By Randall Kenworthy and Michael Griffith

There are a lot of big names at this year’s SXSW music, notably: Blondie, Coldplay, Willie Nelson, Gary Numan, The Kooks, Foster the People, Imagine Dragons, Mobb Deep, Kurt Vile, Matisyahu, Little Dragon, The 1975, The Neighborhood, Black Lips, Ron Pope, Jake Bugg, Phantogram, Cherub and Aloe Blacc.

Great. You should know them. You should see them. But SouthX is all about broadening horizons, learning new things and finding new passions.

So for this post, we’ll introduce you to 25 bands you may or may not know but definitely shouldn’t miss. And there’s plenty more where that came from (this list started at about 100).

See the unabridged playlist here: Best of SXSW 2014

Images from InSound and The Empty Nest