[Dixielandjazz] Where is the Music Going? SXSW?

[Dan Augustine]

     Where is the music going?  Nowhere near OKOM.
     Here's the list of performers who won at the Austin Music Awards 
(http://www.austin360.com/calendar/content/events/stories/2007/03/15awardwinners.html). 
Note that the winner under Jazz was Blaze (who/whatever that is) and 
that the closest any group came to OKOM is under Novelty, with the 
White Ghost Shivers (http://www.whiteghostshivers.com/ ) winning 
(actually, somewhat of an achievement even in that category).
     As a friend of mine explained, all of these bands and categories 
carry the invisible label of "guitar-based".  Thus the answer is 
clear: play an electric guitar (and maybe also for good measure, an 
electric bass) in your OKOM band, even to get noticed by anyone in 
this crowd.  Y'all also need to let your hair (if you have any left) 
grow, or maybe comb your eyebrows up over your bald head . . .

Band of the Year: Asleep at the Wheel
Musician of the Year: Patrice Pike
Best New Band: Band of Heathens
Rock: Patrice Pike
Punk: Riverboat Gamblers
Metal: Powderburn
Industrial/Goth: Lucid Dementia
DJ: DJ Mel
Indie: the Octopus Project
Jazz: Blaze
Blues: Gary Clark Jr.
Hip Hop: Overlord
Instrumental: the Octopus Project
Experimental: the Octopus Project
Country: Asleep at the Wheel
Bluegrass: South Austin Jug Band
Roots Rock: Mother Truckers
Folk: the Hudsons
Latin Traditional: Del Castillo
Latin Contemporary: Grupo Fantasma
World Music: Tea Merchants
Cover Band: Skyrocket
Kid Band: Sara Jarosz
Novelty: White Ghost Shivers
None of the Above: Brobdingnagian Bards

     Dan
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>Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:06:36 -0400
>From: Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Where is the Music Going?  SXSW?
>
>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 (that's the abbreviation, but the clubbiest of the
>clubby refer to it as "South By") has morphed into something else. Nowadays,
>and for the past several years, it has become a place where labels come to
>showcase talent they've 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 doesn't sell you on a band, they'll 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.

-- 
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**  Dan Augustine  --  Austin, Texas  --  ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
**    "I am sitting in the smallest room in the house.  I have your  
**     review in front of me.  Soon it will be behind me."           
**       -- Max Reger (1873-1916) to a music critic                  
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