This year's SXSW was different in a few ways. First, I was only officially attending the Music portion this year for the first time in 4 years. Secondly, the wife was joining me for the first time. As the festival/conference/whatever seems to grow every year, the wide eyed enjoyment has yet to wain. The stupid amount of amazing bands to see, the drinking, the eating, and hanging out in a city I adore, in venues and bars I adore is still as fun as it's always been. The crew has grown quite a bit, which makes plans difficult to execute, but that's probably part of the fun.

I finally got my photos uploaded to Flickr.

I thought I'd mention the bands I saw that I really enjoyed (there a quite a few) and I urge you to check some of them out if your taste falls anywhere near mine. I won't bore you with reviews or any of that nonsense. Just follow the links and enjoy some amazing music. Some are completely new to me, some I like but had never seen, and some are old favourites.

• Bad Veins
• Delicate Steve
• Grass Widow
• Thee Oh Sees
• Withered Hand
• Stepdad
• Weekend
• Esben & The Witch
• Cloud Nothings
• Royal Bangs
• PS I Love You
• Josh T Pearson
• Low
• Parts & Labor
• Okkervil River
• The Joy Formidable
• The Antlers
• Nite Jewel
• Retribution Gospel Choir
• The Strange Boys
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
• Burnt Ones
• Headless Horseman
• Asobi Seksu
• Puro Instinct
• Other Lives
• Ringo Deathstarr (My favourite show of the week, despite technical difficulties)
• Toro Y Moi
• Kurt Vile
• Teen Daze
• Big K.R.I.T.
• Odd Future