​Village Voice SXSW Showcase
Red Eyed Fly, Austin
Saturday, March 17

Better than: Drinking green beer on Sixth Street.

During South by Southwest, musicians, industry folks, and people who want to have a particularly music-filled spring break head to Austin in order to soak in the less-threatening March sun and sift through hundreds of sets played at any open space that can fit people and an amp. The Voice returned to the capital city for an 18-band showcase at Red Eyed Fly, just a couple blocks from Sixth Street. The bar, which has indoor and outdoor stages, was beginning to show its SXSW wear and tear; incense burned inside in an effort to cover up the week long build-up of stale liquids.

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For this week's cover story, Bill Jensen shadowed comedian/actor/emo rapper Donald Glover. For your enjoyment, we present this deleted scene.

Donald Glover is in Austin preparing to host the MTVu Woodies--an "awards" show which is really just an excuse to gather a bunch of bands and to represent MTV at SXSW. Glover has brought the shaggy-haired Pierson to be his writing partner and help him with the script for the one-hour show.

Foo Fighters are performing soundcheck, and Tyler from Odd Future just picked up a guy in a chicken suit onstage and slammed him to the ground, possibly breaking his arm.

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photo by Nate "Igor" Smith

Texan frat-boy didgeridoos

We know you hated us, and at this moment, we hate ourselves too. Since you probably (definitely/rightfully) blocked all the spirited gluttony and gleeful ignorance cluttering your Twitter feed about SXSW, let's just accept that a few things happened in Texas that you will see frequently referenced and should probably know about for the sake of conversation, along with many displays of bad behavior. Our highly subjective, largely exhausted, and mostly humorless primer to the thing that just happened in Austin.

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You don't have to go home, Tyler, but you can't stay here. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Another SXSW is in the books, granting great relief to those of us who were just subjected to five straight days of partying-related Twitter updates, and great sorrow to those who became accustomed to the 80 degree weather and not getting snowed on in freezing cold New York City. But all things must come to an end, even for Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator, who had to go home to his mom's house like all the rest of Austin's expatriate population come Monday morning. Our recap of the actual festival is to follow; in the meantime, intrepid photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there and brought back photos. Many involve people breaking things in convention centers (or maybe that's just Das Racist?). Either way, her selected photos are below (you can see the rest in full at our at our slideshow):

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photo by Nate "Igor" Smith

I Am Donald Tour (Donald Glover/Childish Gambino)
Red 7 in Austin (SXSW)
Saturday, March 19

Fuck Rap Cool.

If there was any message Childish Gambino, the rap alter ego of actor/improv comedian/joke writer Donald Glover, wanted to relay to the audience at Red 7, it was that.

Fuck Rap Cool.

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Wu-Tang, who else? All photos by Nate "Igor" Smith

​The Wu-Tang/Wild Flag encore of champions never quite went off the way we hoped it would, but Donald Glover's rapping alter-ego Childish Gambino did make a cameo appearance, Yelawolf took off his shirt, and fireworks shot off down the block, where the Strokes were entertaining those who couldn't quite make it into the Austin Music Hall. Put another successful SXSW party--this one starring not just the aforementioned Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf, and Wild Flag, but also Fishbone, Trae Tha Truth, Marz Lovejoy, Rocky Business, Trouble Andrew, Ume, and Erykah Badu, who DJed and then performed with the Wu at the end of their 1 a.m. set--in the books. You can read a full report courtesy of our pals in Houston; our intrepid photographer Nate "Igor" Smith was also on the scene. His photos are below.

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Rocky Business at the Mercury Lounge last week. Photo by Nate "Igor" Smith.

​With three weeks to go and counting, we figured we might as well make it official: please join us in welcoming the 2011 Village Voice SXSW party, presented in concert with Frank 151, and starring the Wu-Tang Clan, Fishbone, Yelawolf, Trae Tha Truth, Marz Lovejoy, Rocky Business, Trouble Andrew, Wild Flag, Ume, and a DJ set from Erykah Badu. How about that? We're still pretty fond of last year's line-up (Superchunk, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Surfer Blood, and the xx), but this may well top it. People who have been sentient in the last two decades should need no introduction to Wu-Tang and Fishbone--or to Alabama rap hero Yelawolf or the all-lady post-Sleater-Kinney supergroup Wild Flag, for that matter. And Voice readers should recognize formidable Austin trio Ume too, if not from their lively CMJ stint a year and half back, then at least for their towering frontwoman:

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Well allow him to retort.

Oh my. Beloved SOTC cohort Christopher R. Weingarten, he of the remarkably profane rants against music-blog culture, has ascended to such heights that he has now inspired an SXSW answer panel. This March, get down to Austin, Texas, by any means necessary for... Curatorial Culture: The Case Against Christopher Weingarten. Thesis:

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After chatting backstage at the Village Voice Media SXSW party with Surfer Blood (who told us about their Twittering philosophy), and Pains of Being Pure at Heart (who recounted an innocently embarrassing incident involving a condom), we cornered Merge Records honchos/Superchunk leaders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance to probe them about their best SXSW memories, an Austin club toilet that Mac doesn't miss, and what Superchunk's last show ever would be like. But they insist that such a thing will never happen--at least deliberately. That's good news, right?

Supposed to be a "secret" who's in charge, but all we had to do is ask. The answer is. . . in the video. "A lot of the things I Twitter are the things I hear other dudes say," the Surfer Blood with the password explains. To wit, this gem: "Anyone remember the frozen Han Solo toy? All you could really do with it was lament." Nicest kids ever, in person. Ooh looka the time.