SOUTH BY DUE EAST 2004 Compilation by Various Artists

net, GUY SCHWARTZ & THE NEW JACK HIPPIES, DJ WOO, DJ FREEDOM JUSTICE, GIANCARLO'S BIG STICK, HOLLISTER FRACUS, TRUE AUDIO OUTLAND, NATALIE ZOE, CASEY JUST, THE MIRRORS, CONSCIOUS COCREATION, RRIENDS OF THE ENEMY, SANDY HICKEY, REBECCA TORRELLAS, RUSTED SHUT, THE RED WAVE, SOUNDPATROL, K'MANTE, GLORIA EDWARDS, Q.U.E., JENNIFER GRASSMAN, ROSALEE & BEN, IRENE, HEATHER FERONBERG, SOUL ODYSSEY COLLECTIVE, NEW DAMAGE, JUSTIN NAVA, POETS 4 PEACE, JOE B, SUPERHAPPYFUNLAND, SONNY BOY TERRY, DE SANGRE, QUANTUM 5, THE HIGHTAILERS, LAST SOUL DESCENDANTS, CITIZEN CHANGE, RASTA JAZZ AVENGERS, MAD MIKE, LUNATEX, MUZAK JOHN, FLUFF TV, COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATION, NEW BEATNIK REVUE, RED EYE CARL, and LOS SKARNALES.

Here's some local press the event has received.

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Houston's Due

Save your cash and stick around for H-town's own showcase

Houston Press

Published: Thursday, March 18, 2004

Who needs the hassle of traveling to Austin, buying a wristband and then waiting in line with hundreds of other saps outside shows you can't get into? Houston will have its own version of a certain well-known conference at the second annual South By Due East Music Festival, which will feature two days of music and poetry.

It's the brainchild of "guerrilla marketer" MArlo Blue and her boyfriend, local musician Guy Schwartz. "Everybody that's on the bill is playing music because they love it, but they also like a little attention," Schwartz says. "It's another way to get exposure for bands who maybe weren't accepted to perform up in Austin."

Acts of all genres, including Zwee, Sonny Boy Terry, Drop Trio, the Hightailers, Opie Hendrix, Chango Jackson, Little Brother Project, Last Soul Descendants and the Rosta Jazz Avengers, will be featured along with Schwartz's own New Jack Hippies, on two stages. A lot of the shows will be filmed; last year's flick can be viewed at www.hippies.tv. Oh, and the whole thing is free.

Schwartz certainly has a background in musical diversity -- not only did his mother have jazz great Lionel Hampton over to dinner, but when she did, she played country records by Eddy Arnold. Schwartz's latest project is a four-disc set on which he plays four different musical genres.

And he didn't have a problem finding diverse acts for this homegrown festival. "Most of us kept that week open anyway in case we were playing South By Southwest," he notes. "And hey, now we don't have to go there!" 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21. Super Happy Fun Land, 2610 Ashland. For information, call 713-721-0093 or visit sxde.guyschwartz.com. Free. - Bob Ruggiero

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RACKET

Screw SXSW

We've got South By Due East

BY JOHN NOVA LOMAX

Houston Press

Published: Thursday, March 13, 2003

The proverbial two roads are diverging in that yellow wood for Earthwire.net. For close to two years, M. Martin's delectably underground Montrose studio/ Webcasting station has been the one spot in Houston where rappers jammed with cowpunks, Mexican rockers partied with their indie counterparts, and Montrosians and denizens of the wards met, mingled and made music. In a city where the various scenelets are often much too insular, Earthwire is a tonic.

While NIMBY neighbors and poor cash flow have Martin in defense mode, for Earthwire the best defense has always been a strong attack. And that's exactly what they have planned for March 14 through 16 at the ramshackle studio at the corner of Fairview and Waugh.

A few weeks ago, Martin wondered what would happen if the music industry gave a party every year in our state and didn't invite us. So he said let there be South By Due East: a Houston showcase of bands that were passed over for the Big Schmooze. As of press time, Los Skarnales, Dubtex, Counter Intelligenz, K'Mante, Giancarlo's Big Stick, Gloria Edwards, Rebecca Torellas, Conscious CoCreation, Opie Hendrix, Sound Patrol, New Jack Hippies, de Sangre and Chango Jackson had signed on to the bill.

While a live broadcast of the event on Houston Media Source and a taped rebroadcast on Austin Public Access fell through, the concerts will be streamed live via Earthwire. And tapes of the events are going to run on a loop at an H-town-friendly spot in the Capital City: Earthwire associates Marlo Blue and DJ Woo are turning Trophy's Sports Bar on South Congress into a Houston hospitality center.

Martin views the hospitality center as a sort of missionary outpost peddling the gospel of Houston music. "What South By Southwest came up with to represent Houston does not represent Houston, and it ignores not just a lot of really meaningful critical trends in music and entertainment here, but in Austin and on the entire planet. They've just gotten too damn insular. The idea with the hospitality center is to try to fill in some of the blanks, to try to show that there is a little more to Houston than Rusted Shut and half a dozen country acts or whatever."

The event is also planned as a benefit for the financially ailing Earthwire. Martin is going to charge a cover and suspend the studio's BYOB policy by getting Rudyard's to cater the event. The SXDE show almost fell through late last week when Houston Media Source pulled out and Martin thought there was a lack of commitment from his cohorts. He even told Racket the show was off, but he changed his mind after gauging that there was sufficient enthusiasm for the showcase -- TV or no.

"After I said I wanted to pull the plug, (organizer/musician Guy Schwartz) said, 'We can't do that! We wanna have a show!' " he says. "Well, we're gonna see what happens."

The success or failure of SXDE could have drastic consequences for the future of Earthwire. Will it continue to exist, and if so, what form will it take? "This is kind of a test of what Earthwire is supposed to be about," says Martin. "It's supposed to be a community, a collaborative project -- not there's Martin and sometimes everybody else."

Martin confesses to a certain level of burnout.

Without events like South By Due East, Martin contends, Houston's scene will remain as compartmentalized as ever, as insular in its own way as the people who assemble the SXSW roster. "If this kind of thing doesn't start happening, what are you gonna have? Not very much. Hands Up Houston has been doing their little alternaweenie 'we're too cool to include anything that doesn't appeal to white college kids' thing for several years now, and they have not done anything to effectively market Houston as a scene. I'm glad that they've done the things that they've done, but their focus is so narrow. What we're trying to do is more inclusive."

And should SXDE get off the ground, who knows? Maybe one day, some music writer in Austin will pen an angry screed about why more Austin acts don't get invited to the big dance in Houston.The Houston Hospitality Center at South By Southwest will be open Thursday through Saturday, March 13 through 15, at Trophy's Sports Bar, 2008 South Congress, Austin. For more information, call Marlo Blue at 832-439-9517. For more information on the local showcases, call Guy Schwartz at 713-721-0093.

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