A little rock, a little roots, Boston’s Movers & Shakers will be performing at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, Mass this Thursday, March 25th and along with the Box Elders and the Black Lips. The will be playing Radio Bean on the 26th. The Movers & Shakers are a superb Americana group. Their music combines rock and country inspired vocals with bluesy instrumentals, harnessing a sound that’s clean and defined without sounding forced. There’s an ease to the music that allows the audience to slip into bittersweet rock-inspired tracks like “Bottom of the Ocean” as easily as the twang-tinged “Boom Splat.” Be sure to check out their Mid East Down show this Thursday and their upcoming residency at the Plough and Stars this May.

--Meghan Guidry

Day 2 was the day of honing navigation skills. The Baeblemusic.com Party at the Scoot Inn lined up promising acts that alternated between indoor and outdoor stages. A park-style area was decorated with paper lanterns and framed by two bars and a food cart, and listeners relaxed on tree stumps and patches of grass. Seabear, a sextet from Iceland, melded strings and acoustic guitars into a pleasant and exotic folk rock. Inside, Washington DC’s These United States upped the energy with a Southern rock lilt and grimy Gospel flavor, and back in the sunshine, Australia’s Dappled Cities played avant guarde electro-pop. Off the main drag at the 21st Street Co-Op, a “clothing optional” shindig hosted Austin natives, MoTeL Aviv (pic below), in an abstractly painted dorm common room. I found the city’s friendliest taxi-driver en route to Hyde Park Bar and Grill (South) for The Deli’s second sponsored show, and completed my night with some 6th Street sight-seeing.

The Deli Magazine and CitizenMusic joined forces to educate Austin on some of the best artists from New York at Hyde Park Bar and Grill (South). A spacious restaurant and bar, home to the best French fries around, opened into a patio where a tent housed the live music for the evening. A SXSW suppertime party, the “NYC in ATX Showcase” entertained a group of all-aged diners, families, and rock ‘n rollers with five Big Apple acts, including Blackbells (picture below), New Madrid, The Shake, Deadbeat Darling, and Black Taxi. Blackbells offered guests free EP’s and a superb set after traveling thirty hours straight to Texas. The fiery New Madrid pushed forward with outstanding vivacity, and The Shake’s second evening at Hyde Park resulted in enthusiastic feedback and a new population of fans. The wind picked up and carried Deadbeat Darling’s blissful and stirring reggae-rock throughout venue, and Black Taxi almost blew a fuse with their high-powered instrumentation and charisma. Mission “Rock Austin” accomplished. - Meijin Bruttomesso

It is always interesting to see a band slip away from their norm and enter the world of another music genre. It takes guts and talent and tonight 28 Degrees Taurus hits the Plough and Stars in Cambridge with their rarely-been-heard-before country set. Armed with a pedal steel, twelve string and sans drummer, the regularly psychedelic/shoegaze 28 Degrees is prepared to play some unplugged country rock. After 2 1/2 years of writing, recording and mixing there's one record due out in June and another one in the Fall sometime.  The record due in June is more upbeat, pop-oriented and catchy and the Fall one will be alot darker and more psychedelic/ambient. The show is FREE so you have no excuse. It starts at 10 and Paul Sentz (formerly of This Car Up) is playing the middle set. 

Plough and Stars 912 Mass Ave Cambridge

--The Deli Staff

The first day of SXSW is like the first day of school; you’re excited, nervous, and seemingly prepared. Unlike school, however, SXSW is never boring. After my first ever flight through Detroit and an early morning dash to registration at the Austin Convention Center, I scampered off to Rusty Spurs for Deli sponsored Music Tech Mash Up party, where line-up improvements kept me corralled. The event spanned two days and squeezed in fifty bands at Rusty Spurs, a tri-room gay saloon (how cool is that?) decorated with cowboy boots and Texas trinkets. The Mash Up party celebrated the collaboration of various industries, music, merchandise, and new media technology. Upon arrival, sound spewed from every corner of the venue as bands performed on the main indoor stage, in the lounge, and on the outdoor patio. Mid-day, the barbeque was fired up to feed South by South West goers with free burgers and chicken while they enjoyed the second day of the extravaganza’s hefty line-up. Some of the early-morning performers included LA-based, disco-influenced pop-rockers, Foster the People, dancey R'n'B from Toronto, Curtis Santiago, and Las Vegas’s new-wave, electro-pop, Imagine Dragons. Pleasant surprises added at the last minute, such as Brooklyn’s Black Taxi, and Washington D.C.’s alternarockers, Hotspur, caught the ears of those passing by and reaffirmed excitement for SXSW.

Following a quick Tex-Mex bite and nearly sun-burning in a line for the Paste Magazine Party at The Galaxy Room, I witnessed the last of the Suckers’ (top pic) set and the first part of rock-meets-singer/songwriter Austinites, Roky Erickson with Okkervil river (bottom pic). The day pushed on as I went off the beaten path to Hyde Park Bar and Grill(South) where The Whiskey Rebellion’s evening of music and literature featured NYC’s The Shake who enlivened the venue’s calm St. Patrick’s Day. Due to overcapacity venues back on 6th Street, my night was curtailed. Tomorrow would be a new day with much music to hear. - Meijin Bruttomesso

Jenee Halstead, a country-folk singer-songwriter out of Boston is planning a European and US tour to promote her new EP Hollow Bones. The only catch is she needs fans to pledge 2500 dollars in 30 days toward funding the tours. She is playing in the Deli showcase this Friday at the Armory (see above) so obviously we like her. Check out her cute video on her website to see how you can help this lovely young artist get her music across the pond and across the conutry. You can make your pledge and watch the video here.

--The Deli Staff