We are down to it.  Whoever stays in American Idol Season 9 goes on the summer long tour. Last night was not a stellar night for American Idol.  I think, for the most part, each contestant had their weakest performance of the season.

We have three Christian music artists remaining.  I thought Michael Lynche’s performance was much better than anyone else on this planet, or so it seems.  It was certainly good enough to keep him on the tour.  Didi Benami was destroyed by the judges but I am pretty sure she stays out of the Bottom 3.  Tim Urban was essentially dismissed by the judges for his performance of “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and he may be in trouble.

My prediction for the bottom three are: Paige Miles, Tim… Continue reading

Amazing what 24 hours, 40 degrees and 30 mph north winds will do.  On Friday night there were easily 50,000 music fans strolling the streets of Austin’s music district.  After a surprise cold front (it was hard enough keeping up with an overload of music greatness and my NCAA bracket, much less the weather) the crowds on Saturday night dropped to 1500.  The clubs were still busy but the streets were quiet.

That did not stop us from continuing our quest to experience great music performed at SXSW 2010 by Christians.  After spending the afternoon shivering in the streets, just missing the artists I wanted to see, we got the evening off to a dance party start with… Continue reading | 2 Comments

I have to admit that up until Firday, I have been pretty disappaointed with SXSW.  Yes, I didnt get a wristband and that most likely is holding me back, but it just seems like I havent been wowed as much this year as 2009.

Then Friday happened

Conditions
Alternative hard rock band Conditions hit the Purevolume stage first thing and rock the crowd’s socks off. If you have never seen the band, they play a fun mix of melodic rock with just enough heavy riffs that makes them fit in with any rock crowd. They were solid from beginning to end, and were able to set the crowd up for another long day of music and fun… Continue reading

The One21music journey on day three of SXSW 2010 was a day of two great bookends with hours of waiting in between.  I started the day this afternoon at the Ramble Creek Recording Studio Day Show and ended the evening in the belly of the SXSW beast with 100,000 in Austin’s music home Red River Street.   In between I noshed on ceviche, watched a mildly interesting R&B act, an entertaining post-rock noise drone band and a scary avant garde minimalist blues racket band; caught-up with the rest of the One21music crew at the HM free evening showcase and wandered the very crowded streets of Austin, Texas.

SXSW is a major music industry conference that attracts music artists, journalists, label executives, agents and government agencies from all over the world.  Sometimes in… Continue reading | 3 Comments

So, maybe Chuck will elaborate on why we are only covering one band today, but let’s just say that day 2 vs. The ONE21 Music let us in the losers corner.

The highlight of the night was A) meeting my wife downtown and B) going to see progressive post-hardcore band La Dispute. They played a small little bar/club called Plush, and the place was completely packed with less than 100 people in the room. Lucky for us, my wife and I were able to stand on some hollow speaker cabs and watch the entire sho with little obstruction.

Now, I have seen La Dispute before, four times actually (twice at Cornerstone Fest in 07, and once here in Austin), but this is the show I always thought… Continue reading

A great start to South by Southwest today.  This global music industry conference is held every March in Austin, Texas and features more than 10,000 music acts over five days.  We are featuring as many of the Christian acts playing the conference as we can manage to see.

Today we started the evening in the sanctuary of one Austin’s downtown churches.  This is a cool place t0  see music.  The setting is beautiful, with dark woods and stained glass, and the acoustics are unbelievable.

Even better, I was able to see the great Jennifer Knapp in the middle of her tour back onto the music scene after a seven year journey to find her muse.  Am I glad she… Continue reading | 1 Comment

If you have been with us for over a year now (first of all, thank you), you will remember that Chuck and I ventured into downtown Austin, Texas for SXSW 2009. We attended the Interactive portion of the festival, and then hit the music portion…hard. All and all we were at SXSW for about 2 weeks, and if you remember we were able to not only see some amazing shows (Wovenhand, Paper Route, Brooke Waggoner, Seabird, Anathallo, just to name a few), but we interviewed Rootbeer, Kaboose, Dignan, Brooke Waggoner, Lecrae, and Tre9. It was an amazing experience, and we had a lot of fun.

It also wore us out. You, see with the exception of some… Continue reading

It is the Monday after the Saturday we finished covering SXSW 09 and all the Christian performers playing the fest.  I’m pretty sore from walking around so much, crouching for pictures, and pushing through crowds.  The strain was worth it though, we saw some great music, met some cool people, and were able to re focus and hone in on what we wanted The One21 to become.

We have been reporting all week from SXSW, but I thought it would be cool to go back through some of the great shows we saw and post some bigger pics.

The first show we saw ended up being one of the best. Anathallo played the Paste Magazine party at around noon on… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Saturday is the last real day of SXSW.  Everyone heads home tomorrow, but there are still a ton of exciting shows tonight (see SXSW Schedule for Saturday). But before we strike out on out on the Saturday night adventure, I have some final thoughts from SXSW 2009:

• I am still buzzing about the thunderous, apocalyptic roar of Wovenhand.  I was up until 4:30 this morning writing my review of the Wovenhand show.  I assure you nothing I could have written would paint the picture of what we saw last night.  They are headed to Europe for a few weeks, so check their tour dates at the Wovenhand mySpace page.  Do not miss a chance to see this amplified roar of worship.
• We spent

Our last day at SXSW started around 1PM at The George Washington Carver Museum. There, we saw a collection of some of the best in Christian hip-hop. Lecrae, Kaboose, Braille, Tre9 and many more hit the tiny stage at a rapid fire pace to a very excited crowd. The problem was that even though we got there close to an hour before the show was supposed to start, the theater was already at capacity, and there were no signs of that ending before the emcees hit the stage.

By chance though, we ran into Tre9, a hip-hop artists himself, but also the creator of DASOUTH.COM, and also the organizer of the event. He quickly was able to help us… Continue reading