NowPublic@SXSW2008: Austin City Limits, Lightspeed Champion, The Spinto Band

Word from the eclectic locals I've spoken to so far (who have been, for the most part, taxi drivers), is that SXSW brings in $80 million a year to the city of Austin. Although it may be the highest grossing, however, it is by no means the largest cultural event that occurs in this city ever year.

That honour goes to none other than the blockbusting, three day music blowout that is the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Even if you've never been to the festival itself, you may know Austin City Limits in its other incarnation -- as a successful and fabulously long-running televised music performance series that airs weekly on PBS.   

In fact, since I've been in Austin these past few days, I've had the opportunity to catch a couple of great performances on the show by big-name bands like The Killers and Spoon. The list of performers to grace the ACL television studio stage over the past 33 years reads like a definitive who's who of popular music. From contemporary artists like Cat Power, Beck and Damian Marley, to classic musicians like Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, and Neil Young, nearly any artist you can possibly imagine seems to have rocked it at Austin City Limits.

For that reason alone, I was excited that yesterday evening's plan was to attend a "Weird & Wired" event being held by PBS at, you guessed it, the television studio where the ACL magic happens.

To my surprise, there were live peformances by two very promising musical acts:

Lightspeed Champion

Lightspeed Champion is the alter ego of avid broken-hearted blogger, current musicoblogospherica dahling, ex-Test Icicle member, and wonderful songwriter Devonte Hyne, who is currently signed to Domino Records.

Performing as a simple two-piece with acoustic guitar and violin, Lightspeed Champion played a series of alternatingly sad and hopeful love songs to a seated audience that quietly listened while munching on Mexican food and sipping gratis lime margaritas.  

Despite the mellow setting, the two quickly won over the room with their highly melodic, if melancholic music and they acknowledged the slight awkwardness of the event by encouraging everyone to check out one of their many other showcases taking place over the next week here at SXSW. Seriously, they are going to be everywhere.

Lightspeed left the stage stating their anticipation for the next band to perform, which turned out to be the fantastic highlight of the weekend.

The Spinto Band

Let me be the first to admit that, up until last night, I had never heard of the Spinto band. Until they actually hit the stage, I had been asking people if they had heard of this Splinter band -- which was met with little more than blank stares. But when they finally started playing I could not believe that I hadn't heard  their music before.

The Spinto Band are a six-piece pop group who instantly and joyously recall the best of Talking Heads, Pavement, and The Flaming Lips, while magically defining their own sound, which is defined by the lighthearted, loveable interplay between the band's members, several of whom take turns singing lead vocals, while the rest of the band oohs and aahs in sweet harmonies.

The group plays with a level of poise and precision that I have not seen in a live act in a very long time. Although none of the band's members appears to be older than about 20, the Spinto Band's site states that the group has been around for eight years and has self-released seven albums.

This would seem impossible were it not for the flawless execution of the band's performance and the wonderfully complex simplicity of their songwriting.

The band is originally from Delaware but they are currently based in Los Angeles, where they're recording a new record, which I hope and expect will be heard by many.

And they absolutely rocked the house last night. From opening number to final encore, they played a Sunday night SXSWi like it was the final performance of their career. I loved it.

So look out for big things from these guys. They are going to be a musical force to be reckoned with.

And Lightspeed Champion agrees with me: "We just played with The Spinto Band who i'm convinced are the best band in the world...seriously."

Etsy/Flosstradamus

After that, it was hard to carry on to another party, but I did manage a bit of a bemused smile on hearing Flosstradamus throw down a mega mashed up, crunked out DJ set at the "People Powered Party" put on by Etsy, Threadless, and Moo. 

It seems that you can take anything from the classic rock of CCR to the prototypical gangster rap of NWA and, as long you speed it up and add an electro break to it, you too can make an ironic 2008 dancefloor smash.

Fun and funny as that is for about five minutes, it just can't compare to the joy of discovering new bands whose songs transport you somewhere other than an 80s high school movie or a Kanye/DaftPunk video.

And that's my word.