Here Are Some Of The Bands KXT’s Amy Miller Wants To See At SXSW

Art&Seek and KXT are in Austin this week for South by Southwest. Find all our coverage here. 

More than 2,000 bands from 60 countries will perform at South By Southwest this week. And Amy Miller is one the folks who will be sorting through the schedule, trying to catch as many live

shows as possible. Miller is the program director for KXT 91.7, KERA’s sister station. For the Art&Seek Spotlight, I spoke with her about just a few of the acts she’s looking forward to. (You can click on the player above to listen to our conversation.)

KXT and Art&Seek are also filming several On The Road videos while they’re in Austin. So check back for those in the coming weeks.

I also asked Miller what’s different about this year’s festival:

“One trend I’m seeing is that the lines between music, film and interactive portions of the festival are blurring more and more. Another trend I’m seeing is that the amount of music seems to be scaled back just a bit this year, and is playing a smaller role in the festival over all.

“It’s interesting, because there’s so much going on with both film and interactive. And it’s not to say that music isn’t still a huge part of the festival, because it is. We’ve just been seeing some major players in the music world opt out of hosting their stages, including both Spotify and Pandora. That’s perhaps just a sign that some of these bigger bands are getting out of the South by Southwest business and the festival is getting back to its roots.”

Here’s a look at a few of the national, international and North Texas musicians catching Amy’s eye.

J.S. Ondara

Miller says: He’s an emerging artist. He’s Kenyan born, but he lives in Minneapolis. He’s just a real beautiful songwriter. And he just released an album called “Tales of America” last month.

When describing the album himself, he says it’s essentially a documentation of my time in America, a deliberation on the times and a search for wisdom and the American dream, which I thought was just a really cool theme. I’m looking forward to seeing him perform.

Dylan Cartladge

Miller says: Another artist I’m looking forward to seeing is Dylan Cartladge. He’s an emerging artist from the UK. And he’s been described as a cross between Outkast and Beck, which I thought was really interesting. I’ve only heard a few singles from him, but what I hear in this latest single is a lot of Modest Mouse influences.

I feel like he might be one of those artists that’s very polarizing – people are either going to love him or hate him. But I also find those types of artists often have the most loyal following. And sometimes they just put on a really fantastic live show that might make a few people leave the room, but the people in the front are always super into it.

Nite

Miller says: They’re Canadian-born twin brothers, Kyle and Myles Mendes. They now live in Dallas. They’re a duo with a lot of ’80s influences and I kind of hear them as a modern-day New Order.

Since they are twin brothers, they’re just fun to see live because they are really in sync.

Sad Cops

Miller says: There’s a great five-piece indie rock band from Denton. They use a lot of dynamics and have a really raw sound which I find translates really great to a live performance.

They’re just kind of straight up guitar driven rock band, and that’s always fun to see live.

Abraham Alexander

Miller says: He’s just getting so much buzz around here, and I find it interesting, because he’s really only released one song. He’s a Fort Worth artist who’s kind of hard to peg. He’s somewhere in the R&B and soul world. But he’s played shows with everyone from Patty Griffin to Ginuwine.

He’s going to be releasing his debut EP a little bit later on this year, so this is a chance to preview some of that music live.