by Rodel Delfin

SXSW’s music festival has officially started with day one already in the books. This year’s confab will be particularly challenging for yours truly considering our knee surgery last week (Ed. Note: Wah, wah, wah). But after getting off our short stint on crutches, we aim to tackle Austin armed with our trusty cane and plenty of painkillers.

Our Wednesday morning flight out of LAX was fairly uneventful, but considering it’s typically the industry-filled flight from LA to Austin, we noticed the reduced number of A&R execs present and a larger proportion of label marketing folks instead. In past years, this flight contained a who’s who of West Coast A&R, but the reduced numbers were glaringly apparent. Once in Austin, we checked into the Four Seasons. And then headed to Iron Works BBQ, where we ran into Epic’s Pete Giberga and Mike Flynn, and dined with attorney Brian Schall and Big Champagne guy/former Wheels editor Joe Fleischer, as we munched on some tasty brisket.

After an afternoon of meetings, returning e-mails and phone calls back at the hotel, we headed with some friends to Mexican restaurant Manuel’s to stop by the Chrysalis Music dinner to say hello to Chrysalis UK players Jeremy LaScelles and Allison Donald, as well as Chrysalis US prexy Kenny MacPherson and A&R execs James Cerreta and Sara Kapuchinski.

After a number of margaritas, our crew hopped on a coupla pedicabs (we love those bicycle-driven rickshaws) and headed to Spiros for our first show of the night, which was newly-signed Atlantic act Georgia. Also present in the packed room were publishing reps from EMI, Chrysalis, Universal and Cobalt, since the band’s pub is still open.

Our crew then headed to the ASCAP showcase at the Dirty Dog Bar, where we hoisted a few more with ASCAP’s Tom DeSavia, Harry Poloner, Jennifer Knoepfle, Jason Silberman and Margaret Spoddig. Lots of weasels holding court to check out Bat For Lashes, garnering a big buzz for the night, as well as the other acts on the bill—the Futurists, To Live and Die in L.A., White Rabbits, Audrye Sessions, Trainwreck Riders and Zico Chain.

We caught a few other shows in between, but stayed primarily at ASCAP, where we ran into a number of label folks, including Sire prexy Michael Goldstone, Jive’s Jeff Fenster, Hollywood’s Allison Hamamura, American’s Antony Bland, Capitol’s Louie Bandak and Immortal’s Happy Walters, who was hanging with Island’s Paul Pontius, which was a nice surprise. We made a quick stop to the Nonstop Riot party on Congress afterwards, then hopped on a pedicab (whoever created this thing is Genius!) back to our hotel. Day 2 up next… Stay tuned.