Jackson Milgaten

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this here site, mostly because I have been so damn busy with all things Cuckoo Chaos. We just got back from touring down to the South By South West music festival in Austin, TX and as always it was a total blast and shit show at the very same time. This was my third year performing at the festival and hands down the most insanely busy week of music of my entire life. We toured down there with our friends Treasure Mammal (from Phoenix, AZ) playing four shows in the southwestern US.

Here is a shot of Abe (of Treasure Mammal) spitting some real talk at the University of Redlands. We always have a blast playing there and the kids really know how to get nuts! After leaving California we ventured into Arizona and played a house show in Phoenix followed by Brootal Sun Fest in Tucson the next night before making our way across the great expanse of desert that is the road to central Texas.

 Once we got to Austin the real madness began. We played nine shows in five days which basically kept us in motion the entire time we were down there. You would think playing two to three shows a day wouldn’t leave much time for doing more than sleeping and eating but boy would you be wrong! This is my right arm after day one:

That night we met up with our manager Matt and talked our way into the Built to Spill / Youth Lagoon show being put on by IFC. It was crazy packed and nearly impossible to get a view of the stage. So during the beginning of YL’s set I walked up to the front of the club off to the side by the soundboard and told the security guards that I was the band’s manager. They believed me and let me through the velvet rope. This granted me access to the area directly between the audience and the stage where I sat on the floor and leaned on the monitors as photographers stepped over me busily snapping their cameras.

 Some very nice British chaps came to see our final set on Wednesday and we became friends almost immediately. It turned out that they were all in a band from London called Zulu Winter and were also playing some shows at the festival. So the next day we made our way out to “The Tiniest Bar in Texas” to see them do their thing.

We thoroughly enjoyed their music and they were great performers to boot! I would highly recommend checking them out. Another highlight of the day for me was a random graffiti “battle” we happen to stumble upon. Two artists were given a blank wall and seventeen minutes to create a piece that would then be judged by the crowd as well as a jury panel. The event was emceed by a beat-boxer by the name of Reeps One who was seriously one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

 But of everything I saw down there this year, Deerhoof’s performance at the Lustre Pearl on Friday afternoon takes the cake. I’ve seen them before and it seems every time I do they somehow seem to get better. They might be the best live band I have ever seen and watching them play live I find myself smiling and laughing during most of their set out of sheer joy.

Overall the trip was a magical experience and left me feeling elated, exhausted, and as enthusiastic as ever about the power of music and people coming together. We crawled back into the van mere shells of our former selves with happy hearts and tired bodies and minds and made our way back home to garden of eden known as southern California. Here is a final shot of my arm at the end of the week long marathon: