SXSW: I went so you didn't have to

A blatant lie that. I'm not in Texas, and the annual gargantuan South by Southwest music festival and conference is just starting. Still, I have been hard at work (ish) on your behalf.

Here's where you need to pay attention:

The John Peels at NPR (National Public Radio) have selected their Top 100 songs from the 1,700 bands scheduled to appear. You can LISTEN to a continuous 6 1/2 hour streaming loop of the NPR 100. There are no scheduled start times. You join the loop wherever it happens to be, and every 5 songs an announcer tells you what you've just heard. Or you can download a recorded version for your iPod. It's broken down into three segments: 01-30, 31-60, 61-100. There may be the odd short pause due to internet fluctuations. I did the best I could.

SXSW also always has a few gigabytes of free MP3s available for download. They are/will be available via the official SXSW site, but it is way easier by legal torrent available here. (P2P and torrents are legal; its what's in them that is or isn't). There's two torrents with over 1,000 songs total (5gigs). (I'm not dropping 1,000 songs - it was too disruptive last year, and is really only for the extra eager.)

This is all free and legal; the idea of SXSW is to promote bands, and the NPR 100 is deffo worth a listen. There's some good stuff here!

Enjoy