Every SXSW has had its great Brit hopes. In 2007, it was Amy Winehouse, the Fratellis, and Mika. 2006 brought us Editors, the Arctic Monkeys, and KT Tunstall. In 2005, it was Bloc Party, the Futureheads, and Kasabian. 2004 was all about Franz Ferdinand. As you can see, not all of these acts enjoyed the same level of post-South By Southwest success in America--at least in the commercial sense.

Well, two of the British buzz biggies for SXSW 2008 are Lightspeed Champion and the Ting Tings, both of whom played Wednesday night--though luckily at different, relatively adjacent venues and in non-conflicting timeslots, thus making the evening's gig schedule easily organizable for the festival's many attending Anglophiles.

Lightspeed Champion--aka Devonte Hynes, the former Test Icicles dance/punk/metal rocker who radically reinvented himself as a Russian-hatted folkie and recorded his debut album in Nebraska with Saddle Creek Records' resident producer, Mike Mogis--performed first, over at

South By Southwest--the music industry's spring break, an annual orgy of bands, beer, and BBQ buffets in Austin, Texas--kicks off this Wednesday, March 12. While this music-biz pow-wow (lovingly nicknamed by those in the know as "SXSW") originated as a showcase for unsigned acts to land record deals, nowadays it's more of a springboard for up-and-coming indie bands looking to boost their buzz (i.e., the Kills, the Black Keys) or established artists hoping to generate some excitement for their latest comeback projects (2006's Morrissey, last year's Iggy & The Stooges, this year's R.E.M.),

Anyway, this means hundreds of acts will soon descend upon Austin in an almost American Idol-like attempt to capture tastemakers' increasingly gnat-like attention spans. They face a lot of competition--because along with all the regular artist showcases in the evening and educational industry panels ("Resolving Webcasting Fees," "Music Placement In Video Games") during the day, there will also be

staring at my golden ticketOK, I think I need to file for worker's comp. Because I'm covered in bruises from pinching myself, and I think I have TMJ from my jaw hitting the floor repeatedly.

Sure, it's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it. See, when I received an 11th-hour offer from Warner Bros. Records to review Led Zeppelin's reunion concert in London, they didn't have to ask me twice. In fact, they didn't need to ask me once. The conversation went something like, "Would you like to go see Led Ze..." and before the sentence was complete, I was on Yahoo! Travel searching frantically for a last-minute flight and hotel.

I don't know if I have it in me to be one of those following-the-Grateful-Dead-in-a-smelly-van types, but if there's any band that brings out my Deadheadish nomad tendencies, it's the Flaming Lips. I've participated in their "Boombox Parking Lot Experiment" at South By Southwest, sailed the seas with them on a jam-band Mexican cruise, laid on a floor with fellow Lipsheads while Wayne Coyne played all four discs of Zaireeka simultaneously, and watched the band rock out in various atypical settings (in a Texan bank basement, backed by a full orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, co-headlining with Gnarls Barkley at a pre-New Year's Eve extravaganza in San Francisco, at a Yahoo! Christmas party for an audience of Silicon Valley suits, etc). And yes, if the Lips' Christmas movie or Broadway musical ever finally come out, I'll be there on premiere night, too.

I've stopped short of volunteering to dance onstage at a Lips show in one of their furry-fuzzy costumes (I hear they're not dry-cleaned