SXSW

Hi everyone. As you know, we love playing South By Southwest. It's a week in Austin that usually takes us 15 hours of flying to get to. Last time we played, we got dropped off (somehow, I don't even remember how) in Buffalo, then waited overnight at the Buffalo airport to catch our 7am connecting flights to like Philadelphia or Bucharest, then spent 4 or 5 hours at that airport waiting for our flights to Austin. When we got there 3 days after we left and realized we could have taken a luxurious and civilized train for twice the price and about the same amount of time, it was only a minor psyhic setback, because we were so excited to be back in Austin for SXSW (we had played the year before).

When we picked up our 6 seater rental SUV at the aiport, we couldn't wait to cram our 6 bodies, guitars, drum sticks, luggage, snare drum, backpacks, 6 laptops (granted Ben's is pretty tiny, but Josh's is a Pro, so that makes up for it) purses (Sandy and Jonahs), MTV microphones, 16 flip cameras, ipods, pedal cases, bags of free guitar strings, leftover food from our 4 day long journey, merchandise, books, magazines, makeup, extra pairs of Nikes, other various costume changes, secondary duffel bags, empty bags for all the free swag we were about to get and bathroom kits into it for the next 5 days and drive around the small but vibrant paradise of Austin Texas.

SXSW is a great time, where the indie rockers are only outnumbered by the free energy drinks, where the free bbq is as abundant as the legions of free concerts comprised of Americas, and the worlds most exciting and upcoming musical outfits, each one vying to be that year's IT band. If we were bashful, we'd say that in 2007, the IT band was MGMT or something, but lets face it - we're not, and we were (the IT band). Our performance that year at 3am on the Lamar Pedestrian bridge was for many the highlight of the entire week, and outshone even our performance on that same bridge the night previous (ya, we did a SECRET secret show that even you didn't know about. Way less people came, and it was way more exclusive and therefor better than the one that 1500 people came to, who's combined weight swayed the bridge that night in such a way that from there on I would have rather performed on a flying airplane than on any bridge, quivering through the air like some floppy pappardelle), and especially was better than the show we did on that same bridge a few years ago during Chaos with Tejas, a way more punk fest, where bands playing on bridges in the middle of the night is so pedestrian it's almost insulting. Rest assured though, if twittering had been invented at that point in time, the amount of @s that would have resulted from such a monumental performance probably would have toppled that bridge right then and there.

Last year we skipped SXSW (we were in China, sorry boutcha) and now GIRLS is the reigning IT band (we actually like that band - some of those dudes hung out in our rented Palm Springs villa when we played Coachella last spring,where we were out-it-ed by like 70% of the entire festival but had a really great time anyhow - and were really chill, plus their song RAW POWER is great [actually I think those particular Girls Dudes got kicked out of the band]) so despite our aforementioned (if you missed it, the aforementioned aformentioning was inside the last parenthesis - not this one, the one right before it) tolerance towards GIRLS, and to make a story that's about to get really long short, we're coming back this year to reclaim our status.

We are coming back Austin, and we welcome all challengers; your Pheonix's, your xx's and jj's, bring us all the TuNeYaRdS and Passion Pits you have, we are ready. We are coming back for TWO (announceable) special shows, and maybe one 3rd Mexican el concierto especial, and without further adieu, here is some of the info:

on FRIDAY we'll be playing a benefit for SHIRTS FOR A CURE. While yr clicking that link, make sure to buy one of our tshirts from that site. It's all for charity, ok and is like an exclusive design. That show we'll have more info on real soon, but make sure you buy tickets because it's for a great cause and will be amazing.

Here is where this post starts to get a bit serious:
If you've ever been to SXSW, you know that it can be a bit like walking through the spam-section of your email inbox. There's a lot of great stuff in your inbox, but there's also a lot of spam. You can't throw a cat at SXSW without hitting a showcase or "party" being presented by some huge automobile or energy drink commercial. Bands from Brooklyn and Montreal trip over themselves all that way to Austin to try to make it, presented by Dewars, or Squid Energy Pockets, or Pampers Ultrasoft Slims. We've played some of these very showcases, and now that we are comfortably one of the worlds greatest and most profitable bands, we've seen the light and are here to pass judgement on all the bands that are in the same position we were in like 2 years ago. That's why we are throwing our OWN showcase this year. A music festival showcase thrown BY bands For bands. We're even thinking about curating a clothing company to go along with the show, called like BBFB, or something catchy and pronounceable like that. But seriously folks - enough with the indie-culture-presented-by-the-worlds-most-evil-companies-in-the-world. This isn't Nick and Noras Infinite Playlist. We're hoping our showcase can be an initiative to put some of the power invested in music festivals back into the hands of the people who actually provide the music, instead of the people who provide the SUVs and cigarettes (which we smoke when we are stressed out and drive to get to the show...). For a lot of bands, SXSW represents something very tangible on the way to becoming a legitimate band. And for a lot of bands, the experience is like Vietnam - it's hard to get shows, then the shows you do play there's only a few people there because everyone else is on the 7th floor of some parking garage on south Lamar thats being presented by Pepsi because they were the only ones that could afford to pay Death Cab, but your band is actually GOOD and you just came to sxsw so that people could hear your music, and you spent $2000 dollars just to get there (this was us for the first two years, mind you) and then you get captured by the Vietcong and imprisoned for three and a half months and the only coverage you get on Pitchfork is a mislabeled picture on "SXSW Coverage day one: Wednesday" which no one reads anyway, because all the cool people are on trains to Austin on Wednesday and have no internet. So yeah, we're doing our own showcase, because we like music and bands and hope that bands representing music and other bands becomes a THING at music festivals. Here is the INFO:

SATURDAY MARCH 20
@ RED SEVEN Outside (611 E. 7th Street - Austin, TX 78701)

FUCKED UP "BBFB" SHOWCASE starring:
FUCKED UP
J MASCIS
RIVAL SCHOOLS
TITUS ANDRONICUS
CRYSTAL ANTLERS
KATIE STELMANIS

At the same time at the same venue only inside, is the Woodsist records showcase, so it's more than likely gonna be an Aerosmith-Run DMC video type of situation.

PS - if you run a blog and/or are planning to spread this news, please don't quote the "BBFB" part, because that was retarded and just a joke. Call it like the "Fucked Up saves music" showcase or something, THX.