Okayplayer's Complete Guide To SXSW 2014

Okayplayer's Complete Guide To SXSW 2014

There's been a lot of talk about this year's SXSW festivities in Austin. So a big thanks to Okayplayer for coming to the rescue to sift through the sounds and bring us this curated guide.

You don't have to travel to the festival to enjoy the fruits of the festival. Here's a chance to discover some new music and expand your listening palette.

Okayplayer's Complete Guide To SXSW 2014

Let's dive right in hip hoppers. kfox.

PERFORMANCE: Sugar Tongue Slim

PERFORMANCE: Sugar Tongue Slim

Take hip hop and SXSW and NPR and wahlah ... funky feel good situation. And that's what we have here with Sugar Tongue Slim at the helm.

With all the hype about SXSW, I still haven't made it to the big dance - and it's not in my foreseeable future. So imagine my surprise to see this posted on the NPR site (originally posted in March 2012). Doesn't make a difference how old it is if it's new to me. Good music has that effect.

You're gonna like this set hip hoppers; and there's a free download of the audio. kfox.

Yours Truly Label Showcase at SXSW

Hope that you all can make this ... if you can't get there, then check the vid.

Yours Truly label showcase at SXSW

Just sharing the love of music hip hoppers. kfox.

Yourstru.ly Presents: BIG K.R.I.T. & Grillade "Hometown Hero" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Hip Hop @ SXSW

South by Southwest is mostly commonly known and written as SXSW. I've never attended, but I am seriously considering it in the near future. Let me tell you why.

If you like music, cool. You will like this. Especially if you like live performances because there are lots of music showcases. If you like movies, cool. They have a section of the conference dedicated to films. Check. And if you are a techie or a gamer, there is an interactive component as well. Now all you have to do is get time off from the j-o-b to enjoy the madness. If you haven't made plans by now, then you aren't going this year. But as we say about the Cleveland Browns, there's always next year ... love my Browns.

Anyway, SXSW is an annual event that takes place in Austin. This year it began on March 13. It will wrap up on Sunday, March 22, 2009.

Nice to know that hip hop is filtered through the SXSW festivities. Especially with this year's Audible Treats SXSW Round Up. There's a pretty good line up of performances from Thursday through Sunday featuring a variety of hip hop artists:

• J*DaVey
• Keelay & Zaire
• Jern Eye
• Fortilive
• Truthlive
• Tanya Morgan
  

I hope to get around to reviewing the Keelay & Zaire as well as the Tanya Morgan. I hope to do that sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, if you can't take part in the event hip hoppers, pop open your music player and get down wit the get down ... kfox

Rootbeer is Pigeon John and Flynn Adam

I love collaborations. Anytime you can get Pigeon John to drop some lines, it is all good. This colab is with Pigeon John and Flynn Adam. Pigeon John has several solo projects including one of my favs, "The Summertime Pool Party". Adam has some star power as a member of LA Symphony and he's a producer as well.

"Girlies" is one of the first singles under the Rootbeer moniker. I love the tempo of this track. It reminds me of something old school. But it's not coming to me at this time. The hook on the song goes like this "girlies hit me up because the homie is famous" and the say that quite a few times. I love simple songs. Meaning you don't need pages and pages of lyrics, but a catchy hook, good beats, nice lyrics. Easy formula. I also like their sense of humor which comes through on this single.

The title track did not do much for me. It has eclectic written all over it. Which is cool, but in this case, I thought that the track was directionless. It was just doing too much and it did not come together. You may feel otherwise, if so, do chime in on this one.

So, Rootbeer's "Pink Limousine" EP is out; released today. And I believe that the fellas will be on the road. But not so fast, it's a west coast tour. And it includes South by Southwest - SXSW; a music festival and conference. That should be nice.

• Check out the tour sked
  
• Check out Rootbeer on MySpace

Their MySpace page has several tracks from "Pink Limousine".

Hip hoppers ... spring is on the horizon. Let's keep it fresh. kfox.