By Brenna Ehrlich of Mashable.com:
Wondering which bands garnered the most buzz at SXSW this year? Well, stats service Next Big Sound has the answers, and it’s a hearty mix of up-and-comers, music vets and under-the-radar stalwarts.
Next Big Sound created two lists of buzzed-about bands by counting increase in social media activity during the period that encompassed SXSW, the first being a list of the fastest growing bands at SXSW and the second being the bands that gained the most fans overall during the fest.
At the top of the first list are a trio of lesser-known acts — for you music snobs out there, only one of them has been reviewed on Pitchfork: the band holding court at the number-one spot, Fang Island, which garnered a review of 8.3 from the music site for their self-titled debut album.
The preponderance of smaller bands on this list is due to the fact that it shows biggest percent change in buzz, meaning that a band that went from zero to thousands of fans during SXSW week would rank pretty high on the list.
There are, however, a few more well-known bands on the list, such as GZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame and The Antlers (whom we have just added to our SXSW music video post), who were considered one of the break-out bands of 2009.
Here’s the full top ten list, head over to the Next Big Sound site for a more detailed breakdown of where these fans are coming from:
1). Fang Island
2). Neon Trees
3). XV
4). Oddisee
5). Jonna Lee
6). Matthew Mayfield
7). Evergreen Terrace
8). The Antlers
9). Phantogram
10). GZA
In terms of bands that netted the most fans overall, the mix is rather eclectic. At number one is indie/emo act NeverShoutNever, whose Butch Walker-produced disc What is Love? just dropped in January; followed by The xx, a British indie rock outfit whose debut album showed up on scads of top 10 lists last year (and got the consummate nod from the teen pop culture set when hit single “Crystalised” made it onto Gossip Girl); and Wale, a D.C. rapper who has been recording music since roughly 2006 with a debut album Attention Deficit dropping in 2009.
Also present on the list are experimental/ambient indie band Broken Bells (composed of Danger Mouse and James Mercer of The Shins) and Sum 41 (who were super popular when I was in high school). Here’s the complete list:
1). NeverShoutNever
2). The xx
3). Wale
4). Broken Bells
5). Sum 41
6). Blair
7). The Temper Trap
8). Miike Snow
9). Local Natives
10). We are Scientists
And since it wouldn’t be a music post without some actual jams, here’s a couple of songs from the number-one acts on each list. Did any of your faves makes the cut?
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