Fans, critics get look at latest next big things

Nobody knows which of these new artists might stand a chance.
By GREG KOT
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
AUSTIN, Texas -- Even aging golden gods get tired of the same old same old. If so, Robert Plant, former lead singer of Led Zeppelin, was in the right place.
Plant kicked off the 19th annual gathering of the music tribes at the South by Southwest Music Conference, which concluded Sunday, by confessing that he had once made a pledge-drive contribution to a public-radio station in Portland when it promised not to play Zeppelin warhorse "Stairway to Heaven."
"It's not that I don't like it," he said during the conference's keynote address, "it's just that I've heard it before."
That was as good a way as any to explain the ridiculously long lines that greeted much ballyhooed performances by newcomers such as exotic rapper MIA, British rockers the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party, bubble gum brats the Go! Team and San Diego's first contribution to glam, Louis XIV.
Though South by Southwest had its share of still-vital pros priming the pump for new or relatively recent albums -- including Plant, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, even the reconstituted New York Dolls -- this was all about introductions that might lead to someplace big. Or not. The mind flashes back to buzz bands of South by Southwest's past: Remember Paw? Clinic? The Von Bondies? Thought not.
All about MIA
This year, it was most definitely MIA's turn in the show-and-prove hot seat. Her debut album, "Arular," isn't even out yet, but the exotic Sri Lanka-by-way-of-London immigrant already has been the subject of more cover stories, photo spreads and record-company machinations than most of the 1,200 other bands at the conference combined.
"Arular" explores a bold new brand of world- music, with Brazilian funk, South Asian bhangra, reggae and grime (London's answer to hip-hop) underpinning Maya Arulpragasam's ping-ponging schoolyard rhymes and party-starting protest songs. On stage, MIA came off as playful but slight, fun and energetic but one-dimensional. She's clearly in need of more seasoning as a live performer, even if "Arular" already is destined to become one of the year's most talked-about debuts.
With Bloc Party, Go! Team, the Kaiser Chiefs and Louis XIV, individual songs burst into instant rotation in the radio station of the mind. The Chiefs' "I Predict a Riot" in particular seemed to be everywhere, as the latest contenders miss band" contest.
But far more impressive was LCD Soundsystem, in which indie-dance producer James Murphy emerged from his recording studio to lead a five-piece electro-rock band. A devastating cover of Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire" topped off a mix of dive-bombing bass, machine-gunning drums and even a few well-timed cowbell solos on instant anthems "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" and "Losing My Edge." Murphy proved that he's more than just the mixing-board guru behind hits by the Rapture and the DFA Records stable. He also knows how to make the disco-punk audacity translate on the stage.