SXSW 2010: Even More Of The Best Of Everything So Far

On day #2 of SXSW, the rocking re-commenced, Paste returned for a day party at The Galaxy Room and I saw a whole lot of things all around town that made me really happy. Now exhaustion has returned for the night, and with it, hyperbolic superlatives! 

Best Addition of Horns: Damion Suomi.
The general consensus among folks on the Paste staff who had heard this Florida singer/songwriter's album but hadn't seen him live before he opened the second of our day parties this morning is that his live act is refreshingly un-strummy. There's all the trappings of your run-of-the-mill guy-with-guitar-and-band, but also a great trumpet, high energy and a whole lot of stomping. Most of us liked him already but we were pleasantly surprised by just how much we liked him after the show.

Best Free Hummus: New West Showcase at the Belmont.
Not sure why this stuff was served alongside quesadillas but it was apparently exactly what I wanted for lunch. Paste's Web Editor Austin Ray and I found ourselves eating these ethnically confused snacks while waiting for Kris Kristofferson to play, but instead we got Lilly Hiatt & The Dropped Ponies, who were nice but not quite the country legend we'd trekked across downtown for. Big ups for her having a lady-bassist and a lady-drummer, though; they could have rocked a little harder but it was good to see. (Later we found out Kristofferson never showed, and later we also found out that Lilly is the daughter of John Hiatt, who performed at the Belmont later in the afternoon.)

Best On-Stage Reference to Neon Indian: Black Prairie's Chris Funk.
Chillwave jokes are best when made by someone holding a dobro.

Best New Australian Band to Unexpectedly Pack Out the Galaxy Room: The Middle East.
This is the band's first trip to the U.S. and if the sheer number of people that showed up to see them this afternoon is any indication, it will most certainly not be their last. Here's hoping their giant, beer bottle-cap covered percussion stick will always make it through security.

Best Non-Musical Use of a Microphone: Correction of vision correction.
Playing at the Cedar Street Courtyard, bespectacled Let's Wrestle frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzalez kept pressing his face against his microphone to nudge his glasses back up his sweaty nose. It kind of fit the band's sloppy schoolkid brand of punk rock, though—and it's better than the nerdy one-finger push, for sure.

Best Song About Beating a Bad Mood With Thrift-Store Shopping Performed in a Church: Sally Seltmann's "Sentimental Seeker."
I marked one more thing off my to-do list at this year's SXSW by trucking up to Central Presbyterian church for the Arts & Crafts showcase, and I couldn't have made a better choice for the night. The church is just as elegant and sounds just as good as I've heard, and it would have been enough of a relief to just sit in a quiet, urn-smoky room and listen to anyone play, but Seltmann was just ridiculously charming. She sings happy-sounding songs about trying not to be sad, about picking out men from a police line-up, missing her husband on tour and fantasizing about writing novels. In "Sentimental Seeker" she sings about having a bad day and going out looking for the perfect second-hand catch, and that sounds so cheesy, but it's done in this tremendously nostalgic, Burt Bacharach-loving kind of way; she sounds exactly like the kind of person I'd want to spend a Saturday morning sifting through cases of junky old weird things with. Barring that, I'm happy to just sit in a beautiful church chapel and listen to her play. (And I'll be happy to return tomorrow night for the ridiculous marathon of Band of Horses, Holly Miranda, jj and The xx. Gonna plant my ass on a pew and say a little prayer of thanks for Austin, Tex.'s very cool Presbyterians. Now, if only they sold beer.)