South By Southwest is the place where you can run into damn near every artist under the sun doing their thing across these here United States all within a week. There are tons of performances, copious amounts of booze and good vibes aplenty. Austin has everything you can imagine to ensure the grandest of times. One thing we were wondering, though, particularly since this is the Mile High City, what about the kind bud? We chopped it up with several artists, who each took different modes of transportation to SXSW, and we put this question to them. The answers are hilarious.

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Taylor Swift's shocked! Again! As seen in the Hollywood Reporter

Sunday was a good day for Taylor Swift. A glowing profile by 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl, followed by her cleaning up at the American Music Awards; she took home the awards for Favorite Country Female Artist, Artist of The Year, Favorite Country Female Artist, and Speak Now won Favorite Country Album. This, of course, follows a career that's been as consistently incredible as anyone's in music. So is Taylor used to, blase or even jaded about the success? OH, HELL NO.

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Yesterday, while I was doing the dishes, I inexplicably got the theme song from Jurassic Park stuck in my head. This wasn't the first time. It happens all the time, in fact, no matter what I'm doing, and it's just the main "catchy" part, not the rest of the song. I don't have a special affinity for the film -- well, other than the fact that robotic dinosaurs are incredibly awesome. But there is something deeper there, probably something even psychological, that causes this to happen.

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Morrissey has a big mouth.

Morrissey's vocal chords are good for two things: singing awesome tunes and spewing controversial word vomit. Who could forget last week's quote in which Morrissey compared the Norway killings to McDonald's and "Kentucky Fried Shit"?

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I heart DJs. Always have. Always will. I'm one of those people who believe that what they do requires as much skill, dexterity and creativity as any musician I've ever known. And I'm not referring solely to prodigious turntablists like Vajra and Cysko Rokwell when I say that. I'm also talking about party-rocking DJs, who, although not nearly as dexterous on decks, put just as much thought and consideration into what they do.

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I've seen probably upwards of seven million shows in my lifetime, give or take five or six. In all that time, there's been a ton that I'm grateful for having the chance to have seen -- Mars Volta at Tulagi, the Killers at the Larimer Lounge, an unreal triple bill at the Coliseum featuring Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins. The list goes on and on and on.

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Oh, man, my friends on Facebook are going to love this.

So yesterday, we discussed a major pet peeve of mine, talking at shows. Clearly, as the comments attest, I'm not in the minority when it comes to being incensed by all this incessant, inexplicable chatter. The reaction to yesterday's post makes me wonder if anyone else is annoyed by the other things that annoy me, things like camera phones at concerts. Hate 'em. You with me? I know at least one dude is.

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All right, this is something that has always baffled and bothered me -- so much so, that I've written about it on several different occasions. Talking at shows. I'm consistently confounded by folks who fork over their hard-earned loot to come out to a show only to then proceed to spend the entire evening bumping their gums. I don't get it. Self-absorption? Ambivalence? Bad manners? There have been some who have asserted that this is strictly a Denver phenomenon. What do you think? Does this stir your ire like it stirs ours, or is this just par for the course?

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So tonight, Kenny Chesney is kicking off his three-night stand at Red Rocks -- all three dates of which, BTW, are sold out. Impressive to be sure, but certainly not without precedent (Dispatch sold out a trio of dates last month, as did Widespread Panic). Regardless, even accounting for potential crossover -- folks attending multiple nights -- that's more than 20,000 fans! Are you one of them? Or do you loathe "new country" like some people we know who will literally leave a room the instant it's being played?

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Jon Solomon

Welcome to Hot Topic, our latest feature, which is precisely what it sounds like. We present you with a topic that is, well, hot, and then we ask you to weigh in with your opinion. Today our inquiring minds want to know: When you part with your hard-earned loot to see your favorite band in concert, how do you feel about hearing new material? Does it bug you, or is it something that you actually look forward to so you can sing along?

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