Action! PR, the full-service, boutique agency run by former Relapse PR maven Carl Schultz that represents artists like High on Fire, the Sword and a host of others, will sponsor their first official South by Southwest showcase on March 17 at The Mohawk. The showcase will be HOF's sole SXSW performance and will also feature sets from Priestess, Zoroaster, Bison B.C., Gates of Slumber and Namm, thus making it a must-attend event. So if you're headed to Austin and liken yourself a consummate headbanger, enter this event into your festival to-do list and get there early!

"We approach PR from an A&R-type perspective," Schultz told Noisecreep about how the company, which specializes in forward-thinking music and pop culture awareness, chooses its clients and showcase participants. "Our SXSW show will feature an A-plus lineup of bands that are part of the Action! PR family. Myself and the Action! team consistently look for quality bands that are creative and unique. The passion we put into our craft each and every day is magnified by working with artists that we truly believe in. In a nutshell, we combine innovative ideas, progressive promotion and a whole lot of hard work to help our family of artists always stay two steps ahead of the pack!"

Schultz's story is one of a metalhead who took his passion for the genre and translated it into a successful, self-run business --with many steps in between. "I've been a hard rock fan and a metalhead since I was a kid," he said, having worked as the metal buyer at an award-winning St. Louis record store. He also "created a DIY fanzine -- remember those?! -- that I distributed at area gigs and through the mail."

Constant networking led him to Pennsylvania, where he became the publicist at Relapse Records and orchestrated heavy-duty media campaigns for Mastodon on their 'Remission' and 'Leviathan' albums, and it was that media exposure that effectively put Mastodon on the metal map. Schultz also worked with High on Fire and the Dillinger Escape Plan during his Relapse tenure before launching Action! PR in 2005. Their roster of artists has included other world-class bands like Witchcraft, Children of Bodom, In Flames, Amon Amarth, Job for a Cowboy and Satyricon, to name a few.

For more on Action! PR and their SXSW showcase, visit their official Web site.

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