Today's
Quick Mention: Sadly, the hard drive that holds
all of my music (and by all, I mean over 100 gigs) decided
to die yesterday. I'm hoping I'll get some back
through data recovery, but I don't know. Anyone
willing to send me their digital library? On a less
sad note, you should know that Leah will post tomorrow, John
Michael on Friday and then we'll be back to a normal
schedule.
OK, let's talk SXSW.
I've spent a lot of time over the last few days trying to
figure out a way to properly describe my fourth time
attending SXSW. And you know what? I don't know
where to start. Now, common sense would say that I
have so much to tell that my brain is freaking out, but in
reality it's because absolutely nothing exciting or strange
happened this year. There were a small handful of
artists that came out of nowhere and impressed, and the rest
of the 60+ sets that I saw went about how I expected (to
various degrees, of course).
If forced to guess I'd say that this is because of the shows
that I chose to attend, but there's a part of me that knows
it's just SXSW. Sometimes you just get the luck of the
draw and everything you see works out in some magical way.
Who knows? Maybe it was my gift for surviving the
festival three previous time. Or perhaps I'm just
getting better at it. Either way, I had a good, solid
time this year. Below is some of the stuff that's
still resonating with me. Enjoy.
BTW, I'm so glad to be on the way back to normal.
SXSW 2009
Top 10
Performances That Impressed The Most
1. Buck 65 at Scoot Inn
2. Decemberists at Pangea
3. Cursive at Radio Room
4. St. Vincent at Central Presbyterian Church
5. Heartless Bastards at Radio Room
6. The Thermals at Club DeVille
7. Harlem Shakes at Red 7
8. The Flying Eyes at Club Primos
9. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart at Emo's
Jr.
10. Deastro at Club Primos
Top 5 Overall Surprises
1. Gomez
2. Dag For Dag
3. Deleted Scenes
4. The New Wine
5. Cecil Otter
3
Artists That I Wanted To See But Somehow Managed To Miss
Completely
1. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
2. Fol Chen
3. Ponytail
3
Artists That Will One Day Probably Be Really Good Live
1. Telepathe
2. Bell
3. Crystal Stilts
3
Things That I Was Very Much OK With Missing
1. Kanye West
2. Metallica
3. Red Bull Moontower
3
Things I Wished I Hadn't Missed
1. The Trade Show
2. Spin Closing Party On Saturday (Trail Of Dead, Late Of
The Pier and Superdrag)
3. Flatstock/Record Convention
- John Laird -
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