My SXSW 2009 got off to a comfortably slow start. Rather than just jumping straight from the plane, to unloading at the hotel to a party, this year I was able to slowly shift gears from travel to festival over the course of about 14 hours. It might not seem like much to you, but it’s already made a world of difference to me. And at a festival that rivals Bonnaroo for the 24 hours of entertainment, it’s going to be good to take breaks as I can get them.

Pete and the Pirates were my inaugural band for this year’s SXSW. I was really hoping we would arrive at WOXY’s studio in time to catch them and I’d literally only been introduced to them the day prior. (they were on the same mix cd as Pigeon Detectives) Luckily we got there just as they were finishing up their first song. Dodge and I stayed up top to get a bird’s eye view of the session, but I briefly ran down to the door of the studio room and snapped a quick photo through the window. It’s not much, but I needed an excuse to post on this really talented band. They’re some great, young British pop musicians and you can expect me to dedicate a bit more space to writing about them when I return home.

After a few of their songs that for which they owe a lot of their recognition (“Jennifer,” “Mr. Understanding”), they treated the WOXY guys to a few new ones that they’ll be recording later this year for an ’09 release.