The performances from our SXSW Day Party continue today — here’s Grass Widow performing the excellent “Lulu’s Lips”!

One of both the strange upsides and unfortunate downsides of South by Southwest is that it seems to take place in a vacuum — for a week straight, the world is reduced to the intersection of 6th Street and Red River in Austin, and it’s easy to pretend there is little happening outside it. Occasionally, [...]

By the time they took the stage at Emo’s Thursday afternoon, the members of the New Hampshire band Trap Them had driven 14 hours, most of it in heavy traffic. Needless to say, they were more than a little agitated. “We’re Trap Them, and this is a shitshow,” said vocalist Ryan McKenney. “So let’s get [...]

Now well into its second decade, the days during which South By Southwest — and the bands it attracts — could count novelty as a chief draw are long over. And with blogs and social media sites having likewise moved from fad to institution, the odds that anyone would be hearing a band for the [...]

Hey, long-time lurker, first time contributor to the mighty 17. This was also my first time at SXSW. I’ll just share one performance. After four days (and nights) of carnivalesque goings on, the last show I caught at SXSW was a pretty forceful and moving return to reality. Alex Chilton, which you surely know by [...]

(Man/Miracle, “Up,” Live at eMusic Lunch in Austin)) As you may have heard, eMusic had a little showcase in Austin where we announced our new Access and Rewards program and also spotlighted our amazing Selects bands, Man/Miracle and Hurray for the Riff Raff. To say that they were great would be an understatement. Man/Miracle’s brand [...]

(Liturgy is for lovers) My final day at SXSW had me seeing more music than ever, with more nice surprises. And since I’m racing check-out time as I write this, we’re gonna say to hell with through-narrative on this one and just do a blow-by-blow. The day started with all-you-can-eat pancakes and the Danish post-rock [...]

(look! i took a picture! now you see why i don’t take pictures!) Some bands make a virtue of precision and accuracy, but the best bands I saw on my third day in Austin hid their songs deep in haze. This started early with Holly Miranda, whose solo debut, The Magician’s Private Library, culled the [...]

(same picture, cuz I suck at pictures. also, i have no idea why comments seem disallowed on this post.) If day two of my SXSW had a theme, that theme would be ‘Singular Voices.’ Although I didn’t get to see quite as many bands as I wanted to (every SXSW has one day like that, [...]

The end goal of South By Southwest is, essentially, to generate significant sound and fury. So it’s fitting that the batch of bands I saw on my first day in Austin seemed dedicated to making as big a racket as possible.

So let me get this out of the way first: I love SXSW. Love. I look forward to this week every year, and spend the bulk of my time trying to cram in as many shows as humanly possible. It’s my Super Bowl, if the Super Bowl was a week long and ran for a [...]

01 The supposed primitives who believe that a camera snatches their soul? Onto something. Photographers suck at SXSW. Suck suck suck, whether it’s some dude snapping with his iPhone, someone using a camcorder to bootleg a show or a credentialed shutterbug with a massive DSLR, they are not your show-going friend. I watched too many [...]

I don’t even know where to begin. Just yesterday I promised we wouldn’t do the minute-by-minute diary, but some stretches from yesterday are just too incredible not to. Straight off the top, here’s who I saw (hyperlinks to be added later when there’s time): French Miami (SF math rock that I have played on the [...]

Hey everybody! This is my third day here in Austin, and I wanted to give you some idea of what’s been going on. First off, I have been careful about how to write about being here: I’m wary of writing things that consist of little more than bragging (“I’m here and yr not!”), while also [...]

Alex, Joe and I are all heading down to Texas tomorrow for SXSW (Joe and I covering, Alex playing a kabillion shows), and we’ll be bringing you daily updates on what we’re seeing that’s good, hopefully uncovering a few gems for you. This also means that 17 Dots might be a bit quieter than usual. [...]

South By Southwest is the biggest music-industry festival every year. It happens every March in Austin, Texas, and days are filled with a neverending blur of live shows — some bands you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. Anyway, this year we’re hosting a showcase that we’re insanely proud of: Grizzly Bear Rural Alberta Advantage Girls [...]

Here’s a quick-hit recap of my last two days in Austin, including a case for why you need to see Ponytail right now. Oh, and again, lots of pictures here.

On my final day at SXSW: I meet Mingering Mike, hear a great band in a bike shop parking lot and finally see High Places.

20+ shows in 2 days meant countless doormen checking my ID to make sure I was of age. The only one to notice I had a birthday coming up? The doorman at the Scandinavian Death Metal Showcase. More on that later.

For all of my SXSW photos, go here. Thursday in Austin was a bit of a wash. I saw a fair amount of stuff, but not a lot of it stuck. Best of the day by far was Ponytail, from Baltimore.