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Also this issue: Laying It Bare Fiddle Sticks Clinic Bobby McFerrin Martha Argerich |
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April 4-10, 2002
music
 SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: The Burning Brides got some major attention at SXSW. |
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South by Southwest is an exhausting week. Since any Austin space larger than a Fotomat can seemingly transform itself into a venue in a matter of hours, there’s music to be had everywhere at any hour of the day. And music comes with beer, music comes with Mexican food, music comes with art. Even bookstores get into the act: Austin wordmongers BookPeople hosted a Neal Pollack appearance that was more rock show than reading, complete with free booze, musical accompaniment from Jim Roll and a call-and-response chant about dildonics.
The whole experience is even tiring for those who just show up for one day, like Three-4-Ten guitarist Scott Rodgers. Rodgers and his band played the Thursday night File 13/Polyvinyl showcase at BD Riley's, a venue that, according to Rodgers, "basically looked like a T.G.I. Friday's."
The chain restaurant atmosphere didn't stop the band from electrifying the room in their Austin debut, thanks in part to Three-4-Ten member Jamie Mahon's attempt to beat the heat by stripping down and dousing himself in beer. But later, Rodgers got kicked out for making a questionable rock-star move: falling asleep. He'd been up since 4 a.m. thanks to an early-morning plane ride out of Philadelphia, and he was scheduled to depart Austin the next day.
SXSW's offerings have that effect. Hundreds of bands plus scores of venues equals millions of possibilities, and that's not even mentioning the options one has for food, Texas-brewed beer, or peekaboo doors into empty dot-com offices.
The first thing you find out about Austin once you get off the plane is that it's marketing itself as the "Live Music Capital of the World," a concept reiterated at least once a minute somewhere in the city during SXSW. Since it began in 1987, the week-long festival has evolved from a regional showcase for music into a multi-tracked behemoth worthy of its own wrap-up show on MTV2 and spin-off conferences in Toronto (NXNE) and Portland, Ore. (NXNW). Sometimes, the atmosphere here -- where it's hard to get a cell phone signal because industry execs are clogging up the circuits and bands are scheduled to play five showcases in as many days -- gives off the feel of major label spring training. And that feeling isn't without merit: Industry sensations from the Old 97s to The Strokes have, in years past, eked their way into the big teams' consciousness on one of Austin's many stages.
This year, the big names weren't as big as in years previous. Registration for the music portion of the conference was reportedly down 15 percent; panels focused on uneasy relationships like those between artists and emerging technologies, artists and labels, Hilary Rosen and Don Henley, Courtney Love and, well, everybody. The trade show, which was positively sprawling compared to the meager offerings of the interactive/film trade show earlier in the week, had a few fun gifts for those who decided to venture near the booths: ASCAP gave away free beer, the Austin Chronicle offered Chick tracts, and a gaming company set up a new twist on a karaoke booth, this one for aspiring guitarists.
But the return to pre-Alternative Boom economic times seemed to make this year's search for the "next thing" all the more feverish on both sides. Clinic packed the cavernous La Zona Rosa, but hip-hop buzz label of the moment Def Jux failed to do the same two nights later, despite an electrifying set from Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif. A packed room fell in love all at once with the Björk-meets-Huggy Bear stylings of Brit giggle-rockers Kaito. Capitol positioned itself as the latest label to cater to the fan of "Britpop" -- a promotional video they distributed featured the U.K. trifecta of Radiohead, Coldplay and Starsailor, as well as next Brit thing Ed Harcourt and, for extra accent cred, New Zealander Neil Finn. Scuttlebutt on one post-conference plane out of Austin was all about Norah Jones, the latest piano prodigy to possess the industry-button-pushing qualities of being beautiful, young, and vaguely influenced by jazz.
Also on the list of potential big things: Philadelphia's own Burning Brides. "We went from being a band in a crappy little van to a raw piece of steak thrown into a sea of piranha," singer/guitarist Dmitri Coats says about the experience of being courted by many a major while in Austin.
"There just seemed to be this buzz," he says. "Right when we went on, the place filled up, and there were 100 people on the street," watching through the same window where people had gathered to see the Three-4-Tens earlier in the evening. "The weather was awesome, everyone was in a good mood. We're all rooting for each other. It was just one of those magical nights."
