Austin unlimited.

During this year's South by Southwest music conference in Austin, I relied on the Austin Chronicle's Gay Place column--by writers Kate Getty and Kate X Messet--for its quintessential queercentric list of shows and events. Just the sort of resource I needed to find out about Screamclub's four "unofficial" shows in town or the one and only set by Lesbians on Ecstasy.

This year's SXSW, as it's known, marked the 20th anniversary of what many call "spring break for the music industry." Some of the buzz bands--Arctic Monkeys, the Pretenders--were easy to predict on the inbound flight. Rumblings of other hot tickets like the Rakes, Art Brut, and the Ark surfaced after a day or so of show-hopping and comparing notes with the bleary-eyed in line at Las Manitas for breakfast each morning.

In addition to all the official and unofficial performances--and parties, day and night--SXSW hosted a remarkable interview series at the convention center, featuring queer icons Morrissey and k.d. lang as well as a keynote conversation between Neil Young and filmmaker Jonathan Demme (Neil Young: Heart of Gold).

As for the proliferation of corporate-sponsored shindigs: Organizers must've just thrown up their hands at some point. Once Red Bull has a permanent chill-out outpost, it's hard to fight progress.

The big thing to take away from SXSW this year is that somewhere amid performances by the Flaming Lips and the Plimsouls and a slew of sassy new U.K. bands, organizers managed to hit everybody's musical G spot at least once. Can't argue with that--especially while you're eating a tasty, Jane-magazine-supplied Diet Dr. Pepper cupcake.