Austin is a ghost town this morning. The crowds have vanished. It's quiet. It's like a great tidal wave of people came and went.

Here's a parting shot, as of 11am local time in Austin.



Just 10 hours ago, these streets were packed, and music was blaring from all the venues. Pavilion tents were in the streets but have now been taken down. Almost everything is back to normal.

Saturday Night is technically the last night of SXSW. But it's also the night that many of the conference attendees head home, and a second guard of music fans arrive. The vibe changes some what: it's more of a party atmosphere and less of a serious music atmosphere.

Since we were busy packing up all the webcasting gear (that didn't work) and making a last mad dash to hand out SomaFM stickers, we only got to do a couple things, including crashing the SoundExchange party and catching Oppenheimer at Emo's, but missed seeing a few other people we wanted to see.

You see, that's the big problem with SXSW: you can't see everyone you want to see. Sets are short - usually under 45 minutes; and you end rushing between venues to try and catch people while they're still on.

Of course, Elise's approach is to just spend most of the time at Emo's and Emo's Annex, where many of the best bands play. Merin's approach is to just wander around from venue to venue and see what music calls out to you. (She caught a show by Why? this way; while I planned ahead to see Why? but ended up getting there right as they went off stage.)

One thing that's impressive is how punctual most performances are. My suggestion is to get the printed SXSW Music Pocket Guide, mark it up with the artists you like, and carry it with you at all times. Don't rely on accessing schedules over the internet, or on your mobile phone - it's much too slow.

There are over 50 official and unofficial venues. Just understand that you're not going to see everyone you want to see. Allow for some serendipity, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised by who you discover.

PS- We really didn't crash the SoundExchange party; John Simpson and Mike Huppe invited us. (I'll report more on what's going on with the SoundExchange negotiations next week.)

The internet is working for a little bit, so here are some updates:

Kate Havnevik did a great show. Imagine the musical experimentation of Björk crossed with the songs of Tori Amos. Her backing band was wonderful as well. She has a beautiful voice, and beautiful electronic/acoustic music backing her up. Expect to hear more from her on Digitalis.



Gil Mantera's Party Dream at Emos: hard to explain, must experience. More a show than just music (which was mostly sequenced and not breathtaking). But the show was worth seeing. May be offensive to some, but it's music to be seen not solely listened to.



Electropop up and coming superstars Why? did a great showat Emo's Annex, alas it coincided at the same time as the Bay Area Takeover. We made Merin go over and check them out, she really enjoyed their show. They're doing another show on Friday at 5:30 at Emo's Annex, part of Soundcheck Magazine's 2nd Birthday Party. Go see them.

Thanks to everyone who came by; hope you made it here while we still had "Free Beer!"- Thanks for Cliff at Iron Systems (the folks who did all the wireless network design at SXSW) for buying an extra keg... we chipped in for an extra keg because everyone was having such a good time too...

Way more people showed up than we expected; but that's good! Next year, we'll make sure there are more drinks available.

There is just a little time to go, and there is a short line outside (venue is at capacity) but it's not overcrowded inside, and everyone is having a great time.

We just witnessed some great performances by The Blacks, Loquat, and Von Iva just finished (and the crowd went wild!).

We're out of Tshirts, but we have more Indie Pop Rocks CDs (after this, we're totally out of them!!!!) and Bay Area Takeover CDs.

After this, Merin and Rusty are heading over to the Japan Invasion at Bush Park.

Gotta sign off and hear Scissors for Lefty.

Check back in soon!

Rusty / Merin / Elise at the Beauty Bar in Austin.

The folks at Justin.TV are webcast the outside stage live.

Watch live video from Bay Area Takeover archives on Justin.tv

We also recorded it for a podcast at a later date.

The internet in Austin has been a mess; Sprint and Verizon EVDO networks have been having problems in Austin due to all the people in town for SXSW. We haven't been able to access the net from our Sprint EVDO cards or even the hotel internet connection (Note to LodgeNet: your internet service SUCKS).

After we close down the Bay Area Takeover at Beauty Bar, we're going to go see Norwegian artist Kate Havnevik, who is playing Thursday, March 13 at 8:00 p.m.
at The Parish (214B E 6th St).

A whole bunch of other Norwegian artists are playing that night. If you like Groove Salad, Indie Pop Rocks or Digitalis, you should come check these folks out.

Seen on 4th Street in Austin today."

Yes. It's a Wienermobile.

We hung out with musician Jody Gnant tonight, who is "lifecasting" from SXSW.

More pics as soon as we can upload them.

Elise Nordling (IODA and Indie Pop Rocks! on SomaFM) hosted a panel on using music online, and all the steps you have to go through for podcasting; using music synchronized with video; videos and sound recordings of concert footage and of course internet radio royalties. A podcast of the panel will be available next week, but here are some pictures:

Elise Nordling, Brian Zisk, Rich Bengloff, Rusty Hodge, Chris MacDonald"

Rich Bengloff of A2IM and Sound Exchange board member talks with Rusty Hodge from SomaFM"

Rusty Hodge answering questions after the panel"

Mez One at Plush (a great guy who we met last night) sends me the lowdown on some of the stuff happening there this week. He writes:

Wed night a Plush is going to be a killer.
Dubstep from Austin's own

Grommit, Innerlign, Tyrant, Sloppy Jackson and IO

[Flyer]

plus special guests:
Dokkebi Q (japan)
Human

I will be showing and djing in an artshow on Saturday afternoon 2-7 @ Silhouette (718 Congress)
[Flyer]

Plush will have bands all day everyday, and Dj's at night. 'Hump' on Friday night Funk, & Boogie Jams w/ Guest DJ Boo WIlliams (Chicago) and Saturday night Table Manners Crew, Golden era Hip Hop on four turntables.

We had a lot of fun hanging with these guys on Sunday, so if you're looking for something a bit out of the mainstream for SXSW, check them out.

In line for the People Powered Party, Etsy's Bre Pettis greeting and chatting with everyone waiting in line

Inside the Tap Room for the People Powered Party

Inside the Tap Room for the People Powered Party

Moo Cards CEO Richard Moross chats with designer Josh Ellingson (who did the poster for the 16 Bit party) and Scott Beale from Laughing Squid.

Moo Card holders were being given away. (Moo cards are those mini business cards you can make with pictures from your flickr pages)

Amusing twist on the name tag concept

We then headed to the iMeem party at Beauty Bar

iMeem party at Beauty Bar. Need your hair done?

Flou Kids from France were doing a great set that got everyone dancing. Starting with some dubstep and then moving into a more "dirty house" kind of t

Flou Kids at iMeem party at Beauty Bar

Klever spins at the iMeem party

Klever spins at the iMeem party

iMeem party at Beauty Bar

Elise and members of English electro/indie band "Does it Offend You, Yeah"

Merin talks with a tatoo artist iMeem party at Beauty Bar

Lots of nice people at the iMeem party at Beauty Bar

iMeem party at Beauty Bar

Then on to the PopSci party at Emo's

The folks behind Instructables.com at the PopSci party

Performers at the PopSci Party at Emo's

I will be speaking (for only 2 minutes!) at this event tonight in Austin:

20 x 2
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
The Parish (214 E 6th Street, above Roux)

``What happens when you take twenty handpicked creatives, give them each two minutes, the same question to answer, and put 'em on-stage before a live audience? 20x2, that's what. Now in its eighth year at SXSW, join us and uncover the answer to "What's the Difference?"

Come on by and say hello.

We were at Plush last night (617 Red River St, near 7th) for the "Yeast by Sweet Beast Experimental Music Fest" and heard some really good live ambient music by Carlos Villarreal along with visuals by Paul Baker.

Plush has a very good but not too overpowering sound system, and the people that run the place are into sound - unlike a lot of the venues this week where there aren't enough sound guys to go around and many of the smaller clubs have sub-standard sound.

Come out tonight to Night Two of (617 Red River St., Austin, TX). Ralph White and Aurora Plastics Company headline.

Tuesday night the festivities move from the downtown area to the Salvage Vanguard Theatre (2803 Manor Road) and include a sound installation by Alex Keller in the outer gallery.

More about Yeast by Sweet Beast Experimental Music Fest 2008 on MySpace, and a review from Austin 360.

There is more electronic music scheduled throughout the week at Plush, so if you're burned out on guitars and want some synth sounds, Plush or Karma (on the other end of downtown, 119 W 8th Street, a block from Congress)

We go out, we do things, we meet people, we take pictures, we record some interviews. That's the easy part. The hard part is editing the photos, splicing together the interviews, and transcribing all the information we gleaned that evening.

There is so much happening at SXSW it's almost too hard to keep track of it all, let alone report on it. Then, factor in the problems with the internet at the hotel; and at the convention center (which works way way way better than the hotel but we can't be there late at night); and the fact that even the local cellular data system is so overloaded that the it takes an hour to upload 20 photos.

But we're going to try report as much as we can anyway!

There are an incredible number of really interesting people we've met. There are lots of great bands; great venues; great companies in the music and entertainment space, that we've talked to and we want to share with you.

So stay tuned. We have more stuff coming soon.

Make Magazine Event

Registration lines are gone for a while!

Googler entrance to Google Party at Light Bar (everyone else had to wait in a line 2 blocks long!), and a shot outside of Light Bar, where it was being held.

Line for Avenue A/Razorfish Party

Yo La Tengo performs in the Six Tap Room (a nice intimate space)

DSC_0586.JPG

The door for the 16-Bit party. Line was HUGE!

Scott Beale from Laughing Squid and friends

Afterwards, the 80s DJ started playing and everyone started dancing.

The 80s DJs. Very eclectic mix of good but not often heard 80s tracks.

Dancers

Eddie Codel from GETV

Nice Glasses!

Performer whose performance we missed (stuck in line outside)

We're posting all our pictures from SXSW on Flickr.

Elise and Rusty are at SXWS.  We'll be covering it here for you all; mostly focusing on the music part of SXSW.  However, we're also here during Interavtive - be sure to catch our panel on Tuesday at 2:30 on "The Trials and Tribulations of Using Music Online".

We'll be posting podcasts from SXSW Here as well, so add this feed to your podcatcher.

When I arrived tonight for SXSW, I noticed the convention center was buzzing... So I went over to take some pictures - and happened to stumble upon the bag stuffing event.

The SXSW bag is somewhat legendary. It includes all sorts of interesting stuff for the people registered for the conference tracks (Interactive, Film, Music).

The Film and Music bags were mostly done when I got there, and they were working on the Interactive bags.

This picture shows the 12,000 or so bags for music.



Here's the assembly line to fill up all the bags, staffed by the volunteers who work the event in exchange for getting a pass to the show (and all the events around town).



And this is the nice guy who got to put the SomaFM stickers in the bags:



The bag stuffing event is pretty crazy: imagine that there are over 20,000 bags total, each one has probably 50-70 different items from CDs and DVDs to stickers to magazines to simple flyers.

Here's the first installation in our series about South by Southwest (SXSW), a music festival that takes place in Austin, TX every year.  Leading up to SXSW, we'll be highlighting some artists who are performing at the Bay Area Takeover, a showcase of San Francisco Bay Area bands and artists happening at Beauty Bar in Austin, from noon until 6pm on Thursday, March 13th.  (We will also be doing a live webcast from that event.)

 Countdown to SXSW and the Bay Area Takeover: Meet the Blacks (download mp3)

Here's a little blurb about The Blacks:

The Blacks are a dark and dancy San Francisco three-piece known for their short, blistering stage shows and laser-beam intensity. With a stripped down instrumentation featuring guitar (Luisa Black), drums (Gavin Black) and wild-eyed tambourine player JDK Blacker, The Blacks serve up a hot, electric, garage noir sound that mixes the rawness of The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Stooges with the vocal elegance of Romeo Void. Their debut full-length "Nom de Guerre" will be released July 10 with a British tour following in September 2007.

Upcoming installments will feature "The Union Trade" and "Loquat", as well as interviews with some of the indie labels from San Francisco.