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SXSW '08: Stubb's BBQ Nirvana

Posted 3/13/08 2:18 pm EST by in SXSW


bbq2.jpgAfter messing around with the rest, I went to the best in my never-ending quest to only eat BBQ at SXSW (wow, that's a lot of rhyming): Stubb's, Austin's most awesome 'que shack/ rock venue.

And quite simply, Stubb's is the sh--. This here is a "Minor" combo, with beef brisket, pork ribs, a big slice of white bread, spinach and sweet potatoes. Oh, and a huge glass of sweet tea too (a must — Stubb's gets bonus points for serving it in one of those red plastic cups). The dry-rubbed ribs fell off the bone, the brisket was delicious, and the sauce (add as much as you like) was earthy and tangy. Four million thumbs up.

To put it in more musical terms, Stubb's is sort of like the Radiohead of BBQ shacks: Everyone tells you how good it is, but you never really believe them until you experience it for yourself. And then you totally get it (or something like that).

If all BBQ down here is this good, then getting gout is gonna be a totally enjoyable experience.

When not gorging himself on barbecue, James is seeing bands, bands and more bands. Check out his show reviews at You R Here.

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SXSW ’08: The Ubiquitous ‘Listing Of The Gift Bag Contents In A Blog Post’ Post

Posted 3/12/08 7:50 pm EST by in SXSW


Every year, after getting your SXSW badge (an undertaking of Herculean proportions which you can witness John Norris undertake in this clip) you are rewarded with a large canvas tote bag stuffed with a bunch of promotional crap that you’ll inevitably end up leaving in a gutter on Sixth Street after one too many Shiner Bocks.

Ladies and gentlemen, your SXSW gift bag!

And in keeping with tradition, festival organizers have an established artist design the bag (in previous years, David Byrne and the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne had the honor), and this year it’s Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore who gets the call. His contribution? A bunch of stick figures cavorting underneath a smiley faced sun! Thanks for spending three minutes on it, Thurst.

Moving on to the contents of said bag … Rather than go through each item individually (something that would take from now until Sunday evening), here are some of the, uh, “highlights”:

- Twenty-seven promotional fliers of differing sizes and textures, pimping everything from the Blue Man Group and “pioneers of garage glitter” Star Mother to the Utne Reader and Mpress Records’ showcase, home to such luminaries as the Kin and Amy Speace & the Tearjerkers. Remember, thousands of trees died for this.

Read More...

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SXSW '08: Hello, Texas -- Now I'm Going To Overdose on BBQ

Posted 3/12/08 12:06 pm EST by in SXSW


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Texas is awesome for many reasons -- delicious bar-b-que served in massive portions being most of them. So every year, when I head down to the state capital of Austin for South by Southwest, I vow to eat only BBQ. This is easier said than done, primarily because everyone wusses out on me by like Thursday, so I end up compromising my dream and eating at some lousy Tex-Mex joint while staring longingly out the window.

But this year, there will be no compromise. So even when I'm actually compromising -- I wanted to kick off my BBQuest on Tuesday night at Stubb's, Austin's landmark smokehouse and rock venue, but no one else in the MTV News posse wanted to go (the lines were too long), so that idea got shot down -- I'm not gonna actually compromise. Which means that even when we end up at a lame sports bar (like we did tonight), I'm still ordering something BBQ-related.

So this is a Champions BBQ brisket sandwich, topped with red onions and served on Texas toast. As you can tell by the paper it was served in, Champions' motto is "Good Food, Good Times, Good Sports," though they should probably also add "Bad BBQ" to that tag, because this sandwich was disgusting. It had the texture of dog food, and it kind of tasted like it too -- but like dog food slathered in BBQ sauce.

Also, as you can see, the sandwich came with french fries and a pickle, both of which, strangely, were more "authentic Texas BBQ" than the brisket was. And that's saying something.

There's more from me at SXSW in my Bigger Than The Sound column, plus check back with the Newsroom blog throughout SXSW for more highlights, and be sure to visit our sister blog You R Here for concert reviews, photos and more.

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Paramore Get Together For A Video; Super-Secret Footage Revealed

Posted 3/11/08 10:27 am EST by in Exclusives


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You know all those rumors about Paramore calling it quits? (You don't? Why, here's a quick primer.) Well, it turns out they're not true. NOT TRUE!

How do we know? Because we have in our possession super-secret footage taken from the set of the band's new video, for the song "That's What You Get." It's a little grainy, because -- in keeping with all super-secret footage -- it was shot from behind a stack of crates in a warehouse down by the docks,* but it clearly shows all four members of Paramore rocking out under the tutelage of director Marcos Siega (Blink-182's "All The Small Things," Weezer's "Beverly Hills,") and looking pretty happy doing it.

And if you don't believe us, here … check it out for yourselves.

Okay, okay, it bears mentioning here that late last month, Paramore's labels, Atlantic/Fueled By Ramen, initially invited MTV News to head down to Nashville (where the clip was shot) and talk to the band on the set, but that offer was quickly rescinded when all the breakup rumors started swirling...so all might not be as rosy as it appears in the above clip. But fear not, we're scheduled to interview Paramore later this week at SXSW, so we'll have all the news, straight from the band themselves (or frontwoman Hayley Williams, since she's the only one who speaks). Stay tuned.

*Note: This may not actually be true.

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Gym Class Heroes Channel Cheese Rock Anthems On New Tune

Posted 3/7/08 11:40 am EST by in For The Record


In The Air Tonight

Gym Class Heroes' new album will be called The Quilt, according to frontman Travis McCoy. He made the announcement via a post on his blog, which included a snippet of a song called "Don't Tell Me It's Over." The tune, now the second we know of on Quilt (McCoy mentioned another one, "Drunk Text Romeo," when MTV News spoke to him in January), seems to lend creedence to McCoy's claim that the record is "all over the place" (Get it? Quilt? All over the place? That McCoy's got METAPHORS!). "Don't Tell Me It's Over" is sorta in the vein of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." And it also sounds a lot like Van Halen's "Right Now." Seriously.

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Rachael Ray Defends Indie Rock Cred

Posted 3/5/08 10:57 am EST by in MTV News


Indie Rock Rachael

Usually, at 7:45 am, I am sitting in my underwear, slugging a cup of coffee and watching Pat Kiernan do "In The Papers" on NY1 (a pleasure you non-NYers must experience once in your life). But this morning was different … not because I wasn't sitting around in my skivvies, but because I was hanging out with Rachael Ray while doing so.

For those not in the know, Ray is the toothsome celebrity chef famous for bellowing out phrases like "Yum-o!" and shortening the phrase "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" to simply "E.V.O.O." She is also apparently a fan of bands like the Raveonettes and Holy F***, as evidenced by the party she just announced down at South By Southwest this year, which will be heavy on both indie talent (the bands mentioned above, plus acts like the Stills and her husband's band, the Cringe) and delicious homemade treats (she's throwing together Mac 'N Cheese suizas, seven-layer burgers and a bunch of other epicurean stuff). And while she wasn't actually hanging out with me on the sofa, she was calling me on my cell phone, to discuss her love of indie and her hatred of all things blog.

"I'm not aware about what blogs were saying about me," Ray told me on Tuesday morning. "To be honest, I have five dogs, so I'm aware of what I have to do for them when we get up in the morning. But I don't see why we'd be out of place down there, when we're just fans of music who decided to put on a show. I guess if they don't like good music, and they don't like good food, they don't have to go."

Oh snap! To be fair, Ray seems to think that the Foo Fighters are an indie band, but, hey, we're not gonna nitpick. Big ups to her ponying up the cash to host a SXSW party (March 15 at the Beauty Bar, for anyone going), and for taking the time to spend her morning with me. It was a magical time, indeed. Full story is here.

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