SXSW killer gets life

A jury has found Rashad Owens guilty of capital murder.

Owens drove his car into crowds at last year's SXSW, killing four and injuring dozens. His defence team argued that he hadn't intended to kill, but had merely panicked after being chased by police, but jurors were convinced by prosecution arguments that, had this been true, he would have stopped when he started hitting people. Owens had actually sped up once he hit the crowd.

He will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

SXSW: Not that America's overly litigious or anything

The death of a person you love because of a drunk driver is a terrible thing. And it's one of those rare occasions when it's easy to apportion blame - the person who got wasted and drove a car into a crowd, right?

Apparently not.

The family of one of the victims of the drunk driver at SXSW is suing, erm, the festival organisers for not making their festival dickwad-in-a-car proof:

Among several wrongful deaths lawsuits was one by the family of Steven Craenmehr, a Dutch music executive who was riding a bike when struck. His widow and mother allege that SXSW organizers skimped on traffic safeguards while packing people downtown to hear more than 2,000 bands.

"A festival organizer or traffic design consultant of ordinary intelligence would have anticipated the danger," the lawsuit says.

Oh, yeah, they're also suing the City Of Austin for not making its streets able to cope with tanked-up drivers.

The courts, naturally, will decide on the validity of this case, but... seriously? Somehow SXSW and the City Of Austin has to wrap the event in so much bubblewrap and prophylactic that they should be able to guarantee that nothing bad will happen there ever?

To lose a relative in awful circumstances is unimaginably horrible. Spitting out a bunch of lawsuits at anyone who happened to be vaguely connected to the death doesn't do much by way of legacy, though.

What does SXSW do for Austin?

According to the organisers, this year's SXSW festival brought in USD315 million to the Austin economy - although that figure excludes things that take place outside the official banner of the festival. (I don't think they're just talking about the dealers here.)

It also generates getting on for USD80million worth of positive coverage about Austin:

In addition to injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, SXSW 2014 also provided Austin with extraordinarily valuable media coverage. Since its inception, SXSW has played a critical role in helping position Austin as a place where creativity and commerce are mutually valued, nurtured, and networked.

In other words, SXSW is pretty much responsible for the "well, except for Austin, I guess" rider people will add when they talk, shuddering, about What Texas Is Like.

Grim news from SXSW

Horrible news from SXSW in Austin overnight, as a car has ploughed into a crowd waiting outside the Mohawk club.

ABC News is reporting two dead; five critically injured.

It appears the driver was being pursued by police before he drove into queue. KVUE reports:

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers initially tried to pull over the driver at a gas station on the Interstate 35 service road. The driver fled the wrong way down Ninth Street, which is a one-way street, and turned onto Red River, hitting pedestrians at a "high rate of speed." Officers say the driver is in custody.

50 Cent to play live, broadcast event

Here's an inappropriate use of the word 'history' from ContactMusic:

50 Cent is set to make history at the South By Southwest festival in Texas next week (11Mar14) by streaming his concert on a mobile app he has invested in.

"Man streams gig over internet using proprietary technology". Remember where you were when you heard the news.

Spotify insist they are the near-mythical iTunes killer

Spotify is going to outstrip iTunes. In a couple of years. According to Spotify:

Speaking at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Texas, on a music discussion panel, the Spotify and Facebook investor [Sean Parker] said: “If Spotify continues growing at its current rate in terms of subscribers and users, we will overtake iTunes in terms of the amount of revenue we contribute to the music labels in under two years.”

Well, yes. There is a rather large "if" there; there's also a secondary "if" that assumes that new subscribers and users will consume music at the same rate as earlier adopters. There's also a third "if", that this might rely on iTunes staying where it is.

Even so, this feels like the first time a potential iTunes killer out of the dozens that have danced in front of us over the years could actually provide a decent challenge. That has to be good news, right?

The Strokes pull a crowd

After DFA1979's over-subscribed SXSW date, last night it was The Stroke's turn to try to cram more people than possible into a physical space - although the cops weren't called this time, luckily. They were playing a 25,000-strong venue, too, so having people outside trying to get in was quite a feat.

Clearly, none of the people scrambling up the fence had heard the new album.

Bluesobit: Pinetop Perkins

Blues legend Pinetop Perkins has died.

Born in 1913 in Mississippi, Joe Willie Perkins might have remained a cottonpicker had he not run away from home following a fight with his grandmother. Earning a living playing in juke joints, he might have remained a guitar player, had he not had a botched operation after his arm got cut in a club fight.

Instead, he turned to piano, a decision that would give him an extraordinarily long career - he won a Grammy in 2005, the oldest person so to do. But his most profilic era was the 30s and the 40s - working across the Mississippi delta with Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, BB King and Earl Hooker. It was this period - and in particular a cover of Clarence Pinetop Smith's Pinetop's Boogie Woogie - that secured Perkins his slightly-borrowed nickname.

A great sidesman for his first 70 years or so, in the late 80s Pinetop started to build a solo career. He threw himself into it, too, with over a dozen albums across the 1990s.

He played SXSW in 2005, and despite being about four times the age of most of the other acts there showed them how to do it:



Pinetop Perkins died in his sleep. He was 97.

Death From Above cause 'riot'; CBC vanishes article

Nasty scenes as overexcitement and undersized venues combined to turn Death From Above 1979's comeback show into a riot.

Consequence Of Sound's Jeremy D Larson was inside:

From inside, we witnessed firsthand a man being repeatedly punched in the face by a police officer. This was all happening as the band played. As DFA 1979 finished “Romantic Rights” (I believe), two or three police walked on stage, followed by a man in charge of the venue.

“The alley needs to be cleared in ten minutes or the show is over,” said the man. He was met with a mixed reaction from the crowd — no one wanted the show to end, but those of us inside — or at least myself — had no problems with the people watching. During the ten minutes, police stood by as those in the alley reluctantly dispersed. A report came back that two to three people were arrested, and as of posting, this is still unconfirmed. Meanwhile, Grainger told some yuck-yuck jokes and jawed with the audience about their rehearsals and previous setlists. It was unnerving but commendable.

CBC's Radio 3 blog also had a story on the riot, which appeared about an hour ago but has since vanished from their site. What's interesting about the CBC story is it suggests there wasn't actually any need for cops on horses to turn up with pepper spray:

I, like many, got close to the gaping space when the fence came down. I shot photos, took video, so many did. It was scary, but after no one rushed the stage, I felt a bit relieved. It was obvious the fans outside wanted to be there, wanted to be cooperative, wanted to dance around and experience the bands first show since 2005.

The security at Beauty Bar also did a great job of securing the fence, holding it up with their bodies, and even some rope. From what I saw, they were trying to accommodate fans on both sides of the fence.

Things seemed to be going well, the band resumed playing, everyone started dancing. Then the riot police showed up on horseback. They sideswiped the crowd, pepper spraying and even tasing some fans. The band stopped playing, the fans were given 10 minutes to clear the alley, if the fans didn’t leave, they would have to cancel the show.

From this, it sounds like a not-unusual crush at an overpopular gig was turned into a riot by the addition of heavy-handed policing - although the unnamed fan's account doesn't condemn the police:

Did I get scared? Yes. Did I think the fans, band and security handled it well? Absolutely. Do I blame the cops for showing up? No. I understand why they were called. If fans did rush the stage, cramping hundreds of excess people into a small fenced in space, their presence would have been definitely needed.

Maybe that's true, but did waving tasers round and spraying pepper into fans eyes' really help?

There's some footage on YouTube:


It's important to note that, once the cops had been, the gig continued to a peaceful conclusion, which is something that wouldn't normally happen after an actual riot.

[UPDATE: The CBC blog has reappeared, credited to Lana Gay.]

NOFX: Taking the piss

Charming. NoFX's Fat Mike Burkett marked SXSW by pissing into a tequila bottle and offering fans a drink:

He tells TMZ.com, "I confirmed that urine was not classified as a biohazard waste and not subject to the risks of legal ramifications of blood, semen, or faeces."

Oh, that's alright then.

There are, naturally, some people who would probably pay to drink their favourite star's wee; a few who might even object to having it adulterated with tequila. But - legal or not - this is a bit disappointingly frat boy.

One thing to note: Mike was doing a solo set, which means he was in his Cokie clown persona. I guess if you accept gifts off men dressed as clowns, you should expect what you get.

The economics of SXSW

Lovely piece on the economics of SXSW from Fucked Up's perspective:

A festival pass can cost almost $800 a person. A band gets either wristbands or $250, which is enough to buy enough gas to get your van maybe 15 hours away from Austin, one way. Most bands are from outside that radius, and are well within the range of losing a shit ton of money by coming. In exchange, sxsw gets access to the best bands in the world, every club in Austin, and sponsorship money from all the coolest companies on earth. One of the more creatively heinous examples of branding I learned about this year was the Green Label Sound record label, which is a branding exercise of Mountain Dew soda. When my friend was offered to do a record with Green Label Sound for many thousands of dollars, I was happy to concede that it was a great deal for his specific band. Then I saw the giant 4 panel billboard for Green Label Sound right next to Stubbs on Red River St. Great for Chromeo, Neon Indian and the two other bands on the advert I forget ("great" in the sincere and non-facetious sense) and realized how maybe it was a bit more of a serious issue than I'd thought. Think of all the bands that had to blow their wallets apart to get to their one sxsw showcase, and all the partiers who had to pay to fly or hitchhike from Greenpoint or Plymouth to get to Austin in order to create the cultural critical mass that allowed Mountain Dew to greenlight a giant billboard in the epicenter of American indie rock. Think of why there is so much free beer and cigarettes and energy drinks at sxsw, and why every year there is even more, and why every year there are a dozen more huge shows presented by even bigger companies than last year. It's because you paid your money to go there and see these ads.

The whole thing is worth a read - it's placed somewhere between a whinge and a shrug, but the conclusion is that Wrigleys probably do better from SXSW than any band manages.

SXSW 2010: Muse

I'm a little surprised at the NME report from Austin this evening:

Muse win over industry crowd at SXSW

Do Muse - who are more established than the Church Of England - really need to "win over" an "industry audience"? If the "industry" still needs to be "convinced" by Muse, hasn't it gone beyond the point of no return?

Sponsor Camper Van Beethoven

Camper Van Beethoven hope to get to SXSW this year. In order to make this dream come true, they're inviting fans to sponsor a song in their set:

How it works:

"CVB will draw up two setlists, one for each show: approximately 35 songs.

The first 35 people to donate $100 dollars will get to choose a song.

The first person gets the first choice from the setlist, the second person gets the second choice etc etc. Sorry but you will have to choose from the setlists that we create. We once tried a a fan generated setlist and it was really weird - unfortunately, not weird in a good way, or we'd probably be doing that more often!"

What you get:

*A Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl will walk/skate across the stage carrying a placard announcing your sponsorship of the song, within full view of the audience or cameras, to have the moment captured on film or video for all of eternity!
*You can have up to 4 names or one business on each placard.

*We will contact you later for details how your sponsorship placard will read.

We reserve the right to arbitrarily refuse sponsorship from anyone or any organization. (For instance we probably won't be letting Mr. Hugh Jass and Ms. Ann Al-Aksam sponsor any songs. Probably.)"

It's a fair bet there's going to be a scramble for Take The Skinheads Bowling.

Decade Null: 2004 - The Von Bondies

Much, much more than just Jack White's punch bag, and probably less irritating by a country mile. 2004 saw the release of The Von Bondies' Pawn Shoppe Heart. While I'm sure the band don't welcome comparisons with The White Stripes, it seems unfair they were still looking to break through at SXSW two years ago, from whence this version of Been Swank comes:



[Part of Decade Null: 2004]

SXSW 2009: Another round-up

You know what? It sounds like it's become fun again for Justin Hawkins:

The frontman, formerly of The Darkness, got a fan to hoist him onto his shoulders towards the end of the band’s 11pm (CST) show at Emo's Annex, with the fan making a circular walk around the venue while Hawkins played guitar.

Mind you, you have to watch it with using the fans as personal transportation devices. Those things break down on the motorway, and it's really hard to get spare parts.

Polly Jean Harvey remebered her manners after doing some stuff off the new album with John Parish:

Harvey thanked the packed Austin crowd, noting that it was her and the band's first time in the city, saying that they had been "having a really nice time".

Actually, PJ never having been to an SXSW before is more surprising than the supposed-surprising appearance of Kanye West. The LA Times never quite got round to answering its own question:

Is Austin excited about Kanye West?

But does point out that West's appearance is like introducing myxomatosis into the rabbit population of SXSW:

Kanye will have the attention of nearly every journalist in Austin tonight. Here's hoping he makes the best of it, as the three-hour window in which he's scheduled to perform will be pulling attention away from the hundreds of artists aching for a piece of the spotlight.

And so it proved.

Mind you, West did no more damage to the ecosystem than the lumbering presence of Metallica. It's a strange musical world when Rachel Ray seems less out-of-place at a festival than Lars Ulrich. But then Ray seems to be there for the fun, while for Metallica it long since started to just be a day job.

Pinning all their hopes on their trip to Texas was White Lies, who told XFM they saw this as their big chance to break America:

"Obviously we already have a label over here and they're working really hard for us," he explains, "but this festival is a great springboard. Our album's just coming out, we have a month of touring here after that and if the right people come to your show at SXSW it propels you into a different place. But who knows? It's a good thing to be a part of."

Well, yes, a good thing to be a part of. But it's not really going to replace the need to do the big slog round small cities to build an audience, is it? Indeed, with so many bloody acts turning up to play, you're almost faced with the same struggle to get attention bands usually face, only played out in a much smaller physical place. If every act in the world is there, you have to wonder if there's much point in bothering to turn up.

SXSW 2009: Enter Shikari, pursued by fans

The beautiful-and-discerning Enter Shikari couldn't have had a better time at SXSW if they had been covered in cream frosting and jam: NME reports queues round the block as they played Emos.

Also having a good SXSW is Graham Coxon; having a bad SXSW are AT&T, as the combination of SXSWi geeks and SXSW music hipsters brought a slew of iPhones to Austin, taking down the only network on which they work.

Rolling Stone has been thrilled by Circle Jerks and the Dicks:

When the Dicks hit the stage — a little chubbier and grayer than they were in the ’80s — pot-bellied lead singer Gary Floyd offered these words of thanks: “For me, to thank the little people is very easy.”

Rolling Stone is having a go at cultural institutions for getting flabby and grey? Mote-and-beam, surely?

Amongst the kindaexclusives gathered between sets and Mexican food, the LA Times discovered that Devo are about "half-way through" their next album. Since they've already had 19 years to work on it, we'll expect that in 2028, then.

And the Associated Press spoke to Big Boi about his debut solo album. What's it going to sound like, Mr. Boi?

"They can't put Big Boi in a category. Rock, funk, blues, soul, gospel — some of everything."

That's a problem, though, as in that case the record shops are just going to have to pile the CDs in the middle of the floor. Unless they have a section marked 'Hip hop acts who think that putting a few guitars on the record makes them into Jonathan Miller'.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet: SXSW

It's worth keeping an eye on Mark McNulty's photoblog - he's in Austin, but taking photos of stuff away from the stages. (He'll be doing the bands too, though.)

Twittergem: Sky Larkin

A new, occasional series lazily cutting-and-pasting Tweets like that's actually blogging ("highlighting some quality Twitter action you might have missed"):

is amused by how many bands/industry types I recognised in the queue for visas at the american embassy this morning, sxsw innit! Kx

From Sky Larkin

2009 looms like a big looming thing

I know. It's not even the end of summer yet, but you're already being called upon to plan your movements for 2009: SXSW are inviting bands and attendees to start registering.

They say riot, we say morons

We're a bit bemused as to why people gathering to dance at a gig is being described as a riot, exactly.

Certainly, getting 1000 people onto a bridge and then making them jump up and down is - perhaps - one of the most calamitously stupid ideas we've heard for a long time, but this doesn't mean it was a riot, does it?

The band, by the way, was Fucked Up; the bridge Lemar Pedestrian Bridge in Austin:

Mike Haliechuck, Fucked Up's guitarist, said he feared the bridge was going to collapse.

"I could feel the bridge going up and down - it was crazy. The police couldn’t do anything, so they just had to wait."

Maybe I'm just getting old, but this sounds like the most pointlessly dangerous thing to occur in rock in a long time. Isn't there some law against endangering lives in Texas?