For the first time in nearly five years, Fiona Apple performed outside of Los Angeles as the songstress took the stage at NPR’s showcase at SXSW last night. Considering that the 34-year-old siren falls on both our Must-See Pop Acts Of SXSW and Artists We Demand New Music From lists, to say we’re anxious to see Fiona live would be the understatement of the decade. Technical difficulties didn’t stop the Grammy winner from performing old favorites like “Fast As You Can” and teasing the crowd with three of her new tracks, “Anything We Want”, “Valentine”, and “Every Single Night” from her 23-word titled upcoming album. Click through to get up close at Fiona’s set (or catch a clip of her live performance here) and tell us below (or on Facebook and Twitter) if she was worth the wait. More »
Neon Hitch kept true to the saying “Everything is bigger in Texas” as she took the stage at La Zona Rosa Tuesday night (Mar. 13), opening The Warner Sound at SXSW showcase dressed in a Chinese dynasty-meets-Mayan war queen headdress. Her red hair tightly wound in intricate knots, the fiery British songstress writhed, wriggled and posed in a skintight black leotard and silver glitter boots as she performed “Bad Dog”, “Ass Back Home” — minus Gym Class Heroes — and the song about the ex that “broke your heart”, “Love U Betta”. By the end of the third (and final) song, the Pray For Pop alumna hitched a ride on the shoulders of her two warpaint-smudged drummers and, spread-eagle, grabbed her crotch — a jaw-dropping final image that sent the men in the audience into a photographic frenzy. More »
Technical difficulties didn’t stop Santigold from rolling through hits new and old at La Zona Rosa at The Warner Sound at SXSW showcase in Austin, TX Tuesday night (Mar. 13). The “Big Mouth” siren, flanked by glittering foot soldier fly-girls who wielded mallets, pompoms and parasols, did her Santogold-era tunes early, despite a busted bass cable, which she asked to be replaced mid show. In a crooked tiara, she opened with “GO!”, her Karen O-assisted (though not on stage) Master of My Make-Believe track, then gave sober renditions of “Lights Out”, “L.E.S. Artistes” and “Creator”, offering at one point to do the whole show a capella as it live-streamed on YouTube. Fortunately, those sound problems didn’t interfere with the colorful stage show, which you can see in photos below. More »
Jay-Z wasn’t the only one performing at South By Southwest for the first time last night — our Popping Up artist ZZ Ward was also rocking the Austin festival. The genre-blending soulful siren had everyone’s boots stomping at the BuzzMedia PureVolume House presented by iHeartRadio. Unlike her Eleven Roses mixtape (which includes stripped-down samples from Childish Gambino’s “You Know Me” and Tyler, The Creator’s “Yonkers”) , ZZ was backed by a full band for her raucous set. Check out the Pennsylvania native as she gets down in the Lone Star state. More »
