Mexican, Argentine acts prep for Austin spotlight

By Ayala Ben-Yehuda

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - A Vans Warped tour franchise in Mexico and an Argentine DJ collective are among the international Latin groups looking for stateside exposure at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival, which runs March 7-16 in Austin, Texas.

On March 15, a Warped tour Latin America showcase will feature Mexican bands Allison, Delux and Lipstick Terror. (A lineup for a one-off June 14 rock festival in Mexico City this year under the Vans Warped brand has yet to be set.)

"International bands sometimes come to South by Southwest and get kind of overshadowed," said Warped founder Kevin Lyman, who also throws an unofficial SXSW party for bands from as far away as Japan and Europe.

But "now it's a real conscientious effort to have different types of music from the U.S. as well as from around the world," said Lyman, who has been freshening up his stateside tour by booking such foreign bands as Spain's the Pinker Tones.

In 2007, Allison played several Warped U.S. dates after the band's Warped showcase at SXSW, and Lyman said that this summer Delux will do the same.

Pako Zepeda, co-CEO of Mexico City-based management company Soundguich, is licensing the Warped name, pursuing sponsorships (Vans and Monster Energy are already onboard) and building a database of potential attendees via MySpace and the Warped tour Mexico Web site.

Meanwhile, a collective of Buenos Aires-based DJs has built a five-city U.S. tour around its March 13 SXSW showcase.

Besides Austin, the Zizek tour -- named for a twice-weekly gathering at Buenos Aires' Niceto nightclub -- will stop in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago.