some girls wander by mistake.

thrown back into Real Life without time to breathe, i realize i never even talked about SXSW as a festival, texas as a state, or anything in between. now, weeks later, so much of the events have blurred together into indistinguishable shapes. here's my attempt at a summary.

so, SXSW, you say. who'd have thought 2010 would be the year of the festival. ask me to compare sundance to SXSW, and you'll fine a very deep bias for a certain snow-covered event. that said, SXSW is very much a showcase of downtown austin (far more than it is a showcase of music: it's inconceivable to even attend or appreciate 1/10th of what you experience). thankfully, austin is one of my favorite U.S. cities, so for me, the experience was (overall) a decent one.

From austin + sxsw | tx

if you're thinking of attending the festival, a few words of wisdom:

• three days is plenty.
  
• obsess on the weather and pack wildly, accordingly.
  
• venues with free (merch, food, booze) reliably have the worst music. base your venue-hopping decisions entirely on this truth.
  
• RSVP to anything and everything in the weeks before the event on the off-chance something really awesome is happening at one of them; chances are, you'll never be asked for your name on the list.
  
• investing any great amount of time in creating a show schedule is mostly worthless. you're far better off attending specific events (e.g. gorilla vs. bear, brooklyn vegan, hype machine) booked by people who know music (largely unknown) than trying to be one of one thousand people trying to see the xx for free.
  
• spend the rest of your time walking around and just...listening. some of the best bands i heard, i heard on accident.
  
• be prepared for backpacks to be searched, but don't be surprised if these are deeply half-assed "look-sees." water bottles can be dumped out per request, and cause a lot less grief than other disposable-bottled liquids.
  
• take siestas. seriously.
  
• watch the bar to see what people are ordering. chances are there is something being given away for free, and something else being obscenely overcharged for.
  
• don't ever, ever, pay for a music badge. every band is playing once on a SXSW-sponsored stage, and at least 2 other times for free elsewhere in austin.

--

a few bands i "discovered" at SXSW that i really, really enjoyed:
-us royalty.
-mountain man. (not mountain men at all!)
-gloria cycles.
-crystal antlers.
-my gold mask. (siouxsie meets yeah yeah yeahs!)
-men. (le tigre side project!)
-astral boutique.
-red bacteria vacuum. (japanese punk rockers; pictured above)

--

my SXSW schedule began with two disappointments: the first was missing the beatles on ukelele festival (all day!), and the other was missing (with a healthy sense of irony) the xx. i realized shortly thereafter that my expectations had to be reset if i was going to Do This. turns out, when i released myself from any sort of agenda or itinerary, i had a much more organic experience at SXSW.

i spent most of my time with pwowsemaster and a lovely lady whom i met at sundance, but also found my austin experience somewhat provincial and small world: i ended up spending time with another floridian, 3 seattleites (my friends haakon, josh, and brenna, all whom DJed an event on my last night in austin), and whoever else i ended up talking to. i spent time at a 4AD bbq and heard a sneak preview of the forthcoming national album; i ate free breakfast burritos at the hype machine's lose control event; i hung out with a band that is, quite literally, big in japan. and more. that's pretty much how it went down.

one thing i have never experienced, is a place where bloggers are the celebrities (or think they are ones). there were a ton of blog-specific events and after parties, many of which i attended (notably the brooklyn vegan party, the gorilla vs. bear/mexican summer event, and every single day of the hype machine lose control 2; all three of these music blogs i'm a fan of), many of which i didn't (for example, perez hilton's big to-do). but though there were bloggers of note (and not), this sums up SXSW nicely:


(credit due; spotted by praenomenal)