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So many choices, so few choices (SXSW)

The fine folks at South by Southwest sent out their first press release announcing some of the many artists who will be playing during the music industry's spring break this coming March. We here at the ND factory are working diligently on our Friday party, about which we shall divulge more details when we have them. I already know that a number of the artists I was most anxious to see will not be attending: Crooked Still, Patty Griffin, Mavis Staples, Otis Taylor, Uncle Earl, to put a few in alphabetical order.

And so, as happens some years (I've gone every year since, I believe, 1994), I looked at the list with furrowed brow and wondered, "exactly who the heck ARE these people?" This can be what makes SXSW fun, but if one chooses poorly it can absolutely ruin the week, or it can drive me to a barbeque crawl that ignores music for days at a time, or it can lure me to seek refuge among the Belgians at the Gingerman. (And I'm not in training for that anymore, so the results are apt to be unpleasant.) Or I can just hole up in my hotel room and watch NCAA tourney action, which is a complete waste of a great city and good music.

So, just for sport, I'm going to clip and save the part of the SXSW press release listing scheduled musicians (with their caveat fully in mind that things change, constantly). And I'm going to solicit your suggestions. Pick an act that you think I should go out of my way to see. Not an act with which you work, I hasten to add, nor an artist with which you're romantically or genetically linked. I'm after music which touches you powerfully that you would drive cross-state to see if you could. E-mail grant at no depression dot net. Perhaps I'll post some suggestions at the bottom of this as they come in, or perhaps not. We'll see. Here's the press release:

South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival Announces Initial
Band List

Austin, Texas - February 8, 2007 - South by Southwest Music Conference and
Festival, the annual music industry gathering in Austin, Texas is thrilled
to announce a partial list of the artists scheduled to perform at the 21st
edition of the music festival taking place March 14 - 18, 2007 on over 60
stage in downtown Austin.

Over 7800 bands applied and over 1000 bands are scheduled to perform so far.
A sampling of the music festival line-up includes:
Aesop Rock (Brooklyn NY), Against Me! (Gainesville FL), Akimbo (Seattle WA),
Allison (Mexico D.F. MEXICO), An Albatross (Philladelphia PA), The Apples in
Stereo (Denver CO), Aqualung (South London UK), Architecture in Helsinki
(Melbourne AUSTRALIA), Austin TV (Mexico City MEXICO), The Automatic
(Cardiff UK), Kevin Ayers (London UK), Badly Drawn Boy (Manchester UK),
Balkan Beat Box (Tel Aviv ISRAEL), Bayside (Long Island NY), Beach House
(Baltimore MD), Beirut (Albuquerque NM), The Besnard Lakes (Montreal QC),
Andrew Bird (Chicago IL), The Bird and the Bee (Los Angeles CA), Martina
Topley Bird (London UK), Birdmonster (San Franciscio CA), Black Lips
(Atlanta GA), Bloc Party (London UK), Blonde Redhead (New York NY), The
Blood Arm (Los Angeles CA), Bonde do Role (Sao Paulo BRAZIL), The Bravery
(New York NY), Vashti Bunyan (Edinburgh UK), Tracy Byrd (Nashville TN),
Charalambides (Oakland CA), Child Abuse (San Francisco CA), Chingo Bling
(Houston TX), Chingon (Austin TX), The Cinematics (Glasgow UK), Citay (San
Francisco CA), Jill Cunniff (Brooklyn NY), DATAROCK (Bergen NORWAY),
Deerhunter (Atlanta GA), Delorentos (Dublin IRELAND), Dengue Fever (Los
Angeles CA), Errors (Glasgow UK), The Faint (Omaha NE), Ferraby Lionheart
(Los Angeles CA), Field Music (Sunderland UK), The Fratellis (Glasgow UK),
Fujiya & Miyagi (Brighton UK), Galactic (New Orleans LA), Get Cape. Wear
Cape. Fly (Southend UK), Ghostland Observatory (Austin TX), Girl Talk
(Pittsburgh PA), The Good, The Bad & The Queen (London UK), Emily Haines &
The Soft Skeleton (Toronto ON), Albert Hammond, Jr. (New York NY), Kate
Havnevik (Oslo NORWAY), The High Dials (Montreal QC), The Holloways (London
UK), Hoodoo Gurus (Sydney AUSTRALIA), The Horrors (London UK), Hot Club De
Paris (Liverpool UK),Benji Hughes (Charlotte NC), iLiKETRAiNS (Leeds UK), IV
Thieves (Nottingham UK), Jack O and The Tearjerkers (memphis TN), Jack's
Mannequin (Los Angeles CA), Georgie James (Washington DC), Jamie T (London
UK), Jandek (Houston TX), Joan as Police Woman (Brooklyn NY), Daniel
Johnston and the Nightmares (Waller TX), Junior Senior (Copenhagen DENMARK),
KENNA (Virginia Beach VA), Keith Killgo Jazz (Washington DC), Kings of Leon
(Nashville, TN), Kinski (Seattle WA), K'NAAN (Toronto ON), Tracy Lawrence
(Nashville TN), Les Claypool/Electric Apricot (Sebastopol CA), Les Savy Fav
(Brooklyn NY), Lethal Bizzle (London UK), Lily Allen (Hammersmith UK),
Little Barrie (London UK), Little Man Tate (Sheffield UK), The Little Ones
(Silverlake CA), LoneLady (Manchester UK), Lonely China Day (Beijing CHINA),
The Long Winters (Seattle WA), Charlie Louvin (Manchester TN), Barbara Lynn
(Beaumont TX), Magik Markers (Brooklyn NY), Malajube (Montreal QC), Mando
Diao (Borlänge SWEDEN), Maneja Beto (Austin TX), Jo Mango (Glasgow UK), Maps
& Atlases (Chicago IL), Willy Mason (Marthas Vineyard MA), Mastodon (Atlanta
GA), Matt & Kim (Brookyln NY), Nellie McKay (New York NY), Meat Puppets
(Austin TX), Metro Riots (London UK), Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS)
(Mexico City MEXICO), Mika (London UK), Mogwai (Glasgow UK), Money Mark (Los
Angeles CA), Money Waters (Dallas TX), Thurston Moore (Northampton MA),
James Morrison (London UK), The Mountain Goats (Chapel Hill NC), Muck and
the Mires (Boston MA), Alexi Murdoch (London UK), MuteMath (New Orleans LA),
MV/EE and The Bummer Road (Guilford VT), Johnette Napolitano (Joshua Tree
CA), The 1900s (Chicago IL), Paolo Nutini (Paisley UK), The Octopus Project
(Austin TX), Okkervil River (Austin TX), 120 Days (Kristiansund NORWAY),
Oppenheimer (Belfast IRELAND), Ozomatli (Los Angeles CA), The Panda Band
(Perth AUSTRALIA), Graham Parker (Boiceville NY), Peaches (Berlin GERMANY),
Pelican (Chicago IL), Elvis Perkins (Providence RI), Peter and the Wolf (TX)
(Austin TX), The Pipettes (Brighton UK), The Polyphonic Spree (Dallas, TX),
The Ponys (Chicago IL), Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (Waitsfield VT),
Priestess (Montreal QC), Prisonshake (St Louis MO), Psychedelic Horseshit
(Columbus OH), Quetzal (Los Angeles CA), Qui w/ David Yow (Los Angeles CA),
Ra Ra Riot (Syracuse NY), Razorlight (London UK), Jay Reatard (Memphis TN),
Reigning Sound (Asheville NC), Gruff Rhys (Cardiff UK), Rickie Lee Jones
(Chicago IL), Rodrigo y Gabriela (Terra Acida MEXICO), Sam the Sham (Memphis
TN), Satellite Party (Los Angeles CA), Secondhand Serenade (Menlo Park CA),
Ron Sexsmith (Toronto ON), Shout Out Out Out Out (Edmonton AB), The Shys
(Orange County CA), Sloan (Toronto ON), Alice Smith (Brooklyn NY), Soweto
Kinch (Birmingham UK), Spoon (Austin, TX), SSM (Detroit MI), The Stooges
(Detroit MI), The Sunshine Underground (Leeds UK), Jesse Sykes & The Sweet
Hearafter (Seattle WA), Tally Hall (Ann Arbor MI), This Moment In Black
History (Cleveland OH), Pam Tillis (Nashville TN), Times New Viking
(Columbus OH), Tiny Masters of Today (Brooklyn NY), Tokyo Police Club
(Newmarket ON), The Tragically Hip (Kingston ON), Turbonegro (Oslo NORWAY),
TURZI (Paris FRANCE), Under Byen (Århus DENMARK), Valient Thorr (Chapel Hill
NC), Chad VanGaalen (Calgary AB), The View (Dundee UK), Viva Voce (Portland
OR), The Walkmen (Washington DC), The Watson Twins (Los Angeles CA), Mary
Weiss (New York NY), Willowz (Los Angeles CA), Amy Winehouse (London UK),
WinterKids (Peaslake UK), The WOMBATS (Liverpool UK), Wooden Shjips (San
Francisco CA), The Young Knives (Oxford UK), Young Love (Austin TX), and
Youth Group (Australia AUSTRALIA). This list is subject to change. For a
more complete list, check out our website at www.sxsw.com.

Posted by grant on February 8, 2007 11:13 AM | Permalink

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