South By Southwest is drawing to a close, with only one night of debauchery left to survive here in Austin. We've seen a ton of bands (check out our PopWatch blog for daily recaps), heard a bunch of industry chatter, and done a lot of walking. Here's a sampling of some of the sights and sounds we've experienced during the festival.
Buzzing: Manchester's The Ting Tings, Memphis' Jay Reatard, Cincinnati's Bad Veins, Philly heroes Dr. Dog, newcomers Los Capesinos! and bands-of-the-moment MGMT and Vampire Weekend.
Disappointing:
• The aforementioned Vampire Weekend at the Spin party. "They came off cocky," said one audience member.
• British sensation Duffy, who played two day gigs on Friday, "Kind of eh," remarked an exec who had believed the hype.
• MGMT at the Playboy party. Railed one angry fan: "They didn't play 'Time to Pretend'—WTF?"
No shows: The Lemonheads skipped out on their afternoon set at the Fader/Levi's fort. No explanation was offered.
Cover-worthy: Israeli singer Yael Naim, whose song "New Soul" is featured in the latest Apple campaign, broke out a dark and jazzy rendition of Britney Spears' "Toxic" at the ASCAP showcase Friday night.
Production notes: The Decemberists' Chris Funk is working with fellow Portland rockers The Builders and the Butchers on their new record.
Rumor of the night: Britney Spears to make a surprise appearance at Stubbs for N.E.R.D.'s Friday night headlining gig. She didn't show.
Rumor of the year: The perennial conference gossip—will there be a secret surprise show by the Beastie Boys? Answer: nope.
Raves: Perry Farrell rocking out to X from the crowd, after introducing the band at the Spin party. "Listen to that, that's Zeppelin!" he declared to anyone within earshot.
Now here's something we didn't expect to see at South by Southwest: none other than Angelina Jolie strolling down Congress Ave. (Austin's main drag) just like any of the other 50,000 out-of-towners who have descended on the Texas capital. There she was on Wednesday, walking sans Brad Pitt, who is also in Austin filming the new Terrence Malick film, Tree of Life (co-starring Sean Penn). EW.com has learned that Pitt requested several tickets to see SXSW's hottest opening night show, R.E.M. at Stubb's Wednesday night, but was told that the band had maxed out their guest list, and while they'd happily take care of the super-star couple, they couldn't accommodate a larger entourage. As far as we could tell, Pitt and Jolie didn't show after that.
The guest list is growing by the minute for Perez Hilton's "One Night in Austin," the celebrity-blogger's first South By Southwest bash, which closes out the festival on Saturday night and includes a curious assortment of stars. Among those who've RSVP'd: indie rock lover and culinary queen Rachael Ray, who's hosting her own event earlier in the day, legendary singer Van Morrison, country bad girl Shelby Lynne, and hip-hop star Talib Kweli. They'll be joined by several hundred sure-to-be-fatigued festival-goers and entertained by Swedish pop darling Robyn, who was previously announced to perform. The night's special surprise guest, EW.com has learned, will be Pharrell Williams' band N.E.R.D., which has a new album coming out in June. Perez, meanwhile, has yet to finalize his deal with Warner Bros. Records, which has reportedly offered him an A&R position and his own imprint.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock was really looking to create a buzz with his South By Southwest screening of Where in The World is Osama Bin Laden? During inclement weather, which knocked out the power 15 minutes into the film, the Super Size Me star launched an impassioned chant for "free beer" before deciding to buy a round of Tecate to all 180 festival-attendees waiting patienty in their seats for the restart. "This one's on Harvey Weinstein," he announced to resounding cheers as cases were brought in to the theater.
Billy Bragg has joined a growing list of heavy hitters — Ben Harper, Tom Morello, System of a Down's Serj Tankian, and Kimya Dawson, among them — for one of South by Southwest's most anticipated bills. The Austin, Tex., music fest's Thursday night lineup will honor the documentary Body of War, about Tomas Young, a 26-year-old Iraq War veteran who was maimed less
than a week into his first tour of duty.
The story inspired many of the artists to donate tracks (mostly protest songs) for the Sire Records release, with all proceeds going to Iraq Veterans Against the War. The award-winning doc by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro will have its Austin premiere on March 13, preceding the concert at Stubb's BBQ. Although Eddie Vedder, who wrote the anthemic "No More" after meeting Young, is not scheduled to appear, Morello tells EW.com, "I've been trying to lure some more performers." Stay tuned for more artist announcements as we get them.
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