Joe Ely sat plucking an acoustic guitar next to Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas, who sang in Spanish from behind sunglasses in the dimly lit taco stand. Behind them, Rosas’ bandmate, David Hidalgo, puttered on a snare drum. Steve Earle ambled up and dug deep for a haunting version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty,” while the guitarist known as Teye embroidered everything with flamenco jewels.
It had all the formality of a back porch guitar pull, where a bunch of musicians get together and trade songs, stories, a few laughs and maybe a bottle or two. And it was one of the reasons the semi-official South by Southwest Music and Media Conference is challenging the official event for the attention of music lovers.
The conference, which concluded its 14th year last weekend, clearly has outgrown its homespun roots. Once it lured talent scouts and journalists with the promise of presenting unsigned, untested or up-and-coming bands. Now it’s one of the largest cogs in the industry machine, a showcase for the big record companies and their new releases.
But a network of semi-sanctioned events and rogue gatherings of musicians, fans, journalists and others bored with the same-old-same-old has given the Austin, Texas-based behemoth a fresh shot of creative energy — not to mention some serious hangovers. Conferencegoers spent the week e-mailing one another with news about parties instead of panels at the Austin Convention Center, which has the personality of an aircraft hangar. With Chicago labels and clubs such as Bloodshot and Schubas presenting bands, beer and a glimpse of sunshine, the convention center panels looked less enticing than ever.
– Here’s a brief rundown of highlights from both sides of South by Southwest 2000:
– Most ridiculous statement: Rykodisc president George Howard described the insertion of a song by the late Nick Drake in a television commercial as “a beautiful thing” and a means of “developing the catalog” of the singer. Never mind that Drake hated all such attempts to market his music when he was alive.
– The industry’s biggest tactical error? MCA president Jay Boberg said it’s the foot-dragging over reaching an agreement on a format for downloading music off the Internet. “We have to get something up in a year or else we’ll have a generation out there who expects to keep downloading songs for free. The longer we wait, the less willing they will be to pay for music down the road.”
– “The $14 CD is dead — the Internet killed it”: So says Public Enemy rapper and Internet enterpreneur Chuck D.
– Biggest bust: In 1990, the “Wake Up America: You’re All Dead” panel at the New Music Seminar stirred up waves of resentment over how black artists in Chicago and Detroit had seen their music exploited, largely by white businessmen. The sequel, again helmed by British gadfly Tony Wilson, tried to do the same by calling the new wave of Internet entrepreneurs “cheats, thieves and robbers” for opening the door to free music on the Web. But no one seemed particularly outraged, in part because the idea of “cheats, thieves and robbers” exploiting musicians predates the arrival of the Internet by nearly a century.
– On how to tick off Lou Reed, part 2,103: At a panel recounting the life of the late Velvet Underground guitarist and University of Texas English professor Sterling Morrison came a juicy anecdote about his relationship with Reed (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Upon writing his soon-to-be classic “Sweet Jane,” Reed presented the song to Morrison for a reaction. Morrison, who always claimed the last great rock ‘n’ roll song was “Louie, Louie,” listened and frowned. “What’s with the fourth chord, Lou?”
– New York Times critic Ann Powers on thinking she had made a deep connection with Tori Amos during an interview: “I found out she does that with everybody. She’s a total bonding slut.”
– Singer-songwriter Peter Case on MP3 mania: “My career doesn’t exist on a screen or as a piece of information. It’s about singing songs to people in a room.”
– Roger McGuinn on rejecting a recent offer to reunite the Byrds and how it relates to the father of Melissa Etheridge’s child: “David Crosby is telling everyone he wants [the reunion] to happen. He has this business model where he likes to spread himself out — he’s polygamous about rock bands and a few other things too.”
– With apologies to Liz Phair: Spin publicist Jason Roth nailed the vibe at the conference upon surveying the biker wannabes at Nebula’s gong-burning showcase. “Now I know,” he said, “where `Guyville’ went.”
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Hear Greg Kot on “Sound Opinions at 10 p.m. every Tuesday on WXRT (93.1 FM)
