MTV News Segment Producer Christopher "CJ" Smith was one of a handful of MTV News staffers who headed down to Austin this past week for barbecue, beer, and bands, while we stayed back at MTV HQ in New York City with our cafeteria sandwiches, Coke Zero, and good old-fashioned CDs. Here's CJ's wrap-up of his favorite bands from SXSW.
You could probably stick a fork in me from all the sun (and delicious BBQ) I got down in Austin. So thankfully, South By Southwest is done and over. Let me run you through my top 5 sets from SXSW.
1. Metallica -- I really didn't expect the hard rockin' legends to blow me away like they did; but I couldn't help pointing out to my friends that even at their worst, they're still more talented, tighter, better songwriters than 95% of the bands that litter the indie landscape today. 'Nuff said.
2. Dirty Projectors -- I've been a fan since the release of the terrific "Rise Above" back in 2007; lucky for me, SXSW marked the premiere of material from their forthcoming effort, Bitte Orca (along with their newly expanded lineup), that quite simply, sounded monstrous. They're sort of in the same vein as Vampire Weekend, but with much much more musicality and depth (Ezra Koenig of VW actually even toured with the DPs at one point). The group received deafening applause from the packed house at the Press Here garden party, and I've seen reports that this was true of all the sets they played at SXSW (frontman Dave Longstreth even had to cover his ears at the Pitchfork/Windish party as the crowd was so uproarious). They're in for a heck of a ride this year -- well-deserved after what I witnessed -- and are not to be missed.
3. Little Boots -- Lady Gaga watch out, Victorai Hesketh (aka Little Boots) is coming. She's already been heavily written about in the English press getting called "the savior of pop music" by some excitable journalists and is most certainly going to take both sides of the Atlantic by storm this year; she's got a ton of talent, is classically trained, extremely passionate about making music and, if her set at Emo's is any indication, knows how to work a stage. She appeared over at the Perez Hilton party and took the stage with Kid Cudi to perform her cover of his track "Day 'N' Nite" alongside the rapper. She's just wrapping up her debut LP, so be sure to watch out with this one in '09.
4. Woods -- Tons of great acts played the Woodsist/Todd P. showcase at Mrs. Beas (Wavves, No Age, Crystal Stilts, Blank Dogs, Los Llamarada, Thee Oh Sees, just to name a few), but the one that struck the biggest chord with me was this Brooklyn group. Crafting tight and beautifully lighthearted ghostly folkish songs -- they are one of the finest bands playing in the unbelievably deep Brooklyn scene. I've seen them a bunch, and each time I get more excited about their sound. They're pretty hard to Google, so be sure check out their MySpace.
5. Tyvek -- Tyvek was featured last year in my piece looking at some of the modern purveyors of lo-fi. This year, Tyvek managed to surprise me with how good they sounded as a three-piece. Kevin Boyer can definitely hold his own on guitar in the stripped-down line-up. They had the crowd of weirdo (and weirdo lovers) rockin' out during their afternoon Beerland set, and you can look for their debut LP to finally drop sometime this year.
Enough of me, our whole MTV News team saw a slew of shows between us, and we put together a video explaining each of our faves from the fest; check that out here.
