Reviewing the list of SXSW bands

The holidays are over! The stockings have all been put back in their proper receptacles. My Best of 2010 music wrap up has been written and mailed. Now it is time to turn my attention to SXSW 2011. I am happy to see that the Music Festival has posted over 1000 bands already. I am disappointed that I knew only a handful. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I am even more disappointed that it does not appear that I will be able to use my usual method to discover new talent. In previous years, I would spend one evening downloading the sample MP3's posted by the bands. I would then create CDs/playlists of these hundreds of songs and listen to them over a period of weeks, giving each a rating from 1 to 5. No samples of been posted so far. It appears that the festival is providing only links to MYSPACE pages. To load and listen that number of bands will be too time consuming. I therefore ask: 1) Do you have an alternative? Something like an Iphone ap that will speed up the process :-) 2) Can you give recommendations of bands you guys have heard of? ( I will create a list ).

Hopefully I will be posting a lot more often in the next few weeks.