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Underground > Radio & Music >

SXSW

00:52 / 23.03.06

Hey...Just back from the SXSW festival / conference in Austin Texas. What a fantastic few days!... Wondering if anyone else was there...if so who did you see?

Would love to hear some stories! xx

06:09 / 23.03.06

Yes we would. Why not tell us some?

Rosie, it's generally good form to put some effort into a first post. Start as mean your thread to go on and all that.

If you want to post lazily there's always the Conversation.

09:28 / 23.03.06

Tell us more- who did you see? What were the highlights, who was the buzz about? who was shit, who did you meet?

WE DIDN'T GO BUT YOU DID! TELL US ABOUT IT THEN!!!!

11:17 / 23.03.06

Did anyone go to Flatstock (gigposter show)?

11:46 / 23.03.06

This IS a great thread.

13:17 / 23.03.06

The fact that it's currently 6am in the country where Rosie X is posting from, might have something to do with the delay in providing a more detailed write-up of her experiences at South by South West Festival. That is if, as a new poster to the board and therefore unfamiliar with its culture, she still feels like engaging with people SHOUTING IN CAPITAL LETTERS!!!!

It's obviously important to encourage people to provide more weighty content to threads that they start, and to discourage things like people posting lists of bands which they like without saying why they liked them. But barbelith is having an influx of new members, and not everyone is automatically up-to-speed with how things are done around here. A bit of polite direction is one thing, and it leads to a better forum. Several people sticking their heads up and moaning grumpily in response to someone's enthusiastic, albeit slight, first post to a forum is perhaps just a good way to intimidate new members out of contributing anything further at all.

I'm obviously biased here, because I know Rosie, and I'm certainly guilty of having a similar lack of patience in the Temple forum. But looking at it from the other side of the fence, it just comes across as yelling at somebody the minute they walk into a room and try to start up a conversation. Is there really any reason for more than one post to this thread that politely draws the new member's attention to posting etiquette?

14:16 / 23.03.06

*Threadrot- Capitals wasn't meant as shouting, more banging my head against the table due to the state of the music forum- I definitely want to hear more and have more discussion here. ze also says that ze just got back from SXSW- and from Rosies profile i can see that home is London- so i was assuming a similar time zone. anyways apologies if i sounded off - i just want to talk about music *rot ends*

Back on topic I believe that sxsw featured Flaming Lips, Morrisey, The Rakes, 80's Matchbox B Line Disaster, The Young Knifes, Magic Numbers, Art Brut, Dirty Pretty Things, New Pornographers, Belle & Sebastian, The Datsuns, deus, ESG, Comanechi, The Go! Team and loads loads more.

I'd always assumed it worked like a kind of music industry Edinburgh festival with a band in every bar? or is it more like Cannes- where sections of the town become the festival- but the rest carries on as normal. What's the audience made up from - bands and industry bods- or do loads of music fans come into town like edinburgh.

What's Flatstock- or am i missing a joke?

All these questions make me sound like that kid from the ask Frank ads...

14:18 / 23.03.06

I know what you're saying, Gypsy, but the lack of thought that goes into sooo many Music posts really gets me down.

20:37 / 23.03.06

I'd always assumed it worked like a kind of music industry Edinburgh festival with a band in every bar? or is it more like Cannes- where sections of the town become the festival- but the rest carries on as normal. What's the audience made up from - bands and industry bods- or do loads of music fans come into town like edinburgh.

All of the above.

Most of the local music venues become SXSW venues for the duration (while the rest host anti-SXSW shows such as the Quadruple Bypass and South-By-SoWhat, largely made up of local bands who didn't get into SXSW).

Since the vast majority of our music venues are in the same general area of downtown (Sixth Street and its environs), that part of town basically gets given over to the festival.

And yes, bands from all over the globe, industry people, and fans congregate like flies to honey and wrestle each other over VIP lounge passes and hundred-dollar access wristbands.

The thing started as a showcase for unknown local talent to get scouted, and has since become a beast of monstrous proportions. In addition to the crazy crazy music happs, a film festival and a tech conference are now also incuded under the SXSW banner.

(I've participated in the anti-showcases on several occasions, but never attended SXSW itself, despite the fact that I could easily get free passes. This is largely because fighting huge crowds of drunken out-of-towners to get into clubs I've been to a million times to see bands I've never heard of isn't really my idea of a good time. I realize that this renders me a hopeless old fuddy-duddy, but I've long since come to terms with that.)

21:11 / 23.03.06

I thought SXSW started out with the music and film together, didn't it?

Oh, and as well as out-of-towners *in* the festival and locals *out* of the festival, I understand there are also plenty of out-of-towners who pop up at the non-affiliated venues & events, too. It's that big.

23:34 / 23.03.06

Flatstock is an exhibition showcasing music/concert poster designs (aka "gig posters") that takes place every year in Seattle (in September) and in Austin, Texas (in March, in conjunction with SXSW). Each designer has their own booth where they sell the posters, art prints, etc.

Flatstock: www.flatstock.com
here's a great rock poster site: www.gigposters.com

16:50 / 24.03.06

I thought SXSW started out with the music and film together, didn't it?

Not to my understanding... The music festival has now been running for about 20 years, while I believe the film portion joined the scene far more recently.

(*takes a Google break*)

Ah, okay, here's a history, courtesy of SXSW, Inc. The music festival started in 1987, the film portion was officially added in 1994.

Which I think means I attended part of the film festival the very first time they had it.

BTW, I'm sorry if my first post reflected a lack of enthusiasm. It's really an outstanding music festival, and well worth attending if you're into live music. The bands are fantastic, and it's generally the nicest time of year to visit the city I love. I'm just jaded from having spent several years traveling with a band and sick to the teeth of the club scene, is all.

18:07 / 24.03.06

Huh. I always associated it with Richard Linklater – didn't know it went back to the Butthole Surfer years.

What band were you with?

13:08 / 31.03.06

No one you'd have heard of, unfortunately.