Mike and Kelly created R. Ring over a year ago. Deal, the twin sister of Kim Deal of the Pixies and guitarist of The Breeders, has played around the world and Montgomery has been performing with Cincinnati's Ampline for more than 10 years. With no albums out yet, the band came to SXSW and played one official show and showed Austin the new musical endeavor.
Can you describe your time at SXSW in five words? (long pause) Kelly and I are here. We're not really sure how to explain it. We're just enjoying ourselves.
What's your best moment so far? Getting shut down. We rolled in to town yesterday and went to place called Hill Country Weavers and they invited us to come do some knitting and play some music. They invited us to come play a show with this Texas band Schmillion. We were playing this really docile music at a knitting store and there were chairs in the driveway with people knitting, and our friend Jerry DeCicca, from the Black Swans, brought his balloon animal stuff and was making animals for people. Then the law rolls up and shuts us down. It was a funny scene. It was like the law rolled in and blew the candles out on a three-year-old's birthday cake.
Any big takeaway you'll bring back to Cincinnati? Sunburn on my fair skin. We got some records from Ohio Knife and other Cincy bands while down here playing with them all. That was fun. I also got my balloon bunny from Jerry.
Anything unexpected happen? I saw a 30-foot tall concrete sea horse. As I was in full awe of that I saw a 40-foot tall marlin in full arch. You just see a lot of sights down here. It's a strange place, but there are so many amazing places.
Plans for next year? Hill Country Weavers did invite us back for next year and they promised to have their permits so we don't get shut down again. But who knows, we may not even be alive next year. I think something we'll do next year is bring a skateboard. We didn't have time to plan anything. We found out we had our official show and left shortly after.
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