Austin – Technically not a SXSW showcase, Voxtrot played at the SXSW Interactive closing party (hosted by Media Temple) on Tuesday night. For me, I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the music portion of my trip then to check out Austin’s favorite Smiths influenced band on their home turf. For those not in the know, Voxtrot became Panic Manual favorites a few years ago with their bouncy pop tune ‘The Start of Something’. Their music can be considered a brand of jangly indie pop.

I would figure that Voxtrot’s showcases at SXSW was because of a new album coming out, but i guess they only have a new song to promote (you can download it for free here ).

The band came on at ten and there was a rather sparse crowd watching them. Most of the people at the party were too busy watching drunk nerds fall off the mechanical bull to catch Ramesh Srivastava’s take on good well crafted pop music. Did I mention this party was an open bar? Anyways, Not having much new material, Voxtrot played a set consisting of tracks from the Raised By Wolves EP , Mothers Daughters Sons and Wives Ep and the self title LP. Despite what I thought was some muffled guitar sounds, the rest of the music was crisp. I don’t know if it’s a curse or not, but it seems like songs off the Raised by Wolves EP are STILL the most popular tracks from the band. Sad to say, they did not play ‘The Start of Something’, but I guess this was realistically just a crowd who was just there for free booze and good tunes. Well, mission accomplished for them.

Toronto – As many of you know, aside from attending the music portion of South By Southwest, I am also attending the Interactive portion as well. I guess being a web developer has it’s perks. Here are some random notes about the interactive weekend so far:

– Everyone bloody twitters. I had no idea this twitter thing was so hot before I came here. I think it’s way more popular then facebook. Everyone tweets each other. I do have to say, once I got a hang of it, twitter is ridiculously addictive. We are #panicmanual on twitter. Follow us.

– Everyone has an iphone.

– If you were a girl who likes pale guys with pony tail, glasses and a goatee, then boy, is SXSW a wet dream for you. I think one out of every 7 guys has this look.

– If you were a girl who likes overweight guys, then honey, this is REALLY the place for you.

– Apple dominates the laptop market. I would say about 60% of people attending talks has a laptop in the room, blogging or tweeting away as the talk goes on. A.D.D is at an all time high here. I am old school, so I went to the panels with a good ole notebook and a pen. Until I won a moleskin at the Adobe stage, then I used the moleskin with the pen.

– “Social Media” is the new hot word at this festival. Everyone talks about the Social Media here, you would think we are all part of some revolution or something.

– I feel a bit out of my element here, despite being a software/web developer, I pay almosts no attention to tech sites on the internet, so when people are laughing it up when a speaker makes fun of techcrunch, or when panelist refer to other internet celebrities by name (some guy named zeldman..or the people who run digg), I feel like a stranger in another world. Maybe I should look into sites that aren’t music or sports or shopping deals or celeb gossip or style related…

– Everyone here is ridiculously nice and easy to talk to. All the free alcohol probably helps.

Party Report
Here are some random thoughts from the parties.
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