Friday, February 8, 2008

SXSW says....here are the next contestants

All these people will be there. Rachael Ray, too (but not her beloved Battles). Will you? It's SXSW, pretty much the four-letter center of the indie rock universe as far as mid-March is concerned. And, as of today's announcement of the list of 2008 showcasing artists, this thing took the expected leap from tantalizingly overwhelming to, well, utterly mind-numbing in its scope.

We've done you the service of selecting but a few names from the latest additions to highlight here. Call it a Pitchfork-oriented tip of the SXSW iceberg.

And here goes! Set to invade Austin from March 12-16: Jim James (My Morning Jacket) solo, Yo La Tengo, Destroyer, Okkervil River, Atlas Sound, Annie, Thurston Moore, Diplo, Be Your Own Pet, Los Campesinos!, the Tough Alliance, Peter Morén, Tapes 'n Tapes, Black Mountain, Bon Iver, No Age, Akron/Family, Times New Viking, the Blow, Yeasayer, El-P, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Madlib, Tokyo Police Club, N.E.R.D., Evangelicals, Simian Mobile Disco, Handsome Furs, Fuck Buttons, Castanets, the Cool Kids, Flosstradamus, Jason Forrest, MSTRKRFT, Jay Reatard, Asobi Seksu, Fucked Up, Jandek, the Slits, the Concretes, Mark Kozelek, Cadence Weapon, Bodies of Water, HEALTH, Crystal Castles, Phosphorescent, White Rabbits, Constantines, Elf Power, High on Fire, Holy Fuck, Ghislain Poirier, Eugene Mirman, Half Japanese, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Richard Hawley, the Black Angels, Dälek, Pissed Jeans, Shining, the Russian Futurists, and approximately 3,498,013 others.

Nestled amid these usual indie suspects you'll also find a few names you don't often see, including Dolly freaking Parton, dudes! Shit! Yes!

Also: Punk legends the Homosexuals! David Banner! Wheatus! Ice Cube! Um, Moby! And, let's admit it, the bands we're actually most excited about: Fastball, the Presidents of the United States of America, and Hanson.

Aw hell, just read the whole damn list right here. My sympathy goes out to the poor SXSW intern who had to type that one up.

No comments: