Our SXSW correspondent, Molly Wardlaw crammed 20 shows into 4 days. Actually, she wrote that many reviews. We're not even counting the bands she tried to see but didn't get in, got in too late to review fully, saw but didn't care to write about, or saw because she was blindly following a cute...

Our SXSW correspondent, Molly Wardlaw crammed 20 shows into 4 days. Actually, she wrote than many reviews. We're not even counting the bands she tried to see but didn't get in, got in too late to review fully, saw but didn't care to write about, or saw because she was blindly following a...

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Itâ s no big secret that Maya Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A. is not the greatest vocalist. The M.I.A ethos has always been more about making a bold statement through a collection of art forms as opposed to creating technically superb music. So, it came as no surprise that the impressive part

Seeing as Ninjasonik was playing an early time slot at a giant festival at which they were largely unknown, I was bracing myself for a painful hour of standing around in the heat, watching three zombies blast through some songs with the intention of getting back to the hotel to sleep as soon as...

It could be called reggae time -- a slow unfurling of temporal reality as time as a metronomic concept loses meaning and becomes something more elastic and less...

A slightly more desperately depressed Tegan and Sara By the time I reached the Galaxy Backyard to catch An Horse, I was on my 6th show of the day. Seeing six shows at SXSW feels more like seeing 16 when you factor in walking/biking/crawling across town from venue to venue to reach a show which,...

The night the Colombian experimental dance electronic duo De Juepuchas! were supposed to play at the Speakeasy for SXSW, it happened to be St Patty’s day. Weekend sets at Southby are always interesting, and the usual crowd is what we Austinites like to refer to as “dirty 6th". An average weeknight

Coming at you like a freight train at full speed One of most hyped, most buzzed-about bands, the one that was set to kick SXSW right smack in its underground indie ass was Bogotá, Columbia’s kings (and queen!) of cumbia, Bomba Estereo. With the air thick with anticipation, I knew I had...

“Let’s get ready to rooooock!!!!!?” Really? When you hear such statements from the mouths of hammered frat guys, you assume you're at a Jason Mraz concert, or even participating in a challenging game of beer pong. In this case, this was a performance by Broken Bells who played at Austin City Limits

Deadmau5 is a phenomenon I believe is beyond most people’s realm of understanding — even for many of the house DJ’s fans. Of all the major acts that played the Austin City Limits Music Festival, there was just one name that was dropped so much it started to become eerie. I seriously questioned

I have a feeling that Alex Ebert dreamed up the idea for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes after waking up from vivid wet dream in ninth grade in which he's granted permission to never wash his hair again. He also got to pretend he was a spiritual music guru while basking in the...

No doubt about it, London's Fanfarlo has the kind of musical chops and technical expertise (on a crazy array instruments, no less) that make the most discerning ears perk up. Â But the thing that's really exceptional about the band -- the thing that makes even disaffected hipsters grin and jump up

More Is Not More I should have realized what I was in for when Bristol, England based get-up Munch Munch started begging, in round, for the sound tech at Beauty Bar to raise the volume on each of their keyboards. “Could I get more of my keyboard? More of the girl’s keyboard.” “Could I also get...

Watching Cologne's Niobe was a delight for the senses. This particular show was in the backyard of a local coffee shop and that “now I can die” smell of fresh-ground coffee floated into my nostrils. Mmmmm.... Then there were the visuals: My fellow listeners and I looked on in awe as a pretty girl...

Ethereal indie rock band The Morning Benders, are one of those bands that somehow manage to sound in every way live as they do on recordings. I suppose serious props should be given to the sound guy overseeing their set at Austin City Limits Music Festival. There is no denying that these guys are...

“You guys made me hot enough, I had to take my coat off!” Glasgow, Scotland-based indie/folk rock band Frightened Rabbit have developed a bit of a reputation for being maudlin. Perhaps part of this has to do with the fact the mastermind behind the project, Scott Hutchison, has songs that include

What happened to the disaffected hipsters? Infectious all-girl J-Rock drives the crowd wild After receiving an urgent text from my editor insisting that I immediately run across downtown in order to catch the Tokushima, Japan-based band Chatmonchy that “everyone has been buzzing about,” I made what

“I don’t want to be unpopular! No way! Plane tickets cost money!" The Ruby Suns and I got off on the wrong foot. In fact, our relationship almost turned sour. When I asked politely for a quick interview after their SXSW Vice show, the lead singer (and the primary mover and shaker behind...

Soulful pop songs without look-at-me drama In what would later turn out to be a point of personal irony for me, the name Efterklang means “remembrance” or “reverberation” in Danish. Of the 20 bands I covered for SXSW, the only one I could not immediately recall afterward was Copenhagen, Denmark’s