South By Southwest (SXSW), or “South By” to many, is a 2 week-long festival encompassing technology, film and music that takes place in Austin, TX. After last year’s record numbers,
Recorded in London, New York City, Echo Park, CA and Tornillo, Texas with such high profile producers as Dave Sitek, the DFA's James Murphy, legendary UK post-punk/new wave producer Nick Launay and longtime Yeahs associate Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean), Mosquito is the Like A Prayer to Fever to Tell's Like A Virgin, right up to the rousing gospel choir that roars at the coda of the explosive opening track "Sacrilege".
We’ve rounded up stories about Rush, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more for this week’s column.
Compiling a best of list is a daunting task as it’s difficult to even remember everything released in 2006. The Arctic Monkeys had an album this year? We’ve already forgotten about them. Longevity is the key to a good song or still liking a song after the hundredth listen. 2007 already looks bright with anticipated releases from the Shins, Bloc Party, and LCD Soundsystem in the first quarter alone. The following list encapsulates the songs that kept us rocking throughout another arduous year.
It is amazing that a band playing together since 1981 can still manage to play with such grace and fire, fresh songs alongside classics, with everything working out so seamlessly. Hopefully the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can reach that point someday. But if they needed any guidance, all they had to do was open their ears to one of the best bands of the last quarter century playing beside them.
Photos by Andy Tennille of Coachella 2006 at Indio, California the weekend of April 29 & 30. To hear more of Andy’s work, be sure to check out his podcast Smell The Glove, featuring this month’s exclusive interview with Les Claypool.