SXSW 2010 Preview

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Timber Timbre (left), Peter Wolf Crier (top right) and Grass Widow.

Timber Timbre (left), Peter Wolf Crier (top right) and Grass Widow.

Next week, NPR Music heads to Austin, Texas, to blog, broadcast and webcast nearly a dozen live concerts from this year's South by Southwest music festival. Spoon headlines NPR Music's opening-night showcase on March 17, with additional performances by Broken Bells, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Walkmen and Visqueen. Our live concert webcasts continue March 18, with Sleigh Bells, Surfer Blood, Local Natives, Brooklyn Rider, G-Side and Smith Westerns. But that's just the tip of a very large iceberg, as the NPR Music team spreads out across Austin in search of great musical discoveries.

To prepare for this year's SXSW, the crew at All Songs Considered listened to samples of more than 1,000 bands that will be performing in Austin. On this edition of the show, host Bob Boilen chats with NPR Monitor Mix blogger Carrie Brownstein, All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton and NPR Music editor Stephen Thompson about some of the artists they discovered, including the metal group Black Cobra, dark folk artist Timber Timbre, rapper Rye Rye and much more.

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