I went to SXSW 2024: Here's what I heard

Recommended listening from this year's festival

My ears are still ringing from attending the 2024 South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Here’s a short artist roundup, culled from roughly 2,000 artists who performed official or unofficial shows last week.

I don’t have a specific rubric for liking artists, but I look for energy and originality, and I definitely lean toward jazz, punk, hip-hop, Latin, and funk-soul, psych-rock, and alternative pop. Here’s a few artists to check out:

Spiritual jazz has bloomed in recent years, and Glasgow-based Mama Terra is one of many groups pursuing earnest, conceptual journeys “through life and the universe.”

Alice Ivy is a German-Australian electronic musician and composer who was a member of a 25-member soul big band in high school and studied music at university in Melbourne.

Tokyo-based Wez Atlas makes catchy, loungy, danceable hip-hop and his rhyming shifts back and forth from English to Japanese. Upbeat and fun:

The London electronic jazz duo O. formed during Covid lockdown and plays a high-octane mix of loud, busy drumming and baritone sax running through heavy amounts of guitar effects pedals. They create a glorious amount of noise and energy for just two people.

Annabelle Chairlegs is a rock band from Austin, Texas that incorporates punk, scuzz rock, and psychedelia into their sound to back up lyrics about ladies in heaven talking to ladies in hell, prostitutes, river sirens, and disgruntled goths.

Brazilian artist Tagua Tagua dabbles in tropical psychedelia, funk, soul, and pop, has toured the US and Europe, and been featured on NPR, KCRW, and KEXP.

Cumbia was blasting throughout SXSW this year (and last year), and every group puts their own spin on the Colombian genre, including the Texas-based Money Chicha:

I’ve added these artists and more SXSW performers — Angelo Moore, WAKE, Dream Nails, LAIR, NOBRO, and Sultan Stevenson — to the MUSIC NERD SXSW 24 playlist on Spotify.