In Case You Missed It: Kevin & Bean Talk With Spin Magazine About SXSW

Yesterday morning on The Kevin & Bean show the guys talked to Spin magazine’s Editor In Chief, Doug Brod.  He gave the guys all the details about what you can look forward to seeing at South By Southwest this year. Some of the bands Doug mentioned performing this year are Hole, The Jim Jones Revue, Surfer Blood and more.

To find out more about SXSW and see the conversation, click more.

Bean: Kevin, how come you’re not gonna be at Austin, TX for the next two weeks, you love this crap?

Kevin: You are soo right. Austin, TX, first of all is a great city, there is a college, a lot of hot chicks, there is a downtown that is very small with bar after bar after bar, big bar after bar with music in every single one and a lot of drinking. A lot of going to the next bar and a lot of checking out hot chicks.

Bean: Austin year round is the music capital of America and that’s part of the reason why it got selected to be the host of SXSW, which happens every year in March. There is so much stuff happening that we can’t begin to give you an overview of it, but we do have the Editor in Chief of Spin Magazine Doug Brod joining us on the Kevin & Bean show right now. Good morning Doug. How are you doing?

Doug: I’m fine thanks.

Bean: SXSW is like the Comicon in San Diego, it started off small and every year it seems to get about 3, 4, 10x bigger and now it’s to the point where it’s an internationally renowned event where 30% of the people that visit come from other countries. That’s how crazy it is right?

Doug: Ya, it’s huge and there are bands from all over the world that come.  There are bands coming from Iran, coming from Tokyo. All over the place… Iceland, Finland. The festival is in it’s 23rd year. Obviously after 23 years it’s grown into something really substantial.

Kevin: The reason it was founded in the first place was so that small bands that don’t have any connections in the record industry could meet them there. Isn’t that how it got started?

Doug: I think it was to celebrate Austin music for one thing. There are a lot of Austin bands being represented. As its grown in stature a lot of people are going to find the next thing, and to basically see who is making music.

Bean: But how did it end up where Metallica was playing? How did it turn into that, where clearly bands that are multiplatinum and have been around for 30 years are at the show too?

Doug: I think that’s less of  an opportunity to be discovered and more of a promotional idea. A lot of big established bands go down there just to sort of play to a crowd that is geared for music. Everyone down there just wants to see music and loves to go to shows. So you know, you  hear bands like Stone Temple Pilots going down this year. They don’t need to be discovered but they haven’t been around for a while so I think people want to see them.

Kevin: There are musical acts from all over the world and 80 stages down in Austin. Has it gotten too big? Is it where if you want to get into a place it’s too crowded, that kind of thing? Like it’s too hard to get a drink?

Doug: Well, not really. The great thing about SXSW is that there are so many venues and they are so densely packed together that if you get shut out of one place you can go next door and see something else. Or you can just walk down the street and hear something coming from out of a window of a bar, and say Wow! that sounds good, let me go check it out. It’s kinda like a buffet.

[...]

Kevin: Our own Kat and the Locals Only actually has their own stage where they are presenting bands this year, she’s gonna be down there. Psycho Mike is going down there on his vacation, which is good because he is sober. Soo… that works well.

Bean: Well it does sound like the type of place that a music fan at least once in his or her life should head down to Austin for SXSW. And I’m so glad that Spin Magazine is still around. I know there were some years where you guys had a rough time Doug, but I’m so glad you are around. Especially now that Rolling Stone has gone the Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus route, it’s great to have a magazine like yours on the stands and online so we can read about and hear about the bands we have talked about today. You guys really are continuing to do a great job and we really appreciate you joining us on the Kevin & Bean show today.

Doug: We appreciate the kind words. Thank you.

Get Spin Magazine’s album of 29 songs that will rock SXSW here.