In less than a month, the city of Austin, Texas will be throwing open its doors to tens of thousands of music fans, industry officials and musicians for the annual SXSW music festival and conference. Amongst that number are over thirty Australian artists. Over the course of the next couple of weeks we’ll be profiling these artists, offering a brief introduction to what they’re about and what they have to offer.
Ginger & The Ghost
Ginger and the Ghost are a Sydney based duo who have positioned their style as being as much about the accompanying visuals as the music itself. The track “Where Wolf” has received plenty of love from blogs and radio alike, and they are an impressive live band. Certainly one of the newest Australian bands to be making the jump to the USA, and it should be interesting to see how their visual show translates in the fast paced nature of the SXSW showcase!
Glass Towers
We’re thrilled to see Sydney based quartet give the US a go. The band first came to prominence by being asked to open up the Splendour in the Grass mainstage in 2009, which was followed by a finalist position in the JJJ Unearthed High Competition. They have since released two albums, toured Australia relentlessly and gained a dedicated fan base, thanks to tracks “Jumanji” and “Tonight”. We can’t wait to see how the still young band fair in Austin! Best of luck boys.
Gold Fields
No strangers to the US scene, Gold Fields have been making huge tracks in the North American region over the past year, thanks to a couple of successful tours (including SXSW last year, and Culture Collide in October, when we spoke to the band), so we have no doubt that the next tour will only capitalize on that further. Expect to see their name in big lights overseas in the coming months!
Holy Balm
These RIP Records signees are set to give the US a good go after their record It’s You was released overseas on Not Not Fun Records, and their original late 2012 tour dates were postponed to this run due to those good ‘ol VISA issues. The experimental band are well known around Australia for their live shows, playing alternative festivals like OutsideIn, and performing with bands like Black Dice, Royal Headache and more. Hopefully their reputation will precede them when they arrive in the USA!
Here are their confirmed shows so far at SXSW:
15/3/13 – The Hideout NNF SHOWCASE w/ Samantha Glass, White Poppy, Xander Harris, Rites Wild, Weyes Blood and Maria Minerva!
16/3/13 – Maggie Maes Rooftop Bar Aussie BBQ
Hiatus Kaiyote
Self described as a “independent future soul group”, this Melbourne outfit released their debut LP Tawk Tomahawk to great acclaim last year, and like Holy Balm, have a much raved about live show. They’ve signed up with CAA in the US which should be good news for them, but they still need financial help to get over there. SO! Head along to their crowdsourcing campaign… the’ve raised about $12k of their required $15k and have just 9 days to go!
http://www.facebook.com/events/322681747848946/
Keep your eyes on our SXSW hub at https://www.theaureview.com/event/sxsw and on the official SXSW website http://www.sxsw.com/ for more festival updates.
