The Decemberists and SXSW
Well, Austin's big live music festival, SXSW is drawing to a close tonight. SXSW (= "South by Southwest") hits town every year and it always livens up the local music scene. Which is pretty lively to begin with.

KUT-FM, Austin's public radio station, has lots of bands come down to the station and play live sets on the air. During one of those programs last night I heard the Decemberists. I came soooo close to changing the car radio station as soon as I heard the first notes. The song was "The Soldiering Life," and it was in a "poppy" style that's usually very, very forgetable.

Blessedly, the lyrics made me hesitate. By the end of the song I was hooked. The light melody contrasted with and strangely complemented the intelligent lyrics. I can't really think of a description of the lyrics that does them justice. The same goes for the lyrics of another great song they sang about a bandit queen. The best I can come up with is something the late, great Johnny Cash said about a particular gospel song, "That's a great song. It's got a lot of meat on it." Decide for yourself; go to their record labels website www.killrockstars.com and scroll down to The Decemberists for a free mp3 of the song.

I wanted to go to their live set today at Buffalo Billiards but wasn't able to go in time. So I had to go to a music store on the Drag and settle for their lastest CD, Her Majesty. I've already listened to most of it, and I'm playing it straight through as I'm writing this. Of the songs on the CD, my favorite so far are "Soldiering Life" and "Shanty for the Arethusa."

When I was buying their CD, I got to hear a live performance (there all over the place during SXSW) by Flametrick Subs and Satan's Cheerleaders. They sang some hard driving hillbilly rock. The whole crowd, including me, really enjoyed them. I heard three or four of their songs, but I'll be damned if I remember the names or lyrics. The main thing I remember is the guy playing the bass. Bass or double bass or cello or something. You know, one of those instruments that look exactly like a violin would look if it had been accidently mutated into a giant, man-eating violin by secret Army A-bomb tests in the Nevada desert. Anyway, he's slapping the hell out of the strings of this giant whatever-it-was with his left hand when I suddenly realized he didn't have a left hand. Nothing from the wrist down. Wow. It made Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist with all those missing fingers, look like a piker.

The only other thing that stands out in my mind from their performance was Satan's Cheerleaders. Three buxom women with very intelligent, lively eyes. And loads of tattoos. And red and black latex outfits with "666" on the fronts. And pom-poms.

Later in the day, I heard a woman from out of town talking to some guy with her about SXSW. She said, "We don't have anything like this in North Dakota."

In that one moment I decided I'm never moving to North Dakota.