I managed to catch two of the three days of music at the North Texas New Music Festival(http://www.newmusicfestival.com/)+ in Dallas and it reminded me of the old SXSW days. Ninety nine percent unsigned bands that were excellent! The first night was sparsely attended but not lacking in talent. At [Trees the Spune Productions showcase featured Arizonas Blackmarket. Formally known as Illusive, the band rocked a flawless 30 minute set. Buzz Oven and ASCAP reps were watching intently. Earlier in the day several of the bands cds were dropped off at Dallass top indie record store. Good Records is co-owned by Polyphonic Sprees Tim DeLaughter who incidently, has launched his own label by the same name. Saturday the band was fortunate to have its song Pictures spun at one of the demo listening sessions and received a very enthusiastic response. Particularly, from a producer on the panel.
Austin band What Made Milwaukee Famous showed why it was one of this years SXSW buzz bands. By the way, their CD Trying to Never Catch Up is damn good! Other bands that impressed were The Skin Trade, Black Lights, and Bridges and Blinking Lights. Sleepy Atlantis was composed of acoustic guitar driven ballads which were deserving of attention.
Saturday was an incredible day because it included some excellent panels and demo listening. Reps from Epic, Sony-BMG, and Kirkland Records spoke. Noted LA and NYC producers and entertainment attorneys provided feedback as well. All were open to receiving demos and exchanging business cards. One interesting topic covered by the panels was the use of the internet in marketing your band.. Discussion was centered around Myspace with 300,000 client bands and artists posting their music on the website. Panelists made recommendations on how bands can maximize their presence and attract the interest of fans as well as the many label reps who regularly cruise its pages. It must be doing something right because the website itself attracted the attention of Fox who paid a whopping 532 million dollars to purchase the venture.
Now to the music! I became aware of InVain after hearing their demo at the panels. They are a hard core band from New Orleans who had relocated to Dallas after hurricane Katrina. I saw some of their live set and they are worthy of Vans next Warped Tour as well as label attention. Eden Automatic had a sexy front woman whos voice was haunting and reminiscent of a lower end Grace Slick. They had a particularly good guitarist. The Feds were an exciting emo version of Velvet Revolver. Having signed with Capitol, the band fell through the cracks when it s A&R rep was let go. Now, they are shopping new material. Meanwhile, I camped out again at Trees for the third night of Spune showcases. What a line-up! Midlake, who played Coachella earlier this year and made late night tv appearances has an excellent release in Bamnan and Slivercork put out on the Cocteau Twins label
Bella Union. Pilotdrift is Good Records first signed artist and is signed on with Marty Diamonds Little Big Man Booking. Zycos featured excellent songs backed by guitars and keyboards. Singer songwriter Lamonica could follow in the footsteps of Elliot Smith. He announced he will relocate to Salt Lake City, which is great news for those fans. My Education is a sure winner for the next Bonnaroo rising artist.
Former members of Red Animal War, Doosu and Tendril have a hit in The Numbers Game. They were like a a hard core orchestra backed by two drummers whos playing reminded me of Jaimoe and Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers. My favorite band of the weekend was Record Hop. If you combined the Pretenders, PJ Harvey and Sonic Youth you might get an idea of what Record Hop has to offer. The last 2 days I have played their record Pariedolia perhaps 10 times. Record Hop is from Denton, Texas. Denton has been the home of Don Henley, Norah Jones, Brave Combo and Bowling For Soup. Perhaps, it has produced more Grammys per capita than any other city in the world. Denton has recently birthed Midlake, The Feds, Super Love Attack, JetScreamer and now Record Hop. Of course, Dallas, Austin and other great Texas cities boasts many other award winning artists and was well represented. Attendees of this years New Music Festival were surely treated to a future Grammy winner or two.
