WE'LL SKIP FORWARD A LITTLE FOR YA; DAILY PICTURE AND CONCERT REVIEW UPDATES FROM AUSTIN ARE HERE,
STARTING ON PAGE 2 AND BE SURE TO DIGG THE REVIEWS IF YOU DIG EM'
At only four-years-old, Randomville has covered some large music festivals, live and in person: Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, CMJ, Sasquatch!, Midpoint Music Festival—the list goes on and on. And for the past couple years we’ve been giving our readers previews of the granddaddy of them all:
South by Southwest. So it only seemed fitting that we send one of our personnel down to Austin, Texas for a week to report back as much of the action as possible.
I’ve been salivating for many years waiting to go to SXSW and I can’t wait to dive right into the middle of it all. However, after doing some research, it appears that “it all” is going to be a little bit more than I can chew. Literally hundreds of bands will perform between March 12 and 16. Big names like R.E.M., Van Morrison, Perry Farrell, Ice Cube, Ben Harper, and Tom Morello will be there this year. Though the renowned artists featured this year are enticing, it’s the smaller scale bands like many we’ve
already introduced you to that I’m looking forward to most.
Tom Morello aka The Nightwatchman to perform at SXSW 2008
Along with the impressive list of bands to be barraged by, plenty of music panels are scheduled—most notably the keynote interview with Lou Reed. Our writer Tim Faught turned me on to another interesting keynote with Frank Warren on March 10th. If his name is unfamiliar to you, Warren is the collector/curator of the
Post Secret project, and has become known as “the most trusted stranger in America.” The project is simple: tell a secret on a handmade postcard and send it in. Perhaps it will go on the blog, perhaps not. But it is a good thing to reach out, however anonymously. Some secrets are funny, others are enigmatic, and some pull at the heartstrings. Creative nonetheless. The interview I’m probably most looking forward to attending is Sean Moriarty, the President/CEO of Ticketmaster—I’m sure there will be a LOT of questions for that guy!
SXSW 2008 Keynote Speaker: Lou Reed
Many industry reps will be on hand to share their experience, advice, and knowledge. Anyone involved with music in just about any way can find some use at these panels: musicians, promoters, photographers, booking agents, artists, writers, etc. So not only am I expecting to learn a few things to help improve Randomville, but I’d like to report back in specifics just how useful these tools are.
Randomville has plenty of meetings, interviews, and shows lined up to attend, but those are going to be kept secret until they happen. You can follow my travels (and images!) through Austin all week as I plan to update daily (hopefully often) on
this board.
an example from the Post Secret project
We’re also going to let the reader get involved a little bit. If you go to our Message Boards and follow my daily journeys, then you can also submit your request on who I will go see each day. I’ll take the first three that show up for each day. Then I’ll go to the show and report back when I can about the show YOU requested. Keep in mind there could be scheduling conflicts with some of your requests. Our message boards are free and easy to sign up on.
Of course meeting new people and making new friends on personal and professional levels will be fun, but this is going to be a great chance to re-connect with old friends for a week as well. We made a few calls to some of our industry friends to see what they have planned for the week and I’ll leave you with a few of those results:
1.)
WOXY.com will be broadcasting live all week long beginning at 9am on Tuesday the 11
th. And they have a pretty impressive list of bands lined up to join them at EAR studios live March 11-15th. (
all times Eastern)....
The Loved Ones
the Rosebuds
Dub Trio
Sondre Lerche
Dirty On Purpose
James Levy
Paul Thorn
the Color Fred
Thursday, March 13, @ Mohawk
White Hinterland 8:30-9:15pm
Throw Me the Statue 9:30-10:15
The Explorers Club 10:30-11:15
Parts & Labor 12:30-1:15am
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