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I made my way over to the Pitchfork day party on Thursday March 14^th to see two very specific acts with two very unique voices. Rhye is an L.A. based soft-rock project featuring lead vocals from Canadian singer Mike Milosh and Autre Ne Veut is the stage name of Brooklyn’s indie R&B vocal powerhouse Arthur Ashin. Both acts are defined by the vocal performances of their leading men and I was very curious to see how both sets would play out, especially since they were playing the same stage back-to back.

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In light of some recent culturally relevant controversies (Steubenville, Lena Dunham’s negative press) I’ve been doing some thinking as to what it means to be female.  Why does it feel necessary to have a female-focused specialty show on our programming?  Why should I feel the need to lump myself in a category, to defend not a minority but an entire half of the world’s population?  Why was I pleasantly surprised at the number of women in bands at SXSW?  I have a serious desire to know the answers to these questions. I think I‘ll take look at the schedule for women’s studies classes next semester.

I observed a female presence above and beyond my expectations at SXSW, not because I seeked it out but because most of the bands recommended to me had females in them.  About half of the 33 bands I squeezed into my stunted festival (I got sick Thursday night and was out of commission for the last two days) had ladies, playing everything from drums to the cello.  It seems to me that female instrumentalists rarely appear in a touring lineup.  Whether this is due to a lack of female instrumentalists or a lack of willingness to tour I’m not sure.  What I can say is that they often provide an element to performance beyond the ordinary for audiences, intentionally or not.  For me, it’s nice to see women function as an integral part of the music rather than pretty faces present only to please the eyes.  Not to say they don’t do that – people at SXSW tended to be pretty across the board.  But as far as I could tell there were no singers in the spotlight for the purpose of blatant sex appeal.

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Befitting the theme of “Odd Man Out” (on WUOG every Tuesday from 4-5 PM!) Here’s three all-female acts that absolutely killed at SXSW:

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Surprisingly enough, the current environment of SXSW isn’t too friendly to the world of rock music. The pervasive corporate sponsorship and twenty minute sets seem to take their toll on a lot of artists and consequently their sets often suffer from bad attitudes and disappointingly short run times that lead to awkward ego clashing between event organizers and the musicians they hired to play. With this in mind, a lot of the hip-hop sets (which required less set up and are already generally more open to corporate environments) seemed to play a lot better to more enthusiastic and satisfied crowds. SXSW has become a breeding ground for up-and-coming rappers to truly make a name for themselves. Here’s some of the more exciting up-and-comers who made waves in Austin this year, for better or worse.

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Any SXSW wrap-up will tell you that the rumored Daft Punk show at the Austin capitol never happened.

They are dead wrong.

I was there.

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