The problem is, they’re hard to find! At SXSW even industry “outsiders” such as we are likely to get “tips” on artists to see — after all, most of the attendees are there to promote themselves or someone, but the tips we get tend to fall into one of two categories: “buzz” bands that everyone “hip” has heard about, or “pet”: bands being promoted by themselves, their management, their friends or their label. The problem with the latter is that it’s so hit and miss, mostly miss. And “buzz” bands are the industry darlings — not what we are looking for here at Savvant Music.

Another option is to listen to hours and hours of online samples provided by the good folks at SXSW and hope you find something interesting, preferably fascinating. Then, if you do, hope (often in vain) that they’re decent live!

This might make you wonder why we bother, but the truth i that this is the problem no matter where you look for music. The reason we go to SXSW is that there are so many bands there (around 1700 showcases) that the filtering and discovery process is marvelously compressed (and often exhausting).

And this is why we are here ad what you need us for — to help filter through all this music and to find those special artists, overlooked by the mainstream industry — artists you’ll be really revved to hear, that blow your mind.

Meanwhile, if you know some really amazing artists we should be sure to look at this coming week at SXSW, please let us know! You can comment here on our blogs, or you can send me email at: anny (at) savvantmusic.com!

See ya in Texas, y’all!

Anny