friday night bands

Citizen Cope-

Gwar- ridiculous

Metric-

Muse- awesome


Dead Sexy Inc.- Flaming, french glam punk, grunge, totally unexpected and crazy.

Jupiter 1- unique 4 piece group from New York

will edit tomorrow. very tired.

Panels for friday

This afternoon we sat in on a really great panel called Effective Online Marketing Platforms. Panelists ranged from Lou Plaia, co-founder of Reverbnation to successful independent cellist and composer Zoe Keating. The session focused on using the wealth of social connection tools out there to your advantage, but don't go too far or you'll be spamming. One of the great, cost effective tools is the Facebook ad. You only pay when its clicked and with it, you can drill down to reach very specific markets. you can even customize it to only show up on a page on that persons birthday. Pretty incredible stuff.

will add more later.

Thursday Night.

Tonight was incredible. We got off to a rough start with some computer troubles, but ultimately, the night was fantastic. Nick and I got press passes to the Fader Fort on 5th street and definitely got full value for them. we saw probably the most innovative soul band out there: Mayer Hawthorne and The County. They blew me away. It was like listening to a Smokey Robinson tune-or any other Motown hit for that matter. These guys were phenomenal.

The other band that was a big deal for tonight was Fall of Troy, an intense math oriented rock trio. Sadly, this is their last tour (or so they say) but I was totally impressed. The crowd absolutely thrived off of the group and by the end, I was lucky enough to be holding on to a pair of the monitors for dear life as everyone surged around us.

Earlier in the afternoon, we stopped by the Day Stage in the convention center and saw a great 5 piece group called Dr. Dog. Having never seen them before, I expected a DJ set but was pleasantly surprised when the band came out and rocked out. I would describe them as Indie/Grunge with a blend of clean and distorted rock and great punchy vocals over the top.

Smokey Robinson

Is the man. I just attended his keynote and the stories were great. I have it recorded and will post it tonight. It is well worth the hour listening. He told stories of Motown, The Miracles, how he got started, starting his record label, and more. He left us with some simple advice to build a thick skin, and keep your feet on the ground.

We're off too another set of panels this afternoon. Global music marketing and Welcome to the music industry: Your fucked.

Day 1.

So, Happy St. Patricks day. It's kind of a crucial day to drink a Guiness, at least.

As i was talking before, out of the 1000 Digital tools and strategies out there, the two that really work the best are: the Demand Generation device and the Harvesting device - D2C (direct to consumer).

The panelists spoke about OK GO and their new video being a demand generation device because of its Rube Goldberg elements. Basically, the Demand Generation Device is a device such as a video, internet promotion or download that can virally affect an area creating a demand. The Harvesting effect is quite different. THe other digital strategy that the panelists spoke about was the Harvesting Device. This device is the direct to consumer idea. Sadly, the moderator brought up the new Justin Bieber album, but this example is perfect because what they have done to pre-sell is genius. Besides the two levels of fan packs that they have, this album has a personalization element. when you preordered the album, you could upload your picture to the company who would turn it into a Bieber mosaic. Sad but true.

TOnight we saw Peanut Butter wolf spin a few records at the speakeasy cabaret and then we hit up Spoon at the legendary Stubbs venue. one thing i'd like to say about the spoon show (aside from the fact that they were awesome) is that the sound at Stubbs is phenominal. Besides, the sound guy put on a great performance with the less expensive tools.

Alright, well, now that it is 4am, I think its time for bed. Smoky Robinson is the big deal for tomorrow!

over and out.

And so it Begins.

Well, here we are, at SXSW 2010, place of the future for music, film and interactive. It's going to be another great conference with lots of music, panels, and more.

Already attended the first panel of the fest, 1000 Digital Tools & Strategies: Which 3 Work? It was really interesting, The panelists spoke about how with all of these new digital tools i.e. social networking, email, video, youtube (the list goes forever) you make them work. take your guesses now, and i'll tell you what works tonight.

over and out.