OK, so, the text messages, camera phone photos and phone calls are starting to pour in from Philly peeps at this year’s SXSW in Austin, TX, and here’s what we’re hearing:
· By far, one of the coolest things that went down was at Lou Reed‘s keynote speech/Q&A yesterday. When asked who his favorite new bands were, Big Lou gave Dr. Dog a nod, which is pretty wild, when you think about it.
· Meanwhile, WXPN‘s Jim McGuinn hosted the FADER‘s tribute to Reed yesterday, with performances by Dr. Dog (see below), Thurston Moore, My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo and most oddly, Reed himself with Moby. There’s short clips of a lot of these performances here.
· Elsewhere, the new Man Man record seems to have leaked all over the place and Honus Broner and the gang are emerging as one of the more smellebrated bands down there. Where’s our copy, man?
· More WXPN stuff: David Dye and Jim McGuinn have been doing tons of tapings and interviews down there, for NPR affiliates as well ‘XPN proper. So far, they’ve dipped their BBQ in Yaysayer, Jens Lekman, Vampire Weekend and on and on. Check here for air times, etc.
· Philebrity Fit Club winner JT Ramsay is also covering SXSW for, of all people, Comcast. Click here if you want to see JT restrain himself as he hears yet another musician say that they “really don’t think of themselves as part of any scene” because, you know, everything every musician does is both completely without precedent and definitely never a part of any larger thing that goes on in the present day. Ahem. Also, JT informs us, he’s having dinner tonight with Pattern Is Movement. Drink up, boys, Brian Roberts is picking up that check.
· And showcases, showcases, showcases: The Swimmers (pictured in blurry camphone-vision at right), Town Hall, The A-Sides and The Shackletons have all laid their rock at the feet of the SXSW hydra.
More SXSW as it comes…
Previously: Musical Rumblings: Austodelphia!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm.