The Dailies: March 18

Daily Person

Phil Freeman, metal blogger for MSN Music is at SXSW to do a live, onstage interview with Lemmy from Motorhead. He also does freelance writing about heavy metal for the Village Voice and other New York area publications.

What are you excited about seeing this year?
Well I’m hoping to get to the in-store performance for High on Fire (editor’s note: we saw High on Fire last night and it was fantastic). Also, I might try and get in to see Maldita Vecindad, this Mexican rock band who are amazing.

What brand-sponsored parties are you looking forward to?
I tend to avoid the heavily-sponsored types of events. There are only a couple of metal shows tonight so I’ll probably be bouncing back and forth between those.

Have any promotional items or events stood out to you so far?
Not so far. But today’s only my first day. It’s my first time in Texas so I’m just kind of wandering.

Do you think street marketing works?
At a thing like this I’m not sure it does. Honestly, I’m trying to figure out the point of SXSW because most of the bands are already signed. I do think street marketing works for bands as a general approach- hand out a cd, a card, a sticker, whatever. I think that can convince people to look at your music or download something. At a place like this I don’t think it works that well because there are too many people competing for your attention.

Daily T-shirt
When I photographed this woman she had just been “called-at” from a car on account of the t-shirt she was wearing. We were a little bummed to find out the shirt is for a band, Times New Viking. They won’t be playing SXSW, though their t-shirt message will surely strike a chord here. 

Daily Branding
Perched above a bustling Red River intersection, this signage is sure to catch a lot of eye traffic as people walk from their cars to the festivities or stop for a bite at the Hot Dog King. Passers-by need only log on to greenlabelsound.com from their phones to achieve the instant connection to the brand via a free music download. The bands benefit, too. Though these four recently-released records are by relatively big-name artists (including Austin’s own Neon Indian), putting them on a big billboard at SXSW will only make them bigger. 

Daily namedrop
Nneka, half-German, half-Nigerian singer is in town performing at SXSW. She’s reported to be the next big thing in R&B but she’s already a hit with local coffee shop employees. Nnekka and will be playing officially and unofficially throughout the weekend.