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Instead, the Propellerheads' onslaught of booming breakbeats, live bass and drums, and dizzying turntable wizardry--which entertained a gyrating crowd of about 1,000--served solely as a buzzed-about diversion in a festival that insiders look to annually for a forecast of the music biz's coming trends. The band's performance and its forthcoming debut, Decksanddrumsandrockandroll (Dreamworks), signify a broadening of popular music's scope that was apparent throughout SXSW '98, which brought together 600 acts from around the world. Yet traditionalism was just as prevalent during this five-day gathering. Singer-songwriters strummed their guitars and sang about love gone wrong. Blues and country bands played heartfelt dirges and dust-bowl ballads. Well-known rock groups tested new material as upstarts vied for recognition. DJs dug deep into their crates to incite dancing amid SXSW's notoriously skeptical audiences. Hip-hop MCs rapped in earnest. Experimental musicians twiddled knobs and explored sonic possibilities. Bands offering something new did so mostly by combining elements from the past. In one of the more inventive performances, Los Angeles' Ozomatli worked up a pastiche consisting of Latin percussion, a forceful horn section, Cut Chemist's cinematic turntable sounds and vocal styles ranging from ragamuffin toasting to salsa-fied crooning. But Ozomatli, like so many performers at SXSW, didn't fit neatly into any preordained category. Alt-country, electronica's former rival for trend du jour, seemed just as skewed and unfocused. Young proponents of the High Lonesome Sound were as likely to play with reverence--as did Jesse Dayton, Kelly Willis and dozens more--as they were to add a postmodern touch, à la the Handsome Family, Portland's Golden Delicious and, well, dozens more. The daytime panels and trade show, which took place in the architecturally sterile and modernist Austin Convention Center, also struggled to formulate an identity. Discussion topics centered on everything from how media consolidation plagues radio to the increasing popularity of movie soundtracks to advertising's suspicious role in the music industry to the future of electronica. In the trade show, a cadre of booths hawking multimedia companies, alternative newsweeklies and magazines, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and individual nations' music scenes also failed to pinpoint any unified movement in the $12 billion-a-year record industry. The panel "Latin Music at the Crossroads" would have better served the event had it dropped the "Latin" from its title and ascertained where music is going in general. Then again, it probably couldn't have. There's no new Nirvana. The Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy established electronica as a niche in the past two years, when many expected them to spark a phenomenon. Music fans' adoration of alt-country is more of an ongoing grassroots effort than a genuine industry juggernaut. Hip-hop, jazz, ska, Latin, blues, folk, rock and punk idioms increasingly crosspollinate, but so far without any cataclysmic results. SXSW '98 produced no Next Big Thing, be it a band or an entire genre. To the festival attendees who danced with abandon to the Propellerheads or listened attentively to the latest batch of Sonic Youth songs or marveled at the resourcefulness of singer-songwriter vets Billy Bragg and Robyn Hitchcock, such a distinct message wasn't necessary. One of popular music's most mystifying and vital powers is its ability to exact major cultural shifts not in the vacuum-like atmosphere of Austin during SXSW, but from the basements, garages and music venues in places like Seattle, New York, London, Bristol or Paris--usually when we least expect it. Portland Postscript: To clarify an item that appeared in last week's column about the departure of Dandy Warhols co-founder Eric Hedford, the drummer opted to leave the band stemming from disagreements between him and lead vocalist-guitarist Courtney Taylor. "Our relationship has been deteriorating over the last eight months," the drummer says of his longtime liaison with musical mate Taylor. "I felt it was best for both of us [if] I stepped aside." Hedford continues to perform as DJ Aquaman Thursdays and Fridays at Saucebox. |
