SXSW
Fresh off of performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas, we sat down with The Higher Concept: three guys (Matty J, Tekst, and IB) making their way through the ever-so-competitive music industry! Through their 10 year journey they’ve shared the stage and opened up for established artists of every genre such as Nas, Kid Cudi, LMFAO, Fergie, and Sean Kingston. We sat down to talk about everything including how they got together, their journey in the music biz, what inspires them to keep going, their "Hunger Games" remix, and their experience at South by Southwest.
As a versatile amalgamation of corporate conferences, tech expos, avant garde artistry, and diverse musicality, the annual hootenanny in Austin (known as SXSW) is the proverbial cornucopia of festivity. Spanning 10 days (March 9-18), this multifaceted bonanza draws deeply from vast spectrums of society—from Facebook and Skype, to Andrew WK and Nas—encapsulated within those ten wily days is a plethora of info, networking opportunity, and righteous tuneage—topped off with a multitude of imbibing possibilities!
Festival season is about to pop-off down in Austin, Texas. SXSW’s 10 day spread of conferences, art, film, and music commences this Friday, March 9th, and goes until the 18th. Naturally, any confluence of American bodies necessitates an equally diverse array of festivities.
Therefore, here are your top 20 bashes (organized by day)—indulge at will!
Winter is upon us. Which means long gone now are the days of summer festival staples: crocheted halter tops, moon-worshipping prarie twirls and charmingly muddy bottomed bare feet. Just because the white months are lesser known for festival lineups however, does not mean the festivals cease to exist. Though slightly different in rhythm and style than their Bonnaroo & SXSW-esque forerunners, the musical celebrations below are still worth the blasphemous festival crimes of veiled flesh and stifled toes.
It’s been a long time coming for these two beautiful minds to realize that collaboration is in order. The melody gods brought these two together at a chance meeting this year at SXSW, which ultimately inspired them to attest to their musical greatness side-by-side in the studio.
The first product of their collaborative effort comes in the form of “Fall Creek Boys Choir,” which premiered today on BBC Radio 1 and will be available on iTunes August 29th.
With Iver on the vocals and Blake on production, the two compliment each other to a truly haunting perfection. Iver’s delicate, here auto-tuned voice blends ethereally over Blake’s flawless electronic backdrop to create exactly what you would expect from such a talented super-duo.
Now that we know Watch The Throne is actually a real, bona fide album that exists in the non-theoretical form, it's about damn time that all of it's pieces start coming together. Last week Hov and Ye released the official artwork album cover, and now the official tracklist has arrived, courtesy of Hov's lifestyle website, Life + Times.
If you compare the actual tracklisting from the first one that leaked, they pretty much look nothing alike. That's not surprising considering the fact that the unofficial version only featured guest appearances from Beyonce (given) and Bruno Mars (a little bit out of place?).
Nineteen hours after I left sunny Los Angeles, I touched down in Austin TX. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked up to see the narrow streets scattered with hundreds of music hungry people. Expecting more of a cowboy boot, flannel shirt totting scene from Texas; I was surprised to find a melting pot of every age, race and demographic.
Ducking in and out of dimly lit bars was a natural occurrence on the streets of the South By Southwest music festival. Each new artist approached the stage with hopes of their music reaching the ears of executives bearing promises of stardom. Anything was possible, Jimi Hendrix tributes were unknowingly played in front of Jimi's nephew Austin Hendrix himself. Foo Fighter's Nate Mendel ducked out of view to see a tribute to his band. Celebrities like Janelle Monae, Wiz Khalifa, B.O.B and even Super Bad’s Michael Cera made guest appearances. Whispers of a Kanye West secret show swarmed like hoards of bumble bees. Others, found paying off bouncers made it possible for one to slide into private viewing showcases, where the first glimpses of tomorrows mega stars could be viewed at arms length. However a label showcase did not always equate to talent. In fact, some bands were down right awful. The rarest talents were not found on stages, or even in the venues. They were found at the ends of blocked off streets and under tree-shadowed corners.
Kanye West, an SXSW guest for many years, was not only a headlined the festival, but closed the festival in star studded, veracious performance.
Opening the set in an abandoned power plant West stood in front of his own music label's accyrnom G.O.O.D Music. He performed mostly songs from his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and benefited from appearances from Mr. Hudson, Justin Vernon, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, and his hip hop mentor Jay Z.
Reports claim West was hip hop personified; energetic and raw. Wisely using a dj, celebrity guest performances, a marching band to add to the jumbled frenzy that is "All of the Lights", and to help keep the energy going.
Screeching Weasel frontman, Ben Weasel, snapped during their SXSW set when a female audience member spit ice on his face. As a result, Ben lunged into the crowd, punching her in the face. Directly after, another female (the club owner) approached Weasel from the back and pushed him, resulting in Weasel turning around and shoving and landing a punch to her back before being taken down by security at the venue.
The band, obviously, couldn’t finish their set due the incident.
Ben Weasel released an apology to the women he hit, the venue, and his own band:
Joe Nicolosi recently made a Super Mario Bros. themed short film for SXSW’s film festival. He created several bumpers, but the Mario film is quickly gaining the most notoriety, and for good reason.
Nicolosi’s Mario reimagines the adventures of Mario and Luigi in real life. Unlike the early 90s film that depicted the Mushroom Kingdom and the levels the two travel among as a grungy neon New York, Nicolosi’s film heads the Indie route. Mario's got relationship problems. In fact, he's got near Scott Pilgrim problems, which would probably be too meta to handle given Scott Pilgrim's gratuitous Mario references. Bowser and his henchmen stir up trouble while sipping on lattes. Between Mario's plaid shirt and stylized mustache and Bowser's crew, it's an all out hipster-off for a few seconds there.
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