Brooklyn Hater recaps the last days of SXSW

By Jason Diamond » Enduring memories, motel vomiting, Smokey Robinson.

The enduring memories from the last few days of 2010 SXSW are the following:

1.  Throwing up. 

2.  I saw Courtney Love.

3. The Forrest Gump-esque scene I witnessed as a skinny girl who looked like she may or may not have had sex with Dov Charney at some point in her life waved goodbye out the back window of a shitty looking van, on her way to Todd P's MtyMx festival. 

4.  Smokey Robinson

To expand.

Number one was not the fault of the free beer I drank.  I made the mistake of letting my friend convince me that he knew the best secret bbq spot in the area.  The "area" ended up being 100 miles north of Austin, and that bbq made me vomit for hours and hours.  I really had no more interest in seeing any music after this, but I decided I had to see Courtney Love.

I did.  Among hundreds of her fans (of which I am not one), I did my fair share of screaming when the woman who either killed Kurt, or drove him to killing himself, walked by. 

Here's the thing about Courtney: I have little doubt in my mind that she is one of the most disgusting people that can (barely) call themselves human, but you gotta admire her willingness to keep going, and claw her demon nails up the highest mountains to retain some sort of spotlight; even if it means hanging out with the little people at SXSW.  Will this "return to her roots" put Courtney back at the top?  I'm very doubtful.  But for what it's worth, it was a spectacle to see her hanging out in Austin.

As for MtyMx:  I heard reviews that it had a little bit of a hard time getting off the ground, but from all reports, once it did, the whole thing was a success.  Thank god.  After dealing with another SXSW, I'm happy that there was some sort of an antidote to the conference in Austin -- which for all intents and purposes, has lost nearly every bit of "indie cred" that it once had.  Todd P really needs to be commended for even attempting something like MtyMx, let alone pulling the thing off. 

Smokey Robinson. The man proved to me the difference between his generation of musicians, and the current one.  Holy shit.   I'm just going to go out and say that in my opinion, SXSW was dominated by a 70-year-old man, and also, Thee Oh Sees.

However, the band I heard the most people talking about in a positive light had to be Phantogram.  I didn't get to check them out, but just from hearsay, and this thing I read on Mashable, I'm pretty willing to bet that they are going to be one of the "it" bands of the entire deal. We knew that already, though.

Also, while I had a ball hating on shit, getting drunk, eating bad meat, seeing Total Slacker, and throwing up in a shitty hotel 20 miles away from the main strip, next year, I'm trailing Pop Jew, and letting her be my guide through Texas.

Yes, that means I'll be back next year.  Thanks for the good times Austin.  Can't wait to hate on your huge corporate faux-indie prom in 2011!

Posted on March 25, 2010. More on: sxsw, phantogram, mtymx, pop jew, smokey robinson, courtney love