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12 Bands To Watch At South by Southwest

From an all-grown-up Charlotte Church to Mykki Blanco, a gender-bending rapper, we have you covered.

Whatever music you might hear over the next year, it most likely got discovered this week. That’s because South by Southwest, the annual music (and tech and film) festival is raging in Austin, Texas and attracting some of the world’s foremost creative—and critical—minds. It’s a fact that hitting it big with the crowds in Austin can translate into much bigger success down the road—just ask bands like Best Coast, Fleet Foxes or Bon Iver, all of which made initial splashes in previous years at the fest.

While the amps won’t get plugged in until March 12, there are plenty of acts hitting Austin for which we’ve already got high hopes and, as always, some established groups in the mix to show the newcomers how it’s done. Click through the DuJour gallery for the 12 bands we’re most looking forward to seeing this year.

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