So as everyone and their dog has already blogged, the official SxSW 2008 lineup was released yesterday. In the past, they've parceled out the lineup in smaller bundles but this looks to be the whole thing. Of course, it'll change some between now and mid-March - there's acts on there that I've been told aren't going to be attending and other acts absent that I know will be in Austin. But by and large, that's it.

And while I had a pretty good idea before this came out of who I liked or wanted to see that would or wouldn't be, scanning the whole thing my initial reaction to this year's lineup - relative to the past three years I've attended, anyway - is pretty meh. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll see lots of terrific stuff, old faves and new discoveries, but when I scan the band list I'm looking for those up-and-coming acts that've already caught my ear but who are too small to mount a tour to North America and whom I can only reasonably expect to catch at something like Sx. Those bands - the ones I've never seen and want to - are the ones that seem sorely lacking this year.

I am, however, very pleased that I'll finally get to see Trespassers William live and previewing material from their forthcoming fourth album (they're streaming one of the new songs on their MySpace).  That'll take some sting out of the fact that The Radio Dept are once again going to absent, but there's some good news from them as well - the new album is done and will be out in May!

But the lineup announcement is really only the beginning - now we can wait for the gigantor-sized MP3 torrents featuring a good chunk of the showcasing bands, the deluge of day show announcements and the actual schedule, which is where the real fun/nightmare begins. So those of you who've taken a closer look at the lineup than I and have some recommendations, send them over. Torr, for example, has already singled out a bunch of UK (and some other) acts that have piqued his interest and if I feel like rooting for the home team, Chart has filtered out all the Canadian acts making a run for the border.  Goodness, there's a lot of us.  And as always, Donewaiting and SxSW Baby are your best two sources of info for anything and everything Sx-related. Bookmark them or add them to your RSS for the next month and a half. Photo of 6th St in Austin via New York Magazine.

Originally published at chromewaves.net.