The annual South By Southwest event in Austin, Texas, has run its course for another year, generating a mind-boggling amount of words and pictures about the acts that came to town to have their shot at getting noticed in the big leagues, strewn all across the internet.
Amid the googolplex of prose and pics simply stoking the fires of FOMO that so often flame up when presented with such attractions, there has been a significant pulse of praise being sent towards the contingent of Australian acts who did Down Under with their representations this past week.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lion's share of that acclaim has been directed towards Melburnian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, who has become all but ubiquitous with Aussie-centric compliments coming out of the conference. Rolling Stone, for example, counted her as one of the 50 best things they saw at the event, highlighting her full-to-bursting showcase — "Nobody told me how many of you there would be," Rolling Stone cited Barnett as saying during her set. "There's a fuckload!" — and calling her showing a "riotous performance featuring plenty of her mean guitar and sardonic wit". If you want to see that sentence's sentiments rewritten with all kinds of different adjectives, just take a cursory glance at Google.
However, it wasn't just Barnett who received words of encouragement from international sources — Meg Mac, and her fondness for "minor keys and brooding thoughts", was listed in the New York Times' piece on SXSW's ability to provide a proving ground for up-and-coming artists, while she and Barnett were joined by Tkay Maidza in Buzzfeed's wrap of must-see artists. NME, for its part, sends credit to Twerps, as does LA public radio station KCRW, which also gave props to Hiatus Kaiyote.
Meanwhile, Esquire was pre-emptively generous in its highlighting of Aussie acts, including Barnett and Twerps, as well as hip hop moves-maker Remi.
Interestingly, ascendant Aussie pop star Cody Simpson walked away the second-most-tweeted-about artist of the conference, which is as encouraging for the Gold Coast singer as it is slightly perplexing. Joining Simpson on the 'most mentioned' list are recent Capitol Records signee Halsey, Japanese pop outfit Perfume, whose highly visual show has to be seen to be believed (check the embed below), Miley Cyrus, on account of her dropping by the showcase performance for her producer, Mike Will Made It, and Korean rapper Tablo.
If you're after details on when and where you can catch any of the returning locals when they've shaken off the jet lag, head to theGuide or see The Music App.
