SXSW is one of the most prestigious music, film, and interactive events. We submitted a few panels we hope you find them interesting, and if you do please support us by voting for them; it only takes a couple of minutes.
iPhone 2.0, Android, Flash Lite 3.0, Streaming Video, Electronic Wallets, … Mobile technology is growing rapidly and becoming an intrinsic part of consumer mentality. Hear the experts discuss the role of mobile in today’s lifestyle, discuss emerging technology, and predict national and international trends.
Entertaining and informative event where evangelists from industry top players try to defend their products in a competitive death match. Flash, Silverlight, Ajax, AIR, Gears, Curl, WPF, many familiar names, but which one is the best solution for your particular needs? This intense event will reveal the answer.
Panel 3: YourOn.TV – How to Battle Mainstream Media (by Freddie Laker, Adobe, Justin.TV, LonelyGRL inventors)
Online entertainment is changing- online broadcasting tools are allowing everyday people to produce high quality content and distribute it with tools beyond YouTube like Adobe Media Player. Learn from the creators of famous internet content, the new internet celebrities, and the makers of the tools making it possible to compete against mainstream broadcasters. Leading internet celebrities will be available to answer a wide range of questions.
I fancy myself a bit of a music fanatic. I’m one of those obsessive compulsive types that organizes his music by genre and sub-genre and then decides the next week to sort my music by the order in which I first heard it. Think of the book/movie High Fidelity and then replace the record collection with an MP3 collection. (Sadly, I did have the records once too, but opted to digitize them all.)
I hope you enjoy this cross section of 5 albums you probably haven’t hear but should be listening to. It covers the full gambit of musical taste and should satisfy any night out unless you’re a country music fan. If you are a country music fan, please leave my blog now.
Cut Copy – Ghost Colours
Cut Copy, an Australian band, have brought one of my favorite sounds to the modern age: new wave. This fun album mixes a bit of New Order, older The Cure, with a healthy influence of modern electronica and house. It hit #1 on the Australian charts and has proved to be a slow starter here, but everyone I show it to loves it. The song below is titled Out There On The Ice from the Ghost Colours album.
Santogold – Lights Out
You may have heard of this one. If you haven’t you don’t read up on music very often as she’s been called the artist to watch in 2008 by the BBC, Spin, and Rolling Stone. My favorite thing about this album is that it seems to have so many different styles from songs that remind of Siouxsie and the Banshees to dirty bassy funk. She toured with M.I.A. at one point and you might hear a track that let’s you understand why that pairing would make sense. If you’re looking for something fresh and new then this is a good album for you.
The song below is called L.E.S. Artists and it’s one of the first singles off her debut album.
She Wants Revenge – This Is Forever
She Wants Revenge’s last album was one of my favorite releases of the last two years. It’s like Bauhas reborn, but in my opinion bigger, bolder, and better. Their debut single Tear You Apart really got my attention. The new album which came out this year is equally worthy with a slight evolved sound. Something about the singers voice really appeals to me and this band easily fits onto my gothic guilty pleasure list.
The video below is from the single True Romance off the new album.
CSS – Donkey
CSS, like She Wants Revenge, was one of my favorite releases of last year. This quirky band from Brazil released a raw unapolagetic album filled with electric riffs, fast beats, and dirty vocals. It was crude and amateurish and I LOVED IT.
The second album, Donkey, is far more polished. It’s obvious that they got the attention of a top quality producer now that they’re so many records. I missed the rawness of the first album, but after taking the time to listen to it a couple more times I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a great album. You’re just better off if you don’t compare the two…
Rat is Dead is the first video single from the album Donkey.
Etro Anime – See The Sound
In the interest of not being predictable I’m going to mention an album that is three years old. Somehow it slipped past my radar so I’m going to guess it slipped past yours too. Etro Anime featuring Lissette Alea’s exquisite vocals can be described as a kind of electro-trip-hop smoothed out with a few jazz elements.
The album rounds out my top 5 list with something you want to play laying in bed as easily as you’d want to hear while entertaining friends. I love the sound and I think they’re just one of those unlucky bands whose album came out at the wrong time, because it’s lack of recognition is not for a lack of matching talent.
Watch Endless from their 2005 release. It’s probably one of the poppier tracks of the album. If you want to get a little deeper search for some of their other songs.
While I was in London I noticed these very interesting ads running on the video screens on the tube. They appeared to be dynamically updated with recent photos of the new British Airways Terminal 5 addition at Heathrow to show how open and quick the terminal was processing passengers.
Conceptually I think this is a great campaign idea. It’s fun, appears to be honest transparent advertising, and uses technology/media in an innovative manner.
It appears they’re updating the print campaign with fresh images on a daily basis when applicable as well.
This campaign was developed by BBH and Agency.com.
Check out the video below where it shows the terminal from 10 AM that day (or potentially the day before) being displayed in the tube’s video screens. Fun stuff with a nice little musical interlude from the guitarist at the bottom of the escalator.
The thing I find most fascinating about this is the new opportunities it creates in terms of updating the digital signage on a frequent basis. I wasn’t aware that media companies were willing to allow frequent updates of this magnitude. What else could we do that is that relevant and gets people’s attention on a daily basis? My notepad is already filling up….
"Take Me To Your Leader" focuses on trend watching in consumer behaviors, marketing, technology, and social media, but is often led astray by its eccentric authors and their love of music, traveling, random thoughts, and pirates.
