SXSW News: Beastie Boys, Morrissey highlight SXSW additions - liveDaily.com 2/27/06

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http://www.livedaily.com/news/Beasti...SXSW additions

February 27, 2006 01:57 PM
by Tjames Madison
liveDaily Contributor
The Beastie Boys (music) and Morrissey (music) will both be featured in interview sessions at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, TX, just two of the additions to the event's roster as anticipation builds for the March event.
Morrissey will be interviewed March 16 at the Austin Convention Center by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke as part of the festival's bill of interviews and sessions with featured musicians. The ex-Smiths frontman will perform later that night at that Austin Music Hall. Morrissey's new solo album, "Ringleader of the Tormentors," is due to hit stores April 4.

The Beastie Boys will present their new live film, "Awesome: I F---in' Shot That!" March 15 to an audience at the Austin Convention Center. After a screening of the film--created by giving video cameras to 50 Beastie Boys fans and having them shoot the band during an October 2004 performance at Madison Square Garden--wireless microphones will be handed out and the audience will be given an opportunity to conduct an interview with the band, "in the spirit of the film," according to a press release. The screening is part of the SXSW (music) film festival, which runs concurrently with the music festival.

"Awesome: I F---in' Shot That!" will be released March 31 to theaters nationwide.

In another film-related SXSW development, jazz musician Herbie Hancock (music) will attend the March 17 world premiere of "Possibilities," a documentary film directed by Doug Biro and Jon Fine following the recording of Hancock's album of the same name.

"The roots of the SXSW Film Festival belong to our wonderful Music Festival," SXSW Film Festival producer Matt Dentler said in a press release. "So, it only makes sense that our music documentary program has grown and developed so well over the years."

Three additional artist interviews have been announced for SXSW. Sam Moore, KD Lang and the Pretenders will join previously announced speakers Judy Collins, Kris Kristofferson and Billy Bragg. For a list of times and dates for these appearances, see the official SXSW website.

In addition to the nearly 1,400 acts scheduled to perform as part of SXSW (the full list can be found here), the festival will present three evenings of free concerts in an outdoor setting in downtown Austin.

Echo & The Bunnymen will highlight the March 16 concert, with openers including Blackalicious and Spoon. Roseanne Cash and Josh Ritter lead the list of performers for the March 17 concert, and the New Orleans-themed March 18 show will include performances by Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, among others.

The free concert series is presented by SXSW, with sponsorship by McDonald's and several local businesses.

SXSW, which next year celebrates its 20th anniversary, comprises three separate components: an interactive conference, a film conference and a music conference, the latter of which will take place from March 15-19.

In 2005, SXSW drew over 8,000 registrants from all sectors of the music business and related industries, and featured performances from more than 1,300 bands spread throughout 60 venues, according to organizers.