Live SXSW Audio on NPR Starting Sat. afternoon: Bright Eyes, Felice Bros., Kurt Vile, & More

There's more live audio from South by Southwest (SXSW) coming at you right now from NPR Music. Head to their SXSW website for webcasts starting at 4:30 p.m.:

• Kurt Vile - 3:30 Central Time/4:30 Eastern
  
• Man Man - 4:35 CT/5:35 ET
  
• Middle Brother - 5:30 CT/6:30 ET
  
• The Felice Brothers - 6:15 CT/7:15 ET
  
• Bright Eyes - 7:30 CT/8:30 ET

Their previous webcasts are available online for streaming or, in most cases, podcast download (through iTunes and other podcast programs). You can watch SXSW sets from:

• The Head and the Heart
  
• The Antlers
  
• Raphael Saadiq
  
• Smith Westerns
  
• The Joy Formidable
  
• Wild Flag
  
• Khaira Arby
  
• Colin Stetson
  
• James Blake
  
• Yuck
• tUnE-yArDs

… and Jack White's impromptu set played in a parking lot.

SXSW Music: Concert Podcasts, More Coverage

Brooklyn's The Antlers (shown here at NYC's RiverRocks festival last summer) will be webcast live on March 17th.

SXSW is in full swing, and you can get a lot of content online. NPR Music hosted its first live webcasts from SXSW 2011 today, and a couple are already archived for download (by the Smith Westerns and the oddly named, yet catchy, band known as Yuck). Others you can stream online, including Raphael Saadiq and electronic musician James Blake.

Thursday the 17th NPR Music will start webcasting at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, but I'll be checking in later on to listen to three acts I'm interested in: the new band Wild Flag at 3:30 (featuring Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney and Mary Timony from Helium), the Welsh group The Joy Formidable at 4:15, and The Antlers at 5:00.

For people like me who enjoy alternative Latin music, NPR Music's Alt.Latino blog takes a look at some of the new Latin musicians who are playing SXSW.

There are plenty of Canadian bands at South by Southwest, and CBC Radio 3 is doing some live audio webcasts. You can find those and the network's other SXSW coverage here. And check out their SXSW preview podcast, which spotlights some of the Canadians performing in Austin this week, with tunes by Jenn Grant, Said the Whale, and Oh Susanna.

For more international coverage of the goings-on in Austin, check the British newspaper The Guardian's SXSW section.

South by Southwest 2011 (SXSW): Free Music for Download and Streaming

The music part of the South by Southwest festival gets underway in Austin, Texas tomorrow, but you can enjoy a lot of the music in the comfort of your home with free podcasts and online streaming. Here are some of the choices available. The SXSW Music festival runs from March 15th through the 20th.

* The official 2011 SXSW Music website has links to free iTunes downloads and the SXSW Shoutcast radio stations. You can also subscribe to the SXW Music Blog feed and get updates by connecting to SXSW on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

* As usual, there's a huge collection of songs by SXSW artists to download via torrent (this year's is over 6.5 GB). (From what I've been told this download is legal, though I can't find any statement explicitly stating that.)

* NPR Music will once again be offering extensive SXSW coverage, including live concert webcasts (mostly audio, but there may be some video) that are usually archived for streaming or podcast download later. See their SXSW Music site for the Austin 100 Mix, a streaming collection of new songs by artists playing the festival, and see their SXSW preview (streaming or podcast) for the artists the NPR Music staff is most looking forward to.

* L.A. radio station KCRW will have a big presence in Austin as well, and you can find their schedule, a free SXSW sampler, and more at their SXSW site. "Morning Becomes Eclectic" host Jason Bentley will be broadcasting the show live from Austin, too.

* Amazon.com has a selection of free SXSW music samplers, including Bloodshot Records and Saddle Creek Records.

* Pitchfork has a link to a compilation Bandcamp has done of  "467 SXSW artists that host their music on the site, complete with a huge grid of images assigned to said bands, a streaming player, and a counter telling you the amount of music you still have yet to listen to." I haven't checked that out yet, but it sounds very promising.

* Due to its location, it's not usual that SXSW has a decent selection of Latin music. As a fan of Latin rock and pop music, I was glad to see that the Remezlca Music website has a free 10-song SXSW Latin music sampler that you can stream or download. Artists include Mexican Institute of Sound and David Garza.

* Paste has an article covering "20 SXSW Bands You Might Not Know (But Should)," with links to free MP3 downloads for each one.

* Also check out Spinner.com's SXSW free song sampler and AOL Music's SXSW website.

There are plenty of ways to enjoy SXSW with free podcasts, webcasts, and downloads—no need to catch a plane and deal with lines, crowds, heat, or spilled beer!