What does SXSW do for Austin?

According to the organisers, this year's SXSW festival brought in USD315 million to the Austin economy - although that figure excludes things that take place outside the official banner of the festival. (I don't think they're just talking about the dealers here.)

It also generates getting on for USD80million worth of positive coverage about Austin:

In addition to injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, SXSW 2014 also provided Austin with extraordinarily valuable media coverage. Since its inception, SXSW has played a critical role in helping position Austin as a place where creativity and commerce are mutually valued, nurtured, and networked.

In other words, SXSW is pretty much responsible for the "well, except for Austin, I guess" rider people will add when they talk, shuddering, about What Texas Is Like.

Grim news from SXSW

Horrible news from SXSW in Austin overnight, as a car has ploughed into a crowd waiting outside the Mohawk club.

ABC News is reporting two dead; five critically injured.

It appears the driver was being pursued by police before he drove into queue. KVUE reports:

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers initially tried to pull over the driver at a gas station on the Interstate 35 service road. The driver fled the wrong way down Ninth Street, which is a one-way street, and turned onto Red River, hitting pedestrians at a "high rate of speed." Officers say the driver is in custody.

Embed and breakfast man: The Cure

Less keen on Depeche Mode? How about The Cure, then, also from this weekend's Austin City Limits festival:

Embed and breakfast man: Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode played Austin City Limits this weekend. Here's the whole thing:

Producerobit: Joe Gracey

Joe Gracey, a massively influential figure in Austin's music scene (and beyond) has died.

Gracey took a hand at most parts in the great musical dance during a forty year career; more-or-less inventing progressive country as a genre during his time as a DJ in the 70s; writing, producing and playing bass for bands (including his wife's, Kimmie Dawson). He also co-ordinated the talent for the very first Austin City Limits.

Joe Gracey, who was 61, had fought cancer more than once - an operation in 1977 had left him unable to talk; the Austin Statesman reports that it was cancer which took his life.

Glenn Danzig wants soup

You'd probably regret booking Glenn Danzig for anything, but even more so if he turned up and was a bit of a dick. Boy, was he a bit of a dick at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin:

arrived in Austin on Friday morning and said it was too cold, he had a cough and he wasn’t going to play. He then demanded vitamins, French onion soup and a Wendy’s chicken sandwich, keeping his intentions unclear as the temperature climbed to 71 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, with a projected evening low of the mid- to high-50s.

After hours of negotiation with Danzig’s agents, including the provision of stage heaters and an on-site doctor, the promoters say they were assured that the show would go on – but as of the 8:15pm set time, Danzig still refused to play, citing the weather, his "deathbug" and his unhappiness with the stage specs, all of which had reportedly been approved months in advance and by his crew on Friday. He finally relented and took the stage at 9 p.m., now faced with a 10 p.m. curfew and a 45-minute set time reduction. He immediately declared to the crowd that he was "fucking freezing," and proceeded to play a set that, while full of energy and effort by his bandmates, elicited comments on Twitter that compared it to "Danzig karaoke."

Curiously, the Facebook post Rolling Stone links to as being the FFF organiser's side of events has been revised to read merely "kitty litter" - presumably a reference to pictures of Danzig buying cat-poo-materials earlier this year.

In other FFF news, Rakim had to pull out of the second day with a broken foot; he was replaced by Kool Keith.

Jay Reatard beaten in Austin

On Wednesday night, Jay Reatard was playing Emos in Austin when the set went a little awry, as the Austin Statesman reports:

While the set had all the makings of a fun night of pop-punk, it was sadly abridged at only 40 minutes — less than the opening performance by Austin’s own Harlem — after two rowdy fans attacked Reatard on-stage shortly after he announced he was playing the night’s final song. He retaliated by swinging his microphone stand and departed mid-song, giving the at-times rambunctious audience the finger as he exited the stage. There was to be no encore — the lights went up and the PA music kicked in as the two intruding fans were arrested by police outside the club’s Sixth Street entrance.

There's an official statement:

“Jay was attacked, totally unprovoked, by two different people, both of whom were later arrested. One guy bolted onstage and came swinging at Jay, but security took him away pretty quickly. Soon after (the band hadn’t stopped playing, by the way), another guy sprinted onstage and hit Jay. Unlike the first guy, Jay didn’t even see this guy coming. So Jay defended himself with the mic stand until security took that guy away, too. Jay is safe and unhurt, and the cops were there for about an hour afterwards.”

And there have been two arrests as a result of the scufflage. Neither were of Reatard, it's worth mentioning.

White Stripes leave Austin

The White Stripes have pulled their Saturday appearance at the Austin City Limits festival, citing "medical reasons". No further information - sciatica? temporary colour blindness? - is forthcoming.

High School Re-Uniform

North America is about to get a warm, salty blast of Brighton's Pipettes all over their lucky faces, and they've just released an expanded tour schedule of the whats and whens and whys:

March 10 - Toronto The Rivoli
11, 12 - Brooklyn, Luna lounge
13 - New York Bowery Ballroom
15 - Austin Flamingo Cantina
16 - Austin Emo's Pitchfork party
17 - Austin Beauty Bar Patio Austin

Obviously, the Austin dates are all part of SXSW, and somewhat disappointingly it doesn't look as if you can actually get food at the Flamingo Cantina. We wonder, just what is the best place for Mexican food in Austin?

SXSW: We're not for fans, and we won't tell you who's playing

Brent Grulke from SXSW has upset half of the population of Texas and much of the music world with an interview in the Austin Chronicle. He was challenged on why the usual longlist of performers at the festival has yet to appear:

BG: The largest thing is we're not trying to promote to consumers at all, and we want to be able to put out an accurate list. Once we put any kind of list out, we get all kinds of demand for it, people trying to figure out, "Oh, I need to get there; I need to get to this venue." We also get artists saying, "Oh my God, how can you have us competing with this, competing with that?"

Instead of releasing acts piecemeal, it makes more sense to get as good a sense as we can of all the acts we want to invite and put together a schedule that makes the most sense, we believe, for the largest number of people attending. The thinking was that it didn't do us any great favors having this information available earlier, because it creates this huge, huge, huge consumer buzz, and then we'll get so many phone calls of people saying, "Can I get tickets to the Stooges?" These things take up a tremendous amount of our energy and resources.

DoneWaiting's SXSW blog explains why Grukle's plans to withhold band details until the last minute is a bad move; further commentary is offered by, erm, commenters.