NPR unveils its plans for SXSW music extravaganza

NPR will produce two live music showcases from the South by Southwest Music and Media conference: the previously announced March 17 festival opener to be headlined by Spoon, and a March 18 daytime concert featuring the Sleigh Bells. (Details on both line-ups here.) Both shows will be offered for broadcast by NPR stations, as well as live webcasts for online listeners on NPR Music. Five station partners--Austin's KUT, New York's WFUV, Philadelphia's WXPN, Minnesota Public Radio's The Current, and Seattle's KEXP--will collaborate on the SXSW coverage by producing artist interviews and reporting on other performances throughout the festival. NPR's own All Songs Considered will post updates to Twitter (@allsongs) and produce a daily podcast in which Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson and Carrie Brownstein geek-out about their best music discoveries of the day. To prepare for the music extravaganza, bookmark npr.org/sxsw, where all this coverage will reside (and where you'll find archives from previous years' coverage) and check out the Local Natives, one of the bands to be featured at NPR's SXSW day party. More than 1800 bands are scheduled to perform during SXSW. WXPN's Bruce Warren recommends that you keep your ears to the ground for Austin's own Strange Boys.