Berklee Rocks at SXSW

Berklee was well represented among the avalanche of activity that is the annual SXSW Music and Media Conference(Opens in a new window) in Austin, one of the music industry's largest events. The college hosted its seventh official SXSW Party(Opens in a new window) at Friends bar, featuring nine acts composed of Berklee, Berkleemusic.com, and Heavy Rotation Records (HRR) alumni and students.

This year's lineup featured up-and-coming acts from around the country, including the Shills(Opens in a new window), the Grownup Noise(Opens in a new window), and Canary(Opens in a new window) (HRR) from Boston; Ume(Opens in a new window) from Austin; Brooklyn-based Lucius(Opens in a new window); Queen Caveat(Opens in a new window) from Los Angeles; Justin Klump(Opens in a new window), a Berkleemusic student from Portland, Oregon; and Boston- and New York–based Mrs. Danvers(Opens in a new window) (HRR). Student DJ, producer, and bassist Lil' Texas(Opens in a new window) provided tunes in between sets with DJ Trap Arnold, giving a sonic backdrop for the varied live bands that genre-hopped from dance-pop to singer-songwriter to hard rock to Americana and beyond.

Student band Canary also performed at Berklee's third annual Ruba Cup Barbeque Shootout, a private event hosted by Berklee trustee David Clem and his wife Kathy at their expansive ranch outside of Austin. Folks were treated to tasty BBQ from five championship Texas BBQ teams, followed by a performance from the Texas Swing Band. The event culminated in a jam session featuring Berklee president Roger Brown; members of Canary; and alumni Emily Elbert, Pablo Trujillo, Devon Yesberger, and Kyle Miles.

Click the image at the left to see photos from the party at Friends.

Also check out Berklee-Blogs.com(Opens in a new window) for live performance videos(Opens in a new window) from the party, as well as photos and reports from around the festival.