SXSW Music
Conference and Festival

SXSW’s online home has consulted the top interior designers, installed new curtains (they call them ‘window treatments’), hung some new pictures and moved the furniture around. Please come in and admire the changes. I was hoping they’d order an Eames Lounge Chair for me, but c’est la vie.

This new spot on the music home page is where you’ll find all the new posts pertaining to the music conference and festival. Linda Park will check in often. Here’s something you might not know about Linda - she sat through the entire Teen Choice awards show the other night for her Velocity blog. That is true dedication to craft. I’ll be writing about Music Conference related matters, and the Daily Chord posts will show up here, too. Other voices will pop in as well. The idea is to give information about SXSW direct from the source, and to encourage you to attend and participate in our event. So hello again, come on inside. Please don’t track mud on the carpet.

I’ve been in a fog for the last five days, one both literal and figurative, so I missed the sad news that Austin fave Jon Dee Graham was in a serious car accident. Many wishes for a peaceful recovery to Jon and his family. I saw him perform I don’t know how many years ago, and it was one of the best solo shows I’ve ever seen. Please enjoy this footage of the man at work.

In other local-ish news, it doesn’t sound like The Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes has mellowed out much if their recent performance at New York’s Webster hall is any indication. Rawk.

C3 has permanently scrapped plans for the Vineland festival due to the sudden popularity of… New Jersey.

And finally, we’re taking a break here at the SXSW Music Blog ’til the middle of next week as the SXSW 2009 site launches tomorrow. Can’t wait to see the new look, and we’ll have plenty of blogtastic postings for you to start your August off right. The RSS song will remain the same, and you can continue to (not) email us at musicblog@sxsw.com.

Farewell beautiful ‘08. It’s time to move on.

Tchussie for now, lp

For those that braved the traffic, the dust, Suicide Hill, and more… you were rewarded with Teletubbies courtesy of The Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, The Tragically Hip playing over their allotted set length, two members of N.E.R.D arriving late (see above mentioned traffic), Jay-Z and Tom Petty. So, a mixed bag, methinks.

It took us two and a half hours to get to the Pemberton Festival… usually a 35 minute drive. Our intrepid driver took it upon herself to play chicken with oncoming cars so we could jump the line. That was an adventure. Thank God for the police escort that finally arrived or we might still be sitting on the Sea to Sky with several already drunk (I saw a guy lift a girl in a move reminiscent of Dirty Dancing on the side of the road) festival goers.

The site, nestled in a valley in the Coast Mountains, was beautiful, but I think the organizers need to find some secret road to the protected potato field (and running out of parking wasn’t so great, either) if they want smoother sailing next year. On the flip side, we did go to the top of a mountain yesterday, which was not bad at all.

I recommend Whistler to anyone looking for some outdoor adventures and excellent cuisine. As for Pemberton… it has potential, but it seems like they have some big hurdles to clear if they want to make it a premier festival. And I never even saw Chris and Gwynnie!

Did you go to Pemby? What’d you think? Email us at musicblog@sxsw.com

It’s nice to be home, lp

I suppose you have to be a dork of a certain age to be excited by the prospect of a new collaboration by David Byrne and Brian Eno, and I am just old enough to be in that demographic. The project’s website has Mr. Byrne giving you the skinny via video. This item in Pitchfork contains a track list and further detail. I encourage all whippersnappers to get up to date on this.

Mr. Byrne has spoken and played at SXSW a few times over the years. Most recently, he gave a presentation “Record Companies: Who Needs Them?” at SXSW 2007, check out a few minutes of it here. This presentation morphed into a great article in Wired. I’m now turning my attention to the gods of the weather at Zilker Park on September 26.

This week’s major news story in the digital music realm comes from the UK. Anti-piracy efforts that a number of ISPs have come up with include consideration of an ISP fee that would monetize music downloading from peer-to-peer networks. Yesterday’s Daily Chord linked to two articles: an overview from the BBC and analysis from The Independent. The Independent’s analysis notes that this license fee is easily perceived as a tax, and suggests that this initiative will not be easy to enact.

The issue of how to monetize distribution of music via peer-to-peer networks has vexed many. The reasons behind these efforts were discussed at a 2008 SXSW panel Mobility, Ubiquity and Monetizing Music. Watch a clip where Jim Griffin lays out the premises which have led to the current controversy. Griffin’s current work on behalf of Warner Music to create similar licensing structures in the US is still in a preliminary stage, and will doubtlessly be informed by the outcome of the issue in England.