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Music Insiders Divided on Austin Fest
03/26/2004 7:45 PM, Reuters
Performers at the nation's
biggest gathering of bands here always face Vegas-style odds.
Yet acts ranging from major-label properties to unsigned
regional groups -- more than 1,200 in all this year -- flooded
the South by Southwest Music Conference (SXSW), hunting a
break.
"Sure, it's a crapshoot," says Peter Jesperson, head of A&R
for New West Records in Los Angeles. "But it's less of a
crapshoot than staying home."
This year's conference, which ran March 17-21, hosted an
average of 300 showcases per night in more than 50 official
venues.
Label heads and A&R reps say they continue to troll the
event looking for hot, unsigned talent, albeit to a lesser
degree than in years past.
"Artists can still get hooked up with labels here," says
Andy Kaulkin, president of Los Angeles-based indie Epitaph
Records. The label signed the Frames after seeing them here
last year.
But "realistically," Warner/Chappell Music VP of A&R Greg
Sowders says, "it's for a band that's built some momentum
before they get here."
The Von Bondies from Detroit were one of the buzz acts of
SXSW '04. But singer/guitarist Jason Stollsteimer points out
that his group did five U.S. tours before appearing at SXSW
last year.
"Ninety-nine percent of the bands who come here think
they're going to get signed, and they're not," he says.
Many of the performers who play SXSW realize that their
expectations should be kept in check.
"I went at it as a way to let people know I'm playing
music. It's a new thing for me to play solo under my own name,"
Javier Escovedo says. He is the brother of Austin musical icon
Alejandro Escovedo and leader of his own L.A.-based band.
MAKING AN IMPACT
With incredible competition for attendees' attention,
indie-label operators are divided on the value of SXSW
showcases.
"People get to know the label more," says David Katznelson,
head of the Birdman Recording Group in San Francisco. "The more
our logo and our band names are in people's faces, the better."
Michael Krumper, executive VP of Artemis Records in New
York, brought just two acts, R&B singer Ellis Hooks and
singer/songwriter Jesse Malin, to Austin.
He believes that an act should play multiple shows during
the festival to maximize its exposure.
"The only way you can make an impact is by planning as many
appearances as possible," Krumper says. "And that's no
guarantee -- how many parties are there?"
But, he adds, "if you hit it, the good news is, an act can
spread like wildfire."
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
The annual influx of SXSW bands taxes Austin's nightclub
capacity to the limit.
"What we have to do is find enough venues to accommodate
all of the people who are going to come down here," SXSW
managing director Roland Swenson says. "It's a function of
making space for everybody."
Some labels are forced to mount their acts in spaces that
are less than ideal for their music.
A case in point was Welk Music Group's March 18 showcase,
which featured newly signed Sugar Hill artist Allison Moorer
and Vanguard breakthrough act Mindy Smith.
The artists played at Coyote Ugly, a Sixth Street bar. A
stage was jerry-rigged there a day before the show, the venue's
overtaxed power blew out frequently during the showcase, and
the club's female bartenders danced on the bar during the sets.
"By trying to expand the festival, it seems they're
throwing music into any square footage they can get their hands
on," Sugar Hill GM Bev Paul says with barely restrained anger.
"Any value to us of doing a showcase at South by Southwest was
totally blown."
Madjack Records artist Rob Jungklas, who played a set of
his dark, intimate music in the same club the following night,
seconds Paul's sentiments.
Jungklas says drily, "Nothing like singing about the
vagaries of fate and the wrath of God to balance out girls in
wet T-shirts dancing to Def Leppard."
Reuters/Billboard
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