It’s official: the South by Southwest Music “Conference” has begun. I can safely say that I will be completely wiped by Monday and I hope you are too. There is just too much to do, see, and hear. Don’t let the invading masses deter you; get out there and experience it (You probably are already as I sit here and type).

Today and tomorrow, TwoGroove will be floating between a bunch of different parties just taking it all in. Keep up with all the madness on Twitter. If you’re feeling particularly social, say hello. I’ll buy you a beer.

Click me for show details!

Saturday is our big 12 hour Officially Awesome Unofficial SXSW Showase over at Chupacabra. I was there on Tuesday for the Mind of Adi show and it was wall-to-wall people. On a Tuesday. I can’t imagine what Saturday will bring. Get there early (doors at 2pm) to check it out.

The night party kicks off at 8pm and we’ll be rocking with killer bands and DJs until 2am. Be sure to RSVP at RPM-RSVP.com. RSVPs are closing soon!

And on Sunday, TwoGroove will be playing three DJ sets on the Ticketfly stage of Six Stages Over Texas. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, so be sure to come by and laugh at my inept-ness. Luckily, I’ll be DJing between sets by Whitman, The White White Lights, and The Factory Party, so you’ll have some fantastic bands to make up for it!

Ok, no more of this blogging crap. It’s time to hit the parties!

Rap is often ignored or marginalized in Austin, especially during SXSW. There are a few acts here and there, but most of the week is filled with indie rock and more indie rock. If you’re looking to step away from that for a night, head over to The Independent tonight to check out Balance. He’s a bay area rapper who has collaborated with Chamillionaire, Dre, and others. This will be his third year playing SXSW, and he’ll be participating on a panel on Friday.

I had a chance to talk to Balance a couple nights ago about the show, SXSW, and his music. While we only had a few minutes to talk (my fault, SXSW is killing me!), I could tell that he’s well above that “bitches and hoes” (his words) style of songwriting and rapping that the genre unfortunately gets known for. Balance uses the tools and vocabulary at his disposal (he mentioned “I won’t shy away from saying ‘bitch’ in a song, as long as it has meaning”) to create songs that tell a story. He’s very much about making it in the music business, collaborating with other artists, and getting his music out there. He said he’d rather give his music away for free than sell it if it means that more people get to listen to it. Sounds like he fits in quite well here in Austin.

Balance is dropping a new mixtape on March 30 called “We All In”. Check out the title track below; its available for free download.
Balance – We All In (feat. Freeway & Jay Rock) by TwoGroove

You haven’t heard of Frog Music Licensing, at least not yet. The new venture seeks promote Austin bands to music and TV executives in LA. Local bands Great Nostalgic, Calm Blue Sea, Frantic Clam, and Built by Snow (among others) are all signed up and ready to make it in Hollywood. Come celebrate the launch of Frog Music Licensing at Ghost Room tonight!

Like everything at SXSW should be, the show is FREE!

Bridging the gap between SXSW Interactive and the SXSW Music Festival will be the Music Tech Mashup. The two-day show at Rusty Spurs on East 7th will feature my two favorite things: free booze and tons of music. Be sure to check out Shinobi Ninja!

For the full lineup, scoot over here to Facebook.

If you are looking for something a bit off the beaten path tomorrow, head over to Ventana del Soul (1834 East Oltorf). From 7-11pm, three performers will take part in this mini-showcase: Valencia Robinson, Vanessa Lively, and Denitia Odigie. It will likely be a low-key, intimate event.

echoes of HER is a celebration of female artists and women from all walks of life. Representing diverse musical genres, some of today’s most talented performers come together to share their unique skills. The goal of echoes of HER is to highlight females who are making a difference in their communities and connect the general public with organizations that actively increase opportunities for girls and women.

Dominican Joe is a kick-ass coffee shop just south of downtown. If you get tired of the SXSW music crowds downtown this week, walk to South Congress and Riverside to enjoy some free shows.

I’ll provide all the lineups below (and there are a lot of performers), but trust me when I say that you need to get down to Dominican Joes for at least part of a day. They support local music like you wouldn’t believe and there is some great talent playing. I’m liking the Wednesday lineup myself, but I’m a big OK Sweetheart fan…

Wednesday March 17th…FREE SHOW!
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful week of music…”
Mantler (Toranto, CA) outside 3:30-4
Niobe (Cologne, Germany) inside 4-4:30
Annie and the Beekeepers (Brooklyn NY) outside 4:30-5
Brian Douglas Phillips (ATX) inside 5-5:30
The Reliques (ATX) outside 5:30-6
David Ramirez (ATX) inside 6:-6:30
This Old House (Denton TX) outside 6:30-7
Ok Sweetheart (Denton TX) inside 7-7:30
The Migrant (Copenhagen Denmark) outside 7:30-8
Surrounded (Malmo, Sweden) inside 8-8:30
Or the Whale (SF, CA)outside 8:30-9
Clint Niosi (Ft Worth, TX) inside 9-9:30
Archibald Adams and the Shimmering War Choir (ATX) outside 9:30-10
Paperbird (Denver, CO) inside 10-10:30
Dry River yacht club (Tempe AZ) outside 10:30-11
Boy Eats Drum Machine (Portland, OR) Inside 11-11:30
Dove Kins (Fort Collins, CO) outside11:30-12

Thursday, March 18th…FREE SHOW!
Supply And Demand records…all your friends are here
Peter Wolf Crier – (Minneapolis, MN) inside 1:30
Dinosaur Feathers – (Brooklyn, NY) outside 2:00
Spirits Of The Red City – (Minneapolis, MN) inside 2:30
Paleo – (USA) outside 3:00
Daredevil Christopher Wright (Eau Claire, WI) inside 3:30pm
Dark Dark Dark – (Minneapolis, MN) outside 4:00
The Mynabirds – (Omaha, NE) inside 4:30
La Strada – (Brooklyn, NY) outside 5:00
Vandaveer – (Washington, DC) inside 5:30
Dosh – (Minneapolis, MN) outside 6
Psychwave
Julie Byrne (Buffalo, NY) INSIDE 7pm
Blissed Out (Brooklyn, NY) OUTSIDE 7:30pm
Quilt (Boston, MA) INSIDE 8pm
Many Mansions (Boston, MA) OUTSIDE 8:30pm
Lord Jeff (Northampton, MA) INSIDE 9pm
Beach Fossils (Brooklyn, NY) OUTSIDE 9:30pm
The Points North (Boston, MA) INSIDE 10pm
Truman Peyote (Boston, MA) OUTSIDE 10:30pm
Quiet Hooves (Athens, GA) INSIDE 11pm
Prince Rama (Brooklyn, NY) OUTSIDE 11:30pm

Friday, March 19th…FREE SHOW!
Fort Wizard Grab Bag
Jacob Metcalf (DAL, TX) inside 12-12:30
Fox and the Bird (DAL, TX) outside 12:30-1
Still Watters (LA, CA) inside 1-1:30
Great American Novel (FTW) outside 1:30-2
Hope Trust (Denton, TX) inside 2-2:30
RTB2 (FTW) outside 2:30-3
Literary Greats (Houston, TX) inside 3-3:30
11 Bones (ATX) outside 3:30-4
The Orbans (FTW) inside 4-4:30
Chatterton (FTW) outside 4:30-5
One a.m. Radio (LA, CA) inside 5-5:30
Bad Veins (CINN, OH) outside 5:30-6
Love Like Fire (SF, CA) inside 6-6:30
Burning Hotels (FTW) outside 6:30-7
Jonniene Zapata (LA,CA) inside 7-7:30
The Murdocks (ATX) outside 7:30-8
Tony Ferraro ELT (FTW) inside 8-8:30
Whiskey Folk Ramblers (FTW) outside 8:30-9
Fate Lions (FTW) inside 9-9:30
Oso Closo (Denton, TX) outside 9:30-10
Quaker City Nighthawks (FTW) inside 10-10:30
Goodwin (FTW) outside 10:30-11
DJ Lo Res (FTW) inside 11-11:30
Rivercrest Yacht Club (FTW) outside 11:30-12

Saturday, March 20th…FREE SHOW!
Bummer Folk Rough Cut
Krista Vossler (ATX) inside 1
School of Liars (ATX) outside 1:30
Chris Paddock (Providence, RI) inside 2
Sydney Wayser (Brooklyn NY) outside 2:30
James Farrell (Nashville, TN) inside 3
Zeb Dewar (Portland OR) outside 3:30
The Loblolly Boy (ATX) inside 4
The Blank Tapes (SF, CA) outside 4:30
Tyler Jordan and the Broken Necks (ATX) inside 5
Judgement Day (SF,CA) outside5:30
McMercy Family Band (ATX) inside 6
Bearkat (ATX) inside 7
Birds and Batteries (SF,CA) outside 7:30
Philip seymour hoffman (LA, NY) inside 8
Idiot Glee (Lexington, KY) outside 8:25
Magic man (Boston, MA) inside 8:50
I am the dot (Atlanta, GA) outside 9:15
weed diamond (Denver, CO) inside 9:55
wampire (Portland, OR) outside 10:25
Truman Peyote (Boston, MA) inside 10:55
millionyoung (FL) outside 11:30

I thought I would spend the first part of South by Southwest Interactive a little different this year…

Look at that sexy, sexy leg.

I walked around downtown a bit at first but made my way to Town Lake (“Ladybird Lake” still sounds weird to me), watched a mess of people fly kites, and witnessed the harrowing rescue of a kite stuck in a tree.

This, of course, is all in preparation for my bread and butter: SXSW Music!

As TechCrunch puts it, the real war at SXSW is AT&T versus 15,000 data-crazed Velociraptors. And that’s just counting the SXSW Interactive people…

So, in that vein, I present my cynical little poll.

Update 3/15: So far so good. I’ve had a couple failed texts and my normal volume of missed calls but no major outages like last year. Optimism increasing…

The Officially Awesome Unofficial SXSW Showcase! This massive 12-hour party will take place Saturday March 20 at Chupacabra Cantina. Sure we’re a little late to the whole “free SXSW party” thing, but be sure to not miss this one. The lineup is stacked, the venue is right on 6th street, and best of all it’s FREE.

RethinkPopMusic and TwoGroove wil lock down Chupacabra Cantina all day and night. We’ve got DJs up front, bands out back, and a whole lotta booze in between. Be on the lookout for giveaways from Yak Pak, TwoGroove, and RethinkPopMusic as well as the famous Trevor Ray Thompson photobooth!

RSVP here for free entry. Badges and wristbands get in free as well. $3 cover at the door if you don’t RSVP so get to it!

Check out the fliers and lineup below. Local heroes Rook, Frantic Clam, Whitman, and STEREO IS A LIE will be performing in addition to some killer bands from all over the US.

Show some love! Here’s the Facebook and Do512 links!

Day Bands

2pm Random Ninjas (Los Angeles, CA)
2:45 Jessie Torrisi & the Please, Please Me (Austin, TX)
3:15 Rook (Austin, TX)
4:00 The Yes Way (NYC)
4:45 The Static Jacks (NYC)
5:15 Ambassadors (NYC)

Day DJs

2pm – Greg Poneris (Eat Sugar)
4pm – Jeremy Lloyd (Laissez Faire Club London)

Night Bands

8:00 Whitman (Austin, TX)
8:45 The Vanguard (NYC)
9:30 Frantic Clam (Austin, TX)
10:15 The Aviation Orange (NYC)
11:00 The Factory Party (Houston, TX)
11:45 Eat Sugar (Cincinnati, OH)
12:30am STEREO IS A LIE (Austin, TX)
1:15am Heypenny (Nashville)

Night DJs

8pm – POSR
9pm – Jeremy Lloyd (Laissez Faire Club London)
10 pm DJ Scorpio (EZ Action! Austin)
11 pm Revered Of Rock and DJ B. Wonder Jones (Seattle)
12 am DJ Verse (Seattle)
1 am Kadeejah Streets (Seattle, Innerflight, Black Neon)

Here is what’s going to happen: I’m going to rant a little bit about pay for play during SXSW. I’ll get all high and mighty, my arms will be flailing (as much as is possible while typing), and I’ll probably use one or two big words that I’m not completely confident that I know the meaning of. All of this will be done to get across one simple point: Bands shouldn’t EVER pay for a SXSW show. That’s it.

So, here’s the background info: TwoGroove has been working to put together a little showcase (more info on that shortly!). In doing that, I’ve talked with a lot of bands about their schedules and what their plans for SXSW are. From those conversations and anecdotes from other promoters I started to hear about people paying to play unofficial SXSW showcases and to be on compilation CDs. At best, it’s not worth the hundreds of dollars for one show. At worst, it’s a outright scam.

One of the main offenders is a “radio station” called Radio RNR. I highly suggest you read this first hand experience from the band Conflict in the Sky. However, there are smaller examples where bands are asked to sell presale tickets or pay a fee. Yes, this happens outside of SXSW as well. It just seems more pronounced when some bands are able to get on 10 shows during the week without paying a single cent. No legitimate promoter will ever ask you to pay a fee to play a show (with tour buy-ins and co-promotion deals being notable exceptions), and shows are plentiful during SXSW.

And that’s the secondary point of this post: You can get a SXSW show if you do your homework. Everyone and their dog wants to throw a SXSW party. Those people need bands and DJs to play. The opportunity is there if you ask around early enough. Case in point, Random Ninjas heard about the TwoGroove party through Twitter and asked if we had set the lineup. We hadn’t, I offered them a slot, and now they are playing the show. You just need to keep apprised of what’s going on and be willing to reach out to promoters/blogs/whoever is possibly throwing a show.

Finally, if you’re late to the game just go ahead and chalk it up as a loss. You probably won’t find a worthwhile gig 2 weeks before SXSW starts. Either figure out some creative ways to promote your band (guerrilla shows on 6th street are always fun) or just go enjoy the festivities.