Larkin Grimm on her SXSW experience

And of course the music didn't matter. At all. We were all wearing earplugs and stumbling around blindly in search of comfort and relief from the 90 degree heat. Targets and sitting ducks. Water was scarce, so we drank a lot of beer. And somebody is making money here, I can see it and feel it. But none of it is going into the hands of musicians. This is indie rock in 2009. I see.

(Via A myspace blog post)

I'm pulling for "sparkliest outfit"

it's v v hard not to <3 larkin grimm

briefest eye contact!!

yeah, that's a great and OTM blog post. the larkin grimm set at, uh, terrastock six, was AMAZING

Never seen her play, though I encouraged her to come to Mid Missouri once.

the larkin grimm set at, uh, terrastock six, was AMAZING

Made me a total fan, one hell of a set.

I love Larkin Grimm and she is OTM

We were all wearing earplugs and stumbling around blindly in search of comfort and relief from the 90 degree heat.

hahaha, it wasn't even close to 90 degrees during SXSW! it was in the lower 80s! tepid folkies.

wow her music is great, never heard her. this blog post won her +1 record sale from me i guess.

my wife was visiting her father in the austin area so went down and walked around for fun.

she said it was the "minnesota state fair with weird sunglasses"

Submitting this to Da Capo 09

It was the most bedraggled, poverty stricken, drugged out, greasy bunch of insecure losers I have ever stood in a line with, and they were all arrogant to boot.

can't wait til she has to go to the DMV

I have no problem with turning this into a 'Larkin Grimm and why she rules' thread. Everyone kinda needs to get Parplar right this second.

i'm sure her music is great and all but if she's really "shocked" that this is what goes on at sxsw i would like to know wtf she was expecting in the first place

sub-burt_stanton as best

at best

best

beast?

It was the most bedraggled, poverty stricken, drugged out, greasy bunch of insecure losers I have ever stood in a line with, and they were all arrogant to boot.

Having browsed her myspace page, is this like a tongue-in-cheek pot/kettle thing?

i bet larkin's got some unique insights about williamsburg

she paints a pretty grimm picture!!!!!!!!

did she just go to sxsw on a lark?!?!??!?!!?

larkin does have a wide-eyed naive flower child thing going on, that's just her personality (and part of her charm if you ask me)

I imagine that no matter how far she gets some part of her will always recoil from music industry bullshit, and that's the way it should be

don't fault somebody for having a sane reaction

I still have an mp3 of her terrastock perf somewhere around, should upload

lol @ n/a being appalled that a musician isn't hip to the indie rock world.

if she's really "shocked" that this is what goes on at sxsw i would like to know wtf she was expecting in the first place

also, this: I hadn't given much thought to SXSW before arriving, and didn't have many expectations.

Larkin Grimm is a radical environmentalist and opposes the War in Iraq. She has proclaimed that she is not affiliated with any political party, but considers herself an anarchist.

ain't no crime bein' young & idealistic.

her music is so awesome, she played with us in Brooklyn & after the show she went up to her dressing room and just kept right on playing music with her friends for ages

xp sure, but it's goofy that she builds this we are cows to the slaughter scene and she's apparently the only one in line who's not an insecure loser. who exactly is arrogant here?

her terrastock performance culminated in her marching out onto the street singing & playing.

i'm pretty sure she's self-aware enough to "get it"

doesn't come across. oh well, her music sounded ok.

i never heard of her until this thread, her take on sxsw seemed very "boy, i sure do hate indie rock"/challops 101 but apparently she grew up on some commune because her parents were in some hippy cult, so it's more of an "unfrozen caveman lawyer" deal which seems more excusable.

don't fault somebody for having a sane reaction

from the perspective of an austinite, it's pretty funny hearing one douchebadge complaining about all the other ones.

how do you think we new yorkers feel we have to put up with thousands of these dickholes 24/7/365 you just get em one weekend a year.

and anyway, i think her position was generally misanthropic, and didn't seem specifically oriented towards indie rock--no comments about the music, that is. misanthropy in men is admirable, and in women it is v v sexy.

how do you think we new yorkers feel we have to put up with thousands of these dickholes 24/7/365 you just get em one weekend a year.

LOL I'd imagine y'all like their money well enough

i prefer the money of old jewish men and also truck drivers.

needs to be a poll about this

pssst, you vote up top.
(not about whose money is better. the clear answer would be: EUROPEANS.)

from the perspective of an austinite, it's pretty funny hearing one douchebadge complaining about all the other ones.

+1

In my experience hippy eyes are so glazed they don't need to blink normally so everyone else seems like they're not holding eye contact (<3 larkin tho)

you dudes can fetishize naivete if you want but imo being surprised that a music industry event is full of fake, annoying people crosses the line from being "wide-eyed naive" to kinda dumb and/or disingenious

And somebody is making money here, I can see it and feel it. But none of it is going into the hands of musicians.

That's really (or should be) the focus of her ire. But "poverty stricken" comes off as an insult, especially when it precedes "losers." Maybe she didn't mean it to come off that way, but it makes it seem like she goes to soup kitchens and does the Nelson "Ha ha!" at people.

you dudes can fetishize naivete if you want but imo being surprised that a music industry event is full of fake, annoying people crosses the line from being "wide-eyed naive" to kinda dumb and/or disingenious

I hardly think it pedantic in the context of this line to point out that the word is "disingenuous."

so the parents read 'this be the verse' i guess

in other news, two and two are four

me-ow!

jokes, bruv!

haha back atcha babe

I guess because I went to SXSW and didn't buy a wrist band and just sort of wandered around the city eating and catching bands that played for free on bridges and on top of grocery stores and in pirate venues and I also occasionally took breaks to go swimming and see other parts of the city I was much less cynical about the whole affair. I actually thought it was a really fun time full of some bands acting crazy to try and be seen.

Don't get me started on the Pitchfork fest though.

I think that the bands that play SXSW have a much different experience from the festival-goers.

I love Larkin Grimm though. She makes awesome music and I actually wish I saw her when I was there.

^ yes, she is amazing, Parplar is goddamn gorgeous.

SXSW proper is bad news for bands, but the BBQs are fun. Apparently The Mae Shi played 14 sets this last weekend? Amazing.

i have a funny lkingmm story
i cannot tell it
unless u come visit me
i will show u th place
where
it
occurred

tease

i'm hoping the place where it occurred is a clearing in the woods with a big stone slab

i mean, i think part of the reason that Larkin calls out poor and disheveled and greasy is because SXSW is only like 30% cool indie rock bands we talk about here on ILX like Mae Shi and Larkin Grimm, and 70% clueless local bands who think they are going to "make it" with their shitty Black Crowes ripoff bands.

Like there's a LOT of v. sad dreamers who think they are the hottest shit around but will never make it and have no clue how low on the totem pole they actually are because they're not playing the "game" and no one ever taught them how because they are the only band in their town.

i don't care if someone went to sxsw, pitchfork fest, coachella, etc and had a great time or a shitty time, just as long as i don't have to hear about it.

larkin grimm is dope though

i don't care if someone went to sxsw, pitchfork fest, coachella, etc and had a great time or a shitty time, just as long as i don't have to hear about it.

― 710 east green in bensenville near o'hare (omar little), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:20 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is seriously otm.

hey what about burning man?

i don't think i want to talk to anyone that goes to burning man.

I played at SXSW this year, it was my first time going. I do not know this Larkin Grimm person. I thought this was somewhat OTM -- there were certainly lots of goofy things about the festival -- but I don't get why her ire is directed at other musicians. I was certainly amused by the fashion statements on display, but no more so than I am any time I go to a concert (ignoring the difference in scale, of course). I think Carles said it better:

SXSW is funnie
because everything is a ‘planned surprise’
and everything is ‘free’ but ‘not really’
and everything is ‘exciting’ but ‘predictable’
and everything is ‘viral buzz’ but rlly just ‘marketing’

I also "blogged" about "my SXSW experience" on "my web site," FWIW.

what's great about coachella and burning man is both tend to cause a mass exodus of dbags from l.a., especially the former event.

what's great about coachella and burning man is both tend to cause a mass exodus of dbags from l.a., especially the former event.

Tremendously OTM

I haven't been to SXSW in at least a decade; it sounds like it's exactly the same as it was, only more so.

I stopped going 'cause I finally distilled my experience to: morning latte @ some coffee spot across from the U, huevos rancheros @ Cisco's Liars Club (where liars meet every day, sometimes twice), a couple of trips to a BBQ shack I found, and sitting in the courtyard @ Elmos every evening (where everyone would eventually wander through) for hours.

The highlights of my 3-4 visits there were mini-golf with the K Records crew, and Jim Goodall (Medicine)'s description of playing on the set of The Crow, a couple of days before SXSW.

You know, on reading this again, I don't think it's very OTM. In fact, I think it's quite sensationalist and obnoxious, particularly this:

It was the most bedraggled, poverty stricken, drugged out, greasy bunch of insecure losers I have ever stood in a line with, and they were all arrogant to boot. Now this is a sad situation. We were all standing in line, waiting to be tagged, cows at the feed lot waiting for the slaughter, each one fighting to be first in line.

There were lots of goofy-looking people for sure, but I don't know how she comes up with "poverty-stricken, drugged out, insecure losers, and arrogant to boot." Nobody was fighting to be first in line, and the cows at the slaughter image is an eye-roller.

The cynical tone may be justified, but the specifics are all wrong.

the "fighting" bit is obv figurative and not literal

What does figuratively fighting to be first in line mean?

to me it reads like the irony is that everyone is kind of fighting for a chance for a breakthrough into an industry that will likely treat them like shit? (hence cows at the slaughter.) i dunno.

That might be a fair reading. I just think it comes across as kind of smug and presumptuous and very "look at me, look how above the fray I am!" I could say a lot of cynical things about SXSW, but they wouldn't be about how all the other musicians are insecure losers (and arrogant!)

Yeah, that was the thing about her tirade that rubbed me wrong, "look at all these arrogant people, see how above it all I am?".

"might be a fair reading"

go back to college dog.

I saw her last night in Asheville, NC. After the first song she informed everyone that she has a high IQ and that she went to Yale.

sounds like a lovely person, really.

go back to college dog.

I'm too drugged out and poverty-stricken, unfortunately :(

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_746512a8586df78695c39ed3601bbe06.jpg

ws

the phrase "Peeliest scalp" is lol.

thing is..shes really smart..and that alone is grounds for jealousy for some folks..now that intelligence works well in th fire she puts into her performance and the well she has to go to is often full..of ideas,bad ones and good ones,but undeniable ideas..and the oversized features and th amazon witch woman inside her and all th attendent backstory can make a true fan of someone or make one want to punch her..ive seen these cases in th wild and th same thing always happens....not pretty..so pretty..unpretty..beautiful.....it's hard to be that thing..beat that thing.

Thing is, I'm really smart too. But when I say dumb shit on the internet, I still get ridiculed for it.

I'm mostly just shocked by the wording of the OMG 90-degree heat part, especially now that Wikipedia is informing me she grew up in the south. But it also says she moved to Alaska at some point, so maybe she is just v v sensitive.

I also can't sort out whether the fact of being an anarchist who grew up in a cult explains stuff like picking on greasy beards and limp handshakes, makes it deeply weird, or both.

Yeah, that was the thing about her tirade that rubbed me wrong, "look at all these arrogant people, see how above it all I am?".

when she says "arrogant" I read that as "too cool for school" - there are some musicians who don't seem to understand you can strut yr stuff on stage without walking around like an entitled dick the rest of the time

now I wasn't there so I can't speak to the general vibe but it painted a picture and I could relate

she is very striking

That makes sense, E3. I've not heard a note of her music and I was mildly curious by Ned's endorsement, but if that statement from the stage about how s-m-r-t she is happens to be true, don't know that I ever care to.

how you take that quote is dependent upon the tone in which it was delivered

guys, "larkin grimm" is an anagram of "melissa marchant"

I was going to ask if she's ever posted long rants about impossibly expensive recording equipment she needs to buy.

she lets bums feel her up, how stuck up can she be?

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/music/69463/cult-singer

anyway, I don't care if she's the freakfolk set's answer to marie antoinette, her last album is a good good thing

I've not heard a note of her music and I was mildly curious by Ned's endorsement, but if that statement from the stage about how s-m-r-t she is happens to be true, don't know that I ever care to.

Maybe you could do some sort of leafleting campaign as well to really make sure the wider world is aware of her unspeakable evil

Grimm is 27, the colorful tattoos of her generation splayed across her arms

And then in the picture there's like two tattoos on her arms?

Maybe you could do some sort of leafleting campaign as well to really make sure the wider world is aware of her unspeakable evil

Uh, where did this come from? I don't give a shit what others think of her, I was speaking as to my personal reaction.

besides a sandwich board is much classier IMO

Grimm is 27, the colorful tattoos of her generation splayed across her armsAnd then in the picture there's like two tattoos on her arms?― f. hazel, Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:17 (18 minutes ago) Permalink

lol, I was gonna preface that link with "warning: glossy mag musician profile ahead"

what's more, there was no bum, that was devendra banhart

she lets bums feel her up, how stuck up can she be?

hmmm, let's ask Courtney Love

courtney's a bro, perhaps literally

(she may have a penis)

All right, let's give this Parplar thing a spin.

courtney's dong can be very persuasive

i checked her out on youtube, the music's not bad, can't hate on anyone who rocks the dulcimer, but i don't really dig her voice much

larkin does have a wide-eyed naive flower child thing going on, that's just her personality (and part of her charm if you ask me)

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, March 24, 2009 11:33 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haa what no this is misanthropy 101 - sparkly outfits mick jagger impression - these are not even quality zings - i really thought after reading the initial post this was a thread for making fun of someones dumb blog

lol yale anarchists

better than harvard anarchists tbf
http://www.curragh-labs.org/teaching/s05/1152/students/riwataki/pro3/unabomber2.jpg

these are not even quality zings

somebody needs an ilx break

lgzc

not to stoke this but she comes across as completely vile in that time out piece.

As much as you or I or anyone else could possibly tell from about 100 words of quotes from her in it, I thought she seemed really nice

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

A logical win.

Larkin Says...

If you are having a bad dream, look at your hands.
Visualize what you want to see, draw an invisible door, and
walk through it into your ideal world.

she should have done that at sxsw