Okay, there aren’t any titans, but there are plenty of clashes in this week’s gig calendar.  Look at Saturday for instance – The Fall, The Leg or Bear in Heaven? – it depends on the precise length and angle of your fringe I suppose.  Well, that and the cut of your jeans.

And Wednesday, what do I do?  Go and butter up Yusuf Azak and try and get him to join the label, or go and butter up the Foxxes and try and make sure they stay?  That’s the music industry for you: so many arses to kiss and so little time in which to do it.

In other news, I have been invited down to Unconvention in Manchester to sit on a panel of labels and band managers to make some wafer-thin pretence of having something intelligent to contribute.  I will try very hard to not perform my usual trick of just talking over the top of people until they shush, and make a genuine effort to be a productive and valuable member of society. Yes yes, I know, stop laughing.

Wednesday 21st April 2010: Euan McMeeken, Yusuf Azak, Woodchucker, Dan Arborise & Library Tapes at the Roxy Room.

Yusuf has just finished his debut album which we are hoping to persuade him to release on Song, by Toad Records later in the year, and on Wednesday he and Euan will be supporting Dan Arborise and Library Tapes down at the Roxy Room.

Yusuf Azak – Ursa Major

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Wednesday 21st April 2010: Jesus H. Foxx & White Heath at Maggie’s Chamber.

The Foxx are currently writing and recording their new album, which is due out… well, about three or four months after they finish it, if we’re being determinedly practical about these things, which we have to be.  They’ve been posting demos and works-in-progress on their blog, so you can pop through there and have a preview if you like.

Jesus H. Foxx – The Sea (Demo)

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Thursday 22nd April 2010: Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, The Stormy Seas, The Kays Lavelle & Tony Yorston at the Wee Red Bar.

This is the Woodenbox album launch party, and with my own very recent experience of album launches, that means it should be a gigantic, messy, good-natured piss up.  Their stomping Americana has been particularly upwardly mobile recently, which may be related to their recent hook-up with a new manager, and I am looking forward to hearing the full album.

Friday 23rd April 2010: Slaraffenland & Efterklang at Cabaret Voltaire.

A very Pitchforky gig, this.  Efterklang were pretty good at SXSW, but I find their recent album no better than okay.  Apparently earlier stuff is miles better though, so erm, well yes, good luck with this one. Lots of my friends, whose music taste I agree with in most aspects, love these guys but I don’t really know them well enough yet.

Slaraffenland – Long Gone

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Friday 23rd April 2010: Steffen Basho-Jughans & C. Joynes at the Roxy Room.

This looks like being an extremely interesting evening of music, particularly for those looking for something a little different this week.  This is something of a steel-stringed guitar masterclass, with all three bands featuring the instrument quite prominently apparently.  More information is available from the Facebook page for the event.

Saturday 24th April 2010: Maybe Myrtle Turtle, Enfant Bastard & The Leg at the Bristo Hall.

This is a fundraiser gig, and will be headlined by The Leg, who I would probably describe as My Favourite Edinburgh Band Who I Have Inexplicably Failed to Ever See Live.

Saturday 24th April 2010: The Fall at Studio 24.

I don’t really need to tell you anything about The Fall, do I?

Saturday 24th April 2010: Bear in Heaven at Sneaky Pete’s.

Bear in Heaven are extremely hip at the moment, and I not sure if they are more famous for being famous, or because someone famous tweeted about them, hence making them even more famous, and simultaneously a poster child for modern social media marketing.  Oh, and they play quite electronic stuff, which is not bad at all.

I am clearly not as hip as I pretend to be (was anyone really fooled?) because despite their being extremely cool, I don’t actually have any music by Bear in Heaven on my drive.  Out of shame, I have substituted at track by The Tragically Hip called the Bear, in the hope that you won’t notice.

The Tragically Hip – The Bear

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Well I am sure that any of you who really give a shit what’s happening at South by Southwest this week will have found out from one of the more dilligent blogs who have been writing daily updates.  Honestly though, I doubt anyone who regularly reads this site would have really expected me to be one of those blogs.

I got to Austin at about ten or eleven at night on Wednesday and stumbled into town to find Peej, who kindly offered to put me up, and Vic Galloway, who along with Peej is one of about four people I know in Austin this week, at the Scottish Showcase.

Due to not having bothered with either a badge or a wristband and the place being absolutely jam-packed, Peej had to sneak me in the back door, getting rid of a bouncer with a vague sort of ‘I’m in the band’ response which rather miraculously seemed to work.  Peej had a badge which he waved and that did the trick.

I saw the tail end of the Jetpacks show, which people went absolutely mental for.  I have never been a big fan of the band, honestly, but Peej loves them and they seem to be going down an absolute storm in the States.  They certainly do put on a good show too, so it’s hard not to warm to them.  After some quality MCing by Mr. Galloway, with an enormous super jumbo extra helping of cheese, Frightened Rabbit took to the stage and they really were good.

I gave their new album a bit of a savaging, and in the comments section there was a bit of discussion about how the songs would come across in a live setting, free of the smothering production.  I also said that a lot of the guitar sound on Winter of Mixed Drinks was really good, or at least what little of it you could hear, and live this really is what dominates the songs.  The new stuff fits in perfectly with the older songs, and when they are just played on guitar I enjoyed them miles more than on the record.

On Wednesday night I slept like a fucking corpse, and wandered into town at about three or four o’clock in the afternoon.  First port of call was the Hype Machine to meet Dev Sherlock, who has had the unenviable task of editing our hour longs chats down in to concise five minute soundbites for Hype Machine Radio.  It turns out that instead of simply being a nice bloke on the internet, he actually has a rather storied history as a music journalist and instead of going to a lot of music stuff we wandered off to the Ironworks to eat burned meat and pickles with a beer on the deck.  It was very, very civillised and finally meeting someone who’s been an internet friend for a couple of years now was a rather strange pleasure.

On the subject of internet friends, I finally met a certain Campfires and Battlefields on Thursday evening at the 4AD/Bella Union showcase.  I went in with the Broken Records lads to see them, Efterklang and Midlake, and ended up also catching an excellent set by John Grant, whose new album is out on Bella Union in a few weeks.  He used to be in a band called Czars, who I also rather liked, and he sounded really good.  When he sat down I expected something a bit like Bon Iver, but in fact it was probably closer to Rufus Wainright than anything else.  Very promising, in any case.

Efterklang weren’t bad, and I am not going to go on about Broken Records (great idea – travel all the way to Texas just to go and see bands from Edinburgh).  The real revelation of the night for me was just how good Midlake were, however.  I saw them at the End of the Road Festival a couple of years ago and they were no better than pretty good, and their new album was pretty much like that as well: really enjoyable, but didn’t exactly blow me away.  In the rather fantastic surroundings of Buffalo Billiards in Austin, however, they were pretty brilliant.  The harmonies were gorgeous, and I have no idea why they needed five bloody guitarists, but the sound they made was so nice that you can’t really question them on that count.

And of course, just before the Midlake set, Jamie Broken Records tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘I think there’s someone here you should meet – a certain Mr. Campfires and Battlefields…’