Giant Steps Productions

South by Southwest Music seems to grow bigger every year with people from all over the world come to the city to get in on the action and the venues popping up all over the city.

"Every place that has electricity becomes a venue," said Taylor Muse, vocalist/keyboardist for the band Quiet Company. "It's like if you're anywhere near an eight mile radius of downtown, you just can't escape the festival. It's everywhere."

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

January: Free Week
I went to Free Week just to watch some great bands for free and hang out with friends. If a band caught my attention, I would keep them in mind for future coverage. So I had no intentions of actually working with shooting photos, writing reviews, etc.

But after the week was over, I realized I saw a lot of bands that should be shared so I wrote up this quick post with my debut of Twitter-style reviews. Writing a review in 140 characters or less is a great writing exercise I recommend for any writer. You have to be to the point and consise.

February: 200 music interviews
I have an excel sheet that I use to keep track of all the coverage I've done. Yep, I can be that anal retentive. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since I've posted this blog about reaching 200 interviews. I'm sure if I update it now, I'll be pretty freaking close to 300 if I haven't already hit that mark yet. What can I say? I get around.

March: The Dig performing "I Just Wanna Talk to You"
I fell in love with The Dig the moment I interviewed them. The first thing I heard out of one of their mouths that wasn't "Are you Sarah?" was "There are cute girls over there." See, our interview was at the Parish hours before their show and there were already teenagers lined up at the door.

During their set, I happened to pull out my Flip cam right before they played this song which is one of my favorites. I knew I was in for a treat when band members of the other two bands hopped on stage with them. Such a good song.

April: SPEAK covers "Toxic"
I was trying to refrain from including any SPEAK posts in this but this band affected a big chunk of my year that it was hard to resist. It was this post when I decided that I was actually going to go through with SPEAK for a Year. As I was writing for it, I kept debating in my head if I should just go ahead and announce it or wait until I've covered more shows. I must have click the preview button like 5 times before I decided that yes, I was going to go through with the crazy project.

It was published right before the April show so after the set, some of the guys asked me what was this project I was going to announced. Once they all showed they were ok with it, it motivated me to go home and write up the first post for SPEAK for a Year. I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning getting it all ready.

May: In-depth We Are the Lottery League
This was a fun assignment. It was my first time doing a story like this when I was just a fly on the wall, covering this type of event from beginning to end. I didn't know what to expect, but it came out pretty well.

June: Good in the Sack interview
One of my favorite bands during the APR days was Good in the Sack. Since I worked at a childcare center, I could never wear their shirts at work but man, I loved this band. It's pop punk with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about breakups, drinking, etc. Wow, I just made them sound like Blink 182, but rest assure, they weren't.

The moment drummer Jorge announced the band's return during this year's SXSW, I informed him we were doing a reunion interview. Of course, the band was all in (who could say no to this face?) and after their set, we walked towards the back of the bar and chatted just like old times. Only this time, some of us had less hair and more weight as before.

July: Giant Steps interview
I interviewed James through email to promote his SXSW showcase but once I took on the Spinner job, my time was very limited. Hey, I got paid for Spinner though. I felt bad I didn't get the interview out but once he announced his anniversary show, it saw the light of day.

August: Art vs. Industry interview and Love at 20 interview
I had two interviews published in August and I liked both of them so I'm choosing both.

Art Vs. Industry were some of the nicest guys I've ever met and very knowledgeable on not only music in general but also where they stand with their genre of music. I felt so out of place at Elysium where I interviewed them but they treated me like anyone else even though I was wearing pastels.

With Love at 20, Mike and I met for coffee and just ended up having a very long conversation about music. The man knows what he wants and has planned his way to get it. Why can't more bands be like that?

September: SPEAK
October: SPEAK at ACL
I only posted one thing during September and October and they both have to do with SPEAK. September was a fun one because I got to make fun of dude bros and my October post was about my experience with SPEAK at ACL.

November: NaNoWriMo
I wrote a novel this year.
I. Wrote. A. Novel. This. Year.

It blows my mind that I went through with NaNoWriMo this year and actually made the word count. I've been editing the novel when I'm not watching Veronica Mars or posting things for Red River Noise. I have a long way to go before anyone reads the finish product.

December: Zlam Dunk
Besides the obvious posts with SPEAK singing at my birthday party or the 2010 review for December, this was a fun post to write. I interviewed the band during Wild Frontier Fest in September but only used two lines from it in my article for Accent.

Since we spent most of the brief interview talking about recording, I figured it was time to bring it out for Zlam Dunk's CD release show.

Giant Steps Productions is celebrating five years tomorrow in true Giant Steps fashion at Red 7. James Taylor, the man behind Giant Steps Productions and one of my good friends, has been providing Austin with some epic line ups around town.

I've attended many Giant Steps Production shows. I've been to day long shows like Sweat Fest 2 (the first one gave him his first official booking gig) bouncing back and forth between Red 7 stages with in-your-face rock and metal bands. I've been to Free Week shows where I stumbled onto adorable indieness. James always pull through during SXSW with not only free day long shows but great bands from all over the world in the intimate crowded Plush. But what really makes me appreciate what he does is that a lot of the bands I've covered were introduced to me at a Giant Steps show. That guy spends hours after hours weeding out tons of mostly unknown bands to play in Austin.

In other words, James knows his shit.

Now, he didn't start off booking shows. In an email interview with him, he mentioned that this whole idea just kind of spawned off during his time playing drums with his former band Consider the Source.

"In a lot of ways it did just sort of happen. Two things happened: about five years ago, Consider the Source was taking off and getting asked by a lot of touring bands if we would play with them when they came through town which REALLY means 'Will you help us a book a show... oh and you should play too,'" said Taylor. "Well -- we couldn't play every show but I realized I knew the people doing booking at various bars so I COULD still help them get shows. So that started things on a real small DIY level."

However, a year later, he received an email from Suburban Home Records that pretty much changed the direction of Giant Steps Productions. The label was searching for places to perform during SXSW 2007 for two of their artists at the time, Jonah Matranga (Far) and Frank Turner.

"I was a huge fan of Far so my jaw literally dropped," said Taylor. "I booked an unofficial SXSW show at Plush, had NO idea what I was doing. First time I had dealt with contracts, guarantees, riders, all that but thankfully Jonah and Frank were great and have since become good friends of mine and we reached capacity and had a great time."

And I guess they say the rest is history.

As for the show tomorrow, there are nine bands performing as a sampler of genres James has booked through the years. You can find details of the line up at the Facebook event page.

If you are on Facebook (and let's face it, who isn't?), Red River Noise is giving away free tickets to the Giant Steps Production show tomorrow. So all you have to do is click "like" on the Red River Noise page. So easy right? The winner will be drawn and announced some time today so if you want in on this, better make it quick.

So it begins. Accent is ready for our SXSW coverage. We did a whole package for pre-coverage which can be found here.

Isn't this banner freaking amazing? Our web editor, Hanlly did a great job with the banners on the site. I love it! I have a feeling walking around 6th street or ACC campus is never going to be the same again. But it's part of the job. And if it means bands approaching me more for coverage, then I'm all for it.

Check out my awesome bio Life & Arts Editor Devon wrote for me. I surely couldn't have done it better.

Hola amigos, this is Sarah Vasquez checking in. When I’m not clocking campus news for the Accent, I also moonlight as a professional music writer at Austin Vida. This is my sixth SXSW, so I’ve got the experience, the knowledge, and the stamina required to tackle a festival of this magnitude. While all you amateurs are suffering from heat stroke and blown ear drums, I’m going to be front and center, taking video and photos of the hot acts descending on Austin’s downtown. From off the map parties to wild and raw day shows, I’ll be proving that, here at the Accent, we don’t need no stinking badges (though I will have a full music badge).

I wrote the caption for this: Use a QR code reader on your smartphone to take a photo of the above code which will then directly link you to our specific SXSW coverage page on www.theaccent.org. Because typing the url is so 2009.

Everyone with a SXSW badge is going to have this type of code on it so when you meet someone you want to keep in touch with, you just scan the code on your smartphone and the info is stored. Cool but creepy technology.

Then Devon and I wrote super short briefs on unofficial shows/parties to check out during SXSW. Here are my contributions:

5. Red Gorilla Fest
Since 2007, this festival has expanded to a multi-venue display of up-and-coming independent music. Former alumni that have performed in RedGorilla Fest include Cage the Elephant, Dead Confederate and Family Force 5. Centrally located on downtown 6th Street, fans can enjoy bands and musicians from a variety of genres such as acoustic, blues, hip hop and punk. March 17-21, Venues TBA

6. FUSXSW
With the abundance of cliched indie rock scheduled during SXSW, Giant Steps Productions provides a much needed relief with a week of loud, in your face rock bands. Located in the small confines of Plush Bar, the lack of stages gives a more intimate feeling as the fans are right there rocking with the performing bands.
March 14, Beerland, March 16, The Parlor, March 17-20 Plush, March 20 Music Gym

7. The Versatile Cache: Volume 2 Release Party
To celebrate the second volume of their compilation, Versatile Syndicate is throwing a day long showcase at Hole in the Wall. Bands featured on the compilation such as Prayer for Animals, and Obsolete Machines perform on two stages at this free show.
March 18, 12 p.m. Hole in the Wall

8. Octopus Project’s Hexadecagon Show
The Octopus Project are bringing another visual experience to the masses during SXSW. The band is joining forces with visual artist Wiley Wiggins, who some may remember as the upcoming freshman in Dazed and Confused. The audience will be surrounded by eight speakers set up in a circle as eight images will project over their heads.
March 16 7:00 p.m. and 9 p.m. Whole Foods Rooftop

All that's all for now. Be sure to bookmark my Accent SXSW blog which can be found here.