Suicide Squeeze 2009 SXSW Poster Art

Jesse LeDoux has created lasting, classic images for SSR... His illustrations have been emblematic of the label for as long as I can remember - like his distorted city-scape on Elliott Smith's posthumous single, "Pretty, Ugly Before," or album covers for Six Parts Seven's "Everywhere, And Right Here" and The Coathanger's new "Scramble." Each illuminates pointed connections with graphic detail, helping to reveal the personality of the musicians and the scope of their music.

This year's SXSW poster - shown above - is LeDoux's most recent contribution to a loose series started back in 2003. Because I am, at heart, a total archivist, I thought it would be cool to have them all in one place...

Take a quick glance at the bands that played these shows - the whole 'where are they now' thing is in full effect...

-Modest Mouse is still Modest Mouse; they're just less modest now that their scope has broadened to include Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Joe Plummer (The Magic Magicians)...
-Hella has basically split into two projects: Spencer Siem with sBACH, and solo Zach Hill...
-Crystal Skulls have vanished back into myth, while Christian Wargo tours the world with Fleet Foxes...
-Dave granted longevity Pedro the Lion, then slayed the beast in favor of performing as Headphones, or under his own name, Bazan...

But let's get real. It's 2009, and this year's SXSW line-up is the strongest, start to finish, that we've had since 2003. Zero filler. Party early with The Coathangers and Champagne Champagne... [Drink some beer]. Get all misty and swoon during Human Highway and Cotton Jones... [Have another beer]. Feel the hair raise along the nap of your neck when Past Lives take the stage... [Don't forget to drink water]. Then let it all out for These Arms Are Snakes...

[Al]

sBACH: 1000x Better Than Don Cab!

sBACH is everywhere these days. Perpetually on tour, recording music, and stacking hats on top of hats on top of heads...Spencer Siem’s music and art is inclusive in a way that most never could be – each show or recording a personal invitation to his multi-colored world. We even found the band's secret snow-dog page, with pics of 'em blasting wicked-air over a snowbank!

For their first tour of 2009, sBACH will once again claim the West Coast, playing main-support to Don Caballero. The thought that any band might willingly subject themselves to an entire tour opening for Don Cab would've been construed as a kind of musical suicide, such was the heyday power of the Don. But that was ten-years ago, or more, after various line-up changes brought much Storm & Stress - and constant Battles - to legendary drummer, Damon Che.

What more is there to say? Things have changed. There's little doubt that Siem's own legendary band, Hella, took it to the next-gen-level with their onslaught of technical acumen. sBACH borrows on some of that sound, channeling Hella-like moments of jaw-dropping intensity into furious melodic form. 'WTF' moments abound in a dark venue, where the band often explodes like an atom bomb in a tin can...

More proof of their power exists at Daytrotter, where Siem's band stopped to tear apart the studio. These full-band versions of songs - taken from his SSR debut - were recorded last autumn, in the midst of a two-month-plus US tour...and it sounds 'toured', and tough, perhaps like Bitch Magnet would have sounded, pounding through the feedback to drive their songs. Four tracks are available for free download...