As a San Francisco resident, there is no excuse for not having seen 60-Watt Kid before our chance encounter at SXSW. They’re from San Francisco and therefore I should have acoustically met them at least 5 times previously, right? When I arrived in Austin, TX recently, this wasn’t the case. Their self-titled album was always a pleasant surprise when it popped up in my iTunes library, yet I never went out of my way to pay attention. I hadn’t ventured into live enjoyment terrain. Big mistake! During the aptly named Bay Area Takeover Party, 60-Watt Kid took the stage. From the time they walked into the room, it was completely unlike any other show I’ve seen recently and almost the most bizarre. (Goat the Head trumps in weirdness. “Contemporary primal caveman death metal,” I’ll say no more.)

As a three piece of sparse drums, keyboard, sometimes guitar, knobby things and always a telephone receiver, 60-Watt Kid play spazzy, chaotic, loud weirdo music. While watching them, there’s the distinct feeling you aren’t watching a band. It’s also not surprising that when you make eye contact with another audience member they would send you a very skeptical look. Because if it had been done badly, it would be insufferable. But they do it to near perfection and you’re left in awe, almost unable to process what you’re hearing.

The most striking effect they used throughout the whole show was a really strong echo really strong echo. Just like that just like that. It’s disturbing in just the right way, knocking your perceived sense of timing with the lead vocalist’s actual action completely off balance. The brain says that someone is talking into the microphone when in fact, no one is. The echo did not dimish until the 3rd time it is repeated. It’s strangely more effective than someone actually repeating the same line themselves.

The band also used chaos to their advantage. While it never felt particularly musical or traditional in terms of song structure, each track was melodious. There seemed to be a line or phrase in each that somehow strung the noise, beeps, blips and buzzes together into a cohesive tune. Each band member was rapt to their particular instruments and seemed to feed kinetically from each other without ever having to look at what anyone else was doing. There were no cheeky mid-song guitar nods and you’d be pressed to have found any sign that they knew anyone else was performing on stage at the same time. Towards the end, the lead vocalist had frenzied himself right into the audience. Both noisy and ambient, it was glorious.

60-Watt Kid is Kevin Litrow on guitars, analog synth, vocals, harmonica, samples. Derek Thomas plays guitars, analog synth, samples and electronic soundscaping devices. Garrett Pierce strikes on the tom drum, percussion and xylophone. Next time you see their name on a local bill, buy tickets and GO TO THE SHOW.

Two MP3s via Promonet for your enjoyment/analysis:
Every Day
Ocsicnarf Nas
More info on this album (where you can buy it, etc)

For more reading on 60-Watt Kid, I’d recommend:

An interview on The Bay Bridged, a local music podcast:

In an age where experimental pastiche and damaged art-pop are increasingly familiar, this band has a unique ability to blend and balance their different elements, likely due in equal parts to their conscious refusal to develop a singular sound as well as the three members’ seasoned musicianship.

A overly dramatic album review on Pitchfork:

This San Francisco trio sounds like two split personalities fighting for control over the same vessel, like the Being John Malkovich of indie.

And the band’s actual MySpace blog:

SXSW dump truck

::Disclosure, I heard about 60-Watt Kid and their label, Absolutely Kosher, from working at IODA, who distributes their releases::

Photo by Juliette Melton

Attacked by Jackets caught up with Ice Cube after his SXSW panel with DJ Pooh and got a few of his thoughts on music and technology.

Atacked by Jackets (Mark Trammell):

I saw this technology scholarship you’re working on with the music college up in St. Paul. Tell me a little about it.

Ice Cube:

Yeah, McNally Smith. It’s a school for people that’s doing contemporary music. It’s not really just stuck on classical or any of the older forms of music. They’ll teach you how to make a rap record, teach you how to work a 24 or 48-track SSL. It’s real stuff that kids is doin’ right now.

AxJ:

How did you get involved?

Cube:

The lady that runs it is good friends with my assistant. She was telling us about the school and asked me if I was interested in starting a scholarship in my name, so I started looking more into it and I was like “This is some cool shit!” I wish something like that was in California. So, it was cool that they named a scholarship after me. They award it to a kid every year and pay for their school.

AxJ:

So the music technology scholarship, plus the streaming concerts on your site, you’re using technology quite a bit. How early in your career did you start using technology to get your message out?

Cube:

I was writing raps on the laptop at one point in my career, you know, earlier in my career. I think it’s always kinda been there. You know, when we started making music, they had one drum machine. It was an Oberheim DMX and that was it. Once all these different samplers came out, you know, that kinda turned us, somewhat, into techies. We had to go get the new drum machine to help us make better music. So, it just started expanding our minds on technology and what we had to do to make it work.

And then Pro Tools came out. Pro Tools which basically takes tape out of the equation. You download all your music to a hard drive and then cut it up from there and then spit it out which took us from the tape generation when we were sitting around rewinding fucking tape all day. So, you know, these things kinda pushed us along — being interested in technology and what does it hold. Napster and downloads — you had to educate yourself. How was this going to change your life? How was this going to change your business? How is this going to change your image and how are you going to keep up?

So, you start digging deeper and deeper until we wanted to invent something like UVNTV.com, we wanted to invent something that could take us to the next level instead of us being drug by technology. We wanted to jump out in front of the technology.

AxJ:

So, UVNTV is helping you reach a broader audience I would think. Right?

Cube:

Yeah. Definitely.

AxJ:

Does it also let you hear more from your audience?

Cube:

Well, not really with UVNTV.com, but with inventions like MySpace and things like that, it gives you that one-on-one that a fan club can’t really get you which is a quick way to talk with your fans and let them get in contact with you. It’s a quick way to interact. My website is more of a platform for people with original content. Something more than ten minutes long or whatever YouTube lets you do. You got 30 minutes, two hours, two days. If you’ve got content, we’ve got a place for you to deliver that to your audience, so that’s what we’re excited about.

AxJ:

You have all these ways you’re interacting with your fans. How do you use technology to keep up with your family when you’re on the road?

Cube:

Oh, you know. Mobile phone, two-way pager.

AxJ:

You use a Sidekick?

Cube: [pulls out Sidekick]

Gotta use one of these Sidekicks. That and the computer. Between them two things, and the webcam back and forth, it’s just easier to communicate. You never miss a beat and it doesn’t take you out of your day as far. Talking to somebody on the phone, conversations get long. Things need to be said short. With email, send it; it’s done; move on.

AxJ:

Thanks, Cube. Good to meet you.

Cube:

You, too.

Photo by Juliette Melton

Ice Cube’s SxSW performance can be seen live tonight at 8 p.m. CDT at UVNTV.