Robert Duffy Speaking at SXSW Music Blogger Panel

I am really happy to announce that I will be part of the Bloggers Are Now in Charge panel at SXSW. Now, I’m not exactly sure what I am in charge of other than picking out what I’m going to wear in the morning, but I think it’s gonna be a pretty sweet panel. Description:

Amid the rubble of the music industry, a new breed of music enthusiasts has established instantaneous and direct links to like-minded fans. What exactly is their impact on the scene?

What makes me think that the panel is going to be really interesting is that panelists’ blogs are pretty diverse. Glen from Coolfer covers the music industry, Justin’s Aquarium Drunkard site covers Los Angeles and he also runs a small record label (like us!), Bill from Brooklyn Vegan is an amazing resource for NYC news (and national news in general), and Janet from Out the Other is also a DJ in Nashville.. And then there’s me!

Before the event we’ll be sure to read 9 Ways to Stop Your Panel from Sucking so it’s worth your time. And if Mike Rohde draws a sketch of our panel, I hope he gives me devil horns like the dude from Legend.

Also don’t forget to add this event to your SCHED* schedule.

If you haven’t figured this out by now, I love SXSW. Being asked to join this panel is a real honor to me and definitely a highlight of the 6 years I’ve been doing donewaiting.com. I’ve been to the festival five out of the last six years. Once I went to the entire festival, from tech to film to music, but all the other times it was just music.

I start thinking about SXSW coverage on donewaiting.com probably around September. That is when you start hearing the first hints of bands performing. Normally you need to get past CMJ for things to start to slowly pick up the pace.

From October through January, it’s all about WHAT BANDS ARE GOING TO BE AT SXSW???? This phase sort of continues on until SXSW starts releasing band schedules. This year I felt they got the band lists out earlier than previous, and were really good with postng updates.

Once we start to know what bands are going to be playing, then two tracks start. Track one is WHAT ARE THE OFFICIAL SHOWCASES LOOKING LIKE??? and WHAT ARE THE UNOFFICIAL SHOWS GONNA BE? The former gets answered first, while the latter is something that we are always learning about even through the festival.

And from the beginning of February until I set foot in Austin, things just get crazy. I’ve got so many ways to try and dig up info, it’s a little out of control. Google Alerts, Twitter Alerts, RSS feeds, crazy MySpace URL searches, I’m monitoring this constant feed of information that surely my brain can’t be processing. And that doesn’t even count all of the e-mails I get. I have a few different GMail filters set up to help sort through it all. I have more or less daily conversations with Chip and Frank and Kyle about the current state of the schedule and lots of “Is it SXSW yet?” jokes.

I also spend a lot of time trying to find new bands to fall in love with. Granted, I am going to be right up front for favorites like The Decemberists, but I also want to find new favorites, like last year when I totally flipped for Florence and the Machine. Next week I’ll be going through the SXSW schedule with a fine toothed comb and posting some of the bands I’m anxious to see.

This year I’m working with Taylor on SCHED*. I met Taylor a few years ago when he was just doing Pod Bop, and I couldn’t be happier working with him on this year’s SCHED site. I’m also maintaining a SXSW blog over there too.

Last year we put together a pretty sweet day show. This year I am not going to be doing one, even though I gave it the ol’ college try (SO BANDS PLEASE STOP EMAILING ME). Just couldn’t line up the proper finances… Which is fine, because it’s one less stress to worry about.

We’re only two and a half weeks away! Holy crap.