On Demand
Why Mess With Texas?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Will Sheff of Austin-based indie band Okkervil River Niklas/flickr
Twenty-two years after its humble beginnings, the South by Southwest conference is the music industry's premier schmoozefest. But labels, bands and fans alike are tangled up in retail woes and soul-searching over the future of music. We hear what SXSW has to offer guitarist Peter Buck of R.E.M., a group that is debuting its new album at the festival. We get three different takes on the value of SXSW from Will Sheff, singer and songwriter from Austin band Okkervil River (pictured at right), Amy Phillips, news editor of the online news site Pitchfork and John Kunz, president of Austin's Waterloo Records and Video.
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Will Sheff . . . Will he please not do an encore. If you're going to have someone on who can't sing, please get someone "good" like Neil Young!!! Sorry . . .
Fascinating stuff. It makes me nostalgic for my time in Austin in the late 90s. The festival was much more manageable in size then, though I think I'd have been happy to have Van Morrison or REM there. Keep up the good shows!
The question of SXSW's scope is a crucial one. It's hard enough to know what to see when you're just there for 2 or 3 days. Then 1500 musical acts only complicates matters. I'd be curious to know what Waterloo guy says about the 80s and how it's different...
As Amy Phillips notes, a band's performance ability increasingly matters as record labels decline in importance. One Brookly-based band coming to SXSW that has been wowing audiences (and critics, from the NYT and VILLAGE VOICE to TIMEOUT LONDON) is O'DEATH: http://www.myspace.com/odeath. The AUSTIN CHRONICLE praised their 2007 SXSW show http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid:456788, so their return visit should be one to watch.
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