PLANTS AND ANIMALS “Lightshow”
Plants and Animals’ debut album Parc Avenue was my favorite record of 2008. I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about their 2010 follow-up La La Land.
The Montreal band is set to release their third effort The End of That in February and I’m getting excited about it. This early single is promising.
Montreal trio Plants and Animals provide the latest session on Daytrotter, which features a couple of songs from 2010’s La La Land and a closer from their fantastic debut album Parc Avenue.
Setlist: Game Shows / Celebration / Feedback in the Field
ROSS’ TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2010
#35
PLANTS AND ANIMALS La La Land
Featued Song: “The Mama Papa”
Plants and Animals’ first album Parc Avenue was my favorite record of 2008. It was filled with these intricate and sprawling indie rock songs with touches of folk and even some funk.
Their second release La La Land is a little different, opting for distortion pedals and a bit more of a frantic pace. The results are pretty good in spots, but not on par with the free-flowing power of Parc Avenue.
PLANTS AND ANIMALS “Tom Cruz”
I loved Plants and Animals’ debut album Parc Avenue. In fact, it was my favorite album in 2008.
Their new album La La Land isn’t quite as awesome, but it’s definitely worth several listens.
More photos from South by Southwest, days 1 & 2
Day 2 of South by Southwest began with quite a few false starts.
It started with a mid-morning trip to the strip malls of south Austin/Buda looking for towels (success) and a pair of shorts for Chuck (failure).
About 90 minutes later, we rushed back to the house and quickly got ready to make it downtown by noon.
Once we got there, I was hoping to catch the band Cocoon at a French party that supposedly would have free champagne. We walk up to the door right at noon to see about 30 people in line and no one at the door. Lame.
Instead of waiting, we headed one block down 6th Street to a party hosted by one of Chuck’s Milwaukee friends, where we saw…
CONRAD PLYMOUTH
The first thing I noticed about the band was how young they all looked (maybe 19?).
They play sort of pretty, atmospheric Americana music…but all the songs sort of sounded similar with the same tempo. It was nice enough, but we left after about 15 minutes.
Final Grade: C+
We walked out to see that there was still nothing happening at the French party, so we started a rare trek east of I-35 to see Seabear at the Scoot Inn.
On the way there, we walked past the giant open field that would later host the Mess With Texas party…but for this day, there was some day party with kind of cool soul music blaring.
We walked in to see about 20 people standing around in this massive field to see…
RAGEN FYKES
I’m assuming that Ragen is the name of the singer and her backing band goes nameless. We stuck around for 2 or 3 songs, mainly to kill some time, but it wasn’t too shabby. I might check her out online at some point.
Final Grade: C
Next, we continued our walk to the Scoot Inn to catch…
SEABEAR
This was one of Chuck’s few must-see’s for SXSW and I came around to them a few days before the festival.
The Scoot Inn was a pretty cool venue AND they had Session for $2.50 a bottle. Major score!
Seabear was fantastic. They’re an indie folk band from Iceland that has a sort of warm and cozy sound (think: Sufjan Stevens). Most of their set consisted of songs from their great new album We Built a Fire.
Final Grade: A
Festival friends Maggie, Chris and Jack showed up about 20 minutes into the set, so we hung out with them for a while afterward, before hailing a cab and hauling ass back downtown in hopes of catching Local Natives at the NPR day party.
As we briskly walked those 3 or 4 blocks down 6th Street, it became very apparent that we had no shot of getting into the NPR show at The Parish. The line winded about 100 yards into the street.
As a pretty solid Plan B, we turned around and went into the Paste party just in time to see…
FANFARLO
Fanfarlo was playing the same stage as Basia Bulat and Lissie from the day before, but this time the venue to filled to capacity. It was difficult to get any kind of view in there, especially since the actual stage is only about a foot higher than the regular floor.
The band sounded great, but the crowd was a little too thick…so we watched from the outer deck while kicking back a few free drinks.
Final Grade: B
Next, we walked around the corner to “Emo’s Annex”, which was actually just a tent across the street from Emo’s. Lame.
It was Soundcheck Magazine’s 4th Birthday Party and they had a few good bands on the bill. We walked in to see…
THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE
I knew next to nothing about this band, but Chuck was pretty excited to see them. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard.
I don’t know why, but I was expecting some kind of lo-fi garage rock. As it turns out, this band is nothing like that…playing pretty catchy indie folk/rock/pop music.
Final Grade: B+
It’s almost like you can’t really go wrong at South by Southwest.
After The Rural Alberta Advantage was done, Chuck and I sat on the curb (remember: this is a tent over the street) and waited for…
PLANTS AND ANIMALS
This band put out my favorite album of 2008, but I’ve never been lucky enough to see them live.
Their set was almost completely new material from their forthcoming album (can’t wait!) and it sounds much tighter and crunchier than the free-flowing groove of their debut.
They were surprisingly animated on stage and were definitely worth the wait on the curb.
Final Grade: B
Next, we walked back over to the Paste party in plenty of time to catch…
THE MIDDLE EAST
This was one of my favorite discoveries in the lead-up to South by Southwest. The Middle East is an Australian band that has an excellent folk rock sound with hints of Sufjan Stevens and Arcade Fire.
Chuck and I scooted near the front of the stage, only to watch their sound guy extend their sound check for minute after minute, squeezing the band’s actual set down to about 15 minutes.
Still, they managed to get in their two fantastic songs “Darkest Side” and “Blood”, mesmerizing the audience, who begged for an encore (and actually got one!).
Final Grade: A
Next, Chuck and I high-tailed it down Red River St in hopes of getting WAY down to the Lustre Pearl in time to see Delta Spirit. We made excellent time, only to get there and see a line extending 2 blocks down the road. Argh!
I circled around the building to see that we could stand by the iron fence surrounding the backyard and see the band just fine.
Still not completely content, I noticed that there was about a 10 inch gap between the fence and a taco truck parked along the curb. There was no security standing there. Opportunity was knocking.
I quickly slipped through that opening and walked deep into the crowd with Chuck just one step behind me. A few other people followed suit before security caught wind of it and shut down the gap…but we were already in!
Just one minute later, the band started…
DELTA SPIRIT
Perhaps it’s the fact that we got into the show illegally (even though it was free), but this was one of my favorite shows of the entire week.
Delta Spirit absolutely kicked ass, playing with power and passion to a huge crowd. Lead singer Matt Vasquez’s mom was even in the audience taking it all in.
The new songs sounded great (can’t wait for the new album) and the band closed with crowd favorites “People, C’mon” and “Trashcan”.
Final Grade: A+
Seabear, Fanfarlo, Plants and Animals, The Middle East and Delta Spirit all within a 5 hour span. Could SXSW really get any better?
Plants and Animals “Tom Cruz”
Plants and Animals’ new album La La Land releases April 20, and is so good.
Plants and Animals at the BrooklynVegan/M for Montreal party
Plants and Animals at the Soundcheck Magazine 4th Birthday party.
Plants and Animals peforming “Feedback in the Field” for La Blogothequè.
