Turns out there's another way to spell 'overwhelming'.  It's 'S-X-S-W'.  The upcoming SXSW Music Festival alone will feature 1,900 bands across 89 stages, according to festival organizers.  That is on top of 160 music-related events and over 500 speakers.  

Additionally, music-related developments will also be happening at SXSW Interactive (SXSWi), another animal entirely (featuring MOG, Spotify, and others).  Sure, SXSW is a (mostly) physical conference, but this throng carries all the overwhelming complexity of the web. 

So where to begin?  Perhaps the iPhone can help out.  According to details tipped to Digital Music News, app-focused Sched* is brewing an app to help attendees manage the craziness. 

Like its name suggests, Sched* specializes in event- and festival-based organization and attendee interaction.  But instead of just organizing different shows and times in its app, Sched* is tapping the Echo Nest intelligence platform to fine-tune recommendations based on expressed preferences.  "It recommends shows based on your music taste and gives lots of detail about every band," Echo Nest CEO Jim Lucchese told Digital Music News. 

But wait, there's more.  SXSW has its own, official apps, including SXSW Play, a discovery app that spans music, film and interactive media.  Another iPhone app to download is my.SXSW, the official social networking and scheduling app for SXSW 2010.