It’s that time of year again. Every March, flocks of indie-loving hipsters bounce heads and Americana newbies fly south to Austin for SXSW. What some of them are discovering is that on the way, New Orleans has become a destination not to be overlooked.
In comes the New Orleans Indie Rock Collective (noirCollective). With inboxes flooded with inquiries from touring bands looking for gigs, this group of music aficionados (responsible for the New Orleans Indie Rock Fest and accompanying sampler) organized a 3-day music festival pairing these traveling bands with local favorites. They named it Foburg, a play on the neighborhood home of the festival, Faubourg Marigny.
In its first run, foburg scored nearly 8,000 attendees who collectively caught 100 bands across 10 venues. Headliners included GIVERS, Peelander-Z, and MyNameIsJohnMichael. The follow-up in 2011 featured Toro Y Moi, Das Racist, and Cults, with crowds approaching 10,000. With foburg now less than two weeks away, this year’s highlights are Maps & Atlases, performance art punk-rockers Japanther, and the “Queen Diva” of bounce music, Big Freedia. Of course, there are a slew of mid-tier bands to feast your ears on.
Aunt Martha
(New Hampshire/New England) – Having won over a mountain of fans at Bonnaroo last year, Aunt Martha offers hauntingly beautiful vocals over meticulous tones of sentiment. The proof is in the pudding with their free download of the new La La Lonesome EP.
J Roddy Walston & The Business
(Baltimore) – Piano-driven rock ‘n’ roll as it was meant to be. The determined, raw vox of J Roddy complement his male-version-of-Tori-Amos key-playing, and this guy shines on the guitar, too. The band has opened for The Black Keys and killed it at last year’s Lollapalooza. I can stop right here.
The Pharmacy
(Seattle) – Don’t let the northwestern claim deter you, these boys moved to New Orleans to record their LP Weekend, when they found a home with Park The Van Records. Earlier this month they released another EP Dig Your Grave. Guitarist Scott Yoder even used the same guitar amp from Nirvana’s Bleach for his solo in The Pharmacy’s “Pines.”
Tiny Victories
(Brooklyn) – With a new EP, Those Of Us Still Alive, out tomorrow, this duo celebrates a return to foburg on March 11th. I agree with Prefix Mag. “Gravitron” is a sweet feel-good song I’ve had on repeat this week.
Foburg weekend wrist bands are $25, and this year you’ll get the added perks of foburg.film and foburg.comedy. For details on these new additions visit foburg online.
