SXSW Day 4: Walking Down 6th Street in Austin

Sixth Street is a blur of activity during South By Southwest, even during the day.

SXSW Day 4: Black DaVinci Rapping In Front of @LitLoungeAustin

After breakfast, I walked east down Sixth Street, on my way to see the Lebanese blues band The Wanton Bishops, who were scheduled to play at noon at the Symphony House on 11th and Red River. But on my way there, I encountered a rapper named Black DaVinci who was performing on the street in front of the Lit Lounge. I wasn’t familiar with him, but he wasn’t bad at all.

SXSW Day 2: Texas Funk Legends Kool & Together on The 512 Rooftop @The512on6th

One of the cooler things about South By Southwest is the way that old and obscure bands are brought back into relevance, either by documentary films that are screened, or showcases that feature them. Victoria, Texas-based Kool & Together was just such a band, a group of Black musicians in a small Texas town who spent seven years recording a rather odd mix of soul, funk and psychedelic rock in the early 1970’s. When nothing really took off, they broke up. That would have been the end of the story, but in recent years record collectors got involved, as did the hip boutique label Light in the Attic Records, and the result was not just awakened interest in the old recordings, but a burst of new activity from the band itself. Although I had seen them play behind Fort Worth gospel mainstays The Relatives, I had never seen them perform their own show, so I was excited this year to get the opportunity to catch them on the rooftop at 512. As it turned out, the outdoor rooftop was the perfect venue for a band like Kool & Together, and although there was a fairly large group of people upstairs, the place didn’t seem at all uncomfortable. The band’s style is based around funk and soul, although elements of hard rock are included in a way that sets Kool & Together apart from other funk bands, and the audience seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

Street Jazz @SXSW 2013

Busking jazz musicians are common on Sixth Street in Austin during SXSW. Most of them seem to be extremely talented.

Afro-Colombian Music on 6th Street @ SXSW 2013

These Colombian musicians drew a crowd of dancers and onlookers in the middle of Sixth Street in Austin during SXSW 3/12/13

Afro-Colombian Musicians on Sixth Street in Austin @SXSW 2013

A group of Afro-Colombian musicians drew a large crowd on Sixth Street on Tuesday night 3/12/13 in Austin during SXSW. The existence of African-derived music styles in Colombia is not well-known in the United States, but there are actually five or six different styles of Colombian music that show the influence of African music and dance, and unfortunately, I could not determine the name for the particular style these musicians were playing. However, the drum rhythms and the way the hand drums were made are unmistakably African.

Memphis’ own Adam WarRock (@eugewarrock) Live at @flamingocantina @SXSW 2013

How the rise of a Memphis MC as talented as Adam WarRock escaped us in Memphis is still a mystery to me. Had WarRock not been on the SXSW line-up, I might have never googled him, much less learned that he is based in my hometown, where he certainly keeps a low profile. But WarRock is an immensely-gifted if somewhat idiosyncratic hip-hop artist, who describes his style as “nerd-core.” Certainly he likes to rap about comic books, television shows and science fiction, and certainly wouldn’t appeal to everybody, but he was perhaps the perfect artist to bridge the gap between SXSW Interactive and SXSW Music. The standing-room-only crowd at the Flamingo Cantina seemed very enthused indeed. All of his music so far is available on his website at http://www.adamwarrock.com.

Sweeten Your Life with @HeyCupcakeATX @SXSW 2013

Hey Cupcake is a fleet of cupcake-selling food trucks that offer a really sweet break from the serious party or music business of SXSW. Many Austinites claimed there were better cupcakes in town, but those at Hey Cupcake were large, fresh and satisfying, and there’s also something to be said for convenience. I’ve seen at least three Hey Cupcake trucks in Austin, one that’s usually on Sixth Street in the thick of the party, one in the food truck lot south of Cesar Chavez Street near the Rainey Street entertainment district, and a third in the trendy SoCo neighborhood on South Congress. There is one down side to Hey Cupcake, which is that when flavors sell out, they seem to be unavailable until the next day (and this happens frequently). Particularly vulnerable to this is the “Michael Jackson”, a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing that is both sinful and addictive. When in Austin, pay them a visit.

Rocking With The World’s Youngest DJ @djbabychino at Collective Status @StatusATX @SXSW 2013

The World’s Youngest DJ, DJ Baby Chino performs for the Sixth Street crowd in front of Austin’s Collective Status Boutique during SXSW.

The World’s Youngest DJ @djbabychino at Collective Status @StatusATX @SXSW 2013

The large crowd in front of Collective Status told me that something important was going on. There was a DJ mixing in the window, but that’s not unusual during SXSW, so there had to be more to it, and as it turned out, there was. The diminutive DJ was DJ Baby Chino, a Las Vegas-based entertainer who has been billed “The World’s Youngest DJ.” He’s certainly the youngest I’ve ever seen, and has skills beyond some grown folks.