Does anyone else wish they were in Austin, Texas at this very moment? Maybe it’s just me. At any rate, what with the real life requirements of a “job” and paying my “bills” tethering me firmly in place at the moment, I’ve taken advantage of the excessive online presence of SXSW enthusiasts to construct an immersive virtual experience for myself. Just follow the simple steps below to have your own SXSW experience without ever having to leave the comfort of your bedroom/office/cubicle:
1. Soak up the sounds. While I’m excited about the Interactive Conference and Film Festival, SXSW is really about the music. There are 1,580 bands playing in Austin this week! Here’s a link to a torrent of this year’s showcasing artists that will help create the sonic landscape for your experience. Alternately, you can try your luck with CBC Radio 3’s SXSW Survival Guide podcast or one of the online radio stations (like this one) that is currently streaming SXSW artists.
2. Twitter! It’s no surprise that the micro-blogging tool was all the rage when it was introduced a few years ago at SXSW. Apparently, it still is:
Everywhere you go, people are talking about how they heard about this event, or that unofficial party or this controversy or that rumor on Twitter. People are stopping in their tracks to read Twitter posts on their phones and some of the more talked about happenings here are generating hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Tweets, all in an entirely organic and uncoordinated manner.
I actually tried to track all references to “SXSW” earlier this week, but had to quickly untrack it as I was unable to deal with the hundreds of incoming tweets.
3. Plan your imaginary itinerary. I’m currently using Paste’s Hour-by-Hour SXSW Recommendations Schedule with its nods to Edmonton’s Cadence Weapon and other Canadians Basia Bulat, Tokyo Police Club, Destroyer, Plants and Animals and MSTRKRFT (but not Calgary’s Woodpigeon). Into a particular musical scene? Then check out this breakdown of bands by city of origin.
That should keep you busy for awhile. Check back throughout the week for more SXSW sites as I stumble upon them…
Update: Pitchfork is posting regular updates from SXSW, including pics and decent write-ups. It’s only a snapshot, and not one necessarily based on my perspective, but it makes me happy…
Update: Ooooh, Stereogum has just posted a waaaaay better series of photos and videos!
Update: Live streaming and a growing archive of SXSW performances at NPR.org.
(One last, Monday morning) Update: Just in case you thought my (exhausting) enthusiasm for SXSW was rooted entirely in my indie music fandom (not that I don’t have a ton of newly discovered artists sitting on my hard drive, just waiting to be digested), here’s a succinct article from the New York Times (thanks Sherry!) that ties the growing importance of the festival to the changing nature of the recording industry:
Sooner or later, public forums and private conversations at this year’s festival end up pondering how 21st-century musicians will be paid. For nearly all of them, it won’t be royalty checks rolling in from blockbuster albums. Musicians’ livelihoods will more likely be a crazy quilt of what their lawyers would call “alternative revenue streams”: touring, downloads, ringtones, T-shirts, sponsorships, Web site ads and song placements in soundtracks or commercials. Festival panels offer practical advice on all of them, for career-minded do-it-yourself-ers.
Perhaps what I find so exciting about the sheer size of SXSW is that we’re finally being given something that the music industry has never really offered before, at least not in an easily accessible form: choice! And all of this because large record companies can no longer dictate what we listen to. Sounds a lot more like democracy than anything else I’ve heard in awhile…
