Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The sun is out, and we’ve only a week of SXSW left!

• Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter (Spark: A Burning Man Story).
• Jarah Euston (Flurry).
• This Song Is Called Ragged, by Jonathan Boulet (www.jonathanboulet.com)

Follow the SXSW Baby blog for more South by Southwest fun, and what we’re up to on the ground via Twitter and @SXSWbaby. Got news about SXSW for us? Get in touch via SXSW Baby’s contact form! Don’t forget to follow the podcast via the RSS feed!

Operation Every Band is currently ahead of schedule, so the completion date looks to be March 1st, which should allow some extra time for some extra SXSW goodies, and let us concentrating on hooking up our donators with the OEB SXSW 2013 Gift Box (with our personal schedule grids).

It’ll be an extremely heavy schedule on the site until then, so stay tuned for an avalanche of new artist recommendations. With over half the expected 2000 bands reviewed, there have been some more trends that have worked their way to the forefront.  One of which this year is that I expect to see more artists trying to meld organic and electronic instrumentation into a single, coherent sound. From Flunk to Connor Youngblood to Indians, there’s something new at work here that should open up all sorts of musical opportunities.

In fact, it has gotten to a point that new pop music is expected to be complex and even challenging, best displayed by acts like Gotye and fun. breaking out last year.  Rarely are the great artists of 2013 throwing back to the past, rather they are trying to build their own niche to exist in the future.