You know the drill by now: Tejas, Music, BBQ, Music, Queso, and more Music.
In more industry terms: a week’s worth of panels, meet-ups, business meetings, and more live music than you can possibly consume in 5 days. IT’S time for SXSW!!!!
Southby as it’s affectionately called, programs live acts from all over the globe. And, as we’ve done the past couple years, here are the bands that we recommend you see if you’re out in ATX.
SxSWxMusica Indie
Novedades Carminha (Spain)
Sound: Garage Rock
Straight ahead, melodic, garage rock, band with roots in Galicia. Infectious melodies and strong guitars make all of their tracks “head bob” worthy.
Showcasing: Wednesday, March 15 at Lucille & Thursday, March 16 at the Sounds From Spain Day Party
Las Kellies (Argentina)
Sound: Rock/Post-Punk
Language is not an issue with Las Kellies. Their music is either sung in English, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, French, or Catalan. And it’s excellent in all of them!
Showcasing: Wednesday, March 15 at Half Step & Thursday, March 16 at Tap Room at the Market
Panteón Rococó (Mexico)
Sound: Ska,
It’s been a 20+ year career of constant European Tours for this Mexican Ska band. Their music has damn near escaped the confines of their own genre and transcended into the mainstream. If you’ve never seen them live, Southby would be the perfect spectacle! “Springen! Springen! Springen!…”
Showcasing: Thursday, March 16 at Lady Bird Lake & Friday, March 17 at Half Step
Los Chinchillos del Caribe (Puerto Rico)
Sound: Cumbia Rock Urbano
Los Chinchillos approach to Cumbia is to sexy it up a fair amount with some Carribean grind beats ala Reggaeton. Definitely not the first band to dawn Luchador masks on stage but their presence once up there, is borderline lunacy. Mad fun yo!
Showcasing: Thursday, March 16 at Half Step
Izal (Spain)
Sound: Rock
Izal is one of those bands you’ve never heard of. But when you hear them live you think, “These guys are GREAT! I wonder if they are popular?” Then you do some research and come to find that they rock stadiums in their respective country. But you don’t get mad at the fact that you missed their rise, just happy you are now on board.
Showcasing: Wednesday, March 15 at Lucille & Thursday, March 16 at Flatstock Stage
Dos-Santos Anti Beat Orchestra (EEUU)
Sound: Cumbia, Chicha, Instrumental
Instrumental Cumbia is evergreen! And Dos-Santos incorporate a bit of Surf rock elements to their jam band approach that make it ever moreso appealing. They hail from Chicago but have already taken their funk to festival around the U.S.
Showcasing: Saturday, March 18 at Speakeasy
Riel (Argentina)
Sound: Garage Rock
Argentines love grungy, grimey, garage rock. Riel are standouts amongst a sea of great lo-fi contemporaries. Although, theirs is a bit more of a dream rock/post-garage sound with sensual vocals compliments of the duo’s guitarist, Mora.
Showcasing: Thursday, March 16 at Malverde & Friday, March 17 at Hotel Vegas at Volstead
Triangulo de Amor Bizarro (Spain)
Sound: Indie Rock
Hailing from La Coruña, Spain, this highly acclaimed band is loud, catchy, and their indie cred grows more and more with every new chart topping album. One of my personal favs!
Showcasing: Wednesday, March 15 at Lucille & Thursday, March 16 at the Sounds From Spain Day Party
Spotify Playlist