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SXSW Over Already?

Posted at 4:55 PM on March 19, 2007 by Melanie Walker (4 Comments)

Melanie Walker Music Director reporting after surviving South By Southwest in Austin, TX...speechless...wow. SXSW felt like a month yet raced by in a flash! I barely slept, barely ate, busted my favorite pair of shoes, lost my voice, and probably damaged my ears beyond repair...but I had a great time :) I was worried about keeping up with the pace of such a marathon of a convention...but suprisingly I held my own. Getting up at 8am for our broadcast at Buffalo Billiards and hitting the sack round 4am was not an easy task by any means but I became this fiend...fueled by my desire to rock...I channeled my inner twenty something and willed myself to do as much as I could in the little time I had there.

The bands I saw were Jamie T, A-Trak, No Age, Redman, Badly Drawn Boy, Andrew Bird, Black Lips, Panthers, 120 Days, Bonde Do Role, Ruby Isle (If I had to pay someone for everytime I saw Mark on the streets of Austin I'd be broke as a joke. Mallman was everywhere!),The Fratellis, Mando Diao, Fujiya & Miyagi, Peter Bjorn & John, The Good The Bad & The Queen , Land Of Talk, Malajube, The Presets, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Spoon, The Stooges, Vietnam...and folks this is nothing compared to the amount of bands most people saw. I only went out after our broadcast was done Thursday & Friday. I even made it to a couple of panels on Saturday morning for discussions on Breaking AAA Careers (whatever AAA means) and A&R at Independent Labels. So, yes I did attend the convention somewhat too ;)

Bands I wish I had seen Wolf & Cub (don't listen to Pitchfork...record rules...), +/-, Thomas Dybdahl, The Early Years, The Gossip, although I saw him on the balcony of our broadcast wish I'd seen Albert Hammond Jr., Junior Senior, Kid Koala, Les Savy Fav, The Little Ones, Los Abandoned, Menomena, Peaches, The Ponys, Pop Levi, The Rapture, Gruff Rhys, The Rumble Strips, Simian Mobile Disco, Spank Rock, Sloan, Voxtrot, The Bravery and Amy Winehouse... Most of these folks will be passing through the Twin Cities soon anyways. It was a compromise of sorts. I'll see them here in Minneapolis. Bands I heard were god awful and I'm glad I didn't go see Mika, Deerhunter, Tilly And The Wall, Paolo Nutini and Mutemath who I actually caught a tiny bit of and was like "What is this? When does Mando Diao go on?" and then I figured out it was Mutemath....nice guys but not my bag...

My night Saturday was cut short after pulling up in a taxi to the Vice Magazine Super Secret After Party with our publicist Christina and Sarah from City Pages to discover ambulances and fire trucks everywhere see the pics. We were told the balcony on the building fell down. Then we heard a wall collapsed. Now that I'm home, I discovered it was only the railing of the balcony that fell down see the pics. Lame. I wish I had stuck around since we heard the next day that the after party had moved to a bridge and continued with bands performing and everything. Although I missed what is always considered a good time with the Vice folks, my body was happy I went to bed at 4:30am instead of 7am :)

With only one power outage (during Peter Bjorn & John), a few slipped swears and ony one cancellation (my new music crush from the UK who lost his voice like me, Jamie T), our Live SXSW broadcast was a huge success! Wasn't EL-P incredible! He had a full band with him. Never seen that before! Too bad he got a little loose with his lips... My favorite band we had was most definitely The Young Knives. It was months of work to book the line up but well worth the efforts. I'm already daydreaming about SXSW '08 :) Suggestions?

SXSW was hipster heaven. If you are a fan of live music at festivals where not only do you see great shows all in one place but meet hoards of like minded musicheads such as yourself, don't mind getting a bit dirty, can ignore the smell of soured day old beer on the sidewalks and the occasional drunk frat boy from Austin that can't hold his liquor then you need to make a trip out to SXSW at least once in your lifetime.

It's an experience that not only fuels my love for new independent music, but it also reminded me of how lucky I am to work for The Current. Not to sound too overly dramatic, but it reminded me of how important The Current is to independent artists and for us to take that responsibility seriously. We vow to bring you the best new sounds the indie scene has to offer. You can count on us ;)

Any other Minnesotans that came to Austin have some great SXSW stories to share?

Comments (4)

Hi,

I travelled over from Orkney in Scotland and had a great week. I went to a few of your broadcasts ( Peter, Bjorn & John, The Young Knives , Antibalas) and really enjoyed them. I ended up seeing about seventy acts. The best were Malajube, Sloan, Rock Plaza Central,The Jyrojets, The Walkmen, Canada, Victorian English Gentlemen's Club, Los Adandones and Midlake. The absolutely drop dead stop you in your tracks shows were Cold War Kids in the Paste magazine afternoon set at Maggie Mae's, Ghostland Observatory's wild party at La Zona Rosa and Beirut's triumphant return at Emo's.
Very few let downs but The Pony's were poor when I saw them at Emo's and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly did not live up to expectations at Stubbs. Wished I saw Popup, The Kissaway Trail and Menomena.

Only just over 41 weeks to go....

Posted by Ronnie Greenwood | March 20, 2007 8:37 AM

erm....make that 51 weeks, brain still in Texas, body in Scotland.

Posted by ronnie Greenwood | March 20, 2007 8:38 AM

Scotland?!? I thought traveling from Minnesota was far. Thanks so much for dropping by our broadcast! Do you come every year to SXSW? I bumped into quite a few folks from the UK and Europe this year. Actually, seems like the UK and Sweden dominated the scene down there a bit more than years past. I've heard alot of good things about Rock Plaza Central. I'll check'm out thanks!

Posted by Melanie Walker | March 20, 2007 9:08 AM

Nice site. Thank you:-)
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