SXSW List No. 4

179 acts added to the spring music convergence

Thus far, South by Southwest has vetted nearly half the acts (928) for its 2016 Music Conference, March 15-20, with a series of massive lineup drops arriving monthly. Today, the Festival shifts into a high gear with the first of its weekly small-batch artist announcements – this one yielding 179 performers.

Yonatan Gat (left) atomizing Mohawk’s inside stage (floor) at a Fun Fun Fun Nites performance this past November. (Photo by Richard Lynn)

SXSW’s latest cull rings the dinner bell for Israeli surf-scuzz guitarist Yonatan Gat, who’s stormed many South By’s with destructo-rockers Monotonix, but now leads a fierce international/instrumental trio that blew our hair back with off-the-stage musical insanity during a Fun Fun Fun Fest Nites last year. Other semblances of star power on this fourth set of acts comes via New Orleans metal institution Crowbar, EDM Canucks Zed’s Dead, and Hot Water Music singer-turned-folkie Chuck Ragan.

Lesser known points of intrigue hailing from Stateside strongholds include Brooklyn’s noise-spewing drone punks Bambara, promising Americana youngster Parker Millsap, Houston rap startup Whyjae, and NYC acoustic instro muses City of the Sun.

Foreign forces updating their passports for the mid-March strum include former Jim Jones Revue hotshot pianist Henri Herbert leading his own UK band, Vancouver’s dream grunge trio simply dubbed Weed, Systema Solar, a hip-hop/world beat soundsystem from Columbia’s Caribbean coast, Swedish post-punk femme freaks Vulkano, Mexican trip-pop ensemble Sotomayor, and the ear-stinging combination of blues and French rap called Scarecrow that must be heard to believe:

The conference continues expanding its local roster with 16 Austin acts added to the fray: Ansible, Aviateur, Beat Imprint, Chamothy the Great, The Eastern Sea, Extreme Heat, Eyelid Kid, Harvest Thieves, Hikes, Joel Laviolette & Rattletree, Khali Haat, Shawnee Kilgore, Plantation Band, A. Sinclair, Troller, and Utley3.

... Or 17 if you include heartfelt folk fireball Possessed by Paul James, who technically resides in Boerne, but plays in Austin more than anywhere else.

The tally so far adds today’s full menu below. Save room for next week:

The Ansible (Austin)

Syd Arthur (Canterbury, England)

Astronaut (Bristol, England)

Aviateur (Austin)

Bambara (Brooklyn, NY.)

Barely Alive (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Beat Imprint (Austin)

Beißpony (Munich, Germany)

Big Big Love (Mexico City, Mexico)

Blank Range (Nashville, TN.)

The Blind Suns (Angers, France)

Soren Bryce (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Tina B (Houston)

Adrion Butler (Dallas)

Cabezas Flutuantes (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

Melaena Cadiz (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Carroll (Minneapolis, MN.)

Chamothy the Great (Austin)

City of the Sun (New York, NY.)

Cloves (Melbourne, Australia)

Cocofunka (San José, Costa Rica)

Leo James Conroy (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Cosmic Homies O.N.E. (Nairobi, Kenya)

Edith Crash (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Crowbar (New Orleans, LA.)

Currents (Newtown, CT.)

Daddy Long Legs (New York, NY.)

Darq E Freaker (Peckham, England)

Dave Luxe (Brussels, Belgium)

Day Wave (Oakland, Calif.)

Death Valley Girls (Los Angeles, IL.)

Desnudos En Coma [Naked In A Coma] (Cali, Colombia)

Dexstrings (Tokyo, Japan)

DJ Paypal (Berlin, Germany)

Dodge & Fuski (Bristol, England)

Dubloadz (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Duina del Mar (Cali, Colombia)

EarthGang (Atlanta, GA.)

The Eastern Sea (Austin)

Elephant Stone (Montreal, Canada)

El Otro Grupo (Santa Marta, Colombia)

Estelle (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Exmortus (Whittier, Calif.)

Extreme Heat (Austin)

Eyelid Kid (Austin)

Fármacos (Santiago, Chile)

The Fine Constant (Madison, WI.)

Fizzy Blood (Leeds, England)

Miya Folick (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Folks (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

Sterling Fox (Jersey City, NJ.)

Free Radicals (Houston)

Yonatan Gat (New York, NY.)

GF Soldier (New Orleans, LA.)

Grizfolk (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Harvest Thieves (Austin)

Haunt the House (Charlestown, RI.)

Henri Herbert (London, England)

Hikes (Austin)

Judith Hill (Los Angeles, Calif.)

JP Hoe (Winnipeg, Canada)

Holiday Mountain (Austin)

I am Justified (Houston)

II (Chihuahua, Mexico)

Illuminate (Richmond)

Illustrations (San Antonio)

InAeona (Boston, MA.)

Injury Reserve (Phoenix, AZ.)

Jéf (Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Jeremy & the Harlequins (New York, NY.)

Joel Laviolette & Rattletree (Austin)

Lock Johnson & the Ivory Jean Band (Dallas)

Khai (Jefferson City, MO.)

Khali Haat (Austin)

Khemmis (Denver, CO.)

Shawnee Kilgore (Austin)

King Kanja (Nairobi, Kenya)

Knox Hamilton (Little Rock, AR.)

Lavender Country (Bremerton, WA.)

Leonce (New Orleans, LA.)

Terra Lightfoot (Hamilton, Canada)

Lilly Hates Roses (Warsaw, Poland)

Lo Carmen (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Los Detectives Helados (Guayaquil, Ecuador)

Los Reyes Vagos (Guatemala City, Guatemala)

Lust for Youth (Copenhagen, Denmark)

The Lytics (Winnipeg, Canada)

Terrence Mackey & Nu Restoration (Dallas)

Mal Blum (Brooklyn, NY.)

Marlys (Panama)

Kalle Mattson (Ottawa, Canada)

Jake McMullen (Nashville, TN.)

Michael McQuaid (Nashville, TN.)

Melted (Corona, Calif.)

Memories in Broken Glass (San Antonio)

Pedro Menendez Fusion Ensemble (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Meneo (Madrid, Spain)

Mattie Michelle (Dallas)

Parker Millsap (Purcell, OK.)

Monuments (London, England)

Kevin Morby (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Morly (Minneapolis, MN.)

Cristina Morrison (New York, NY.)

Gilligan Moss (Chicago, IL.)

Mothers (Athens, GA.)

Mr Play (London, England)

Naked (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Mohsen Namjoo (New York, NY.)

Natori (Hearne)

Nehemiah (Elgin, IL.)

Adil Omar (Islamabad, Pakistan)

Sara Ontaneda (New York, NY.)

Oscar (London, England)

Oscar & the Wolf (Brussels, Belgium)

Sam Outlaw (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Overcoats (Brooklyn, NY.)

Pepe Bahia (Panama)

Pham (Killeen)

Pizza Time (Denver, CO.)

Plague Vendor (Whittier, Calif.)

Planar (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

Planeta No (Santiago, Chile)

Plantation Band (Austin)

Porches (New York, NY.)

Possessed by Paul James (Boerne)

Protopeople (Mexico City, Mexico)

Chuck Ragan (Grass Valley, Calif.)

Reconcile (Fort Myers, FL.)

Sammus (Ithaca, NY.)

Salvador Santana (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Say Girl Say (Houston)

Joe Scarborough Band (New Canaan, CT.)

Scarecrow (Toulouse, France)

Schaffer the Darklord (New York, NY.)

The Sherlocks (Bolton On Dearne, England)

Sidekick Envy (Laventille, Trinidad & Tobago)

A. Sinclair (Austin)

Slingshot Dakota (Bethlehem, PA.)

L. Spenser Smith (Talahassee, FL.)

The Soft White Sixties (San Francisco, Calif.)

Sol Flamingo (Mexico City, Mexico)

Sotomayor (Mexico City, Mexico)

The Strumbellas (Toronto, Canada)

Stylo G (London, England)

Bruce Sudano (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Sugarmen (Liverpool, England)

Systema Solar (Cartagena, Colombia)

Tempo Plastico (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

Tennis System (Los Angeles, Calif.)

The Mystery Lights (Queens, NY.)

Tickle Torture (Minneapolis, MN.)

Tony Tillman (Nashville, TN.)

Toothgrinder (Asbury Park, NJ.)

Tripletrain (Brooklyn, NY.)

Troller (Austin)

Izzy True (Trumansburg, NY.)

Truth (Los Angeles, Calif.)

James TW (Barford, England)

The Unlikely Candidates (Fort Worth)

Utley3 (Austin)

Clara Valente (Rio De Janeiro, England)

Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics (Atlanta, GA.)

Adia Victoria (Nashville, TN.)

Viola Beach (Warrington, England)

Vision (Santa Fe Springs, Calif.)

Vulkano (Stockholm, Sweden)

We Are the Grand (Santiago, Chile)

We Are the Willows (Minneapolis, MN.)

Kay Weathers (Houston)

Weed (Vancouver, Canada)

White Miles (Radfeld, Austria)

Whyjae (Houston)

The Woggles (Atlanta, GA.)

WolfBrain (Baton Rouge, LA.)

Y2K (Phoenix, AZ.)

Keite Young (Fort Worth)

The Young Wild (Southern California, Calif.)

Zeds Dead (Toronto, Canada)

Zona Tango (Buenos Aires, Argentina)


Track the latest SXSW news at austinchronicle.com/sxsw and @ChronSXSW, and sign up now for the Chronicle's daily online editions during the fest, featuring interviews, the latest reviews, critic picks, photo galleries galore, and much, much more.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

Support the Chronicle  

One click gets you all the newsletters listed below

Breaking news, arts coverage, and daily events

Keep up with happenings around town

Kevin Curtin's bimonthly cannabis musings

Austin's queerest news and events

Eric Goodman's Austin FC column, other soccer news

Information is power. Support the free press, so we can support Austin.   Support the Chronicle