The Soundtrack of Our Lives are one    of the great draws at this year's NXNE  NXNE 2007: Preview Our story starts way back in 1994. Remember those innocent days, that long lost time before Bush, before Napster, when Britpop and Alternative Rock ruled the airwaves (and people were still actually listening to the airwaves)? Well way back then, a handful of Canadian music industry types headed south to Austin to catch the oh-so-famous South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival. And they loved it. In fact, they loved it so much and had such a good time that when some folk at SXSW approached three of them (NOW Magazine's Michael Hollett, the El Mocambo's Yvonne Matsell and British import Andy MacLean) to start up a north-of-the-border equivalent, they leapt at the opportunity. Thirteen years later, MacLean is still Director of North by Northeast (NXNE) and the event has blossomed into four days and nights stuffed so full it's bursting; with over 450 bands playing more than 30 venues, plus all the films and seminars and celebrity interviews you can handle — not to mention the more than 2000 festival delegates that clog our streets, cellphones in hand, lanyards dangling casually from their necks. And 2007 promises to be one the festival's best years yet. Starting Thursday, NXNE will be bringing us some of the very best acts from the local and international scenes. Need proof? Well how about Thursday night? You can catch bilingual indie rockers Les Breatfeeders at The Boat before rushing over to Jeff Healy's for a set by Sweden's The Soundtrack of Our Lives and capping the evening off with some crazy hard rock shenanigans from Toronto's own C'Mon. Or Friday, when you'll have the unenviable task of choosing between the horse-loving folk rock of Rock Plaza Central and indie-pop joy of Spiral Beach at 11:00 before heading over to The Revival at 1:00 for local funk heroes God Made Me Funky? You can't beat that kind of line-up. And the most exciting news of all? SoundProof is going to be there all weekend long, sending a veritable army of writers and photographers out into the night as part of our attempt to bring you more reviews of more shows than any other publication in the entire world. Yes, that's right, the entire world. It might be crazy and it might be ambitious, but that's just the kind of indie music website we are. See you out there!