GW Hatchet Blogs - blogs.gwhatchet.com

Annihilation Time
A Thousand Knives of Fire
Awesome Cool Dudes
Best Fwends
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Care Bears on Fire
Death Sentence: Panda!
Die! Die! Die!
DJ Pube$
El Jesus de Magico
The Sleepover Disaster
Steve E Nix & the Cute Lepers
Tragedy, A Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees
Army of Freshmen
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
The Homosexuals
43 Songs about 43 Presidencies
Free the Robots
Hello Seahorse!
Mostly Bears
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man
17 Hippies
$hit and $hine
Sissy Wish
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
What Laura Says Thinks and Feels

These are the crazy kids we were telling you about. Meet the Skybombers from Melbourne, Australia. They’re in the middle of their big US tour right now. The best thing they love about America thus far? PBR. That’s right. Pabst Blue Ribbon. Check out their showcase footage below.

Click To Play

Watch my interview and SXSW showcase footage with Bay Area hip-hop artist Lyrics Born, and look out for the accompanying print coverage coming to The Scene in our special SXSW issue on March 27.

Check out our interview the Jukebox kids, live from the D.C. showcase at the Cream Vintage store in Austin, TX. Also at the showcase: Georgie James, Le Loup, These United States, Pash, Middle Distance Runner, Exit Clov, Carol Bui, Samantha Murphy.

Click To Play

Watch our exclusive video and interview clip with the Raleigh, NC folk-trio Bowerbirds – Live from SXSW

After arriving downtown and picking up our press materials, we were pretty hungry so we decided to get some good Texas BBQ at the world famous Stubbs, where REM was set to play later in the evening.

Since SXSW attracts a lot of international acts, we went to go see a band called Slaraffenland from Copenhagen, Denmark. With matching t-shirts, looping guitars, a trombone, clarinet, and melodica, this band was quite interesting, to say the least.

Next, we caught the end of Peter and the Wolf’s set inside the Central Presbyterian Church, in the heart of downtown Austin. They were opening up for the Raleigh, NC folk-trio Bowerbirds (video to come shortly!)

Stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of these and other bands as we work our way through more of SXSW 2008

Join Brendan Polmer and Ben Doak as we write, photograph, video and heavily drink their way through South by Southwest 2008 in Austin, TX.

Every year thousands of musicians and music lovers descend upon Austin to set the roots for the music scene. Everything from rock, indie, hip-hop, electronic, bluegrass and everything in between is represented at this festival.

Rather than going the hotel route for our accommodations this year, we decided to hit up Craig and his List here in Austin for a house rental. We were pleasantly surprised at what we found– a large two-story bungalow in the back with a full house in the front, where an Australian rock band (Skybombers from Melbourne) are staying. Stories will surely follow…so keep an eye out.

-Brendan & Ben

In today’s issue, The Scene and Colonialist.com bury the Hatchet (metaphorically, that is.) They love us now, and we love them. But only in the way an abusive father loves his kids.

Also, we review Will Ferrell’s latest movie, “Semi-Pro”, Contributing editor Amanda Pacitti gives us the scoop on live music in the District this month, the Bar Belle stays on campus and tries to drink at Tonic, and a strange radio frequency takes over the town and turns everyone into crazy psychopathic killers.

Movie previews after the jump!

Just over the wire: Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV available for free download from NIN.com

Ghosts I-IV was released 6:00 p.m. PST March 2, 2008 via NIN.com: a four volume collection of 36 untitled instrumental tracks, nearly two hours of music, recorded over a 10-week period last fall.

Ghosts I-IV was conceived as an experiment: Following the conclusion of 2007’s Year Zero album, alternate reality game and touring campaign, Trent Reznor enlisted Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder with help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione to create spontaneous, impulsive soundtracks to daydreams with no agenda or release date, only a self-imposed 10-week time limit. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

The end result is a wildly varied body of work released in its entirety with no label-imposed limitations–musical, physical or otherwise.

FREE DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I - The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as DRM-free MP3s (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged) including complete 40 page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack - various wallpapers, icons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

In addition to the free download, there are also $5 downloads that include more listening formats, album art, wallpapers, icons, etc. There’s also a $10 double CD, a $75 limited edition deluxe package, a $300 ultra-deluxe-limited-edition package, and a $39 4 disc vinyl edition available in April.

In today’s issue of The Scene, The Hatchet’s multimedia editor Sam Salkin goes back to his music-writing roots and interviews Al Schneir, one of two guitarists for upstate New York jamband moe. Also, Hatchet reporter Brian Austin interviews Jesse Elliott of the D.C. band These United States. Be sure to check out junior Jennifer Tchinnosian’s blog post from the Berlinale, Berlin’s annual film festival. Click ‘more’ below for video and music relating to this week’s issue!