sxsw 2009

This foxy female fivesome from Oslo, Norway, is the perfect mixture of sweet and sour, combining girl-group harmonies and sass with gritty rock 'n' roll fervor to produce a high-octane hybrid that should have all the hepcats dancing. The ladies, whose CD happens to be one of the first releases from Steven Van Zandt's new label, comprise more than just an all-female version of early, hard-rocking Blondie. This is a non-standard garage-hard rock-surf-pop band that manages to mix up the formula to keep things fresh.

More of a collective than an actual rock band, Still Flyin' is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Sean Rawls, who formed it in late 2004 in San Francisco after relocating there from Athens, GA, in 2003. Rawls was inspired to put the group together by a song he had written while a member of Je Suis France, "Never Gonna Touch the Ground." To jam on the song, he invited a wide range of friends to rehearse, resulting in an ever-shifting personnel of upwards of 15 musicians and singers at a time, performing locally.

Suzie Ungerleider, who writes and performs as Oh Susanna, is a Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter. She was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, staring at the ocean, mountains and railroad tracks through sheets of rain. She sought refuge with song under burnt-out warehouses and in darkened clubs with the promise of guitar twang and a lonesome cry. Suzie cites a wide range of jazz, blues, pop, rock and folk influences as inspirations for her musical career. Discography
Oh Susanna EP (1997)