NewSX of the SWorld
By Ken Lieck, Fri., March 29, 2002
For your perusal, reasonably random samples of press (so far) regarding SXSW 2002:
"This year's normally amicable SXSW music industry confab [is] a potential flashpoint in the growing tension between major labels and artists." (E! Online)
"It probably wasn't fair to ask just-blooming Austin band Schatzi to follow Velvet Underground descendants Luna onto the stage of Emo's Thursday night at SXSW. The guys should have been shaking in their boots. Instead, they were shaking their booties and having a grand funky time." (Houston Chronicle)
"Starsailor played to an attentive audience of several hundred at what is now being regarded as the best party thus far. Other big buzz shows included the Columbia Records showcase, which featured punk newcomers the Riddlin' Kids playing backup for a session of punk rock karaoke, new Icelandic rap-metal band Quarashi, the Lo-Fidelity Allstars, the Ataris, and the X-ecutioners." (HITS)
"The old way of doing business in the music industry is on life support, if it isn't already dead and buried. So what is all that noise? It must be the musicians, dancing on its grave." (Chicago Sun-Times)
"We're still supping on the first of many $1.75 tins of Lone Star lager when SXSW 2002 begins with the Ends. That's the name of the group, see? Result! They rock -- especially the Stars in Their Eyes-perfect junior Johnny Thunders on low-slung punk guitar and LAMF tattoo." (Playlouder)
"[SXSW] is supposed to be work. It is a business convention, after all, on the surface no different from networking conventions for medical supply salespeople, or dental hygienists, or morticians ... or Shriners, even. But SXSW is different, because in the end, as nice as all its open-bar happy hours and complimentary BBQ buffets are, this much-hyped Texan pow-wow is really about the music, man." (Launch)
"MCA Records' Tom Sarig said he was impressed by the 'innovative thinking' at the international showcases, particularly since the U.S. bands had been, on a whole, disappointing. 'It's incredible that there's such a small amount of homegrown talent' ready to be signed, he said." (Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Ultimately, though, this year's South By Southwest belonged to a Dallas band called Polyphonic Spree. A self-described 'choral symphonic pop band,' the Spree was less a group than a mob -- two dozen young people in white robes who put on one of the most riotous live performances I've ever seen. It's music that has almost nothing to do with the music industry, existing for its own sake. And if we're lucky, music for its own sake will be the next big thing." (Raleigh News & Observer)
"The Dead Kennedys without Jello Biafra? Appalling!" (Entertainment Weekly).
