Indie-rock supergroup boygenius - the trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus - performed at the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, upon arriving in the city for their SXSW set, Stereogum reports. In two weeks, they’ll release their debut album 'The Record'.
“We’re approaching things by saying, ‘Let’s not even pretend that we’re trying to replace the live club experience’” - James Minor, who oversees SXSW Music, says to Texas Monthly about this year's edition of the famous festival. Instead of bringing 45-minute sets as part of an six-hour event at a club, each showcase will be a single hour of entertainment, because “people’s attention spans are a lot shorter online”, Minor says. There are no big-name headliners this year, he says, instead, this year’s festival will be focused on launching the careers of artists who’ve struggled with getting attention during the pandemic. “It’s supposed to be the coming-out party for what happens next in music" - Minor explains. Some of the bands who are going to perform are English new rock stars Black Country, New Road, country artists Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers who will perform together, Danish heavy metal heavyweights Iceage, Montreal shoegazers No Joy... SXSW 2021 is due March 16-21.
Ticket-holders for the cancelled SXSW 2020 were offered to defer their registration to 2021, 2022, or 2023 and to purchase registration for another of those years at 50% off. Not everybody is happy with it, as Billboard reports. Plaintiffs Maria Bromley and Pauta Kleber, who claim to have spent over $1,000 each on attending SXSW 2020, filed the suit against SXSW. According to Bromley and Kleber’s lawsuit, SXSW informed both plaintiffs that the offer to transfer their registration to a future year expires on April 30, 2020, and that SXSW “cannot be certain that future festivals will occur.” Their complaint reads - “SXSW has, in effect, shifted the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic onto festivalgoers … individuals who in these desperate times may sorely need the money they paid to SXSW for a festival that never occurred”.
NPR did a great job - they selected 100 best acts that were going to play at SXSW, of more than 1,500 acts scheduled to perform. Music varies from delicate folk to punishing metal, from Afropop to Latin rock to country to hip-hop and beyond; it's a 100 songs fest in six-hour playlist.
We need to stop pretending that we’re not trying to make a living. We need to make it OK to ask music lovers to support the music they love, directly. By buying an album in a physical or digital format, not just streaming (but stream it too!), the artist is more likely to see direct […]
The spring Texas festival means (financially) autumn for some bands. SXSW is an opportunity for thousands of young musicians to showcase their work to US audiences for the first time. Many build album promotion campaigns and other US tour dates around their festival visit to make it as cost-effective as possible, with most having self-funded or crowdsourced money to finance their trip. NME talked to some British musicians who were about to travel to the US - Welsh band Campfire Social has spent months planning the visit to Austin, losing almost £4500 with the cancellation of the festival, mostly on travel and visa costs. American bands are hit financially too - Star Tribune reports about Minnesota bands Humbird, the Gully Boys, the Bad Man, and Heart Bones who are going to lose hundreds of dollars, a blow for an indie-band. The festival is cancelled, but some venues intend to go ahead as planned with shows they booked, the LA Times reports.
In a Friday afternoon (3/6) press conference, Austin mayor Steve Adler said that the 2020 edition of Austin’s SXSW is cancelled due to the coronavirus, the Texas Tribune reports. "We are devastated to share this news with you. 'The show must go on' is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place" - SXSW shared in a statement, adding - "we are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible". SXSW’s 2020 edition was to happen from March 13-22.
Beastie Boys, Ozzy Osbourne and Nine Inch Nails have cancelled their appearance at South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival 2020 in Austin, Texas due to coronavirus concerns, Kerrang reports. They were set to participate in the festival’s film section. The artists join major companies such as Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Studios, TikTok, Mashable and Intel, that have pulled out of SXSW due to health concerns. SXSW will screen employees and volunteers for signs of illness before they are cleared to work at the festival, and add handwashing stations and hand sanitizer throughout. SXSW begins officially on March 16.
