South by Southwest Festival

More Is More in Mwahaha's Chaotic Synth-Rock

iHustle: S.F. Tech at South by Southwest

SF Weekly Letters

Finding the Yay Area: Local Artists Pull a Few Surprises at South by Southwest

The Worst Moments from SXSW 2012

The last few days, Village Voice Media's indefatigable music staff has been regaling you with stories of the best from SXSW 2012. In the midst of these discoveries, we've been culling another list: the worst shit. The acts that ranged from huge bore-fests to downright lame. Below, you'll find our cr ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Friday 3/16/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music editors have selected t ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Thursday 3/15/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music e ... More >>

Ten Things Your SXSW Outfit Says About You

​By REED FISCHER Some folks attend South by Southwest to look at bands, but a good many passing through the 2012 edition seem to enjoy the added benefits of being looked at, as well. Even without haute couture, music fans and opportunists on the streets of Austin send a wealth of subliminal messag ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Wednesday 3/14/2012

​If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving musi ... More >>

How to Get Through SXSW Without Dying

​Yes, music lovers, it's that time of year once more where we pack our party shoes into our well-worn cases and fly off to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest music "conference." (Really, people? Conference? If everyone was being honest, this thing would be called South by So Wasted.) As any ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, James Murphy, The Antlers, Squarepusher, More to Play Free at Fort Mason

While the music industry gathers in Austin for SXSW, San Francisco will get a two-day confab of art and music, courtesy of Vice and Intel's Creator's Project. On March 17 and 18, the project is taking over Fort Mason, bringing live performances from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Squarepusher, the Antlers, Ja ... More >>

Trentemøller Loves Mixing Indie Rock and Techno, But Don't Make Him Remix His Own Songs

​A good producer knows how to blend melodies and beats seamlessly, but a truly knowledgeable one knows the origins of every note. Danish producer Anders Trentemøller started out his music career in bands, as a multi-instrumentalist playing everything from drums to piano, before becoming a club DJ ... More >>

Easy Fame in the Pitchfork Era: Be Young, Find a Trend, Get a Drum Machine

Dirty Beaches: This could be you!​Did you want to play at SXSW, but perhaps felt you weren't ready? Are you comfortable with stylish gloss instead of creative substance? Do you know how to work a drum machine?Well, good news kids: You don't need to work much at making music anymore -- at ... More >>

'Fuck Zoe Deschanel': 10 Great Quotes From SXSW 2011

Jim Jones wants those fucking transistors out of his amplifier.​ No surprise that SXSW -- a four-day confab of cool kids, corporate sleaze, would-be famous people, and free booze -- leads to some pretty outrageous jaw-flapping. Here, 10 of the most memorable quotes we heard at SXSW this year."I im ... More >>

The South-By Diet: How to Get Hipster-Skinny in Four Days on Barbecue and Beer

Flickr/ghewgillPizza: Still not a diet food, not even at SXSW.​Sure, you ostensibly came to SXSW to see live music. But pick your shows and your meals right, and the week of South-By can also make an amazing body-slimming opportunity. You might even graduate to a new leg-hugging level of skinny je ... More >>

Helpful Advice: How To Survive NOT Going To SXSW

This week, thousands of music lovers, wayward drunks, and music industry folk have descended upon Austin, Texas, for the 2011 South By Southwest music "conference" (yeah, right). If you're still here at home in the Bay Area, the reality that you're missing five days of non-stop free music/beer/b ... More >>

SXSW Music 2011: Hi Austin, Are You Sure This Isn't SXSF?

SF Weekly music editor Ian Port is in Austin this week covering the sun-glazed sound orgy that is South By Southwest. He will try to keep his reports free from from unnecessary personal details, talk of tacos, the phrase "killed it," and the eliciting of excessive jealousy. Please feel free to comme ... More >>

Download Three SXSF Mixtapes From The Bay Bridged

Yes, but do they have Rainbow Grocery?​Feeling bummed because you're not in Austin right now for SXSW? Buck up, young modern. As our fearless leader Ian S. Port has already discovered, you "pretty much can't spit in Austin" without hitting an act, or a festivalgoer, from San Francisco and environs ... More >>

Our SXSW Party: Wu-Tang Clan, Erykah Badu, Wild Flag, and More

​And so we join the SXSW deluge: Village Voice Media, the parent company of SF Weekly, yesterday announced the details of our annual SXSW party: We'll deign to spare you any unfortunate lyrical references to the Wu-Tang Clan but it is headlining. Other eyebrow-poppers you'll want to check out ... More >>

S.F.'s Exray's Make a Strong Contender for Weedhead Album of the Year

​Listen to this while high: Exray's self-titled debut album. ​ Behind the buzz: These guys might well feel done out of their due-and-proper at last Friday night's Noise Pop gig at the Bottom of the Hill. Various sonic impedimenta marred what sounded to me like very promising material, so it see ... More >>

There Are Only Three SF Bands on the 2011 SXSW List So Far -- And You've Probably Heard All of Them

​Put this in your still-illicit pipe and smoke it: The early list of bands invited to perform at SXSW 2011 came out this week, and San Francisco's music scene isn't well represented.There are only three S.F. artists invited so far -- John Vanderslice, Dredg, and Mark Eitzel.All of them are already ... More >>

Free Tickets to Birds & Batteries at the Rickshaw Stop

​After touring for the past month and making a name for themselves at SXSW, Birds & Batteries have returned home. Hard to categorize, their music has been called alt-country garage, fuzzy synth psych, or electronic pop, and with their latest EP, Up To No Good, they continue to defy genre. Self ... More >>

Video of the Day: Bill Murray Serves Everyone Tequila at SXSW

This may look like an ordinary video of a man serving hipsters drinks, but make no mistake. This is a video of Bill Murray, one of the coolest, non-smilingist actors of our time, deciding to help out slinging booze while he was in Austin for SXSW. Originally posted on The Blemish (with the approp ... More >>

One Band's SXSW: Ty Segall's Drummer Gives Us the Lowdown

Ty Segall's first of ten SXSW shows ​Editor's note: Emily Rose Epstein is a great music writer who also happens to be a great musician. She plays drums in Ty Segall's band--an act that had 10 officially-scheduled shows in Austin during SXSW last week. There's been a barrage of reports from critics ... More >>

The year SXSW film broke

SXSW 2010: The Rest of the Best (Best Coast, Broken Bells, Demolished Thoughts, More)

Best of SXSW: Saturday w/ Real Estate, Best Coast, Fool's Gold, Demolished Thoughts, Broken Bells, Dam-Funk, and Billy Murray Thinking back on SXSW's finale, I saw Real Estate more times than I probably should've (and that includes a Saturday day show). But that was in large part because the band's ... More >>

SXSW Friday Morning Scorecard (So Far)

​Scorecard for SXSW w/ 2 Days Down, 2 Left To GoAwesome!*Sets by The Antlers, Real Estate, The Morning Benders, Surf City*Your first veggie dog with a can of Lone Star in the sunshine* Music "venues" in old museums, warehouses, and giant dead lawns, across the industrial side of Austin*Free ice cr ... More >>

SXSW Interactive Is Dead

Image of a VIP fence via Flickr/Adrants​No annual festival, conference, or party will ever be as good as the first year you went. That's not what I'm talking about when I say that South by Southwest Interactive died this year. Earlier this week, Jolie O'Dell wrote the usual "Why SXSW Sucks" post. ... More >>

Seven Questions with @ScrewYouSXSW

​There's a new tweeter in town and she's mad as hell. In the last week, @ScrewYouSXSW, the self-proclaimed pissed off wife of a SXSW attendee, has been tweeting about happenings she's been learning about from her husband via text. A number of people at SXSW think this enigmatic person is of the ... More >>

Plancast at SXSWi: Nothing Says Body Shots Like a Bar Full of Tech Reporters

Photo by Laughing Squid/ Scott Beale​ It's T minus 19 hours until the annual liquid re-union that is SXSW. While the more massive crowds show up for the music festival on the 17th, SXSW is also home to the world's biggest tech-fest, SXSWi, which runs from the 12th to the 16th.  That means a ... More >>

More SXSW Parties: Zum, Aquarius, and KXLU

High Castle​Super indie (and very experimental-friendly) local label Zum is partnering with Aquarius Records and KXLU to throw a daytime party in Austin during SXSW. The show takes place on Thursday, March 18 from noon  until 6 p.m. at what Zum label owner George Chen says is a "rad bookst ... More >>

Thee Oh Sees to Play Todd P's Mexico Music Fest

There's been a bit of a buzz about the music festival tastemaking New York promoter Todd P. has planned down in Monterrey, Mexico, right around SXSW. This week Pitchfork announced that south of the border showcase, called MtyMx All Ages Festival of Art and Music, is gonna happen, with local garage ... More >>

A San Franciscan’s guide to SXSW

SF @ SXSW: Talking House Records' Texas Takeover

EKAphotographySee You in Austin: Bart Davenport If you're going to Austin, Texas' annual music festival SXSW, remember the date March 20. On that day, SF-based indie Talking House records is throwing what it calls a "14-hour rager" featuring "a ton of the Bay Area's most interesting bands" at the W ... More >>

Track of the Day: BLK JKS

South African art rockers BLK JKS get all kinds of cozy with all sorts of genres-- from post-punk to reggae to arena rock and plenty in between. The Johannesburg act was a minor hit at last year's SXSW, and they're making another long voyage to the states this Spring to stun folks with their freethi ... More >>

SXSW highlights: David Banner, Bon Iva, MGMT, Clockcleaner, and Dark Meat

SXSW: The Big Finale

Booger Sugar, Dark Meat, and Moby: SXSW Day 2 pt. 2

SF Goes SXSW

Bay Area Picks for SXSW

Human Giant Hit SF for NoisePop

Nursing the SXSW hangover

In the Year 2005

Like killer bees and cheap labor, this year's music and fashion trends are charging up from the South (by Southwest)

Secret Machines

Now Here Is Nowhere

A Star Is Torn

Lamenting Joanna Newsom and crying over Kris Kristofferson at SXSW

Hip Pocket

In Austin, Texas, it's a neck-and-neck race between art and commerce at South by Southwest

Get Your Bearings

Crabby asides from the South by Southwest Music Festival

Samples

Samples