Austin Sound

Imagine our surprise when we trolling through the endless list of shows trying to plan our SXSW mayhem, and we stumble across Silver Scooter! True enough, the Austin pop trio, who hasn’t played a show together since 2001 (except apparently an impromptu set at the Carousel back in 04), will be regrouping for a one off show during SXSW thanks to the efforts of Slip Productions and Lovitt Records. Their dayshow on Saturday, March 21, will be happening at the Transmission’s new Radio Room on 6th St., and is sure to be fest capping highlight of the week. Oh, they have some other pretty big bands playing too! Check out the two stage lineup, plus a video of classic Silver Scooter, below.

This year, SXSW will be selling their wristbands online only. To be honest, we’re wary of how well this work, just from usual experiences with servers being overloaded at the moment of sale. But you have to love the fact that there won’t be any middle-of-the-workday lines to waste time in! The sale is only open to Austin residents, as always, and limited to to two per purchase at $129 a pop. So here’s what you need to do to get in on that hot wristband action:

Just in time for your weekend perusal, SXSW has put up this years music showcases and schedule on their website. Start your planning HERE.

Wow, this came out early!! SXSW has a pretty complete list up on their site now, though expect many more acts to be added over the next few weeks. A few of the things were excited about in our initial scan include:

Andrew Bird, the Black Lips, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Cursive, Explosions in the Sky, Grizzly Bear, The Handsome Family, Monotonix, Elvis Perkins, Peter Bjorn and John, The Tallest Man on Earth, J. Tillman, and The Vaselines!

Check it all here and let us know what you’re stoked about!

SXSW loves to tease us. Last year’s announcement was like waiting for Chinese Democracy (except that the final product was actually good), so we’re hoping that we’ll have a full list of bands playing the 2009 Fest a bit sooner this year. We’ll see. But SXSW did just release a decent chunk of bands that will be hitting up our fair city come March 18. This is on top of the recent announcement the Quincy Jones will be Keynoting (Q-noting?) on the 19th.

In the announcement that accompanied this list the festival cabal noted that these were “A few highlights selected out of over 10,000 music applications.” It’s not bad, what with Primal Scream, Dead Prez, Port O’Brien, and a slew of good locals, but let’s just say that we hope these lights get a lot higher. Check the list below:

The news from SXSW is starting to trickle out. A few bands have been announced, but nothing major, and we’ve heard from other local bands that confirmations seem to be making their way out a little earlier this year. Today’s Chronicle has word that this year’s keynoter will be jazz legend Quincy Jones. Hopefully all these earlier scoops mean that the full list will be dropping a bit earlier this year and we won’t all be drooling until the last minute. We’ll keep you posted on any major announcements, but we’d start saving up for that wristband now.

Oh boy, already? Can’t we even get through ACL first without having to gear up again for SXSW? Glad someone is on the ball. SXSW announced today that they are now open for business in the music showcase department, and they have a new option for registering as well. Not only can you fill out your application electronically on their site like last year, but you can also do it through Sonic Bids. That’s one helluva score for the Sonic Bids site, and must have cost them a nice sponsorship! It really doesn’t matter which way you apply though, the deadlines and fees are still the same.

It’s been over a week since the day that kicked it all off, and here we are, finally able to finish collecting our thoughts. SXSW was a maelstrom of music, sweat, beer, exhaustion and Free Ice Cream. We checked in, one last time, with all our local contributors, including John Laird who keeps his own blog over at Side One Track One.

Here’s what we dragged ourselves out of bed for after only 2 hours of sleep on Saturday.

Robyn

Well now that we’re all well rested after nearly a week of burning at both ends, we’ve got some more of what we saw, what we liked best, and things we caught on camera. We checked in with all our local contributors, including John Laird who keeps his own blog, Side One Track One.

Here’s what we were up to on Friday.

Bon Iver
Photo by John Laird

In addition to our SXSW picks and Show Previews, we’ll be bringing you short reviews of what we saw, what we liked best, and things we caught on camera. We’ll be checking in with all our local contributors, including John Laird who keeps his own blog, Side One Track One.

Here’s what we were up to on Thursday.