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12:33 PM :: SXSW stories.
Andrew's got the story and the photos. Alison has more photos. And here are some of my SXSW stories from previous years (i.e., before the Web and the blogs and the kids with the digital cameras):
1) In 1992, I went to SXSW with the station manager of the college radio station. After getting to the hotel and picking a place to go for dinner, we were driving around Austin and stopped at a red light. In the lane next to ours, up pulls a guy in a souped-up lookin' car. He starts revving the motor and looking over at us, so it's obvious he's gonna take off once the light turns green. The light turns green, we start out into the intersection... and the other guy's motor dies. We start laughing our heads off, and as we get about halfway down the block, the other guy comes tearing up the street behind us, passes us in the other lane, switches to our lane, and then continues tearing up the street. Just to let us know who would have won.
2) I think I mentioned this one before, but we first saw the movie Terminal City Ricochet (with Jello Biafra as one of the bad guys) in Austin. Must have been 1991, because I remember we had a whole bunch of people in attendance. The best part was when they used the Jello song "Message From Our Sponsor" over the end credits. We had all played the song on the radio station many times, and knew the words by heart, and so we sang along, especially during the exclamation at the end of each line: "WILL ... BE ... SHOT!"
3) The famous Happy Family picnic. Somehow, I can't quite remember how, we started hanging out with the Dallas band Happy Family, who recorded one great album for the 50 Skidillion Watts record label and then vanished. They were having a barbecue party in a Texas state park during SXSW, just to get away from the big brou-ha-ha, and we went and had a great time. Grilled chicken, a game of flashlight tag, and the Texas Rangers checking on us every 15 minutes to see if we had any contraband alcohol. (We didn't. Honest, ossifer.)
Okay, but here's the kicker: we left the party early, to go catch some more bands (I think other people were all excited about going to see The Jackofficers, which I believe was a Butthole Surfers side project). Apparently after we left, the Texas Rangers came back, and were hassling the partygoers again. At some point, the young (5-year-old?) son of MC Kostek, one of the founders of 50 Skid, goes up to the Texas Ranger and says "Hi, Man." (As in The Man, get it?) This exchange was reported on in an issue of CMJ. So we were like this close to (a) getting kicked out of a Texas state park by The Man, and (b) getting our names in CMJ. Oh well, maybe next time.
4) Hassling Dave Kendall of MTV's "120 Minutes"! We got him to record a station ID for our radio station, and kept the tape rolling to catch all his "um"s and "uh"s. When we got back home, I re-edited the tape so that the whole ID was filled with his false starts and interruptions, to make it sound like he couldn't get through a complete sentence without stopping. Immature and childish, I know, but I point out again that were were college radio DJs.
5) Seeing one of the final shows of legendary Austin dyke band Two Nice Girls. That was a wild experience. Getting to sing along to "The Queer Song," along with an auditorium full of Texas lesbians, was a real treat. ("We're gonna have a happy life!/Both of us are gonna be the wife!")
Okay, that's all the SXSW memories that I can come up with during one lunch hour. More later, maybe. (Oh, one more: we also first heard the infamous story about the original cover art for Tad's album "8-Way Santa" at the 1991 SXSW. That was good, too.)
