Believe the hype on Surfer Blood (above). That was pretty well the consensus following the West Palm Beach, Fla., alt-rockers' Thursday afternoon set for National Public Radio's South by Southwest day party at the dark and spacious Sixth Street club the Parish. They opened with their Current-spinning track "Floating Vibes," a pretty straight-ahead Silversun Pickups-style rocker off their debut LP. Many other tracks were more nuanced and innovative, such as the wiry Pixies-meets-Proclaimers gem "Twin Peaks" and their stormy finale, "Swim (To Reach the End)." Like a lot of the best buzz bands who seem to emerge overnight (Strokes, Vampire Weekend), these guys live up to the attention by playing their album tracks as tight as a teenager's braces. The band's bassist gave the party organizers a hilarious but sincere showing of gratitude for staving off hours of boredom earlier in his life: "I'd like to thank NPR for facilitating my life as a pizza delivery driver for about a year," he said.

I started out Thursday hoping to catch Titus Andronicus at Waterloo Records' new outdoor stage. But thanks to Austin's horrendous traffic problems (it's bad even when I'm here over Christmas and there aren't 50,000 boys running around in skinny jeans), I only caught the last song. It was good enough to convince me to see much more of the New Jersey band by fest's end. Meanwhile, I was also convinced I don't want to move back to Austin.

Speaking of which... The rest of the afternoon was spent priding on the local music scene at the Minnesota Music party on the Sixth Street-overlooking rooftop of Maggie Mae's, put on by Best Buy Musical Instruments, Vita.mn and First Ave. The whole thing sort of felt like an elementary class field trip, where you see your classmates somewhere else for a change, but this one had free booze and brisket. Techno-rap duo Bight Club earned their spot as the "Are You Local?" contest winners, playing a grinding, saucy and often hilarious set. Vocalist Jeremy Nutzman summed up their experience, "If you ain't having a gas here, there's something wrong with you."

Lookbook (in photo) performed when the crowd seemed to be at its bulkiest, and unlike Solid Gold -- who everyone agreed is more of a dark nightclub act -- the electronic pop duo seemed to glow a little brighter in the sun. Solid Gold's headlining set was interrupted twice by a loss of power (!), but the SXSW vets seemed unfazed, and Zach Coulter even said a gracious, "Thanks to Minnesota... and to Texas!"

Afterward, I took in the Death & Taxes party at a puny but arty club called the Red Fez, where the stage is sort of in the middle of the room. Thus, I walked in and was crammed right up to the stage behind drummer David Prowse of Vancouver duo Japandroids. Great view. I wasn't as ga-ga for these noisemakers' 2009 album as a lot of the music bloggers were, but on stage they were incredibly forceful and hair-raising. They were followed by another experimental duo from Los Angeles, No Age. My favorite thing about their set was -- in true SXSW fashion -- their soundcheck was basically the first two songs of their set. "OK, I think we're ready. Are you guys ready?" guitarist Randy Randall cheekily asked 10 minutes in. So it goes.