The Daily Swarm

(photo via NYT Slideshow)

Lou Reed Keynote:

• “People always want to know, ‘How do you write a song?’ I don’t know. I’ve wanted to know, too. If I could have done it, I would have had ‘Son of [Walk on the] Wild Side’ and I would own an island in the Caribbean. But I don’t know how to do it or how it works or why it works or what it has to do with anything.”

• “Punk in the old days meant a coward. I meant punk — aggressive steel street action. That’s what I meant, and there they were, like a lot of these bands last night. All that young guy stuff? That’s punk. No one did that, and now it exists, and it will forever, because where else are we going to put it? It’s there or jail.”

• Asked how he could write knowledgably about the dark side, Reed said, “I have a B.A. in dope — and a Ph.D. in soul.”

• And in response to a question about MP3s, the notorious audio perfectionist quipped, “The technology is taking us backwards. It’s making it easier to make things [sound] worse.”

Greg Kot – Chicago Tribune:

Running parallel to the conference, which began Wednesday, are a bevy of heavily sponsored parties designed to imprint brands on and sell products to music lovers lubricated by free booze and Texas sunshine.

Fader magazine sponsors one such party annually in conjunction with a jeans manufacturer, and it’s a doozey. The party is held at a building that occupies half a city block, with a half-dozen rooms converted into boutiques for various sponsors. To entice patrons inside, there’s a well-stocked open bar. Outside on a vast tented patio, more than 44 bands have been enlisted to perform over four days. The guest list for this monster party—- a festival within a festival—- is the size of a small phone book; the person manning the door says it contains 15,000 names.

The Fader bash competed with a day full of panels back at the Austin Convention Center, the sterile aircraft-hanger of a building that serves as the hub of the conference. The choice between hanging out at the panels or spending a day outdoors watching live music really wasn’t much of a choice at all for most conference-goers. Fader was packed.

Jon Pareles – New York Times:

So there are merely far too many bands to see rather than infinitely too many bands to see. And with the proliferation of daytime parties, I can probably say with confidence that I have already missed as many bands as I’ll reach between now and Sunday.

Still, the scene feels familiar. Postcards and fliers for upcoming gigs are pressed on every passerby. Everyone is asking everyone else what they’re eager to see. Video crews trail groups of unknown and/or foreign musicians down the streets and through the convention center. Eyes jump to nametags before faces. And there are the perennial overheard SXSW conversations: “They’re touring in their own bus this time!”

Yet there’s brainstorming in those conversations too–a seesaw between the old music business wondering “What do we do now?” and the next generations’ “Look at the amazing things we can do now!”

KXAN – Rising Gas Costs Make Trek To SXSW Pricey:

Record-high gas prices are taking a toll on just about everyone, including more than 1,000 bands who drove from all over the country to take part in this week’s South by Southwest Music Festival.

The trip has become increasingly expensive.

“This is the furthest we’ve gone from home,” said Benjamin Davis, a Bad Veins band member. “We’re from Cincinnati, and that’s 1,100 or 1,200 miles.”

The Ohio band is practically donating blood to raise the money for gasoline to take their act on the road. On their way to Austin, they were almost stranded in Arkansas, a fate you wouldn’t wish on anyone.

“We do know we sold 10 of our singles in Little Rock, and that was all spent on gas to get here,” Davis said.

Pitchfork’s Amy Phillips on WNYC‘s Soundcheck:

“The way, I guess, to generate interest from someone like me is just having your songs out there somewhere online and being talked about and having stuff for journalists to hear beforehand and interested in and saying ‘Oh, this could sound good live.’...It’s kind of a push-pull situation because there are so many bands out there who get hyped so quickly from just a few songs and then they can’t deliver live because they’ve only been a band for six months! We get these unrealistic expectations.”

Pitchfork – SXSW: Wednesday [Amy Phillips]:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve become perhaps unhealthily obsessed with Frightened Rabbit’s forthcoming second album The Midnight Organ Fight (out April 15 in the U.S. on FatCat). I can’t explain why this band’s jangly, anthemic indie pop hits me harder than everybody else’s jangly, anthemic indie pop, or why such terrible-on-paper lyrics as “you’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it” and “it takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep warm,” sung by a guy who sounds like the twee Scottish version of Adam Duritz, come across as so profound. I just don’t know. But it works. I can’t stop listening to this album.

NME:

REM frontman Michael Stipe paid tribute to Heath Ledger during the band’s rousing set at South by Southwest tonight (March 12).

Stipe dedicated the new song ‘Until The Day Is Done’ to the actor, who passed away in January.

“This is dedicated to Heath Ledger, who loved this song,” he said, ending the song by shouting, “Goodbye Heath, we loved you!”

Listen to the R.E.M. NPR webcast.

The Sun:

DUFFY may be a double chart-topper over here but she’s still completely unknown in the US.

So much so that despite stamping her feet the pretty star was refused entry to REM’s tiny South By Southwest show in Texas.

The veteran rockers played to their smallest audience for more than a decade at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, on Wednesday and the Welsh songbird was determined to see them.

But unimpressed door staff didn’t recognise her and sent her packing despite her pleading to be let in.

KVUA:

The bands play all day long. For some the drinking starts early, too.

“An hour-and-a-half and all I can say is, ‘That’s too much for me’, “ said Craig.

The alcohol was flowing freely Wednesday afternoon at most of the bars where band play during the festival. That was exactly was some festival fans wanted.

“I’m really trying to go all in with the seeing of the bands and the drinking,” said Joe Nicolosi, in town for SXSE.

Even fans that don’t usually drink say they were letting loose for the festival.

“I’m not a bid drinker, so it’s not that big of a deal for me, but I do enjoy it,” said a festival fan who would only identify himself as Jay. “It’s free alcohol.”

All the alcohol and the partying in downtown has Austin police stepping up street patrol. Over the first weekend of SXSW, there were only seven extra DWI arrests. Usually, APD records 75 arrests on a typical weekend. There were 82 on the first weekend.

ALSO:

South By Southwest 2008: You’re Not There, Pt. 1

South By Southwest 2008: You’re Not There, Pt. 3

South By Southwest 2008: You’re Not There, Pt. 4

South By Southwest 2008: You’re Not There, Pt. 5