An Open letter from Factory People:

We Love You Austin and SXSW, But You’re Freaking Us Out

Some of my SXSW 2007 favorites

The Affair (Brooklyn, NY)
Started out slowly but they won me over in the end. Kali Holloway is Debbie Harry's understudy.

The Twilight Sad (Glassgow, Scotland)
Wow. This young band is going places.

Honeycut (San Francisco, CA)
Glam funk to move your ass.

Holy Shit! (Milwaukee, WI)
Holy shit! (maybe it was all the booze...)

The Lovemakers (San Francisco, CA)
Shake that ass.

The Twilight Sad
Had to see them again...

120 Days (Kristiansund, Norway)
Effects pedals outnumbered band members 10-1.

Ra Ra Riot (Syracuse, NY)
I'm a sucker for a hot cellist.

Calla (Brooklyn, NY)
Good to see this band again. Digging their new album.

Jay Reatard (Memphis, TN)
Reatards.

Overnight Lows (Jackson, MS)
Fun punk band to drink with.

Bob Mould (Washington, DC)
Bob Mould.

The Early Years (London, UK)
I've been wanting to see this band for a while. They did not disappoint.

Frog Eyes (Victoria, BC)
Another band I've wanted to see. Strange is good.

The Ponys (Chicago, IL)
One of my favorite live bands.

Asobi Seksu (Brooklyn, NY)
Another one of my favorite live bands. Outside. Daytime. I could actually see Yuki. *sigh*

The Screening (Leicester, UK)
A very pleasant discovery.

The Creteens (Paris, France)
SXSW Sunday. Bloody Marys and The Creteens brought me back to life.

Listen to some tunes at my Multiply site.

La Chute

The literary afterlife of the Fall

The enigmatic lyrics and idiosyncratic performances of Mancunian post-punks The Fall inspired a new generation of bands such as Sonic Youth.

But the influence of frontman Mark E Smith and colleagues has now reached the world of literature, too, with the forthcoming publication of an anthology of short stories, all taking a song title as their starting point.

Authors including Michel Faber, Nicholas Blincoe, Matt Thorne and the comedian and writer Stewart Lee have come out of the woodwork as Fall fans to produce stories which are presented in the order in which the songs themselves were released.

Griffiths kicks off with the 1978 single "Bingo Master's Break Out" while Rebbecca Ray concludes the volume with a saucy tale taking its title from the 2005 track "I Can Hear the Grass Grow".