SXSW '06 Recap

I'm back from Austin and after just barely surviving East Dallas' Great Flood of 2006 yesterday, I'm raring to go. Thanks again to Kevin for sprucing up this joint while I was gone.

Okay, remember that time some of you guys bitched that my site was super slow to load because of all the photos? Well you're really going to hate this. But words alone wouldn't even begin to describe the whirlwind that was SXSW '06. I will say that it was an overwhelmingly awesome week, I got the chance to meet tons of people that I respect, and they were all nicer than I could have ever hoped. Some highlights:

• seeing Tapes 'n Tapes and Birdmonster a combined 37 times and never getting tired of either of them

• hanging out with a bunch of my favorite bloggers, and all of them being unbelievably good people

• The Fader tent was where it was at on Saturday. Emily from Metric, Fluxblog, Pitchfork, Elijah Wood, Spank Rock, David Cross, Brooklyn Vegan, the Tapes boys, and others were on hand to check out sets from Lady Sov, Love is All, Kyp from TVOTR, Devin the Dude, Ghostface, and more

• The Flaming Lips. With Peaches! (thanks to Greg for coming through big time on this one)

• A huuuge thanks to Filter Magazine for their Blogger party on Friday. DJ's (both good and bad), bloggers, free breakfast tacos and beer, and great sets from Silversun Pickups and The Grates. By the way, Brooklyn Vegan was robbed of that blogger of the year thing

• Annie Clark's jaw-dropping set at Red Hunter's loft

• the Beastie Boys at Stubbs. holy shit. (thanks to Huston for hooking us up)

• The Blender/VH1 party at some fruit wherehouse was pretty insane. Seeing Tapes 'n Tapes projected onto 20 foot screens was surreal, and Spoon was solid as usual (thanks Rachel and Adam, you guys are awesome)

• meeting two of the funniest men alive, Aziz Ansari and David Cross. Cross called me a douchebag. He was kidding. I think.

• stereogum + Ted Leo + free beer = one of the best shows all week

• Finally, hanging with Dodge and MJ, Garrison, Jax, and Justin was so damn fun. Those kids are becoming like family to us.

I know I'm forgetting a ton of stuff, but my brain is tired. Here are some pics, in no particular order, taken by me and some friends (thanks Jax, Josh, and Rachel). Click for larger image: