My South By Southwest Prologue
My excitement for SXSW can barely be contained. I've spent the entire weekend cruising the blogsphere, checking out some podcasts, and listening to Sirius XMU's SXSW preview. That process managed to get me hyped up, annoy everyone around me, and also to get a tad bit existential. SXSW has been the big break for so many bands/artists/promoters/labels/organizations/people in the past you can't help but wonder if that guy over there is the next big thing. Or even more so will I my meet that person at some radio station/label/promoter/organization who gives me that big break to kickstart my own career? Its crazy to think about but it actually happens rather frequently from what I can tell. A year ago no one had ever heard of the band Ra Ra Riot, and then they went to SXSW got picked up and were in a recording studio a few weeks later. The same thing goes for who knows how many other people. I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to do anything like this again and if I will take full advantage of it? Or will I miss out on something great? Who knows? Its both outrageously awesome and a wee bit scary at the same time. But thats enough of that. Mostly I am really really really excited and the most urgent and pressing thing on my mind is who out of those 1000+ bands am I going to see? I know what panels and non-performance events I'm going to: Devo, Quincy Jones, Radio and Marketing related panels, but still 1000 bands. its hard for me to wrap my head around the number. I suppose I'll know better once I get there. Till next time....