It’s time for the annual swarm: the South By Southwest Music festival that runs for five nights in Austin, gathering musicians that want to be heard along with the businesspeople that hope to profit from them. Each year, it sprawls wider, with unofficial events, day and night, surrounding the official showcases that already offer more than 2000 acts this year. It also moves higher up the pop food chain â€" gathering not just baby bands hoping for their chance and international visitors dreaming of American exposure â€" but also big names rolling out their latest efforts-and, inevitably, stealing attention from the underdogs.
The Internet has transformed SXSW from rare, exclusive gig to broadcast platform. Events that will be turning away people at the gate, like the Fader’s annual buzz-band extravaganza and NPR Music’s showcase for known acts like Nick Cave, Cafe Tacvba and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, are avalable for any homebody connected to the Web, and some of the conference’s daytime panels and presentations, like Dave Grohl’s keynote speech on Thursday at noon, will also go live online.
The companies that have blanketed SXSW with brand tie-ins, like the infamous stage returning from last year’s festival that’s designed in the shape of a giant snack-food vending machine, will also make SXSW performances available. Newer bands are also happily facing video cameras and webcast microphones wherever they get the chance-by Sunday, there may be enough live-at-SXSW material online to last until SXSW 2014. Many are also giving away their songs for download from the SXSW Web site. (Digital packrats c! an grab them all at once at www.sxswtorrent.com, or pick up a singer-songwriter-centric batch of 100 from NPR.)
But web convenience doesn’t keep people-myself included-from swarming to the clubs, warehouses and makeshift stages of Austin itself for these five frantic days. Even as the big stars beckon, the branding taints the art and the cellphone cameras block the view, there’s still a chance of serendipity amid the glut. Maybe it’ll be a gorgeous electric squall or a rapper mowing down cliches or a singer-songwriter who somehow hushes the crowd; maybe it’ll be a Chilean psychedelic band or prospective Korean teen idols. My schedule, as it stands, has four or five promising choices in every time slot from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. from now till Saturday; it’s bound to be completely revamped or tossed out before SXSW ends. I’ll be blogging here between sets or in the wee hours, as will the music-business reporter James C. McKinley Jr. and the photographer osh Haner; stay tuned.
