We had to reluctantly set an alarm this morning since there was some 'real' work to be done before we headed downtown. After getting some emails sent off, we piled into the rental car, picked up our pals, and made our way to the BMI Breakfast on the lawn of the Four Seasons Hotel. Last year we got there late and all the food was gone. We knew that was unacceptable this year, and surprisingly, we planned ahead well enough to get there five minutes before the food was served. It's always a nice spread, and knowing you can grab a complimentary Mimosa or a Bloody Mary along with all the free grub seems to be a real draw for just about every music industry person in Austin.

It was a blazingly hot, sunny day. The forecast high was 92º, and it was already around 80º as we sat outside, sipping our drinks and chatting with the other folks who were sitting at our table. One nice thing about many of the events at SXSW is that strangers not only seem open to chatting, but many seem genuinely happy to. What a concept! One woman was actually nice enough to lend us some sun screen.

After breakfast we walked over the Fader Lounge to relax until our first scheduled appointment. We ran into another music director from Tennessee and chatted some. While we waited we heard The Knux [1] (a hip-hop duo and DJ). They tried valiantly to get the crowd involved in the show, but a combination of indifference and the early hour kept them frustrated. We caught just the beginning of the next band, The Fashion [2], who my MD friend is a big fan of. I guess I can't offer a musical opinion on these guys since I saw so little of them, but their lead singer reminded me of Dilbert.

Jesse and I needed to head down to Red 7 [5] to catch a band my friend Gabby has turned us onto. They did a great set, and we were able to meet the woman who runs the label as well as the lead singer. From there we worked our way up a block or so the open lot The Current [6] was using to broadcast from this week and heard Billy Bragg [7] perform a few songs. It was certainly the most politically charged set of the week so far, with talk of getting Bush out of office soon and the idea of socialized health insurance getting huge cheers from the audience. We got a chance to say hi to Matt and Melanie from The Current. Matt used to work with us, so it's nice to see him down here in a new capacity. We also ran into James from Mystery Palace [8] and the boys from Solid Gold [9] (both current clients of ours).

We had a little time to kill, so we grabbed a slice of pizza on 6^th, which is always a SXSW tradition (although our friend and former co-worker, Lindsay from The Current's favorite one, Death Metal Pizza, is now gone). After some phone/text tag we met up with David from Arts & Crafts up at The Mohawk and caught Jason Collett's set. Then we scurried back down to Fader to catch another Arts & Crafts band, The Stills [10], perform. They were my personal musical highlight of the day, opening with my favorite of theirs,"Lola Stars & Stripes," and playing some excellent new songs from their new CD slated for release later this year.

Jesse and I both decided we now needed some food and decided that a trip to one of our Austin standbys, The Iron Cactus [11], was in order. Sadly, the wait was an hour and a half so we ruled that out. We did run into Bryan and Christian there, though, so we all went on a quest for other food. Per usual, that adventure was held up by running into friends along 6^th Street, and we just couldn't find something we all wanted. So they got in line for the show at Stubb's that we wanted to see, and I got a grilled cheese sandwich called El Diablo from a place on the street. It had spicy cheese and jalapenos, and it was quite tasty. But I am a sucker for grilled cheese, so it doesn't take much to win me over.

We caught the end of the Ting Tings [12] (again) set and Santogold [13] (which seems like a M.I.A. [14] knockoff, though more melodic so we all actually liked her more). Her dancers/singers were kinda fun to watch, and they were backed up by Diplo. We were really there to see MGMT [15], but we all ended up being pretty disappointed. They are far more of a jam band than we had anticipated from the songs we knew, and they didn't even perform "Kids," which is the song we all love from them and wanted desperately to see them play live. By this time Jesse and I were dead on our feet, and Bryan was pretty easily persuaded to join us in heading home early for the night.

So, now we're relaxing at the hotel, resting our feet and recuperating so we can head into the home stretch tomorrow in the best shape possible. What shape that is remains to be seen, but it has to be better than if we stayed out until three again!