SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/478870
S X S W. C O M | F I L M / I A M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | S X S W o r l d 3 5 PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE: Blackmagic Design, Precision Camera, iKAN, Corp, Olloclip, VSN Mobil, Digital Bolex, Izzi, Hive Lighting, Trace Live Network, GIROPTIC 360cam For more information contact Sara Barney: sara@sxsw.com | (512) 467-7979 ext. 229 sxsw.com/exhibitions/trade-show/come-capture INTO FOCUS. PLAY YOUR PART IN BRINGING THE DYNAMIC LANDSCAPE OF DIGITAL FILMMAKING Adds Kaukonen, "What that scene did for my generation was it freed us from the constraints of trying to fit into the music business. Lots of the machinery of that business does still exist, but when you look around you see people doing very well in music who are doing it the way they want to." Ripley Johnson, a founding member of current SF psych band Wooden Shjips (which isn't playing SXSW this year) and side project Moon Duo (which is), confirms this. "The impact those original San Francisco bands had— resonated so far, and has been absorbed by other bands in so many ways, that by now it's all ancient history," he says. "But people don't sit and try to make sounds like the San Francisco bands made. Even in San Francisco, nobody focuses on those bands, because they're too far away in time; today they focus on the Grateful Dead way of running their careers, things like that." Indeed. Before it became a mass movement, the San Francisco scene represented less a musical style than a tribal lifestyle, and that's where its real impact hits hardest. Weird band names like Jefferson Airplane, thrift-store threads on stage instead of matching suits, free concerts in the park, posters and light shows, rock allied to art and literature, communal use of marijuana, eastern religion and mysticism, the rise of FM radio and album rock over Top 40 singles, bands insisting that creative freedom be written into their contracts, making the audience part of the show—all of these are things that either originated or rose to prominence in the San Francisco hippie scene, and all continue today in some form (consider Burning Man), even if that form is sometimes almost unrecognizable. That is in addi- tion to strictly musical considerations like jamming and long, improvisational solos, or lyrics influenced by beat poetry. "And all of that is what Jim shot," says Amelia Davis, his longtime assistant who is also an award-winning photographer, and to whom Marshall willed his estate. She will moderate the panel. "It's a very short period of history, from 1965 to 1968, and then it was over. Jim shot the bands, and he shot the crowds who came to see them, because he knew it was all impor- tant. He photographed not just the music event but also everything going on around it, and this was at a time when it was possible to have access to it all. Photographers can't do that today; there's too many managers and publicists and security guards around it. So music can never be captured in that way again." The annual Levitation Festival (formerly known as Austin Psych Fest) is yet another example of the scene's evolution. So I asked fes- tival co-founder and booker Rob Fitzpatrick to recommend some of the top contemporary psych acts playing SXSW this year. In addi- tion to Moon Duo, he cited veteran Australian band The Church, solo experimental guitarist Noveller, live barnburners Thee Oh Sees, Bay Area producer-artist Al Lover, L.A. garage rockers Wand, and Austin's own Holy Wave. No two are alike—because that's the true spirit of psychedelia at its best. The "Jim Marshall: All Access Photo Pass" session will take place on Wednes- day (March 18) at 2pm in Room 17A of the Austin Convention Center. Kaukonen also performs on Tuesday (March 17) at the Lucky Lounge (209A W. 5th St.). For more music showcase schedules, see schedule.sxsw.com or the SXSWGO app. J e f fe r s o n A i rp la n e i n t h e H a i g h t © J I M M A R S H A L L P H O T O G R A P H Y L L C