Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and 50 Cent grabbed headlines at SXSW this year, but at its core, the music festival is still a great place for music discovery. This year, the festival seemed particularly active as it peaked into a full-blown Mardi Gras style street party with thousands of St. Patrick’s Day revelers merging with the SXSW crowd at Sixth Street on Saturday.
We spent last week in Austin avoiding most of the high-profile performances and wandering among the hundreds of bars, warehouses and other venues hosting music. Below are our five lesser-known favorites.
Off!
By far the most energetic and chaotic set we caught at SXSW, Off! is bringing California ’80s hardcore back with some of the genre’s originators. The band was created at the end of 2009 by vocalist Keith Morris (a founding member of Black Flag and Circle Jerks), guitarist Damitri Coats (Burning Bridges), bassist Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) and Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless, Hot Snakes, Rocket From the Crypt). What emerged is a frantic collection of songs released as four EPs in 2010. The band’s first full length—16 songs, clocking in at 16 minutes and recorded over just a few days—is due May 8 on Vice records. Bodies were flying through the pit and over it throughout the band’s set at Thrasher’s Texas Style Death Match Party.
For fans of: Black Flag, Circle Jerks
Lucius
Vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig could easily be mistaken as sisters. In addition to having a similar look, their voices complement each other perfectly. They stand face to face as they sing, each with a synth, and harmonize over a rich sonic bed of drums, percussion, bass and guitar. With the February release of their debut EP, they’ve already caught the attention of some national media outlets. Next year, we expect them to be on to much bigger gigs than the mid-day dive bar show that we caught them at.
Fore fans of: Band of Horses, Feist
Cairo Knife Fight
Another explosive duo, this time via New Zealand, Cairo Knife Fight builds on the the Black Keys’ model of pounding drums and riff heavy guitar work and kicks it into overdrive with more distortion, live bass and drum loops, and references to 70s rock, instead of the Keys’ blues roots influences. The band is known as a top Kiwi rock—the duo was recently recruited to open for the Foo Fighters in front of 50,000 people there—but 2012 could be the year we see them break out in the U.S. and beyond.
For fans of: Queens of the Stone Age, Black Keys
.Five Acts to Watch From SXSW
