Not sure what the contributing factors were, but it seemed like everybody was a little frustrated yesterday down at SouthBy; people showing up to the right day party at the wrong time, jumbling their schedules, taking wrong turns in what’s otherwise the most easily navigable downtown you’ll ever see. And our day was no different. (Okay, we were actually describing our day right there — but we swear other people were bitching, too!) Somehow, though, despite the late start and the wonky show mojo, we escaped our Thursday in Austin with a good number of great bands under our belts.

After whiling away precious daylight hours blogging the previous day’s goods for ya, we ambled down to the Tag Team party in time to catch Andrew Bird whistle sweet nothings into the Emo’s punters’ ears, with our other favorite multi-instrumental madman Martin Dosh behind the kit. After taking in a few Armchair Apocrypha tunes, we broke in our boots with the LONG walk to Todd P’s party at Ms Bea’s on 6th St. for the fret-blazing exploits of one Ms. Marnie Stern. We’re huge fans of the Sleater-Kinney-meets-Shreddie Van Halen sound Marnie’s concocted on her excellent debut In Advance Of The Broken Arm — and had no idea she was so dreamy in person — but playing (and singing) along with a fully-arranged version of her tunes from her nano (which was impressive only when she’d harmonize her tapping, and uncomfortable when she’s miscue the track) didn’t impress. Wish she had a karaoke version of the record to play with, but no matter; we remain steadfast Stern champions. (She also rocks a note-perfect Rodney Dangerfield impression to kill time: “Get in the caaaw, these heels are killing me!”)

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