SXSW 2011 Bullets (3/14/11)

Today's bullets start with one from the film world, then head back to music with a series of SXSW guides and other news. One more food treat at the end.

• The Film Festival is well underway, and Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is one of the big news stories. From Entertainment Weekly's Karen Valby: "How to explain the enormous goodwill in Austin, Tx. during Sunday’s world premiere of Rodman Flender’s documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop? The director, who sat across the aisle from O’Brien in the theater’s last row, said he started to relax when the audience started howling en masse eight seconds in during a scene of O’Brien baiting an L.A. tour bus from his car. The documentary follows the former Tonight Show host, still choking with rage from his shoddy treatment by NBC, as he pours his suddenly-freed up energy into last summer’s Legally Prohibited from Being on Television Tour. It’s behind-the-scenes gold watching O’Brien put together bits with his devoted, happily beleaguered staff and then take his material out on the road for a grueling run of 42 shows. Within 24 hours of the premiere, the film landed a multi-platform distribution deal with Abramorama, Magnolia Home Entertainment and AT&T’s U-verse subscription TV service. The doc will first broadcast in an exclusive window on U-verse, then launch into a nationwide “event” screening tour via Abramorama; Magnolia will handle both VOD and DVD distribution. A specific release date has not yet been announced."

• The big news -- whether it was a well-kept secret or not -- is that Kanye West bill be in town for the festival. NME reports: "Kanye West is set to play live at the South By Southwest festival in Austin on Saturday (March 19). Following rumours swirling about a possible appearance at the Texas event from the rapper, the news has now been confirmed by way of a viral video. Scroll down and click below to watch it. West is set to play the Vevo Power station venue at midnight (CDT) on Saturday night." Here is said video:

• Pitchfork is the latest biggie to put out a SXSW guide. "You'll find a bunch of P4k-approved goings-on, including big official gigs with the Strokes and TV on the Radio, as well as plenty of usually-free, unofficial day parties and brain-power panels. And don't forget about Pitchfork's own events in Austin. On Tuesday night, March 15, we take over Emo's with sets from Surfer Blood, Gold Panda, Weekend, and more. On Wednesday, Pitchfork's sister site Altered Zones will throw a day part at ND @ 501 Studios, and it'll feature John Maus, Puro Instinct, Pictureplane, Sleep ∞ Over, Laurel Halo, Matthewdavid, and Grimes. On Thursday and Friday during the day, #Offline hits East Side Drive-In with performances from Smith Westerns, Toro Y Moi, J Mascis, Dum Dum Girls, OFF!, Dom, Times New Viking, and more. And we'll do our official SXSW showcase Thursday night at the Central Presbyterian Church with James Blake, Twin Shadow, tUnE-yArDs, Glasser, Cults, and Julianna Barwick. Check the full Pitchfork event schedules here." Lots of shows listed, but no Rachael Ray?
• Another big timer, David Fricke of Rolling Stone, is counting down to SXSW. Wanna pick his brain? "I have few firm plans, aside from [Queens of the Stone Age], the Strokes and a long visit to Waterloo Records. But this is some of what I'm thinking about: Josh T. Pearson, ex-singer-guitarist of the holy-fire power trio Life to Experience, making his solo bow on behalf of a haunted and compelling solo album, Last of the Country Gentlemen; British garage-roots terrors the Jim Jones Revue; Danish mods Thee Attacks; a Washington, D.C. math-rock group called Animals as Leaders; and a reunion, at the Austin Music Awards, of the Sixties Texas psychedelic band Bubble Puppy, who will surely play their '69 smash, "Hot Smoke and Sassafras" – originally issued by an independent label, International Artists. At SXSW, that is one circle that remains unbroken."
• Flavorpill's Jason Gross calls his the Official SXSW Music 2011 Survival Guide. Tip number five is to put your schedule on your phone: "Sure, you could print out pages and pages of your schedule to lug around with you and fumble through as you jump from one club to the next, but why bother? SXSW Go is the fest’s mobile app, so you can have your schedule right there on your iPhone, iPad, Android-powered phone, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 on the way. Best of all, if you’ve already set up your schedule on your computer, you can then sync it to your Go app and have everything copied to your phone."
• Johnny Firecloud from Crave Online also calls his a Survival Guide. His final tip? "Don't Overdo It - You're going to burn more calories than you're probably used to, and sweating more than you'll want to. Sure, you've been planning to see Kanye since you first bought the plane tickets to Austin, but if you haven't had anything to eat since the 10am free tacos and the last drink you had was the round of tequila shooters up the street, cramming into a venue at triple capacity for a two-hour bombastic audio assault could bring your adventure to a screeching halt. Know your limits, and be prepared to sit a couple events out for the sake of making it through the week."
• Alex Young from Consequence of Sound also put together a Guide to South by Southwest. He splits each day into two posts, one for day and one for night. His picks for Wednesday, day one, daytime:

– Fader Fort: Yelawolf, Raphael Saadiq, Friendly Fires, Young the Giant, Oh Land @ 1101 E. 5th Street [RSVP]
– Paste Magazine Party: Sondre Lerche, Lord Huron, Eisley, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons @ The Stage on Sixth
– Terrorbird & Forcefield PR Party: The Death Set, Cloud Nothings, Lower Dens, Pictureplane, Screaming Females, tUnE-yArDs @ Red 7
– All Saints Spitafields/I AM SOUND Party: Friendly Fires, Theophilus London, Mount Kimbie, Local Natives (DJ Set) @ Shangri-La [RSVP]

• Underwire's Angela Cutter on the food cart scene: "In years past, SXSW foodies have relied on word of mouth, Yelp, Twitter and other services — including their noses — to find the city’s best grub. This year, they’ll have some help from Foodspotting, a website–app–visual aid that gives starving diners a peek at the best nearby eats. It should be a boon to SXSW newbies, because the city’s true food gems aren’t always obvious to the untrained eye. Foodspotting, which launched last year and has been growing almost as fast as the food truck–cart craze taking off in many cities, is also hosting a Street Food Fest on Sunday to bring Austin’s best chow trucks together to a single location."