5 Acts You Need To Take Notice Of At SXSW: Day 4

1. G BABY

For a twenty year-old genre, New Orleans bounce's bare-ass beats make it feel like the freshest sounding electronic music around. Slowly but surely it has been making headway around the globe, especially thanks to the visibility SxSW has afforded it in recent years (and the fact that it was highlighted in cult HBO show Treme). G Baby is one of the up-and-comers, breaking out on the coat-tails of scene leaders Big Freedia, Vockah Redu and Katey Red. Baby's father was bounce pioneer Warren Mayes, so bounce is in her blood - so when she calls, we respond. Baby's high energy set was part of entire night of bounce on the rooftop of the Avenue On Congress hotel, where onlookers were made feel inept in the face of various bounce teams throwing down battle moves (who knew self-fellatio was a dance move?). 

#Bounce (This is not a member of theMusic staff)

2. TEMPLES

It was obvious UK Brit psypoppers Temples were a hot item before even landing at SxSW. But how hot wasn't quite clear until you saw them play a standing-room-only day gig in the Austin Convention Center. The stage is flocked by photographers as soon as the step onto the stage - and why not, they do have the most photogenic hair at SxSW this year. [Note: if the drummer's neat crop seemed oddly out of place that's because he was a stand-in after regular Temples beat-keep had visa issues.]

3. PINS

All-female outfit from Manchester I first spotted attending the previous night's September Girls gig. While some of their songs still lack shape, when they lock into their post-punk power pop groove, they connect in a way some of their peers have not been able to this week (sorry, Dum Dum Girls).

4. ELECTRIC EYE

Having gone to see the much-hyped Highasakite, it was a bit of surprise to find this collection of lumberjack-looking lads on stage instead. But Electric Eye had jumped in to replace their fellow Norwegians who had to cancel due to illness (a lot of bands suffer after the four days of solid gigging - usually around this time a lot of voices are going). It was a glorious set of drone psych and their dry humour was welcome as well, “You may have noticed we are not Highasakite… we aren't even drunk.”

Sober?

5. LUCKY JOHNSON

Okay, so technically Johnson was not performing. Instead this actor was hosting the above-mentioned New Orleans bounce night. This event, was hands-down (ass-up) the best event of SxSW 2014. The spirit of bounce is about inclusiveness (can you think of any other musical genre being led by trans people, gays and women?) and Johnson is on the mic to give us all a history of bounce. And fuck, he was in True Detective (and Treme).

Andrew Mast was flown to SxSW as a guest of Warner.