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SXSW here we come!

Posted at 6:48 PM on March 18, 2009 by Melanie Walker (1 Comments)

Ah yes, Austin Texas and the annual pilgrimage to South By Southwest, the biggest music conference in the world. Over 1800 bands from as many homelands as the UN, and four days and nights to try to see as many as you can catch.

For many years I used to feel bad if I didn't maximize my band time, but a few years back I started to give up on the quantity issue and instead focus on a combination of seeing what I want to see, and allowing for the delicious accidents - which in years past enabled me to wander into venues and discover a young Neko Case or an unheralded band like Fanfarlo or We Are Standard, both of whom I hope to see again this year.

If you've been to SXSW, you know it's truly the epicenter of music for these sunny spring days, and if you haven't been, how can I describe it? First off - there's Sixth Street - where in the course of sever or eight blocks that are closed off to pedestrian traffic only every night, over 50 venues blast music into the street with hourly showcases. Add another couple dozen venues on the side streets that run into sixth, and you've got a virtual musical smorgasbord to choose from every hour. Mix a combination of rising stars (Glasvegas, Cold War Kids, Andrew Bird, Peter Bjorn & John, The Hold Steady, Silversun Pickups for example) with returning veterans (Echo and the Bunnymen, Devo, That Petrol Emotion, PJ Harvey), and never-heard-of-em-but they might be cool bands (We Were Promised Jetpacks, French Horn Rebellion, Dananananakroyd), and you start to see how you can be paralyzed by too much choice.

In recent years the lines for the big shows have made it sometimes difficult to get in to see everyone you want to see - prompting longtime SXSWers to long for the old days when there were a few thousand badges instead of the tens of thousands of the past few years - but with the economy in the toilet, this year it might be easier to get in to see bigger names at the Festival.

I'm typing this as our plane departs Dallas for Austin and the start to the mayhem. I have a list of artists I hope to see - but most hours of every day there are four or five entries for every hour from 12n till 2am. So at this point, I have no idea who I'm going to end up seeing - it depends on who's in my posse, where I'm coming from, what level of Shiner Bock intake is at that time of day... but whatever we go see, it'll probably end up being a lot of fun, and a great musical experience. More to come from Texas soon!

- Jim McGuinn @ SXSW

Comments (1)

Try to go see Viniloversus from Venezuela. Awesome live band. Their material is a mix of Incubus and Silverchair with straight-in-your-face rock n roll that will leave you gasping for air. They're young too and speak perfect English. My friend Alberto should be around with them (he is the one who is always so serious looking). Talk to him. He is a wealth of knowledge about music from South America.
VINILOVERSUS
Genre: Rock Hometown: Caracas VENEZUELA
www.myspace.com/viniloversus
Saturday, March 21 8:00 p.m.
Habana Bar Backyard (708 E 6th St)
Also don't miss Ximena Sarinana and Pato Fu. I can't believe I am not going. Jeez.

Posted by Ramon | March 18, 2009 7:22 PM

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SXSW here we come!

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March 2009
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
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