Steve turned me on to the massive BitTorrent download of new music sponsored by the south by southwest festival. Although I’m not a regular BT user, I cranked it up and downloaded all 2.75GB. It took three days. (And yes, I left BT running to share nicely.)
This morning I dragged it all into iTunes. 714 songs, 1.9 days playing time! Who’s got time to listen to all of that? However, over (extended) breakfast and (several cups of) coffee, I managed to scan most of it. (I know it can be unfair to judge on the basis of the first few seconds, but when you also consider the artist’s name, the song title, and genre….) I kept a window open to the SXSW Showcase page so I could follow up on particularly interesting artists.
From that vast collection, here are the 20 songs that caught my attention. If it looks as if I was biased… well, yes: the women singer-songwriters in this collection were very strong; the “pop”, “rock”, and “punk” offerings (though frequently mis-classified) were less distinctive. But there’s all sorts of music here – you might be surprised. Enjoy:
“Betty” by The Lascivious Biddies
“Moving Pictures, Silent Films” by the Great Lake Swimmers
“I Do Dream You” by Jennifer Gentle
“Silver Screen Demos” by Jesca Hoop
“Move On” by Jessie and Layla
“Old Fashion Morphine” by Jolie Holland
“Not Going Anywhere” by Keren Ann
“Nutopia” by Meg Lee Chin
“mudpies and gasoline” by Patricia Vonne
“Take the Long Way” by Po’ Girl
“Into My Heart” by Rachel Fuller
“Television” by Robyn Hitchcock
“Anonyme” by Samadha
“hard road” by The Shore
“Building a Road” by Spottiswoode and His Enemies
“I’m On My Way” by Theresa Andersson
“lie in the sound” by Trespassers William
“Beautiful Dawn” by The Wailin’ Jennys
“The Ghost of the Girl in the Well” by the Willard Grant Conspiracy
“Mannequin” by The Witnesses
(You can also stream or download individual tracks from SXSW.)