One more day of SXSW is down in the books, so you know what that means: recappy caps!
Thursday at the Levis/FADER Trading Post, players played, ballers balled, and Jose Gonzales brought his patented quiet storm to the our stage. Ladies Love Cool J! So do the dudes! He just has a way with the whole fingerpicked guitar / dreamy vocals thing. We don't know if the old-school wooden chair was something we had lying around the stage, or a special prop Jose brought with him, but we're hoping in our hearts of hearts that it's the latter.
In marked contrast to JG's mellow moments, Forward, Russia! and the Eagles Of Death Metal took to the stage and rocked out mercilessly. The Forwarders had more of a spazzy dance-rock thing going on, whereas the Eagles were very much mustachioed bro-core (also: one group has a girl drummer, the other has a Queen) but both groups did the damn thing.
Best yet, some of our favorite-est selectors were playing tunes inbetween. Cosmo Baker and DJ Ayres of the Rub set things off with Jay-Z's "PSA" (It ain't a movie dog!) and remixes of TV On The Radio songs that aren't even supposed to be out yet, then Chitown-via-Philly mad scientist Major Taylor (who you may have heard tings about) threw down soul classics, Peedi Crakk, and Radiohead's "National Anthem". Suffice it to say, things got real live. On to tomorrow!