SXSS Tonight... Toro Y Moi, Damien Jurado, Braids, Cloud Nothings, Viva Voce & More

If you were not lucky enough to make it out to Austin for SXSW this year don't fret... SXSW is being brought to Tempe tonight at the Sail Inn. It might be a pile of ass outside as far as weather goes and I might have a sore throat but I am still going to be there with bells on. Check out this line-up for heck sake!

TORO Y MOI
FOSTER THE PEOPLE
DAMIEN JURADO
VIVA VOCE
BRAIDS
CLOUD NOTHINGS
FRANZ NICOLAY (of The Hold Steady)
GEOGRAPHER
DAVID DONDERO

Kinch & Gospel Claws News... Etc...

Want some news on two of Phoenix's best bands? Do you want them all in one post? Do you want vague facts? Do you want links to verify those facts? Well then you came to the somewhat right place. I will give you news, that may or may not contain facts, only time will tell...

What's In A Name?

the band black cock

I was reading a post over at NPR about a journalist for Vanity Fair who had developed a method for choosing which bands to hear at SXSW: band names. Specifically band names that she found to be aesthetically pleasing. You can see examples of what she means here. After reading the article I thought that if I were attending this years SXSW that I would go in the total opposite direction, I would find bands that had the funniest names and check them out. So I decided to go on to the interwebs and came up with a list of bands with awesome names and decided to check out their music to see if my method would allow me to discover some awesome new music. The results were mixed. In any case, here is a list of bands I checked out and those who had some good tunes I included in this here post.

In a little side note, the band pictured above is named Black Cock, if you decide to do a Google image search for pictures of the band please make sure your safe search filter is on.

AC Slater
Beans on toast-"I Fancy Laura Marling"
Bear Hands
Black Cock
Dikes of Holland
Fat Pimp-"Fresh"
Fight Like Apes-"Lend Me Your Face"
Fuck Shovel
Futurecop!-"NASA"
Hot Lava
Hot Pink DeLorean
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness-"Lights"
Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
NID & SANCY-"M.U.S.I.C."
Pimpbot
Pink Nasty-"Mold The Gold"
Radioclit-"Kamphopo"
Ringo Deathstarr
Star Fucking Hipsters-"Two Cups of Tea"
Tokyo Sex Destruction-"Power To The People"

SXSW '09 Preview

So I promised you guys a preview of this years SXSW festival in Austin, TX and here it is. To be totally honest it isn't very good. Trying to go through a list of all of the musical acts playing at this years SXSW festival is just completely overwhelming. Any attempt to try go through a list that big while still working a full time job would have killed me. But a promise is a promise, dammit. So, this will not be nearly as in depth as I would have liked but at least you get some mp3's courtesy of the SXSW website. I promise to do better next year.

For a full list of acts playing at this years SXSW festival click here.

Ten bands to see at this years SXSW festival:

Beach House-"Gila"
Bosque Brown-"This Town"
Daniel Johnston-"Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Your Grievances"
Alela Diane-"White As Diamonds"
Laura Gibson-"Spirited"
Kinch-"The Economic Chastisement"
Passion Pit-"Sleepyhead"
Here We Go Magic-"Fangela"
Thao With The Get Down Stay Down-"Bag Of Hammers"
Voxtrot-"Kid Gloves"

Pre-SXSW Warm Up Party

If you're like us then you have a job. Blogging, unfortunately, is not my real job, just a job I don't get paid for. My real job is what pays the bills and does not allow me the opportunity to head to Austin, TX for this years SXSW music festival. The SXSW festival is a music festival unlike no other. Over 1,800 bands and musicians from all around the world will fill Austin from Wednesday, March 18th to Saturday, March 21st. We already posted a preview of all of the bands from AZ who will be appearing at SXSW this year and later this week you can expect a preview of all of the bands-local or otherwise-who I would be most looking forward to seeing if I were in attendance this year.

If you are lucky enough to be in Austin on Thursday, March 19th be sure and check out The Official Unofficial Arizona SXSW Party. The event will feature some of AZ's top musical acts including Dear And The Headlights, Miniature Tigers, Kinch, What Laura Says, and others. For all of the event details be sure to check out iheartaz.net.

If you're like us and will be stuck here in Phoenix don't worry because all is not lost. This Friday at Modified Arts you can check out the Pre-SXSW Warm Up Party. The show will feature several of the artists making the trip to Austin this year. Should be an awesome show filled with some awesome music. We will definitely be seeing you there.