When Rolling Stone hit Austin’s South By Southwest Music Festival a week ago, we handed Semi Precious Weapons‘ outrageous frontman Justin Tranter a Flipcam and a simple set of directions: film yourself doing what you do before, during and after gigs and hand over the footage. We wound up with two days’ worth of video — 250 different clips featuring the outrageous singer bathing, high-kicking, hanging with Perez Hilton, Juliette Lewis, Sylvain Sylvain and Rachael Ray, baring his nipples, hopping onstage at the Japanese punk showcase, breaking his heel, applying eyeliner, showing off his dance belt and greeting the glam-rock band’s fans. It took days to sift through the footage (and remove the bits that wouldn’t get past the censors), but we’ve finally done it: click above to watch 48 wild hours in the life of Semi Precious Weapons at the music industry’s biggest annual event. (more…)

When the Brooklyn-via-Minnesota rockers the Hold Steady hit the the stage at Club DeVille at SXSW last Friday afternoon, they were not dressed like Mexican gangsters. They were, however, dolled up as “banditos,” as frontman Craig Finn puts it, Halloween 2007 at Chicago’s Metro. That performance is captured on A Positive Rage, the band’s new live CD/DVD that’s out April 7th. “The ponchos, fake mustaches, the hats and the gun belts and stuff kind of came apart quickly,” guitarist Tad Kubler recalled for Rolling Stone the day after the band’s SXSW gig.

(Check out some of the band’s SXSW gig above, as well as more with Finn and Kubler.)

Finn and Kubler’s favorite live gigs they’ve seen as fans have not involved costumes. “I think the best show I ever saw was probably winter 1986. It was the Replacements on the Tim record at at First Ave in Minneapolis,” Finn says. “They’re my favorite band so by default I say that, but it’s probably the best show of theirs that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen Springsteen be amazing too. Last ‘07 in St. Paul.” Kubler’s pick: “Cheap Trick at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. It was a great experience because that was a great realization for me at seven or eight years old, being like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing to get up onstage and perform in front of people playing rock music.’ ” (more…)

It’s been 21 years since Jane’s Addiction released Nothing’s Shocking, and frontman Perry Farrell has finally found a cultural phenomenon that refutes the memorable refrain from “Ted, Just Admit It …” “The Octo-Mom is shocking, so there you go,” he says. “It finally happened. I’m shocked.”

Hanging out with Rolling Stone the day after Jane’s Addiction’s triumphant South By Southwest gig at a former supermarket, Farrell says the group kicked the show off with “Three Days,” a song that used to fall in the middle of sets, because “When the thought clicked in, I got a chill. I love an entrance that’s like an orgasm, so it keeps building and then you have multiples. So in that song, it’s not just ‘Yay, there they are!’ and it fizzles. The song keeps coming on and coming on and coming on, you start to have multiple orgasms.”

(Click above to watch Farrell open up about Dave Navarro’s guitar and driving skills, the band’s first days back in the studio with Trent Reznor and what fans might expect at Lollapalooza.)

It was the band’s third gig with its original lineup — Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery — and Farrell admits the reunion hasn’t been a totally smooth ride. “It’s very awkward. I have seen Eric maybe two times in 18 years very briefly, one time we almost got into a fistfight. We’re all getting to know each other now to see if we’ve all changed for the better, if we can like each other and find common ground and ways to do things that will be successful together.” (more…)

Rolling Stone’s Saturday afternoon showcase at Peckerheads went from a sweaty affair to a sweltering one as singer-actress Juliette Lewis hit the stage with her new band, the New Romantiques, to run through material from her upcoming disc, Terra Incognita. As Lewis told RS backstage, she wanted to step out from behind the power riffs of her previous band, the Licks, and embrace a sound where guitars were more of an atmospheric backdrop for songs teaming with raw emotion. (The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez became her collaborator after the two met at a festival and talked Fellini films). “Holy shit, I feel like we’re in my living room,” she exclaimed after ending her opening song, “Romeo,” a dark and mysterious number, with a piercingly epic note. “In the closet of my soul.”

Lewis stalked the front of the stage in sequined stockings and a beaded black dress adorned with feathered wings on her shoulders, her eyes closing as she fell into a trancey zone. She busted out a gut-wrenching blues song (”Hard-Loving Woman”), and concluded with the David Bowie-esque “Suicide Divebombers,” which swirled around the refrain “The past is dead.” After showing off how her elastic voice can stretch to accommodate songs that conjure Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, Lewis may just be leaving any preconceived notions about how seriously she takes her music in the past, too. (more…)

Director Jonathan Demme was on hand at SXSW for the world premiere of his concert film, Neil Young Trunk Show. The film is an intimate look at Neil Young’s stage show, recorded in a small theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on mostly hand-held cameras. “We did a home movie in a way,” said Demme to a Saturday afternoon crowd in Austin’s Paramount Theatre. “We did it all ourselves.”

The Oscar-award winning director (Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia) said the film was a “reaction” to his 2006 Neil Young concert doc Heart Of Gold. Whereas Heart Of Gold was a meticulous tangle of editing and forethought, Trunk Show was filmed on a whim, aiming to find truth and heart with a more spontaneous approach. Says Demme, “We didn’t plan anything. This was the easiest film in the world to make.” Over a dozen Young tracks were shot in high-definition and a few were given a more expressionist, grainy feel. A warts-and-all approach catches all the ephemera Young spread across the stage for this tour (telephones, a tiny guitar shop, a pirate flag), as well as the heating pipes, stage lights, wires, cameramen and industrial fans helping power the Tower Theatre gig. A look backstage even catches a doctor looking at one of Young’s troublesome fingernails. (more…)

Photo: Segev/WireImage
Before he popped into Perez Hilton’s “One Night in Austin” extravaganza for a quickie five-song set, Kanye West made a not-so-secret SXSW appearance at the Levi’s/Fader Fort on Saturday night, turning a label showcase for his G.O.O.D. Records imprint into a cohesive, star-studded, two-hour event. Special guests like Common, Erykah Badu, Fonzworth Bentley and 88 Keys all showed up to support. Although West did break out tons of hits (”Heartless,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Good Life”), he was clearly playing the role of an enthusiastic label manager. He told a long story about how he signed rapper Big Sean, said Canadian Sting soundalike Mr. Hudson will be playing 50,000-seat stadiums, and was sure to mention that he’s back in the studio with Common. People looking for West’s classic ego trips would have to wait for the next show — save maybe the defensive retort, “I do do my own blogs.”

(For photos live from SXSW, check out our gallery.)

West emerged at the top of the set wearing an outfit more in tune with one of the underground metal shows at Red 7: a gold bullet necklace, black sunglasses and a sleeveless denim vest. After his seven-piece band slayed a decidedly heavy version of 808s and Heartbreak’s “Amazing,” West stayed onstage as his label roster cycled through their latest singles and their Kanye catalog guest spots. Longtime G.O.O.D. rapper Consequence was there for 2005’s “Gone,” GLC helped out with 2004’s “Spaceship” and Really Doe was there for “We Major.” Embracing the family atmosphere, these four rappers ducked in and out of songs, finishing each others’ lines. When they went solo, like for Big Sean’s latest single “Getcha Some,” West watched from the wings like a proud father. Although West might have been too relaxed around his family, as he regularly forgot the words to his own songs. “Crack Music” ended prematurely (”That’s all I remember!”) and his “Diamonds Are Forever” turned a fumble into a freestyle (”South by Southwest… It comes off the top and it feels the best”). (more…)

Opening Metallica’s not-so-secret SXSW surprise show Friday night, Los Angeles buzz band Silversun Pickups had the gig of a lifetime. And they knew it: drummer Chris Guanlao couldn’t resist taking a snap of the crowd with his digital camera. Winning over approximately 2,000 very antsy Metallica fans is no easy task — especially for a band whose sound is rooted in mid-’90s alternative rock. “It’s coming, I promise,” said frontman Brian Aubert to the salivating Metallica fans parked at the front of the stage. “The Spin Doctors are coming.” With a fuzzy, glowing sound like a meanderthal version of Smashing Pumpkins, the Pickups won over the crowd almost instantly — cheers after the first song and a few pumped fists by the end. When they kicked into the raucous conclusion of “Lazy Eye,” the big single from their debut Carnavas, it became clear how the band’s new album keeps the power cranking nonstop. (Check out some of Silversun’s set, above.)

(For more photos live from SXSW, check out our gallery.)

Earlier in the day, America’s most prolific riff merchants, the Hold Steady, kicked off their Club DeVille’s set with Separation Sunday’s “Hornets! Hornets!,” before launching into “Sequestered in Memphis,” from their latest album, Stay Positive. The small stage didn’t provide the gregarious Craig Finn a lot of room to spazz out, but he did his best with what he had, flailing his arms and holding up his hands beside his head like an indie-rock Richard Nixon. (more…)

A week before James Hetfield and Co. are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the metal icons’ Guitar Hero: Metallica video game hits stores, on March 29th. The new addition to the GH franchise boasts 28 controller-shredding songs taken from Metallica’s voluminous catalog as well as band-approved acts including Motorhead, Slayer and Mastodon (check out our sneak preview here!). Rolling Stone sat down with frontman James Hetfield at SXSW a few hours before Metallica’s epic “surprise” show to find out how he likes his pixellated persona, whether he thinks Death Magnetic sounds better on video game or record and if he believes encouraging kids to pick up plastic instruments is hurting their chances of learning real ones.

Which member of Metallica is the best at playing Guitar Hero?
Oh, I don’t know. I think we’re all equally bad.

As a guitarist, how are you at using the guitar controller?
The initial thought was, “This is gonna be so easy.” And then I picked it up and tried doing it. And it was like [makes plunking sound]. “Are you kidding me? You guys suck! You’re supposed to follow me!” I gotta be on with the lines. And Metallica’s not as on with the lines as some other bands. Especially having Lars as a drummer [Laughs].

How do you feel about the criticism that games like Guitar Hero are keeping a generation of kids from picking up actual guitars?
That’s an interesting backlash. I think Guitar Hero is a great gateway drug to real music. If you’ve got the music bug, nothing’s gonna stop you. It’s your destiny to express your gift. (more…)

Photograph by Brian Birzer

A much-hyped show at Austin Music Hall was the second performance from recently reinvigorated new-wavers Devo since plans to release their first studio album in 19 years. A band that built their career on questioning traditions — musical, social and otherwise — Devo refused to lure in the crowd with familiar fare, instead opening with a slew of brand new songs and lesser-known hits. The three new songs — “Don’t Shoot, I’m A Man,” “Fresh” and “What We Do” — hinted at what the new Devo album might sound like: heavy robo-guitars, very limited modern synths and pulsing beats that are more machine-man than man-machine; especially since drummer Josh Freese gives everything the unique heft he lends to bands like A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails.

(For more photos of Devo and other SXSW performers, check out our gallery.)

Devo’s stiff movements and matching jumpsuits have always scoffed the idea of “stage presence,” but the visuals for this show mocked it. Using tiny cameras posted everywhere and a giant LCD display the size of a movie screen, Devo rebroadcasted themselves 30 feet high in the most unflattering angles possible. Microphone cameras shot directly up their noses, cameras pointing upwards from the floor made them look chubby and distorted. Thought as one concession to stardom, the band still performed their crossover smash, “Whip It” #8212; albeit buried in the middle of the set. (more…)

“Surprise, surprise — you’re all surprised, right?” singer-guitarist James Hetfield cracked in his sea-captain’s growl, leering at the heaving crowd two songs into Metallica’s poorly kept-secret SXSW show, March 20th at Stubb’s. “Thank you for letting us come to your party.” Then his voice changed. “We are an unsigned band from Norway,” he said in a terrible Scandanavian accent and Andy Kaufman-like chirp. “Maybe we get signed.” Any unsigned Norwegian band that could write and play anything as smart and brutal as Metallica’s next song, “Harvester of Sorrow,” would have been signed before it left the building.

(For more photos of Metallica and other SXSW performers, check out our gallery.)

So you ask: Why Metallica at SXSW? The answer: Why the hell not? SXSW stopped being only about alternative rock and regional baby bands when superstars started giving the keynote speeches and the acts playing corporate-sponsor day parties outnumbered the evening showcases. Metallica were at SXSW to sell their imminent edition of the interactive video game Guitar Hero. But they ended up proving something else: You don’t get anywhere in this world, with a guitar, in a band, until you get off the couch. (Hetfield talked Guitar Hero, the sound quality of Death Magnetic and more in a SXSW interview with RS.)

The promotion was in full effect — Metallica played in front of a giant Guitar Hero banner, and one of the opening acts was a trio of local Guitar Hero contest winners, who “played” a version of “Fuel” on Guitar Hero “instruments.” But the real deal came to perform, opening with “Creeping Death” and, except for two Death Magnetic numbers, giving the audience 90 minutes of greatest hits, including “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “One,” “Sad But True” and a scorched-earth tear through “Master of Puppets.” (more…)

A slew of indie-rock next-big-things used Thursday night performances at SXSW as a platform to further fuel the hype machine. California art-dance mutant Nite Jewel has been making waves this year with her mix of ’80s freestyle grooves, distorted synths and ghostly vocals. At Red 7 she wanted to make sure everyone knew she didn’t care about their opinions or, for that matter, anything. She looked as cold and impenetrable as possible in a gray T-shirt, a face-obscuring haircut, and a chilly demeanor — at one point she even put on sunglasses. But no amount of impersonal affects could take the wind out the impossibly lush grooves she was culling from small keyboards.

(Check out photos from Austin’s hottest shows in our SXSW gallery.)

Brooklyn lo-fi jangle-punk band Crystal Stilts hit the stage after and tried to keep things more upbeat, with keyboardist Kyle Forester taking requests from the full-capacity audience and running in place as he played. But no amount of levity could take away from the smug posturing of lead singer Brad Hargett, whose affectations wavered somewhere between Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and someone about to throw up. The member were a pretty unique mixture of sass and snark, but then again, the band’s music is itself an interesting mix of prickly noise and cuddly pop.

A similar juxtaposition was going on around the corner at Emo’s by Boston’s much-hyped Wild Light. The four dudes, dressed in black, sounded like the Cure but played like the Clash. They were dwelling in the moody hooks of mid-’80s college rock, and worked up quite a sweat, even getting the audience to clap along to some of their more anthemic parts. (more…)

Photo: Busacca/Getty

After a rowdy, hit-filled SXSW performance at Austin Music Hall, Rolling Stone caught up with Big Boi to talk about the status of his long-awaited solo debut and the future of his group, OutKast.

Big Boi says his album, Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty, is finished, save some “additives and preservatives” currently being added by the rapper and producers Organized Noize befor a summer release. Stylistically, Big Boi says the album’s 16 tracks will cover “electro, funk, blues, some of everything. It’s all over the place. When we make a record, expect the unexpected.”

So, what’s been taking it so long to come out? “Jive Records, man,” says Big Boi, whose contract was adopted by Jive after Arista dissolved its roster in 2004. “You know what goes with Jive? Shuckin’ and jivin’. And the fans have been thinking it’s me and Dre. You can’t work on music for two-plus years and just give it to a label and they just fuck it up.” (more…)

A band like Jane’s Addiction doesn’t need to play a music festival like South By Southwest. But sometimes SXSW needs a Jane’s Addiction. The band — with its recently reunited full original lineup — performed a not-so-secret 10-song set at a former supermarket off an Austin highway Thursday night. It was both an affirmation of their enduring artistic power and a self-conscious wink at the magnetism of the rock star.

As if reminding the crowd that bassist Eric Avery is back in the band, Jane’s kicked off with the audacious, eight-minute-plus “Three Days,” which begins with one of their most ominous and memorable basslines. Frontman Perry Farrell alternately slithered and flounced around the stage, drummer Stephen Perkins pounded his set in a tidy mohawk, guitarist Dave Navarro strutted around shirtless and sweating, and Avery paced in circles. With the crowd fist-pumping and screaming along to every lyric, Farrell ended “Three Days” with his arm slung around Navarro. Losing his neckerchief and jacket, Farrell led the way into “Ain’t No Right” before announcing “Lovely to see all you whores out there” as way of introducing “Whores” from the band’s 1987 debut. (Check out photos of Jane’s long and winding career in A Brief History of Jane’s Addiction.)

The band didn’t play a a single song recorded after 1990, but every snaking melody and blast of volume sounded captivating and fresh. (Half of their set came from 1988’s Nothing Shocking, with four more tunes originating on 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual.) (more…)

To say Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John experienced technical difficulties at Wednesday night’s highly anticipated SXSW gig at Vice would be putting it a bit mildly. After what felt like the longest sound check ever, the band took the stage around 20 minutes late and promptly stopped playing because drummer John Eriksson’s electronic kit was malfunctioning. You can watch the show’s one bright spot above: “Lay It Down,” the group’s toughest-talking tune on their latest album, Living Thing, which includes a chant that could have been a motto for the night (”Hey! Shut the fuck up boy! You are starting to piss me off.”)

The crowd was clearly hungry for the band’s 2006 hit “Young Folks,” a whistle-packed track that grabbed the attention of one Mr. Kanye West (who is rumored to be heading to Austin for a surprise gig this week). Eriksson whistled a different melody for a few moments to kill some time, but the band mostly appeared disinterested and disconnected from the audience — a shout of “Show me that you give a shit!” was later followed by boos as the band struggled to get a guitar working (”Boo for bad guitars,” the band responded. Perhaps a language barrier was to blame?). (more…)

Aging punk fans with a little gray in their mohawks had a short, fast embarrassment of riches when two of punk rock’s early legends played on opposite sides of Austin on Wednesday night at SXSW. (Check out images from Austin’s hottest shows in our SXSW gallery.)

First, Austin punk-rock forebears the Dicks hit the stage at 27th Annual Austin Music Awards, accepting a lifetime achievement award for their unique, soulful brand of aggression. The Dicks helped invent Texas punk in 1980, leaving an impression on the Butthole Surfers, Jesus Lizard and Mudhoney (the latter would cover their “Hate The Police”). David Yow of Jesus Lizard presented the band with the award in front of a packed Austin Music Hall. Yow said that 29 years ago he had been amazed and overwhelmed when Dicks bassist Buff Parrot smoked him out. Yow still considers them “the greatest punk rock band of all time.”

When the Dicks hit the stage — a little chubbier and grayer than they were in the ’80s — pot-bellied lead singer Gary Floyd offered these words of thanks: “For me, to thank the little people is very easy.” The band rumbled through a few classic tracks like “Dead In A Motel Room” before Yow joined them on stage to help with a stomping, snarling version of “Wheelchair Epidemic.” They closed with their debut single “Hate the Police,” which had the elder punks that swarmed the media section slamming and singing along. (more…)