SXSW is one of our favorite events of the year, a chance to escape day jobs amidst a sea of free booze and an overwhelming number of bands eager to be heard. If you can avoid all of the industry stuff, it can be a really nice time just to sit back and be a music fan.
As per usual, a strong contingent of Bay Area bands are heading to Austin, and we’ve interviewed a number of them, including Citay, Birdmonster, Honeycut, The Dodos, and The Finches. You can find a bunch of other Austin-bound locals on our Monthly Mixes, like Black Fiction, Thee More Shallows, Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs, and Erase Errata (who we included in our SXSW mix last year).
We won’t attempt to list all of the interesting parties and showcases at SXSW (Showlist Austin and Done Waiting have that covered), but there is one party we’re definitely excited about–the San Francisco Underground Showcase, which is being thrown by local labels Three Ring Records, Howells Transmitter, Anticon and Antenna Farm Records. As the flyer above outlines, it’s a stacked bill from top to bottom and, when you throw free beer into the mix, it sounds like a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon.
