So Many Bands

Roky Erickson's band 13th Floor Elevators are often credited as innovators of psychedelic rock. However, legal troubles and drug use led to the band's unfortunate demise after just four years together. After being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and arrested for possession of a marijuana joint, Erickson spent time in Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane until he was released in 1972. After Okkervil River performed as Erickson's backup band during the 2008 Austin Music Awards. vocalist Will Sheff was asked to produce Erickson's next album. Selecting the 13 tracks from the 60 he received, 'True Love Cast Out All Evil' will be released on April 20 as Erickson's first new album in the past 14 years. Erickson and Sheff talked with Spinner about the making of this new album and their upcoming stint at SXSW.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Rocky Votolato is a singer-songwriter raised in Dallas and Seattle, both homes to groundbreaking music scenes. Votolato talked with Spinner about his music and returning to SXSW for the third time.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

After being a five-piece band since its inception in 2005, Royal Bangs will debut as a trio at this year's SXSW. The remaining members have been practicing and rearranging the originally five-part songs for the now three-member band. Frontman Ryan Schaefer chatted with Spinner recently to discuss this new change, why he was so hesitant to become a Beatles fan, and how the band almost starred in its own horror movie.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Rockwell Knuckles is a hip hop artist from St. Louis, MI. Using his high energy and love for cheesy '80s movie soundtracks, he produces his own personal sound that even the more novice hip hop listener can enjoy. Rockwell recently talked with Spinner about his music, his love for Barry Gordy's movie "The Last Dragon" and what fans can expect at his SXSW show and on his next mixtape "Choose Your Own Adventure."

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Royal Bloodline is a perfect study of Who's Who in the world of Latin rock. Each member is or was part of distinguished groups such as Molotov, Los Dynamites and Cafe Tacuba. Taking a different direction from these bands' electronica pop and indie rock, these four guys have produced straight-forward rock and roll.

Founding member, Randy Ebright chatted with Spinner to discuss his band before they head down to Austin for SXSW.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

You ever hear a song and immediately think "damn, that's a great song."? This is one of those songs.

I caught The Dig earlier this month when they opened for Portugal the Man at the Parish. "I Just Wanna Talk to You" was the closing song of the night and they had help rockin out with tourmates Port O'Brien.

This song is just simply amazing and goes without saying that it's been on heavy rotation on my ipod.

The Dig "I Just Wanna Talk to You" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Recorded on my Flip Mino.

Drummer Maya Miller and guitarist/vocalist Becky Black formed the Pack A.D. after being in another band together. Discovering they liked playing music together, they became the Pack, however after a hip-hop group with the same name had their Myspace page taken down over and over again, this duo decided to add A.D. to the end of the Pack, therefore becoming the Pack A.D.

Miller recently talked to Spinner to talk about the band's upcoming stint at SXSW and their new LP, 'We Kill Computers,' which will be released in April.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Australia's Karnivool formed in 1997 as a high school cover band but was shortly converted into a band writing original songs after lead singer Ian Kenny changed the set as well as the members. Now the current five piece--vocalist Ian Kenny, guitarist Andrew Goddard, bassist Jon Stockman, guitarist Mark Hosking and drummer Steve Judd--have recently released their second studio album, 'Sound Awake.'

Recently, Hosking took the time to answer some questions from Spinner about the band. This is their first time participating in SXSW and they already have six shows scheduled to perform.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

Xiao He is the solo project of Glorious Pharmacy's lead singer and guitarist, He Guoheng. The experimental folk venture started in 1999, around the same time as the beginning days of Glorious Pharmacy. At the time, China's underground music scene was small and unvarying, which quickly earned them a following of music fans. Xiao He will be heading to Austin to perform at this year's SXSW with his solo material. With the help of a translator -- as Xiao He is not fluent in English -- Spinner conducted an interview with the musician about his music in anticipation of the festival.

Click here to read the rest at Spinner.

So how did the Accent team put together our cover and double truck for SXSW shown in this post? Watch the video below.

The making of Accent's SXSW pre-coverage layout for Issue #3 from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

I'm competing in a video contest so I used this as a chance to get some practice before the journalism conference after SXSW. I filmed most of the clips except for the ones I'm in, of course. The video was shot on my Flip Mino and edited myself in iMovie.

Thanks again to the bands that gave me permission to include their songs:
Love at 20
Quiet Company
SPEAK