Slightly ajar

Things are starting to get back to normal again here after our trip to SXSW. I've finally found time to sit down and write a few thoughts. While in Austin I lost count of the number of times i got asked if I was in a band. I felt like getting a T-shirt printed with No, I'm not in a band. By the looks of it, it seemed like there was more band members than people in Austin. Mind you, with all this touring to far off lands, going to after show parties and sleeping in hotel rooms, I almost feel like a rock star at times. Just without the groupies. Opera kind of is like one of the indie bands of the software world, with a cult but growing following. Just slightly ahead of our time at time, just like the Velvet Underground.

As many of you probably know, the second week of SXSW is the music week. While many of the Opera folks went back home, Phillip and I stayed to soak up the atmosphere and take in some bands. We transferred from the comforts of the mini-Hilton to the floor of one of the best up and coming Austin bands - Lomita. I saw a couple of great gigs by them, along with some top Texas bands, such as Eisley and the Polyphonic Spree. I even saw Scandinavian favourites Mew. As well as the top notch music, oh my the food was fantastic. As a meat lover I was in my element with Texas BBQ, steak, and plenty of country kitchens. I wish Norway had some of this stuff.

SXSW is one of the most amazingly tiring events. After a full day of going to sessions, booth duty, talking to users and designers, then the real action starts. There are about three parties after each other that we went to each night (not mentioning the ones we couldn't go to). This is where, at least for my job, I get the chance to talk to developers, contacts and people that I need to meet to convince them to support Opera and get contacts I can report issues to. At SXSW these start as early as the sessions end and last until closing time at 2 am, so often we relied on eating party food. By half way through the music week, i remember half collapsing and saying I think I'm bored of drinking or words to that effect.

By the time the event was over we'd met many people. Hopefully we'll soon see the results of this with some improved compatibility. Our booth was opposite the Google booth, and I constantly reminded them they need to fix their services. I even tried to bribe them with our competition Wii . Mozilla was also behind us. We talked quite a bit after we sneaked unnoticed past the security guards into their party. We had some interesting conversations (some wacky, some not so), that will hopefully bear fruit. I even gave their two girls our last remaining pairs of Opera Mini - Size Matters underwear.

For me, one of the most interesting sessions of the event was the WaSP Annual Meeting. There they introduced the WaSP Street team. It is designed to get more people involved in promoting web standards in their local communities. The is likely some overlap with what we are trying to do with Open the Web and I very much look forward to doing my bit to get involved. If you are interested then follow the link and sign up. Opera was involved in the Browser Wars panel, which has received some controversy for what Brendan mentioned about the mobile web. I guess that people were talking about it mean there is a growing interesting in the web away from the desktop. Overall it was an interesting session, where each speaker had interesting things to say. The only shame was the panel was in a bad location, which was fairly hard to find, and at a bad time - first thing on the last day. I'd expected that there would be more people there.

SXSW was exhausting, it was a blast, can I go next year?

The Black Angels hail from Austin, Texas, home of possibly the best music scene in the USA, as well as SXSW festival and conference.

The band seem to have an infatuation with Nico, and take their name from the song The Black Angel's Death Song by the seminal Velvet Underground. They evoke the sounds of the 60's/70's proto punk bands such as The Stooges, The MC5 and a shade of The Doors. They describe themselves as Native American Drone ‘N’ Roll, though I'm not sure where the Native American comes from. Being from Texas, maybe these guys (and two girls) were just sick of playing cowboys, and wanted to root for the underdogs.

The Black Angels released their first EP for Light in the Attic records late last year, and are currently embarking on a US tour through January and February. They've made available the first track, Black Grease available to download in all its goodness.

Flunk in Oslo May 2002

Flunk is a band I've been meaning to learn more about. They're a Norwegian folktronica band, consisting of Anja Øyen Vister on vocals, former Happy Campers guitarist Jo Bakke, producer Ulf Nygaard, and drummer Erik Ruud. I don't have many of their songs, but one that really struck me was a cover of New Order's True Faith. Anja's voice gives this song a really eerie quality.

Unfortunately they do not offer any free songs to download on their site, but they have a few steaming songs here and three videos here.

Norwegian music doesn't get the press of its Swedish neighbours, but there are quite a few singer/songwriters and bands coming out of Norway. Kings Of Convenience, Röyksopp and Lene Marlin are probably the most famous artists recently, but there are great artists like Thomas Dybdahl, Sondre Lerche and Magnet. KCRW is a Californian radio station where you can hear a lot of new music, including a few of the aforementioned artists. Check out Sondre, Magnet, Kings of Convenience and Röyksopp on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.