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Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

The Needle Drop's Day Party: East By Southeast

Graham Clark |
March 14, 2013 | 4:46 p.m. PDT

Staff Cartoonist and Reporter

Anthony Fantano, the personality and producer of The Needle Drop. (Graham Clark/Neon Tommy)
Anthony Fantano, the personality and producer of The Needle Drop. (Graham Clark/Neon Tommy)
“This is the first time I’ve done a show,” Anthony Fantano said. “How am I doing?”

Fantano is almost certainly the most successful music reviewer ever to a claim right to critical authority by means of video blogging. His YouTube channel has earned nearly 26 and a half million views and drawn acclaim from the likes of Danny Brown.

His flip to the administrative side of music production happened in tandem with Terroreyes, a music video production group. Together they designed and threw “Terroreyes X The Needle Drop Austin Day Party 2013.” Performances were skewed towards the hip-hop genre, but with the promise of clip-tune rockers, Anamanaguchi, playing if suitable amps could be secured.

Fantano said he was responsible for selecting and booking half of the acts onstage. But his ownership of the show was proven, more than anything, by the scrambling effort he made to alleviate technical issues and coordinate the starting of sets on time. Anthony has self-identified as “The Internet’s Busiest Music Nerd!” for the duration of his blogging career, and he did not pick this afternoon to slouch.

READ MORE: Gazing Back At The Void (Video)

One thing that deserves attention in this series is the question of whether independent music acts can really benefit from SXSW. That idea may be a mere façade, leading naïve entertainment consumers to ignore the fact that most media is created and run by corporations - with all entailed moral implications.

If Fantano’s efforts prove truly fruitful, that may suggest there’s hope for something like independent creativity in contemporary music. Today, his odds looked good. Hot Sugar, a musician who played at the gig, surveyed the room and said, “I don’t know how people can leave this to go downtown.” A mass of about 60 people made the trek to this jury-rigged venue on the east side of town and respectfully appreciated each performing artist at the event. The crowd was young: lots of goofy smiles and gawky interpersonal physical communication.

Though the venue's interior was shrouded in shadow, basically comically non-illuminated, the future may yet be bright.

 

Follow the East By Southeast series in realtime multimedia form via Meograph.

Click here to read all of Neon Tommy's coverage of SXSW 2013.

Read more of NT's show coverage here.

Reach Staff Cartoonist Graham Clark here. Follow him on Twitter here.

 

 

 



 

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