SXSW Tuesday Showcases
Fri., March 11, 2011
Nerdcore
8pm, Flamingo Cantina Few things are more Trekkie than naming your rap group after a processing chip, so this year's Nerdcore showcase kicks off with the ThoughtCriminals, hitting the stage with five rappers and an 8-bit Nintendo to keep pace. Same goes for Cincinnati duo Dual Core. Nerdiness extends as far as the classroom with Mega Ran & K-Murdock: aggressive soul man MR teaches middle school English and lays down a laid-back flow much like Toronto's Wordburglar. Canadian influx includes Nova Scotian Ghettosocks and Toronto's verbose wiz kids More or Les and Timbuktu, with Halifax "Badass" Jesse Dangerously completing the cipher. Afterward, NYC's Schäffer the Darklord rhymes at light speed about "Cat People," and Colorado's YTCracker sounds like he might just break out the entire Super Mario Bros. soundtrack. The subgenre's foremost practitioner, MC Frontalot, headlines. – Chase Hoffberger
Electrolysis
9pm, Speakeasy
Digital display case ONErpm posts your electrical diagrams for a one-time fee.
Zemaria (Vitória, Brazil)
Femmelectro troupe's first time in the States.
De Juepuchas (Bogotá, Colombia)
Outspoken Girl Talk acolytes/electrolytes.
Bituaya (Caracas, Venezuela)
Hip-hop-tropic-tronica.
Lucy & the Popsonics (Brasalia, Brazil)
Fernanda's electroshock dance therapy.
Jumbo (Monterrey, Mexico)
Eclectic electro eccentrics. – Raoul Hernandez
7digital/UKT&I
9pm, Latitude 30 If Sick of It All mugged Vampire Weekend, you'd get hardcore-tinged Leeds quartet Pulled Apart by Horses. Courtesy of the UK equivalent of the Department of Commerce, their eponymous debut and breakout single, "Yeah Buddy," are sardonic smash-and-grab guitar storms. That's a far remove from the stadium-ready gloom rock of the Boxer Rebellion, whose members converged on London from Tennessee and Australia to create intercontinental epics. Wales' Bright Light Bright Light (musician/remixer Rod Thomas) adds his own intimacy to confessional keyboards before Oxford-based Jonquil chills out XTC. Don't ask how Orlando Higginbottom, the dance-floor paleontologist behind Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, plans on getting his headdresses through customs. – Richard Whittaker
