South by Southwest by URL

To learn about bands don't be modest with your mouse

By Michael Corcoran, Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN WRITER
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

In the days when "online" meant you were talking on the phone, it wasn't easy to find out much in advance about the hundreds of bands that came to South By Southwest, which goes into its 23rd year March 18-22. The SXSW directory was too much to consume in a morning and the copy read like advertisements, so the first day of the fest was usually dominated by the question, "So, who are you looking forward to seeing this year?" It was always a mad scramble for hot tips, the storm before the storm, because we all know the cruelest words of South By are "I missed it."

But these days, the Web untangles the wild weave of bands, with such sites as the official sxsw.com, plus sxswbaby.com, sxsw.tastemaker.com and more pointing us to diamonds in the muck, with music, bios, news and reviews. It's a month before SXSW and I'm already sick of Grizzly Bear, a band from Brooklyn I wouldn't be aware of without brooklynvegan.com.

When Jonathan Richman droned "Roadrunner, roadrunner" in the late '70s, he may have been singing about escape, but today that song's an anthem of pop music's most important innovation since electricity: high speed Internet. There are no longer any excuses for missing little known acts like the Strokes and the White Stripes, who most fans walked right past a few years ago, to try to get into Cowboy Mouth.

We've got four weeks until the madness begins and we're determined to help make you as prepared as Coach Mack Brown on a recruiting trip. ("What? You're mother loves Matthew McConaughey?! Well, you're not going to believe who I've got out there in the car.") Well, almost as prepared.

We'll hip you to several helpful SXSW-related sites on the Web and let you in on 25 great showcasing artists we discovered through using the sites.

Remember, no excuses. Get off that Facebook and experience SXSW before it happens.

Online resources: what's good, what's not so good

Do your research, people!

Of course, we use and endorse the SXSW guide at our own site (austin360.com/sxsw) without reservation. There you'll find band interviews, schedule updates, day party lists, streaming music and video and the proverbial much, much more (as well as the same for the film and interactive conferences). And the official festival, site, SXSW.com, is also packed with good stuff. It's official, so it will have the most accurate information and times, of course. The band pages are excellent, with a song and a link to (usually) the most useful site about the band, be it MySpace or an official band site. No need to worry that news from this site is a rumor. Beyond those, here are a few other SXSW preview Web sites that can help you slog through the music, along with what they do well and not so well.

sxsw.tastekeeper.com
PRO: Paul Lamere's baby is completely unlike any other site (see interview with Lamere on Page 11). Tag clouds let you build connections between bands you might not put together.

CON: Some of the information is flat-out factually wrong (for example, the Sleep who is coming to SXSW is a rapper from Portland, not a defunct metal band; the YouTube link goes to Jesse McCartney.). No links to band's Myspace pages or other sites. Hard to search. Some prior knowledge of one or two bands you already know you want to see is a must to build context.

De.li.cious (delicious.com/tag/sxsw)
PROS: A cool way to see what is being bookmarked in re: SXSW

CONS: That's about it.

Donewaiting.com
PRO: Aggressive about news. Shares party information with Show List Austin.

CON: Not really a scheduler, so don't expect one.

Sched.org
PRO: Innovative scheduler that was the hit of last year's SXSW, the profoundly useful blend of official showcases and parties lets you build your own schedule. Good blog that shares information with showlistaustin.com at sxswblog.sched.org.

CON: We'll let you know when we find one.

Showlistaustin.com
PRO: Excellent party listings, including non-SXSW night shows. Also, locally owned and operated.

CON: No official SXSW events. At all.

SXSW Baby!
PRO: Blog format. Aggressive on news, plenty of information on film, interactive and music. Helpful ride/room share site. Good bulletin boards.

CON: Blog, not chart, format. Annoying name that somehow recalls beer bongs and spring break (heck, maybe that's a plus).

Twitter (Go to Twittter.com and plug 'sxsw' into the search field or click this handy link.
PRO: Gives you quite literally everything everyone is twittering about SXSW. Which is a whole lot of information and some of it even correct.

CON: Gives you quite literally everything everyone is twittering about SXSW. Which is a whole lot of information and most of it is opinions you don't care about.
--Joe Gross