2007 SXSW Trip Report

SXSW In A Nutshell

SXSW is a cross between a music festival and music business conference. You know those conferences where they have seminars with panelists and powerpoint presentations? Well it's sort of like that only dumbed down. Unlike those technical conferences that we all know, there's no guarantee that you'll get anything constructive out of the panel sessions. Primarily it's because it's the music business and of course we all know about the "guarantees" on that end! The music festival part is interesting because it's not centered around a single theme, like folk or blues. It's basically 1000+ acts all converging on Austin for the single purpose of showcasing to music business types. Every imaginable genre is there, so I won't go into the details of listing those genres. For that, I suggest you open any mp3 labeling utility and check out the drop down dialog. Yep, rock, pop and folk are finished. If you call you yourself that, you are not with it. I'm not making that last part up. I learned that in one of the seminars. Actually from one of the few "good guys" (if there are any like that left). And that's my point here. As much talk as there is regarding the current state of the music business, it's still a pretty crummy business: open to everyone, but be careful, success is parceled out to the few lucky ones. So keep your day jobs boys!

As you have already figured out by reading my first paragraph, I'm somewhat cynical regarding the music biz. The biz (as I shall heretofore reference it) is basically a three layer cake. The top layer is the business types, the lawyers, managers, publishers, record company execs that are making the bucks. The middle layer are those artists and professionals that are actually making enough money to pay for their health care, mortgage on a house and retirement savings. At the bottom is the rest of 'em: the scrappy types on the road playing one night stands trying to eke out a living. It's the age-old model and it's been going on forever. Everybody's done it. The Beatles did it for years before they became stars.

The Seminars

Here's a brief synopsis of each seminar I went to:

A Field Guide to Indie Labels was interesting because these guys are hurting. It's sad because they actually offer the musician the most care and feeding, yet song sharing is killing them. Plus the economics of the business make it hard for them to make a decent profit. Like anything else in the biz, it helps if you have a hit. If you don't, welcome to the bottom layer.

Demo Listening was an oxymoron. First of all, these weren't demos. Demos are rough mixes of a song idea, perhaps not fully fleshed out, but there to give the listener a taste perhaps of what a live performance would be like. What I heard were masters. Every single one of them. The artists, managers, etc put their CD's into a box and they are drawn out like a lottery and played while everyone in the room listens to them. Then they are critiqued by a couple of industry insiders, either producers, execs, etc. The session lasts only an hour so you don't hear much of the songs but I broke it down like this: 75% of the stuff was completely unoriginal, songs and styles of songs and singing that you've heard a million times before. 25% was actually interesting. Nothing new here. Evidently some artists rely completely on loops to do their songwriting. That's so you can instantly sound like hundreds of other artist. I heard criticisms regarding "no hook" or "hook not soon enough in song". Yikes! I haven't heard phrases like that since the days when radio play actually mattered. My CD did not get picked. I was relieved.

Record Companies, Who Needs Them? would seem to be a good idea for a seminar, especially since it was lead by David Byrne. I have to admit it was interesting to see him up there, powerpoint at the ready. In the end though, it seems you still need record companies, as Mr. Byrne was about to ink a deal with a label while he was there (forgot which one). This seminar was jam packed. BTW, future artists must have the following skills to succeed (I gleaned this from reading in between the lines of his talk): compelling live performance, huge existing fan base, original songwriting skills, great recording chops (you need to be your own engineer and producer) and the ability to write HTML. Seems these days you just can't be perfect enough to succeed!

There's more, but I think you get the point.

Here are some highlights of those seminars more geared toward the fan rather than the wannabes: Interview with Rickie Lee Jones, was quite impressive. She came on stage with a guitar and sang her responses to a few questions with some impromptu songwriting. Guts and talent. Always an impressive combination. Seems the woman has been through some serious down times in her career. That's the bad part of having a hit: following it up. Learned a lot from her talk: perseverance, grace and love. She'd been through a lot of shit but wasn't bitter and was able to continue. Her latest work is based upon the words of Jesus put to music. Seems the guy's words take on a whole new meaning when removed from the context of the Bible. Keynote by Pete Townsend. This event was held in a large hall in a hotel next door. Townsend's always been a bit of a curmudgeon, and now that he's pushing 60-something, he seems even more so. Nonetheless no one can deny his cred. He announced as part of his talk a website called "The Method" which gives subscribers an opportunity to create their own unique musical composition by 'sitting' for the Method software composer. It's getting launched 4/25. I'll need to check that out. Finally I went to The Stooges Interview. Found out a couple of things I never knew. The first Stooges record was produced by John Cale who wouldn't you know produced the Sic F-cks EP back in '77. That's cool. (I was one of the formative members of that band, in case you didn't know. Hey, I've got a little cred!) Great stories and reminisces. I've got the interview recorded if anyone wants a copy.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that if you want to learn something about the biz, ask an artist. They've got the most to share.

The Music

Isn't that what it's really all about? The heck with the biz. It's a downer. It's reality, but we can ignore it when we are seeing the music being performed in front of our eyes. With 1000+ artists performing, it can be daunting deciding who to see and when (and where!) Luckily my buddy Chris, who put me up for the week was also gracious enough to steer us around for the duration with minimal input. Until the last night, he batted 1000!

Idgy Vaughn: A local artist from Austin. I would have called her folk or country folk, but these days it's called Americana. Got it? Anyway a beautiful voice, great songs plus the bonus was also two very pretty ladies on lead and rhythm and back up. The drummer sat on this beat box of a thing with a drum pedal attached playing snare and hi-hat. Worked out nicely.

KTU: I'm not much of a prog rock guy, however these guys created some amazing sounds. The guitarist and drummer had played with King Crimson and the third member used voice and an electrified accordion. The guitar player played a Warr guitar. Sort of a Chapman stick/guitar combination. Ain't never heard nuthin' like that afore.

Sondre Leche: This was a band of Norwegian kids who played their asses off and had a great time, all the while presenting some very sophisticated pop tunes. I was really impressed. Nice to hear great songs (ya know, verses, chorus, bridge, etc) They played at the famous Antone's on 6th Street.

Rachel Fuller and Pete Townsend: Was held at La Zona Rosa a really big club that had an enormous stage. Pete Townsend, who has some romantic relationship with Ms Fuller played at least one song with every act. There were at least four acts: Americana, to Pop (or was that Glam Pop?). Martha Wainwright was one of the artists that performed. I remember her from when she opened for Neko Case at the Towne Hall in NYC last year. Townsend played a song he claimed he never played live before a crowd ever. Cool.

On Friday night we went to The Parish. I saw the following bands. Buffalo Tom. A Boston band. Evidently big in the 90's and still working the machine. They were good. Not exactly my cup of tea. I don't really remember much about them. They were loud. The Drams. A local Texas band. I liked their setup: guitars, drums and bass plus keys. Nice organ and key sounds. Songs were okay. Nothing that blew my socks off. Only had one volume level: loud. Lead singer kept switching guitars but always had the same crappy guitar sound. Steve Earle. Really why I was there. Steve Earle gets a lot of flack these days for being vocal against the war. Fans want him to play his "non-political" stuff. I say (and so did he) give a listen to "Copperhead Road" and tell me he wasn't political back in the day. Did an acoustic set with minimal patter. One exception was a yarn he spun regarding Townes Van Zandt. I did not know that the two of them were buddies. According to Earle, Townes "was the best he ever saw." Coming from Earle, I'd say that was a pretty good compliment. Guess I'll need to pick up a couple of his CD's one of these days. Seems his name keeps popping up. Wanted to stay to see Rickie Lee Jones, but my body just gave out. Four and a half hours on your feet ain't something a 53 year old man can do.

Saturday turned out to be a mixed bag. First I caught only a few songs of what was probably one of the best songwriters I had heard in a long time. I little bit of a woman, from New Zealand and wouldn't you know she had to be at least 7 months pregnant. Bic Runga was her name. I'll definitely need to give some of her stuff a listen. Sophisticated lyrics and interesting melodies. We were really there to check out Andy Pratt. He had a couple of LP's out in the early 70's produced by Arif Mardin. He had a hit too. So I was really looking forward to see what 35 years had done to this guy. Ruined him I'd say. This guy did not practice. He f'ed up every song he played. They could've been good songs, but with all the mistakes it was more pathetic than anything. Kept changing the key because he couldn't sing the notes. At one point I went up to him and gave him one of my guitar picks as he had forgotten to bring one and was struggling to play the guitar without it. Oh well.

Did wander over to see The Stooges at midnight over at Stubbs. A great concert, viewed from the safety of 200 yards from the stage. No sir, no mosh pit for me. At the end he invited up all the "toughest punks in the crowd" to get up on stage with him. Quite hilarious to see 50-60 Iggy impersonators dancing around all at once. This was a graduate course in rock 'n roll for all the young' uns.