The Rock Page: SXSW Day One. Austin, TX.

Instead of flashing my goods in Daytona Beach for Spring Break like most college girls, I roadtripped it for the second year in a row to Austin, TX for SXSW. After having my mind fogged by math problems and war stories, I felt I needed to be cleansed. Rejuvenated. And let's face it. Music heals.

Day one has come to a close and I must admit, we were too tired from driving yesterday to see as much as we intended to. Here are bands I saw and enjoyed:

Castledoor. I heard them once before on their myspace site back in January and fell instantly in love with their song "Dumpster Diving". They are a band of six from Silverlake, CA and produce light-hearted, fun music that has the ability to make you feel as if you're on cloud nine. Their more upbeat tunes sound like what you'd want to hear after finding out you just won the lottery and their slower stuff, even if loaded with melancholy lyrics, are enough to make you feel as if you're floating in thin air. There were about 20 people total in the small room where they played, yet watching them do what they were obviously born to do kept my attention focused only on the music and the crowd was so thrilled, you would have thought you were in the middle of Madison Square Garden. I was mostly impressed by Nate Cole [lead singer]'s voice. http://myspace.com/castledoormusic

Hymns. The first time I saw this gritty, indie rock band [who have toured with the likes of Butch Walker and Ben Kweller] was a few years ago when they opened for The Redwalls in some small city in the North East. Honestly, they were not memorable. However, this is probably because I was young, there only to see my favorite band and unfortunately disinterested in the Hymns' set. I gave them a chance this time around and went to two of their sets, one at Red Fez in the afternoon and another at Maggie Mae's at 1am. Both blew me away. http://myspace.com/hymnsband

Winter Gloves. I came across this Canadian band only days before the festival, on their myspace page http://myspace.com/wintergloves and refreshed the page for days on end, unable to refrain from listening to the energetic tunes. The songs are more stimulating than anything I've heard in a while, almost to a point where I don't know exactly on what areas to focus my attention. There is no way you could listen to songs like "Party People" and "Factories" without at least tapping a foot. Winter Gloves are too much fun.