Some Highlights from SxSW 2018

I had a much better time at South By Southwest than I expected. I had always feared the big crowds and long lines, but since I was in town for work, I thought I’d give it a shot. The key is to not have your mind set on anything. There’s a ton of great music in Austin this time of year, so forget about seeing a band you love and check out some random bands (with smaller crowds) instead.

Personal highlights:

I’ll share a list of great bands below, but first I wanted to talk about a few of my personal highlights from South By Southwest.

DJ QBert

I stumbled into a Dr. Octagon reunion show with Dan The Automator, Kool Keith, and QBert. Afterwards I got a chance to hang out with Q-Bert and he told me that he got some early inspiration for his scratches by watching yo-yoers. That blew my mind since a bunch of us yo-yoers got inspiration from hip hop, scratching, and QBert in particular. I even had a trick named “Galactic Butthair”, the name of the QBert’s record label.


Glitchet

I also got to hang out with Way from Glitchet, one of my favorite weekly newsletters. We chatted about some of his next projects and some of the cool technology news from SxSW. If you love technology, dystopian perspectives, and glitch art, then you should subscribe to Glitchet.

Velocotize Talks

I was in town to record a series of talk and interviews for Velocitize. I got to meet a bunch of smart people and spent nearly 4 solid days working in our studio on the 16th floor of the Capital Factory. My favorite part was doing the daily recaps though.

New and Old Friends

Aside from Qbert and Way, I had a great time hanging out with friends from ORDcamp who happened to be in town. In particular, Aziz Gilani helped keep us moving from bar to bar at breakneck speed, which made the trip way more fun. I also got to chill with MC Frontalot for a day and wonder around Flatstock, SxSW’s poster art show, and the gaming expo.

Music!

I was working pretty hard during the first 4 days of the trip, but I feel like I made up for that pretty quickly. Fitting a week’s worth of SxSW shows into 1.5 days. As I mentioned before, I loved just walking into random shows and finding new bands. Here are some highlights:

Young & Sick:

In the Empire Garage, the smaller venue attached to The Empire.

 

Partner:

Saw this band in the Canada House. The two main members really cracked me up. One was in an oversized Pendleton jacket, tight leather pants, and Harry Potter glasses. She had a million petals and rocked solos on her double neck guitar while balancing on her tippy toes. The other singer had one pedal and a real laid back demeanor. The music was crunchy and catchy. Sort of a cross between the Breeders and Weezer.

 

Gracie and Rachel:

A friend gave me a great tip to check out some of the live tapings at Clubhouse Records, just about 3 miles south of South by Southwest. They’d have a couple of bands come in each day and record a 45 minute album with 10-15 guests hanging out on couches and floors for an extremely intimate show. I caught a band called Gracie and Rachel.

 

Now Now:

Cadence Weapon:

Che Lingo:

Boss Street Brass Band:

Dr Octagon:

Just caught the end of this show, but it was my favorite Kool Keith show yet. BTW, there’s a new Dr. Octagon album coming out soon.

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