"The rock is about to be unfolded"

Continuing on our quest to capture every Belaire associated project on film, we shot tonight's JC & Co. show at the Mohawk. JC & Co. is basically Jason Chronis' solo project, for which Cari does backup vocals and ex-Belaire drummer Matt Simon plays drums. A gentleman by the name of Phil plays [a sweet Hofner] bass, and another gentleman by the name of Edward Alan plays lead guitar.



It was a really nasty night out, especially by Austin standards. Freezing cold, just enough so the rain that had been falling all day would bite at your skin but not actually freeze. Few people came out (which, frankly, is kind of lame - the show was indoors, and way better than sitting at home), but the band brought tons of energy and humor to the stage. Jason said he's recording the new tracks that didn't get onto the 7" over the summer, and by the sound of it they're going to be all sorts of great.


Unfolding the rock...


Jason and Jason in Nathan's camera


Cari engages the crowd

I must mention, though it's not really related to our film, the band who played before JC & Co.: Musée Mécanique. They're a Portland band (hence the not being related to our film, though it would be amazing to make a film about that whole scene too), and a few months ago when Belaire's van was broken into during their West Coast tour, they ended up staying with the guys from Musée Mécanique when they got to Portland. Their set was absolutely beautiful, and they even pulled off a great cover of Paul Simon's Graceland. You should check them out.


They looked like such Portlandites. It was a palpably stark contrast to the Austinites present. Very awesome.

Can you move your hips to this, son

Man, I'm tired. Discovering heretofore uncharted territories of awesomeness is exhausting. It's about 4:30 in the morning, so it's been an hour or so since I got home from Beauty Bar, where I saw the greatest lineup play that I've seen for quite some time: No Mas Bodas, Gayle Gold and Fancy Feast.

OK first of all, No Mas Bodas was fantastic. They took the stage and a few minutes later Nathan and I had this moment -- we looked at each other and both of us wordlessly agreed with the other, that this was something really amazing. He grabbed a camera and started filming then and there.



They're experimental, they're fascinating, they're original and they're an all girl four-piece to boot! Christina, the lead singer, is a sweet looking honey voiced, adorably dressed, curly haired 50's sweetheart with a style and passion that's as gritty as her aesthetic isn't. The band uses pre-recorded sounds as well as live, the latter of which includes a cello. I must admit, I have a soft spot for classical instruments used in modern music. They're playing at Christina's house in a couple of weeks, and you can bet we'll be there!







Then Gayle Gold played, who also played at Emo's when we filmed The Cari and Jason Band last week. They are still awesome and have a great energy and songs to warrant it. When your lead singer launches into cartwheels in the middle of the audience, you probably don't have to worry too much about putting on a great show.






Cari watching Gayle Gold

And finally, Cari took the stage as Fancy Feast. Most of her music was pre-recorded and came from her iPod. Now, don't you even try to raise that eyebrow; I haven't been rocked this hard since I can't even remember. For the first time since I started photographing shows, I put my camera on hold because I just had to dance! The energy in the room built incredibly fast and didn't break until the end of the show. Cari kept it going with a lot of dancing in the midst of the crowd.







Cari's sister Christa added some vocals to the mix

I could make this an endless entry about all that is brilliant about this woman. Alas, it is very late (bordering on alarmingly early) so I'll keep it brief. Her music is original and inspiring, full of youth and energy and experimentation. She embodies it when she performs, but what's really striking is how she brings a completely different energy to the stage depending on which of her projects she's perfoming with, while retaining her personality and artistic essence completely. I've never seen an artist quite this, nor with such an infectious energy and creative spirit. She's also extremely generous with her work, which she's put up on Bandcamp for everyone to partake -- just make sure to spread the word and share!

Did I also mention...


Girl sprained her ankle and still danced like a fiend. B a d a s s.

More frequent updating, I swear

I know, I know. I was at Sundance most of the week and we've started work on editing so even though we're all insanely busy, I figure lengthy accounts of our adventures with Final Cut may not be what you, the reader, is looking for at this moment in time.

Last night, however, we shot a Stormshadow show at Red 7. The Fresh Boy Crew were all there, who I finally met (since only the film crew has been going to shoot their meetings - we like to give the artists space to work and not crowd them more than neccesary). You should check out the links, they're intensely badass.

Speaking of badass, Cari from Belaire went in to our office to check out what we've filmed so far this week and was really impressed. She's doing a Fancy Feast show at Beauty Bar this coming Sunday night, which we'll be filming. This is very exciting. Why? Oh, I'll tell you.

Fancy Feast was Cari's solo project around 2005. She hasn't done a show in ages (as Fancy Feast, I mean), especially since the Belaire wheels started turning faster and faster. So this show is going to be pretty special. Personally, I didn't think I'd even get to see one while here in Austin, and it's perfectly timed since we're still in production! Should be good times indeed.

The Cari and Jason Band plays Emo's

Last night Business Deal had a record release show at Emo's, for the Band Lotto album. The idea was basically: 33 musicians were picked at random, put into one of 9 bands, assigned an instrument and a song subject at random. The album is a compilation of what they came up with. A few of the bands who contributed members to the project played the release show, including Gayle Gold and Pataphysics, who put on pretty crazy/awesome live shows.


The crew gets ready to shoot...

We were there to film the Cari and Jason Band, however, and needless to say, those two have a very unique stage presence. I watched the show with a friend who hadn't seen them play before, and she spent pretty much the entire show elated at how endearing they were and what a great sound they had. What was really interesting was hearing a couple of songs that Belaire also plays, but with only Cari and Jason playing them, the energy seemed to have been reshuffled a bit, certain sounds more prominent than others.







There's something very unique about indie music in Austin. It's palpable if you just listen to tracks, but seeing bands live brings it out all the more. There's a freedom, an unassuming sense of experimentation and pure youthful excitement about artistry. It's not just a bunch of kids with guitars and drums making sounds. They're musicians, people with a craft who know how to use it and push boundaries without fear of doing so.

Once again I can't help but be amazed at what's happening here. That this energy exists, not only despite most of those involved barely making a living at it, but that this energy that draws so many people here, so much money and involvement and attention -- how is it not getting its due? I'm glad we're making this film now. I think we're making it right, saying what needs to be said and appreciating what is in front of us.

Town of Machine

By Nathan

Note: This is a little late in coming but, being one of our best shoots, it's definitely worth a blog.

Construction, progress, noise.

photo by Kate Boswell

We're shooting the skeletal high-rise condos in our film as if they are characters themselves. Noisy, moving, rhythmic.

We shot the IDM duo Machine over the holiday break (Ha! Break!) as they walked through the construction sites of the soon-to-be lofts for Austin's well-monied. The workers slammed, hammered, and drilled and Machine recorded it. They looked like two musical bandits, aiming their shotgun mics directly at the sound (music).

Machine walked along railroad tracks. A train blew by. They got as close as they could to the clanging and screeching while Rob and I filmed it all, my voice rising above the noise: "Don't get too close to the tracks!" They were so focused.

Jonathan - the keyboardist, with his bleached white hair and Chase, down by the tracks in a placid crouch. When the train passed, they looked up at each other and smiled knowingly. Jonathan simply said, "We got it," and they walked down the tracks with their newly-collected booty.

Later that night, and in the nights that followed (including New Year's Eve), Machine got to work, standing before their analogue motherboard of keys, sequencers, Kaos pads, and turntables, turning the city sounds into percussive beats. With Chase living in Boston and Jonathan living in sometimes San Antonio, sometimes Austin, their meetings together are long and intense dump sessions of all the backlogged material they'd both been toying with in the previous year. Their song titles are hallucinatory dream-like portraits of parallel worlds:
'Order in the Clockroom'
'Andromedia'
'Town of Machine'
or
musical sketches of poetic moments:
'Sun Slipping
'Balloon at My Door'

photo by Kate Boswell

After a 2am lull, they launch into an industrial freakout number called 'Moonface,' morphing the hissing drone of the city into an undefinable cacophony. This is not exactly Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, but Machine's music is taking us into experimental realms we haven't yet explored. Beyond this, they are the youngest musicians to show up on-screen. Walking down Lamar, Chase marvels at how quickly the city is changing. Because they aren't ingrained in the "scene" (a term I'm usually loathe to use), there is a freedom about the way they operate. In the grander scope of the film, they represent the young artist taking a seemingly untenable change and turning it into something beautiful.

photo by Kate Boswell

After the New Year's countdown is over and cracked drunk voices croon 'Auld Lang Syne', Machine leads us into the next chapter. Jonathan sits against a wall and recounts a story of the first time he ever heard a drum machine mixed with organic instruments, many years back. The band he had heard was just getting on their feet themselves.

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," he says.

"What was the band?" I ask.

"The Octopus Project."

Focus Group @ Beauty Bar

Last night we filmed Focus Group playing at Beauty Bar, which was actually an EP release party for another band, but Focus Group was our main... well, focus.

These guys are incredibly nice, and were very open to us. Before the show we went outside, up 7th street a few buildings and shot an interview with them on the street. There was much talk - of course - of the experience of the Austin musician, and how it compares to playing music in other towns.



The show itself was amazing. They mix pre-recorded and live music, which is always interesting but they have a great sense for sounds and rhythms. They're tight as a band, and have some intensely danceable/moveable tracks.





The best track was one that, last night, was called Yugoslavia. Basically, while the others start playing, Donald goes out into the crowd and asks various people various questions. One person is asked to make their favorite animal noise, another their favorite Batman fight sound etc. The last question was a guy's favorite country, which he said was Yugoslavia (which, for the record, isn't actually called Yugoslavia anymore) - hence the song's title. Donald then went back to play guitar, and as the song progressed, Andrew mixed in the samples they had just recorded from the audience.



Audience interaction is always a plus at live shows, but it was really interesting to see how they incorporated it into the music. The song is different every time they play it live, and you have to enjoy it as you hear it because it's in the moment. So great.

Revenge of the Fish

Yesterday we did another shoot following Joe Lewis on his seafood delivery adventures. The energy was different this time and I think Nathan was pretty pleased with what we got. Not to mention, we had a cinesaddle at our disposal, so we got some really incredible shots. I promise I'll spice up this blog with some conflict soon, but I can't help it if things are going well. This is a great town, full of great artists being followed by a great film crew with a great idea. Did I mention things were great? Anyway. Here's a shot of Rob strapping the cinesaddle to the hood of Joe's delivery truck:



And Joe making a delivery, crew in tow:



In the evening we went by Dillingerilla studios to talk to Troy Dillinger about Save Austin Music. He and an old friend, John Driver, talked about all sorts of things from the way Austin was back in the 70's to the changes in focus of the industry in town today. John played around on the guitar and we just sat and listened to the two of them reminiscing and discussing the situation today, why Save Austin Music is important, why so many artists are living below the poverty line and how that could change.


Troy and John on the couch.


Troy's cat. Not too relevant, but very sweet.

From Nathan

While we haven't dropped a line in some time, we've been hard at work, hitting the asphalt day after day. This film is turning into much more than a performance film. It deals with the socio-economics of this city and the rampant development that is happening downtown (15+ high rises all going up at once) and how that's affecting the average working musician. To recap. Since May, we have been collecting a surplus of intimate footage of bands including White Denim, Belaire, Peter and the Wolf, {{{Sunset}}}, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, DJ Orion, folksinger Trey Brown, and others. I think they are the best Austin's got. We are running the spectrum of genres and bands, from my brother's IDM group Machine, who are very new to Austin, to the Grammy-nominated Latin artist Adrian Quesada and his supercharged ensemble Brownout! We have The Octopus Project and Gary Clark, Jr. slate for January and February.

As I said, this is not simply a concert performance film. It is just as much about the feverish changes Austin is currently undergoing as it is about the bands. The theme at the center of the film concerns the nature of culture itself. Austin owns the moniker "The Live Music Capital of the World." With new noise ordinances, re-zoning laws imposed on the downtown arts area, and late-night performance curfews, many managers, club owners, and musicians are coming out of the woodwork in support of the recently-created Live Music Task Force, which has hosted more than a dozen highly contentious meetings at City Hall. A great deal is at stake. In filming the creative processes and struggles of each musician, we will be illuminating the value of an independent culture amidst an encroaching corporate world

With the ardent help of our excellent assistant editor, Nate Ferrone, we've been scouring the footage of the Live Music Task Force City Hall meetings, which have taken place for nearly a year now. With each meeting, more angry citizens collect to complain about the "noise" keeping them awake at night. It really reaches a Theater of the Absurd level at points, with one man (bulging vein and all) likening Austin musicians to terrorists coming through his walls at night, terrorizing him. "Even with all my doors and windows shut and a towel wrapped around my head, I hear the music coming through my walls!" While I can't help but laugh at the madness (DON'T LIVE DOWNTOWN IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SOUND OF MUSIC INTO THE NIGHT!), we are going to give these people their piece. Not only does it dramatically charge the story, but it allows everyone to have a voice. I told Robert (DP) and David (sound) that we need to seek out this guy and spend a Friday night with him. I said it will probably be one of the most uncomfortable nights of our lives, but that we need it for our film.


Suffice it to say, there are still threads we do not have, but we are working overtime to find them. We stop shooting at the end of February, and the film will hopefully be complete around mid-May. Stay tuned...

"Living will take you on different courses than the ones you expect to be set on"

So in the past two weeks while we were technically on a break, Nathan, Rob and Dave filmed a Brownout show, a bunch of amazing stuff with Machine - including the guys going out and recording noise like trains etc. and then making music out of it - and we're about to rock January's socks off.

Meanwhile, I've been researching all this construction going on in Austin. We're going to try to shoot from atop one of these impending condo structures, and we're set to interview Perry Lorenz, a big man in the world of Austin construction. We're also prepping for a few BIG days of filming, but I won't say more on that just yet...

Tomorrow night the guys are filming a White White Lights show. You need to click on that link and listen to this band. Trust me. If you're in Austin, the show is at Emo's after 8pm and the show is free.

We're also going to do another follow-along shoot with Black Joe Lewis as he delivers fish and other aquatically derived goods, and are going to be attending the Save Austin Music meetings that are dotting the next few weeks. We've got an interview with Troy Dillinger at some point, who's been doing a great deal of work with Save Austin Music and spoke at the rally/march to City Hall from Antone's. And of course, Belaire is starting work on the new album, so that should be pretty amazing too.

Nathan's about to update too, and we should have some production stills from the past few weeks coming in tomorrow so you'll get to check those out too. I know, I know. I'm excited too.