Who Needs SXSW?

After a less-than-thrilling experience in Austin in 2007, I opted out this year, promising myself that I would just go to some other big festival. I really love Austin (I was actually entertaining the notion of moving there for a while, and plenty of people are still trying to talk me into it), but attending SXSW was just starting to feel more like sleepwalking through the indie rock version of MTV's Spring Break, and there are so many other festivals cropping up that are more compelling.

With that in mind, I was up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. today to buy tickets for All Tomorrow's Parties in New York this fall (as Pitchfork astutely noted, the line-up is indeed, unfucking believable). Individual tickets sold out immediately, which was a total drag. However, a couple hours later, my boyfriend decided to try and buy 5 tickets connected with a hotel room, and we are now in business. Of course, in the intervening hours, I got antsy and decided to console myself by buying tickets for the Pitchfork Festival too, so we're going to keep our fingers crossed that the airfare to both doesn't completely bury us in credit card debt. Still, I'm guessing it's gonna be entirely worth it. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to see My Bloody Valentine, let alone Public Enemy doing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in its entirety.