Shirock (Nashville, TN) celebrate a score on Saturday, 3.16 in Austin, TX.

Nicole and I are sitting in the airport in Austin, TX, waiting on our flight back to NYC.

SXSW was awesome! We met a lot of Saucony fans, and gave away 150+ pairs of shoes to those who ruled the shuffleboard court at Texas Garage, got to 21 first at washers at the Insound.com party, or who just happened to be early to the Stereogum.com / PASTE Party on Saturday!

It was great to meet all of you! We found out even though many of you don’t know how to pronounce Saucony (saw-kah-knee is technically the correct pronunciation), you have lots of love for the shoe. Some of the comments we heard were “They are so affordable, “it’s the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn!”, “I love to ride my bike in these,” and the most-heard “How do I get a pair????”

Check back as we continue to recap our SXSW experience. We’ll also be putting up some video in the next couple of days, as well as uploading tons of pics!

In the meantime, check out this gallery of Saturday night’s shuffleboard tournament at JellyNYC’s Texas Garage!

John won’t need to travel too far to cover SXSW– based in Austin, TX, Side One: Track One will be focusing on a handful of “must sees,” rather than going crazy trying to profile 1,500 would-be next-big-things vying for blogger acclaim. Why? tops his list, as do one of my personal faves, the decidedly under-hyped Georgie James.

Name: John Laird
Location: Austin, TX
URL: http://sideonetrackone.com

1.What got you started blogging?

In college I was the Music Director at the radio station on campus, and when I graduated in May of 2005 I was searching for a way to stay involved with the industry. So, starting up a music blog seemed like the best idea.

2.Three things you’re looking forward to doing in Austin that don’t necessarily involve music:

Well, I live in Austin so I’m mostly looking forward to just continuing to exist.

3.What kind of people do you think read your blog?

Those who are looking for honest commentary and good music.

4.Worst press kit cliché:

The overly elaborate quote meant to sum up the band’s sound in one sentence. Also, listing 400 unknown bands under the “played with” portion of the kit without a single description. How do I know they’re not made up!?

5.Day job?:

I work at Emmis Austin Radio in the promotions department.

6.Alt vs. Main, discuss:

Good music is good music.

7.Anon commenters are_____

Lame. It’s the internet, so at least throw out a fake name.

8.Band that people totally overlook, but you think is deserving of love:

Why? - They’re respected, but I think they should be talked about every moment of the day.

9.Band that everyone totally loves at the moment that is totally worthy of total love:

Thao Nguyen And The Get Down Stay Down. - We Brave Bee Stings And All is the best record so far in 2008.

Its hard to think of an Mp3 blog being venerable, but Music.For-Robots has been around since some of you were hogging your mom’s landline while cybering on dial-up.

Seriously.

One of the first and most respected of all music blogs, these robots generally focus on indie/electro, but despite being capable of hearing a hot new track 2 months before it was even written (robots have great hearing!), they never get snobby or make you feel dumb. Robots, you see, aren’t saddled with human emotions like ego– they just like what they like and want to help you get to know some good music.

Mark took the requisite 3 minutes to fill out our little questionnaire before heading off to SXSW.

Name: Mark Willett

Location: Los Angeles, CA

URL: http://music.for-robots.com/

Three things you’re looking forward to doing in Austin that don’t necessarily involve music:

+ Seeing friends from New York.
+ Margaritas at Polvos
+ beers at Ms. Bea’s.

What kind of people do you think read your blog?
college students and young professionals from all over the country (and world).

Worst press kit cliché:
“sounds like…”

Day job?:
Music licensing / Consulting. Is that a common answer?

Alt vs. Main, discuss:
In a world where chris walla produces the tegan & sera record for warner bros, what’s the difference?

Anon commenters are_____
Total thumbsuckers.

Band that people totally overlook, but you think is deserving of love:
Tweak Bird, the Mae Shi, El Ten Eleven. Look for tweakbird to destroy in Austin.

Band that everyone totally loves at the moment that is totally worthy of total love:
The black keys, and wilco. Tweedy and the gang tore SNL apart last week in a way that i don’t think vampire weekend will even come close to.

JellyNYC Presents The Texas Garage. 221 W. 3rd St. @ Guadalupe. Day party runs 2p - 6p, night parties 9p - 2a.

This party is going to be out of control - JellyNYC’s secured a huge parking garage in the middle of it all: 20,000 sq ft, three stories, a rooftop POOL, and more. Theme is old-school games - think skeeball, crane machines, Frogger, etc.

We’ll be onsite holding down the shuffleboard court, so stop by to play for a pair of Saucony Originals and other prizing (and for the GLORY of being crowned king/queen of the court). The shuffleboard revolution has started!

Full line-up TBA, but we’ve seen a sneak peek, and you’re not going to want to miss this!

It’s pretty safe to say that Largehearted Boy really lives up to his name. Free of any hint of bandwagon jumping, back-biting or general snark, the blog is the work of a genuine music lover who’d rather spend his time celebrating what he loves than tearing down things he doesn’t. We were lucky that he took a moment to answer our questionnaire before heading off to Austin.

1.What got you started blogging?

I started a website for my Guided By Voices internet radio stream, and added a blog to talk about the things I love. That evolved into Largehearted Boy, where I still share my love for music, books and pop culture.

2.Three things you’re looking forward to doing in Austin that don’t necessarily involve music:

Breakfast Tacos
SXSW Film
Texas BBQ brisket

3.What kind of people do you think read your blog?

I did a demographic study last year, and most readers turned out a lot like me: 21-45, male, college degreed, atheist/agnostic book and music lovers.

4.Worst press kit cliché:

“The next big thing.” Too often press kits read like the latest issue of the NME.

5.Day job?:

Blogger and consultant, Largehearted Boy is job 1.

6.Alt vs. Main, discuss:

Labels divide, can’t we all just get along?

7.Anon commenters are_____

Okay with me… I respect anyone that takes the time to interact with me through the blog.

8.Band that people totally overlook, but you think is deserving of love:

The Shondes. They aren’t totally overlooked, but a label should snap them up soon.

9.Band that everyone totally loves at the moment that is totally worthy of total love:

Vampire Weekend might be the easy hipster answer to this, but I’ll say magnetic Fields. Distortion is just another example of the musical genius that is Stephen Merritt.