SXSW, ATX. WTF?
“…ain't got nothin' but love, babe, eight days a week…”
#SXSW2023 TheZineUK woz ‘ere!
It’s April 2023, week 1. Reports, articles, results, images and videos are still coming back from #SXSW2023 across multi media.
Is it worth DIY, low-profile up and coming bands going to the international creative ideas hub, South By South West?
TheZineUK doc Events Dept. (myself) got the chance to research, hands on. Here are some vibes, snap shots, an Avalanche Party short film of note etc., woven into this year’s tapestry.
Thursday 10th to Sunday 19th March 2023
South By South West Austin, Texas, USA.
Hire a car or an uber (tho we did find a handy $2.50 a day bus route a mile from accomodation
TheZineUK is an under-the-radar cut-n-paste documentary of alt/art music movements.
So for proper reviews etc, our BalconyFest fam/established music site, God Is In The TV, had journalist reporters “Music was seeping out of the walls, the signage was everywhere and everyone was wearing lanyards.” read on at: https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2023/04/05/live-sxsw-and-thats-a-wrap/
The brilliant thing about such a wealth of music reporters being in town among thousands of acts is that there are hundreds of completely different tips and reviews from the same event. GIITV is just one!
Scotland’s Brooke Combe was a JOY at the Licks Magazine showcase. Stream ‘Black Is The New Gold’ https://brookecombe.lnk.to/BlackIsTheNewGold
For the rock n roll isles just off the European continent land mass (Brexit-Broken-Britain and our cool neighbours, Ireland) travel and accomodation already ain’t cheap.
In the near future, visas may not remain affordable. So this year felt like an opportune time in which to experience this globally famed convention. Anything that may help generate some future income for artists.
Experiences. So much to see. Do. Eat! The Frida Kahlo artwork drew me towards a friendly chat (and some delicious Mexican ice cream!). Thank you Sweet Frida! https://www.instagram.com/dulcefridaatx/
Not just the ice cream and beers that were cool.
Musicians ruled!
Some artists had profile showcase gigs awaiting them/funding support from various sources etc., which is an essential of our “cost of living crisis” stricken times. There was much appreciation for PRS etc, in the air.
Absolute kudos to the independent promoters and labels (some already woven into this doc’s tale) who were staging their own showcases. Fantastic work.
For every name on the programme, it means a lot to represent yourselves during an event that is no stranger to Hollywood/Rock n Roll Royalty, etc., calling in, annually. This year was no exception.
A teaser blip clip of Noisy having it large at Good Karma Club in Augustine on TheZineUK TikTok
It doesn’t feel so long ago that TheZineUK were enjoying the launch of Abbie McCarthy’s Good Karma club… now back again by request at SXSW (Augustines) during a very busy week of Abbie (also DJing for BBC Introducing and Rolling Stone)
In order to be at SXSW officially, Accepted Artists need to be at a calibre level of potential.
So, often with more than one set during the week (a good thing to mix official and independent shows, well done SXSW for realising that), everybody was worth catching. Making their trip hopefully worth the cost.
Lime Garden are loaded with Vitamin C for charisma (and also modelled the So Young Magazine Capsule Collection around Austin). They play the European SXSW, The Great Escape, Brighton UK in May.
Bands like Ghum and Chroma had played fund raiser gigs for the trip. Others like ourselves/MOSES got there by extra work hours, saving, borrowing, belief-donations from friends and family etc. Sure, some struggles in April’s budget but future musical gems are in the risky mix, so, game ON. As only time will tell if this gamble pays, the only possible expectation was to experience being part of an escapist MOMENT.
Coming from London’s South By South East(!), it felt at home that there was so much street art, DIY chic style, uniqulture and broad mindedness on bright display, everywhere. Austin is not only a great city for millenials, amazing for foodies and weather - but also reputed to have the only nude beach in Texas. Thank you for the complimentary water!
SXSW Music Festival
A week of surreal surroundings for music lovers on and off stage making, hearing, seeing new friends, faves, fans. Unforgettably. Missed some wish list names, but yay for the internet to keep following and finding a lot of fab surprises, many not even mentioned here, lotsa pictures to sort through, too.
Showcase central, British Music Embassy on West 4th Street. Licks Magazine is an international media for emerging talents and includes physical magazines https://licksmag.com/
It’s fitting that movies, education, culture and technology play a big role in what originally started out as a compact music festival in 1987. By 2023, like NFTs, these are potentially essential independent musician tools. Having said that, you can’t beat feeling the age old, organic sixth sense effects of the Texas capital being a music tourism city. Individual unique adventures were had by all.
Saloon Dion, Vancerts at SXSW, JNL Barbecue https://www.instagram.com/saloon_dion/
Wait! What? We’re actually HERE! Horsing around…
Right up to the last minute (hitching a tour manager gig with a last minute -can-get-there band) none of us were definitely gonna be in Austin.
So there’s no mention of TheZineUK attending in our (mid March) SXSW festival preview where Kelly Munro of End Of The Trail (a “South By” seasoned promoter and industry figure) remarked: “It's kind of a Glastonbury thing. Bucket list it. You won't regret it.”
Keep Austin Weird. Music Tourism at Austin Airport is proud of SXSW
Sunday 12th March 2023 in 3 airports:
(1) Heathrow. Hey, musicians of this travelling group, yes it is morning(!) but we must NOT miss the plane!
(2) Houston. Aah, being held by security for some reason. Will we make it to Austin? Won’t we?
(3) Hallo Janis Joplin artwork guitar. ATX, USA, we are IN you!
There are a wealth of “getting to SXSW” stories and this turned out to be one of the simpler journeys!
Music Tourism - 1960s Austin resident, Janis Joplin (incidentally, Heathrow Airport departures terminal paid homage to The Beatles, The Spice Girls and Bowie)
Overwhelmed by there literally being 666 things on at one time, these random pix are a mere fraction.
Noah and the Loners were one of this year’s highlights. A quicky-clips eclipse of various artists and scenes on TheZine.UK tiktok
Besides the whole finding new FUNshine by accident and serendipity is how the situationist theatre of our doc unfolds. QR codes may be the magical mystery tours of now, but you can’t beat actual conversation for the bigger picture. Or with my terrible social graces, a smile and a wave, even…
#SXSW2023 was a mix of music tourism, rock n roll movie as reality, nu-skool app-navigated/old school love and peace vibrations - and much more.
It’s a yes from our situationist Magic-powered serendipity.
One day, a long walk along East Sixth Street to drink in the warmth. OMG, escape from bitter grey wintery cold to sunshine and blue sky! A tree lover taking in the atmosphere of a city where many streets were originally named after trees.
Downhill a few blocks to Cesar Chavez (once Water Street, it is First Street but renamed to honor the Hispanic rights activist). Hallo JNL BBQ for an afternoon and evening of gigs.
Good lord, you need to be keeping an eye and ear on hot punx Noah and the Loners! A definite hit at multiple showcases, they’d also played NYC’s New Colossus Festival which falls the week before SXSW - making a nice port of call for Irish and British talent to play more of America! Wynona Bleach and a few other of our faves played both events.
Well done, also, MOSES. First gig outside of the UK! Thank you Vancerts (literally, Van Stage concerts) for the show, hospitality and a shining passion. What lovely local friends they have too, inviting the musicians to their homes to hang out. Much appreciation. SO many other ones-to-watch names called in during the festival, it’s a news new who’s who!
#MusicTourism recommendation: Latchkey on East Sixth Street is a bar loaded with ArtBeat vibrations - kept singing along (damn fine playlist) while sipping a locally brewed cold pint http://latchkeyatx.com/ - thank you for your kind hospitality. xx
The week remained surreal in the best way right up to leaving town! The local motto is ‘Keep Austin Weird’. Art rocked gigs feel like home from home, as does spending time with fellow music world peeps. Weird is the best.
Got to meet some beautiful souls and find new favourite must-see tips through the conversational speed meet by the sound system Bowers & Wilkins https://www.instagram.com/anniehamiltn/ Meeting the awesome artist, Annie Hamilton, a case in point.
Meeting People Is Pleasy
It was also a privilege to speak, face to face with fellow starring artists Rainbow (real name) Chan, Germein and Brekky Boy via a music industry speed meeting great call very much enjoyed. It started something “next” and mixed music/marketing/media mover shakers at all levels, internationally, including Camille Bagnani / Aaron Watts of of Big Indie Records, Jack Parker of Licks Magazine, Adrienne Labelle / Elysse Cloma of Mint Records, Adam Lewis of the Planetary Group, Grace Becker, Bucky Driedger (Birthday Cake Media), Joseph Patella (Student Media), Deadpan Photography and SXSW Sydney - more from some of them below, or in the future.
It’s how we roll.
Wait. How do WE - TheZineUK - roll?
Small, but part of Britain’s new music circuit.
London based DIY creators, event management and artist development.
Being part of the UK’s newer wave music industrious of connectors (we stage, co-promote, report and consult). It was democratic of SXSW to mix mainstream and independent. Especially as ground level is where #FertileEnvironment for mainstream to “pipeline” in bloom.
This Land Is Your Land, Woody Guthrie! Art at Augustine on historic Rainey Street. Apparently the name Austin is a derivative of Augustine!
Music Tourism is where our story has been taking itself so being in a city hive of music love felt like A Sign! Uploaded 14th March nine years ago, never dreamed of being here! British Music Embassy. There had been initial interest from the Mayor of London in our Events Department’s ongoing project so onwards and upwards with that!
Anniversary feedback from artists and their allies at TheZineUK’s insta, March 2023
The past experiences shape future experiments.
Researching/living under the radar, post punk art style, means that (again) there are quite a few names in town to catch as well as new threads to the tapestry.
Hi (again!) Janice and Willie, feels well to see you around a lot
2023 includes SXSW in Australia, as well as USA!
Kept seeing the little passenger tuk-tuks around the city. Many advertising the new SXSW event!
It was really exciting to speak with the engaging Claire Collins, Head Of Music at SXSW Sydney about this new expansion which launches in October. Music Tourism international keeps growing. Yes PLEASE!
The week long, inaugural event happens on 15th to 22nd October and the time to get involved with being there is a.s.a.p! https://sxswsydney.com/
Good natters, thank you… What a year - and 50 phonographic years of The BPI promoting British Music https://www.bpi.co.uk/
Austin is one of the world’s tune flavoured cities with the civilisation blueprint that artists and their allies bring to a locality. Whimsical exploration, drifting in and out of gallery scenic spaces catching instrumentalists and vocalists soundtracking life in entertaining real time.
Always a live set to not miss, the cirque du quirk performance by Enjoyable Listens was experienced outdoors at The Lucky Duck on East Sixth Street. Crooned sartorial elegance is back at SXSW by request, this year with Glastonbury Festival, a Fierce Panda Records label album and a load of national/indie radio play added to the story.
There was a severe weather warning the next day. For some shows it was unfortunate they couldn’t go ahead. Luckily this venue was a lucky ducky - nice one, Music Gorilla! - and could stage indoors. Just before the lightening-show of a storm, MOSES, whose set included brand new song, ‘Storm’, went down the proverbial, erm, storm!
Ooh! https://www.germeinsisters.com/ next tour dates call into The Great Escape Festival (UK) and the Rolling Stone famed Half Moon in Putney, London on the grassroots music venue circuit. A coincidence that I met multi-instrumentalist, Ryota Saito at a show we staged there last August then again at The Lucky Duck, SXSW 2023? Nah. Just music magick!
Plans made for the week morphed into alternative rabbit holes. The yellow brick road of sensory overload was a genuine stimulation. Joy, stress, wonder, WTF and OMG, ooh sensation! Walked a lot, talked quite a bit, grinned, danced, made friends with strangers and just drank it all in.
Ireland and Britain on the inside. International new friends on the outside. British Music Embassy industry meets by Bower & Wilkins SXSW2023. Lovely to meet you all!
Conversations with Austin locals really made the holiday pop including Big Steve (knight in shining car) of Big Steve’s Rides- the taxi driver who still knows that “cash is king”, and the very helpful Sheraton Sean.
It’s a Bar And A Day Care Center For Adults. The afore mentioned Latchkey on East Sixth Avenue! After Dark this street was crowdy, loudy, loaded and buzzing with electric excitement crackles with everybody in the queue to get in the venues looking like they’d stepped off a pop music video shoot!
When you’re abroad, familiar friendly faces are an extra treat for the soul.
Ha ha, was down the front for Brooke Combe at the Licks Magazine showcase when Mark Davyd of Music Venue Trust went past, we exchanged smiles of recognition. The MVT party at Lazarus Brewing was a love garden with multiple musicians jamming (sing it!) behind a wall with a painting of Bob Marley. Really.
In fact there was #ArtBeat poetry in visual sensation everywhere.
Downtown Central - performances and artist gifting here
British interdependent music stars, Fierce Panda Records and End Of The Trail Creative, had a virtual mini fest of staggered sets between a whiskey bar and tequila bar joined by their back doors in a food court mix of socialising between shows.
A big Friday night out, great call Blackstar Amps and So Recordings, on scouty sponsoring - some of it glimpsed (Big Special, Dea Matrona etc) in a brief clip-blip on our insta https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp-ynREoEeP/
A wealth of credible calibre artists prove emerging talent, harnessed environmentally can gift potential of all kinds, to the world.
Friday 17th, Scruff Of The Neck showcase at The Velveeta Room. Much appreciation for the hospitality and thank you, Mark Lippman, for taking the time to say hallo at the frenziest o clock of the evening, just before the show is about to start! Big showing for Manchester, in general, this year, too.
Didn’t go to one event that had a bad atmosphere. Feeling blessed. Maybe it was there being so many special people in one place at the same time. Lovely Rainbow Chan, for instance.
An absolute pleasure to speak with, influential and inspiring Sydney based, award winning artist Rainbow Chan. “lush, harmonised vocals with crystalline synths and groove-heavy electronic bass.” (NME) at the Bowes & Wilkes speed meeting event.
Also got to meet Shakey of Essex who was over with Bilk (raucous kick off to Scruff Of The Neck’s just-mentioned show) and then he was down the front for MOSES who he has been playing their music on his radio show. Yes, the band have support from promoters called Milky (Bedford) and Shakey (Chelmsford)! The latter presents the multi award winning Shakey’s Sessions.
The Only Way Is Austin, this week, for Essex firepunked outfit, Bilk, as they set up at The Velveeta Room
SXSW was the first step of next chapters for all concerned,
A week later, Noah and the Loners come back to be BBC Radio 1’s Round Table Winners with national treasure presenter, Steve Lamacq, wishing he could have caught them in Austin.
Bilk are in demand at this Summer’s UK festivals, ears out!
End Of The Trail Creative is one of the interdependent promoters who will stage a three day independent fest mid May in Brighton. Unofficial funshine during The Great Escape weekend, loadsa industry scouts know where to be. https://www.facebook.com/endofthetrailcreative
Rock show: MOSES (a teaser of new songs at their TikTok clips) found new friends in Texas. Pic: End Of The Trail at Las Perlas. The following week their music was being played in a local arena (Texas Stars Hockey, Cedar Park near Austin).
It’s indoors and outdoors festivity.
Mirroring an experience for all the senses, the weather was warm and dry, wet and cold, stormy and dramatic, calm and still.
Amidst the after-dark sound systems, stylish crowds, social divisions, scooters, skaters, sirens, parties, pretty lanterns, yelling, laughing, arguing, cheering and the taste bud tingling flavour sensations, the bands and horses were the personal bonus to creating the best escapism, three years after the shock down of lockdown.
2023 we can stand up at gigs and wearing a mask is voluntary… oh, and we’re thousands of miles from home. Yet the “Cavern size” intimacy of close-up performance spaces felt very familiar to the UK/IE grassroots music venue (GMV) circuit that Music Venue Trust (one of Britain’s most essential organisations for every level of this biz) do their utmost to protect.
MVT’s #SaveOurVenues campaign of 2020 helped some names make it this far, so there was a celebratory fest-within-fest feel to their informal jamming joy at Lazarus Brewing as the weekend started to wind down.
Things went to the line for Music Venue Trust’s #OwnOurVenues on midnight of the 30th March. A very “will they?, won’t they?” moment for all who care. Congratulations to MVT and their investors and donators, on raising £2.3million+! Literally a fresh civilisation sensation.
Come with the world of Music. This is a START.
On that note, rounding off this extra special “Eight Days A Week”, here’s a Super 8 Minutes of short film fantastica by Kyle Howells https://www.instagram.com/eagleburgermedia of organically rising rock band, Avalanche Party, another thread in TheZineUK ‘s observance of a Fertile Environment over the last few years…
Then
Back to our tiny islands and isles, our wonderful grassroots circuit touring trail, a multitude of problems for interdependent artists and their allies/audiences. A shitshow for a misruled by the fash hostile environment in general.
But with recharged battery boosts for our rock n roll dreams.
Definitely no regrets on having an alternative holiday. Thank you Austin Texas - and everybody who was there in person, spirit or support.
Cheers George, Richard, James oh, and…
Kelly Munro, you are right, again! Legend.