WEDNESDAY (3/14): SXSW’s music festival has officially started with day one already in the books. This year’s confab will be particularly challenging for yours truly considering our knee surgery last week. [Ed. Note: Wah, wah, wah.] But after getting off our short stint on crutches, we aim to tackle
Our Wednesday morning flight out of LAX was fairly uneventful, but considering it’s typically the industry-filled flight from
After an afternoon of meetings, returning e-mails and phone calls back at the hotel, we headed with some friends to Mexican restaurant Manuel’s to stop by the Chrysalis Music dinner to say hello to Chrysalis U.K. players Jeremy LaScelles and Allison Donald, as well as Chrysalis U.S. Prexy Kenny MacPherson and A&R execs Jamie Cerreta and Sara Kapuchinski.
After a number of margaritas, our crew hopped on a couple pedicabs (we love those bicycle-driven rickshaws) and headed to Spiro’s for our first show of the night, newly signed Atlantic act
Our crew then headed to the ASCAP showcase at the Dirty Dog Bar, where we hoisted a few more with ASCAP’s Tom DeSavia, Harry Poloner, Jennifer Knoepfle, Jason Silberman and Margaret Spoddig. Lots of weasels holding court to check out Bat for Lashes, garnering a big buzz for the night, as well as the other acts on the bill—The Futurists, To Live and Die in L.A., White Rabbits, Audrye Sessions, Trainwreck Riders and Zico Chain.
We caught a few other shows in between, but stayed primarily at ASCAP, where we ran into a number of label folks, including Sire prexy Michael Goldstone, Jive’s Jeff Fenster, Hollywood’s Allison Hamamura, American’s Antony Bland, Capitol’s Louie Bandak and Immortal’s Happy Walters, who was hanging with
THURSDAY (3/15): Yeah, we had a tough time getting up this morning. Last night, our knee was throbbing by the end of the evening and the 750 mg vicodin pill we took after drinking four margaritas throughout the night alleviated some of the pain. But later, the combo put us way over the edge. It probably wasn’t a good idea. And to our friend who happen to slip us the vike (and you know who you are), thanks for looking out even though it made us want to puke our guts out. We promise to deliver on the percocet in return…
Our day started with an invite to Iron Works BBQ with
Our early evening was spent at the traditional
After the DSHL get-together, it was on to an evening of shows, our first stop was Emo’s Jr. for N.Y. buzz act Ra Ra Riot. Then we stopped by Club de Ville for the BMI showcase to catch the Envy Corps, Cage the Elephant, which numerous label reps were checking out, and E>K>U>K. We made a quick pit stop to Exodus for the Sire showcase before hopping on over to the Beauty Bar Patio to catch
FRIDAY (3/16): We didn’t go overboard Thursday night, and we were enjoying some sound sleep until we were awakened by soundcheck for the BMI Brunch on the Four Seasons back lawn. We checked out the early morning party. It was packed, and it was nice to get some coffee and catch up with plenty of industry folks. Among the hundreds on the lawn conversing over tea and crumpets were BMI’s Hanna Pantle, who video punk’d some label folks, Windswept’s Todd Parker, Island’s Will Westfall, Columbia’s Maureen Kinney, Roadrunner’s David Bason, Leftwing’s Steven Melrose, Warner/Chappell’s Stephanie St. Gal de Pons, artist manager Michelle Abreim, A&R guy Tom Morris, attorney Michelle Saifer and Artist Arena’s Debra Herman. Afterwards, we headed over to the hotel’s café restaurant for a pre-panel lunch to sit down with the cast of characters who were participating on our Saturday A&R panel. New relationships and contacts are what South-By is all about. Last year, Capitol Records Group A&R VP David Wolter and super-producer Howard Benson both participated on our panel. Apparently, they had never met before until then. The connection led to them working together on an album months later. Hey Howard, where’s our commission on that?
More afternoon meetings for us, including a sit-down with indie attorney Dave Stein and an office visit to Capitol Sports & Entertainment to meet with George Couri. If you haven’t heard of CSE, they not only produce the Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza festivals, but also have a sports and entertainment representation division. Clients include Lance Armstrong, Blues Traveler, Jack Ingram and Ben Kweller. After the meeting, we were walking through the Four Seasons parking lot when we were stopped by Secret Service and instructed to take an alternate route back to the hotel entrance. Was it a brown thing? Apparently Hillary Clinton’s tour bus was sitting nearby with plenty of Secret Service guarding it. We heard Hillary stopped by
Our Friday evening started with a dinner at Fleming’s Steak House that we co-hosted with barristers Todd Rubenstein and Nick Sciorra. EMI’s Dan McCarroll stopped by early to say hello. Sitting down for dinner was Redbull/Grace Marketing’s Greg Hammer, Suretone’s Andrew Freston, Sony/ATV’s Jonathan Gottlieb, Chrysalis’ Sara Kapuchinski, Capitol Records Group’s Louie Bandak, Universal’s Shep Goodman, attorney Brian Schall, BMI’s Myles Lewis and BMI U.K.’s Nick Robinson.
The steak and company were great. There were even some political debates as well as some bets placed on Democratic/Republican candidates. We’re down for Hillary and Bill, but we’re feeling Giuliani may get the gig.
After dinner, BMI’s Myles Lewis and I hopped on a pedicab to catch the Public Enemy show at the Dew Music Festival at
Afterwards, yours truly caught a few more shows including the Faint’s show for the SESAC showcase at Eternal and Earl Greyhound’s show at Friends. We then headed to the Driskill for the Indie 103.1 party, where Brent Bolthouse and Danny Masterson were hosting. We had a few cocktails at the Driskill lounge first, which was packed, and we figured would be more happening than the Four Seasons. We proceeded to the party on the second floor. The open bar was cool and the party was fun, but it felt a little too much like
SATURDAY (3/17): Our last day. At this point we are burnt and looking forward to going home later today. But before that, we had a panel to moderate. With all the parties going on, we were a little uncertain about what the turnout was going to be this year and were pleasantly pleased to see a full room. The topic this year was “Making Hit Records.” Our panel consisted of three record producers (David Bendeth, Brian Howes and Mike Flynn) and three major label A&R executives (Roadrunner’s Ron Burman, Warner Bros.’ Craig Aaronson and Interscope’s Mark Williams). The group shared their insight on the record-making process and the challenges of maintaining the artist’s creative integrity with the label’s commercial needs, which at times leads to conflict. The panel had an impressive resume that included the following acts: My Chemical Romance, Hinder, Gwen Stefani, the Fray, No Doubt, Nickelback, Smashing Pumpkins, the Used, Breaking Benjamin and Hawthorne Heights, among others. The panelists bonded during our lunch the previous day, and it showed as they tackled the questions smoothly and intelligently from the audience. Once again, we give thanks to SXSW’s Andy Flynn for inviting us to participate this year.
We headed for the airport in the afternoon, leaving the Saturday night reporting to our South-By colleague Jeff Leven, who has been doing an amazing job with his daily dispatches. And so we bid adieu to another installment of SXSW. The conference is changing, as the major label world changes and adapts as well. It is still an amazing event and for many of us continues to be the music industry’s spring break.
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