Maximum Performance

SXSW 2009 ARTIST ALERT: White Lies

By | Maximum Performance – Sun, Mar 22, 2009 7:31 AM EDT

London's WhiteLies are the first British band to chart a number one album in the U.K. in2009, and rightfully so: It may only be March, but their moody debut, To Lose My Life, is already shaping upto be one of the top albums of the year.

Of course, in a vast country like America, debuting at number one isa much more difficult feat, particularly for a doomy British alternative act.But White Lies have definitely got the goods to pull it off, and they generatedquite a buzz at South By Southwest on Saturday, when they played Stubb's on a must-not-miss bill alongside Razorlight andPJ Harvey & John Parish.

I was kind of hoping that they might also do some sort of liveonstage mashup with surprise SXSW performer Kanye West (White Lies' recent cover of "Love Lockdown" isgenius), but even though that didn'thappen--despite my well-meaning suggestion in the interview below--White Liesnevertheless made a name for themselves in Austin this year. No lie.

Here's a clip ofme chatting with the band outside Stubb'sright before their big Saturday show, in which  they discuss their plans to conquer America,eat BBQ, and one day meet Kanye, probably in that order:



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