Pubradio backs musical acts at SXSW festival

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs headline NPR Music’s March 13 performance showcase during the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Dan Martensen)

Public radio will be well-represented at the musical portion of the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, March 13–16.

The NPR Music showcase March 13 will feature the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing new songs from their forthcoming album Mosquito, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Mexican rockers Café Tacvba and others. Audio of the live set at 8 p.m. Eastern will be offered for station broadcast and distributed online; NPR Music will also offer a live video stream through its website and mobile apps.

Café Tacvba will put in double duty and appear in a March 14 showcase arranged by NPR Music’s Alt.Latino channel, along with Molotov, also from Mexico. Rounding out the lineup is Bajofondo, a band led by Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who has scored films including Brokeback Mountain and The Motorcycle Diaries. Highlights of the performance will be shared afterward on NPR Music and Alt.Latino’s website.

Five music stations — Austin’s KUTX, New York’s WFUV, Philadelphia’s WXPN, The Current in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Dallas’s KXT — are teaming up to present bands on the Radio Day Stage, sponsored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The March 15 lineup includes Iron & Wine, Charles Bradley, Vampire Weekend and Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell. Stations will offer webcasts and on-air broadcasts starting at 1 p.m. Eastern.

KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., and KCSN in Northridge, Calif., are holding down ASCAP’s stage earlier in the festival. KCRW will present Devendra Banhart and others March 13, while KCSN hosts a showcase March 14.

In addition to its role with the Radio Day Stage, KUTX will present numerous additional bands throughout the festival, with lineups scheduled for March 14 and March 16 as well. The latter showcase, a tribute to the late Levon Helm, will include James Hunter, Los Lonely Boys, Robert Randolph and others. And a series of early-morning sets at the Four Seasons Hotel will air live on KUTX, with performers such as Robyn Hitchcock, Frightened Rabbit, and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.