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Video: SXSW 2013: Gus + Scout's Simple Math
March 17, 2013 10:30 AM ET
From Rolling Stone's Rock Room at SXSW, Gus Wenner and Scout Willis of the New York-based duo Gus + Scout talked about the self-confidence that defines their music. "Sometimes I think, 'Gus + Scout, is that a weird band name?' But that's the basis of everything that we wanted to do, and want to do with this band, is to just be ourselves," said Wenner. A full-length album is still in the works – Gus + Scout released a debut EP last August – but the duo have... | More »
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Prince Closes SXSW With Epic Concert
March 17, 2013 10:05 AM ET| Eric R Danton
Prince gave fair warning last night somewhere between his second and third encores. "Don't make me hurt you – you know how many hits I have?" he asked the crowd packed into La Zona Rosa in Austin as SXSW drew to a close. Enough that he didn't get to them all. Not even close, in fact, though he performed for two hours and 40 minutes, returning to the stage time and again for six or seven encores in all. At a festival where special guests and counterintuitive collaborations are... | More »
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Video: Video: Jake Bugg on Success and Authenticity
March 17, 2013 10:00 AM ET
When 19-year-old British singer-songwriter Jake Bugg visited Rolling Stone's Rock Room at SXSW, he talked about life after hitting Number One on the U.K. charts with his self-titled debut record. "I was shocked. I didn't think it was gonna do that," he said. "Obviously, my life's changed quite a bit, with the record coming out. You're going to meet new people and go to different places and you're gonna experience new things." Bugg propelled himself to succe... | More »
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Smashing Pumpkins Rage Hard, Ring in Billy Corgan's Birthday
March 17, 2013 9:50 AM ET| Dan Rys
With so many high-profile shows competing to close out SXSW – and Prince and Justin Timberlake's attracting the most desperate ticket-seekers – the Smashing Pumpkins' Saturday night set at Red Bull's Sound Select: 120 Hours stage attracted many of the band's diehard fans, many of whom wouldn't think twice about following Billy Corgan off a bridge if he asked. He didn't, luckily, and the Pumpkins' outspoken frontman – who turned 46 years old... | More »
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Video: SXSW 2013: Free Energy on Crowd Participation
March 17, 2013 9:30 AM ET
Philadelphia-basd rockers Free Energy stopped by the Rolling Stone Rock Room at SXSW to talk crowd dynamics and their approach to playing live. "The energy that comes back from the crowd is pretty essential to most of the shows. It's pretty unique, unlike a recording that's there forever," said singer Paul Sprangers. "I see it more like an improv show," added guitarist Sheridan Fox, "where you ask for crowd interaction and they give you three nouns, and you have to run with it.... | More »
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Justin Timberlake Brings Hard-Rock Energy to His Austin Set
March 17, 2013 9:14 AM ET| Jon Blistein
"Cry Me A River" shouldn't be a song you can headbang to, but Justin Timberlake's not really in the business of shouldn'ts. Last night at MySpace's SXSW headquarters in Austin, pop's reigning maestro fulfilled dreams and flipped scripts over the course of an hour-long set that found him dishing out delightful renditions of some of his biggest tracks from Justified, Futuresex/Lovesounds and those off The 20/20 Experience certainly set to join his growing pantheon. It w... | More »
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Surfer Blood and Jake Bugg Thrill Rolling Stone Rock Room at SXSW
March 16, 2013 6:19 PM ET| Jon Blistein
A week of trekking around Austin is enough to wear anyone out, but Florida's Surfer Blood – who'd been playing about SXSW since Monday – showed no signs of fatigue when they kicked off the second day of Rolling Stone's Rock Room. "We'd play all day if you want," cracked frontman J.P. Pitts. The quartet breezed through cuts from their 2010 debut Astro Coast and their follow-up EP, Tarot Classics, like sun drunk standout "Floating Vibes," the insistent progr... | More »
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Flaming Lips Debut Their Entire New Album in Austin
March 16, 2013 3:09 PM ET| Adam Gold
"We do the thing we really, really want the world to see at SXSW," Wayne Coyne told a 10,000-plus capacity crowd after walking onstage at the Flaming Lips' massive Auditorium Shores gig in Austin last night. "We always want the world to see something radical." Fans who expected to see something as radical, and familiar, as Coyne tumbling over their heads in a man-sized space bubble while confetti canons exploded – a Halford-on-Harley hallmark of the Lips stage show since 2003 &ndas... | More »
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Green Day Launch 'Broadway Idiot,' 'Cuatro!' Docs at SXSW
March 16, 2013 1:55 PM ET| Chad Swiatecki
"Welcome to our nightmare." That sardonic introduction by Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt made for the only notable words from the band to the audience during Friday's SXSW premieres of Broadway Idiot and Cuatro!, a pair of new documentaries focusing on the punk trio's creative process behind the Broadway adaptation of American Idiot and their recent album trilogy. Broadway Idiot chronicles theater director Michael Mayer’s conceptual rehearsals for the Green Day musical, ... | More »
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Video: SXSW 2013: Charles Bradley Gets the 'Love Bug Blues'
March 16, 2013 1:45 PM ET
Charles Bradley, accompanied by the Menahan Street Band, took to the stage at Rolling Stone's Rock Room at SXSW and played "Love Bug Blues," a cut off of Victim of Love, out April 2nd. Bradley's dazzling blue suit and theatrical wincings bring a bygone era of soul right back to life. Check out the performance above. | More »
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