Hangups and more at SXSW

I was a bit too busy with what was going on here in Minneapolis this past weekend to keep up with the events transpiring at SXWS as much as I would have liked to, but now that folks are pretty much returning to town, more retrospectives are starting to trickle in.

Kate Galloway sent this photo of the Hangups performing at the Blender Magazine party in Austin.


The Hangups at the Blender Magazine Party in Austin

None other than Trampoline Records head honcho Pete Yorn was filling in on drums at this gig. The Hangups Brian Tighe told me the event was "A total blast! Great audience, great players." Tighe also told me that The Lilys who hail from Philadelphia, were simply amazing.

Dana Thompson sent me a rather low resolution photo of Minnie Driver from the same party that she took from her camera phone that she was taken while leaning on Art Alexakis from Everclear.


Minnie Driver in a photo from Dana Thompson's camera phone

Bad at Math?

A few days ago I wrote of an under-attended Mallman show at SXSW based on information from a friend who shares an alma mater with me and I was pretty sure was a trusted source. However, truth be told, my alma mater is not known for having an outstanding math department. Other reports put the count at closer to 80, which is closer to what I would hope for. Whether I misheard 50 as 15 in the first report given by cell phone as my source left the show, or whether my friend is just bad at math, I don't know, but I did want to help set the record straight.

I did receive an email from Mark Mallman himself this evening and he sounds very excited about his current recording projects. He's finishing up in the studio on April 15th, so we can hope there will be a 2004 release from him in the not so distant future.

Mark Mallman at SXSW

I'm told the Mark Mallman show at South By Southwest was horrendously under attended (sadly count that as about 15 fans.) However, this didn't stop Mallman from putting on the kind of show we know and love him for. To an over-exuberant fan who was dancing out of control near the stage for several songs in a row, Mallman said, "Dude, I think you're at the wrong show. The Weird Al Yankovich show is down the block."

The flailing one retreated to another part of the bar and relaxed embarassed for a while until Mallman pointed out that with such a small number of people in attendance he couldn't afford to have one audience member standing in the corner.

Though I heard mixed reactions to Mallman's two warm-up shows in the week before here in Minneapolis, I thought Mallman was spot on at his Uptown Bar show last Friday. As Mallman opened his show with a Doors-like rocker that featured the lines "Mr. Mallman risin'" I found myself re-thinking my decision to not attend the upcoming Doors of the 21st Century show that's been rescheduled for April 23rd at the Orpheum.

What if it was a gay world, and you were straight?


When I was asked to throw my two cents in on a gay marriage debate between two colleagues at work the other day, it slipped out. "As far as marriage is concerned," I said. "The gayer the better!"

Kidding aside, here's a link to an HRC (Human Rights Coalition) commercial that points to just one of the many problems with the so-called "separate, but equal" crap that proponents of civil unions who oppose legal marriage for gay couples leave us with. I wish this powerful commercial had been aired during the Superbowl.

Link: What if it was a gay world, and you were straight? Commercial by the Million For Marriage-Human Rights Campaign

Music CD Settlement Checks are ... in the mail

I got my music settlement check in the mail last week and I have to admit it looked a little fishy. Before deciding to actually deposit the $13.86 check, I looked at it carefully to make sure signing my name on the reverse side wouldn't switch me to a long-distance service provider I didn't want or enter my name into another junk mail database I didn't want to be on.

But the checks music consumers in Minnesota are receiving this week are real, and if you don't want your $13 to go to charity, you'd best deposit them in your account, if you didn't throw it away by mistake because of its uncanny resemblance to junk mail.

Of course, you won't be receiving a check at all if you didn't register at the music settlement's site last year.

Read the Star Trib's article on the settlement checks here.

Link: Bought any CDs? Your check may be in the junk mail pile