SXSW 2011 Day 3: Tune-Yards, Glasser bust cliches
AUSTIN, Texas -- Earlier in the day Thursday, Bob Geldof challenged the 2,000 bands signed up to play the 25th annual south by southwest Music conference this week to show him something. America, he said, was full of "complacent, smug" bands who had lost the ability to suggest change and possibility.
But midway through a set by Tune-Yards later that evening, I found myself yearning to text sir Bob: "Have I got a band for you." The group dispensed with indie-rock tropes --- guitars, mopy songs, four-square rhythm -- in favor of percolating, percussive rapture that suggested West African juju music abetted by skronking saxophones. Band founder Merrill Garbus did it all: looping her voice into a chanting swirl, slamming out punk-rock chords on a ukele, hammering on a drum, and singing like a soul enchantress.
Equally splendid was singer Cameron Mesirow, a k a Glasser, who opened her set with a stunning, a cappella song that rang down from heaven in a cavernous 8th Street church. Blending chamber-pop tranciness with Bjork-like electro twitchiness, Glasser -- like Tune-Yards -- challenged convention at every turn.
The night's only letdown was the highly hyped Twin Shadow, which replicated the flashy keyboards and soul-rock flourishes of mid-'80s Prince. Singer George Lewis Jr. could do a lot worse than taking a walk back to "1984," but he didn't bring much new to his Paisley Park retro.
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