I know, I know, I'm a bit early. The festival's not on till June, but I'm off to see bands who have got through to this round of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition. Michael and Emily Eavis will be there watching the bands, and it's always good to see the bands in Pilton Working Mens Club getting on down to loads of great new bands. Last year the Travelling Band and Golden Silvers won, so who knows what this year will bring.

I'm in for Nihal this weekend too at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday too, so see you over the weekend!

Listen back to the excellent Casiokids in session and on the show last night here. Debut Maida Vale band who are surely going on to bigger and better things. If you like dance, shaking, rhythms, grooves, you'll love this lot. This video of theirs proves it!

See the Maida Vale sesison recorded here too.

International Radio 1 is on all this week at 9pm. Daniel P Carter in Sydney, Gilles Peterson in Istanbul, Pete Tong in Brazil, and me on Norway! I say on Norway, because I couldn't make it out there in the end. Fortunately Alice Lloyd from Radio 1 and Andy Rogers who records loads of the brilliant live music you hear on Radio 1 went, and came back with loads of excellent live music recorded at the By:Larm festival that happens in the centre of Oslo.

So tonight at 9pm you'll hear an hour of Norwegian and Scandinavian music, the low down on the death metal, jazz and pop scenes there. Annie, Whitest Boy Alive and Hanne Hukkelberg are on it too. Norway's got an eclectic music scene to say the least! You can download it as a podcast after as well from here.

They're fast becoming everyone's favourite new band. They're Norwegain, make this uber-cool dance music to move your feet, nod your head, and for the unafraid, jump up and down to. And Casiokids are in session on the show on Wednesday night from midnight across England. They'll also be bringing a selection of their favourite new Scandinavian tunes in to play on the show, which is full of Norwegian and Scandi-Pop tunes, after the International Radio 1 programme is on at 9pm.

I'm loving the brilliant new single by Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Always like this'. From London, I do believe their exams are over now and they can get on with being a band and taking over the world. I like this song a lot; it's very addictive.

As if having their own massive indoor festival isn't enough with hundreds of venues, extra venues and makeshift marquees in parking lots isn't enough, there's an extra day of music at Waterloo Park SXSW, called Mess with Texas. Free for everyone to get in with two stages, wandering around it's like being at a traditional festival in a field, with trees and grass and a nice break from buildings.

Jason Lytle who used to be in Grandaddy and now flying solo played a showcase of his new mellow-pop tunes, King Khan and the Shrines is like a Vegas-inspired party on stage with pom poms and a big party vibe, Vetiver's heart melting country is a wonder in the sun, and Team Robespierre (friends of the Death Set) played a frankly chaotic set with crowdsurfing and all the instruments played in the park's crowd. Awesome!

The Mean Eyed Cat used to have a huge garden with a little train running past it, but now it's a block of flats. Fortunately the venue is still there, complete with the best I've ever been to which is a shrine to Johnny Cash. I'm here for the British Bootleg BBQ and arrive to see Hot Leg play, Justin from the Darkness' new band. The crowd is huge, I stay outside. Rolo Tomassi play their 6th and final gig at SXSW, and again blow me away. I honestly believe they're the best live band in the world. I'd like to think the late Johnny Cash would approve.

Solid Gold have pounding american beats and a mish mash of keys and guitars that sounds heavy, and would probably be even more so in a club.

It's a wonder Theoretical Girl gets to play her pleasant soft-alt-pop onstage, judging by their tales of water skiing during the day. Even a dislocated thumb doesn't stop the guitarist from getting on with it. Good job too; SXSW isn't made for amateurs, it has to be giving it your all or I guess it's tricky to recover and make up for it.

Found from Edinburgh ('it's by London' they explain to those whose geography might not be up to scratch) came here to Austin by releasing an excellent EP to raise funds for the flights. Ingenuity runs through their songs, rich in melodies, dipped in wicked instrumentation and lyrics that make me wanna look them up online.

Frat rap is the name of the game right now (they tell me). Asher Roth is the current poster boy for it, and might be the first rapper in the world who looks like he works in my dentist surgery. Dipping into classic hip hop mixtape mode, his rhymes are crunchy, and the show is a lot of fun, enhanced by Cool Kids coming on for Black Mags and his first single I Love College has a My Name Is-type calling card of a hit written all over it.

After Wax Fangs a few days back, American Fangs from Houston are playing at the Afro Punk night. Brutal and hardcore, the small mosh pit is the most enthusiastic I've seen all week, with the band part of a scene that is an amalgamation of genres, no matter the expected stereotypical musical tag for those playing it. It's exciting, and one of the great things at SXSW; every year there's boundaries crossed, genres fused, music bypassing cliches and stereotypes to make innovative and thrilling new tunes. Maybe in some 20 years there'll just be one band playing, covering all styles.

Bishi from England played a very well received set, and it's easy to see why. Her rocking sitar sounds are easy on the ear, unexpected and enhanced by her theatrical flourishes onstage.

Guaranteed big hitters from SXSW? The ones 'discovered' here, the ones the industry will push from now on? Probably Temper Trap, Little Boots, and my favourite band of the festival; Local Natives.

But Janelle Monae has superstar in waiting written all over her. At her gig there's a long wait 'till she gets onstage, high anticipation. Then smoke. Then her band. Then Janelle herself, a live wire of high kicks, big eyes, a pnt-sized parallel universe Beyonce if you like, high on ideas, out to to confuse and challenge perceptions. Then the blues, soul, funk, hip hop, big band intergalactic (she's a protege of Outkast's Andre 3000 after all). Her raw power with fun wig outs, a spot of crowd-surfing the entire venue from front to back and back again and a short set leaving you wanting more confirmed she's a superstar in waiting.

Fun, eh?

I'll have loads of photos to put up here soon too.

Turns out there's 160 bands from all over the UK playing out here at SXSW this year, with over 500 delegates. There's loads of folks from labels and managers here, meeting folk, watching theirs and other bands, making the most of this busy, hectic, incredible four days of music.

When I go to bed at night and when I wake in the morning, the streets are packed with folk getting from place to place, off to the next party, showcase, gig. The locals are out in force every year, as well as those here on business.

Today I started off watching Viva Voce playing an Under the Radar magazine party, which is a brilliant American magazine that always concentrates on fine new bands and artists. Loney, Dear from Sweden played too, and make music once you find you won't want to forget. With big, honest, fresh and beautiful songs, singer Emil's falsetto was on top form. There's a lot of Swedish band out here, from Peter, Bjorn and John to Tallest Man on Earth and the ace Dag for Dag.

Over at the British Embassy (actually Latitude 30, a venue where some of the UK showcases are happening), Come on Gang played interesting, joyous inide jams with singer Sarah owning an unusually out of place voice, that made it a pleasure to hear.



I stumble on a showcase in a marquee hosted by Soundcheck Magazine, and Pete and the Pirates are actually soundchecking. Is this what happens at a Soundcheck party? Obviously not as they start their set with Jenny, a song that refuses to leave my head till 2am.



Over the road Post War Years are playing their slinky beats, layered vocals ad special new songs. They have an album ready to come out, are on fire live at the moment, and have started their own label, ironically titled Wealth. With euphoric and housey influences, they're a band who could creep up and surprise people.



I went to see Local Natives again. It was a smaller soundsytem than last night's church gig, but was just spectacular. Playing on the roof of a venue under the boiling hot sun, with trees growing out of the floor and reaching for the sky, this was perfect. You have to check this band out.



Missed Future of the Left because of a really long queue, with And You Will Know us by the Trail of the Dead on after them. And You Will Know us by the Trail of the Queue. Around the queuers there's buskers, Japanese punk bands, unicyclists, fancy dressed funk bands and ice all over the floor. This place gets madder and madder.



Sleepy Sun were captivating in a psychedelic groove-based wig out kind of way; manic grins aplenty at their Mohawk venue. They use cockles for shakers onstage, and obviously love in a Permanent Summer of Love. Good name for a band that.



Watching Dent May and his Magnificent Ukuele is a lot of fun. Looking like he should come from Sweden, he actually does have a magnificent Ukulele, and a band. Jolly pop? Bit tongue in cheek while taking it completely serious and singing from the heart? Probably good for your health? You betcha!



The night ends with The Low Anthem playing in the church. A perfect venue for a stunning band, one moment extracting every last drop of juice from a fragile vocal harmony, the next exploding into a howlin' raw blues number, their single Charlie Darwin weaved its magic into the hearts of everyone present. Expect much flowerier words of praise thrown on this band in the future; they deserve everything said about them. Oh, and whoopering and hollering in a church is a lot of fun.

Goodnight.

The days and nights all turn into one big day and night here in Austin. You're not sure if the venue is indoors or out until you check if there's a roof above your head, and there's invisibles line and borders seperating the lines to get it, with music spilling from venue into venue. Trying to work out if the recession has hit SXSW, I'm told it has by sponsors not having the cash to sponsor gigs and parties as normal, and of bands having to cancel because of the financial commitmement. Maybe that's why there seems to be more US bands playing than usual? (But not Apes and Androids, who I was excited about, but of all the hyped, exciting new bands in the world, they're not on now).

For the second hot day of hot music busy-ness, I start with Northern Ireland's Skibunny; promoters, remixers, dj's and a mighty fine band. They make a kind of disco-shoegaze sound, exhubarant and exploding into feisty tunes that sound good. Later, General Fiasco and Fighting with Wire will play, showcasing the wealth of NI's current new bands.

Love Like Fire are from San Francisco and play in a little venue called Plush (I'm guessing Americans do do irony) and are excellent. They have mariachi drums, big echoing guitars with intricate lyrics and big ballsy distorted riff action. Singer, guitarist and keybordist Ann Yu keeps it emotional yet calm throughout before getting into the small but perfectly formed crowd at the end. I go and hassle them for cd's.

A friend who told me about Arcade Fire early on recommended I go see Wax Fang. I'm so glad I did. They're three lads from Louisville Kentucky and they're not as scary as the name suggests. Big desert-rock sounds with a theremin and some excellent shouting going on, the drummer's face isn't visible throughout the gig such is the shaking of his frazzled hair, but the lion's face on the drum kit most definitely was. A laptop wth some bkeys and beats on only adds to their earthy sound. Earthy but sexy. A hard thing to combine. Excellent musicianship, wailing and getting me hot under the collar.

I go to church for a bit, the Central Presbyterian Church, where Girls are playing. Not Women (also good and at SXSW) but Girls, a band yet to release their debut album and who impress by sounding not unlike Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes, which is no bad thing. Moving songs that I could imagine hearing coming out of dorms on campuses round Austin and beyond, the setting in a big church made this great. Almost had me in tears!

If you like Iglu & Hartly you'll like 3oh!3

South Africans Blck Jcks have been gigging in the US for a little while, and mix up world rhythms with some lively lyrics and is a nice change from the indie rock, as is Paparazzi from LA playing to not a lot of people and blending his favourite mix of electronic music, from dubstep to hip hop.

It's back to the church for The Local Natives, the finest band I've seen. Three part harmonies are sung with gusto, they're like all my favourite bands of the last five years all rolled into one. Fleet Foxes? Port O'brien? Arcade Fire? All in there, along with a Talking Heads cover, loads of percussion, and a band who look like they're having the best time ever, with the voices of angels. Big American Angels.

The best new music festival in the world? Without question, really. Based around 6th St in Austin, Texas, this is my fourth time at the music conference and showcase, bringing hundreds of bands from around the world to Austin every year.

I've been on planes in to Austin with Lady Sovereign and Gallows, and this time it was Esser who was on the flight, out to play SXSW for the first time ever with his brill blend of wonky pop.

Walking the streets on the Wednesday I bumped into the artists formerly known as Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, now known as The Cheek, who've been put up in a house with a resident chef. A chef! At least they'll get to eat well between playing partying, making new fans and friends and getting on down in the Austin sun. Their new tracks sound very good indeed, and different to the ones we know.

Previous Introducing session bands Sky Larkin, Rod Thomas and Post War Years were also on the lean mean streets of Austin, venue crawling and checking out where they're going to be playing throughout the week. There's music everywhere in Austin, at one point a guitarist actually came out from behind a bin strumming and rehearsing before a gig down a back alley. Such is SXSW, I didn't bat an eyelid. I heard a bit of London's Let's Wrestle from across a car park and every pub, shop and venue has an instore, showcase or party going on.

The band Beast are from Canada, singer Betty an owner of a most powerful voice, reminding me of Saul Williams and setting things up nicely for the day. Vic Galloway was checking out the Canadians too, awaiting Sebastien Grainger, who didn't turn up because of flight problems. bound to happen when there's this many bands playing. There's more Canadian action with Shout Out Out's yelpy building electro, which gets better and better.

Having seen a bit of his excellent talk on music, Jarvis Cocker was hanging outside the British Embassy Venue where Slow Club from his native Sheffield played a set, mixing their folk and accappella beautifully. Things got heavier with Dananananaykroyd, their name perplexing and exciting the Americans in equal measure. Scottish music godfathers the Proclaimers are out here too, and their gigs are all rammed apparently.

Baltimore rapper Rye Rye I'd heard on a wicked remix of MIA's Paper Planes a while back, so it was good to catch her solo set, all beats and rhymes delivered with attitude and sass. She was playing Pete Tong's showcase along with Late of the Pier (who by all accounts rocked the place into a rave-a-thon later that night), Deadmaus and Kissy Sell Out who's out here with his band.

Over at a confusing am I indoors or outdoors venue on Red River (street names in Austin grow on you when you're out there), Shilpa Ray is from Brooklyn, but unlike MGMT, Amazing Baby and Hockey, there's not a trendy headband in sight. Instead we get a psychedelically grooving show with an incredible frontwoman with one hell of a voice, screaming and bouncing onstage, with a harmonium and some really great songs.

Another New Yorker, Lissy Trullie, is the guitarist in a band of the same name, and her direct approach to lyrics, riffs and sounds makes a pleasantly direct impact, her cover of Hot Chip's Ready for the Floor a nice surprise, and her tunes wile seeming innocent enough at first do get under the skin. It was an entire set of covers by Phosphorescent, coming out from the underground with covers of Texan singer songwriter Willie Nelson's tunes. I'd only seen Willie in a Jessica Simpson video before but these songs are breathtaking. A good first day of music of all sorts; highlights on future Introducing shows of course, and another update tomorrow! Can't wit to see Wax Fang!, The Low Anthem and Dent May...

The name stands out a mile from other band names. Then you get used to it and get swept up in the BIG sound this two-piece from the north of England produce. You might have heard White Belt Yellow Tag on Zane's show, Lamacq's a fan, and after hearing their debut single You're Not Invincible we invited them in for a session on the show this Wednesday night at 9pm. Beth Elfyn will play the other session tracks and her favourite new tunes from Wales and beyond from midnight while I'm in South by South West.

It stands for South by South West and I'm pleased and lucky to say that I'm off to the festival in Austin, Texas again this year.

It works like this. Thousands of bands from all over the world go and play in a few hundred venues in Austin, Texas, USA of A, which embraces the live music for a week of every year. Last year I saw Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and the Dodos play amongst many others, and got to play them on the show. There's always hundreds of British bands going over to play every year too, to gain new fans, make the music industry on both sides of the Atlantic take note of them, and see if they can reshape their musical path in a positive way. I'll be catching up with some of them out there.

I look forward to seeing bands I've never heard before, bring them all back and play them on the show in a few weeks time. I'll update the blog while I'm out there too.

Here's a video of what I got up to last year;

Tom Robinson presents on BBC 6Music and is a champion of new, unsigend and emerging music and occassionally we swap tracks, support bands and spread the musical love. There's so much music made out there in bedrooms, studios, schools, workplaces and on mobile phones (probably), our shows differ in the music we play every week, and he always picks up on the interesting, banging, beautiful and wonderful new music made out there. The podcast is well worth checking out.

Check out his show HERE

Here's three brand new bands I've been playing on my In New Music We Trust show the last couple of weeks, passed on by different Introducing shows...

If you're a fan of letters, or glitchy beats with really nice vocals you'll love this. They're called JKLMNO , and they've been supported by BBC Shropshire

Muschnocandy is 16 year old producer Joe James, makes brilliant, dirty electro-noise of the highest order and is played on BBC Norfolk Introducing

Elephants make jump up indie-rock, and are much favoured by BBC Introducing in Kent. The show turned one recently and had a big gig to celebrate. Happy Birthday Introducing in Kent!

White Stripes.

Ting Tings.

Chase and Status.

Electric Soft Parade.

Daft Punk.

Continuing the tradition of bands with two members who make a BIG sound, Swanton Bombs are in session on my show this week. Dominic and Brendan have gigged loads, given away an ALBUM with their SINGLE on their own Quiff label, and are slowly knocking everyone who hears them out.

Tune in on Wednesay at 9pm and from Midnight to hear the beauties they recorded at Maida Vale.

I've been standing in for Zane the last couple of nights, with a new tune from Golden Silvers being just one highlight. It's so good. Check the blog here to hear it. True Romance!

Last night I announced who's playing the Underage Festival in London's Victoria Park on August 2nd.

The line up includes;

The Pigeon Detectives, LadyHawke, Hadouken!, Metronomy, Rolo Tomassi, Esser, Tinchy Stryder, Kissy Sell Out, Caspa (DJ), First Aid Kit, JME, Marina and the Diamonds, Plastician, Pull In Emergency, Rosie and the Goldbug, Rusko (live), The Chapman Family, The Whip, The XX, Tomb Crew, Tommy Sparks and Video Nasties. Phew! 'Sgonna be good!

It's not a totally representative name of a band who are actually very good. They're from Southend, one single young, and do a fine line in staccatto-indie-rock tunes that are sharper even than their finely pressed shirts. I enjoyed them at In the City in Manchester last year, and when they gig, they really gig. Check their tourdates here , and read bout them on Newsbeat here. They're in session on the show this Wednesday.

Yes, we all love BBC Radio 1. But this week, for half an hour, I'll be on BBC Radio 4 (Tuesday at 4.30pm). The programme's called A Good Read, it discusses three books every week, and I'm one of the guests. I chose Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, a book I got into when I was about 15. It was the first proper book I read because I actually wanted to, not because I had to for school. It's actually a pretty rock n roll kind of book, about a young Scottish kid who does very dark, weird things.

Here's me with the show's host Sue MacGregor and other guest Robyn Karney with the books we chose.

Huw Stephens

I've never read so much in a short amount of time before. Now, back to the mp3's :)...