Crashing the Party

My introduction to SXSW consisted of a battle of bands as I walked down 6th Street in Austin.

For the last 23 years the SXSW festival – the largest music conference in the US - has been the Week of the Undiscovered Band, and it’s synonymous with the opportunity for any of the 5000 artists to be the next buzz name, to grace the covers of national and international music press, to be a radio chart star, and to sell out shows nationwide.

While there have been grumblings about major artists slowly hogging more of the spotlight over the years, 2009 may very well mark the year when noticeably more attention was paid to the veteran talents of Metallica, Kanye West, DEVO, and Tori Amos than to the fledgling artists.

However, for every major act playing the festival, there are at least a hundred bands whose star is on the rise. It is precisely because of these up-and-coming musicians that a deep-rooted excitement exists and motivates the likes of Metallica and Kanye to crash the party.

For each great new band seen, you risk missing the performance of ten other equally talented, potentially “best of SXSW” buzz-worthy artists. It’s a daunting task and you soon find yourself sling-shot from venue to venue hoping to catch a little of everyone, yet risking not witnessing enough.

It would be dishonest not to admit to the attractive pull of being there when the much whispered-about mega-stars play that “secret” performance. On the other hand, it’s incredibly rewarding to have your ear tugged by the sound of some unfamiliar group or singer from a block down the street.

My best advice is to throw out your agenda, your well-thought-out plan of attack, and abandon the goal of trying to find the buzz bands du jour. Practically every music monthly, website, blog, and radio station have reported back about their favorite performances, and for once in the history of the conference, there seems to be no clear winner of the “new artist to watch” award. Every attendee has walked away with at least one previously unknown artist who they will rave about. For some, it may be one of the major bands they’ve only heard about; for others, it may be a long-time local act that hasn’t made it outside of the Austin region… yet.


As it is par for the course that you will be missing a great many shows, information transmitted through word-of-mouth (and who wasn’t Twittering from SXSW this year?) will ensure that a big bag full of those events are at least heard about – and therefore not entirely unnoticed. Those missed but talked-about performances contribute to the growing list titled: “must check out as soon as I get back to the hotel/I get back home/when they come through town”.

Here are a few of SXSW artists worth watching:

BLK JKS

They’ve been quietly working away for nine years in Johannesburg, South Africa and this year marks the four piece’s second appearance at SXSW.
In 2007 they released a very limited 500 pressing 10 inch vinyl of “Lakeside” that is now clutched tightly to the chests of every person in possession of it. In 2008 they landed on the cover of Fader magazine, mixing up the progression of which comes first – SXSW and then the cover or cover and then SXSW?
BLK JKS are familiar with mixing up the progression. Their very short blistering set at Mohawk was, luckily, captured by Youtube. I was left dazed, reaching for descriptive words for what I witnessed. Punk, Jazz, Reggae, Progressive Rock, Funk… it all gets thrown into the machine and what comes out in the wash is something like this:



Avett Brothers & Passion Pit

It’s good knowing people who have the cheat code to get you in the back door of well sold out shows. The ace in my pocket was Ryan Barkan of Primary Wave music publishing. We had arranged to meet up at Radio Room because one of their artists, the great Daniel Johnston, was playing the Brooklyn Vegan blog day party. The line to get in was nearing two blocks long, so I put a call to Ryan who directed me to the back gate where bands were loading and unloading gear for the constantly rotating performances. I got in with a word and a shrug from the “bouncers” and pretty much came to a halt. The crowd was massive and the tent was full. Daniel Johnston was on stage and Ryan was up front. We’d have to wait until afterward to meet at the beer stand. It was while having our first face-to-face conversation that I heard North Carolina’s Avett Brothers from outside the tent. Yes, they are brothers – well, two of them are. They’ve been kicking around their American roots-rock for a few years now but this was the first time my ears had been pricked up by them.

http://www.theavettbrothers.com/

Ryan and I talked for nearly an hour until he had to go check in on some other Primary Wave published bands. I had to get out of the Texas heat (ah, sunburns) and check out Passion Pit, but not before I had promised Ryan a hand made compilation CD of bands from Minnesota. Seemed everyone I talked to at SXSW couldn't think of any artists besides Prince that come from our cities. I’ve got work to do.



Passion Pit, I overheard, were one of bands that “the kids” were all buzzing about. I actually overheard this being said by some older "been there done that" hipster while standing in the tent watching their performance. Well, I was happy to find myself being lumped in with “the kids” again. Their songs were penned for a CD as a Valentine’s Day gift to a girlfriend, which was shared amongst other friends… and their friends… and their friends. It didn’t stop until Passion Pit were voted best new band in Boston in 2008. Actually, it didn’t stop because there they were at SXSW with a tent packed full of delighted ”kids” from around the world dancing to their infectious electro-pop.



Now they're off to Europe & the UK for the summer festival season. Stars do still rise.

more SXSW reports soon