So is anyone coming down to Texas for SXSW? An anonymous tipster with good taste in music points out that The Big Sleep (see also here), The Cassettes, Voxtrot, Swati Sharma, and Aziz Ansari will all be representing the brown.
Speaking of Aziz, as I am sure many of you heard, MTV (not MTV Desi) just gave him his own show titled:
Here is a little taste. You can check out more on their website.
I like this better, REAL magic
The Cassettes are crazy hot. I saw them playing on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg once, I had no idea there was a desi in the band. One of the members gave me a card that describes them as “A World Traveling Vaudeville Western Musical Revue.” Plus they rep DC, which is instant cred in my book.
I’m going to go see Public Enemy. I haven’t decided past that.
Well, I’ll be in Austin and trying to sneak into as many shows as possible, since I had neither the money for a badge nor the time to wait in line for the wristbands (which sold out in a day)…
Beat the Devil from New York will also be playing a show at SXSW. Their lead singer is desi and plays the Indian harmonium with bass and drums accompanying it. Her name’s Shilpa Ray and she has a great voice. http://www.myspace.com/devilnoise/
shameless self-promotion: i’m a desi from queens and go to wesleyan where i make electro-rap: http://www.myspace.com/countryclubfun/
I have been to SXSW twice. Last year and in 2003. Anybody who is an alt-rock fan, has to go to this at least once in there lifetime.
As a desi who music taste is everything from Slayer and Megadeth to Tori Amos and Fionna Apple, There were times when I thought I was the only brown person who was into rock. So when I was teenager in high school and Soundgarden became huge and they had a desi Kim Thayil as there guitarist, it was something I can take pride in. I wonder how much of an influence, Kim Thayil has been on young desi who are in rock bands.
It’s so good to see more and more desi’s getting into rock. I lost count how many times I’ve been told by other desi’s that rock music is for white people.
The only negative thing is none of these young desi rocker seem to be punjabi like me. I guess for punjabi’s in the west the bangra hip-hop sound is alot more powerful then rock. If any other poster know of punjabi desi’s in rock bands, I would like to know.
Been reading this site for a few days now. Brighton’s finest Bat for Lashes plays SXSW on March 14.
http://www.myspace.com/batforlashes
The group is lead by British raised Pakistani, Natasha Khan. Sounds similar to Kate Bush in some regards. Listen to the song “Prescilla.”
I’m not going: they rejected my band and I’m currently too immature to get over it. To fit the mold that they espouse, we’re going to include more lyrics like “cut my wrists and black my eyes” in our songs and try again next year.
Clueless, see the post below yours.
That show just furthers the stereotype that Aziz Ansari is funny.
Just kidding. @=)
My favorite line from Spoonman:
DJ D.P, I feel ya, bro. At the risk of sounding like a hater, something I try to avoid, I think the selection committee has a strong bias against people who actually took the time to learn how to play their instruments.
Hi, is it just me or does the show not seem funny at all ? It seems like the last few years everything that has been on MTV sucks..
DJDP, Screw those guys. You can always start South Asian by Southwest Festival 😉
Threadjack alert! Yeah, I was kind of disappointed in the clip I saw too. A couple of the guys (not Ansari) on the show used to perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC as part of the comedy troupe Respecto Montalban. They were amazing.
don’t forget the popo: http://myspace.com/thepopomusic (on the same label as the cassettes)
I’ll be at South by Southwest Interactive Festival. It doesn’t really overlap with the music festival, but lots of bands playing during interactive. I am looking for other educators to meet up with if anyone is interested. Here is the upcoming.org link for K-12 SXSW folks.
Funny, I would have taken you for a Pearl Jam fan.
I’m not sure if I’m with you 100% on that, my fellow gentoo. I’ll admit, like with any indie-hipster band fronted by the young and the pretentious, worth their weight in Pabst Blue Ribbon and ironic trucker hats, we had our share of internecine conflicts, wholly unneccesary ego-trips, histrionic freakouts, and by far the worst, those terrible jet-black asymmetrical haircuts. As a result, the demo we sent was admittedly pretty embarassing, even for a festival that’s featuring Hawthorne Heights as a selling point. I was hoping the judging committee would interpret the offtime, barely intelligible vocals and clipping distortion as “artistic,” but I think they settled on “crappy.” I’m honestly not broken up about this: until the day we start playing gigs like this, I’m going to remain optimistic.
You’re in Texas, right? It’s settled then. Sriram’s band will open up for mine in front of the Bharat Bazaar in Irvning and you can showcase your scribbles as part of the South Asian by South West Interactive Mela Festival. Maybe Chick Pea can wow us with her dextrous table-top dancing and Uncle-MC with his verbal-samurai smackdown skillz? Who else is in? Ho-rientalists need not apply!
You know how MTV can keep from sucking?…PLAY MORE VIDEOS!
Videos do not pay the bills at MTV…original programming does (even though I agree the programming is far from being stellar)
By the way, a decent SWSX party list:
SWSX in-depth party list
Not this time…though there’s some stuff here not yet in my collection. Thanks for pointing it out! 🙂
npr is covering the musicfest here.