Heading to Texas for SXSW 2024

Garage rock, modern cumbia, post-rock nihilism, reflections on fame and fortune, world-class barbecue: let's go

At the 2024 South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas from March 8-16, panelists and presenters will discuss a wide range of ideas on education, technology, cannabis, climate, gaming, television, film, and equity and social justice, and more than 1,400 artists will perform live music at more than 100 venues. Roughly 300,000 people will descend upon Austin for this year’s festival.

I will be one of those 300,000 people. I’ve gone to SXSW a handful of times over the years to write about the festival, first for Mother Jones Magazine, then The Economist, and in recent years for GRAMMY.com.

My trips to SXSW typically have the same trajectory: I show up energized, with an empty notebook, ready to learn new things, meet new people, excited to hear new music, craving Texas barbecue. By the end of the week, my notebook is completely full, my ears are ringing, the insane crowds are making me feel claustrophobic, my feet hurt, and I’m craving food that does not taste like mesquite wood.

SXSW is A LOT. And I dig all of it.

I previewed this year’s festival for GRAMMY.com. Now I’m off to Austin and will re-cap the week in a follow-up story next week.

I’m excited to see a new documentary film on multiple GRAMMY award-winning garage rock band The Black Keys, who will also perform live in Austin.

Another new documentary film explores the journey of Mogwai, a Scottish post-rock band that formed in 1995 and has released 10 albums mostly full of lengthy, guitar-driven instrumental songs. Their 2014 release, “Rave Tapes,” was the biggest-selling vinyl album in the UK that year.

It’s completely insane to try and sift through 1,400 artist profiles and decide which live performances to attend: sometimes a band photo stands out, or a genre — like indigenous punk — sounds intriguing. Sometimes I’m on my way to see one band but hear cool music coming from a club that stops me in my tracks, so I change my plans on the spot and go in.

This year, I will definitely check out the post-punk nihilism of Automatic, the modern Texas cumbia of El Combo Oscuro, funk legend Bootsy Collins, the Colombian psych-funk of BALTHVS, the modern, all-female string quartet Vulva Voce, and classic hip-hop from Slick Rick The Ruler.

Also on my to-do list at SXSW 2024: listen to John Oates of Hall & Oates talk about fame and music and hopefully contextualize the pending lawsuit, hear dozens of people talk about how AI is disrupting the music industry, watch a new documentary about the creative partnership between Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the members of The Mars Volta, At The Drive-In and De Facto, and listen to new hip-hop from Kneecap and the retro-soul music of Brainstory.

Loads of bands also play “unofficial” shows during the festival: I’m hoping to catch Cleveland space rock band Factual Brains and the jazz-hop side project of Black Pumas keyboardist JaRon Marshall.

Post a comment if you know of an interesting band or presenter I should check out in Austin next week.

My MUSIC NERD SWSW 2024 playlist is up on Spotify:

Thanks for reading and listening!