I’ll soon be on my way to Austin, Texas, for my annual trek to the South By Southwest Music Conference. After listening to more than 1,000 mp3’s posted at www.sxsw.com (well, I listened to at least a little bit of each song, skipping past the ones I obviously wasn’t going to like) as well as visiting many of the myspace pages for bands without any posted mp3, I narrowed down the list to … a mere 450 bands I want to see! Well, that’s going to be impossible, obviously. But I hope to see maybe a tenth of those groups and follow up on some of the other bands by getting their CDs or seeing them later in Chicago. It’s a good way to get an overview of what’s happening in music this year.
Don’t expect extensive reports here on my blog this week. I may post a few quick reports, but most of the reviews and photos will be coming next week once the whole hectic thing is over. I plan to send updates to my Twitter page, which also go to my Facebook page. I may also post some photos on flickr.
I haven’t had a chance to post reviews of a couple of noteworthy concerts I saw over the past weekend, but maybe soon. Human Highway put on a really nice show of harmony-laden ’60s-style pop Saturday night at the Empty Bottle, and back at the same venue on Sunday night, the Handsome Furs were awesome — very fun and lively. My Handsome Furs pictures are up in the photo galleries.