BBC at SXSW
South by South West: Austin, Texas 12-16 March 2008
Did anyone see Dolly?
Well we’ve all had our fill of tex-mex and showcase queues for another year and its time to settle in and recoup in time for the summer festivals. But all this doesn’t mean the fun is over! Let’s relive the finer moments of SXSW 2008 together shall we?Through the wondrous power of the internet you can still watch performances from the BBC Introducing Showcase now on their special SXSW homepage.
So what did we discover from all this? (other that Austin throws a good party). Which bands caught the eye and who will look back at SXSW 2008 as a turning point?
The Morning After...
Over the four days of the Festival, the Austin American Statesman has provided a valuable flow of news, tips and information. Over breakfast today it offered a thoughtful overview of the past four days of music, business and hard partying.
One Possible Contender For The Longest Nonstop Answer To A Single Question By A BBC Introducing Interviewer In The Entire Course Of South By Southwest 2008
Damn. Overcome by the jetlag (and an ill-advised teatime margherita at The Broken Nickel) I fell asleep yesterday on the crucial last evening and missed several of the bands on my must-see list. This included a gig at The Beauty Bar by Bruno Wizard - from obscure 1978 punk rock band The Homosexuals - with his US musicians. But Bruno kindly joined me later to watch Indonesian oddballs White Shoes And The Couples Company and agreed to answer a question or two afterwards. But actually one question was all it took...
SXSW 2008: Moby
SXSW 2008: Moby's Musical USA Part 1
SXSW 2008: Moby's Musical USA Part 2
SXSW 2008: Moby's Musical USA Part 3
SXSW 2008: The Duke Spirit
SXSW Music News - The beard to end all beards….
This is the best thing that’s happened to me since I’ve been here (and very nearly the best thing that’s ever happened to me). I was having some Chinese food (when in Rome and all that) with a couple of friends, when one of them stops mid-wonton, and starts pointing, slack-jawed across the room.
“That,” he says, jabbing a chopstick towards the bar, “Is Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top....”
Continue reading "SXSW Music News - The beard to end all beards…."
SXSW - Music News - In the thick of it…
Its like the last days of Rome out there. Only with more Lite beer. Last night that South by South West really started to live up to it’s name as ‘a festival’.
In a good way (streets flooded with people from all over the world, music everywhere and an air of excitement and lawlessness in the air) and also a slightly worrying way (everyone's smashed by lunchtime, there’s crusties playing interminably bad psych-rock on street corners and there’s an air of hot dogs and vomit in the air).
Local color...
A few snippets of, erm, local colour from the past couple of days. On Wednesday, online boss Clare and I had a bit of trouble finding the venue on our first evening out, in search of the Tap Room, where Trash Fashion were playing...
It soon becomes clear that the hardest part is co-ordinating times and places on any given evening...
Adventures in Bloggerland
Saturday afternoon and while the folks in Austin revive themselves with today’s serving of tex-mex its time to have a look at which bands have been getting our friends in the blogosphere excited at this year’s SXSW.
Huw Stephens - Day 3
Day 3 - In Huw Music We Trust...
Check out my floating mic!
More about my 3rd day below...
Florence takes a swim!
At the end of her set at the BBC Introducing night, Florence of 'Florence and the Machine' jumps off stage and takes a dive into a nearby pool!
Check it out...
Huw's tips from Day 2
SXSW Day 2!
SXSW Music News - The BBC Introducing Night…
So if last night was all about the Domino Records Party, than tonight has been all about the BBC Introducing Party (I mean, we would say that. But in this case we actually mean it). The event was staged to showcase some of the best, brand new acts around, many handpicked by DJ’s such as our very own Steve Lamacq (who compered the night itself).Continue reading "SXSW Music News - The BBC Introducing Night…"
SXSW 2008: Vampire Weekend
Day 1 - Austin Power!
The sun is shining and a heatwave is on its way in Austin - that and the general fervour is making me sweat with anticipation.
More from the day...
From Falcon's Head to Hippy Hollow, a bird's eye view of sxsw!
Howdi/Shw Mae/ Alright! I'm Bethan Elfyn, from BBC Introducing in Wales - its Day 3 at the festival, and year 3 for me here, and once bitten with the Texan bug its hard not to book an annual holiday around the biggest and best festival in the musical calandar. Welcome to my blog...
More this way...
Continue reading "From Falcon's Head to Hippy Hollow, a bird's eye view of sxsw!"
Thropping
A few hours after arriving, Austin did certainly seem to be buzzing - at least around the Festival Headquarters last night. But that buzz turns out to have been only a gentle murmur compared to the full-on excitement along 6th Street this evening, which has been closed off and pedestrianised - and is the very embodiment of the word "thropping"...
The morning after...
Our hard-working team in Texas are having a well-earned rest after what seems to have been a thronged BBC Introducing showcase last night. Full of promise and sweaty energy, it will no doubt have the MySpaces of Florence & The Machine, MGMT and I Was A Cub Scout overflowing with new friend requests in the next few days.But that’s not all our ever industrious Introducers have been up to...
And you won't know us by the trail of dead...
The big event of Introducing's SxSW calendar is almost upon us. Bleary with jetlag I'm trying to dash off these few words before rushing up to join everyone else at The Rio for Lammo's BBC Introducing showcase. Producer James Stirling says it's going to be rammed - and turning up at the last minute, it may be touch and go getting in. BBC pass or no BBC pass.
Anyway I finally got to meet one of my longstanding email correspondents from Texas. Rush Evans called the hotel to invite me over for a bite at the venue where he was road managing this afternoon at Roky Erickson's Ice Cream Social - a benefit for the HAAM musicans' welfare fund - held at Threadgill's World Headquarters (ie the beer garden of a "Chili Parlor / Southwestern / Meat-and-Three" restaurant across the river). 
Former 13th Floor Elevator Roky Erikson was about to play one of his legendary comeback gigs, defying his lifelong struggle with mental illness, with the help of his superb band The Explosives - masterminded by the ever generous Freddie Steady. It's such an American thing - guitars and drums in the hands of middleaged musicians who really know what they're doing generate a sonic tsunami that sweeps all before it - as with Iggy and The Stooges at Glastonbury last year. Having gone there by the purest fluke, I witnessed some of the most elemental rock'n'roll I've ever seen in my life. As a unit, Cam King on lead guitar, Chris Johnson on bass, Freddie Steady Krc on drums - and Roky's powerchords and growling/howling vocals - were simply wonderful. A huge cheesy grin spread all over my face as they played.
Earlier, as I arrived, Thurston Moore and his band had just been closing a set of the loudest acoustic guitar music I've ever heard in my life. I especially liked watching one of indie rock's greatest legends cheerfully packing up his own equipment after playing, in full view of the cheerfully unconcerned audience who were talking among themselves. 
Backstage I caught sight of the concert running order from earlier in the afternoon. What ? Trail Of Dead had just been playing HERE - in this little beer garden? "Rush - WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME they were on????" I demanded. My Texan friend shrugged in that laid back endearing manner of the true Austin native. "I didn't think you'd have heard of them" he said.
SXSW 2008: Scroobius Pip & Dan Le Sac
Huw Stephens plays 'Band Bingo'
There's so many bands that it's hard to decide what to see and where to go at SXSW.
So the other night I came up with a novel way to solve the problem... it's called 'Band Bingo' and this is how it goes...For more 'Band Bingo' and loads of ace new music from SXSW listen to my show next Wednesday Night from 12 midnight until 2am on Radio 1.
Huw's tips from last night...check out The Dodos!
Sxsw blog - night time Day 1
Night time in Austin is nuts. Imagine the town where you live, and the roads are closed to traffic and every tom, dick and harry, music fans and families, policemen, buskers, curious residents come out to play.
First band I see is Afrobots at Vice. It's a big room, the afro'd lead rapper is excellent in causing a furore, the full band behind him riffing it up with an electronic beat. Then a giant owl stage crashes. They're the first band on. This is gonna be good....
Abigail Warchild play at the Dirty Dog bar, and she isn't a 'she' after all, but a pretty good rock band from Brooklyn, New York, from where there's a lot of bands playing this year.
Last time you heard a good band from Spain? Exactly. Check out Delorean who make pounding disco tunes, echo-y vocals and are impressive tonight with a seemingly endless set that gets Maggie May's shaking. Classy electronics at SXSW? Of course! Everything goes here.
There's kilts aplenty in the Smoking Room, a large cavernous room which has actually got smoke coming from the roof weirdly. The kilts are because of The Law from Dundee who have a knack for banging fast pop tunes and catchy choruses....
The Dodos are amazing. Check out their Myspace, do your damnest to get hold of their album released in the States on French Kiss records, and fall in love. Everyone tonight is smitten; it's country, Beirut-esque, speeded-bluegrass, pop-soul-folk songs, it's different to everyone else around and when the inevitable hype starts surrounding them, it will be entirely justified.
Bon Iver from Wisconsin are also magic tonight, despite the rock band downstairs being too loud. Still, Justin Vernon's vocals are stunning, the crowd joining in on the chorus and a we have a moment. Serious!
Check out Vic Galloway at SXSW
Radio 1's Vic Galloway has been pounding the streets of Texas looking for new music and has been recording his shows from here too...
Listen to Vic Galloway Introducing in Scotland on Wed night 12-2am. And check out the BBC Scotland SXSW pages HERE for more videos and tips from Vic.
SXSW 2008: The Rascals
Tom checks in
The longest day. How do people do this stuff? Got up at 6am, left home at seven. Twenty-two hours later at Austin's vast Convention Center a friendly lady snaps a gruesome mugshot for my pass with her digital camera. A friendly text from the Radio One Introducing gang invites me to join them in the unsettlingly-named Dirty Dog. But then Huw's already covered a huge amount of ground in 24 hours since he first arrived. How does HE do this stuff? (See Day 1 at SXSW with Huw Stephens). So maybe I'd better do a bit of work myself and check in here before going to see the first of our 6 Music Introducing picks...
Day 1 at SXSW with Huw Stephens
First day of music. It's hot and I gave Dave Gedge from the Wedding Present some of my suncream. If I ever form a band, that's going to be the first albums title.
Strolling along Sixth Street and getting re-aquainted for the week of gigs ahead.
At Emo's, one of the best and biggest of the 68 venues hosting gigs (that includes hotel lobbies, steak houses and pool halls), Yacht are playing. A boy and a girl who have a backing track on their laptop, they set the presidence for a day of odd sounds.Glasgow's Frightened Rabbit sound LOUD, and brilliant. I travel to Texas and see a band from Glasgow; it doesn't matter because for every band you know there'll be 3 or 4 you don't. Even though i played their demo 3 years ago, this is the first time I see them play, and it's great.
The Mae Shi come onstage singing accapella before exploding into pounding electronic tunes. They bring a great big white sheet out on top of the crowd and sing in their makeshift tent inside the venue. They are being caressed and cared for by Moshi Moshi records at the moment, gawd bless 'em.
Baltimore's the Death Set are amazing to watch. Punk and hip hop have almost always been friends, but this is old-skool punk sing-a-longs meeting balti-bass. It's pretty hilarious, with Dizzee Rascal's OI! interjected inbetween every song, they're part hardcore, part hipster grooves. I should hate this; I can't help but love it.
Wandering the Austin streets; J Mascis talking on a pink phone, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong waiting for a cab, James Yuill emerging from a Mexican cafe looking happy, Saul Williams checking out Akron/Family.
SXSW Music News - It’s started…
There’s no mistaking that the South By South West festival is underway. The first big event that got people exited was the Fader party - traditionally a big deal - which featured The Mae Shi, The Whip, Jeremy Jay, The Kills, The Ruby Suns, Chikita Violenta, Does It Offend You Yeah? Pandemonium Jones and a huge bunch of music industry people looking like lobsters due to sunburn thanks to the extreme temperatures (which isn't the name of a band on the bill*)
Huw Stephens arrives in Texas
On your marks
Can you guess what happens today? No it’s not the International Day of Awesomeness, that was last Monday. After weeks of waiting the music finally begins to flow through the streets of Austin as the likes of Van Morrison, Simian Mobile Disco and Okkervil River kick off 5 days of indie electro, shoegaze, synthy, new wave, old wave, nu rave mayhem.
Stuart's First Day at the festival
If the word festival makes you think of cagoules, trenchfoot and watching your tent blowing over a cowshed in Somerset, you really ought to come to South By SouthWest one year. As I sit here looking out over the lake, it’s late afternoon, the temperature is nudging 80 and the first margarita of the day is looking very attractive. This is my kind of festival.
Music News at SXSW - So we made it....
To be honest, there was very little panic in the end. No storms, no cancellations, no being stuck wandering around Boots in a Gatwick departure lounge rubbing our noses on the bonnets of those sports cars that they always seem to be auditioning in airports these days (at £50 per raffle ticket).
What's Goin' On
Cheers to Matt for keeping us up to date with what the 6 Music News team will be up to. Here's a full run down of all our radio coverage from Austin in the days ahead. Yes folks that means something to read, something to watch, and something to listen to. How good are we to you?Full Schedule:
Tom's Tips from Under The Radar...
I've been researching UK and International acts coming to SxSW this week for my show BBC INTRODUCING: FRESH ON THE NET this coming Saturday. And after much listening and MySpacing here are your uncle Tom's top tips from Under The Radar at SxSW this week. All the tunes mentioned can be heard by following the URLs...
Music News at SXSW
Hello. So, my name's Matt Everitt and I'm part of the 6 Music News team at this year's South By Southwest Festival. I'll be seeking out all the finest nuggets of pure Music News and filtering out the tat and hype, like a journalistic version of those hairy-faced old Wild West prospectors panning for gold. Okay, so it’s not the best analogy, but it does the job.
Steve Lamacq's SXSW 2008 Preview
Scot by Scotwest
It’s not just us who get dizzy with excitement about the thought of five days in sunny Texas, with more new music than you can shake a barbeque rib at. Vic Galloway and the good folk at BBC Scotland have just launched a fantastic new website that will follow the Scottish artists at this year’s festival.
The Pan he is
Edward Larrikin is an interesting one. At the beginning he claims that he “wasn't writing music, I was just writing words and stuff”. That was until he bumped into a group of budding young musicians in his local pub and before he knew it he was fronting 2006’s latest indie upstarts Larrikin Love.
Thanks for your suggestions...
Thanks to everyone who's suggested under-the-radar acts worth checking out at SxSW. Safest way to send 'em is via email at [email protected] - meanwhile here's where you can hear the recommendations people have made so far - see what you think:
Short, sweet and scouty
Swiss army knives at the ready folks! This blog post may well contain some Cub Scouts.
But before all that I just have time to tell you that Gorilla vs Bear think we should make time in our schedule to see Bell (or Olga Bell to be precise) and work out just why she keeps getting compared to Bjork.
Meeting MGMT
Something must be happening soon because everyone is getting a little more excited. On one side of the world you have some of the most respected members of the blogging community busy devising schedules, recommending showcases and grabbing last minute interviews with every promising new band they can get their hands on.While over in blighty we’ve been collecting permission slips from the parents of our BBC Introducing acts, while our own Tom Robinson wants to know who you think we should check out at this year’s conference.
A plea from Tom Robinson!
There's so much stuff happening between Wednesday and Saturday next week (1600 acts in 4 days - how does that work?) that my own blogging plan is to stick strictly to my "Introducing" remit - and focus on artists from under the radar, rather than bands being tipped as The Next Big Thing. I can then feature the usual couple of dozen in my BBC Introducing show on 6 Music on the final Saturday night. Unfortunately we won't have a live link, so I'm going to need to prerecord that show at the end of this week before we leave for Texas.
There's a searchable list of all acts appearing in Austin next week on the official site. So if you have time to glance through and recommend any interesting, non-famous acts that you spot on that list between now and Thursday afternoon, it'd be great to hear of them here...
Tips n' Tricks
So are you all packed? Have you got your passport, tickets, spare socks and a list of all the bands you want to see? What else would you need with little over a week to go?
Useful Links
- The Morning After...
- Moby: VIDEO INTERVIEW
- The Duke Spirit: VIDEO INTERVIEW
- SxSW Music News - The Beard To End All Beards
- SxSW Music News - In The Thick Of It
- Local Color *VIDEO*
- Adventures in Bloggerland
- Huw Stephens: Day 3
- Florence Takes A Swim! *VIDEO*
- Vampire Weekend: VIDEO INTERVIEW
- BBC Shows from SxSW
- BBC Introducing at SxSW - The Rio Showcase
Latest Photos
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BLOGS ABOUT SXSW
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- Ian Painter on Stuart's First Day at the festival
- Michael on SXSW Music News - The BBC Introducing Night…
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- John Pearson on One Possible Contender For The Longest Nonstop Answer To A Single Question By A BBC Introducing Interviewer In The Entire Course Of South By Southwest 2008
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