South By Bring It, SXBI 2010

March is here, bluebonnets are popping up (see pic above), trees are budding out like crazy, and soon every hillside will be covered in colors. Also, March means that SXSW (south by southwest) is coming up (actually the film and interactive festival parts of it already started, but we don’t generally attend those events, it’s the gigantic music festival that officially starts on the 17th that I’m talking about) and we will either be hopping busy, dead tired, dealing with cats who are starved for attention and pouting without their normal routine… or all of the above. It’s the biggest international music conference in the world. And we never neglect our cats, despite what they might tell you. We build our schedules with them in mind. They are teh godz.

We are badgeless and wristbandless, and take in 4 days of “day parties” which sometimes happen at night. There are literally thousands of bands/artists… not sure of the count of bands officially playing (about 2,000 I think), plus the unofficial ones who travel in for gigs that week plus the who-knows-how-many that live here and are not on tour elsewhere. The day parties/side parties typically go from noonish to 7-ish with live music, free beer, sometimes free food. Record labels, Instrument-makers, PR firms, clothing people, regional music organizations, radio stations, magazines, breweries and other drinkmakers – have parties… lotsa parties, hundreds. There’s no one source with ALL the party listings, but this is one that I find the most helpful. The real madness begins around Monday, the 15th and goes for a week. Noooo, I haven’t heard of most of the bands either, but I think that most of them are worth hearing. Even if they aren’t your cup of tea, if they’ve made the cut for a showcase (or a party, for that matter), somebody thinks they are worth a listen. I get a real kick out of some of the party names, and but I love reading the band names! How about these with a shit theme?

Expensive Shit, Shit and Shine, Shitty Carwash, Shithawk, Bad Shit, Bubblegum Shitface Experience, Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!, Psychedelic Horseshit, The Bassturd

...and I noticed while searching for that last one that "Saturday" has a "turd" right in the middle of it.

I like to just create a listing of preferred events, work up a loose plan, and see what happens when the day gets here. We will see people we already love and also discover some new ones.

One thing I love about this festival is that I am not working during it. I take a few vacation days from the day job, and my side job (related to the music industry) has shrunk down quite a bit (intentionally on my part) so that I am now just frantically trying to plan a schedule but not doing that in addition to getting other people (those who ARE working it) ready for their shows.

Here's a pretty good post from a writer from IndyWeek.com, whose situation and reason for going is different from mine, but he hits the nail on the head quite a few times. [LINK]

Click here for my past writeups (back to 2006) of this Mad March festival.