Last year’s SXSW coverage felt a little more overzealous and overambitious. On one side, I would have loved to extend my SXSW coverage to do as much as I did last year just because I got to see and experience so much, but between working on an annotated bibliography for a class and other graduate level course work in the day time, plus the fatigue of the second semester of grad school, I couldn’t find myself pushing the limits for another year. Of course, being an employee of a college radio station, my main goal was to see some amazing artists throughout SXSW whether it was an official event or an unofficial event in Austin, but this year I was lucky enough to be given a Platinum badge giving me access to the TV & Film festival allowing me to sit at the premieres of some of the most exciting movies of the year.
I do wish I could’ve seen more films if we’re being honest, but movies were the side gig behind seeing music, so I skipped multiple premieres in favor of music including blockbusters like Immaculate, The Fall Guy, and more. Plus I just happened to miss a lot of premieres as well. I did spend some time at the beautiful Paramount Theatre and in a separate article I will share my unprofessional thoughts on the media I saw with their respective ratings. In this article I will spend some time talking about my journey through Austin for another year while discussing every artist I saw and my thoughts.
Friday:
I left Lubbock early Friday to make it to Austin with the hope of going to the premiere of the Jake Gyllenhaal Road House remake. Due to traffic throughout the drive, that ended up being impossible, but I got to the convention center around 5:30 pm and waited in line to get my SXSW badge. I felt pretty big time getting my platinum badge with my new work headshot printed on it. I was here for business. Knowing I couldn’t make it to the Road House premiere, I decided to go to Moody Theater for the Variety Power of Comedy event out of curiosity. I thought it would be a comedy show. It was not. It was a fake award show with a star-studded cast of comedians including John Leguizamo, Nick Kroll, Jaboukie Young-White, Pamela Adlon, Mike Judge, and so many more. It wasn’t super exciting, but it was cool to see all the actors in one place.
Nearby was an activation for 3 Body Problem, a new Netflix original series by the Game of Thrones showrunners based on the book series by Liu Cixin. I then went to the premiere of the show at the Paramount before going to P. Terry’s for dinner. A successful first night.
Saturday:
The second day started with me taking a trip to South Congress to see some of the activations set up. I went to the Reddit activation out of curiosity, but it was for businesses, and Zachary the journalist is not a business (YET). I then went to the Amazon Prime and Fallout activation at Hotel San Jose. It was one of the coolest experiences at SXSW. They recreated “Filly”, a post-war settlement from the TV series. We were given 33 pins to represent Vault 33 from the games and once we went inside Filly there was jerky, cupcakes, and Nuka-Cola to try plus a bunch of cool activities and Fallout-inspired carnival games. In addition, Todd Howard of Bethesda was walking around, but I was in a long line for an event, and I didn’t want to get out. I am dedicated.
I then went to AFS Cinema to see one of the showings of Sing Sing followed by going back to the Paramount to see Y2K. In between the movies, I put an order in at what I thought was the Chipotle across the street from the Paramount for dinner, but I instead ordered it to the Lubbock location. My roommate Jadan got a free dinner from that. It was not my best moment.
Sunday:
I was finally going to see some music on Sunday. I started off at the Audible carnival eating mini corn dogs and popsicles as well as lost at carnival games. Sportico had sports-related events set up including a one-on-one conversation with Stephen A. Smith. As I headed to that event, I ran into Conan O’Brien outside of the hotel and had a small conversation with him. He is probably the nicest celebrity I have ever met. At the Stephen A. Smith event, I got to ask him a question about how ESPN’s First Take has evolved and I got props from some people after the session. I am a journalist.
I then went to the Tide activation where they were giving samples and demonstrations of their new EVO detergent which is boxed in recyclable materials made to be eco-friendly. The detergent completely dissolves in water and is supposed to be better than even their Tide Pods. There is no plastic bottle either. It is really cool to see how Tide is trying to create a more eco-friendly solution to something that has been packaged in these huge plastic jugs for years. What’s even better was the event had free rosé and other beverages that they gave you in non-recyclable plastic cups. It really showed their commitment to reducing plastic waste.
I then had a Chipotle redo and actually ate my desired burrito before going to see I Saw The TV Glow. I then walked to the British Music Embassy to see Skepta. There were a few DJs opening before and well after his planned start time Skepta had yet to show up.
Skepta
Due to technical difficulties, Skepta was unable to do his promised DJ set but performed a few cuts including Praise The Lord and Gas Me Up. It was a very brief performance, but he gave energy and it was really cool to see such a legend perform a brief free show in the middle of Austin, Texas.
Following his set, I enjoyed a VooDoo donut and went to bed.
Monday:
I started Monday going to a Spurs in Austin event where I shot to get a t-shirt, I missed the basket and got a bandana in return. I then worked on my annotated bibliography at Houndstooth. I then saw This is a Film About The Black Keys. and Monkey Man back to back at the Paramount.
orbit
orbit was a super easy electronic experience. Since it was 12:30 in the morning, it was nice to hear some easy electronic music as the opener of my music festival experience.
Char Stiles and v10101a
Two of the DJs at the same WISE electronic event played a fun electronic event b2b to close the night out at Coconut Club. It was a great end of the day.
Tuesday:
I started my SXSWing on Tuesday with a keynote from The Daniels who talked through their creative process and why they made Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was super fascinating. I then went to a panel of music video directors talking about their process in creating cool music videos.
Chase Shakur
Just like last year, I went to the Moody Theater for the Rolling Stone Future of Music event. Chase Shakur opened up the event and it was super cool to see him perform after falling in love with his song X’s n O’s last year. In 30 minutes, he brought fantastic energy to his R&B sound and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it.
Karrahbooo
Concrete signee Karrahbooo who had been making waves from her verse from the On The Radar cypher was another exciting act added to this card. She had this infectious carefree energy but cared about her performance and had a lot of fun with it. She brought out Anycia to perform their collaboration SPLASH BROTHERS which was also cool to see. She closed with a show-stopping performance of her On The Radar cypher verse.
Lola Brooke
Lola Brooke played last year at SXSW for the Billboard event featuring Lil Yachty before the event was canceled due to lightning. She has a really powerful New York sound and was just an enjoyable artist to see live.
Veeze
It was not a drill. It was the real thing. Veeze performed. Ganger was such a fantastic project, so to see Veeze bring the songs to life and rap bar for bar with the backing track. His deadpan lyricism is hilarious and energetic at the same time, so to see him give a really strong performance alongside the hyped-up crowd made the moment even more enthralling. I love hearing Law n Order and Not a Drill live since both seem to be on constant repeat.
Teezo Touchdown
I had been dying to see Teezo live. I knew that if his debut album How Do You Sleep At Night? came out while I was in high school, it would probably be extremely influential to my growth as a music consumer. Teezo is a performer. If you are opening arenas for Tyler, the Creator, and Travis Scott, you would expect him to learn from some of the greats of live performing. He walked on stage with a bouquet of flowers that he proceeded to show his microphone singing into the bouquet the entire performance. With each song, the bouquet would fall apart more and more pushing petals on the stage and into the crowd. It was some pretty cool performance art. He proceeded to play a big chunk from his last album including the deluxe track Third Coast and covers including MODERN JAM by Travis Scott and 7969 Santa by Drake. He seemed like he was testing out his setlist for his upcoming tour. It was cool to see a sneak peek of that.
West 22nd
I will have more thoughts about West 22nd when I write my article about their performance at the House of Blues Cambridge Room in Dallas, Texas, but I was extremely excited to see them perform at SXSW. I always loved seeing local Austin artists perform at SXSW, so to see a band composed entirely of University of Texas students was even cooler. The band performed a fusion of fun originals and classic covers at the packed Valhalla bar. They deserve a ton of success just from how talented they are. After the performance, I talked to the lead singer who was super cool to chat with and told me to come out to another show. I told him I would, and I ultimately did a month later.
Just Blaze
Just a block down at Mohawk was a celebration of classic hip-hop that I sadly missed catching some modern hip-hop, but Just Blaze closed the night out with an awesome DJ set. He really had the crowd moving to Mobb Deep, Wu-Tang, Tribe, JAY-Z, and everyone in between. I bumped into him after the performance and told him his Miracle beat on SoundCloud is euphoric and free therapy any time I got stressed. What a cool guy.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was exciting because my co-worker, good friend, and roommate Libby Veatch was heading into town for some SXSW fun. I started the day making more progress on my annotated bibliography at Houndstooth Coffee before getting the rest of the day started. As I got to downtown Austin the Future of Music event featured superstar Peso Pluma with a line wrapping 3 times over in two blocks. It was truly a sight to see for a free show. I knew that when they announced his performance it would be that insane.
Cosmo Pyke
I had been in love with Cosmo Pyke since I first heard the 2017 Just Cosmo EP, and was ready for whatever was next for him. He never released another project until 2021’s A Piper for Janet which I adored as well. It came out at the perfect time and I was addicted to it. To continue his EPs he released Curser’s Lament last year. When I saw his name on the SXSW artist list, I knew I would not miss him for the world. His 2:00 performance at the British Music Embassy was hot, but his performance was even hotter. He appears as such a natural performer and the songs really came to life with his performance. His band alongside him played the hell out of the tunes, and it was really enjoyable. The crowd was excellent as well, enjoying the good tunes. I gave him props after the show which was a lot lamer the people around me wearing his merch from past tours.
Chartreuse
I have said many nice things about Chartreuse in the past after seeing them open for Local Natives during their Times Waits For No One tour and their last album Morning Ritual being one of my favorite albums of last year, so when they hit the SXSW bill, I knew I would check out their set once again being more familiar with their work. Their entire performance consisted of cuts off of Morning Ritual, so it was easy for me to sing along and catch onto their live energy. I cannot praise them enough and thought they were just as good as when they opened at House of Blues. I want to see them get more attention because they are incredible.
Good Looks
Local Austin band Good Looks found themselves gaining a large chunk of press following their dropping out of all their official SXSW just like many artists performing in Austin. SXSW found themselves under fire from attendees and musicians for their inclusion of Raytheon and BAE Systems to host events as well as letting the U.S. Army become a “Super Sponsor” especially during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Good Looks still vowed to do all their free shows throughout downtown Austin, but stated they would not be performing any official showcase for the event. I saw Good Looks gain a lot of press off of a news interview they did with Austin’s Spectrum 1, and in return saw them perform at the Vaquero Taquero showcase with UT Austin’s Afterglow and Indie label Happen Twice. Vaquero Taquero was extremely tight, but the band put on a great set from what I caught, and was thoroughly impressed by their fun sound. Good looks.
After this, I made my way to Parish to see Frank Turner perform and meet up with Libby and company. Re:Sound put on a free event with Marshall with a great lineup of acts. Due to capacity, the line to get into Parish to see the acts was ridiculously long. This happened to be a lot of the larger issues SXSW faced this year: free shows led to Disney World-sized lines. As a badge, free events weren’t the end all be all, but these planners severely miscounted the number of people who would try to come to these events. The standstill lines for hours and overcrowded spaces made these free events unenjoyable to all and barely worth the effort. Maybe the SXSW for a free crowd has grown too large with no answer from the people trying to put these events together. Re:Sound has multiple venues with different capacities for these events, so maybe they will figure it out for the next year.
After we bailed on Parish and Frank Turner (we waved to him as he dove into his van after the show), we headed to Hotel Vegas to see if Cumbia night was as cool as it sounded.
Combo Cósmico
Shocker, it was as cool as it sounded. I only got to catch Combo Cósmico during the showcase, but the grooves were fantastic and I couldn’t stop enjoying the sounds performed. It was nice to break out the dance moves midway through the week. The whole band had a fantastic sound and it was a ton of fun to watch.
Psymon Spine
Outside of the major Rolling Stone events, one of the best cards at SXSW was the Monster Child showcase at EMPIRE Garage. The event started with Neo-Psychedelia group Psymon Spine fresh off the release of their third album Head Body Connector. Their performance had a lot of Alternative Dance influence which felt very LCD Soundsystem-esque. The stage lighting was very hectic which really helped their performance feel very exhilarating. They had a lot of fun on stage as well, so all-in-all I was impressed especially after enjoying their last album quite a bit.
Kari Faux
Inside the smaller venue at EMPIRE was another showcase for Roskilde Festival with Kari Faux giving her only performance alongside Phoelix. Kari mixes Neo-Soul with Southern Hip-Hop. She delivered a great but short performance. It was a pretty small stage, but everyone in attendance seemed to be a fan of hers which led to a great vibe and a good time overall.
Automatic
I love it when Stones Throws releases albums that aren’t strictly Hip-Hop, and Automatic was a band I discovered because of that. They are a fun post-punk trio with two fantastic albums beneath them. They had some issues with getting their instruments set up, but once everything was good to go, they came out guns blazing and blew the roof off the garage. The trio composed of all women all contribute to vocals which is really cool to see. The performance was a ton of fun.
bar italia
The largest reason I wanted to come to this showcase was for the extremely exciting Slacker Rock trio bar italia. I really got into them from Tracey Denim, but The Twits got a lot of excitement from me as well. They opened with the heavy hitters calm down with me and my little tony, which happens to be my personal favorite song from them, so I was satisfied only seconds into the performance. The trio is so much fun to listen to and they really capture the excitement from their studio work in their live performances so successfully. I definitely hope they continue to grow and gain traction because they are so talented.
Deeper
If you’re cool, you know Auto-Pain makes you feel like you’re listening to a modern-day The Cure, and you can’t get enough of it. If you hear Esoteric once, you would know for a fact that they would absolutely destroy a live performance. You’re very smart. With some moody and subdued lighting, Deeper took the stage and played an all-killer no-filler Post-Punk set that felt straight out of the 1980s indie scene. Hearing songs like The Knife, and Build a Bridge live was exhilarating. They came to throw down and call it a night.
dust
I hate giving bands comparisons to other bands instead of letting them stand on their own with their own artistry, but the best way to explain the Australian band dust is to say they are comparable to an Australian Black Country, New Road especially in their live performance. They are a little more influenced by a Garage Punk sound, but their soundscapes and slow-burning tracks feel very similar to the energy I got from early BCNR. With only one EP out, I think they have a chance to grow and get recognition, but they seem to have figured out their live sound already and have mastered what it takes to bring the music to life.
After spending my entire evening at EMPIRE, I didn’t even realize it had rained while I was partying, but after a short drive home, I crashed ready for the next day.
Thursday:
I was super excited to spend another night at the Paramount Theatre to see Alex Garland’s Civil War, but there were quite a few other artists I knew I had to see as well. I decided to start the day at the downtown JuiceLand to relieve my Austin City Limits Festival memories to work on the same annotated bibliography as before. After a few more hours of hard work, I was ready to catch some live music before getting in the SXXpress lane for Civil War.
They Are Gutting A Body of Water
TAGABOW (what the cool kids call them) was one of the more interesting artists on the SXSW bill this year. Instead of being another run-of-the-mill shoegaze band, TAGABOW opts for a more surreal and experimental approach pulling from drum & bass, glitch pop, and more creating a really interesting listening experience on their album. Their live performance is very similar with an interesting balance between songs and interludes. The interludes are a great way to prevent the heavy monotony you would face when playing their more traditional tracks live. Instead, it keeps you on the edge of your seat (it was standing room only, but you get what I’m getting at) for what happens next.
Hot Garbage
I still need to check these guys out post-SXSW. I added their name to my list of interests based on their description and name, and they were quite impressive. Chess Club is an extremely small venue in ATX especially with Hot Garbage needing the extra space, but they still can put on a really exciting set. They put on some really enjoyable Garage Rock with nice Psychedelic and Shoegaze elements at play.
Voxtrot
A band who sadly seemed to peak with their first EP, Voxtrot has become a legendary act in Austin and during SXSW put on a free show. I stopped by for the final 10 minutes to see them close. It was really nice and easy. Raised by Wolves is a fantastic EP in all regards.
Fabiana Palladino
Daughter of legendary session bassist Pino Palladino and signee to Jai and A.K. Paul’s Paul Institute. Fabiana’s work made waves in my life with her few singles last decade but piqued my interest with her forthcoming self-titled debut album. By her two SXSW performances, the album had yet to be released, but singles I Care and Stay With Me Through the Night had already made such an impact on me that I knew I had to see her perform one of her first and only U.S. performances. I lead with all of this to say she has a really fantastic voice. This felt like a secret first listen to a majority of her album with her touching on tracks like Closer, In the Fire, and more before they were officially released. The live instrumentation presented on the album felt even more pronounced on her live performances and I was thoroughly impressed by how much sensual grooves the band added to Fiabana’s luscious voice. She is very talented and I cannot recommend her album enough.
Monaleo
Outside of her work with Maxo Kream and Flo Milli, I was not summer familiar with Monaleo, but she has such an incredibly fun energy to her with her performance at SXSW. I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised knowing they are best friends and Flo Milli had just finished performing at Moody Theater, but for Monaleo to bring Flo Milli out for We Not Humping was exhilarating with it being one of the most fun rap songs of the past few years. They have great chemistry together which completely derailed the rest of my thoughts from her performance. I love that song.
Maxo Kream
Houston’s Maxo Kream came up to Austin and couldn’t help himself bring a few friends with him. Maxo is so interested in how he can get both nerdy bloggers and traditional hip-hop consumers to enjoy the same music. His Evilgiane-produced Bang the Bus is going to end up as one of my favorite songs of the year for having that classic Clams Casino energy in the production and the Frou Frou sample but with a modern Sample Drill twist. He performed that song plus Big Persona, Playboi Carti’s Fetti, and many more. He brought out both BigXThaPlug who performed Texas and Mr. Awful Records himself Father to perform the always hard-hitting Cell Boomin.
Friday:
I started my day off with a shocker: working on my annotated bibliography. To the relief of myself and the readers of this article, I finished it. Hooray!
Dry Cleaning
On the radio day stage was Dry Cleaning performing in collaboration with multiple NPR stations across the United States. Florence Shaw and the rest of the band performed selections from both New Long Leg and Stumpwork. I am a huge fan of Shaw’s spoken word vocals over the Post-Punk elements from the rest of the band. It felt so interesting and special to see them perform live, and they are so extremely talented that I couldn’t get enough.
YHWH Nailgun
I am going to call this a me problem, but minus Look at Me, I’m a Rainer I have yet to “get” YHWH Nailgun. They seem to be too much for me, but I bet when their next EP or album lands it will clique for me. They have a really unique Noise Rock take with a lot of Experimental Rock on top of it.
Kassa Overall
I really liked Animals by Kassa Overall. Kassa has a perfect fusion of Jazz and Hip Hop, so his performance felt like a real spiritual jazz experience with live keys and a soprano saxophone. It was such a nice and breezy experience that I thought it was 10 am in the morning. I think catching Kassa Overall and his band at a more extended show would allow for more of his jazz to come to life versus a 30-minute set, but they used their limitations to their advantage and created a great abridged vibe.
Snõõper
If I could remake my favorite albums of 2023 list, Snõõper’s Super Snõõper would probably reach the top 50. The album’s 5-minute epic closer Running is easily a favorite from last year. The entirety of Super Snõõper is just under 23 minutes, so I’m pretty sure they performed the entirety of this album during their set closing of course with Running. I bought a shirt and I proudly wear it regularly because they deserve more attention and more love for how energetic, quirky, chaotic, and hilarious they are. The Snõõper costume picture on the album cover turns out to be real, and the lead singer Blair Tramel put it on midway through Running as they closed their set. What a time. I ended up catching them again during their street performance outside of the Creem and Third Man showcase and they really knew how to grow a crowd.
Horse Jumper of Love
Being a fan of their earlier work, Horse Jumper of Love’s brief set showed their Slowcore and Slacker Rock at its highest performing their melancholic and pessimistic sound amid daylight. I don’t think the day suits their sound, but they still sounded absolutely fantastic.
The Armed
This may have been the fastest 30 minutes of my life. Out of all the shows I went to, no show brought a smile to my face like The Armed performance did. Between songs like Modern Vanity and FT. FRANK TURNER, The Armed created such an incredible ball of energy in their small set that was filled with stage diving, mosh pits, broken mic stands, ripped overalls, their own DIY smoke machine, beer showers, and the nicest people I have ever met. I had never felt so alive before.
BLK ODYSSY
One of the biggest sponsors of SXSW this year was Pourri, known for their products like Poo Pourri, who set up tons of events for free that if you had their specialty spray device you could gain access to. One of these events took place over two nights at Speakeasy where Questlove performed and Janelle Monáe DJ’d. Austin’s own BLK ODYSSY was one of the earlier artists on the list. Funnily enough, I heard someone recommending BLK ODYSSY to someone else at the Teezo show. After missing the show last year, I knew I had to catch some of their performance here. The sensual grooves here are unmatched and hearing FUNKETOLOGY live was a great moment for me and me only. Thanks corporate sponsor Poo Pourri.
Speaking of Poo Pourri, they were also a major sponsor of the Rolling Stone Future of Music events and were giving out tons of free products including Sole Pourri for stinky shoes (Why didn’t they call it Shoe Pourri? What a waste.), Potty Pods to clean the stinky toilet in one flush, and Pet Pourri for stinky pets. I am not here to shill, but I grabbed a good stock of some of these products and they get plenty of use at home, on the go, and at the office. We love a good-smelling bathroom.
Dylan Gossett
My claim to fame is that I saw both Wyatt Flores with Dylan Gossett opening at the Blue Light thanks to the invite from Andrew Watters. The performance was Gossett’s second show ever after being a rising performer on TikTok. He walked on stage with his guitar and his powerful voice and moved the crowd. In his first performance with a full band, Gossett took the stage performing his small but powerful discography including the viral Coal and my personal favorite Bitter Winds which seemed to move the crowd. He has such a strong voice that really came to life under the full band he played with for the first time. I would have assumed he had been playing with a full band for quite some time with how in tune the band felt to his sound, but I only found out from his recent portrait from Rolling Stone. His new EP Songs in the Gravel was another strong addition, and the songs he performed from it really lit up. My claim to fame is going to be me seeing him at his first solo gig as well as his first full band gig.
Hinds
Faye Webster, who was headlining the card, can fit the Alt-Country bill, but can also fit the Indie Rock and Indie Pop bill as well, so for Country Singer-Songwriter Dylan Gossett to be followed by Spanish rock group Hinds was a weird contrast. I found Hinds from their 2018 album I Don’t Run, and I have enjoyed their warm and summery sound since. They performed 15 shows during SXSW and this was one of five performed on Thursday. I give them props for their willingness to push themselves that far. On top of that, they sounded great! They are really fun to listen to.
The Red Clay Strays
Let me try to contain myself in a paragraph here. I was very late to The Red Clay Strays party. I missed their Blue Light show, and I missed all the traction Wondering Why was doing at the same time until it was huge. Last December, I finally sat down and listened to Moment of Truth on a long drive to Tyler and was floored by the Southern Rock excellence the album was built on, so to see them live for the first time after missed opportunity after missed opportunity was not something I was going to miss. They are so good. Brandon and crew are so tightly-knit together and they just click when they walk out on stage. They are the busiest band right now playing so many different festivals and concerts across the United States big (Lollapalooza, Boston Calling, ACL, etc.) and small (Troubadour Fest, Cottonfest, etc.), and every show seems to grow their fanbase more and more. They are now on RCA with their next album produced by the legendary Dave Cobb. This is the right time to get on the hype train before Pitchfork gives their sophomore effort BNM and they get a CMA.
Faye Webster
Fresh off of her fifth album, Faye Webster came out on stage with a smile before speaking her mind freely about the Israel-Palestine conflict and the protesting musicians giving her support and denouncing Atlanta Public Safety Training Center also known as Cop City being built in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The crowd erupted in cheers before opening with the lead single from Underdress at the Symphony But Not Kiss. Throughout her performance she played songs from Atlanta Millionaires Club, I Know I’m Funny haha, and Underdressed at the Symphony. She is such a talented performer and it is always cool to see these incredible artists do free shows for the city during SXSW.
The Black Keys
The Black Keys performed two public shows, a private show, and a keynote, and screened a documentary during SXSW. I wanted to catch their Delta Kream show, but Mohawk filled up with a standstill line, so that was nixed. Their show at Stubb’s was major. I sped over across downtown Austin after Faye to catch the band’s set. Patrick and Dan played a greatest hits collection of their best moments with classic songs from Brothers and El Camino while also playing earlier songs from their discography like Your Touch, Heavy Soul, and I Got Mine. They also debuted On the Game from their soon-to-be-released album Ohio Players. It was a fantastic set and helped me understand the feeling of dominance the Keys had back in the early 2010s.
Saturday:
I had my Saturday planned out from front to back starting by heading to the Far Out Lounge, which was far out from downtown Austin to go see some artists playing the Do512 event. They were giving out free Guayaki Yerba Mate which I am a sucker for.
Fat Dog
Fat Dog only had two songs released when they performed at SXSW, but both singles had crack in them. King of the Slugs was a 7-minute epic with hints of Polka of all genres with All the Same being more traditional Dance-Punk. They were honestly pretty incredible to witness and I think their debut album WOOF. is going to be a big hit with fans of the genre and critics alike. They’re a group to watch.
Bodega
Endless Scroll by Bodega is an underrated New York Art Punk album, and I was super excited to catch some of their set at Far Out as well. They just have a really fun but urgent energy to them that has this anxious and sarcastic humor to it. They are great for college radio enjoyers like myself.
After Bodega, I made my way back to downtown Austin to go see some cool music at Cheer Up Charlie’s. On my way, I saw From The Block filming some SXSW content right off Sixth Street next to the new Comedy Mothership. I had always wondered how that microphone was floating in random locations, but seeing it hooked to a boom pole made a lot of sense,
Being Dead
I don’t think there is anything to “get” with Being Dead, but their music didn’t click until my second listen of When Horses Would Run when I remembered that Indie Surf is an underrated genre. Seeing Austin-native Being Dead in Austin is so much fun. The duo do not take themselves too seriously but still have a lot of serious charisma with them. Their new album felt pretty overlooked, but it deserves a lot of love and attention because it’s so much fun.
Giovannie and the Hired Guns
After this, I walked quite the distance to San Jose to see a Lubbock favorite in Giovannie and the Hired Guns. It is always nice after seeing so many bands you’ve never seen before to see a group that you’ve loved catching in the past. My first thought was wondering if they had to pack light for SXSW and they didn’t bring the classic sousaphone, but midway through the show Alex Trejo walked back on stage with the sousaphone and all was well. I needed to belt Overrated and it was pretty euphoric to be in a crowd of fans of Gio in the middle of Austin. KTXT loves Gio.
Kiwi Jr.
I have liked Kiwi Jr.’s traditional Indie Rock sound for a while, so it was pretty cool to see the Toronto-based rock band play some shows in Austin. They are pretty easy and a load of fun to sit back and rock out to. Shoutout Brian Murphy!
West Texas Exiles
Another Lubbock regular, West Texas Exiles, was playing outside Zilker Brewing for SXSW, and I knew I had to catch them as well. They just have so much charisma on stage and are such a tight-knit group of rockers that their music just comes to life no matter where they are performing, but with my first cold beer in a while in hand plus some good tunes, life was good.
Zach Person
Austin native Zach Person doesn’t need much more than himself and some drums to rock out during SXSW. His guitar playing and style on stage are so large for being the only strings on stage. He has this extremely impressive southern charm to him, and he just rocks. A lot of old Gary Clark Jr. energy comes from him and that’s incredible to hear.
Laney Jones
Laney Jones and company came out on stage with a ton of unbottled energy and let it loose. Laney has a touch of that Americana sound mixed with some fun rock on top of it. It was a lot of fun to end the Zilker Brewing party.
Chanel Beads
Brooklyn venue Baby’s All Right and indie newsletter Perfectly Imperfect teamed up for the greatest SXSW closer imaginable. Jagjaguwar’s Chanel Beads had made waves in my person listening with Police Scanner and Embarrassed Dog. With their debut album on the horizon, I was super impressed by their set, and how well-crafted their hypnagogic sound was. Their songs are short but so catchy. This will not be the last you hear of them.
Lip Critic
Imagine if Rage Against The Machine had two drummers. Instead of hip-hop, it was spoken word. Instead of Tom Morello, it was an MPC sampler. They are pretty sick and have a nice 90s punk vibe mixed with modern indie styles and production. I’m still impressed by how they had two drummers with different styles playing at the same time. It was sick.
Frost Children (DJ Set)
Frost Children know how to put on a party. The duo basically staged a b2b filled with Tech House, Hyperpop, Trap, and everything in between (A dance remix of Everlong by Foo Fighters) making a fun closing night at Baby’s All Right.
Fcukers
On the indoor stage, the music was slightly behind, but that meant I got to see both Frost Children and Fcukers (pronounced like the correct spelling of the word). Simply put. Fcukers are going to be huge. With only three songs out (only two out during SXSW), I have not been able to put their work down. The trio played a huge pool of unreleased BANGERS, and I could not stop eating it up. The crowd was in love too, so much that they begged for an encore. The downside when the band came back on stage was them saying “Well, we don’t have any more songs to play. We played everything we had.” Once they build up their discography and sell some 12-inches, they will be heard at parties across the globe.
SXSW was an experience. The music was incredible and it was another beautiful collection of art. Until next year, thanks again to SXSW for having our small college radio station party for a week.
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