On this weekend’s agenda is making a preliminary list of acts I want to see at SxSW next month. Surprisingly, there’s not really that many acts that have me willing to camp out to guarantee admission. I mean, the lineup is fantastic, but most of the bands that I’m interested in, I’ve already seen live before or will no doubt see in the next year or so when they do proper tours. With only a cursory look at the list and without doing some research to identify the bands I’ve never heard of but might be interesting, I’m most excited to see Trespassers William on the list.

I’ve gone on before about how much I love their last album Different Stars, with its perfect mix of sad songs, shoegazey atmospherics and country twang, but have been disappointed in the fact that they haven’t done any sort of North American touring of consequence in the last while, concentrating instead on Europe and their former home base of California (they’ve recently relocated to Seattle). I was hoping that they’d rectify the touring situation this year after the release of their third album on Nettwerk this Spring, but if I can see them at Sx (as the locals say), then even better.

Till now, Trespassers William has been best known for their lovely cover of Ride’s “Vapour Trail”, but recently the band has been getting some well-deserved exposure through appearances on the soundtracks for A Love Song for Bobby Long (movie) and One Tree Hill (TV show), and singer Anna-Lynne Williams provides vocals on one of the tracks on the new Chemical Brothers album.

After signing to Nettwerk last Fall, the band re-released Different Stars for the third time since 2002, though this time with a few different and bonus tracks. I don’t have a copy yet, but you can grab one of the best tracks on all three versions off their website:

MP3: Trespassers William – “Lie In The Sound”

And there’s also a number of archived radio sessions with the band for your streaming enjoyment – KEXP, KCRW and XFM, for example. You can also hear samples of both Different Stars and their first record, Anchor, though I think the debut is now officially out of print.

Went out last night to one of those indie music DJ nights that have gotten so ubiquitous around town these days. This one was Miasma at SpaHa, which boasts a more shoegaze-centric playlist, but isn’t strictly drone and delay. Despite the absurd drink prices I had a good time – they even played my request for some Radio Dept. YAY. I’d forgotten how nice it is to just sit around and listen to music. Miasma takes place on the first Friday of every month and I could see it becoming a habit for me. Getting out of the house is a good thing, especially after a whiffle bat-assault of a week like this one.

np – The House Of Love / 1986:88: The Creation Recordings

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