Last.fm have a cool new tool - enter your last.fm username and it will suggest which bands you should go and see at the SXSW festival.
Recommended (pretty accurately!) for me:
- The Cowsills (this makes me sad because one of them died in the New Orleans floods)
- Friends of Dean Martinez (I saw them I think 12 years go in NYC. They were amazing. I liked their later records less, but their first couple really got that late night moody twangy cinematic thing across well)
- Jens Lekman (Yes, I think he’s pretty cool)
I think all their tool is doing is presenting you with direct hits (ie bands playing who you have played tracks by) and near misses (bands it thinks you will like because it thinks they sound like something you’ve listened to).
Still, pretty cool. Shame I don’t have the time to make it to Austin, TX!