SXSW Music Festival
Austin, TX March 15, 2019
Photos by Michael Mullinex
Amanda Palmer
at the Mohawk
Amanda Palmer is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art. She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality. Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, featuring such groundbreaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its release in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter.
Since 2015 Palmer has used the crowdfunding platform Patreon to fund the creation of her artwork. This has enabled her to collaborate with artists all over the world with over 14,000 patrons supporting her creations each month. Palmer will release her new solo piano album and accompanying book of photographs and essays, There Will Be No Intermission, on March 8, 2019, followed by a global tour. The album is a masterwork that includes life, death, abortion, and miscarriage among its tentpole themes.
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Big Boi & Dungeon Family
on the Lady Bird Lake Stage
Dungeon Family feat. Big Boi, Goodie Mob, & Organized Noize’s Sleepy Brown
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Carnage
at Stubb’s
.
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Japanese Breakfast
at the Lustre Pearl
Michelle Zauner wrote the debut Japanese Breakfast album in the weeks after her mother died of cancer, thinking she would quit music entirely once it was done. That wasn’t the case. When Psychopomp was released to acclaim in 2016, she was forced to confront her grief. Zauner would find find herself reliving traumatic memories multiple times a day during interviews, trying to remain composed while discussing the most painful experience of her life. Her sophomore album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, is a transmutation of mourning, a reflection that turns back on the cosmos in search of healing.
“I want to be a woman of regimen,” Zauner sings over a burbling synth on the album’s opening track “Diving Woman.” This serves as Zauner’s mission statement: stick to the routine lest you get derailed, don’t cling to the past, don’t descend. In fact, ascend to the stars; Zauner found artistic solace removed from Earth, in outer space and science fiction. “I used the theme as a means to disassociate from trauma,” she explains. “Space used as a place of fantasy.”
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Kari Faux
on the Lady Bird Lake Stage
Kari Faux is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Los Angeles by way of Little Rock, Arkansas. Although her experimentation with a musical career started back in 2012, Faux has undergone a metamorphosis, shaking the scene with her 2014 mixtape Laugh Now, Die Later – a mixtape that would catapult her musical career, catching the attention of Donald Glover who remixed her hit “No Small Talk.”
Her unique style of rhyming, un-chainable confidence, and dashes of sultry vocal harmonizing make her a force to look out for. Her presence in the music industry marks a resurgence of fearless, outspoken female voices in Hip Hop; an attitude Faux exudes in all mediums of creative work.
Her first studio album, Lost En Los Angeles (2015) and her most recent EP Primary (2017) are testaments to her continual evolution as a recording artist and while she explores the limitations of her creative abilities, music is not her only skill set.
With her intentions set of releasing three projects in the coming year, Faux looking to dominate the music festival circuit and has already confirmed her presence supporting Mick Jenkins on his 2019 Pieces of a Man Tour
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Kota the Friend
on the Lady Bird Lake Stage
OTA The Friend is a hip hop artist and musician from Brooklyn, NY. At an early age he found his love for music and hip hop, R & B, Jazz and Soul music during the infamous 90’s era. By the time young KOTA was 8 years old he joined his schools music program and excelled as a trumpet player. In high school KOTA was the leader of the trumpet section while teaching himself to play the guitar and piano. During this time he also picked up two weekend jobs to build a home studio where he would record hip hop tracks as well as folk songs that were accompanied by his guitar playing. After high school, KOTA would later go on to attend schools for the performing arts. Mastering instrument after instrument, he is a guitarist, keyboardist, and bass player, now producing/writing his own music.
KOTA has been releasing music non-stop and has since been featured by XXL magazine, FADER, BILLBOARD, Pigeons & Plans, HipHopDX, NYLON, The Source, MILK, and many other blogs. But more than anything, he continues to make music for the people that need it…Look for a new Kota Album dropping in June 2019
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Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers
at the Mohawk
Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers are Laura Jane Grace, Atom Willard, and Marc Jacob Hudson. Grace is a musician, author, and activist best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me! Willard, also of Against Me!, is a drummer who has played in iconic punk bands such as Rocket from the Crypt, Social Distortion, and The Offspring. Devouring Mothers bassist Hudson is a recordist and mixer at Rancho Recordo, a recording studio and creative space in the woods of Michigan, and the sound engineer for Against Me!
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Lil’ Mosey
at Stubb’s
.
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Questlove Gaming Party
at The Main
SXSW Gaming will team up with the creators behind Blankos Block Party, Mythical Games, to host this year’s SXSW Gaming Opening Party on Friday, March 15th! As a teaser to the Blankos release, attendees will be treated to a curated remix of cool music, art culture, rare collectibles and social meet-ups. Blankos Block Party will premiere at SXSW Gaming with a “First Look” showcase featuring a DJ set by world-renowned musicologist Questlove. Influencers and party-goers alike will be the first in the world to meet the fun-filled characters of Blankos and playtest the game! There will also be SXSW exclusives throughout the night, including limited edition Blankos card deck giveaways that will grant one-off collectible Blankos characters redeemable before the global release of the game. Lucky attendees might also uncover an exclusive card that grants ownership to Blankos skins designed by notable artists JPK and Dan Lish, or even the Golden Ticket, a one-off Golden Blanko!
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Vacationer
at the Lustre Pearl
The third full-length from Vacationer, Mindset is built on delicate melodies and crystalline rhythms that seem to alter the very texture of the world around you. Ornately composed but breezy in energy, Vacationer’s warm-hearted dream-pop perfectly mirrors frontman Ken Vasoli’s intentions in making the album. “The objective was to write songs that remind me how my brain needs to operate for my own wellbeing and happiness,” Vasoli says. “That’s where the title comes from—the record’s filled with all these reminders that put me in a good mindset for the day.”
Despite its often-euphoric effect, Mindset began in frustration for Vasoli. After countless false starts on the follow-up to 2014’s Relief, the Philadelphia-based musician decided to completely upend his creative approach. While Vacationer’s previous albums came to life in close collaboration with fellow members Matthew Young and Grant Wheeler, Vasoli shifted his focus from songwriting to production and worked entirely on his own for months on end. During that time, he immersed himself in exploring the nuances of Ableton and analyzing the construction of beloved albums by artists like the Beach Boys, Barry White, and Curtis Mayf
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