The music portion of this year’s South By Southwest conference is set to begin tomorrow. And while we aren’t hosting any parties (maybe next year?), Consequence of Sound will be live from Texas over the next five days providing coverage from many events.

We now present to you a nice, simple SXSW 2008 preview, featuring recommendations and resources that hopefully make your next couple days in Austin even more enjoyable.

SXSW Parties:

First and foremost, we advise you to check out some of the many parties begining put on by out contemparies. Brookyln Vegan, Stereogum, Autinist, and My Kentucy Blog will all be having free parties.

Others of notes? The AV Club/Canvas/A&C/Saddle Creek SXSW Party looks great. As does the one being put on by Forcefield PR and Terrorbid Media. SFxSXSW, Mess with Texas 2, NY2LON also look quite strong.Oh ya, and Rachel Ray is having a party too.

Then there are those private events like Playboy’s SXSW Party and Spin’s SXSW Party, which everyone except those select few can only envy.

For a full list of SXSW parties, check out Austinist and Donewaiting.com

SXSW Showcases: 

The difference between SXSW parties and showcases? You need one of those fancy, expensive badges or must be willing to shell out some extra cash at the door.

The biggest of the week may be on opening night. R.E.M. along with Dead Confederate will be performing at Stubb’s. Yo La Tengo and My Morning Jacket are playing together the following night at Austin Music Hall. Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, and Jens Lekman are all part of a Thursday day showcase at Parish. All three events are being presented by NPR Music and will be streamed live on their website.

Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, and Hot Freaks! are all hosting showcases as well. Clash Magazine, SESAC Day Stage, and Stubb’s also feature some pretty stellar showcase lineups.

A full list of showcases can be found on SXSW.com

SXSW Bands:  

Aside from the big names, a ton of great young and upcoming performers will grace Austin over the next few days.

Ra Ra Riot, The Stills, The Fashion, Los Campesinos!, Atmosphere, Die! Die! Die!, Headlights, Holy Fuck, Sons and Daughters, Please Quiet Ourselves, Why?, The Terrordactyls, The Aggrolites, The XYZ Affair, These United States, Sam Champion, Hymns, and The Motion Sick are just some of the names worth checking out.

We also have a pretty exhaustive list up on our Summer Festival Outlook.

SXSW Resoruces:

SXSW Baby has pretty much everything you could possible need. From pocket guides and maps to information on where to eat, the site pretty much has you covered.

DoneWaiting.com has many artist recommendations and other useful info.

Austin 360 has an organized list of every band/artist appearing at SXSW and interesting conference related commentary.

Austinist has an entire section dedicated to SXSW, which features the latest news and information pertaining to nearly every event.

Free Yr Radio has the ultimate SXSW planner.

Club.Kingsnake has anything and everything else you need.

Hopefully all of this can serve some use for the SXSWgoers. Be sure to keep checking back to CoS for the latest SXSW coverage.

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Categories: Festival News/Rumor, News
Tags: South By Southwest, SXSW Party