Standing in the back alley of Austin’s Beauty Bar on Wednesday, the Comas had already kicked off a rockin’ at the Ace Fu Records SXSW showcase, and by the roar of the crowd and a cold beer paired with the warm Texas night air, we could tell it was going to be one hell of an evening.
Headlining the showcase was the Annuals. The group’s Be He Me debut LP was one of our Top 10 favorites last year, and the six-piece group has quickly earned acclaimed for their energetic live shows ala Animal Collective and Broken Social Scene.
Prior to the show, we had the opportunity to chat with Annuals’ guitarist Kenny Florence and bassist Mike Robinson (19 year-old group found Adam Baker was taking a pre-show nap).
Where did you play last night?
K: Norman, Oklahoma
M: We’re on the very last part of our tour, then we go home for 10 days to sleep in our own beds. The best part about being home is having a bed…
K: And not eating fast food crap all the time. We’re definitely one of those bands who after two months on the road — need a week at home.
K: Then we head back out on tour with Kaiser Chiefs/Walkmen and Blonde Redhead.
We really missed out on your Minneapolis show in late February. A blizzard shut down the entire region!
K: We tried so hard to make that show.
M: We were probably only 30 minutes out, and we said, “Driving right now is so terrifying – we must be complete idiots.” The night before we were in Milwaukee and in the morning, literally had to shovel our van out of a snow pile. We’re not used to driving in the snow [being from North Carolina], so we freak out when the wheels start slipping.
Be He Me dropped in October – what sort of response are you hearing and feeling?
K: Well, last year at SXSW we played the Velvet Spade.
M: It was a tiny hole in the wall, and if you’d told us then we’d be playing a major label showcase this year, we’d have been ecstatic.
K: Yeah, seriously.
Are you guys writing on the road much?
K: The second record is almost done.
Are those new songs?
K: Actually, they’re songs we’ve recorded over the past 2-3 years. The first record could’ve been 30-40 songs long.
M: When we get back to Chapel Hill, we just jump right back into writing.
K: We’re a hard-working band.
With Sedona (the group Kenny leads that spurned the Annuals), too?
K: Yeah, actually we’ll be playing a small show just for friends and locals while we’re home. M: We’re a band with a solid work ethic. We all love to write.
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