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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
ACL Fest Sound and Jury Contest open for business
Your band looking for a way to play the Austin City Limits Music Festival? The terribly punny ACL Fest Sound and the Jury Competition is now accepting applications.
After a two and a half month bracket competition that’s equal parts juried talent search and online popularity contest, five finalists will be selected to travel to Austin for a musical standoff at Antone’s on September 24. Each finalist will receive tickets to the ACL fest and a travel stipend and a feature on DellLounge.com. The grand prize winner will also receive hotel accomodations, a Dell Studio 15 laptop, artist passes for the festival and a 45 minute spot on the Dell Stage on day one of the fest. Sure, 11:45 a.m. on the first day of the festival isn’t a great time slot, but for an up-and-comer looking for the proverbial foot in the door to the rapidly expanding megafest, it’s not a bad gig.
Application deadline is August 22, 2008.
(Pictured, Brandon Kinder, lead singer of the Abilene, Texas band Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys who won last year’s competition. Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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In the Clubs with Consider the Source
- Photos: In the Clubs 2008
The popularity of “metalcore” — guitar riffs of progressive-rock complexity played at punk or hardcore tempos, more or less — has exploded in the past decade, and it’s not that hard to see why. With its complicated parts and stop-start rhythms, metalcore rewards musicians who, you know, can actually play, yet want to rock as hard as humanly possible.
Consider Consider the Source (sorry, couldn’t resist). The Austin quartet — while not quite as Cookie Monsterish (vocalist Seth Grueneberg sings rather than grunts or bellows) or musically violent as most metalcore acts — can certainly hang with them riff for riff. The band even provides a shockingly specific list of its influences right on its MySpace page (myspace.com/considerthesource). “Fragile” by Yes, “In Casino Out” by At the Drive-In and “The Inner Mounting Flame” by Mahavishnu Orchestra share space with less audible antecedents such as U2’s “The Joshua Tree” and the ’90s punk classic “Slip” by Quicksand.
Drummer James Taylor says prog rock was never a dirty term in Consider the Source. “You listen to something like King Crimson, and those records were so nerdy,” he says, “but they also had classic pop hooks and melodies.”
In the Clubs: Consider the Source opens for the Bronx at Emo’s on Friday.
(Photos by Tammy Perez FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Ray Benson joins the Austin Live Music Academy as artistic advisor
Tthe Austin Live Music Academy, under the auspices of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin has added Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson as artistic advisor to ALMA.
His recording studio, Bismeaux Studio will continue to serve as the classroom for the Academy’s recording class.
ALMA is currently accepting applications for students to begin the one-year program, which starts in September. The application deadline is July 15, 2008. Information about ALMA can be found at www.music.utexas.edu/alma.
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A-List video: Boris at the Mohawk
Boris, a Japanese hard rock band, left the audience at The Mohawk in tatters Saturday night.
- The A-List: Pics from the show
- Read the review
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Boy George Stubb’s date finally officially canceled
As C3 puts it, “despite all attempts at an appeal, Boy George’s US Visa has been denied and the singer’s summer tour has been postponed as a result.” He will not be playing his Aug. 21 date at Stubb’s.
Front Gate tickets will automatically refund the base price of the ticket(s) if the purchase was made via credit card. Please note this may take up to 72 hours to post to your account.
If purchases were made via cash at an outlet, they must be mailed to this address:
Front Gate Tickets
P.O. Box 684970
Austin, Tx 78768
for a base ticket price refund. Please include your name, address and phone number.
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Review: Thievery Corporation ACL taping
Our esteemed colleague The M.O. pointed out in his blog yesterday that KLRU is conducting an online survey on streaming video content. If you complete the survey you’ll be entered in a drawing to win guaranteed tickets to a future ACL taping. As our man points out, these tapings do provide a great opportunity to catch big name artists in a very intimate setting.
About a week ago I had the opportunity to catch D.C.-based electronica artists Thievery Corporation when they did their taping for an upcoming edition of Austin City Limits. While the group only consists of two full-time members, DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, their music is expansive, collaging together rhythmic patterns, instrumental lines and a wide variety of vocals drawn from global influences. Their live shows flesh out the audio Pangaea that seems to inform their artistic vision.
At the taping last Wednesday Garza and Hilton were joined by a cast of about a dozen diverse supporting artists. The music ranged from ambient and ethereal to upbeat and downright jubilant. As far as the females went, French/Iranian/New Yorker LouLou provided vocals that were smooth and sublime while Brazilian Karina was fiery and playful and Sista Pat was earthy and inspirational. A special guest appearance from Brazilian artist Seu Jorge (who you might recognize from such films as “City of God” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”) provided a new school electro-samba interlude. The highest energy, however, was provided by the Rastas, with dred-locked D.C. artists Roots and Z and Jamaican dancehall chanter Sleepy Wonder bringing the entire audience to their feet with their driving reggae/dub.
The ensemble performed for almost 2 hours, taking two encores as the insatiable crowd called for more. It was the first time I had caught a live set from this group, which blew away ACL Fest crowds a couple years back, and sold out a Stubb’s show earlier in the week. It’s easy to see why the group’s vibe works so well in Austin. Their progressive internationalism suits our city well.
The air date for Thievery Corporation’s ACL has not yet been set. Set list after the jump.
- “Sound the Alarm”
- “Facing East”
- “OMID (Hope)” (featuring Loulou)
- “Lebanese Blonde” (featuring Sista Pat)
- “Shadows of Ourselves” (featuring Loulou)
- “Sol Tapado Iowvoxbass” (featuring Karina)
- “Guitar Liberation” (featuring Roots, Z, Sleepy Wonder)
- “Orginalality (Tour Mix)” (featuring Sista Pat, Sleepy Wonder)
- “New Seu Jorge song (Tour Mix)”
- “38.45” (featuring Roots, Z)
- “Illuminantion”
- “Exillo (Exile)” (featuring Karina)
- “The Heart’s a Lonely Hunter” (featuring Frank)
- “Radio Retaliation” (featuring Sleepy Wonder, Sista Pat)
- “Assault on Babylon” (featuring Roots, Z)
- “Warning Shots” (featuring Roots, Z, Sleepy Wonder)
- “Pontedalanca” (featuring Seu Jorge)
- “Richest Man in Babylon” (featuring Roots, Z, Sleepy Wonder, Sista Pat)
- “Coming from the Top” (featuring Roots, Z, Sleepy Wonder)
- “Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)” (featuring Frank)
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Live chat With Statesman pop critic Joe Gross at 2 p.m. July 3
Folks,
I will be hosting the first of weekly live chats about music (Austin music, Texas music and otherwise) July 3 at 2 p.m.
Topics includes July 4 music plans, Exit Fest on July 5, and the singles of the summer (by which we mean songs, not specific single people).
Chats will take place from then on in every Thursday at 2 p.m.
In the immortal words of Public Enemy “Consider yourself…..warned!”
