The annual SXSW festival has been taking place in Austin since 1987. This bustling cosmopolitan city has been a party town way since the days of the Civil War when General Custer’s troops used to frequent the local bars and nightclubs. Nowadays SXSW caters to those with an interest in film, interactive media as well as music; and the town becomes transformed each March as thousands flock to this event.
KCRW will be in attendance once again, broadcasting Morning Becomes Eclectic live from Tequila Mockingbird studios with guests Duffy and Sons and Daughters, as well as a great KCRW Showcase night
on March 12th featuring The Duke Spirit, Ting Tings, Salt & Samovar and Jesca Hoop.
Yours truly will be there to report first hand on the music and hubbub of Sixth Street and beyond so don’t forget to check my blog on Vox.com as well as our KCRW website for daily reports and special features.
From Austin Texas we head to the East End of London for London’s Word Festival. Taking place over 3 weeks at various venues in and around this trendy part of town the festival describes itself thus: ‘From Blogs to boggle; from poetic lyricism to lyric poetry; from diaspora to the double-dactyl; from politics to play-texts; from publishing house to pop culture and the plain cult. This is the London Word Festival – putting words centre–stage’ – and I couldn’t have put it better myself ! You can catch the godfather of hip hop poetry Saul Williams at Cargo hosted by Polar Bear, cult indie musician Edward Larrikin premieres his one act play Camusflage Krokodial at Hoxton Hall along with an acoustic set from his new project The Pan I am; and US author Joshua Ferris reads from his novel ‘Then We Came To the End’ at Bardens Boudoir in Stoke Newington.
From the winter of London to the summer of Adelaide Australia where WOMAdelaide is held. Womad stands for World of Music Arts and Dance and was inspired by Peter Gabriel way back in the eighties. Womad events take place all over the world throughout the year, celebrating cultural and musical diversity.
Called the perfect example of music as a universal language, Womadelaide will take place at the beautiful Botanic Gardens from March 7-9th and features performances by Beirut and DJ Nickodemus from US, Susanna Baca from Peru, Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra from Mali, and Australia’s own Watussi and John Butler Trio. And in honor of the lush natural location Womadelaide has teamed up with Australia’s largest environmental organization Greening Australia to make this event Carbon Neutral through local biodiverse tree plantings.
And lastly to Langerado in the South Florida Everglades. Founded by music promoters Mark Brown and Ethan Schwartz as a way to bring jam based live music to this neck of the woods, it has evolved into an event of many musical styles. This year Langerado has a new venue - the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation just 30 minutes west of Ft Lauderdale. Artists on the bill include Thievery Corporation, Ani DiFranco, Arrested Development and Ozomatli. Full details at the Langerado website.
That’s it for another edition of The Global Gig Guide. If you want to hear it again you can download it as a podcast on KCRW.com or iTunes.
Otherwise check back with us next week for more information on Global Gigging.
The Global Gig Guide is produced for KCRW.com by JC Swiatek and the theme music is composed by The Plush Interiors.