SXSW 2008

Every year before South by Southwest, I take time out to sit down and sort through all the bands I have befriended on MySpace, visit various websites such as www.showlistaustin.com and Red Gorilla Festival, and make a calendar of all the free shows I want to see.

This normally follows with me printing out this list so that I have a schedule of where I need to be during the week, but of course, when the week finally rolls around, this schedule ends up staying in my bag.

While I did catch some bands that were originally on this schedule, the majority of bands I saw this year were discovered as I was walking down Sixth Street and was intrigued by what I heard. So, without further ado, here is a list of bands not on my schedule, but that I was fortunate enough to see.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

Emo's Lounge
603 Red River St.

Emo's definitely lives up to its reputation during SXSW and I don't blame them. What other venues provide great lines every day of the week for all ages? I especially like the Emo's Lounge shows. They mainly showcase local bands that are trying to get their name out but have great potential. It's a great place to check out those hidden gems people will be talking about in a couple of years.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

I wrote a lot of non-music related articles this semester for Accent and turns out I'll be the Campus editor next semester. Excited! Doesn't mean the music articles will stop though.

Students Build a Park for tickets

Campus Life - Pinnacle

Fuel up for finals

East meets ACC

Top five restaurants to eat at SXSW

Here is a cool article about 2 local artists for Austin Vida. This was a cool interview to do.

Libres y Lokas: El Espetaculo de la Pobreza

Austin-based bands, Riverboat Gamblers, Lomita and Kissinger, will have music videos showcased at this year's SXSW Film Festival.

Lomita's video for "Broken Boy," off of their album, Downtown Mystic, uses the different sequences of the song to reflect the nature of the couple who are the main focus of the video.

"I had an idea for every song on the album," said Director Jose Jones. "I liked 'Broken Boy' because I had seen the progression of it at their live show. I saw it go from very early, rough and quiet, to this intense, polished, brilliant piece of music."

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

Lomita "Broken Boy"

Kissinger "Sydney Stone"

Riverboat Gamblers "Don't Bury Me...I'm Not Dead Yet"

Emo's Annex Wednesday, March 16 @ 10:00 p.m.

It's only been a few months since Secret Lives of the Freemasons played in Austin, but it was three years ago that they were selected to play an official SXSW showcase. "We are so looking forward to getting back to South by Southwest," said Secret Lives' drummer, Travis Moss. "We played in 2005 and it was an absolute blast!" Since their last visit, Secret Lives has released two albums. The latest one, put out on Feb. 19, was titled "Weekend Warriors." The band also signed with Victory Records (Hawthorne Heights and Between the Buried and Me) and followed up by touring around the United States. Somewhere else in the mix, they filmed a music video to "It Only Took a Whisper," poking fun at various genres.

This melodic hardcore band consists of five members, three of which are guitar players. Secret Lives accomplishes the challenging task of managing not to sound overpowering with a wall of guitars by giving each guitar player their own unique melodic line and chords to play. "With three guitarists, we can play exactly how we sound on the CD," Justin Elrod, one of the guitarists said. "It sounds thicker. I don't think it's too much."

Originally posted at Accent.

Stubbs Wednesday, March 12 @ 8 p.m.

Nicole Atkins' first single, "Neptune City," introduced her powerhouse voice to listeners. Growing up in Neptune City, New Jersey, Atkins relied on her history of the small town to portray what it was like to be isolated in her rural childhood hometown. Currently on her first headlining tour, Atkins added Austin to her destinations after being invited back to participate in this year's SXSW festival. With the release of her album, Neptune City, last November, she plans to perform the current single, "Maybe Tonight," as well as debut her sleigh bell skills during her 2008 showcases.

"We are going to do a lot of songs off my Neptune City record, a couple of new songs, and some interesting covers with some very special guests joining us onstage," said Atkins.

She has made many appearances within the last year on the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The music video for "Maybe Tonight" is currently being shown on her MySpace page as well as various music sites such as AOL Music and Spinner.

Originally posted at Accent.