SXSW 2012: Mess With Texas Party Lineup Announced!

One of our favorite "unofficial" annual South by Southwest shows just announced its 2012 lineup.  Looks great.  Good mix of up-and-comers (A$AP Rocky, Cloud Nothings) and indie vets (Cults, Titus Andronicus, Deerhoof).  Brought to you by the folks behind Fun Fun Fun Festival.  Looking forward to it.

SXSW 2012: The Basics

February's over.  That means South by Southwest is around the corner.  SXSW -- particularly SXSW Music -- is BIG, so preparedness is key.  If you haven't started planning already, better get your butt in gear.

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST 2012 BASICS

SXSW ][ MUSIC ][ FILM ][ INTERACTIVE

March 9-18

Interactive: March 9–13
Film: March 9–17
Music: March 13–18

Attending

For a Platinum Badge (access to all three festivals), this late, expect to pay well beyond a G.  The coveted piece of laminated paper will cost you $1395.  Gold badges are $1150.  If you're more the single-event type, price depends on the festival you're interested in: Interactive = $950.  Film = $595.  Music = $750. 

The Second-Hand Market:

• Craigslist
• StubHub
• eBay

Headquarters

Austin Convention Center

500 East Cesar Chavez St.

Events during SXSW take place all over the city, mainly downtown, but the nerve center of the festival is the Convention Center. Lots of panels, the Day Stage, the Music Gear Expo, Flatstock poster show (see below) and other fun stuff take place at the sprawling center, plus it's the place to go to handle registration and other logistics.

Convention Center area (including parking)

Some More Basics


The official SXSW First-Timer's Guide is full of helpful info for SouthBy virgins.  Another good tool for attendees is SXsocial, "a SXSW registrant tool that allows users to search for and message other SXSW attendees, update contact information, and book hotel accommodations."  There's also SXSW GO, "the official mobile app for getting the most out of attending SXSW 2012 [that] allows you to view/build your schedule, see a map of what’s happening and how to get there, navigate the tradeshow, stay connected to the social world and more."

One of my favorite tools is Austin360's SXSW 2012 Side Parties Database.  Search for unofficial parties by festival category (e.g., Interactive, Film, Music), date, whether free or not, and whether free food/drink are provided.  Click on each party for all the good details -- date, time, bands, where to RSVP, etc. So go find out what music parties are going on during weekend and hunt down free beer!  Great free tool -- use it!

Follow SXSW

We'll be posting SXSW-related goodies from now through after the festival. Here are some other good places to go for festival news, information, gossip, BS, etc.

Official SXSW News ][ Facebook ][ Twitter ][ MySpace ][ YouTube

Blogs covering SXSW:

• Operation Every Band - Had to start here. These guys have set a daunting goal: Review every band playing at SXSW in 2012. That means nearly 2,000 reviews. That's a whole lotta listening. Sounds like ... fun?  Too much?
• Austin Chronicle's SXSW Blog - What you'd expect from the Chronicle.
• Consequence of Sound - Also hosting a show I think.
• SXSW Baby - "An unofficial weblog for South by Southwest."
• Houston Press - SXSW coverage from Houston arts & entertainment news outlet.

More will pop up.  Trust us.

Yaktoberfest 2012 Update: Beer Recipe Development Continues

We're still over 6 months away from the next edition of Yaktoberfest, but we vowed to start preparing early this year.  Although we organizers haven't gotten too much done yet in terms of event planning, I have been busy trying to brew as many new beers as possible in hopes of finding one or more recipes to brew for the festival.  In the first blog update on Yaktoberfest 2012, we were trying out AHS's double chocolate stout recipe.  That one's in the bottle.  It needed a few more weeks of rest before it became a really good drink, but patience did pay off, and this one's a pretty good candidate for the fest.  I may have to tinker with the recipe just a bit to boost the alcohol and body each just a touch.

Just yesterday, I bottled experiment number two, a brown ale that also has promise.  I tasted it flat, and while I knew it would be light on hops, it may be a bit too low.  Guess we'll wait a couple of weeks and see.

Taking an investigatory sniff of the brown ale during bottling

FBtA's Audio and Video History of the Native Tongue Collective - Part 5: Audio Mix

Before we turn our attention again to things more local (like that little festival that rolls into town every March), we wanted to wrap up our Native Tongue Collective series with FBtA's Native Tongue Mix.  66 songs by artists who are closely affiliated with the Native Tongues, with the amount of attention the artist receives roughly proportional to that artist's significance in the collective.  So expect more from De La Soul than Chi Ali in other words.  There are lots of collaborations, and not just "Buddy" and "Doin' Our Own Dang."  Plus a few more rare cuts and mixes, and some appearances by a few unexpected guests.  Unless you were expecting Scotland indie power-pop band Teenage Fanclub.

Here it is below in big form.  A small one will go up on our main page soon.  See below for a bit more about the mix.

FBtA's Audio and Video History of the Native Tongue Collective

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Chi Ali Interlude]

So who's "closely affiliated with the Native Tongues?"


There are a few different ways to define who is a "member" of the Native Tongue collective and who is not.  Fans and press think of the collective in a sense as having a central core surrounded by a small number of concentric circles representing the degree of association to the collective and the closeness to the core members.  That's how we thought of it for purposes of building our mix.  If you aren't in one of the first two or three circles, chances are you're only in the mix by being a lucky guest.

To start off, one thing everyone can agree on is that there are three principal members of the Native Tongues:

Principal Native Tongue Members

• A Tribe Called Quest
• De La Soul
• Jungle Brothers

After that, opinions start to diverge.  The names most likely to appear in the next "circle," at least in my opinion, look something like this:

Secondary Native Tongue Members

• Black Sheep 
• Chi Ali
• Da Bush Babees
• Fu-Schnickens
• Leaders of the New School
• Monie Love
• Queen Latifah

There are a number of other groups and individuals that sometimes are mentioned in the above group.  These are folks with legit claims of association with the collective, but generally aren't considered close to its center.  We'll call these artists the "Affiliates."

Native Tongue Affiliates

• The Beatnuts
• Brand Nubian
• Common
• J Dilla
• Lucien Revolucien
• Mos Def
• Prince Paul

There are certainly other artists and associates who could make a reasonable claim of membership, but let's leave it at that.  Our blog, our rules.

Austin is (and always will be) Wooderson's Town ... and what does this have to do with BBQ?

Had a little surgery last Tuesday.  Oh, don't worry, it was nothing.  And one positive side effect of being grounded here in North Austin for a few weekdays is that it gave me an excuse opportunity to go check out a new barbecue joint that opened up not too far from my house, Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew on North Lamar.

I had heard the place was located in "the historic Violet Crown Shopping Center," but I didn't have any clue what made the nondescript small commercial strip historic.  Once I walked in the place though, I saw some Dazed and Confused memorabilia, thought a bit more about the layout of the parking lot and the place, and started wondering if the home of Stiles Switch was involved the movie.

Turns out it was, big time, as was the whole shopping center.  The "about" section of the Stiles Switch web site explains:

The Violet Crown Shopping Center, one of the “oldest” shopping centers in central Austin, was also the film production hub for the late 1990s film “Dazed and Confused” starring Matthew McConaughey. The Stiles Switch BBQ lease space is the famed “Emporium” pool hall filmed in the movie.

Wooderson enters the Emporium

Well, I don't believe in karma or any of that stuff, but one of the first things I read when I get home (with my take out 'cue, which was pretty good by the way) is that Matthew McConaughey just suited up as iconic Dazed and Confused character David Wooderson for the video for Butch Walker and the Black Widows' new video, "Synthesizers."  Appears that a does of those high school girls has kept Wooderson the same age since we last say him.

Check back soon for a true BBQ update.  Been to a lot of new joints since we last did a thorough rundown.