People always ask me, “What is sxsw really like?”. “Well”, I usually reply, “it’s quite difficult to explain …”, and the conversation moves on. This year, I thought I’d try to put down in words a feeble attempt to capture what the festival actually is like for one punter. I hope it is interesting.

Tuesday
I [...]

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Delays
Southampton University
9 / 3 / 05
It’s lovely for the folk of Southampton to have a band to champion at last. Previously, they had to pretend to be proud of Craig David.
Warmed up by the gorgeous retro chic of Winchester’s Scarlet Soho, the crowd felt like one big family as the appropriate intro music of [...]

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What’s in a name? Well, Patty Hurst Shifter, the pride of Raleigh, North Carolina, get asked about theirs all the time, but that’s not the only problem. On their recent UK tour, guitarist Marc E. Smith had to put up with audience members calling out for Fall songs, while drummer Skillet Gilmore had to cope [...]

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Shivering at Stubbs on Wednesday evening, I was wondering whether the festival was peaking too soon, as the very first band on stage was so fantastic. The Hammond heaven of Detroit’s The Sights was like a 2005 take on The Nice. After guitarist Eddie Baranek had destroyed his own instrument, he disembowelled the Hammond as [...]

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Isn’t life cruel? No sooner have Grand Drive achieved their long-awaited critical breakthrough with “The Lights In This Town Are Too Many to Count”, than their drummer leaves them seriously in the lurch. They have to cancel their high profile showcases in favour of opening for Mercury Rev as an acoustic trio. Still, they are [...]

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You know that feeling which overwhelms you occasionally, when whatever it is you’re experiencing is so perfect that you are desperate to preserve it in your memory forever? The words that come into your head are: “Oh, this is beautiful, I’ve got to soak it up”.
So when Athlete display the genius to write a song [...]

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With the strength of interest in guitar rock at the moment, it’s a mystery why Jon Amor seems to have hit a plateau of popularity beyond which the public stubbornly refuses to move. Yet songs are pouring out of him like a jackpot from a fruit machine, and when the UK’s best live act hits [...]

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You know that feeling which overwhelms you occasionally, when whatever it is you’re experiencing is so perfect that you are desperate to preserve it in your memory forever? The words that come into your head are: “Oh, this is beautiful, I’ve got to soak it up”.
So when Athlete display the genius to write a song [...]

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What would it be like? No one had any idea. Last time around, touring “Stories From The City”, Polly had assembled a pretty motley band which alienated many of her followers. Then, in Summer 2003, she hit the road with a classic 3-piece which really did the business. But now she’s gone and recorded an [...]

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The aroma of joss sticks wafts out from the stage over the largely – um – relaxed audience. The set is adorned with stuffed crows sitting atop TV aerials. The weird pile of wheezing keyboards and effects gadgets which form Jason Lytle’s console sports a blackbird and a cat. The surreal backdrop cranks into action [...]

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