A few years ago, in the halcyon days of my youth, I found myself in a mind-numbingly menial summer job that involved excessive exposure to Radio One all day everyday. This was, of course, a black period in my life, but the incessant nagging and appalling playlist repetition did serve one purpose. It was in this manner that I first heard about the SXSW (South by South West) Festival.
Now it appears that SXSW can be the making or breaking of many a new band, and is as such considered “quite a big deal”. Alas, SXSW is held in Austin, Texas (allegedly the last bastion of taste, decency and free thinking in that cultural wasteland that is the Deep South) and therefore a bit of a bugger to get to if you’re from the UK.
So, in order to raise the funds for their airfare, Scottish indie scenesters Found have released the download-only LP Snarebrained. I know two “charity” posts in as many weeks is a little gauche of me, and this record consists mostly of remixes and collaborations, which is a format that can be rather hit or miss, but it is still rather good despite itself. And it’s all for a good cause, as if that made any difference.
You can buy and stream Snarebrained from their website (see link above) but to whet your appetite here’s an old one of theirs:
Found – Admission Number Two
Eaten by Monsters 
2 February 2009 at 1:05 pm
I heard a great story about Willy Mason and SXSW. He played a show there to only a handful of folk, but it so happened that one of those folk was Zane Lowe who loved him and got him across to do a Radio 1 session. From that point on he was sorted. I think it’s a great festival and FOUND are a great band who deserve all the success they get. Hopefully SXSW will be a really positive experience for them.