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Monday, October 5, 2009
Avett Brothers top Waterloo sales at ACL
Here are the top sellers of the week at Waterloo, which includes sales onsite at ACL Fest. “AS” denotes acts which signed CDs at the Waterloo merchandise tent. This sales chart is a good indication of who killed at the fest. Last year’s top seller was MGMT.
1. Avett Brothers AS 245
2. Phoenix AS 213
3. Black Joe Lewis AS 175
4. Flogging Molly AS 120
5. Bob Schneider 118
6. Pearl Jam 107
7. Mutemath AS 98
8. Raphael Saadiq AS 97
9. K’naan AS 93
10. Daniel Johnston AS 90
11. White Lies AS 90
12. Airborn Toxic Event AS 90
13. The Knux AS 81
14. Girl Talk AS 76
15. Sara Watkins AS 73
16. Los Amigos Invisibles AS 73
17. Bell X1 AS 70
18. Blitzen Trapper AS 69
19. Ghostland Observatory 65
20. Virgins AS 64
21. State Radio AS 60
22. Dead Weather 60
23. Heartless Bastards AS 60
24. Passion Pit Manners AS 60
25. Andrew Bird 59
26. !!! 59
27. Alberta Cross AS 59
28. Felice Brothers 58
29. Deer Tick AS 57
30. Parlor Mob AS 52
31. Ben Solee AS 52
32. Michael Franti AS 51
33. Arctic Monkeys 51
34. Passion Pit Chunk of Change AS 48
35. Bon Iver 47
36. Medeski, Martin & Wood AS 45
37. Kings of Leon 43
38. Mishka AS 43
39. Decemberists 42
40. Dr. Dog AS 39
41. Brett Dennen AS 39
42. Devotchka 38
43. Low Anthem AS 38
44. Sam Roberts 38
45. Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band 38
46. Thievery Corporation 38
47. Jonathan Tyler 34
48. Todd Snider 33
49. Blitzen Trapper Black River AS 32
50. Scabs Freebird 32
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Live review: Bon Iver at Paramount Theatre
Bon Iver — a.k.a. indie-folk musician Justin Vernon and band — turned in one of the most memorable performances from the entire ACL Festival weekend Sunday evening at a sold-out show at the Paramount Theatre.
The band’s final performance before their tour-ending Wisconsin homecoming show couldn’t have been scripted better. The sold-out audience was hyped, fueled by adrenaline, alcohol (and who knows what else) after three days of music, sun and rain. The Paramount Theatre’s acoustics sounded as if they had been fine-tuned especially for Vernon’s booming falsetto. The show was also the final night of Bon Iver’s tour with opening band Megafaun (a freak-folk group of stunning power featuring members of Vernon’s previous band DeYarmond Edison).
Vernon was very gracious the entire evening, whether he was calling up an old friend to start the show by reciting a poem, or whether repeatedly thanking the audience for taking part in an evening that was seemingly a poignant apex in his life.
“I can’t express enough gratitude for y’all showing up to fill this beautiful theater,” Vernon said.
Bon Iver began the show with the first three songs from debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago” played in sequence, a comforting start for those familiar with what’s turned out to be one of the strongest debuts of the decade. The band’s emphasis on tone and harmony was obvious from the detail in the arrangements of their four-part vocal harmonies to the intricacies of their instrumentation. On “Skinny Love,” bassist Matthew McCaughan and guitarist Michael Noyce both played drums, adding a primal, inescapable beat accompaniment. On other songs McCaughan simultaneously played bass and a kickdrum with his foot while drummer Sean Carey played a small electronic keyboard.
As strong as the songs on “For Emma, Forever Ago” are, the band’s tireless touring for the past two years has developed them into an impassioned unit. Whereas some artists become detached from songs after performing them again and again, Vernon slipped into the songs like an old comfortable vintage sweater, filling them out with his passionate voice. The crooks and crannies of each song were not dusty and dark, but were places where Vernon’s bright voice illuminated, revealing the artistry of his song craft.
Just past the set’s mid-point, Vernon played an unexpected, rousing cover of the Outfield’s “Your Love,” inciting screams and laughter from the audience. Vernon pulled back the rhythm and created a bouncing groove, emphasizing a backbeat pocket that doesn’t exist in the original song.
An ethereal and sublime version of “re: Stacks” followed where Vernon played solo for the first time of the evening. The instrumentation stripped away to just his voice and guitar emphasized the power of the lyric and Vernon’s immense songwriting talent, recalling everything that was inspiring in Nick Drake’s music while being wholly original.
Bon Iver closed the night with a two-song encore. The first was the elegiac “For Emma,” then he brought Megafaun and various friends up on stage to cover Megafaun’s “Worried Mind.” The group of musicians huddled along the edge of the proscenium and used only the theater’s acoustics as amplification, Asylum Street Spankers style. After a few verses, they called on the audience to sing-along to the chorus, a cathartic “Come ease your mind, come on ease your worried mind.” The collaboration received a standing ovation (as did the first set and Megafaun’s brilliant opening set), proving that sometimes the most powerful performances at a music festival are not merely the loudest and largest.
Setlist
Flume
Lump Sum
Skinny Love
Brackett, WI
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Josie
Creature Fear
re: Stacks
The Wolves (Act I and II)
Encore
For Emma
Worried Mind
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Matador Records to release CD/double LP compilation of Austin bands
You might recall that Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy lives in Austin. You might also recall his house burned down recently, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with:
“Casual Victim Pile,” a CD/double LP compilation of Austin bands will be released on Matador Records Jan. 26
Regional compilations from nationally-distributed labels are almost unheard of in this day and age.
“It’s an elaborate scheme to classify a couple of years worth of heavy drinking on Red River as a business expense,” Cosloy said Monday. “All kidding aside, Harlem and the Golden Boys excepted (maybe Woven Bones, too —- they’ve been pretty busy) CVP will likely be a lot of listeners’ first exposure to this bunch. That’s the idea.
“I did a Boston comp. 25 years ago (‘Bands that Could Be God’ (Conflict/Radiobeat, 1984)) that had some similarities to this,” Cosloy added. “Matador’s ‘New York Eye & Ear Control’ compilation (released in 1990) was prepared in a similar spirit.”
The line-up:
Follow That Bird! - “The Ghosts That Wake You”
The Young - “Blister”
Woven Bones - “Spirits Roam”
Flesh Lights - “Crush On You”
Dikes Of Holland - “Little City Girl”
Tre Orsi - ” The Engineer”
The Distant Seconds - “Akron Bureau”
Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers - “Hoboken Snow”
Elvis - “Mommy’s Little Soliders”
Love Collector - “First 48”
Bad Sports - “Can’t Remember Your Name”
Wild America - “Drink It Dry”
Harlem - “Beautiful & Very Smart”
The Stuffies - “No One’s Gonna Miss You”
The Golden Boys - “She Said it”
No No No Hopes - “Nobody’s Fool”
The Teeners - “Nazi’s On Film”
The Persimmons - “The Notice”
Lost Controls - “Entirely Wired For Sound”
Wild.
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Zilker Park closed until the end of the month
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The city had a press conference today to expand on what happens next to clean up the mud generated by rain at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The sludge will be hosed into “silt fences.” They also said there are no health dangers associated with Dillo Dirt, used in the recent $2.5 million improvements made to the lawn (paid for by fest promoters C3 Presents, who also will pay for any damages to the “Great Lawn”).
More details from today’s conference on our news site.
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Live review: Toadies
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
When the sun broke through the clouds Sunday afternoon, the massive crowd gathered at the Livestrong stage stripped off their shirts and painted each other with the ubiquitous festival mud in some tribal ritual akin to applying war paint. The Toadies must have planned on playing in the predicted downpour, though, as they opened with “I Come From the Water.” The joke was on them. Since the band actually comes from Fort Worth, they are probably familiar with the temperamental Texas weather, so a blown weather forecast couldn’t have been too surprising.
The band ripped their set wide open with the venomous “Song I Hate” and the viscous riff rock of “No Deliverance” from last year’s post-reunion album of the same name (minus longtime bassist Lisa Umbarger). It was the band’s trip back to 1998’s “Rubberneck,” though, that elicited massive sing-alongs during the “we will wake up” parts of “Tyler” and the “so help me, Jesus” parts of “Possum Kingdom,” the band’s big hit. The overhead crane camera was up and running and the video screen images vacillated between shots of the band and shots of the massive crowd crushed together in the mid-day sun.
After 15 years singer Todd Lewis still has that angst-ridden straining quality in his voice, sounding as if he was pushing the envelope of his vocal range on songs like “Push the Hand” and “Got a Heart.” The band turned in a loud, swampy set of nearly note-perfect renditions of their best songs, waking the crowd from their heat-induced lethargy and inspiring them to dance and embrace the musical and literal grunge.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: ACL 2009: Sunday, ACL Festival 2009
Outtakes from Pearl Jam’s ACL taping
Now that I’ve gotten a much-needed shower and some sleep, I thought it’d be worth revisiting some of the more candid and revealing moments from Pearl Jam’s flat-out incredible Austin City Limits taping on Saturday night. The episode airs Nov. 21 and looks to be a whole hour of Pearl Jam, but since they played for two hours a lot of the more colorful asides and such probably won’t make it to air.
The highlights, in no particular order:
The band invited several injured military veterans from the Wounded Warrior Project of San Antonio to the taping. At the start of the first encore, singer Eddie Vedder came out to do a solo take on “Lukin” (more on that in a second) but forgot a guitar pick, so he jokingly asked a nearby audience member for one of the picks guitarist Stone Gossard had passed out at the close of the first set. At this, one of several veterans in the audience with prosthetic legs shouted to Vedder, “I’ll trade you my leg for a pick!”, prompting an “are you serious?” look from Vedder. A moment later the singer was bounding across the stage, leg in hand, while gathering up a guitar pick and drum sticks from Matt Cameron’s drum kit to give to the soldier. Vedder then autographed the prosthetic and two others before telling the rest of the veterans he’d be back after the show to sign anything they wanted. A truly endearing and cool exchange that just can’t happen in any other performing environment.
As mentioned in the review of the show, guitarist Mike McCready closed the night by transitioning from the band’s cover of Victoria Williams’ “Crazy Mary” to going solo on a crackling, feedback-drenched playing of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Couple that with Vedder recounting his five-year-old daughter making him recite the Pledge of Allegiance with him over the phone before a recent show and it’s hard to believe that during the George Bush presidency this band was assailing the direction of the country with the type of vitriol that would’ve gotten it blacklisted during the Joe McCarthy years.
Back to “Lukin”: so this barely one minute ball of fury has always been one of the weirder bits in the band’s canon, and definitely wasn’t up for consideration by most as a tune Vedder would pull out to do pretty much solo at a taping of one of the most hallowed music programs in history. But there it was like a sore thumb, with Vedder bringing a string quartet led by Austin’s Will Taylor back out to back him up, with the instructions that the tune was in E and the string players should just crank out whatever they thought sounded good. “Is that E minor or major?” one of the players asked, at which point Vedder laughed and admitted he wasn’t sure. “I don’t even know what a third is. You’re blowing my cover now.” Not that it mattered much. Vedder abused his acoustic guitar while the strings did their best to be heard above the din. One of those head-scratching moments the band does mostly just to keep itself and audiences from getting bored.
The weirdo cover requirement got met with a set-opening take on Austin native Daniel Johnston’s “Walking The Cow” (featuring only Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament) and “Driven To Tears” by The Police, a nearly 30-year-old political lament beefed up with three guitars. Vedder said he hoped the latter song will lose its social significance some day, which might sound like an ineloquent putdown but was more a lament that not a lot has changed since the Reagan years.
Recording equipment was obviously barred from the premises for audience members so I can’t do justice to the rambling monologue Vedder delivered prior to “Do The Evolution” with anything close to 100 percent accuracy. I just know it started with something about the need for human compassion, and how that’s getting lost as mankind develops technologically, and how maybe we should find a way to measure how well we look out for one another instead of using yard sticks like GDP or something, and how… well, you get the idea. After a couple minutes Vedder trailed off and admitted “… I guess I’m not really going anywhere in particular with this” before finally saying “It’s evolution, baby” and kicking off one of the band’s few enduring mid-period rockers. There’s a reason the guy’s a singer and not an orator. Thankfully, he does the first very, very, very well.
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Live review: Pearl Jam
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- Photos: Pearl Jam at ACL Fest 2009
Around the 90 minute mark of a 10’s across the board set Sunday night - during the guitar solo passage of “Alive” - Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder ventured to the left side girders of the stage and peered up and down the superstructure. A moment later, he bounded to the right stage edge and did the same thing; feeling the framework before looking out on the ocean of mud-covered fans caught up in his every move and syllable.
As many as 10 years ago the front man would’ve gone ape and started climbing, probably winding up atop a speaker stack before diving onto a mass of waiting hands. Who knows if it’s because of his firmly adult age (now 44) or just a feeling of “been there, done that” that caused it, but those two moments of reserve were the only times Vedder or any of his bandmates held anything back during a two hour epic performance that should put them in the books as one of the best headlining acts ever in Austin City Limits Festival history.
Put together a checklist of what you want to see from a festival headliner and it was there: oldies (“Why Go?,” “Corduroy,” “Daughter”), well-executed new stuff (“Got Some,” “The Fixer”), virtuosity (guitarist Mike McCready wailing behind his head during “Evenflow” or any of a number of solos throughout the night), Eddie being Eddie (plenty of chat to the crowd without rambling) and covers (Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World,” The Who’s “The Real Me,” and, amazingly, Jane’s Addiction’s “Mountain Song” with Perry Farrell on vocals).
What strung all that together was Pearl Jam’s ability to change speeds in a snap and pull the right song from its nine-album canon and fire it just the right way to fit the vibe of the show. It’s what makes a transition from almost folk like “Daughter” into the first verse of the dirgy “W.M.A.” followed by the full-on stomp of “Hail Hail” not only make sense but seem completely obvious.
That adaptability comes from the band’s healthy touring regimen through its 19 years together, which in recent years has bizarrely turned it into an alternate universe Grateful Dead, where crossing Lynyrd Skynyrd with Minor Threat is the kind of thing that can get Gen Xer fans to go on the road for dozens of dates at a stretch. But thankfully that’s what happened, and even though Sunday’s two hour time limit was 60 minutes shorter than what they’re known for these days, it never lacked for immediacy or felt like there was a base that wasn’t being covered well.
So whether you were pining for a karaoke-level standard like “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town,” lesser-known mid-period stuff (“Not For You,” “Given To Fly”) or old chestnuts (“Why Go?” “State Of Love And Trust”) it was there in full force.
Whether or not the Pearl Jam makes good on Vedder’s mid-set promise to return to Austin in a reasonable time frame (its last visit here was in 1995) few of the masses who toughed out the mud through Sunday - “You all look like a (expletive) ocean… and it’s beautiful,” Vedder offered later on - would argue the band put its stamp on ACL Fest and the city for years to come.
Set list: Why Go?, Corduroy, Got Some, Not For You (plus a verse from “Modern Girl” by Sleater Kinney), Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Evenflow, Unthought Known, Daughter (with transition into first verse of W.M.A.), Hail Hail, Insignificance, Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, The Fixer, Go
(encore) Red Mosquito (feat. Ben Harper on slide guitar), Do The Evolution, The Real Me (cover - The Who), Alive
(encore) Mountain Song (cover - Jane’s Addiction with Perry Farrell on vocals), Rockin’ In The Free World (cover - Neil Young)
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