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The SXSW 2007 Recap: Up-and-coming acts at Austin's premier music festival

Launched a decade ago, South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas has become one of the premier music festivals in an ever-more-crowded festival scene. The acts that flock to the fest definitely skew heavily toward indie rock, but with well over a thousand acts playing venues during the five-day music portion of the festival, industry types and fans alike can explore up-and-coming as well as established acts of all kinds.

Last week we sent roving ARTISTdirect editor Arye Dworken into the fray to soak up as much music as possible and report back. Read on for our in-depth, day-by-day break down of his breakneck SXSW experience—and a laundry list of new music acts to keep an eye on...

Wednesday

Literally moments after landing, I attended a Yaris-sponsored private showcase at La Zona Rosa featuring the first of what would be many SXSW showcases that included UK pop pastiche band the Pipettes (pictured above). The major label retro-girl group (newly signed to Cherry Tree/Interscope) was virtually unavoidable, having performed live just under ten times in four days. Much buzz preceded the band's festival performances, but the trio’s choreography, matching polka dot dresses, and call-and-response choruses ultimately felt too shticky. The English threesome's tongue-in-cheek approach works exceedingly well on record, but somehow the allure was gone in a live setting.

New York's post-funk party band the Rapture followed with a terrific, exuberant set— their only performance all weekend. A singles-heavy half-hour reminded me just how much last year's spectacular sophomore album, Pieces of the People We Love was truly underappreciated. It takes a lot more than simply using a cowbell to get a room full of industry people dancing. The Rapture have charm to burn.

Afterwards, I headed over to the NME showcase, featuring two highly anticipated British solo acts. Jamie T, the first performer, released a slack but truly disarming record in the UK titled Panic Prevention. Mixing equal parts Arctic Monkeys and the Streets, Jamie T's songs sound unpretentious and shamelessly homemade. For his American live debut, he brought along his backing band, the Pacemakers. Likely due to some combination of nerves and intoxicants, their set produced a sloppy, ramshackle half-hour full of mistakes that was, nevertheless, enjoyable.

Lily Allen took the stage next for a polished set of airy pop. The same, though, cannot be said for her in-between song banter. Allen derided the evening's sponsor ("If I would have known this was an NME show, I wouldn't have done it") and complained about having to sing her hit song "Smile" yet again. Allen's remarks seemed particularly ungracious (and ungrateful) considering that many of her colleagues were in Austin just to try to get signed, and then—if their stars aligned—perhaps have a hit song one day. [keep reading...]

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