I have gone Xanga crazy in the past 24 hours, writing three posts on my normal Merida site and updating Brakk's site.  For those of you who have never heard of Brakk, he is my famous pet.  Just click on the photo below.

In an effort to not be a liar, I will in fact mention my favorite SxSw shows through a set of lists.

Best in Show: Dungen at the Kemado Records/Guitar World party (which I snagged a pass to by a stroke of good fortune).  The show was in someone's backyard with trees overhanging.  The band had some earthy '70's Led Zeppelin vibe, which was complemented by this hippie girl with a fro getting on stage and shaking tamborine.  It was the last show of the week and blew me away.  I also had the good fortune of hanging out with the band beforehand.  They are from Sweden and very approachable guys. 

Coming a close second was the Modern Skirts.  These guys were very good live and their album Catalogue of Generous Men is probably my favorite from SxSw.  I'd highly reccommend supporting the Skirts with a purchase of their album (if you like catchy melodies).  Probably a big reason I liked them was that we hung out for awhile at the Paste Magazine Party and they remembered my name later on, so we went and drank wine and talked about life and music while listening to some lousy Australian bands. 

Shows I Regrettably Missed: The Beastie Boys, The Flaming Lips, and Belle & Sebastian (ouch). 

Shows Where I Stood Next to Someone Famous:  Pistolita (an awful band.  I was standing next to Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional)  Dungen (turning around, I was shocked to find Frodo looking up at me with his big, hobbit eyes.  It creeped me out, to be honest)

Shows Where I Got Ditched for Someone Famous: I was at the Little Willies show eating catfish fillets with some members of Midlake (quality folk, by the way) and their friend I-can't-remember-his-name.  At the end of the set, they went backstage to hang out with their pal Norah Jones.  I, uninvited, went to the bus to go catch a Nada Surf show.

Shows By Mainstream Artists that Were Incredible: Morrissey (from the Smiths), Talib Kweli (of Black Starr fame), Billy Bragg (I'm not sure if he's very mainstream) and Glen Phillips (of Toad the Wetsprocket).

Non-Mainstream or "Indie" Bands that Put on a Great Show:  Art Brut, Man Man, The Go! Team, Dengue Fever, Dungen, Animal Collective, Anathallo and Midlake.  Incidentally, click on this link if you live near Chicago and want to attend a killer (cheap) music fest in July: http://pitchforkmusicfestival.com/ 

All in all, SxSw gave me a decent music fix, and there were many other bands not mentioned here that deserved mention.  But I'm tired of writin'.