shifting fortunes & sxsw

Friday March 19 2004

we are finally at sxsw and it has been a crazy ride since i last had a chance to write. after the grand canyon it was a whole lot of driving over flat country until we got to dallas. the cheap motels that we rooted out along the way bought no shortage of stress and adventure… broken toilet flushers, scary people getting upset that we didn’t buy them beer when we went to get food so going and buying them a 12 pack jsut to keep the peace… etc. but we live to tell the tale, and that seems the main thing at the moment. and then we hit dallas with empty pockets and fairly low spirits. lunch was 3 day old bread and a split can of tuna in the car park of good records where we played our first show. it was great to finally play and people seemed to like it. and we also finally got to meet some people and were looked after fantasically well by a kind local - michelle - who bought us our first proper hot meal in the USA and also took us out to see the decemberists in denton. they were awsome and it was good to meet them all as we are label mates back home. and now we are in austin and doing our best to settle into sxsw. we knew it was going to be mad, but we are pretty overwhelmed by the amount of bands and people here. it is just totally massive. we hung out at the merge records showcase last night which was good. great to see richard buckner again. we have an instore today at 33 degrees, and will then be trying to decide between the 1000’s of possibilities of things to see and do. hopefully some folk come along to see us play, but without a blimp advertising our shows or something it’s kinda hard to know how to compete. should be a fun few days anyway. we are staying with some people who put up bands every year and they are really cool. actually everyone we’ve met (through music stuff… not through dodgey motels) from the USA has been really nice and down to earth, which is really great considering what we were bracing ourselves for given the impression we get from TV and tourists back home. anyway, gotta run and get to this instore, and get a taco! cheers, PC