SXSW 2010: Best Of, Part 1- Megaphonic Thrift

There are few greater feelings than taking a chance on a show and having it totally blow you away. This is how I felt after watching Megaphonic Thrift play at Habana Calle on Wednesday night. We chose to hit up this set after hearing praises from many well respected South By goers. Putting aside plans to go to Cheer Up Charlies to see an excellent line up [Best Coast, Fluffy Lumbers and Cloud Nothings] we went the official showcase route to see MT’s late night set.

I really had no idea what to expect having not heard of them nor their music before that day. All I knew was that the Norwegian super group was made up of members from CasioKids, Low Frequency In Stereo, Stereo 21. A bit of knowledge that doesn’t really lend itself to establishing sonic expectations except that whatever they sounded like it was going to be intelligent.

The room was small but amped for a space at least three times it’s size, another unexpected touch. The reason for the plethora of amps was made perfectly clear the instant the set began. Megaphonic Thrift are loud. Really loud. The quartet use nothing more that wickedly lush guitars, throbbing bass and smashing percussion. Being loud is easy; how Megaphonic Thrift manipulates all that audible weight to create a malleable piece of music that doesn’t overwhelm is not. I liken it to an artists use of negative space. They create a mass of sound from which they carve a distinct rhythm and even some crisp lyrics when necessary. The resulting music is beyond satiating, it is a masterful presentation of restraint in the name of greatness.

The guitars carried out a noise pop initiative while creating visceral harmonies with the undulating bass and crashing drums. The vocals, which are definitely of the shoe gaze variety, are excellent but don’t attempt to equal the presence of the instrumentals. When Richard Myklebust or Linn Froekedal did sing they worked into the arrangements never really pushing to the front instead simply lending to the complexity of the material.

At 35 minutes the set was over far sooner than I would have liked; I could have easily blissed out to much more. Immediately after they were finished everyone in the room seemed to be left in a bit of a daze as the energy released by Megaphonic Thrift’s set still hung in the air. Now, looking back over all the shows I saw (with the exception of one) during SXSW – including the buzz band sets and those I was really excited about- nothing really compares to my first Megaphonic Thrift experience.

I have since gotten my hands on their full catalog Decay Decoy and A Thousand Years Of Destruction and their recorded material is just as superb. Obviously without the intense sound factor the songs sound very different but even when coming out of your headphones the music is a step above most other bands attempting this sort of intelligent music making. They don’t have plans to be back in the US anytime soon so, you’ll have to make due with the albums but I will most certainly be seeking them out the next time they do make it back on this side of the pond.

Acid Blues

Candy Sin (Live SXSW 2010)

thanks to Ryspace.com for the live recording