stef

“Nothing I’ve seen since “The Runaways” has made me want to run home and pick up a guitar more, and this feeling was cemented when my friend and I got up to leave and ran smack into Joan Jett.”

Stef would’ve seen a bunch of shows on sunday, but then she had a mental breakdown instead: the cartoon recap.

Stef became a press sensation last year for @CLTranslated, the twitter account she invented to translate Courtney Love’s incoherent tweets. Needless to say, with Hole on the schedule for Friday it was bound to be an epic day — AND THEN SHE SAW SMOKEY ROBINSON TOO. Also; Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings & Darker My Love.

On Day Two of South by Southwest; Stef sees Kid Sister, MEN, the Oh Sees, The Scanners, The Generationals, the Vivian Girls and finds a gay bar, a cute drummer, an illegal party on a pedestrian bridge, Nigel Harrison from Blondie, the Ukulele Festival, a DJ she met ages ago at a Lady Gaga gig. Also she falls in love with Duchess Says.

Music blogger and SxSW warrior Stef has descended on the music capital of the world to bring us full reports on the happenings and hype acts of this year’s South by Southwest music festival. Highlights from Day 1 include Roky Erickson, the Muffs, the Depreciation Guild, Zoë Keating, and Audiostraddle favorite Hesta Prynn.

Autostraddle Gaga-Expert Stef and our designer/Gaga-Lover Alex break down “The Fame Monster” track-by-track, including full songs for your listening enjoyment!

Lesbian Lindsay was a virgin to the The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival but this year she gave it a shot and it changed her whole life! With recap cartoons provided by Stef.

Stef is privy to the best-kept secret in rock’n'roll, and it involves a kick-ass former Mormon who’s now a sick drummer.

Stef wants to make you DANCE B*TCHES! Whatever you’re a fan of, she has a new recommendation for you. Especially for fans of “party time in general.” Amanda Blank, Girl in a Coma, Zambri and so.much.more!

“”It was a duality that went with the album – it’s a little bit angry but also incredibly cheeky and poppy.”

Let’s be clear and honest right from the start: Brody Dalle is a badass woman. Brody Dalle is the frontwoman of Spinnerette, and she was clearly the only thing the kids came to see at their recent Bowery Ballroom gig.

Something about Amanda’s music brings out the wide-eyed teenage fangirl in me; I haven’t felt this way about a singer since I was 12 and Shirley Manson told me she was only happy when it rained.

“Well, a friend of mine saw me playing at some point and said, ‘You know, it’d be interesting if you took paint and put it on your fingers and and left a mark of where your fingers traveled on the guitar.’ … I kind of took this idea for a minute and thought well, OK.. That was the first seed planted.”

Stef interviews Minneapolis-based openly-gay quintet Sick of Sarah and Crystal interviews Emma Dean, who’s just released the “musical theatre soundtrack for two years of [her] life (2006-2008)!”

We’re totally fascinated with everything Amanda Palmer writes, sings, says, thinks or Twitters, so obvs we sent a spy to see her co-production “With The Needle That Sings In Her Heart” performed by the Lexington High School Drama Club.

“We’re huge 90′s fans, so we put all new stuff on hold, and even older stuff, 80′s, 70′s, 60′s, 50′s, all of that! And we just listened to like, Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam, all that fun music! They had such cool videos…”

Say what you want about this woman — she sings her heart out and dances like a maniac, and her stage show is worth every penny she’s put into it.

Crystal from Australia & Stef’s Beat on the Street team up to bring you this week in music, with lots of secrets too.

A world without t.A.T.u. is a somber world indeed. So let’s relive it with Stef’s Top Ten Most amazing Moments EVER in t.A.T.u’s Musical History.

When we here at Autostraddle HQ heard that Hesta Prynn (alias Julie Potash) was among the illustrious performers at SXSW 2009, we knew immediately that she’d be a perfect candidate for our first Beat on the Street interview.

Rachael Ray, Magic Tomato (it’s a food, not a band name), Girls Gone Wild, PJ Harvey, Rye Rye, Solange, BFF Little Boots, Perez Hilton dropping the C-word, the Kanye West Surprise, Yelle, and the drunken end of SXSW. There were alcoholic sno-cones!

Discussed: SXSW can be really Random, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, I wanna take you to a GAYYYYY bar, War Tapes, White T-Shirts for Black T-Shirt People, useful swag, the School of Seven Bells, the kinds of bands you need to see when it’s dark out, our new favorite bar the Rusty Spur, the AKAs, pasty palors, Echo and the Bunnymen, Priceless Abortion, Girl in A Coma, Graham Coxon’s New Stuff, Tricky, DEVO. Also, TAYLOR F*CKING HANSON.

Stef’s suitcase finally arrived! She saw Devo and Amanda Palmer and Margaret F*cking Cho! Amanda asks if maybe internet silence is going to be the new punk for musical artists, and later barks like a dog at Margaret Cho.

In between being delayed in airports forever and drinking, Stef manages to rock SXSW with Little Boots, Todd P, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Box Elders, Telepathe, Those Darlins, An Horse, Hesta Prynn, and A HALF POUND HOT DOG. (That is not a band but the actual food product.)

Intro to Stef. What is Totally Gay Music. Röyksopp. SXSW. Hey guys! My name is Stef and this is “The Beat on the Street,” where I’ll be writing to you homos &  homo-allies about music every week or so (except um, this week, when you’ll hear from me a LOT — but more on thatRead the Rest…