Six-Word Summaries of SXSW
Jamie Kohns on March 21st, 2008
This is just cool- the kind of thing that, when sent to you first thing on what could be an ugly Friday, makes the rest of the day look better. Paul Ford writes for TheMorningNews.org, and recently covered SXSW for the blog from his desk in New York by listening to all 763 tracks in the 2008 SXSW torrent, and writing a review of each track- using just six words each!
Sometimes, his review was right in line with my thoughts. Like his description of Brooke Waggoner’s Hush If You Must: “Big piano pop sound, with strings.” Sometimes, I thought he was way off, like his review of the Hush Sound’s Wine Red: “Commercial directors, we await your call.” I freakin’ loved that song. In at least one case, his review could have been taken litterally. Of Nouvellas’ track Satisfied, he wrote: “Crunchier guitar and this’d be great.”. Listen to the difference between the SXSW track and the version on the Nouvellas’ myspace- it’s as if they read the review and remixed the track.
Read all of the six-word reviews on themorningnews.org.
Some of my favorite diatribes:
That guy singing backup? Kill him. (Castanets, This Is The Early Game)
Song mauled to death by violins. (Devon Williams, A Truce)
Yes, please. Never, ever stop dying. (Die! Die! Die!, Sideways Here We Come)
This is bullshit, five minutes long. (Guinea Worms, Box of Records)
Like a dog fucking a blender. (Kevin Shields, Muscle Hair)
Reverb is the sixth band member. (Secret Shine, Lost Memory)
