SXSW

[kurosawa-b/w]

From Drowned in Sound:
 
 SXSW 06 with Neil Young, Cat Power, B&S, Saves the Day, Rollins...
 Artists: Neil Young, Belle And Sebastian, Cat Power, The Cribs, Two Gallants
 South By South West, announces first blast of details for next year, which is also its 20th Anniversary... plus DiS to put on an event.
 
 It's in Austin. It is, was and will be amazing. Basically there ain't many music festivals in the world where you can see about 3000 new bands, pretty much before anyone else in the world, in the Texan sun, whilst drinking mexican beer and eating the best BBQ in the world. And see bats fly from under a bridge! And if you work in the music biz you can goto a conference where this year Neil Young is the keynote speaker and the likes of Henry Rollins (being interviewed onstage!), K.D. Lang, The Pretenders, Kris Kristofferson and Billy Bragg are all talking too!
 
 Joining Neil Young on March 16th, during his natter will be director Jonathan Demme, whose film 'Neil Young / Heart of Gold' will screen during SXSW. The movie documents Young's 2005 Nashville performances, which focused on his most recent album, 'Prairie Wind'.
 
 Drowned in Sound will be out there in full force, and is helping to curate the Bootleg BBQ on Saturday afternoon with British Underground. It takes place at the Mean Eyed Cat on Fifth St, which is a Johnny Cash bar that was formally a chainsaw shop, The Cut-Rite as featured in Chainsaw Massacre 2.
 
 Here's the first round of official acts confirmed for SXSW 2006:
 
 The Adored (Los Angeles, CA)
 Annie (Bergen, Norway)
 Arctic Monkeys (Sheffield, UK)
 Belle and Sebastian (Glasgow, UK)
 The BellRays (Los Angeles, CA)
 Be Your Own PET (Nashville, TN)
 Blockhead (New York, NY)
 The Boy Least Likely To (Wendover, UK)
 The Brokedown (Los Angeles, CA)
 Calexico (Tucson, AZ)
 Neko Case (Tacoma, WA)
 Cat Power (Atlanta, GA, pictured)
 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Brooklyn, NY)
 Clor (London, UK)
 Jason Collett (Toronto, Ontario)
 The Cribs (Wakefield, UK)
 Cuff the Duke (Toronto, Ontario)
 Jamie Cullum (London, UK)
 Dashboard Confessional (Boca Raton, FL)
 Death In Vegas (London, UK)
 Death Vessel (Brooklyn, NY)
 Dengue Fever (Los Angeles, CA)
 Destroyer (Vancouver, British Columbia)
 Die! Die! Die! (Auckland, New Zealand)
 Dirty Pretty Things (London, UK)
 Jorge Drexler (Madrid, Spain)
 Dr. Spock (Reykjavik, Iceland)
 The Duke Spirit (London, UK)
 The Earlies (Manchester, UK)
 Echo & The Bunnymen (Liverpool, UK)
 Editors (Birmingham, UK)
 The Eighteenth Day Of May (London, UK)
 Elbow (Manchester, UK)
 Empire Dogs (Stockholm, Sweden)
 Erase Errata (San Francisco, CA)
 Faker (Sydney, Australia)
 Flogging Molly (Los Angeles, CA)
 Forward Russia (Leeds, UK)
 Giant Sand (Tucson, AZ)
 Gogol Bordello (New York, NY)
 Jose Gonzalez (Gothenburg, Sweden)
 The Go! Team (Brighton, UK)
 Headphones (Seattle, WA)
 The Hellacopters (Stockholm, Sweden)
 Clarence Frogman Henry (New Orleans, LA)
 The Juan Maclean (Dover, NH)
 Kaki King (New York, NY)
 Kalas (Oakland, CA)
 k-os (Whitby, Ontario)
 Sharron Kraus & Christian Kiefer (London, UK)
 Lady Sovereign (London, UK)
 The Like (Los Angeles, CA)
 Los De Abajo (Mexico, City, Mexico)
 Luminous Orange (Yokohama Japan)
 Barbara Lynn (Beaumont, TX)
 The Magic Numbers (London, UK)
 Magnolia Electric Company (Chicago, IL)
 Serena Maneesh (Oslo, Norway)
 Mates of State (East Haven, CT)
 The Morning After Girls (Sydney, Australia)
 The Most Serene Republic (Toronto, Ontario)
 Mystery Jets (London, UK)
 My Summer as a Salvation Soldier (Reykjavik, Iceland)
 Neon Blonde (Seattle, WA)
 Nickel Creek (Carlsbad, CA)
 n0 things (Brooklyn, NY)
 Of Montreal (Athens, GA)
 Beth Orton (London, UK)
 Peaches (Berlin, Germany)
 The Plimsouls (Los Angeles, CA)
 Robert Pollard (Dayton, OH)
 Ramblin' Jack Elliot (New York, NY)
 Saves the Day (Princeton, NJ)
 The Secret Machines (New York NY)
 Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives (Hendersonville, TN)
 Tarantula A D (New York, NY)
 Susan Tedeschi (Jacksonville, FL)
 Towers of London (London, UK)
 KT Tunstall (London, UK)
 Two Gallants (San Francisco, CA)
 Tom Verlaine (New York, NY)
 Vetiver (San Francisco, CA)
 The Whigs (Athens, GA)
 Witch (Brattleboro, VT)
 Wolfmother (Sydney, Australia)

[JohnnyBaconbitz]

I went last year amd all the wristband bullshit made life pretty stressful.
 
 Due to lines and schedule conflicts, it is nowhere near as easy to jump from joint to joint as it might seem.
 
 While there will be tons o' great acts, it will be tough to see more than one showcase or two per night.
 
 Upon further review, I should have gone to the ACL fest in September instead.

[Bags]

Originally posted by JohnnyBaconbitz:
  I went last year amd all the wristband bullshit made life pretty stressful.

Can you explain this a little more?
 
 I've heard from a friend who's been five times that SXSW has changed a lot in the last few years because it is an much more popular event.  Them's the breaks sometimes.  I'm as excited about spending four days in Austin with friends as the shows, so I think I should have a good attitude going in.

[kosmo vinyl]

MTB might be interested in this one  Dirty Pretty Things Carl Barat's new band...

[kurosawa-b/w]

Once again, I can't afford to go. I'm hoping many of those bands will tour in March. Especially Wolfmother!

[eltee]

I'm excited about Neil Young.

[ttuamy]

Can you explain this a little more?
 
 I've heard from a friend who's been five times that SXSW has changed a lot in the last few years because it is an much more popular event. Them's the breaks sometimes. I'm as excited about spending four days in Austin with friends as the shows, so I think I should have a good attitude going in.

you can only buy wristbands in person in austin so either
 a.  you find someone in austin that will go to the ticket outlet and buy you one
 b.  you go to austin and buy one
 c.  you show up the first day and scramble around looking for one.
 
 i've done c twice and both times it worked out.  my suggestion:  get there wednesday afternoon and just ask EVERYONE if they know where the wristbands are being sold.  one year we got ours at a club, last year we got them at the convention center.
 
 and the key to getting the most out of your sxsw experience is to go to the day shows.  they're free and unofficial so you don't have to worry about wristbands and badges and stuff.  i saw all the buzz bands during the day and then hopped around the smaller showcases at night.
 
 it's a ton of fun!!

[anarchist]

the wristband is a great premise.  you can get into any venue for the price of the wristband for 4 nights.  the problem is if you have a wristband you will not get into a popular venue after 9pm. people have to leave the venue for others to get in.  if the big acts are last, people will not leave. lines are long and they don;t move. the only venue you can get into after 9pm is stubbs or the music hall because those are big venues.  badge holders (cost $500+) get in first, then wristbands, then people with cash.  cash only gets in when the doors open and that # is limited. in reality a wristband will only get you into one venue per night. because of this, they are not worth more than $75.

[eltee]

Originally posted by prtybby:
   

Can you explain this a little more?
 
 I've heard from a friend who's been five times that SXSW has changed a lot in the last few years because it is an much more popular event. Them's the breaks sometimes. I'm as excited about spending four days in Austin with friends as the shows, so I think I should have a good attitude going in.

you can only buy wristbands in person in austin so either[/b]

Generally Waterloo will have them. And a few websites, sxsw.com included will let you know you to obtain one. Also, don't some hotels put tack the wristband onto the package?

[Bags]

Originally posted by prtybby:
  you can only buy wristbands in person in austin so either
 a.  you find someone in austin that will go to the ticket outlet and buy you one
 b.  you go to austin and buy one
 c.  you show up the first day and scramble around looking for one.

Luckily I think I'm all set up for a.

[grotty]

Originally posted by Bags:
   

Originally posted by prtybby:
  you can only buy wristbands in person in austin so either
 a.  you find someone in austin that will go to the ticket outlet and buy you one
 b.  you go to austin and buy one
 c.  you show up the first day and scramble around looking for one.

Luckily I think I'm all set up for a. [/b]

If you can at all afford it Bags - go the BADGE route.
 
 You get priority access to all events - including the conference which actually looks appealing this year.
 
 I've gone many years - and as the event has grown - it's become increasingly valuable. Without a badge it's become virutally impossible to move about during the night to catch hot showcases.
 
 If you are happy staying in one or two places per night -  a wristband will do.
 
 If you want to move about - a badge is a priority. I would have missed out on many of my fav SXSW moments over the years if I had not spent the extra $$ on a badge.
 
 If you decide to go with that option tho - act quickly. They sell on a graded basis - cheaper early & getting VERY expensive late. It may in fact be too late for a reasonable cost.
 
 Also - I strongly agree with the advice above about taking advantage of the daytime activities. They are often far better than the evening events. It's a great way to manage seeing all the bands you want to see (they'll usually play a formal showcase & then parties & label events giving you multiple opportunities)
 
 These are a few good resources I've used over the years to gather info in advance:
 
 http://www.donewaiting.com/sxsw/
 
 http://showlistaustin.com/
 
 http://www.austinchronicle.com/

[Bags]

Originally posted by The Artist Formerly Known As grotty:
  If you can at all afford it Bags - go the BADGE route.

Thanks for all the info, grotty.  I would get a badge myself, but no one I'm going with wants to shell out the bucks.  They're $475 right now.  I figure we're all flying out and spending lots of cash on hotels, why not, but I'd be alone on that....

[FromTheAltarboyInn]

Well I'll be going this year again...it should be great looking at the lineup!
 
 Oh, and ditto on the badge situation. Why be a cheap ass if youre travelling to Austin anyways? It's more than worth its value, and you get access to the priority events, like the Neil Young speaking event, the different workshops, and the little breakfast they have. You run into all the artists, and it's well worth travelling for.

[Bartelby]

Just to update those looking for badges/rooms:  The present price of music badges is $475. The next increase is Jan. 13th...however, it's a BITCH using their SXSW Ecommerce interface (really horrible user-interface/formats) and I had to update browsers on both my PC and G4 to finally get the screen faces to display properly. Then, it takes up to two days for them to "accept and confirm" your purchase. ..so don't wait 'til the a.m. of 1/13 to start the process or you'll be stuck with the escalating price.
 
 Secondarily, the SXSW website shows many hotels sold out; but you should call/go on websites for these hotels directly.  They've reserved rooms at a discount (a very small one at the hotel I preferred) and the SXSW website only shows their allocation; the hotel you really want may still have room available. I had no problem getting rooms on-line and then followed up to confirm by phone...
 
 March can't get here fast enuf.

[Bags]

Question on timing -- we're about to make flight arrangements.  I don't whether to do Wed - Sun, Thurs to Mon, etc.
 
 Is there a reason to be sure to be there Wednesday, Sunday or in to Monday??
 
 Thanks -- for Austin City Limits a friend SWEARS by the closing night party on Sunday night.  
 
 Also, I'm thinking Sunday may be a zoo at the airport, but is that worth another $200/night hotel room?
 
 Thanks for the advice!!