SxSW is like pop culture overload skydiving in a blender at 78rpm. There is so much to take in that aside from a few choice acts, you’re probably better off not planning anything and just stumbling from to bar to catch some random act. Chances are you’ll be surprised with something new. And if not, the next stage is 100 feet away. Not that I’ve ever been there.
There’s so much that I’m not even going to pretend that RowThree is able to even come close to covering it. Probably the best site to do so however has been NPR.org/sxsw. They have all the usual blogggy type stuff (interviews, reviews, news, op/eds, etc…), plus up to the minute Twittering and a huge list of live streaming sites from the festival. But probably best of all: loads of full live concerts from SxSW on .mp3 for free download.
While I claim to know very little about 99% of the 1800 bands from around the country/world performing at SxSW, I did discover a couple of choice cuts while lurking around the site. So here are a few key locations that should definitely be checked out by your casual (good) music fanatic:
Up to the minute Twitter
10 Free-song download of various SxSW performers (iTunes)
Live Webcasts of about 30 different bands
List of online radio stations streaming live from SxSW
Enjoy!
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March 18, 2009
And then there’s this torrent: http://sites.google.com/site/sxsw2009torrent/, over 6GB of sample tunes from roughly 1400 SXSW showcasing artists (one song from each). I’m trying to work my way through it now, but I’m only at about 5% so far. It’s pretty epic. Already found some new bands I really like, though.