The Swarm

February 26, 2008

South By Shark Jumped, Part 2

TDS Editors

UPDATE: Pangaea insists SXSW bottle service press release was a hoax. A small number of table reservations are being accepted, and the standard dress code does apply, but jeans and Converse are allowed.

EARLIER: South By Shark Jumped

Pangaea Austin

No Depression


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18 Comments

#1 Michael says:

Ewwwwwww.

#2 Depressed says:

I don't think readers of NO DEPRESSION (R.I.P.) wear anything BUT t-shirts or dirty Converse!

#3 Mick Jagger says:

South by South Weak.

#4 Peter Blackstock says:

Thank you for removing the item.

It must be noted, however, that it was highly irresponsible of you to ever put it up in the first place, without doing anything to verify its veracity.

My hope -- likely quixotic as it may be -- is that instances like this will make any web-news entities who wish to take themselves with any seriousness whatsoever will give a little more thought into how they gather and present news, beyond the "knee-jerk/post-first" habit that has pervaded web-journalism and the blogosphere in its formative days.

You CAN be better than that, folks. It takes some work, and some attention, and really, just some common sense. It should've been pretty apparent from the start that something was fishy about that "press release". Why not check it out first, rather than just slapping it up on your site? It only ends up reflecting really poorly on your own domain.

It doesn't have to be that way -- but it's up to you to change it. I hope you'll take up the challenge.

Sincerely,
Peter Blackstock
No Depression

#5 sly stallone says:

well that was a pretty sly hoax indeed!

#6 tds editors says:

Peter: we stand corrected, and will leave this front and center for the rest of the day as a reminder to ourselves to be more careful. No Depression will be missed.

#7 sean says:

or maybe folks ought not to send out stupid press releases...

#8 Austinite says:

Was it really a hoax? Or is Pangaea just disowning their own retarded press release as soon as the shit hit the fan?

#9 sean says:

i think the fact that so many people had no problem buying the press release speaks volumes about SXSW and No Depression...

#10 Mahsheet Smelsrabahd says:

sounds and looks fishy all the way around

#11 Rob says:

So what is the "standard dress code"? Are sneakers other than Converse allowed? What about T-shirts? What was the hoax about the press release if the update basically says the same thing, but with a little more tact? What is a "small number" of reservations? How exactly was the press release wrong except the Converse comment which was reversed?

If this was a hoax where did it originate? Something smells fishy here.

#12 s.s. says:

Make the media the issue. Blame the story on the blog impulse to get the story first! Get really aggressive with the blogs, make them feel guilty for being irresponsible and suggest that the rise of blogs is a detriment to society as a whole, not just to the magazine publishing industry, which is saintly and perfect and died for our sins. Claim the original press release was a "hoax" and make the people feel gullible for believing it in the first place. Everyday there's another internet "hoax" on this or that - they will surely believe it.

#13 Peter Blackstock says:

For what it's worth, this is what I received from SXSW about the matter:

>>
This is from Todd, our venue liason, and comes directly from the Pangaea owner:

pangaea claims this is a fraudulent ad and are pursuing the poster with a possible lawsuit. there is no dress code. badges have priority. wristbands and cash tickets are allowed. they have assured me these are sxsw shows and are in full support of our policies.
>>

Please note the "there is no dress code" line.

I'm not sure if TDS has some other source at Pangaea saying there is supposedly some "standard dress code". I find no mention of any "standard dress code" on Pangaea's website, for what it's worth. If TDS did talk to someone at Pangaea who said there is some sort of "standard dress code" that will be enforced, I would certainly be grateful to know so I could look into it. But the info I received above shows the owner clearly stating that there is no dress code.

As for a small number of table reservations being accepted -- I don't believe this is out-of-line with SXSW policy as long as anyone with a reservation shows up early, before the club reaches capacity. Generally non-badge and writsband holders can get into a venue by showing up early and paying the door cover charge. It's only after the room is full that cash-payers are turned away. (Unless that detail has changed over the years, anyway.)

TDS Editors -- I do appreciate your attention to this. And if in fact you've had someone at Pangaea say something different about a dress-code than what the Pangaea owner told SXSW, please do let me know.

Sincerely,
Peter Blackstock

#14 Peter Blackstock says:

one last note, regarding:

>>
If this was a hoax where did it originate?
>>

I first saw it late monday night on a Yahoo Message Board named "unofficial sxsw info". it was posted by someone using the name "the_bottle_club". here was the specific header/time-stamp:

>>
From: "the_bottle_club" <the_bottle_club@...>
Date: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:56 pm
Subject: Pangaea SxSW lineup - the only place in New Austin to really Party!
>>

I don't know if that was the ONLY place it originated -- I believe SXSW said it had been spotted on the Austin American-Statesman's Austin360.com site as well but had been removed. Whatever the case, by Tuesday noon it had made the cut-&-paste rounds of several sites.

And, s.s., just fyi, I am aware that print media is hardly sacrosanct -- one need to see only Maxim's recent fake Black Crowes CD review for proof of that. But the practice of cut-&-paste publishing without properly checking or considering the source is something that blogs and web news sites are particularly prone to fall victim to, if they're not careful. It does us all a lot of good if a little more common sense and basic reporting is applied in cases such as these.

Sincerely,
Peter Blackstock

#15 Peter Blackstock says:

Sorry for the serial-commenting, but this is what should be the final word on the subject. The person who made the initial post on the Yahoo unofficial_sxsw_info site Monday night returned on Tuesday night with the following post:

>>
From: "the_bottle_club" <the_bottle_club@...>
Date: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:53 pm
Subject: Re: Pangaea parody

99% of you realized right away it is a joke. If anyone else is still
in doubt - this is a joke. It was done in a deadpan parody in the
style of news from The Onion. The intention was to make it so
outrageous it was 100% obvious it is a joke. This was only for a
small private group of music fans on a members only website. The
website is not available to the public and the private note will not
be accessed by the public in any way. Again it is so outrageous you
have to realize it's a joke. It's as unbelievable as any of the
headlines on Onion.com. And now the news... I'm not Chevy Chase and
you're not either. Happy SxSWesting to all
>>

#16 Will says:

I live in Austin, and I must say that if you've ever read anything about that douchey Pangaea place, the fake press release was not as far fetched as some would have you believe. I totally thought it was real. And as for blaming the blogosphere for shit like this, it was a story on the local paper's website (The Austin-American Statesman) for a couple of hours, too. That's how I heard about it. They took it off pretty damned quickly, though, and didn't even have the balls to put up a retraction like you guys.

Anyway, even if they would let me in, this would be a pretty fucking lame place to see alt-country or Perry Ferrell. Gimme REM at Stubbs or The Breeders at Waterloo Park any day over fucking Pangaea.

#17 Austininsomniac says:

I am the asshole door guy @ Pangaea and I will be letting everyone in as long as they have a badge,a smile and a love for ATX music.

#18 austininsomniac says:

the problem is that austin's music is completely made for tourists and band now day's are playing to there every whim! Spasmatics is the most popular band in austin and they are a franchise of the real spazmatics cover band. "Keep Austin weird" right...that just means if you pretend to be open minded and global conscience while you work for a fortune 500 company and drive your v8 suv to work your cool as long as you are just like us. But if you're different than you're casted aside. Creativity is no longer rewarded here just tradition and money.


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