A sign of the times in medialand, the Current (89.3 FM) scaled back its SXSW team this year from about 15 staffers to two and is only doing one band broadcast tonight at 8 pm.; The Decemberists‘ show at Stubb’s last night, which it’s picking up from NPR (National Public Radio). Meanwhile, NPR scaled back to only one day of broadcasts, which was today live from a poorly air-conditioned Parish.

The last two bands of the set were two bands I recently missed in Minneapolis — only one of which I now regret. That would be Blitzen Trapper, the quirky but ambitious and waaay-hippie Portland sextet that melds everything from Zappa and Bowie to CSNY and even America. That mix came off more impressive on stage than it does on record, especially the big 3- and 4-part harmonies — which is something a lot of current buzz bands are trying.

The Dirty Projectors, who went on before BT, should try again. Their harmonies were just plain off-putting. So were the New York band’s jaggedy, driving, vaguely African, Eno-esque/Talking Heads rhythms, also something a lot of new bands are jumping into these days — and many of them are doing that better, too.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Main, SXSW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.