photo diary: Another Michael — The Grey Estates

In a special Photo Diary series, we’ve teamed up with Topshelf Records to post a selection of words + photos from some Topshelf artists that attended SXSW. This photo diary comes to you courtesy of Another Michael.

This year was my first time at SXSW, and it was such a blast! We (Another Michael) toured down to the festival with the incredible Bellows. They were so much fun to be around and watch perform every night, and they have an amazing new album out through Topshelf called "The Rose Gardener!" See Nick from Another Michael and Oliver from Bellows at the Friends Oasis showcase below:

My favorite part of the festival by far was getting exposed to so much music, both that I was familiar and unfamiliar with. I got to see bands from all over the world (including Machina and Regalily from Japan), and one band that really stood out to me was Boyscott. They were so much fun to see live, the aesthetic of their merch is A++, and they are all super nice people! Their songs and arrangement are kinda like Vampire Weekend, but also kinda surf-y, and all in all it made me wanna dance.

I felt so incredibly lucky to get to see one of my favorite bands, Ratboys, THREE times at SXSW (and let me tell you, each time was better than the last). They put on one of the most powerful live performances; Julia has killer voice and guitar parts that move from meandering fingerpicking to crunchy power chords, Dave plays guitar parts that explode with color and whacky synth lines, Sean locks and holds in a super tight bass groove and sings energetic backing vocals, and Marcus simply shreds it on drums. Julia actually connected us with Topshelf a few years ago so it felt especially special to get to play alongside them at multiple showcases, including the Topshelf showcase. Here they are at the Phluff showcase!

My biggest and only regret of the festival was not having my flash turned on when I took a picture of Michelle from Japanese Breakfast crowd surfing about 1 foot away from me... so enjoy this grainy photo of her on stage instead (also where the flash wasn't on 😛)

Finally, we all had a lot of fun going to a couple of different thrift stores in Austin and achieving our ultimate "festival looks." I think I was kinda going for Edna Mode from the Incredibles but in the South, and Nick got a hat that had "Fear No Beer" embroidered on the side. Here we are right outside of the Austin convention center:

A big big big thank you to Kevin Duquette, Topshelf, and Phluff for putting us on their fantastic showcases this year - we couldn't have had a better time!

We had the good fortune of running into our new friends in the band Katy Kirby several times throughout our tour- Here is a shot of them playing an unofficial show in the back of a truck. It was clear to us from the first show we played together (in nashville) that they are a special group that can create truly undeniable and inspiring music.