Like many many people this year I was not at South By Southwest- the worlds biggest new music festival held in the rather unlikely location of Austin Texas.In fact so many people were not at sxsw it this year that I feel totally justified- so many in fact that they started a website, a twitter feed and a bunch of “not” sxsw gigs…roll on not@oxygen anyone? Now hat I think about it that’s actually how I enjoyed oxygen last year. Not being able to bring myself to hang out in a muddy field with 100,000 leaving cert students despite the incredible line-up I listened to it via 2fm, watched it via the RTE xfm site, and followed it via the oxygen mini blog and texts from braver friends -ah yes- the days before twitter mania- now they can just import a twitter feed
Not attending SXSW is not a new occurrence for me though, every year since I’ve discovered it’s existence I’ve been not@sxsw…one of these years I’ll make it though- a girls gotta dream. Problem is it’s just so damn expensive so unless I can find a job to send me it seems unlikley. Anyhow…for the uninititated SXSW is the worlds largest new music festival that packs an inhuman amount of gigs into a long weekend. It’s not unlike an Edinburgh Fringe Festival packed into a weekend and focusing only on music. It’s attended by every festival booker, music journalist/blogger or record label head that can raise the funds or persuade the boss to send them so it is intensely competitive and a ton of fun by the looks of things.
Not being there hasn’t stopped me writing a blog about some tips of new music to listen to from sxsw acts mind you. The joys of the interweb means I can trawl the sxsw blogs and round ups to see what new music I might introduce to my ears for 2009, and the sheer amount of it is mind boggling. I’ve given a ton of things a listen and here are some that I’ll be listening out for this year. I’ve linked all the below to myspace-despite my hatred for how SLOW they are to render- as it is the most common site for full streamable tracks, but if I were you I’d check them out on lastfm or another player…
- Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson…The real Brooklyn deal. More TVOTR than MGMT…Only in his mid twenties and more bard than troubadour, if he can hold himself together he could be amazing. Helped along his way by TVOTR and Grizzly Bear band members but talent is all his- occasionally like a raw urban Bon Iver.
- The Phenomenal Handclap Band…think funky handclaps not hippy..
-Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros…what you thought the handclap band would sound like because of their name. Very american alt folk/pop/southern with sing a long choirs chiming in a la Sufjan Stevens (remember him?)
- The Decemberists…I’ve been listening to these guys since they cropped up in a lastfm recommendation for me a year or so ago. Apparently they wowed at sxsw and have a nice new album to sing about…seems 09 is set to be their year
- The Shackeltons…shouty passionate punk pop with melodies
- Local Natives…bit like Arcade Fire crossed with Fleet Foxes
- J. Tillman… an actual Fleet Fox on his solo buzz. Magnificent stuff
- The Low Anthem.. just supported Lisa Hannigan on her USA tour
- Little Boots…UK press loves the chick, lets hope they don’t kill her with hype like they did with current tour mates the Ting Tings.
- Starfucker…tough electro pop with actual handclaps
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February 6, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Donal’s First Fifteen « stranded
[...] great tracks on there, including an opener from Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero’s who I tipped from SXSW last year, one of my favourite tracks of last year- Cable Dazed, a cracking Jape remix of Patrick [...]