More than a thousand musical acts are performing this week on more than fifty stages in Austin, Texas. That's the scene at South by Southwest. The annual festival attracts bands from around the world. This year almost 30 Australian groups have made the journey. That's a mighty long flight. But South by Southwest is a good place to be for Australian bands that want to make it in the United States. The festival offers them a chance to connect with fans -- and industry movers and shakers. Ginger Miles has more, in today's Global Hit.

The Grates

Most of the young Australian bands appearing at the South by Southwest Music Festival describe their music as "Indie rock" or "Indie pop," bred in the pubs and clubs of Sidney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The Grates are from Brisbane. Rolling Stone describes them as a free spirited trio with wonderfully unhinged vocals by Patience. This is the Grates' second year at South by Southwest. Their performance last year landed them a record deal.

Tim Derricourt: "They're a lotta fun. They spend the entire time in their gigs like jumping around, so they're a great live band to check out, if you get the chance."

Tim Derricourt is lead singer and guitarist with his co-frontman Dave Rennick, in an even newer Indie group from the pub rock scene in Sydney, called "Dappled Cities Fly." Not only is this their first trip to South by Southwest. It's their first trip to the US. Before going to Austin, they stopped in LA to begin recording a new album and to play a couple gigs. They hope this trip will open doors to countless US venues for Indie rock.

Derricourt: "You're really looking at only 5 venues in Sydney which is just phenomenally small compared to America. There's only really like 5 big gigs going on like on the weekends, so it's not a huge scene, it's actually a very small scene."

"Dappled Cities Fly" is known as a happy band. Their website bills them as "an adventure into the future," and "indie-clad innocence."

Dappled Cities Fly

They've made the long trip to America with the hope of finding a major label and a booking agent, but at the same time, they don't want to change the music just for the sake of commercial success.

Derricourt: "Most successful bands have to have a certain derivative element, sort of like taken from other American famous acts. So it's been like a challenge of ours to try and do something that doesn't really reflect anything that's going on, it's just something that we're doing, something we're happy with."

Tomorrow "Dappled Cities Fly" will share the stage at an Aussie Barbeque concert, a showcase of all-Australian bands. According to Phil Tripp, the primary rep for Australian acts at South by Southwest, Australians and Texans have a lot more than music in common.

Phil Tripp: "We're always happy to boast about how big we are. And at the same time pretend how humble we are about it. We both have a rich tradition of drinking beer, telling lies, standing out in the back yard and watching the smoke of the charred flesh go up in flames. And laughing all the time and making jokes about each other: We'll just say: 'How ya doin' ya fat bloody bastahd!'"

Tripp is an American who has lived in Australia for the past 25 years, immersing himself in the Australian music scene.

Phil Tripp: "The interesting thing about Australian music is most people don't know it's actually Australian. For example, way back when there was a song, 'Hey There Georgie Girl'. Everybody thought it was a British band. It was "The Seekers," an Australian folk group. Every couple of years there's another wave of Australian bands: "Little River Band," Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton John. Then we've had Kylie Minogue, we're had "Men at Work."

The phrase "land down under" became known to music lovers all over the world when the Australian group "Men at Work" led by singer Colin Hay created a hit song and MTV video with the same name in the early 1980s.

Phil Tripp: "'Men at Work' started out playing on top of a pool table in a pub in Melbourne and they got a rather strange video clipmaker to produce a clip - a song called 'Land Down Under.' And they were lucky enough that a guy at Sony, then CBS records, thought these were the next big thing."

Even though "Men at Work" became an international sensation, like all Australian bands they had to first please the crowds in the sweaty, smokey, beer-soaked atmosphere of the local pub scene.

Phil Tripp: "When I first came to Australia, somebody said 'hey come on, you gotta go see the 'Oils.' There were about 1500 people packed into this rather large beer barn. Midnight Oil took no prisoners that night. Everybody in that audience knew every word of every song, every nuance of Peter Garrett, who is about a 6 foot 6 tall bald-headed gnome."

Midnight Oil had a huge following in Australia but never surfaced on the international scene. The crown jewel in Australia's international cap is AC/DC.

Simon Bell: "AC/DC classic Australian rock band!"

Simon Bell is an Aussie based in New York City who runs a website which promotes indie Australian bands.

Simon Bell: "They started in the mid to late 70s. They're still going - and they've been inspiration for a lot of other Australian rock bands. The Australian pub rock scene is very, very strong and for a band like that that could rise out of Melbourne, and conquer the world, you know the world's music scene."

This week in Austin at the South by Southwest Festival, Australia's best new music will be heard. Who knows? With lots of beer-drinking, deal-making, and any luck -- one of these bands just might become Australia's next big thing.

For The World, this is Ginger Miles.