your drunk ass can stumble nicely to the other parties once we’re through pwning you.[Friends Bar]

3) Because we already got a mention in the Washington Post.[Washington Post]

4) Because Carol Bui does percussion…with her body. No seriously, she puts on a large clinky belt and belly dances when she’s not playing the guitar and it looks and sounds awesome (so come see it, already.)

5) Because we have two Pitchfork high scorers playing back to back. Deleted Scenes (8.0,[Pitchfork]) at 1:20pm and Carol Bui (7.8,[Pitchfork]) at 2:00pm.

6) Because we love These United States more than Pitchfork does, anyway. So do Daytrotter, NPR, and the bazillion artists who played with them on their tour last year. And they’re closing the show at 4:30pm. [Daytrotter]

7) Because even though Laura Burhenn had to cancel on us at the last minute, we’ve got a special guest to open the show. You’ll have to come out to see who it is! (It’s a guy named Jamieson Clem, by the way.)

8 ) Val just might be drunk as a skunk before US Royalty even takes the stage at 3:40pm. But the rest of you will enjoy them. Spin did. [Spin]

9) Because you all know that Aaron Leitko is a damn fine writer. Did you also know that he’s playing bass with Carol Bui? (FYI, Aaron Leitko is one of my favorite local/Pitchfork writers. He makes my output look like crap.)

10) Because the rest of the country needs the occasional reminder that DC still breeds good bands in an era of post-Dischord dominance.

12: 30pm – Jamieson Clem
1:20pm – Deleted Scenes :: “Ithaca”
2:00pm – Carol Bui :: “Modern Dance”
2:50pm – Middle Distance Runner :: “The Unbeliever”
3:40pm – US Royalty :: “Every Summer”
4:30pm – These United States :: “West Won”