[Dixielandjazz] Where is the Music Going? SXSW?

[Steve Barbone]

Here's the ultimate in "free music" showcases.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

MAR. 14 - By JON PARELES - NY TIMES
South by Southwest Festival: March 14 - 18

The South by Southwest Festival is being held this year in venues around
Austin, Texas. The lineup includes the Rapture, the Bravery, Lily Allen, Ben
Jelen and Alejandro Escovedo. Check back for frequent updates throughout the
days and nights of the festival.

Maybe there was a time when being a music talent scout had a louche glamor.
A rare cassette or demo disc, or maybe an ephemeral radio broadcast, would
reach a sympathetic ear, to be followed by a visit to some obscure club and
a make-or-break audition. Now, with mp3 songs stashed in every recess of the
internet, being an A&R guy (it stands for artist and repertoire) is more
about mouse clicks than road trips.

For a good chunk of the past week, I've been doing 21st-century A&R
myself--attempting to plan for South by Southwest by listening to the mp3s
posted by most of the bands playing here over the next four days and nights.
You can do it too, at http://www.sxsw.com under "bands."

At the moment, my potential schedule holds three to five bands per hourly
segment, most of them now a vague memory and an mp3 on my player. I'm
skipping some of the sure things I've already heard in New York -- like the
Pipettes, a cheerfully retro girl group, and Peter, Bjorn and John, who are
beloved by so many music blogs there's already a backlash.

My list includes a band from China, some Canadian eccentrics, my annual SxSW
dose of cute Japanese noise bands and dozens of peppy, sullen, computerized,
hands-on, earnest, ironic, intricate, rudimentary, literary-minded,
foul-mouthed and (mostly intentionally) funny bands and songwriters.

One irrelevant observation: the days of full geographical disclosure are
over. Boston was from Boston, Chicago was from Chicago, but at SxSW,
geography is perjury: Tulsa is not from Tulsa, Illinois is not from
Illinois, and there are a dozen other imposters.

All my planning is bound to evaporate in the rush of club sets, day parties
and perhaps even a panel or two. In between, I'll be jotting some reactions
here. And just to get it out of the way now, here is my obligatory SxSW
mention of barbecue.




MAR. 14 | 1:40 PM 'South By' Kicks Off By JEFF LEEDS

CD sales are falling off a cliff. Pink slips are replacing platinum records
in record-label suites. In fact, the very financial structure of the music
business is verging on collapse. What better time, then, for executives to
skip out of the office for a few days, chew on some Texas barbecue, and
party into the wee hours while watching unproven rock bands? Well, the
industry does treasure its traditions ­ and South by Southwest, the Austin
music festival that marks its 20th anniversary this week, qualifies.

Regarded once as a talent bazaar where labels vacuumed up new artists to add
to their rosters, SXSW (that¹s the abbreviation, but the clubbiest of the
clubby refer to it as ³South By²) has morphed into something else. Nowadays,
and for the past several years, it has become a place where labels come to
showcase talent they¹ve already discovered to the assembled hordes of music
critics, booking agents, music-publishers, sponsors and anyone else they
might be able to enlist in their drive for sales.

And if the showcase doesn¹t sell you on a band, they¹ll invite you over to
the Four Seasons bar for a few shots of persuasion. But even as the festival
has become a schmooze-athon, it is seen by many as a beacon of credibility
amid a wasteland of overexposed acts and broken marketing machinery. (It is,
of course, brought to you by Verizon, Miller Lite, the IFC channel, and
Yaris). So break out the BBQ bibs and fire up the echo chamber, SXSW is
under way.

Jeff Leeds, a staff reporter based in Los Angeles, writes about the business
and culture of music for The New York Times.