The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Sunday was all about getting home. It's always bittersweet leaving Austin. It really is such a unique and interesting town. So as we drive away from the skyline and part of me fantasizes about sleeping in my own bed, another part of me can't help but look back an extra time and take it all in.

Here, I present my overall musings about the trip:

We got a bit of a later start than we have earlier this week, but that always tends to happen here by Saturday. Besides, Hellboy was on TV — haha. We picked our friends up and headed to I-Hop for some breakfast. That's a tradition as well down here for us. Usually it's a late night visit, but this was when we could go and we were all in the mood for it. We did not leave disappointed.

Another day to punish our feet has begun, and we all still seem relatively fresh and eager to get out there and see some great music. Our day started off at Filter's Showdown at Cedar Street, where we knew we could get free BBQ. I'm vegetarian, so for me that meant a plate of cole slaw and potato salad. The cookies were delicious though.

We had probably our most enjoyable and most productive Wednesday at SXSW this year. After getting up far earlier than we all wanted, thanks to a very noisy air conditioner and beds too small to fit four rather large/tall guys, we pulled ourselves together and headed downtown to aquire wristbands. SXSW gives you quite a few hoops to jump through to save money, and one of them is finding people who spent gobs of money on badges as they are allowed to let one person buy a cheaper, but lower priority wristband off of their badge.

I've been asked to document my time down in Austin, TX, for SXSW. Who am I and why should you care, you ask? Well, I run a company in Minneapolis called Vitriol Promotion. We help bands promote their music to radio stations and press outlets across North America. Some of our clients include Muse, Daft Punk, Hot Chip, Dressy Bessy, The Chemical Brothers, and Badly Drawn Boy. Local clients include Kid Dakota, Romantica, Tapes 'N Tapes and The Owls.