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Monday, March 21, 2005

This just in: A Report from Mark Mallman: Mallman wins SXSW Second year running!

Last year, I botched part of a report on Mark Mallman's SXSW performance due to a bum tip.  

This year, I bring you Mark Mallman's exclusive report from SXSW, in his own words:
2005 SXSW report by Mark Mallman (1st place winner of SXSW - 2 years running)

Our first show was with Cracker under the big tent at Emos annex. A new WB band, Dropsonic, played before us - they sounded like Alice in Chains, I thought. I'm not saying anything good or bad there, just that they sounded like Alice in Chains. My set for that show included - Better People, I Just Wanna Play Piano, True Love, Butcher's Ballad, and Shortbread.

We immediately loaded out and headed straight over to our night show at MOMO'S bar with my labelmates, Pleasant Grove. We went on at midnight. It killed. We killed 'em. It rocked. The band consisted of me, Ryan Smith, Kathie "PONY" Hixon, Dan Geller (from I Am The World Trade Center), and Charles Gehr. We opened with a new song called LICENSE TO DRIVE. We then played HARDCORE ROMANTICS, TRUE LOVE, HUMANKIND, SHORTBREAD, and 4 other tunes that I don't remember.

Afterward, the band checked out Elvis Costello who was playing next door. I drank whiskey and was in my underwear in the parking lot 3 hours later.

The next day, Peter Anderson and I did a 2 man drums and piano show with John Vanderslice, Clem Snide, and Magnapop. That went off really well.

The rest of SXSW was spent watching rock acts and hanging with friends. I met lots of famous people one of which was not DIANE SAWYER - however, I did do a radio interview with Radio 1 in the UK.

The highlights were - A) seeing John Cale perform Venus in Furs, watching Spoon afterward. B) The Blind Boys of Alabama. C) Dancing madly to Gogol Bordello - with strange women in a furious way. That night as I walked across the bridge back to my room, I looked into the water and decided once again, not to jump.

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