Change of Itinerary: Road Trippin' with Ruby Isle

When I first crafted my SXSW proposal to pitch to my bosses, I said I wanted to follow a band down to Austin and see why they went and what they hoped to get from the festival. I soon learned, however, that the bands that play the fest are announced way later than our editorial planning for the magazine allows. Knowing that there would undoubtedly be musicians we're interested in going down there, we decided to skip the magazine coverage (at least for now) and instead opted to put all our eggs in mspmag.com coverage. So we're going to shoot video interviews with local bands at the conference and post them to mspmag.com this week and this weekend.

I booked my music badge, lined up videographer Chuck Olsen to shoot and edit, and bought my plane ticket to Austin. I lined up my interviews and decided which performers' sets I wanted to shoot.

Then, yesterday, as I was gearing up to leave tomorrow, I checked the mspmag.com MySpace account and saw that Mark Mallman's Ruby Isle was doing a secret world premiere show that night at the 400 Bar. The band was slated to make its debut Friday at SXSW, so when I heard of this debut show, I knew I had to go.

I was talking to Mallman after the band's uber-energetic, super showy set, and we decided it'd be fun for me to road trip with Ruby Isle down to SXSW. So I said to hell with my plane ticket and packed up early to leave this morning.

Mallman picked me up in his Grand Caravan with Ruby Isle electronics/backup vocals man Dan Geller, Ruby Isle drummer Aaron LeMay, and Mallman's drummer for his other band, Sean Hoffman (roadie-ing this trip).

My Almost Famous road trip so far has been pretty much like any other road trip. Our first stop was at a Holiday station, where I interviewed Geller and LeMay, who were sitting in the far back bench seat of the van. You'll see the video soon (once I've gotten to Austin and given Chuck the footage to edit into something wonderful).

Second stop: Burger King for lunch. We all got some BK veggie burgers, and picked up a BK crown for Hoffman, whose birthday is today.

Third stop: Dudley's Corner, a filling station/rest stop 160 miles outside Minneapolis in Iowa. Here, I interviewed LeMay about how he got involved with Mallman. He's only been drumming for about five years, and has only known Mallman since last summer, but when Mallman's record Between the Devil and Middle C came out last year, he asked LeMay to tour with him. When Ruby Isle started up, Mallman again propositioned LeMay.

So, it's me and four guys in a minivan. Road trippin' is road trippin', for the most part—even with rock stars. They're constantly quizzing one another on movie trivia, being total music dorks—who produced what album, who wrote what songs, what Bowie song made him a U.S. hit ("Rebel")—and, of course, singing along to CDs. It's funny how you suddenly become totally insecure about singing in the car when the car is filled with professional musicians.

Mallman calls other Minnesota bands who are going to the conference—Cloud Cult, The Melismatics—to see where they're at. Some lewd text messages are exchanged (any surprise that there are dick and fart jokes flying around?).

There are definite Almost Famous moments. I put in my copy of the new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible, and on the second track Mallman says it sounds like something off Joshua Tree. Next thing I know, everyone in the car is singing "on the dark side" in unison during the chorus.

Geller states the obvious about how much this situation is like Almost Famous, and I point out that I'm William Miller, not Penny Lane.

We're staying overnight in Oklahoma City tonight. I'll check back in with y'all tomorrow. For now, here's some more of the playlist we've been listening to today:

Joy Division, Beatles, Joe Jackson, Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon), Amnesiac, and some XM Radio hits.

P.S. It's pushing eighty degrees. In March. It's gonna be a great week.