Keith Jeffrey from Atlas Genius
After a tight and quick set by Surfer Blood, next up at the Belmont was Australia’s Atlas Genius. I hadn’t heard of them until I started going through bands for SXSW. I had put them down as a “would see” and my only other note was “mellow”. Laid back might be a better descriptor as they rock while making it look and sound easy. If you’ve heard one song from them, it’s probably the song “Trojans”. It’s an earworm for sure even if it’s a pretty straight-forward guitar pop on the surface. Jeffrey’s voice doesn’t really have any hint of his native land, it’s smooth and polished and glides well over his guitar and the rhythms drummer Michael Jeffrey lays down. One of their influences is the Police and you can definitely hear hints of that band in a few of their songs as well as a few 80s synth-pop influences.
Just like Surfer Blood, their set wasn’t that long 
(remember, at this point we still had 3 more bands before headliner Flaming Lips) but they were confident and fun to listen to. In addition to “Trojans”, “If So” was the other stand-out from their set. Guitarist Keith did come do some solo work off to the edge of the stage, and also made his way into the crowd. If a band doesn’t send someone into the crowd, I’m going to be worried.
Here’s a quick vid from their set, sorry audio is not the best but only one I could find:
Nothing to Write Home About 