Ramesh Srivastava of Voxtrot Lays the Lowdown On His South By Southwest:
“My SXSW experience this year was perhaps not the most positive. Despite the fact that it’s still loads of fun and it’s nice to see people I don’t often have the chance to see, it just seems like a lot of the emphasis on bands is being removed from the festival and re-channeled into an emphasis on a love of getting into things that are really hard to get into. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really love recreation as much as the next person, often in these aforementioned difficult-to-get-into events, and yes, it’s easier for me because I live in Austin and know many of the shop/club owners. For these reasons, this criticism is highly hypocritical. But even still, as the festival grows in notoriety and exclusivity, it seems like much of the spontaneity and focus on discovering NEW bands is being sucked out of the event, and I just hope that it doesn’t have the unfortunate demise of reaching a kind of ‘critical mass.’ A mass of I’m not sure what, but a mass nonetheless… Fortunately there are people like Daytrotter who still really love bands, enough even to drive all the way to Austin and spend day and night locked in a room with only a
glass window to the outside world.”

This session was recorded in Austin at Big Orange Studio (that’s a redundant line, by now) on March 13, a Tuesday. They pulled the Wrecking Force van into the compound just as Peter & the Wolf was ending. The skies were still gray and rainy when they got here, but they cleared up a little when they were in the room. It was this day that a local Austin magazine featured them on the cover of its SXSW issue. The cover photo showed them peeking around a hotel hallway wall with a bunch of fanatical girlies in the foreground. They had a stack of these with them. They were mildly embarrassed. – Sean Moeller

First song
Steven (Voxtrot) [3.15MB] [5340 downloads]


– original version appears on Voxtrot
A song written for my friend Steven from Glasgow, who was sort of my partner in crime…so to speak. It’s about leaving Glasgow to return to my “responsible” Austin life.

Second song
Soft and Warm (Voxtrot) [4.10MB] [5044 downloads]


— original version appears on Mothers, Daughters, Sisters & Wives
This song was written for the lead character in the book, The Line of Beauty. Always fun to play live… gives me a break from standing up.

Third song
Kid Gloves (Voxtrot) [4.07MB] [4966 downloads]


– original version appears on Voxtrot
This is really fun to play live, especially with a younger audience. Apparently, even in the company of your parents, it’s okay to say fuck as long as you sing it.

Fourth song
The Future Part 1 (Voxtrot) [3.28MB] [4945 downloads]


– original version appears on Voxtrot
This one I normally do live by myself, but we thought we’d try it the group way this time. Sometimes it’s a bit ramshackle, but hopefully not too much in this session.