Minus the Bear lead singer Jake Snider rocked a Gretsch during their Showdown at Cedar Street set­––good to see our sister brand in action @ SXSW. Bassist Cory Murchy stuck to his Fender bass for the short set, which included some songs off the May slated new album Omni.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it over to catch Broadway Calls show at Gear Alley but some of our Fender team did, so thanks Michael Schulz for getting me this photo.

Former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur sat on a SXSW panel earlier today to discuss two of her top passions: music and photography. Later, she stopped by Peche for the Fender/Filter listening party of her new album Out of Our Minds, and then was off to Stubbs to catch her fellow Canadians, Broken Social Scene, close out the night.

Hidden underneath a grey hoodie, Metric’s Emily Haines slipped to the stage unnoticed, along with band mate Jimmy Shaw, to join Broken Social Scene onstage for “Anthems for a 17-Year Old Girl.” (clip below) Metric has a show of their own at Stubbs tomorrow night.

Band of Horses drew the largest audience tonight at Stubbs, playing just prior to Broken Social Scene. We visited with bassist Bill Reynolds and guitarist Tyler Ramsey earlier in the day after their soundcheck. Reynolds just recently purchased a new Fender ’62 Precision Bass. Tonight’s show sounded fantastic but the guys were a bit curious about tomorrow night’s performance at the Central Presbyterian Church.

The Flying Machines returned as headliners to Converse’s “Get out of the Garage Showcase” at the Levi’s Fader Fort tonight after winning the contest a year ago with single “On a Whim.” I highly recommend both the band & the Fort to any SXSW attendees. The party planners did a phenomenal job transforming an empty field into a swanky affair.

The Kissaway Trail could be racking up an extensive bar tab this SXSW festival. The five-piece from Odense, Denmark has promised to pay for a drink and the tattoo for anyone who rips out the photo of an effects pedal on page nine of the FILTER Good Music Guide and then finds them in Austin.

“Thomas (Fagerlund) and I drew this picture of a reverb pedal for the magazine because it’s our favorite, and the most important thing in our sound,” said guitarist Daniel Skjoldmose. “So we’ll probably buy them a drink and the tattoo for people who want to get one of the reverb pedal.”

So far this afternoon only one person had taken them up on the offer but the more, the merrier––despite the potential bar tab.

“We don’t have any money, so let’s just spend some more,” said singer/guitarist Soren B. Corneliussen.

“Yeah, we don’t care how much it is,” added Fagerlund, who happens to sport a tattoo of a Fender guitar in the middle of his chest because “it deserved a place on his body.”

But as it so happened, the Danish band had people buying them drinks. Midway through an interview with Fender, a young lady brought them a round of beers as a thank you for putting on a great show.

Today’s performance at Filter’s Showdown at Cedar Street was the first of several SXSW shows for the Kissaway Trail.

“It’s fun,” said Skjoldmose. “We love to play our music so we are looking forward to the week. It’s really exciting.”

The Kissaway Trail will release Sleep Mountain in April so pick it up and be sure to give a listen to “Painter;” Fagerlund’s inspiration on the song came from hearing a blackbird.

“It just inspired something in me when I heard it (demonstrates chirping sound),” he said.

The band plans to catch up with another one of their inspirations this weekend in Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore who is scheduled to play Friday night at Red 7.

For those of you who miss the Kissaway Trail during SXSW, look for them on the road this spring with Temper Trap. Also, here’s a short video clip below. Please excuse the shoddy camera work. I recommend closing your eyes and just listening.

Here are some photos from the first day of SXSW.

Interesting first day at SXSW Music Fest in Austin, Texas. We went from catching 70s rock early afternoon with Norwegian’s BigBang (on par harmonies in “Early December,” which first appeared on 2007 album Too Much Yang)to psychedelic drones over at Emo’s with the Black Angels to some female-powered rock with Visqueen at STUBBS.

Here’s quick clip of the Black Angels, who launched a new website yesterday.

Kyle Hunt, who I’d call the jack of all trades in the Black Angels, gave all SXSW attendees some excellent advice – get a bike.  Of course, I’d already witnessed that from Alex Perez of our artist relations team. Although a SXSW first-timer, Perez wisely hit up a friend to hook him up with a 24-inch BMX Cruiser. After carrying three bags of equipment and walking along as he lapped me on his cruiser, I’m thinking mugging him might be in the works. Looks like Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard had the same idea when we caught up with her Wednesday afternoon following her first SXSW appearance at Levi’s Fader Fort.

Later, I hiked up to Red River and 8^th to catch Visqueen’s Soundcheck and then live act, which was streamed live on NPR.

“Because of this live broadcast I get to sing a song tonight to my two year old niece and my sister, who made some corn beef and cabbage in honor of our family and I’m going to sing this one for them, but for you as well,” said Flotard to the packed audience.

Backed only by her cellist on the opening number, Flotard’s powerful pipes were even more pronounced but the spitfire quickly switched gears. After telling the audience “Now we’re gonna bring out some meat,” she blazed into a rocking number off A Message to Garcia, “Hand Me Down.”

Here’s a clip from the set.

Flotard also mentioned that she’s sometimes mistaken for Olympian Shaun White. I hadn’t thought of it, but now that she’s put it out there….

Listen to the whole show at NPR here.

Lead singer/guitarist Oystein Greni

Bassist Nikolai Eilertsen

On their way to Austin’s SXSW music festival, Norwegian band BigBang couldn’t wait to drive through La Grange, Texas–the town ZZ Top made famous with 1973 hit of the same name. Getting stuck there? Not so much.

Unfortunately, just as they rode into town and revved up to sing along to the popular tune, BigBang went ker-plunk.

“We were real excited to drive through there because that’s one of my favorite songs, but our rental car blew a tire,” said lead singer and guitarist Oystein Greni. “We had to sing along at about 5 mph and then we had to fight with our rental car company on the phone. It was stressful.”

BigBang eventually arrived in Austin with plenty of time to spare prior to their first South by Southwest gig at Maria’s Taco Express on Wednesday afternoon. We’ve got video here. Please excuse my poor camera work about a third of the way in; I was bumped.

I did notice that Oystein was sporting bright green socks. I know a lot of countries celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but is Norway one of them?  I think I recall that Dublin was once a Norwegian settlement, but I’m not sure. History buffs out there, please feel free to chime in here.

At any rate, Happy St. Paddy’s!

BigBang has a few more shows this week at SXSW, and plans to catch a few too!

“I try to be flexible during SXSW because I may go to see some band and can’t get in and instead I end up seeing someone else that might be even better,” said Greni. “It’s kind of stressful though. I’d rather just drive and see one band and then be able to drive home and think about that band and what I just saw.”