LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR

Townshend Uses SXSW to Promote, Perform

BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT

Lincoln Journal Star

AUSTIN, Texas — Pete Townshend was a busy man at South by Southwest last week, giving the conference’s keynote interview, then popping up for a couple of performances as an unbilled “special guest.”

So why would The Who guitarist come to talk at a new music festival well after his band’s latest album was released and well into its North American tour?

He has another project he calls The Method and it will involve the creation of songs for individual listeners. It’s based in concepts he explored in 1971 and then again on his 2000 album “Lifehouse Elements” but were too technologically advanced at that point.

He plans to announce the details of The Method, which will operate on the Internet, in late April.

During his interview, Townshend talked about what fueled The Who’s early music, providing some insight into one of rock’s pivotal eras:

“The unique view we had allowed us, the post-Beatles Brits — The Stones, The Who and many others — to look at American music and see it as a three-legged chair of country, blues and pop and draw them together.

“What we also brought to the music was the post-war condition. I don’t think you guys went through that. In England, it was absolute denial. What we brought to that three-legged chair was not anger, but frustration to be denied answers to questions, which, to this day, we have not had. The key to The Who’s music is to keep screaming: ‘What is this about?’”

That kind of screaming, Townshend said, may no longer be appropriate today.

His biggest piece of advice for new bands: Forget about record labels and CDs and do your work on the Web.

“It’s a very different time,” he said. “If you're not a baby boomer band, don’t mess with it (the traditional music industry).”

Regardless of whether the music is made by a band that appeals to boomers or to teens, Townshend said, great songs have something in common.

“A great rock song, in the way I define it, must speak for those who listen to it, not those who sing it,” he said. “If I love an early Elvis song, it’s what I feel that’s important, not what he felt when he sang it.”

Later that evening, Townshend joined Ian McLagan and the Bump Band at the Austin Music Awards for a tribute to Ronnie Lane,

‘A great rock song, in the way I define it, must speak for those who listen to it, not those who sing it. If I love an early Elvis song, it’s what I feel that’s important, not what he felt when he sang it.’ — Pete Townshend

[photo]

JACK PLUNKETT/The Associated Press

The Who’s Pete Townshend performs onstage at the Austin Music Awards in Austin, Texas, on March 14.

the late leader of the Small Faces and Faces, highlighted by his frenetic guitar work on “What You Gonna Do About It?” He also turned up on stage with the Fratellis at a Spin magazine party and joined his partner Rachel Fuller at her official showcase.

Reach L Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.