Rebecca Smeyne

Hoping these guys will be back in 2010 too.

Mere days away from Art Basel Miami, and our cold-weather-escaping reverie has already shifted to March 17-21, 2010 in Austin, Texas, where "the creative capital of the entire world" will relocate temporarily to seek out polarizing acts who will be debated, celebrated, overrated, and swiftly e-descrated. SXSW's first lengthy announcement was put out last week, but mostly lost among the cranberry sauce, and so far the highlights are solid, but deliberately unsurprising (Frightened Rabbit, Japandroids, Nicole Atkins and the Sea, Robyn Hitchcock, Waco Brothers, Deer Tick). Those representing our fair metropolis are the usual suspects (Aa, Arms a/k/a Todd Goldstein from the Harlem Shakes, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, We Are Scientists), and a few wholly subjective standouts on the master list include Beijing experimental rock exports PK-14 and Carsick Cars; Fanfarlo, one of the few memorable things from this year's CMJ; longtime personal faves the Coathangers. The full list of 230 or so names who're slated to play next year's faux-industry jubilee are below, with arbitrarily bolded, NY-centric highlights (un)helpfully added.

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One of you out there owes no-wave ladymen Mika Miko $300 for dumping whiskey on their amp in Brooklyn, weekend before last. They had no idea you'd gotten all drunk and tilt-a-whirly and poured liquor on their gear, so they turned it on, and KABLOOEY. Since you weren't wo/man enough to fess up when this happened, perhaps you would consider anonymously donating some money to their PayPal account, created specifically for the purpose of helping them recoup the unexpected, mid-tour loss of three Jeffersons. Here's the PayPal e-mail address and everything (johnsonrcool@gmail.com), along the MySpace bulletin where they bemoan your sorry hit-and-run self. Now do the right thing, will ya?

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Two parallel but related developments emerging from the existence of Southerngold, the ace Santigold/southern rap mash-up mixtape created by Brooklyn's Terry Urban. The first is a scandal: on the eve of Southerngold's "release"--i.e., Monday night, when Urban was sitting at his desk in Brooklyn on the verge of "uploading the mix to YouSendIt.com"--a cease and desist order came over the transom from Downtown Records, Santigold's label. The same Downtown Records that's home to Gnarls Barkley--featuring the dude who made the most famous illegal outlaw mix ever, The Grey Album--and a bunch of others (Spankrock, Justice, etc.) who might plausibly be described as forward thinking when it comes to sample clearances. Oh, right, and Santigold herself, who as Urban points out in a heartbroken blog post, ain't exactly a paragon of originality either:

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As if you needed more reasons to love the Dirty Projectors. With yesterday's mail came the official Domino press copy of Bitte Orca, an extraordinary gossamer of a record that snooty music jerks and press flacks will not be able to STFU come week after next, as they pre-emptively christen it #2 of 2009 after Merriweather Post Pavilion. Digital version has been floating around for nearly two months, but the Projectors team found a way to make the CD-arrival process exciting--it also came with Bitte Orca on tape. When you see me in Bed-Stuy driving a first-gen Beetle and blasting "Temecula Sunrise," you better wave.

Left to right: Stevie Wonderbread, Edith Pilaf, Trey Bananastasio

What's that, you don't have Summer Fridays, either? Yeah, so here is Food'lebrities, a blog of deliciously absymal celebrity puns that will be, realistically, the only other thing on the Internet besides Facebook and Assteroids that you'll be able deal with for what's left in the day. Credit/blame at least partially goes to Alex Billig of Brooklyn band the Eskalators, who somehow got a Washington Post food blog to devote a whole 700-plus words to this eyerolling ridiculousness last week. If Dennis Whopper, Olivia Crouton-John, and Milk Shake Guevara aren't your cup of Ice Tea (oh God), you are encouraged to submit your own. "I'm actually considering making a blog of rejected food'lebrities, because often times they are funnier than the real ones," Billig told the Post. Can't hardly wait. In the meantime, here is Goudacris:

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