An updated list of bands invited to play sanctioned showcases as part of SXSW came out today, and three 817 artists –– Complete, Fungi Girls, and Hudson Moore –– have been added, joining Burning Hotels and Mind Spiders, two Fort Worth artists already selected to play sanctioned showcases. Hundreds of bands from all over the world will be playing the annual mid-March festival, also including several from Dallas and Denton.
The lineup is not finalized, but based on conversations with South-by insiders, I can say that the chances that South-by will add any more Fort Worth bands are pretty slim.
And while I know for a fact that some of Fort Worth’s most popular, talented artists did not submit to play the festival this year, there’s no way anyone who knows even the slightest bit about current Fort Worth indie music can wrap his or her head around the fact that while the 2012 SXSW music festival has once again –– for the fourth consecutive year –– offered a sanctioned showcase to Complete, a novelty sloppy-metal group that rarely even plays local shows, the fest has shunned Calhoun, Telegraph Canyon, The Orbans, The Hanna Barbarians, Stella Rose, Quaker City Night Hawks, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, The Will Callers, JJ & The Rogues, Fate Lions, Skeleton Coast, and every other real, non-novelty, progressive, supremely talented Fort Worth artist you can think of.
Fort Worth Weekly is a co-sponsor of SXSW, and I’ve reached out to festival organizers several times for insight into the invitation process but have yet to receive any sort of response.
Personally, I always give people, especially people I respect, the benefit of the doubt, and I’d like to think that South-by’s inviting Complete to play sanctioned showcases every year instead of Calhoun, Telegraph, The Orbans, Quaker City, the Barbs, and every other serious, progressive Fort Worth band is at least semi-legitimate and not a joke or an effort to slap Fort Worth in the face.
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A question to any bands that have been accepted to play SXSW: How developed was your sonicbids account before submitting to SX? Did you just start one up to apply to this event, or do you get anything at all out of having the account otherwise?
Ben
SGC
Ben,
I’ve been developing The Hanna Barbarians sonicbids for months and to be honest, it looks pretty damn good. I did submit them to SXSW well before the end date. So far, there isn’t many opportunities that pop up on there, however, I have found some good marketing, advertising, and promotion opportunities for the guys. It’s pretty good to keep online because many events and festivals use it for submissions.
Jon Phillips, Manager
The Hanna Barbarians