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October 2010
More favorite moments at Studio 6A: Jody’s choice
Jody Denberg, former KGSR program director: Leonard Cohen (Halloween 1988) I’ve never seen anyone perform so masterfully. Mr. Cohen was in peerless command of language, the stage, his bands’ arrangements, the audience (even those costumed) and his self-proclaimed “gift of a golden voice.” Although he returned to Studio 6A again in 1993 for another fine show (and songs from both the ‘88 and ‘93 tapings were included on his “Cohen Live” CD) I don’t think any mortal could come close to what he did in that initial show; it was immortal.
Let us know about the alltime favorite “ACL” taping you attended.
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Memories of Studio 6A: What’s your favorite?
The final taping of “ACL” at Studio 6A on the UT campus, before it moves to new home on W. 2nd St., is Nov. 8 (Lyle Lovett). In preview, we’re asking local notables to name the most memorable taping they’ve attended.
First up is guitarist/ producer Rich Brotherton, who has played “ACL” with Robert Earl Keen:
“For getting to see legends in action, there was a bluegrass show with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas that included special guests Earl Scruggs and Vassar Clements in, I think, 2000. The young hot dogs stopped in the middle of every song and started over because somebody squeaked a note or something, but Earl and Vassar came out and blazed straight on through like the pros they are and were, and they played great.
For sheer WTF dynamic contrast, there was a taping in ‘92 that started w/ baby-voiced Alison Krauss and super-quiet Union Station, followed by Danny Gatton with a total of about 16 amps for a 5 piece band. Awesome as he was, folks were walking out with hands over their ears before it was done.”
We’d like to know: what was the best “ACL” taping you’ve attended?
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Milo Saves Fun Fun Fun: Descendents added to FFF lineup.
Pop-punk pioneers The Descendents have been added to the Fun Fun Fun lineup.
The band was added to replace headliners Devo, who were forced to cancel their fall tour when guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh injured his hand.
It is the first show in about 9 years for the Descendents. The last show was April 2002. The lineup include original members vocalist Milo Aukerman and drummer Bill Stevenson and mid-80s fixtures guitarist Stephen Egerton and bassist Karl Alvarez.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Descendents are ‘80s punk legends. The band’s 1982 debut “Milo Goes to College” is one of the most influential the American scene produced. Its formula — funny songs with catchy hooks about love, everyday life and being a dork, played either as fast as possobile or as seems appropriate — has been aped by countless bands. There is a direct line between the Descendents and acts such as Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Blink-182. (Blink drummer Travis Barker has a tattoo of the famous cover of “Milo Goes to College”).
Perhaps needless to say, if you like those bands, a Descendents viewing is mandatory.
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Listen to Buffalo Springfield reunion
Everybody’s been talking about the Buffalo Springfield reunion show at Neil Young’s Bridge Benefit Concert near San Francisco last weekend. This is the best audio I’ve heard so far (courtesy of Bob Lefsetz), but be warned that it may be taken down soon.
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CD review: Bright Light Social Hour (self-titled)
Let’s play a game called “Guess What Kind of Band Bright Light Social Hour Is!” You may use cover of the band’s self-titled debut album as a reference point.
If you guessed “A Band Entrenched in Austin Culture” based on the gratuitous Greenbelt backdrop of the album art, you are correct. But if you guessed “A Trend-Riding Bunch of Talentless Hipsters” based on the similarity of the band’s name to Broken Social Scene and/or the listlessness of the pictured throngs of MGMT-era hippies, you are absolutely incorrect.
Although Bright Light Social Hour might seem flashy, the band’s brand of soul-infused Southern blues-rock hits hard in all the right places. It swiftly sidesteps the cringe worthy self-seriousness of Kings of Leon’s recent work but maintains the crisp production. It’s littered with grooving ‘60s keys and frantic, unhinged rhythms. The guitar tones are punchy, the solos perfectly placed and the vocals gravelly and confident. Not to mention the versatility: “Back and Forth” combines speedy disco-punk with pounding hard rock breakdowns right before the band jumps into the ambient instrumental “Men of the Sea.” In a time when so many sacrifice sound for image, Bright Light Social Hour can boast both.
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CD review: Elizabeth McQueen ‘The Laziest Girl in Town’
Austin’s former great jazz hope Kat Edmonson — since migrated for the more ambitious pastures of New York City — makes a typically understated guest appearance on “You’re To Blame,” the bustling Bossa nova charmer that opens Elizabeth McQueen’s third solo record. Edmonson might as well softly croon “I’m passing the torch,” because “The Laziest Girl In Town” is the best vocal jazz record to come out of Austin since her “Take to the Sky.”
McQueen’s sweet southern twang — she also sings and plays guitar for Asleep at the Wheel — still drips off every word, but she’s turned her talents from traditional roots rock to 10 tracks of sometimes-smoky, sometimes-sugary jazz. Her original compositions — particularly “Mind of Men,” a brilliantly scalding, tongue-in-cheek, wholly accurate dissection of the male mind — hit that perfect Elephant Room-evoking sweet spot. Asleep at the Wheel’s Jonathan Doyle chips in pristine saxophone, with Floyd Domino — and let us all reflect on how perfect a piano player name “Floyd Domino” is — holding down the keys. But McQueen is really at her best on the covers: the resigned sigh of the Cole Porter-penned title track and a perfectly bittersweet version of the Magnetic Fields’ “You’re My Only Home,” a bone-deep cut off “69 Love Songs.”
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Weekend picks: Soul revivalists, psychedelic royalty and potty-mouthed show stealers
Friday
The Heavy at the Mohawk.Best show of the week? Nah, make that month. Of all the soul revivalists getting down, this British band is the only one with a singer who looks like he could go a few rounds with Lennox Lewis. When they did ‘How You Like Me Now?’ on the David Letterman show in January, Dave called for an encore. They’ve got the Stax stuff down cold, but what makes them heavyweights is the big Led Zeppelin roar down low. With Wallpaper. 9 p.m. $10. 912 Red River St. www.mohawkaustin.com. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Butthole Surfers at the Scoot Inn
- Randy Rogers Band at Nutty Brown Cafe
- STS9 at Stubb’s
- Scabs at Antone’s
- John Fullbright at the Cactus
- Dexter Freebish at Threadgill’s
- Yakuza at Emo’s
Saturday
Zombie Ball with Roky Erickson and the White Ghost Shivers at the Seaholm Power Plant. Halloween weekend brings the usual bevy of themed shows and opportunities to get your scare on, but none are as elaborate, or likely to be as swinging a scene, as this shindig at Austin’s art deco epicenter. Walk like a zombie with psychedelic godfather Roky Erickson, dance with the cabaret-jazz-swing-ragtime genre collision that is the White Ghost Shivers, and enjoy the ball’s many spectacles, from a giant disco ball to mini-opera ‘The Waltz of the Forbidden Flesh.’ With Pong, Killa Dilla, DJ Manny and more. 8 p.m. $30. 214 West Ave. www.zombieball.com. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- Lights at Emo’s inside
- Freak Funk Ball with DJ Resinthol, Akina Adderly and others at the ND at 501 Studios
- STS9 at Stubb’s
- Dead Prom with What Made Milwaukee Famous and the Low Lows at the Ghost Room
Sunday Die Antwoord at La Zona Rosa.These South African hip-hop crazies were potty-mouthed showstealers at the recent Treasure Island Music Fest near San Francisco. Can’t wait to see what Ninja and Yo-Landi, a couple of scary M.C.s are up to on Halloween. With M.I.A.- approved Rye Rye. 8 p.m. $25. 612 W. Fourth St. www.lazonarosa.com. — M.C.
Also recommended:
- Ghouls Night Out V at Emo’s
- …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Marnie Stern at Red 7
- Galactic and T-Bird and the Breaks at Stubb’s
- A Giant Dog and Shapes Have Fangs at Parlor North Loop
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No space available tickets for Lovett taping in 6A
There will be a simulcast party at Hogg Auditorium. From the ACL web site:
“Due to high demand, we will not have space available tickets to the Lyle Lovett taping in Studio 6A on November 8th. But to make sure more people get to be a part of this historic moment, KLRU will be hosting a simulcast party at Hogg Auditorium. With free beer from Budweiser, pizza from Austin’s Pizza, and a preshow featuring footage from ACL’s 36 years in Studio 6A, this will be a night to remember. The party begins at 7 and you’ll be able to watch a live feed of Lyle’s performance on the big screen starting at 8.”
Go here to enter the giveaway.
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Lyle Lovett to close out ‘Austin City Limits’ at Studio 6A
The final taping in the 36-year run of “Austin City Limits” at Studio 6A on the University of Texas campus will be by Lyle Lovett, it was confirmed Thursday. Lovett will perform Nov. 8, then producer Terry Lickona and company will start moving into its new $30 million home in the W Hotel development on West Second Street. Although bigger acts would no doubt love the honor, Lovett is the right choice for the historic booking. It will mark his 12th appearance on “ACL,” tying Willie Nelson for the most ever.
Before anyone besides his parents knew he was a musician, Lovett used to go to every taping of “Austin City Limits” that he could, waiting in the standby line at times. Featuring some of his favorite singer-songwriters, including Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, B.W. Stevenson, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash and so on, the show was a primary model for the kind of musician Lovett strived to be. Studio 6A was the pinnacle stage.
He was such a fan of the show that when he first appeared, during the 1987 season, a crowd shot at the TV airing spliced in a shot of Lovett in the audience from a previous show. There’s always been a special relationship between the longest-running live music TV show and the singer whose big hair got most of the early press. Pulling material from his self-titled debut, as well as an upcoming second album “Pontiac,” Lovett’s “ACL” debut (taped in ‘86) was an amazing set, The singer displayed not a trace of nervousness, as he masterfully fronted only two musicians- John Hagen on cello and percussionist James Gilmer. When the crowd leapt to its feet at the end, Lovett’s eyes welled up. He’d just won the singer-songwriter Super Bowl. The career still going strong 24 years later, really began that night.
That set was memorable to me for another reason: being challenged to not one, but two fistfights, before the show started. I was working on a story on Lovett for Spin magazine, so I was there for the soundcheck (where retired Exxon exec Bill Lovett was his son’s defacto guitar tech.) When the room was cleared, associate producer Susan Caldwell said I could stay under one condition: I had to save four seats in the back corner for Coach Darrell Royal.
So as the place filled up, I could see people look up to that gaping spread of emptiness in the corner and start to trek up the stairs. “These seats are saved,” I would say, but a few kept squeezing down the aisle anyway. “These seats are for Coach Royal,” sent most of them back, but two couples just kept coming. “We went to A&M,” said one guy. “We don’t give a (hoot) about your coach.” When I stood up to block their path, he said, “I’ll knock you right over that rail.” The other guy pounded his fist and said, “those are our seats.” A few people around me, took up my side, and the Aggies finally headed back down the stairs. Just then, Caldwell told me to release the seats, Coach Royal was a no-show. So as the Aggies were still glaring at me, they saw the four people that had been behind them, take the last four seats in the house. Maybe that’s one reason why I recall Lovett’s “ACL” bow so fondly.
Another Lovett appearance remains one of my top three “ACL” performances ever. In 1994, he joined Willie and Rodney Crowell for an amazing “guitar pull” that stirred every emotion in me besides anger and complacency. I still have that show on VHS tape and I watch it whenever I feel jaded and need a recharge on the power of music. The past decade has seen “ACL” expand its range of performers to include the likes of Phish, Coldplay and Sonic Youth. Longtime producer Terry Lickona even booked the Beastie Boys last year, but that show had to be canceled due to medical reasons. But through it all, the focus hasn’t really changed since Willie Nelson did the pilot in 1974. It’s still about making music, playing songs, that make you forget there’s a TV taping going on. On its best nights, Studio 6A was transformed from a soundstage to a live music venue where real magic happens.
As a fan first, Lovett understands that as well as anyone.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 preview: Gories
When talking to Mick Collins about his reunion of long-lost Detroit garage rockers The Gories, the word that keeps coming to mind is “lark.” Asked how the train finally pulled out of the station after more than a decade of pleading from fans, Collins reveals it was only because fellow former Crypt Record labelmates The Oblivians lobbied them to play an anniversary party for the German imprint. A date they ended up not playing, by the way.
On the topic of a new record; “Nah, we broke up in 1992 because we didn’t have anything more to say, and we still don’t.” And when talk turns to the trio’s visit to Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest, Collins’ nonchalance becomes extraordinary, asking, “Hey, can you tell me exactly where it is that thing’s taking place? I haven’t really checked the whole thing out.” Alright then.
This devil-may-care approach shouldn’t come as much surprise when considered against the ramshackle garage rock The Gories produced for three albums, and as many breakups, spread over seven years. There’s no way anyone the least bit uptight or detail oriented could have had a hand in simple stompers like “Goin’ To The River” or “Nitroglycerine.”
Collins admits as much when talking about the current state of the band, saying the songs are sharper and better executed now that he, guitarist Dan Kroha and drummer Peggy O’Neill have spent years in bands such as The Dirtbombs (for Collins) and Demolition Doll Rods (Kroha).
“We’ve been playing them extremely well, and some of these songs we’re finally playing them exactly as I imagined they’d sound when we first wrote them,” Collins said by phone from his home in Brooklyn. “The songs themselves haven’t changed, just how we’re performing at playing them because that stuff is really as easy as it gets from a musical standpoint. With most of them all we had to do was call it and count off and we were right back to playing them like we were before we broke up.” While The Gories’ members went their separate ways with no expectation of a legacy or cries for a reunion, Collins said it wasn’t long before just about everyone who had ever seen the band in clubs around Detroit and the midwest began clamoring for the group to get back together.
“It started around 1996 or 1997 and the questions just never stopped only now there are questions about our legacy, and I honestly have no idea how to answer those,” he said. “It got to be kind of annoying after a while because all people would talk to us about was The Gories, when we had new bands we were doing that no one wanted to talk much about. Still, it is kind of neat now to have someone saying they’ve been listening to you since they were in high school and they’re so glad they can finally see the band live.” Even though Collins seems stumped about The Gories’ place in rock history, it’s hard to deny their influence on the wave of garage-influenced bands such as The White Stripes, The VonBondies, The Electric Six, Collins’ most recent band The Dirtbombs and more that had the music world flocking to Detroit - record contracts in hand - at the turn of the millenium.
“It was a madhouse around there. (The Dirtbombs) had been on tour and when we came back suddenly all the clubs were packed with record executives, and we even got to play a showcase for Sire Records, if you can believe that,” Collins said. “Suddenly everyone was looking at all these opportunities and it kinda went to some people’s heads. I mean, for a while people in bands were moving to Detroit specifically for that reason. It was nuts.”
Normalcy eventually returned and Collins and his cohorts returned to their lives as getting-by touring musicians. The Gories will continue to tour as the members’ moods allow - O’Neill dislikes the grind of the road - and The Dirtbombs are getting ready to release a series of three 12-inch records.
What’s the new Dirtbombs stuff sound like, you wonder?
“It’s not new, we’re doing garage covers of Detroit techno songs,” Collins says before a healthy cackle.
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Robert Johnson tribute coming to Paramount
Although it won’t be officially announced until after Big Head Todd and the Monsters play Stubb’s Nov. 19, a big blues concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Robert Johnson, starring Todd and the Monsters, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Hubert Sumlin and Cedric Burnside and Malcolm Lightnin’ is coming to the Paramount Feb. 4.
Called “Blues At The Crossroads: The Robert Johnson Centennial Concerts,” the tour will be in conjunction with a studio album. No word yet when tix go on sale.
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KUT nets more than $900,000 in pledge drive
KUT 90.5’s semi-annual membership pledge drive, which kicked off October 19, raised over $900,000 this year, according to a news release from the station.
That’s a new record for the 52-year-old NPR affiliate — not that that’s necessarily unexpected news. Last year’s fall membership drive raised a then-record $854,000 even in a dire economy and with controversy still swirling over the station’s decision to cut the airtime of longtime disc jockeys Larry Monroe and Paul Ray.
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Mogwai coming to Stubb’s May 16
Condo dwellers within a mile radius of Stubb’s might want to plan a night out of town May 16. THat’s when Scottish noise marauders Mogwai are hitting town. They’re easily the loudest band I’ve ever heard at Stubb’s.
The group’s next album “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will” will be released on February 15 on Sub Pop Records.
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Gregory Isaacs 1951-2010
Reggae’s “Cool Ruler” Gregory Isaacs died yesterday in London on lung cancer.
Here’s the obit from the New York Times. He was 60.
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Devo forced to cancel tour, FFF promoters have offers out to big-name headliners
Due to a hand injury suffered by guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh, Devo has been forced to cancel its entire fall tour, including its appearance at the Fun Fun Fun music festival Nov. 7.
“A glass shard sliced Mothersbaugh’s right thumb to the bone, severing a tendon,” a Warner Brothers Records press release said. “He underwent immediate emergency surgery and is expected to make a full recovery after proper care and therapy.”
Warner Bros. says dates will be made up in spring 2011, but that doesn’t help Fun Fun Fun.
Festival organizers have offers out to replacement headliners of comparable stature.
“You can’t really replace a band like Devo,” Fun Fun Fun promoter James Moody said, “But we are definitely going to spend all the money we had earmarked for Devo. We’re going to try our hardest to get someone big.”
Fun Fun Fun takes place Nov. 5 to 7 at Waterloo Park.
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CD review: “Goodnight Lane” by Colin Gilmore
Colin Gilmore
“Goodnight Lane”
Grade: B+
Colin Gilmore’s first full album in over five years is ruled by a voice that cuts and melodies that heal. Gilmore’s detail-driven lyrics of a young man trying to find a place in a world that can give so much and so little (“Circles in the Yard”) and being almost powerless in love (“Abigail”) may be bittersweet, but the rich lines of melody and pleasing vocals make for an overall warmth. Even a dark song like “Black Vines” (“tonight my arms are turning to black vines/ my heart is turning to coal”) sings of hopefulness because the instinctive talent uplifts.
It’s hard to make a name for yourself when your father’s Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but Colin G. rocks like the Flatlanders never could on “Laughing Hard or Crying,” which sounds like vintage Rockpile with the slightest touch of Lubbock twang. Another standout, “Essene Eyes,” puts spiritual reflection on top of Brill Building piano to create an exotic/ familiar vibe that transcends most pop music.
“Goodnight Lane” is consistently good, which makes it curious that Gilmore and producer Lloyd Maines would burn a couple minutes with the blues-abilly instrumental “Teeth, Hair and Eyeballs.” Perhaps they were looking to put some emotional cleanse between “Essene Eyes” and poignant LP closer “Raindrops in July,” but, as with the Clash cover on 2004’s “The Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way,” the toss-off only detracts.
Colin Gilmore uncorks deep feelings on “Goodnight Lane” while never letting the bubbles go flat. In doing so, he’s put himself right back in the troubadour game. These are songs you’re gonna want to hear live.
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Cool gig alert: Quebe Sisters at Swiss Alp Friday night
This version dusts the Dixie Chicks
Imagine if the Andrews Sisters were home-schooled in a town still crazy about Bob Wills and you have an idea of the Quebe Sisters (pronounced KWAY-bee) of the Fort Worth area. Fiddlers Grace, Sophie and Hulda, plus their two side musicians, play hot Western swing and harmonize in a way that will be perfect for this restored 110-year-old dancehall.
Located on Hwy 77, between La Grange and Schulenburg, Swiss Alp is a little more than an hour from Austin, but the Quebe Sisters Band is worth the drive.
Tickets are $12 at the door for the 8:30 p.m. show. Go to www.swissalphall.com.
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Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles cancel tours, including Fun Fun Fun dates
That’s the word from the Los Angeles-based lo-fi indie pop quartet’s official Facebook feed — and tour manager Matthew Koshak, who confirmed the news via phone. Bekah Keitz, spokesperson for the band’s label, Sub Pop, said the cancellation was due to a family emergency. Songwriter and frontwoman Dee Dee (Kristin Gundred) will be flying home to be with her family.
The band was in the middle of a series of dates with the Vaselines and were to play the Fun Fun Fun Fest Sunday, November 7.
Update: Noise rock duo the Crocodiles have also canceled their current tour and planned Fun Fun Fun Fest appearance, according to an e-mail from the band’s publicist. Crocodile Brandon Welchez is married to Gundred, so we can assume it’s the same family emergency. The band is hoping to reschedule the dates.
Update: Crocodiles’ and the Dum Dum Girls’ spots have been filled by New York boy-girl pop duo Cults and Indianapolis’ Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. Hat tip to Austinist for noticing the schedule change.
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N.E.R.D. frontman creates a news website for teens
Musician and producer Pharrell Williams, frontman for hip-hop/rock outfit N.E.R.D. and one half of famous production team the Neptunes, stopped in Austin Friday to open for Gorillaz. Before the show, Grammy-winning Williams and his bandmates, who will release a new album, “Nothing,” on Nov. 2, took part in a question and answer session with students at the University of Texas. Williams also sat down to talk about his website kidult.com, a news and entertainment site geared at teens.
How did the idea for the site come about?
I just noticed the landscape was really different, the landscape was changing. Kids were more concerned with politics than they were with sports. They knew who the candidates were and who the cabinet members would be. I thought that was really cool, but I was like, where are they getting this information from? Is it skewed?…Who was serving 12-18 year old demographic? For the most part, no one. The closest you could get was Huffpo.
Your press release mentions you’d like the site to be a “training ground for young journalists.”
I’d like to see them energized. ‘Feed your curiosity’ is our mantra. I think that the world deserves unbiased information. We’re not perfect, but the intention, as we created it, was to bring unbiased reporting, to be a site that is clearly informative so they can make their own judgements. if you’re going to be a Republican, hopefully it’s the information you acquired through our site that’s driven you there because that’s what you want to be, but not because we wrote it in a way that lured you to be that—it’s just given all the information, you deduced that’s what you want to do with your life, or vice versa, Democrat, or Tea Party or whatever.
How do you compete with celebrity gossip sites?
I think there’s room under the sun for everyone. Celebrity sites are food for the appetite of human nature. People are curious of those that are famous and more popular and live different lifestyles; they’re intrigued by that. Those sites feed that, but we feel like there is a lack of information. We feel like that is when a child is sort of formulating who they’re going to be, what they want out of life.
What qualifies you to start a news site?
Well, I’m not, that’s why I’m not the editor-in-chief. If I walked in there I would probably be getting people coffee. I’m a founder because I had an idea that was derived from a concern.
This is an unusual effort for a musician/rapper to get behind.
You have to give back to society when society gives to you. Yes, I work very hard to earn everything that I have, but ultimately there are a lot of people that work just as hard or even harder and are not getting it, so I feel I have to give back.
What are your goals for Kidult?
We’re going to continue to do conventions, we’re going to motivational books. It’s a great business, and I’d rather make money doing things to help humanity than make a lot of money doing things that don’t service humanity at all, or worse, hurting humanity. I call it clean money.
How do you feel about kids listening to music that you or people you work with create that might have adult language, themes, etc.?
I think parents should hear it first. You don’t know where kids are in their stage of development. It doesn’t mean your kid can’t listen to Tupac, but it means you should sit your kid down and explain who Tupac was, what his life was like, what are some of the good things about his music, what are some of the things that are risky about his music, edgy. There is a way to talk to your kids about anything.
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CD review: Ghostland Observatory ‘Codename: Rondo’
Ghostland Observatory
‘Codename: Rondo’
(Trashy Moped)
Grade: C
“Codename: Rondo” has a promising enough start. Sure, “Glitter” doesn’t find Ghostland Observatory falsetto freakout specialist Aaron Behrens anywhere near as scorching as he was on “Paparazzi Lighting” opener “Piano Man,” but Thomas Turner’s minimalist electronic beat is groovy enough. The guitar is solid, and “Glitter” is a huge step up over the misguided instrumental opener of 2008’s somewhat overly maligned “Robotique Majestique.”
But with second track “That’s Right,” “Codename: Rondo” rapidly loses steam and never quite recovers. Over an anonymous beat and a generic guitar solo, “That’s Right” spotlights a heavily processed robo-voice, a stylistic choice that — when your singer is capable of hitting the electrifying highs of Behrens — seems like making a Superman movie where the hero never flies.
Unfortunately, that’s a recurring problem on “Codename: Rondo.” While Ghostland Observatory still has the chops and energy that made “Paparazzi Lightning” such a charmer, a sort of blue-collar Daft Punk fronted by Freddie Mercury, the band spends much of its fourth full-length album misallocating its resources. Turner’s beats lack propulsion and Behrens never quite cuts loose, resulting in an album that feels undercooked, a distinctly unsatisfying appetizer for the main course that is the duo’s live show.
“Body Shop” and closer “Kick Clap Speaker” — the latter evoking the Macintosh SimpleText voice made famous by Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier” — make much the same mistake of underutilizing Behrens, while even the tracks where he wisely takes center stage feel limp in comparison with the band’s better songs. “Miracles” isn’t quite as cornball as the Insane Clown Posse viral sensation of the same name, but it’s close, and the spoken-word title track is a goofy experiment that doesn’t pay off.
Of course, Ghostland Observatory is a live band first and foremost, and doubtless many of these songs will entertain when backed with the band’s tour-de-force concert presence. It’s not hard to imagine a crowd of thousands dancing to the catchy-if-cheesy “Give Me the Beat” — wherein Behrens posits the beat as his anti-drug, anti-theft and anti-prostitution. And “Codename: Rondo” has moments of intrigue, like the New Wave pop excursion of “Time” and the spacey depths of “Mama.”
Unfortunately, they’re too little and too late to keep “Codename: Rondo” from being more than an intermittently interesting misfire.
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CD review: Octopus Project ‘Hexadecagon’
The Octopus Project
‘Hexadecagon’
(Peek-A-Boo)
Grade: B+
Even if you spun the Octopus Project’s “Hexadecagon” with no prior knowledge that the album began its life as a multimedia extravaganza, an eight-channel, eight-screen audiovisual pile-on of trippy imagery and electrifying electronic sounds performed during this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival, you’d probably still sense that the record’s origins were a little different. That’s because the band’s fourth full-length album, “Hexadecagon,” while quintessentially an Octopus Project album, floats out of the speakers with a more atmospheric ambience than the venerable local quartet’s last two peppy, perky releases, 2009’s “Golden Beds” EP and 2007’s “Hello, Avalanche.”
Of course, one shouldn’t overstate the case — “Hexadecagon” packs all the requisite Octopus Project pleasures into its eight tracks; seductive synths, mile-high guitar riffs, thumping percussion and Yvonne Lambert’s haunting coaxing of the theremin remain intact. The band still purées indie rock and electronica and veers on the pop side of experimental.
But while the furniture remains the same, the room has been rearranged. Where “Hello Avalanche” and “Golden Beds” were loaded top-to-bottom with strongly individual songs running the gamut from sleepy dreamscapes to charging pop anthems, “Hexadecagon” might be the most album album the Octopus Project have recorded since 2002’s debut “Identification Parade.” It leans toward atmosphere, cohesion and slow build.
Take opener “Fuguehat” as an indicator: It blooms slowly, unfolding with an insistent piano laid over an electronic beat that gradually opens up to layers of electronic fuzz and frenzied percussion. That scene-setter transitions smoothly into the sleepy stir of “Korakrit,” a soothing swirl of handclaps and synths that sounds something like elevator music for robots. Perhaps nothing encapsulates the record’s reach more than “Circling,” at 11 minutes, by far the Octopus Project’s longest song, an instrumental epic with a rapid-fire beat and insistent piano with a mellow wind-down.
All that atmosphere does threaten to melt together at times. And “Hexadecagon” could stand the caffeine injection of another jumpy dance-along or two in the vain of live standby “Truck”; here, 8-bit rock explosion “Glass Jungle” has to carry most of the weight on that front. But “Hexadecagon” is a largely captivating addition to what’s gradually becoming a very impressive local discography.
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Mellencamp coming to new Austin City Limits Theater
Thanks to alert reader Bernard V. for the news that John Mellencamp will be playing the new Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater on April 2. This is not a show taping, but a stop on the former Johnny Cougar’s “No Better Than This Tour.”
This show is the first booking at the ACLL@MT venue on West Second Street in the W Hotel complex. The venue is expected to host shows during South by Southwest, but they haven’t been made public yet.
The on sale date for Mellencamp tickets has not been confirmed yet.
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McConaughey directs Jamey Johnson video
Actor Matthew McConaughey lost a bet with Alabama-raised singer Jamey Johnson over January’s NCAA national title game, which Bama won even though unlucky Texas was the better team, but let’s not get into that right now. It seems that McConaughey’s losing bet had something to do with him wearing a gorilla costume in Los Angeles on a hot summer day.
It’s supposed to be a surprise, but anyone who’s ever seen McConaughey “dance” at an Austin club knows who’s in that monkey suit, shaking it to Johnson’s “Playing the Part” about halfway through this video that even Wooderson would think was corny, (The camera angle on the guy doing squats on Venice Beach made me feel violated- just FYI.) The song is the new single from Johnson’s critically-acclaimed double disc “The Guitar Song.”
The new best friends (sorry, Lance) met at a music awards show in 2009. A few months later, Johnson performed at McConaughey’s 40th birthday party (sorry, Mishka).
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Emo’s owner Hendrix has high hopes on the hill
Frank Hendrix answered a call Monday morning while out on a walk with his 80-year-old mother. “She’s leaving me in the dust,” he said. It’s hard to imagine anyone outhustling Hendrix, who has added Antone’s operations to his duties, but maybe it’s in the blood.
The Emo’s owner and an investor who wished to remain anonymous plan to spend about a million dollars to turn the former Back Room location on East Riverside Drive into a rock club modeled, in part, after the 930 club in Washington D.C. “We’re going to keep Emo’s in the name,” said Hendrix, “but we’re not sure if we’ll call it Emo’s East or Emo’s on the Hill or Emo’s Back Room.”
The new Michael Hsu-designed club is scheduled to open in July, which means SXSW is going to be crucial for attracting national booking agents and managers. “We’re going to have a model at (the current Emo’s) and have virtual tours, plus we may shuttle some folks over to the new place.”
When the new Emo’s opens, the old Emo’s main room will probably close, while the smaller room on Red River will remain unchanged. Hendrix bought the L-shaped building in 2001. “We don’t want to compete with ourselves,” said Hendrix, adding that estimated renovations to Emo’s main room were half a million dollars.
Hendrix will not own the building on Riverside, but has reached a deal on a 15-year lease, with a five-year option. “The W Hotel has really upped the ante,” Hendrix said of the West Second Street development which will house the new home of “Austin City Limits.” He said Hsu’s first design draft “really hit it out of the park.”
Could Riverside be the next hip destination in town? “We’re hoping to attract neighbors like the Alamo Drafthouse and Waterloo Records,” Hendrix said. “Parking is such a problem downtown, but we’ll have plenty of it.”
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Die Antwoord say “trick or treat?” to Austin
So you thought your Halloween concert dilemma was a simple choice between the …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead/Marnie Stern bill at Red 7 or the Butthole Surfers/Meat Puppets pairing at Scoot Inn, eh? Not so fast.
Buzzy-as-hell South African weirdo techno-rappers Die Antwoord just popped into the mix with a show this coming Sunday at La Zona Rosa, with Rye Rye as openers. The group, whose new video for “Evil Boy” is about as not safe for work as you can get, was due for an Austin date after dropping off a bill with Paul Oakenfold at Austin Music Hall earlier this month and will be promoting their new album “$O$”.
This show will sell out, so jump on some tickets now. And wear a costume if the mood strikes, but it’ll still probably be orders of magnitude tamer than whatever members Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er will have going on.
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Historic Club 21 destroyed by fire
Uhland’s Club 21, the oldest continuously operated Texas dancehall, built in 1893 and added to in 1912, has burned to the ground. Here’s the latest updates, along with initial reports which ran Sunday morning:
Update: Around 2 a.m. Sunday, not long after the bar closed, a Mazda four-door sedan and a Chevrolet Suburban came speeding down Cotton Gin Road and crossed over Texas 21 without stopping, Department of Public Safety Trooper Tim Gerloff said at the scene. The Mazda then crashed into the front of Club 21,, while the Suburban came to rest in Club 21 owner William Ilse’s backyard at his home next door to the hall.
The hall caught fire, and when emergency crews arrived, it was fully engulfed in flames, Gerloff said. No one was inside the hall when the crash occurred. He said both vehicles were abandoned when firefighters and ambulances arrived at the scene.
No arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon, and Gerloff said investigators were working to identify the passengers in the cars.
Gerloff said the owner of the Mazda, who was not identified by police, loaned out his car to another person. Gerloff said investigators do not know why the cars were speeding.
“We don’t have a lot of hard facts at this point,” Gerloff said.
Earlier:
Whenever I was on Highway 21, headed to or from San Marcos, I always vowed to stop in at Club 21 in Uhland, a vintage Texas dancehall. Until recently, the 1893-built club had 9-pin bowling, just like back in old Germany.
But I was always in a hurry and never stopped in. Next time, next time.
Now there will never be a next time; Club 21 was destroyed by fire last night. KXAN showed footage of the flames on the Sunday morning news. The cause of the overnight fire had not been determined as of Sunday morning.
“This is just tragic,” says Steve Dean, co-founder of the Texas Dancehall Preservation organization. The front part of the club was built in 1893, with the dancehall added in 1912. “Club 21 is one of our most beautiful and cherished halls. It’s the closest one, of its stature, to Austin.” Club 21 is located on the Old Spanish Trail (Camino Real) used by explorers in the early 1700s.
The cover of Don Walser’s album “Rolling Stone From Texas” was shot outside Club 21, one of Walser’s favorite places to play. Jimmie Vaughan shot one of his videos there.
Club 21 has also been used in several period piece movies and for Coors Light’s old “Big Hair Contest” commercials. The dancehall served as the Uhland school basketball court from 1933 until the school closed and the students were bused to Kyle.
The club, which featured Sam Bentley Saturday night, closed about an hour before the blaze.
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Live review: Gorillaz at Frank Erwin Center
Try to diagram exactly what Gorillaz is - a band, an overgrown side project, a cartoon, a mixed-media craft lab, a creative Club Med for a rotating roster of guest collaborators, a viral Internet experiment that long ago escaped its test tube - and it seems there’s roughly 1,000 ways it shouldn’t come off as anything more than a too-eager music theory doctoral thesis somehow come to life.
Too many layers. Too many directions. And way too many cooks in the kitchen.
So given all of that, how in the world does a night like Friday at Erwin Center happen, where Gorillaz lead man Damon Albarn guides a revolving cast of close to 50 musicians through a program of some of the most thrilling, satisfying pop music you’re going to hear this or any other year.
Mainly by concentrating on the “band” part of Gorillaz’ makeup, while still making the visuals crafted or inspired by Albarn’s co-creator/illustrator Jamie Hewlett a prominent component of the show. The band’s multi-media nature was front and center from the start when Snoop Dogg appeared dressed in classic naval attire on the giant screen atop the stage, where a seven-piece string section and eight-piece brass band led the way while the superstar rapper delivered a recorded rendering of his verses to “Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach”.
After that obvious intro song (it’s the great lead-off to this year’s hit album “Plastic Beach) the stage flooded with Albarn and the rest of the core band, who kicked into the squiggly pop-funk-hop of “19-2000” and showed an arresting interplay and ability to react to one another for such a sprawling, creatively mutating project.
Of course, when you’ve got two all-time greats like Clash vets Paul Simonon and Mick Jones respectively on bass and guitar - two guys who built their legends by playing punk filtered through other genres the way Gorillaz do in a post-modern pop context - you’re going to have a lot more creative leeway and ability to take chances.
Maybe that’s the secret to Gorillaz; that Albarn - already a certifiable British pop legend from his years with Blur, before he stepped out on this creative limb - is really good at picking guests and collaborators who either bring “wow”-y star power or left field surprises and surrounds them with the right musical trappings. That was the case again and again Friday, whether the occasion called for rappers Posnudos and Dave from De La Soul bum rushing the stage for “Superfast Jellyfish” and (later) big hit “Feel Good Inc.”, soul legend Bobby Womack sauntering out throughout, but most notably for “Stylo” with rapper Booty Brown, or a short suite of Arabian instrumental music featuring a sextet of Syrian musicians Albarn said he met while recording last year in Damascus.
If that all reads like the night was a lot to take, it occasionally was. While there were numerous moments of unbridled fun and harmony (Womack’s encore-opening showpiece “Cloud Of Unknowing,” the simple folk of “Melancholy Hill,” Shaun Ryder’s CGI’d severed head singing “Dare” up on the big screen) there was a short stretch toward mid-show (my notes indicate around “El Manana” and “White Flag”) where vertigo started to set in and you really needed an Albarn-focused tune to re-establish creative gravity.
The familiar lunacy of “Dare,” followed by “Plastic Beach,” helped things settle back in to end the opening set and Womack’s turn at stage front for “Cloud Of Unknowing,” to kick off the encore added even more gravitas counterpointed by De La Soul’s return for the nitro-powered funk of “Feel Good Inc.”
And if “Clint Eastwood” - the band’s first and biggest hit and a sure-thing inclusion for pop compilations from last decade - seemed a little foreign because of new verses delivered by guest rappers Bashy and Kano, well, that’s the chance you take when you hop into an animated dune buggy with this bunch. Because for every occasional bump in the road there’s far more time spent sailing madly through air and space to make it all worth it.
Set list
- Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach
- 19-2000
- Last Living Souls
- Stylo
- Melancholy Hill
- Rhinestone Eyes
- Superfast Jellyfish
- Tomorrow Comes Today
- Empire Ants
- Broken Lyrics
- Dirty Harry
- El Manana
- White Flag
- To Binge
- Dare
- Plastic Beach
(encore)
- Cloud Of Unknowing
- Feel Good Inc.
- Clint Eastwood
- Don’t Get Lost In Heaven
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Riverboat Gamblers’ trailer stolen on eve of European tour
Austin punks The Riverboat Gamblers will be light more than a few items when they kick off a European tour next week, thanks to the theft on Friday of the band’s trailer from a practice space in east Austin.
The good news - if there can be any in such a scenario - is that all the Gamblers’ instruments and other gear weren’t loaded into the trailer at the time, making around 100 shirts, some patches and a custom stage backdrop the only other items lost along with the white, single-axle Homestead trailer.
Singer Mike Wiebe discovered the theft Friday afternoon as he was visiting the practice space and preparing to leave for six weeks of shows throughout Europe with Sum 41 and The Black Pacific. The tour is scheduled to begin in Norwich, England on Wednesday.
“None of our gear was in there, so that’s good, but that backdrop was something we had made for big tours like this one so I’m pretty bummed to have lost it right before we left,” Wiebe said.
The band has filed a police report for the theft and anyone with information or who catches site of the trailer in the above photo can pass word along through Twitter via @mikewiebe or @thegamblers.
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Jonsi cancels acoustic in-store tour, including Austin date
Sad news for anybody looking forward to peeping the Sigur Ros front man in the unusually intimate confines of a record store — following an apparently very uncomfortable performance in Los Angeles, Jonsi has canceled a planned set of acoustic in-store appearances. That means his scheduled performance at End of an Ear on Tuesday, October 26 is officially off. These cancellations do not impact Jonsi’s full tour of more traditional venues — so he’ll still play the Austin Music Hall as planned that night.
“We, the management, are going to take the blame here, since it was us who thought this was a great opportunity to counterpoint the weight and scale of production at his theatrical shows with something super low-key and intimate. We talked him into it. And we stand by the fact that it is a great idea on paper,” said a statement on the artist’s website. “Jonsi himself, however, was always skeptical about how in would pan out in reality. And standing there nose-to-nose with fans in the cold light of day the other day in Origami Records, Los Angeles, he had the sudden and undeniable realization that this is not the environment in which he flourishes.”
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Don Harvey debuts new band at Momo’s Nov. 3
That rock ‘n’ roll Realtor Don Harvey, best known in local music circles for his drumming with Ian McLagan, will unveil his new band A is Red Nov. 3 at Momo’s. The band features ex-Poi Dog Pondering guitarist/ songwriter Adam Sultan, bassist Leslie McCurdy and Kullen Fuchs on vibraphone, trumpet and keyboards.
The group will play “moody, deep grooving, semi-ambient instrumental music” from Harvey’s 2009 EP “A Dance in Red,” plus ensemble jams and songs by Sultan and McCurdy. A is Red will continue a Momo’s residency every Wednesday through November 24th.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest kick-off and afterparties announced
Via the Austinist, the Fun Fun Fun Fest has released its full slate — a few pesky “TBA”s notwithstanding — of kick-off and aftershows. You can view the full schedule of mouth-watering shows at the link, with many set to be free or heavily discounted with your FFF Fest wristband.
Highlights include the annual Local Music is Sexy kickoff Thursday night (November 4) at the Mohawk with Bill Baird, the Weird Weeds, Sally Crewe and others, explosive Portland rockers the Helio Sequence at Club De Ville, a great night of music curated by influential Dallas tastemakers Gorilla Vs. Bear at the Mohawk with Memory Tapes, and a DJ set from French dance pop sensation Yelle at the Beauty Bar.
Also worth noting: the addition of the Antlers, Washed Out and the Nortec Collective’s Bostich and Fussible to the lineup. Rev your fun engines — events start Thursday November 4 and run through Sunday November 7.
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Cool gig alert: Cowboy and Indian at Momo’s
With “Friday Night Lights” coming to a close — set your DirecTV to start recording the fifth and final season on Wednesday, October 27, Lions fans — Jesse “Landry Clarke” Plemons has at least one other gig he can fall back on: smoky alt-country musician.
With Cowboy and Indian, Plemons sings and slings guitar alongside Jazz Mills, former back-up singer for mercurial local soulsters T-Bird and the Breaks and Daniel James, one-third of San Francisco-based ramshackle Americana rock outfit Leopold and His Fiction. The trio play a rare local show Saturday, October 23 at Momo’s, 618 W. Sixth St., at 9 p.m., on a bill that also includes the Belleville Outfit. There’s a $10 cover, and the band is also asking two things of its audience: that they bring along a canned good or item of clothing to donate to the Austin homeless community, and that they show up dressed either as a cowboy or an Indian.
The unlikely alliance of Cowboy and Indian started when Mills met Plemons through fellow Break Stephanie Hunt, who played rocker Devin on “Friday Night Lights.” The pair wrote a song, “The Duet,” together.
“I didn’t have any desire to pursue music after T-Bird. I mean, I always like to sing but I didn’t want to be in another band,” says Mills. “But when me and Jesse wrote this song it was kind of a magical moment for me and we were just really inspired by each other musically.”
Knowing that Plemons’ work would often take him to Los Angeles, the pair decided they needed another musician and brought in James after Leopold and His Fiction used Mills’ home as a crash pad during this year’s South by Southwest. Mills said the band is making plans for how to gig and record actively despite its scattered membership.
“Jesse’s always going to be involved in acting, so that’s something we’re always going to have to deal with. And Daniel is very busy with Leopold and His Fiction, too” says Mills. “But we are going to try to find a way to tour that’s conducive to everyone’s schedules and we think we’ve figured out a way to make it work that’s very creative. We kind of want to surprise everybody, though, so we’re keeping our plans under wraps until early next year.”
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‘Echotone’ makes Austin debut Saturday
The Austin Film Festival — which starts distributing the cinematic riches today and will run through Thursday, October 28 — rarely offers quite the smorgasbord of music-related screenings that the South by Southwest Film Festival brings, but there’s a couple of tuneful gems worth noticing among this year’s lineup of movies.
Austin documentary “Echotone” — which premiered at the Marfa Film Festival in May — makes its long-awaited local debut Saturday at the Alamo Ritz Downtown at 1 p.m. The appropriately lyrical and stunningly shot documentary tackles the complex interweaving of economics and art in Austin’s music scene, lensed against the backdrop of a booming downtown, with appearances by the Octopus Project, the White White White Lights, Belaire, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears and Dana Falconberry. It gets an encore screening at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum’s Texas Spirit Theater at 10 p.m. Tuesday, October 26. Several of the film’s featured performers — Sunset, Dana Falconberry and the White White Lights — will play a premiere party at the Mohawk Sunday, October 24. You can RSVP for that here, read the May interview with director Nathan Christ here, and watch the trailer below. Tickets will be available 30 minutes before the movie, and of course the screenings are open to AFF pass and badgeholders.
Also receiving a screening is charming indie comedy “Pickin’ and Grinnin’” which tracks two tune-playing brothers on a cross-country road trip to a sing-along contest in Nashville. Writers Johnny Dowers and Garrett Mathany portray the quip-slinging Johnson brothers, and they’ll make a in-character appearance playing the Saxon Pub tomorrow (Friday, October 22) night at 11:15 p.m. Unfortunately, “Pickin’ and Grinnin’” cast members Billy Gibbons and Kenny Loggins will probably not be along for this particular ride. The movie screens Saturday, October 23 at 3:45 p.m. at the Alamo Ritz and at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 27 at the Alamo Lake Creek.
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HAAM Benefit Day raises $195,000
The final tally of the Health Alliance of Austin Musicians benefit day, Sept. 21, is in: $195,000. Over 200 area businesses and 140 acts participated in the daylong event. The total raised is $30,000 more than last year.
Next year’s HAAM Benefit Day will be Oct. 4.
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Weekend picks: Enduring alt-rock, virtuosic acoustic music and the feelgood gig of the week
Friday
Stone Temple Pilots at the Backyard.OK, so this show isn’t liable to be as full of spectacle as the Gorillaz’s multimedia eruption at the Erwin Center — at least, unless notoriously volatile frontman Scott Weiland melts down again, which we all hope he won’t. But the Stone Temple Pilots have never gotten enough credit in critical circles for writing some of the ’90s’ most enduring alternative rock songs, and quality of this year’s self-titled album aside, it should be great fun to see them tear through their classics. At least it will be if you spent high school listening to ‘Interstate Love Song.’ With TAB the Band and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. 6 p.m. $46. 13472 Bee Cave Parkway. thebackyard.net. — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
- The Ugly Beats at Waterloo Records
- Built to Spill at Emo’s outside
- One Hundred Flowers CD release at Emo’s inside
- Gorillaz at the Erwin Center
- Darling New Neighbors at the Ghost Room
- Soul Track Mind and Dertybird at Ruta Maya
- Omar and the Howlers at the Saxon Pub
Saturday
Playing For Change at Antone’s.The feelgood gig of the week. The YouTube sensations (‘Stand by Me’) are musicians from around the world who prove the songs of Africa, Jamaica, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Brazil, Israel and other ports of inspiration are a mighty unifying force. Their version of ‘What’s Up’ by Four Non-Blondes will blow you away, as they did the crowd at SXSW two years ago. 8 p.m. $20. 213 W. Fifth St. www.antones.net. — Michael Corcoran
Also recommended:
- Los Campesinos! at La Zona Rosa
- Jimmy LaFave at Threadgill’s
- Toadies at Stubb’s
- Collective Soul at Dell Diamond
- Built To Spill at Emo’s
- the Thermals at Red 7
- Dana Falconberry at the Cactus
- Foxy Shazam at the Mohawk
Sunday
California Guitar Trio at One World Theatre.Interestingly, none of the California Guitar Trio’s members originally hails from California — instead, Salt Lake City’s Paul Richards, Brussels’ Bert Lams and Tokyo’s Hideyo Moriya met at a class taught by legendary King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. They relocated to Los Angeles and have since built a nearly two-decade career on their virtuosic acoustic musicianship and a healthy sense of humor — their covers range from surf rock to ‘Riders on the Storm.’ Check out their cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on YouTube. I dare you not to smile. 6 and 8:30 p.m. $20-$40. 7701 Bee Caves Road. www.oneworld theatre.org. — P.C.
Also recommended:
- Literature and the Planets at Beerland
- Banner Pilot at Emo’s
- Reverend Glasseye at the Hole in the Wall
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Review: Sufjan Stevens at the Long Center
Lately, it seems like Sufjan Stevens is daring his listeners to analyze his music. Announcing an hour-long EP on the day of its release? Closing an album of free-form electronic soundplay with a 25-minute, autotune-tinged ballad? Just try to make sense of these things in a short conversation or blog post.
Tuesday night’s orchestral performance at the Long Center gave a mind-boggling multimedia boost to Stevens’ efforts. His 10-piece band, which included two drummers and two costumed backup singers who doubled as interpretive dancers, took the stage between two projection screens. One covered the back wall of the stage, and one hung at the front like a transparent curtain of smoke. As Stevens plucked the gentle banjo progression of “Seven Swans” and sang of signs in the sky, pinpoints of light were projected like stars on the front screen, while on the back screen, more drifted into constellations: a house in a field, a benevolent watcher, two lovers on opposite bedsides with backs turned.
And that was just the first song.
The rest of the set mostly consisted of cuts from Stevens’ latest releases, the pastoral “All Delighted People” and the experimental “Age of Adz.” The band deftly executed each of these off-kilter electronic compositions, seamlessly blending grandiose, effects-laden arrangements with fluid, organic folk movements. Stevens himself switched between guitars, synthesizers and more while whispering his fragile falsetto melodies with a control that nearly matched his studio work. He even formed an intimate bond with the packed house, revealing song meanings and dubbing Austin “the city where young people go to retire.” And when he donned Kanye garb for the autotuned section of “Impossible Soul,” the audience stood in the seated fine arts venue to dance.
Judging from the roaring applause, few minded the abundance of new material. But Stevens returned to the stage by himself for a four-song encore anyway, guiding attendees through some of the most delicate narratives from his breakthrough album, “Illinois.”
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ACL Festival 2011 early bird passes sold out
Well, that was quick.
Apparently too many folks weren’t dissuaded by the prospect of buying Austin City Limits Music Festival 2011 tickets blind, because the $165 early bird three-day passes sold out in fewer than 45 minutes this morning. That quick sell-out left many disappointed fans in its wake — the festival’s official Facebook page is littered with complaints from would-be buyers who ran into difficulty with Front Gate Tickets’ virtual line system. Whether your experience with buying tickets ran smoothly, difficultly or not at all, pop into the comments and let us know.
The next round of tickets won’t go on sale until next spring, after the lineup is released. The 2011 ACL Festival — its 10th anniversary year — runs from September 16-18.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 preview: Joe Sib
At first blush it doesn’t sounds incredibly compelling; the head of a major punk rock label spending 70 minutes on stage waxing rhapsodic about the music’s history and its place in his life.
But let Joe Sib - founder and head of venerated punk label Side One Dummy Records - get going and he magnetically pulls audiences into the comedy and tragedies of his formative years as a teen during the heyday of the southern California punk scene of the early ‘80s.
“Even if you’re not a fan of punk rock, that could totally not be your thing, but everyone has a time in their life when all they cared about was music and that was the single most important thing in their lives,” Sib said by phone from his home in California.
“That’s where the connection is, and I didn’t want this to be me going on and on about how things were great back then and they’re not good now, because that’s not the case. Instead, I’m talking about being 14 and sneaking to shows or meeting up with my friends behind a liquor store and getting drunk while we’re listening to bands like 999, The Buzzcocks and The Clash.”
The sum total of those tales, along with 70-plus photos and audio clips make up “California Calling,” the one-man stage show Sib has been touring around the country after favorable responses to the memories he recalled during his former radio show on Los Angeles’ Indie 103.1 FM, and a compilation CD of the stories titled “True Stories and Bad Ideas”.
Sib will bring a truncated version of the show with him to Austin to perform at next month’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, with a 30 minute daytime slot altering the show to Sib mostly just talking and interacting with the audience while punk and metal bands he’s known for more than 20 years in some cases - Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals, Bad Religion - bang away on stages nearby.
“I’ve known The Vandals since I was 17 when they would stay at my house and would announce my address as the place where the afterparty was going to be. We’d be driving home and I’d wonder if anyone would show up, then the next 30 cars behind us would turn on their blinkers to turn down my street,” Sib recalled.
“Graham (Williams, of Austin’s Transmission Entertainment) was all about this show when he heard what I was doing, and he said I had to bring it down here if I could figure out how to make it work outside with a shorter set. In the end, if I’ve got a microphone and people I can talk to about this stuff, that’s all I really need.”
Sib said he hopes to bring the full stage show back to Austin next year - a summer performance was nixed because of scheduling conflicts - to regale audiences with life stories that are equal parts “Fast Times At Ridegemont High” and “Almost Famous.”
“It all comes down to that one day - December 27, 1981 - that changed me forever, when my dad took me to a skateboard park for the first time. One because finally there was a sports-type thing that I could be good at and on an equal level with people, and two because I started hearing music outside of what my parents played at the house, and it sounded amazing,” Sib said.
“This isn’t a story that’s going to change your life, but if you’ve ever really cared about music more than anything else, you’ll get it and you’ll enjoy it.”
Joe Sib performs at Fun Fun Fun Fest at 2:05 p.m. Saturday, November 6 on the Yellow Stage.
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Gayngs now suing bus company
Our friend Chris Riemenschneider has the details on the just filed lawsuit. Revealed in the court papers: Gayngs would have made $15,000 for their Sunday afternoon set at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Also, the driver was named “Radar.”
Gayngs canceled after their equipment went to Nashville the night before, in the disputed bus.
Details on the suit here.
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ACL Festival 2011 tickets on sale Wednesday
A public service announcement for anyone who hasn’t yet checked their e-mail: the first round of early-bird tickets for the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival will go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. If you’re subscribed to the festival’s E-List you should have received an e-mail by now containing a user name and password to buy the early bird passes, which cost $165. A small number of $50 “souvenir” tickets sold out quickly last week — seemingly as speedily as they were made available.
As with last year, there will be a limited number of the the early-bird three-day passes on sale. Once they sell out, it will be your last chance to pick up tickets until Spring 2011, when the regular three-day passes go on sale following the lineup’s release. For those who decide to pick up tickets tomorrow, pop into the comments and let us know how your experience is.
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Photos: Fun Fun Fun Fest scavenger hunt
Check out pics from last Friday’s Fun Fun Fun Fest scavenger hunt which kicked off at the Mohawk.
- Photos: Fun Fun Fun Fest scavenger hunt
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Fun Fun Fun scavenger hunt on Friday
If you’re aching for that sweet, sweet Gories goodness but can’t afford a ticket to the Fun Fun Fun Fest in this recession year, Transmission Entertainment is giving you a shot with the annual scavenger hunt, which kicks off at 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Mohawk. Participating teams — which need to be composed of two to five members — will aim to complete a 50-item to-do list in four hours in order to win passes to the festival, as well as prizes from the Alamo Drafthouse, Birds Barbershop and others, as well as tickets to several Transmission Entertainment shows.
Entry is free, though each team must bring five canned goods to donate to Caritas Austin. You can sign up over at the Austinist or at the Mohawk starting at 5 p.m. tomorrow; the hunt starts at 6 p.m. and teams have to check back in by 10 p.m. To score extra points, show up in costume.
Happy hunting, people.
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CD review: Dexter Freebish ‘Shine On’
Dexter Freebish has evolved gracefully over the past 15 years, finding success in a number forms: a lucrative Capitol Records release including breakout single “Leaving Town,” an independent effort lauded for creative integrity, and finally exposure through Electronic Arts Inc’s powerhouse video games. In their first studio effort in six years, the quartet spans the depth of their experience melding traditional pop choruses (“When The Sun Shines”) with drum machines (“Wide Awake”) and driving bass lines (“Everybody Knows Somebody”) to create a vibe often reminiscent of early ‘80s English new wave acts like Duran Duran. The band packs a few surprises into this collection including gritty “Do You Want To,” a track with bluesy guitars and backing vocals that bring to mind Blur’s “Song 2,” along with lighthearted pop-rock contribution “Save The Last Dance” from Katy Perry producer Greg Wells. It’s sparse, ethereal ballad “Made Some Friends Along The Way” that stands out the most with a sincere searching-for-answers sentiment that will undoubtedly resonate with longtime fans.
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CD review: ST 37 ‘High and Inside’
When you’ve been working musicians for as long as the members of ST 37, you’re bound to amass a dizzying discography. And that’s exactly what these psychedelic noise rock veterans have done — their MySpace page is littered with a rundown of the CDs, LPs, CD-Rs, cassettes and 7” singles that you can purchase directly from the band, most of which are limited to 50 copies or less, and some of which date as far back as 1987.
Luckily, ST 37’s latest full-length, “High and Inside,” is a perfect entry point to their expansive catalog, as even this single album testifies to the myriad of ways one can reinterpret the art of the lo-fi guitar jam. You get a taste of swirling, meditative riffage with the dreamy “Maroons,” a healthy helping of dissonant chaos with the 11-minute “Grandpa’s Birthday,” some straightforward rock on “The White Comanche” and even a bit of trippy laugh track sampling on “Borg9.” But the song that firmly establishes ST 37 as an Austin staple is “The Saga of Old Blue,” a spoken-word tale of a seemingly invincible longhorn recited in a robotic voice over the slow-sway of some old-timey country.
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CD review: Pink Nasty
Pink Nasty’s music isn’t terribly complex, and it’s definitely not nasty. In fact, it’s downright delightful. On the band’s self-titled album, songs like “Take You All On” and “Planters” nearly sound like B-sides from the Strokes’ debut album — if you were to brighten the production and swap singer Julian Casablancas for a frontwoman. The guitars jangle and bounce in step with simple, airtight rhythms, and singer/songwriter Sara Beck’s smooth, throaty croon straddles the line that divides sugar-sweet pop star divas and swaggering rock stars.
But Pink Nasty doesn’t dwell on pop-rock. “Nag Nag Nag” employs a She and Him-style callback to ‘60s girl groups with its shuffling rhythms, quiet confessions of infatuation and reverb-drenched “oohs” and “aahs.” Just a few tracks later, Beck’s cries soar over the forward drive of swiftly strummed, double-tracked acoustic guitars on “Towne East Square,” a song that could easily fit on a Kelly Clarkson album. It’s hard to blend mainstream sensibility with the independent spirit of innovation, but as songs like these prove, Pink Nasty does it well.
Pink Nasty plays Friday, Oct. 15 with with Land of Talk, Suuns & Socalled at the Parish, 214-C East 6th Street, $10 theparishaustin.com and Friday, Oct. 22 with One Hundred Flowers, Follow that Bird! and Simple Circuit at Emo’s, 603 Red River St. $6 advance, $8 at the door. emosaustin.com
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CD review: Megafauna ‘Larger Than Humans’
In zoology terms, megafauna are large animals. And, sure, that categorization includes commonplace mammals like humans, but it also encompasses everything from red kangaroos to gargantuan elephants. In rock terms, Megafauna is an Austin-based band with a huge sound, and with the title of their debut album, “Larger Than Human,” the members clearly identify themselves as a more exotic breed of musicians.
Luckily, the music follows suit. You get some ferocious, Zeppelin-esque shredding from guitarist and vocalist Dani Neff on “Wiretappers,” adrenaline-pumping beats from drummer Cameron Page on “Hug from a Robot” and plenty of fuzzed-out bass thumping throughout from Will Krause. But it’s not catchy melody that ties everything together. Instead, Neff usually drones through three or four whispery, high-register notes per song to create hard-edged, hypnotic rock meditations. So while “Larger Than Humans” probably isn’t for the “Party in the U.S.A.” inclined, it it should sit well with Austinites looking for some psychedelic, animalistic flavor in their independent music scene.
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Oh No Oh My sophomore album due out in January
It’s been a long wait for the second album from lovable Austin indie pop quartet Oh No Oh My, who have opened for Gnarls Barkley and the Flaming Lips — their eponymous debut, hastily constructed from demos, came out in 2006, followed by the “Dmitrij Dmitrij” EP in 2008.
The foursome’s full-length follow-up, “People Problems” is due out January 11 on Koenig Records. Recorded at Jim Eno’s Public Hi Fi studio and member Daniel Hoxmeier’s Sugarcube studio, it will feature 12 songs. You can check out the opening track, the bouncy “Walking Into Me,” below.
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Let me fix ACL Fest #1
I had a dream last night that C3 Presents had become C4 Presents: Charlie, Charlie, Charles and Corky. So right away I started pitching solutions to my new partners. And the first thing that came to mind is this:
BAN CHAIRS AT THE AMD STAGE.
Let the oldtimers sit anywhere else permitted this year, but keep them away from the far western main stage. The bottleneck created on Friday, when Miike Snow ended on the adjacent Honda stage and Black Keys were about to start on AMD had the potential to be extremely dangerous. Some folks caught in the cross-migration didn’t move for more than 20 minutes and it was all because the Chair People cut off a huge portion of the walking area.
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Great new Girl In a Coma video
Note that this video from “Adventures in Coverland” was directed by bassist Jenn Alva. Wonder if the band’s friend and fan Robert Rodriguez gave any pointers?
Girl In a Coma will perform Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Waterloo Records and sign copies of their new covers album on Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records.
Watch this live video to see what a rock star Nina Diaz is. (Tats by Kat Von D.)
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Jimmy Buffett to play Roddick event
“Margaritaville” comes to the Austin Hilton Dec. 4 when Jimmy Buffett headlines the 2010 Andy Roddick Foundation Charity Gala.
Tables of 10 begin with donations of $10,000. For more information on tickets and sponsorship opportunities call the Andy Roddick Foundation at 561-620-9449 or email at Foundation@AndyRoddick.com.
Didja know that Buffett started writing his signature tune in Austin after drinking his first margarita at Lung’s Cocina del Sur restaurant (current Fuddrucker’s location) on Anderson Lane? The year was 1976 and that whole boozy bucaneers in tropical shirts phenomenon hadn’t taken off yet, so Jimmy and his Coral Reefer Band would stay at 6109 Shadow Valley Dr., the Northwest Austin home of interior designer Victoria Reed, when they had shows in town.
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Fan sues Emo’s for negligence in injuries
A fan attending the Core Disorder III Metal Fest at Emo’s Jan. 30, 2009 filed suit against the club and owner Frank Hendrix in Travis County District Court Oct. 7 claiming a stage diver landed on top of her causing a broken leg, as well as traumatic injuries to her spine.
Citing medical bills of $38,989, Sarah Howard is suing for negligence for such reasons as allowing persons to leap from the stage, failure to maintain sufficient lighting, allowing the club to be overcrowded and failure to warn customers of the possibility of people jumping from the stage.
The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages and court costs.
Emo’s has 50 days to respond to the suit, which was filed by Dallas attorney Larry Rolle.
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C3 Presents up for Billboard Award
Austin City Limits Music Festival organizers C3 Presents is one of the three nominees as best independent promoter in the U.S. in the Billboard Touring Awards, it was announced Wednesday. C3, which won the award in 2007, is up against five-time winner Jam Productions in Chicago and New Orleans’ Beaver Productions.
Winners will be announced Nov. 4 in New York City.
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Tonight: Sue Foley and Peter Karp at Antone’s
“He Said She Said,” the richly personal new duet album by Americana artist Peter Karp and blues guitar whiz Sue Foley, a former Austinite, began as a false start in a studio in Canada. The pair had met at the Ottawa Blues Festival in 2006 and Karp, whose style is close to Johns Hiatt and Prine, asked Foley to sing with him on a record he was making for Blind Pig. They soon found out that Foley’s guitar player’s voice was not suited to harmonizing and scrapped the track after a couple hours.
But while the initial studio time was a washout, the pair felt a strong personal connection. They exchanged email addresses and went their separate ways.
“A few months later, we were both going through bad periods,” says Karp. “Sue was going through a breakup, raising a son and going out on the road and I had suffered a personal tragedy and was also out on the road, away from home.” The pair started writing each other long letters every night - no postage required. “When you think of emails, you think of words that are dashed off in an instant, but these were thought out and pored over.” A constant subject was how hard it was to write songs between nightly gigs.
One night in Germany, Foley had a day off and was determined to write a song, but she couldn’t. Instead she went to her laptop and sent out a lengthy missive to the tall fellow from New Jersey who knew what she was going through. His one-sentence response: “The song is in your letter.”
“He Said She Said” takes all its lyrics from the Karp- Foley correspondence over an 18-month period. “This is not an album about a man and woman falling in love, though some of it took a romantic turn,” says Karp. “It’s really about two people who went through some heavy stuff and found that when they came out at the other vend, this other person was still there.” The couple declined to detail the nature of their relationship because, Foley says, it might take some mystery out of such songs as “Scared” and “So Far So Fast,” though they profess love for each other on “Valentine’s Day.”
Peter Karp and Sue Foley perform tonight at Antone’s. Eve and the Exiles open at 7 p.m. $12 at the door. 213 W. Fifth St. www.antones.net.
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Waterloo Records top 50 for ACL Fest 2010
And the winner of the Waterloo Records popularity contest was New Orleans funk fiend Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anybody who tried get a peak at Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue during their incredibly packed set under the Clear 4G tent on Sunday. Andrews moved the most albums at Waterloo Records’ on-site store, just ahead of Gogol Bordello, LCD Soundsystem, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and the Monsters of Folk.
The full list is below, with Deadmau5 and Ruby Jane both impressively charting two albums. I’ve dropped an asterisk next to artists who also did a signing at the festival tent; Grace Potter is the highest-charting artist who didn’t appear in-person, which suggests she made some fans during the festival.
1. Trombone Shorty 140 *
2. Gogol Bordello 135 *
3. LCD Soundsystem 129 *
4. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals 126
5. Monsters of Folk 123 *
6. Local Natives 100 *
7. Two Door Cinema Club 93 *
8. Ryan Bingham 90 *
9. Blind Pilot 90 *
10. Cage the Elephant 90 *
11. J.J. Grey & Mofro 89 *
12. Black Keys 89
13. Lissie 83 *
14. Ruby Jane, “Feels Like Home” 79
15. Norah Jones 78 *
16. Angus & Julia Stone 77 *
17. The National 71 *
18. Carolyn Wonderland 69 *
19. Foals 68 *
20. Broken Bells 65
21. Robert Randolph 63
22. First Aid Kit 62 *
23. Sahara Smith 61 *
24. Vampire Weekend 60
25. Band of Horses 60 *
26. Miike Snow 58
27. Deadmau5 “For Lack Of A Better Name” 57 *
28. The XX 56
29. Yeasayer 52 *
30. Givers 52
31. Donavan Frankenreiter 52 *
32. Mayer Hawthorne 51
33. Silversun Pickups 51 *
34. The Sword 50 *
35. Beach House 48 *
36. Dawes 46 *
37. Charlie Mars 46 *
38. Bear in Heaven 41 *
39. Band of Heathens 41
40. Temper Trap 41 *
41. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros 39
42. Nortec Collective 36
43. Deadmau5 “Random Album Title” 36 *
44. Muse 36
45. Constellations 34
46. Matt and Kim 34
47. Ruby Jane “Live at the Roadhouse” 33
48. Morning Benders 32 *
49. Pete Yorn 32
50. Ozomatli 31
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Why it makes sense to move ACL back to September
It was recently announced that next year’s ACL Fest will be held Sept. 16- 18 and many fans who endured the brutal heat of ACLs past are wondering what the three Charlies are smoking. October rocked.
But during the years of September heat, ACL Fest still sold out. The dust storm of 2005 didn’t hurt ticket sales for 2006. Even after last year’s mucky dance with the Dillo Dirt, ACL Fest sold out three months in advance. It doesn’t matter what happens the year before, the combination of Zilker Park, Charles Attal’s booking savvy, C3’s determination to over-deliver on customer service and a general good vibe will keep folks coming back year after year. Oh, and the kicked-up food court.
But the key word is “attrition,” which is a way of saying that fans are coming and going all day long- arriving late Friday, leaving early Sunday and the like. Attrition was a key provision in Section 7. C of the 2010 contract between the city of Austin and C3 Presents to use Zilker Park which stipulates “daily public redeemed ticket attendance is estimated to be 65,000 persons at one time based on attrition of attendees compared to ticket sales. Therefore the maximum ticket/ admission issuance for this venue is limited to no more than 75,000 persons per day. In addition there is expected that are no more than 5,000 (staff, sponsors, musicians, volunteers) per day.”
How ‘bout it folks, did it seem like their were more than 65,000 people in Zilker Park at about 7 p.m. Saturday? Attrition didn’t happen.
Last year’s maximun number of ticket sales was 65,000 paid and 5,000 on the guest list.
In an interview Saturday with Charlie Jones of C3, he denied than an additional 10,000 tickets were sold and said the new language was drawn up to more accurately reflect the actual number of people coming through the park. He declined to say if any extra tickets were sold because, “we don’t discuss our business in public.” Jones said the rate of attrition was determined through company research that determined the amount of time three-day wristband wearers actually spent in the park.
But such research was never done after three days of perfect weather because that was an ACL Fest first this year.
Charlies Jones, Attal and Walker hope for great weather every year; no one was more devastated by last year’s mud bowl than these three. They want to put on the greatest music festival in the world and in many ways have succeeded. Austin has never looked lovelier than in the background at dusk when your favorite band is onstage.
But in a strange way, the promoters do better when the conditions are too much for many who bought tickets. It’s less crowded for everyone else and they can sell more tickets the next year, Based on attrition.
And let’s not forget, after last year’s thunderstorms and mud, ACL is only one for two when it comes to October dates.
[(Note: since C3 never books the fest when there’s a Longhorns home game due to hotel availability, the available dates this year were Sept. 16- 18 (at UCLA), Sept. 24-25 (bye week) and Oct. 1 (at Iowa State). Of those three options, Sept. 16- 18 is the worst, so there must be a band they’re hot for that’s only available then.]
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Inspirational message from Stephen Bruton
If you’re feeling down and wondering what happened to your life. If paralyzing sadness makes it hard to get out of bed, you should watch this message from Stephen Bruton, the wise and courageous musician who passed away in May 2009 from cancer.
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Austin Record Convention this weekend
Doug Hanners of the Austin Record Convention, which will draw collectors from all over the world Oct. 15- 17 at the North Austin Event Center (formerly Crockett Center), says a highlight this year is a family which had music stores in Chicago and Arizona liquidating “50 years of audio components, hundreds of amps, turntables, speakers, tape decks, and all at very low prices,” Hanners said. “The guy told me they don’t want to take anything home, even if they have to slash prices to the bone!”
The bad economy is a good thing for vinyl junkies, it seems. Hanners says more vendors than ever before are fans selling off their collections.
The North Austin Events Center is at 10601 North Lamar Blvd. Tix are only $5 for Friday and Saturday, but the serious cats shell out $25 to get first crack Friday at 10 a.m.
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Sword drummer Trivett Wingo has left the band
Their upcoming tour dates have been canceled and the band is looking towards rescheduling.
This means that their performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend was his last with the band.
The band recently entered a business relationship with Taco Bell.
Here is Wingo’s statement:
“It is with deep sadness that I am announcing my departure from The Sword. After nearly seven years and some of the most amazing adventures of a lifetime, I have arrived at a place where I am physically and emotionally unable to continue on as part of The Sword. If I could go any further, I would as I love the music and JD, Bryan and Kyle are people that I deeply respect, but I have reached a point where I just can’t do this anymore. I would like to thank the wonderful people who made this experience what it has been: the fans, the people that I have worked and all of the bands and musicians that have inspired me over the years. I thank you and apologize for any disappointment that this may cause anyone, not least of which The Sword.” - Trivett Wingo
Here is The Sword’s statement:
“We wish Trivett nothing but the best, and it is with heavy hearts that we bid him farewell. He is a phenomenal musician and has been an integral part of this band’s success. He helped to lay the foundation that we will continue to build upon, and we wouldn’t be where we are without him. We wish he could continue the adventure with us, but we understand that the life of a touring musician is not for everyone. It’s been a hell of a ride, and we’re sad to see this part of the journey end. The show must go on, though, and will be back on the road as soon as humanly possible.” - JD, Kyle & Bryan
Here is a link to our recent profile of the band.
We maintain that Trivett Wingo is one of the coolest names ever and we look forward to his future musical endeavors.
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL 2011 has a date
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will move back a couple of weeks and return to its mid-September origins in its tenth anniversary year in 2011, taking place from September 16-18, according to the festival’s official website.
As Chad Swiatecki mentioned last month, the first round of early-bird tickets will go on sale October 20. Subscribers with an E-List profile on the ACL website who verify their profile by 11:59 p.m. tonight will receive an e-mail with information on how to get first crack at the tickets.
Update 1:45 p.m. The festival has announced further details in an e-mail sent out to subscribers. A very limited number of “souvenir” tickets — priced at $50 — will go on sale sometime this week. Details will be announced via the festival’s tickets page, as well as its Facebook and Twitter feeds. $165 early bird tickets, meanwhile, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday, October 20. E-mail subscribers will receive a unique password to buy tickets on October 19.
ACL 2010
» SUNDAY: PERFORMER PHOTOS |
A-LIST PHOTOS |
REVIEWS, SCENE REPORTS
» SATURDAY: PERFORMER PHOTOS |
A-LIST PHOTOS |
REVIEWS, SCENE REPORTS
» FRIDAY: PERFORMER PHOTOS |
A-LIST PHOTOS |
REVIEWS, SCENE REPORTS
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ACL update: More on Gayngs bus situation
Our old pal Chris Riemenschneider, now at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has an update on the missing bus that forced the cancellation of Gayngs’ Sunday set at ACL Fest. The bus owner says what was missing was payment. Gayngs disagrees. More here.
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SXSW headquarters moving near Waterloo Records
South by Southwest is moving to 400 Bowie St,. in the 20,000-square foot space currently occupied by the Graeber Simmons & Cowan architectural firm, SXSW director Roland Swenson confirmed Monday. SXSW, which currently operates out of six buildings on E. 40th St., is scheduled to move into its new home by Thanksgiving.
Graeber Simmons is moving to an office building near the intersection of Mopac and Bee Cave Road.
“The 400 Bowie building will allow us to all be in the same building for the first time,” says Swenson. The Austin Chronicle, which launched SXSW in 1987, is buying the current SXSW spaces.
“A number of employees have asked that we deposit half of their paychecks directly to Waterloo Records and the other half to Whole Foods,” Swenson joked.
SXSW’s new home is adjacent to the Schlosser Development building that houses Office Max, Starbucks, Pure Austin Gym and other businesses.
Victor Young of Aquila Commercial Properties was the lead agent on the SXSW deal.
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Solomon Burke remembered at ACL
Soul great Solomon Burke, who passed away over the weekend at age 70, put on one of the alltime best performances at ACL Fest in 2004. The man on the throne was honored Sunday by Trombone Shorty’s version of “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love,” plus Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven dedicated “Quarter To Three” to him.
Bernard Vasek of Musicmania noted these covers over the weekend:
Those Darlins’- “To Washington” (Steve Earle)
Chief- “Atlantic City” (Bruce Springsteen)
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals- “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane)
Mayer Hawthorne & The County- “What a Fool Believes” (Doobie Brothers)
MUSE- snippets of “Heartbreaker (Led Zeppelin), “Star-Spangled Banner” (Jimi Hendrix version), “House of the Rising Sun” (Animals version)
WHat other covers did you hear during the festival?
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ACL Review: Blind Pilot
Mellow and resolutely mid-tempo, Blind Pilot’s music is maybe better suited to an intimate coffee house than a festival field, but the Portland, Ore.-based group drew a sizable crowd to bake in the midday sun at the Zync stage Sunday. Singer-guitarist Israel Nebeker has a warm, engaging voice, and since the duo he formed with drummer Ryan Dobrowski has expanded to include Kati Claborn on banjo and dulcimer, Luke Ydstie on upright bass, Dave Jorgensen on trumpet and harmonium and Ian Krist on vibraphone, unusual arrangements add color to songs that all tend toward the ruminative.
Often, Blind Pilot seemed a lot like a more summery, less mysterious Bon Iver, as on “Two Towns From Me,” “3 Rounds and a Sound” and a new song that ended suddenly with the memorable line “Let my heart beat itself still.” Claborn’s voice blended very well with Nebeker’s, but pretty as their harmonies were, the delicate vibraphone and exotic harmonium — a bellows-powered keyboard instrument, often used in Indian music — did more to set the band apart.
Blind Pilot was always ingratiating, but most interesting on “One Red Thread,” where it picked up the pace, slowed it down and then gathered momentum again, giving the strong rhythm section a real chance to shine and using harmonium and trumpet to emphasize shifting moods.
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ACL Review: Trombone Shorty
Given half a chance, Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews to his mama) will probably do more to revive jazz than fellow New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts alumnus Wynton Marsalis. While Andrews and his band, Orleans Avenue, draw in audiences with killer funk grooves and R&B flair, Andrews is a phenomenal improviser, on both trombone and trumpet, and he had an immense crowd at the Clear 4G tent — that is, jammed into the tent and at least doubling the tent’s population outside — reacting to the standard “Sunny Side of the Street” like Lynyrd Skynyrd fans finally getting to hear “Free Bird.”
When he gave a crash course in circular breathing during a long, unaccompanied trumpet solo, fans went nuts, and Andrews wasn’t just showing off. The solo had structure and meaningful direction, as well as jaw-dropping technique.
Andrews’ major-label debut, “Backatown,” leans heavily on the funk, and he did not stint on that front Sunday. “Where Y’At” brought a metal edge to irresistibly funky rhythms, and he and the band showed how steeped they are in classic New Orleans soul on a brilliant cover of Allen Toussaint’s “On the Way Down,” which showcased Andrews’ terrific vocals. He’s a better singer than a lot of contemporary R&B hitmakers, with a satiny tone and deft phrasing, and he scats effortlessly as well. Both a detail-oriented bandleader and a commanding frontman, he seemed to have everyone within earshot in his thrall, but gave his bandmembers plenty of spotlight time — particularly wildman bassist Mike Ballard, who leaped around almost as much as Andrews and even played on his back, feet waving in the air.
Andrews channeled both James Brown and Michael Jackson at one point, giving his charisma full reign as he gyrated around the stage and moonwalked. He ended with a medley that incorporated everything from the traditional “When the Saints Go Marching In” to the theme from the HBO series “Treme” (an ode to his own neighborhood) to an instrumental lift from the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun” (I think he borrowed that last bit from the Soul Rebels, one of New Orleans’ premier brass bands, who cover the whole song). His was the ultimate crowd-pleasing performance, and it’s hard to imagine he’ll be playing a side stage next time, but the level of musicianship was even higher than the level of showmanship.
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ACL2010 review: the Eagles
Let’s make one thing clear right off the bat: for the many voices convinced that the Eagles were a poor choice to headline the final night of the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival, I won’t attempt to convince you otherwise.
Since the quintessentially Californian classic rockers were first announced as the headliner back in May, the criticisms have essentially written themselves: they’re a nostalgia act, a safe, boring bet that saw the apex of their career more than 30 years ago — and even at their creative and commercial zenith, the Eagles’ mellow country-rock anthems were never all that exciting to begin with.
Of course, Pearl Jam in 2009 and the Foo Fighters in 2008 were far from the freshest headliners themselves (though both were promoting new albums at the time), but at least they had the benefit of being able to rock and kick and scream and thrill. The Eagles have a staggering catalog of hits and a record that’s neck and neck with “Thriller” for the best-selling album of all time in the United States, but they’ve never been the sort of band that gets the blood pumping.
Even the Eagles themselves were conscious of the criticisms. Sunday night saw Glenn Frey crack an age joke about his own band. “That was off our first album,” he said of “Witchy Woman.” “We recorded it back when the Dead Sea was just sick.” And as Don Henley told Statesman writer Brian T. Atkinson in an interview, “We get criticized for lack of spontaneity, but we do what we do. That’s the school we come from, and it has worked very well for us for almost 40 years.”
So for those disappointed in the selection of headliner, it should come as no surprise that the Eagles didn’t do anything likely to change anybody’s mind. They’re a “what you see is what you get” band through-and-through. Hopefully, those that weren’t digging it took advantage of the opportunity to beat the crowds and maybe play something a little more raucous on the iPod on their way home. Move along, nothing to see here.
Of course, to judge by the tens of thousands of fans that still showed up, to say nothing of the tens of millions who have bought an Eagles record at some point in their lives, plenty of people really, really like the Eagles. For them, the important question was: was the band any good?
And the answer is … yeah. Really good, actually. Certainly it wasn’t a show that was big on surprises, but Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy Schmitt and their assorted hired hand musicians put on a fun, well-polished two hours of hits culled from across the Eagles’ career. The playing was tight, the vocals excellent — whatever was ailing Don Henley that forced the Eagles to reschedule three shows earlier this week, he sounded pristine Sunday — and the song-selection crowd-pleasing. It wasn’t a revelation of a set, but it did turn Zilker Park into an extended love fest for a while, as audience members crooned along to “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and applauded for Joe Walsh classic “Life’s Been Good.” There are worse ways to spend a beautiful Sunday evening.
The show kicked off with the four Eagles side-by-side on the gentle “Seven Bridges Road,” a perfect chance to show off the band’s trademark, still-strong vocal harmonies. The audience got more engaged with the first appearance of a proper iconic Eagles song in “Take It To The Limit” — and it’s something of a sight to see tens of thousands of people swaying in unison to that one.
“Hotel California” followed. It’s hard not to feel like they busted out that one a little early — as the Eagles’ signature story song, it’s the kind of thing you’d think they’d save, possibly for an encore. But in front of a projection of the album’s classic cover, Henley nailed the vocal over, admittedly, a completely gratuitous saxophone. Schmit similarly delivered a commanding performance on the soft-rock groove of “I Can’t Tell You Why.”
The gratuitous saxophone was hardly the only cornball thing about this show, of course — from a cheesy introduction to “Witchy Woman” to the video projections, which tended to be a bit overwrought, there was a healthy element of cheese on display. And then there was “Long Road Out Of Eden,” the 10-minute centerpiece from the 2007 album of the same name — and the sort of sprawling epic the Eagles very definitively do not need. The video projections may have reached the height of their silliness on “Dirty Laundry” — a song which should have the audience reflecting on how much more relevant it is in 2010 was undermined a bit by the odd sight of Glenn Frey soloing in the frame of a parody magazine cover.
But for the most part the Eagles were smart enough to rein in any totally over-the-top bombast. They delivered a boisterous “In the City,” making good use of an expanded cast of musicians so expansive Glenn Frey seemed to struggle a bit to remember them all during the introductions. And the occasional forays into Walsh and Henley’s solo songs was welcome — particularly on “Life’s Been Good,” which may have gotten the night’s biggest reaction from the crowd. The harmonies on “Take It Easy” were note-perfect.
And things closed, as most could have predicted way back in May, with “Desperado,” served up simply and eliciting a lovely sing-along from everybody in the audience who hadn’t yet started working their way toward the gates.
In short, they were the Eagles: professional, tight and possessed of a catalog of modern classics. Sure, they never quite achieved the level of theatrical release that Pearl Jam so brilliantly nailed last year. But think of their set less as a climax to three days of sun, beer and bands and more as the ideal cool-down, and it’s hard to see how they could have fared any better. For anybody born after 1955, these songs are as warm and comfortable as an old blanket, and they were a charming, mellow, well-delivered way to wrap the festival.
Set list
Seven Bridges Road
How Long
Take It To The Limit
Hotel California
Peaceful Easy Feeling
I Can’t Tell You Why
Witchy Woman
Lyin’ Eyes
Long Road Out Of Eden
Walk Away
Boys of Summer
In The City
The Long Run
Life’s Been Good
Dirty Laundry
Funk #49
Heartache Tonight
Life In The Fast Lane
Encore
Take It Easy
Desperado
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ACL2010 review: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
It’s hard to imagine any band out-hippy-ing Phish, but Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros may have just managed the impossible Sunday night, with a cathartic explosion of psychedelic indie rock that deserves mention as one of the highlights of the festival — spirited, joyous and religious in its fervor.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros — an expansive musical collective led by Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos — faintly recall the Polyphonic Spree in more than a few ways. There’s the sheer size of the band, for one — they’re not as big as the Spree but they include an assortment of musicians numbering in the double digits. There’s the band’s sunny, optimistic, anthem-minded approach to songwriting. And there’s that inescapable feel of the religious — call it cultish or just spiritual, but there’s a passion and an energy on display in Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes that would fit right in at a tent revival meeting.
But Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have something the Polyphonic Spree never quite managed — a galvanizing single, “Home,” that’s exploded in the few months since the festival lineup was announced. So when Alex Ebert, barefoot and bearded and looking like a wild man, jumped out of the photo pit and on-stage to kick off the set with “40 Day Dream,” the audience was with him from the start. Before a backdrop showing the yellow brick road to Oz, Ebert and Castrinos delivered one of those anthemic sets that had the young crowd eating out of their hand. Ebert in particular was consistently engaging, delivering much of the set from the edge of the pit, standing over the audience and holding hands with the crowd during “Janglin.” Ebert’s boyish excitement reached its apex with “Come In Please,” when during the song’s soaring crescendo he leapt into the audience and crowd-surfed. The set ended with “Home,” its opening whistle eliciting a Pavlovian cheer of anticipation from the crowd. It was a commanding performance with a somewhat rambling outro that saw most of the crowd depart before Ebert and company left the stage.
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ACL 2010: Foals and Yeasayer
Phish was, of course, the jam band du jour at ACL this year.
But the aesthetics of jam bands were all over Zilker Park this weekend, even if Phish’s hippie signifiers and instrumental precision were not. In several acts, textures and instrumental filigrees subbed in for strong structures and traditional songcraft.
For example, the British trio Foals certainly looks like an indie rock band, but their music is more self-consciously fussy and detailed than, say, Belle and Sebastian or Pavement or longtime punk rockers such as Ted Leo. Someone, perhaps themselves, tagged Foals as math rock, which is close, but, to my ears, not quite correct. (I find math rock to be a very specific aesthetic and a little heavier than Foals. Examples of classic math rock include Bredwinner, Shiny Beast, Polvo, Cheer-Accident and Stinking Lizaveta — consult your local Google for more!)
They’re an awful lot like ’90s indie prog rockers such as Storm and Stress and its sequel band, Battles — complicated guitar parts with cascades of notes and tricky time signatures. In the ACL context, this was brainy music to which you could shuffle in a sack dress. Yet, Foals are on Sub Pop and Yeasayer are on Secretly Canadian, two vaunted indie labels who come out of a completely different tradition than Phish.
And Yeasayer, on the other hand, sounded completely different from Foals, but also felt of a piece — Phish fans could appreciate their complicated progressivism, indie rockers didn’t have to betray their indie-ness. The band folded all sort of sounds together — big beat electronics,folky melodies and whatever language Talking Heads spoke. Like lots of multi-genre blenders, Yeasayer’s music could occasionally taste like chicken, but the massive crowd was ready to noodle dance once again.
Talk about knowing your audience. Well played, C3.
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ACL review: Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson was probably the only artist bold enough to open an ACL set with three just-released songs, but he’s such a phenomenal guitarist, and has such a tremendous band, that he could doubtless get away with playing a bunch of polkas — which he impishly suggested that he was about to do, “for your delectation,” as an appropriate lead-in to the rollicking, Celtic-flavored “Demons in Her Dancing Shoes.”
Thompson led off with the first three songs on his new “Dream Attic,” the searing Wall Street satire “Money Shuffle,” slow and somber “Among the Gorse, Among the Grey” and stampeding “Haul Me Up.” The first older song, “Can’t Win,” was a prime demonstration of the telepathy between Thompson and his band, with his vocal cry seeming to turn into Joel Zifkin’s violin lament. Thompson’s long, enthralling electric guitar solo had the emotional sweep, high drama and stunning invention of a Stravinsky suite for six strings, and Michael Jerome on drums and Taras Prodaniuk on bass furnished a tumult underneath.
A complete contrast came next in the form of the graceful, melancholy “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven,” an oblique anti-war meditation, with Thompson on acoustic guitar and multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn playing a smoky sax solo. The band’s fire and fury exploded on “I’ll Never Give It Up.” Thompson ended with one of his classic rave-ups, “Tear-Stained Letter,” and there were enough death-defying twists and spirals in his solo to last most players a couple of years worth of standing ovations. The audience kept hollering for an encore even after crew members started swarming the stage to break it down, but to no avail.
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ACL review: The Flaming Lips
It definitely felt a little bizarre walking to watch the Flaming Lips while the sun was still shining on Sunday. The sheer spectacle of their live show is unquestionably enhanced by darkness, but they made the most of their hour-long set at this year’s ACL festival.
Right before they started to play, frontman Wayne Coyne addressed the crowd to thank them for waiting and to explain that he would be coming out into the audience in his “space bubble” and he hoped everybody would “love each other and help each other” instead of rushing toward the front of the crowd.
After an introduction from local poet Thax Douglas, the band members slowly entered the middle of the stage one by one until Coyne emerged standing inside his bubble. It was slowly inflated until it rolled into the audience and he began to float above the crowd as the band played an instrumental introduction behind him. When they settled in to “Worm Mountain,” the first proper track of the set, the stage exploded with balloons and confetti. Keep in mind, all of these things happened before the band was done playing their first song.
You don’t really see or hear the Flaming Lips as much as you experience the Flaming Lips. By the time they had gotten halfway through “Silver Trembling Hands,” the second song of the set, Coyne was perched on the shoulders of a man wearing a bear costume and was encouraging the audience members to scream as loud as they could.
The band’s 1993 hit “She Don’t Use Jelly” was up next, after which Coyne strapped on a helmet cam, which began broadcasting on the screen behind him, and declared it to surely be “the most beautiful night that Austin has had all year.” With all of the on-stage banter and crowd interaction, the band only managed an eight-song set before their hour was up. As the daylight started to fade, Coyne said that the band “would play all night if we could” before closing down the stage with an epic rendition of their 2002 single “Do You Realize??”
In our current musical landscape, the Flaming Lips are a real rarity. They might not sell millions of records, but they’ve managed to maintain their integrity with almost 20 years on a major label. Their transformation over the last several years into genuine showmen has turned them into one of the best live bands in the world and a perfect return booking for ACL. Maybe next year we can bring them back after the sun goes down.
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ACL review: Gaslight Anthem
Sometimes you’re happy for all the help you can get. I was taking notes on Gaslight Anthem’s set midway back from the Budweiser stage on Saturday when a neighboring fan passed me a short note from his wife. “Unsolicited One-Sentence Review,” the note said, and continued, “Rockers with just enough melodicism.”
Lady, you’re hired.
The New Jersey quartet, touring strong behind their third album, “American Slang,” do indeed rock. Ferociously, in most cases, with a surprising delicacy when the mood suits them. And melodicism is definitely a component of the band’s sound as well. Much of the latter is evocative of Jersey godfather Bruce Springsteen (the band admits as much, and the Boss joined them onstage at a European festival last year): There are the same anthemic major chords, the same swirl of melodic elements and even some of the same lyrical tropes (cars cruising on the boulevards, youthful angst and even characters named Romeo and Maria pop up like raisins in a cake).
On record, and especially onstage, the band — vocalist/guitarist Brian Fallon, bassist Alex Levine, drummer Benny Horowitz and guitarist Alex Rosamila — borrow as much or more from punkers like the Clash and the Pogues as they do from the E-Street Band’s meat-and-potatoes rock.
From the call-to-arms guitar that kicks off “American Slang” to the fiercely unrepentant “Old Haunts” to the improbably titled “The Spirit of Jazz” to the tricky little guitar part that kicked off “Queen of Lower Chelsea,” Fallon and Co. burned down the stage, while on more nuanced material such as “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” and the opening “High Lonesome,” the group’s sound evoked at times Van Morrison and even some of the rough-and-tumble Stax/Volt sessions.
It was a thoroughly satisfying afternoon hour in the sun — deep in the heart of Texas and a long way from Jersey. And sometimes all you need is a one-sentence review.
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ACL review: Kinky
The chair section in the Clear 4G tent disappeared the moment Monterrey, Mexico’s Kinky took the stage Saturday, and the dancing crowd went nuts as soon as Ulises Lozano stepped forward for a brief accordion solo. From there, the show felt like a non-stop rave crossed with a soccer game where your team is winning big, and singer-guitarist Gilberto Cerezo had only to raise an arm to get an entire sea of hands waving ecstatically in the air.
While the rest of the group wore rock-star shades — Lozano, guitarist Carlos Chairez, formidable drummer Omar Gongora, and bassist Cesar Pliego — Cerezo looked like he’d just wandered in from his job as the cute high-school-age barista at your local coffee shop. However, his unassuming manner belied a strong voice that made a cover of “Mexican Radio” sound even better than the original. He possesses a great rock ‘n’ roll scream, too, and his voice easily penetrated through the group’s galvanizing fusion of funk, rock, electronica, industrial, Mexican and pan-Latin influences. Many of the songs were powered by a pounding house beat, but the polyrhythms Gongora layered on top made this more compelling than most ’90s dance music — no mind-altering substances necessary — and Lozano added a variety of textures on keyboards and programming, when he wasn’t playing accordion.
It was a blast watching Pliego while he laid down arresting basslines. Dressed in jeans, a white dress shirt and a black cowboy hat, he wore his instrument low and leaned back at an almost impossible angle, while his left leg pumped up and down, his knee reaching nearly waist height.
Someone in the front presented Cerezo with a Mexican flag, and Cerezo introduced the song “Cornman” by expressing his delight in being able to come play in “difficult times, so people know it’s not only war, it’s also love, and music and beautiful people.”
“Welcome to my world … welcome to Texas,” he sang, and fans jumped up and down with abandon. A surprising number of gray-haired fans were boogeying in the decidedly multi-ethnic crowd, and the woman next to me had said before the show that it was the first act she was getting to see, having spent the first part of ACL in the kiddie area with her children before the babysitter came on duty. A blond 20-something couple who looked straight out of 1960s Sears catalogue were getting down like Soul Train regulars, and even the people making an early exit were dancing their way out of the throng.
The show reached so many peaks that I thought it must be the end at least four times, but Kinky had not yet played “Mas,” which had the whole teeming mass singing at the tops of their lungs. After a brief respite, the band started the song up again and the crowd carried the chorus. Kinky managed to keep the energy level rising for a few more songs even after that, and when their time was up, as the setting sun started streaming in through the back, rays colliding with strobing white lights on stage, fans felt compelled to chant “OTRA! OTRA!” for a couple minutes, even though everyone knew there was no time for an encore.
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ACL review: Dawes
Not having seen them perform before, I wasn’t prepared for Dawes’ live show to be as high energy as it proved to be. An initial rushed listen to their latest album, “North Hills,” left an impression of a certain thinness, a kind of a lack of gravitas. It’s usually bad to trust first impressions.
Then I heard they’d rocked the house at Lollapalooza and some fans pushed up against the stage barricade attested the group had killed at Emo’s the night before. So what did I know?
Their bio material touted the group as stylistic heirs to the Laurel Canyon/Southern California folk/country/rock tradition, and that’s true as far as it goes (eg. “When You Call My Name” and “Love Is All There Is”). But it’s also possible to hear echoes of the Band, especially in “That Western Skyline,” when frontman/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith’s voice takes on a timber similar to Band vocalist Rick Danko.
But it didn’t take more than a couple of songs for the group to cast their own distinct shadow. The fourth song, to be exact, a song from their forthcoming album called “Fire Away.” It was a big-hearted rocker of a beast, characterized by anthemic lyrics (“When you need someone to walk away from/When you need someone to let you in…Fire away”) and a bleeding guitar solo from Taylor (whose brother, Griffin, plays drums and sings). Bassist Wylie Gelbert and keyboardist Alex Casnoff rounded out the tightly knit quartet.
The band doubled down with “Peace In the Valley” (“If I don’t find peace in the valley/It’s cause there wasn’t any there”), with a tricky guitar/piano interweave and the rubbery, rocking melodic set closer “When My Time Comes,” with Goldsmith bouncing across the stage like a guitar-shredding jack-in-the-box and the crowd punching fists in time to the singalong chorus.
I didn’t have a Dawes T-shirt like my neighboring aficionados along the stage barricade. But I walked away, like them, a fan.
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ACL review: Norah Jones
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and submit that Flaming Lips fans are probably not Norah Jones fans. So while those folks agonized between sets by the National and Cage the Elephant on Sunday night, Jones’ cadre had to decide between the lissome Texas songbird and English guitar maestro Richard Thompson while they (presumably) waited for the Eagles to close out the evening.
Can’t speak for Thompson’s show, but those who opted for Jones, on the Zync Card Stage, were treated to an efficient, polished, low-key rendition of her small but eclectic repertoire. Efficient and polished, yes, but Jones’ set seemed almost airtight at times — there was none of the liberating abandon or risk-taking that marked many of the weekend’s other performances. Like Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, she’s never been known to make a foolish move.
Which was too bad, in a way. If ever there was an audience that might have forgiven or even encouraged a wayward bit of recklessness or even outright anarchy, it’s the ACL crowd. Maybe if there had been a couple of backstage tequila shots before the set, who can say what might have transpired? Ah, well, as Mark Twain said, “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it ceased to be one.
That being the case, it’s impossible not to admire Jones’ flawless tone and excellent taste. In a set that veered from a honky-tonk cover of Johnny Cash’s “Cry, Cry, Cry” to the Brecht/Weill-ian “Sinkin’ Soon” (with Jones doing her best Lotte Lenya) to the pumping, funky “It’s Gonna Be,” Jones and her band were invariably spot-on. Her latest album, “The Fall,” let Jones stretch her stylistic legs and songs from that effort, like the dance track “It’s Gonna Be” and the drugged and dreamlike “Light As A Feather” introduced welcome new colors into her performing palette.
Jones concluded her set with “Lonestar” — “my Texas song,” as she described it. Here’s hoping she channels a little native attitude into her next visit home.
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ACL scene: Moments with Midlake
Midlake frontman Tim Smith said, “It’s great to be in Austin — as it always is,” and then joked about the heavy bassline bleeding over from Rebelution at the Honda stage. “I love to hear reggae,” he said dryly. “We’re gonna have that at every show, reggae playing at the merch table. OK, there’s no merch table, but I got plenty to sell. I didn’t mean that in a bad way — my wife’s standing over there!” Fortunately, the Denton group’s beautifully pensive yet propulsive songs were loud enough to pretty much drown out the commotion.
Later, I was standing not too far from the Rock Island Hideaway, whatever that was, trying to decide whether to go hear some of the Flaming Lips, and saw the Midlake guys nearby, one of them still carrying a guitar case, so I walked by them and just said “Great show!” They said “Thanks!” and then one of them called after me “Hey, do you know where the stage is that we played on?”
The Austin Ventures stage was just on the other side of the Hideaway tent and some trees, I suppose they must have left something behind.
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ACL 2010 Review: Warpaint
The story of Warpaint at ACL begins Saturday night, when the Los Angeles quartet put it a shockingly fun set opening for Sonic Youth at La Zona Rosa.
For the first time in, well, as long as I can remember, LZR sounds amazing, thanks to a new sound system put in by new bookers C3 Presents. Warpaint took full advantage of this. The band is probably best know for its show biz kid heritage — their first drummer was actress Shannon Sossamon and Sossamon’s sister Jenny Lindberg plays bass. No idea what Sossamon was like as a drummer, but current stick lady Stella Mozgawa is a godsend, she and LIndberg propelling the songs along as Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman’s vocals harmonize and their guitars flicker in and out. It’s as if the Bangles were raised on nothing but early 80s dance rock such as Liquid Liquid and postpunk such as the Slits. This is in no way a bad sound, and the quartet pulled it off beautifully, jamming here and there like Television’s lanky daughters.
Their ACL set proper seemed a little more subdued, but that might have been, you know, exhaustion from playing a killer set a mere 12 hours before. Lindberg still seemed the engine that moved the music, but things were taken down a notch. I look forward to seeing them again in a darker, more interior setting, possibly after they have had a nap.
Again, it is tough to see past the Hollywood thing, but the better they get, the more I think that will fade (or my own prejudices will subside). Their debut album “The Fool” appears in stores Oct. 25. I look forward to it.
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ACL scene: Deadmau5
For a brief moment at Zilker Park on Saturday night, it almost felt as though we had all been transported to South Florida for the annual Winter Music Conference. LCD Soundsystem’s “Yeah!” had just finished up on the Budweiser stage when Grammy-nominated dance producer Deadmau5 started his set on the Zync stage. Fresh off his appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, he quickly became one of the most talked about acts on the day’s lineup.
Technical difficulties marred the first few moments of the performance. The typically anonymous producer had to remove his signature oversized mouse mask in order to fix his equipment. Once this mishap was remedied, his hour-long set continued without issue. Visually, there was a fairly extensive light show to make up for the lack of pretty much any other activity on stage.
While it only took about 20 minutes for me to become personally uninterested in his set, the crowd was undeniably excited. I had to walk almost as far back as the Art Market area in order find the perimeter’s edge of people who were not clapping, dancing, and waving their glow sticks in the air.
Photo by Jack Plunkett ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ACL 2010 Review: The XX
There is something inherently funny, yet charming, about British kids dressed in black in the blazing early evening heat and sun, but that’s exactly what happened tp the the XX during their Saturday evening set at ACL.
The British trio has had a big year. Their debut album, released last August, won the prestigious Mercury Prize earlier this year. They felt like one of the breakout acts of this year’s South By Southwest. They’ve been touring on and off for well over a year.
Word has it this set was their last for awhile — it’s time to recharge and start working on the follow-up. It was a mellow, if possibly broiling, way to close out an extraordinary 14 month period for the young rockers. Oliver Sim, sporting a very British haircut, mumble-crooned his way through tunes such as the anthemic “Intro” and “Crystalised.” Much as at SXSW, it was weirdly hypnotic seeing drummer Jaime Smith tap out beats on a drum machine. It balanced the sound between the raw and the cooked, between the digital and the analog, between the emotional and the machine-made. Guitarist Romy Madley Croft’s spare, tiny lines felt huge in the falling sun. Not a bad way to end it for the year.
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Musicians love the Eagles
Although their booking to headline ACL Fest angered some indie rock fans, such fellow Budweiser stage acts as Portugal. The Man and Band of Horses proclaimed that they were proud to be on the same stage that would later host the creators of “Tequila Sunrise.”
“I can’t believe the Eagles are going to be right here,” said Horses franchise, singer Ben Bridwell.
Like Don Henley of the Eagles, Bridwell is a reedy singer who hits glorious high notes. Sunday, he reached a special place with “No One’s Gonna Love You,” then drove the crowd into ecstasy with “The Funeral.”
Portugal. The Man were Ween without the sense of humor, with John Gourley’s falsetto topping everything from reggae to punk. Wearing a hoodie in the mid-day sun during any month in Austin besides January and February is like sunglasses at night, but Gourley was a soul possessed, reminiscent of Jack White on a big Bowie jag.
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Welcome Lance Herbstrong
At about 1:30 in the afternoon Sunday, Gayngs canceled. So ACL booker Charles Attal called in a quick replacement — artist relations manager Kamal Soloman, who quickly got his band of two DJs, a drummer and a guitarist together. Opening with “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys and playing “Riders On the Storm” by the Doors, in addition to a few originals, Lance Herbstrong had a wildly received debut.
Veteran booking agent Roggie Bear called the set “the best thing I’ve seen at ACL this year.”
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Scene report: Pick your passion on Sunday
Some people like to while away their Sundays in peaceful lazy manner and some like to engage with the spirit. The former seemed to be sprawled out in front of the stage for Robert Earl Keen, while I joined the latter to see Trombone Shorty.
What’s been come to be known as the jazz/gospel tent - this year known as the Clear 4G tent — always features music that resonates with the crowd. Maybe that’s because the music at that tent always seems to come from the soul. Such was the case with Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, who transported the sweaty tent of the faithful back to New Orelans and Jazz Fest, while slapping some west coast funk on it that echoed the great Tower of Power.
My brow (and shirt) drenched, following the inspired grooves of Trombone Shorty, I joined the Keen fans. At one point Keen’s guitarist seemed to be borrowing Jerry Garcia’s riff from the Grateful Dead’s “Chinacat Sunflower.” Turns out it wasn’t “Chinacat,” but what the guitarist borrowed, he and the band repaid when they took that particular song into “I Know You Rider.” It was a great (final?) cover to hear at ACL 2010.
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ACL2010 review: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
“Thank you, Eagles fans, for not throwing (expletive) at us,” said Ted Leo Sunday afternoon, kicking off the Budweiser stage for the day and ripping into “Even Heroes Have to Die.” “For you we will play our most Eagles-y song.”
If there were any disgruntled Eagles fans in the audience, it wasn’t showing. The crowd size was modest but there was headbanging-a-plenty as Leo ripped through a bang-on 45-minute set of blue-collar indie punk, played nice and fast and functioning as the perfect primer for a day’s worth of rocking out.
For his part, if Leo was the least bit fatigued after last night’s Lance Hahn memorial show at Red 7, he didn’t show it, either. Leo was his usual shredding, smiling, humble self, grinding through a great version of “Bottled In Cork” with Austin’s Sally Crewe helping out on tambourine and vocals. And he was an animated whirlwind, hopping on one foot from one side of the stage to the other, guitar in hand, for closing song “Stove By A Whale.”
“I love you!” rang out an anonymous cry from the audience.
“You don’t even know me, but thanks for the sentiment,” replied Leo.
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Update: This blog entry has been changed to reflect that Sally Crewe made a guest appearance on “Bottled In Cork,” not “A Bottle of Bucky,” which was played earlier in the set. Thanks to Matador Records head Gerard Cosloy for the correction.
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Gayngs announce ACL cancellation
Official statement from the band:
Last night, GAYNGS’ tour bus, containing all of the band’s gear, personal belongings, and livelihood, was mistakenly driven across the country from Emo’s Downtown, en route to the ACL Festival Grounds. Unable to reach the driver of the bus, the band reported the gear stolen at approximately 4:20am.
After a sleepless, worry full night, the band made every attempt to borrow and backline equipment so the show could go on, however, we regret to announce that we will not be able to perform without the necessary equipment that was taken by the bus.
We are insanely bummed out by these events. We can only hope to have the opportunity to make it up to all of you. Thanks for your support on this tour. It was truly a dream come true.
Due to unfortunate circumstances Gayngs regretfully has to cancel their performance on the ZYNC stage at 3pm-4pm
ACL is pleased to announce Lance Herbstrong will be performing at the ZYNC stage at 3pm.
Www.lanceherbstrong.com
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ACL aftershow report: The Black Keys at Stubb’s
My, how these two have grown.
Consider this: When I first wrote about The Black Keys in 2002 they were banging around midwestern clubs in support of “The Big Come Up,” a platter of dirty two-man blues and bash that got them lots of looks but also got them cast as The White Stripes’ unfortunate cousins during a time when any record with a trace of fuzz or distortion made its authors part of the retro-garage movement.
Now? They’re THE on-the-rise band of Austin City Limits Festival weekend, drawing a throng Friday afternoon that rivaled crowds of lots of BCS schools’ football stadiums and played an aftershow Saturday night at Stubb’s that promoters said they could’ve sold out three times over. Austin natives Spoon actually did that last summer and on Saturday night Spoon honcho Britt Daniel was turned away from the club’s packed-like-pickles VIP deck. It was that kind of a night.
So The Black Keys have arrived, thanks in no small part to a startling new record (“Brothers,” its sixth) with a single (“Tighten Up”) that distills the duo’s base elements - skeletal blues-based guitar, at least one killer solo and/or breakdown, Patrick Carney’s stamp press-force drumming and Dan Auerbach’s eternal romantic longing - down to their most potent forms.
What became apparent after Carney and Auerbach started making noise Saturday on opening song “Thickfreakness” was how they’ve not only grown in stature but expanded their stylistic palette. Auerbach can slip country twang guitar lines in pretty much anywhere he wants or go completely the other way with metallic feedback, the band can pull it back for an easygoing ballad (“Act Nice And Gentle”), and Carney can dip into the funk that served him so well on last year’s Blakroc album.
So for 80 blistering-but-never-close-to-overboard minutes it was the pair (plus a bassist and Moog player for some of the “Brothers” tunes) opening up its catalog and either stacking those new building blocks atop earlier songs (“The Breaks,” “Girl Is On My Mind”) or mega-sizing the creative growth displayed on new ones. That meant “Strange Times” kicked off faster and harder than on record (which takes some doing) and nearly slowed to collapse in its choruses, or that the tension of “Tighten Up” was intensified by rhythmically teasing its monster final verse breakdown after each verse. And when it finally arrived right in front of Auerbach singing “Living just to keep going/Going just to keep sane,” well, “cacophony” seems like the right word for the mood in the house by that point.
It was musicianship paired with showmanship (we’ll excuse the mammoth disco ball that made two appearances) making an airtight case for why The Black Keys’ time is now, and that they’re not about to let it pass squandered.
Photos: Alberto Martinez AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: M.I.A.
Britain’s M.I.A., a/k/a Maya Arulpragasam, was just about missing in action during her 8 p.m. performance on the AMD stage Saturday, but if you like standing in a field watching videos and a light show, it was a heck of a spectacle.
For almost the entire first 35 minutes of her set, the stage was kept dark, so that performers, including the hip-hop star, were only seen silhouetted against a giant backdrop of videos and animated graphics. The big screens on the side showed the same or complementary images. Presumably people close to the stage could determine if M.I.A. herself was up there prancing around, and not someone of similar height, but further away, all you could see were shadows and some pretty dazzling work by the lighting and set designer(s). Gigantic black rectangles pulsed on the video screens, black-and-white footage of dancers played in a loop behind what I suppose was a band and what seemed to be backing singers, and M.I.A.’s name and the logo for her latest album, written in lights, changed colors. Lights blazed and flashed, sometimes white, sometimes colored. On the video screen, the cartoon outline of a human figure cavorted about, changed hues and split into three, then became one again, and then split into more line people dancing with each other.
M.I.A. played her first hit, “Galang,” very early in the show, or at any rate, the song was played, and she might well have been delivering the vocal, rapping in that trademark, sing-songy, somewhat screechy alto-trying-to-be-a-soprano, which is pretty arresting on a single, but can grow tiresome, especially Saturday, when there were so many distorting and echoey effects on her vocals that her words were indistinct. One number bled into the next for a while, and M.I.A. made no attempt at interaction, so most of the crowd seemed to feel no obligation to clap or yell at the end of a song, although many danced along enthusiastically to the raw, compelling beats.
Finally, more than halfway through, the spotlights on stage came up enough that you could see the artist, and I thought about trying to get up closer, but as soon as she finished her 2008 hit, “Paper Planes,” a mass surge toward the exit began, and heading in the opposite direction seemed too much like a suicide mission. The spotlights went back down again, anyway, and then at 9:15, everything suddenly came to a halt. There was a semblance of cheering and shouting, and the business on stage recommenced, so apparently, an encore was taking place. Then M.I.A’s voice said something along the lines of “thank you,” and I thought she had probably said “This is our last song,” but apparently it was “That was our last song,” because everyone left the stage, and after five minutes, the remainder of the crowd decided it must be over, although there were about 10 minutes left in her scheduled time slot.
One guy walking past me in the dark said to his friend in frustration “I couldn’t understand a thing she just said,” which was a pretty fair summary of the whole show. Photo: Jack Plunkett ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ACL scene: David Bazan
Seattle’s David Bazan was the victim of one of the more unfortunate scheduling conflicts during Saturday’s ACL lineup. While performing on the BMI stage, it was often easy to hear LCD Soundsystem’s electro beats over on the Budweiser stage. Bazan, appearing with a full backing band, rose to the occasion with a set that was loaded with some of the more rocking songs from his catalog.
Last fall, he released “Curse Your Branches” on the Barsuk label. It was his first proper solo album after fronting the band Pedro The Lion for a decade. A smaller, but dedicated crowd of fans braved the schedule conflicts and camped out in one of the shadier areas of the park to watch him play a set that mostly featured his more recent material. Highlights also included older favorites such as “Start Without Me” and “The Fleecing,” tracks from Pedro The Lion’s final album “Achilles Heel.”
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ACL review: Monsters of Folk
You have to believe that the Monsters of Folk are having fun jacking around with folks’ preconceptions. There’s that name, for one thing, a burst of who’s-your-daddy egotism with tongue firmly in cheek. Then there’s the boys themselves, making their entrance onto the Austin Ventures Stage Saturday evening in matching black funeral parlor suits to the strains of William DeVaughan’s ’70s funk track “Be Thankful For What You Got.”
Then there is the group’s pedigree — think an indie incarnation of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Like that ensemble, the members of MOF hail from disparate pedigrees: She and Him (M. Ward), My Morning Jacket (Jim James) and Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis). (And one of Austin’s own: Will Johnson of Centro-matic, who has become the fifth Monster.) And, like CSNY at their peak, Monsters of Folk is capable of evolving from a layered, nuanced rootsy sound to a screaming, multi-headed garage band monster with the blink of the proverbial eye.
Their nearly two-hour set drew largely from their self-titled debut from last fall, but there were some detours into the members’ own repertoires, including Oberst’s “Soul Singer In A Session Band,” Ward’s “To Save Me” and a titanic version of My Morning Jacket’s “Smokin’ From Shootin’.” The SoCal folk rock of “The Right Place” and “Golden” (another MMJ song), the ethereal vocals on “Slow Down Jo” and “The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me” and the assertive, melodic pop of “Baby Boomer,” “Whole Lotta Losin’” and “Losin’ Yo Head” — (does anyone else hear echoes of the Beach Boys in here?) — Monsters of Folk displayed more sides than a funhouse mirror. Soulful wordsmiths, furious rockers, gifted performers — the set-closing spiritual “His Master’s Voice” was spine-tingling — they reminded this listener of the old B. Kliban cartoon wherein the scientist comes into the laboratory to find his creation doing the cha-cha with a couple of buxom babes and drinking a martini. “Look, Igor,” the scientist exclaims, “The monster lives! And not badly, either!” Photo: Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL scene: M.I.A.
Dressed in a half-black, half-white shirt and rolled white jean shorts, the diminutive firecracker M.I.A. looks like a cheerleader after a pep rally in 1991. The only thing that would betray that image are the black thigh-high stockings that, along with the hip gyrations, scream sex. Say what you will about her second album or the controversy surrounding her New York Times magazine story earlier this year, but the woman knows how to put on a show. She bops from the front of the stage to the back to twiddle anon and switch up the beat and next thing you know she’s right down front dancing on top of equipment cases with the crowd, even holding some of their hands. She’s got them all eating out of hers.
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ACL review: Broken Bells
After a wildly anticipated set at this year’s South By Southwest that received decidedly mixed reviews, Broken Bells — the boutique project headed by James Mercer (of the Shins) and Danger Mouse — returned to Austin for an afternoon set that drew a massive crowd to the AMD Stage on Saturday.
Drawing heavily from their debut album, with a smattering of new material, the duo and their backing musicians delivered a polished performance laced with swirls of high-harmony vocals, electronic effects, bolero trumpet and an easy assurance — although viewing the big monitors from more than a quarter mile away made discerning any onstage dynamics among the musicians a job for astronomers.
Echoing with oblique references to the Beatles’ psychedelic era, Pink Floyd’s grandiosity and Steely Dan’s hipster-cool surmise — see if you can guess the reporter’s era by those name checks — songs such as “Vaporize,” “The High Road,” “Your Head Is On Fire” and “The Ghost Inside” elevated the crowd while simultaneously, somehow, eliciting a sense of trancelike abandon.
New songs featured rubbery rhythm guitar, haunted twin vocals and a subterranean layer of industrial funk. Drowning, chewy guitar tracks anchored the set’s only cover tune (whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch).
The 12-song set concluded with an upbeat pop-laced take on “The Mall and the Misery” that sent folks off dancing. It might have taken Broken Bells a couple of visits to Austin to find their groove, but once they located it, they rode it into the ground.
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ACL scene: Barton Springs Road on Saturday
Although most people on Barton Springs Road west of Lamar were streaming purposefully toward ACL Saturday afternoon, some folks sporting three-day wristbands stopped to relax in local establishments before braving the hordes in the park, and plenty of people from nearby neighborhoods wandered down just to watch the parade go by.
On the front porch of Austin Java, Joel Lang was hanging out with his 3-month-old daughter, Veda Monserrate. He had planned to go to ACL and catch bands such as Gogol Bordello, but his friends bailed on him, he said, so he sold his three-day pass. Veda attended last year’s ACL in utero, but this year she was content to recline in her stroller, wrapped in a pink blanket and sucking vigorously, Maggie Simpson-style, on a glittering pink pacifier, while sizing up strangers with her enormous blue eyes. Her dad spotted a friend, and other Austinites seemed to be running into their neighbors and co-workers as well.
On the sidewalk next to the Shiner Bock-sponsored stage outside Flipnotics, a woman pushing a double stroller ran into someone she knew, hugs were exchanged, and then another friend strolled up and within 15 minutes, there seemed to be about eight people in their group. On the stage, raised a full story above street level, Slowtrain played a fine set of choogling country-rock, causing some 30 or 40 people to pause and listen, from a gray-haired man and his consort to a kid with a skateboard tucked under his arm. A pedicab driver drifted by headed east, passengerless, with one leg resting up on his handlebars. Up the street, another pedicab driver was waiting for a passenger, his conveyance decorated with an oversize kid’s mylar balloon and a sign proclaiming “Bikin’ 4 My Baby.” Yet another pedicab driver pedaled swiftly toward Lamar, the cheap boombox fixed to his bicycle blaring away.
Apparently, many people had decided rather than buy a pricey Heineken in the park, they’d fuel up beforehand. Inside Flip’s, the baristas seemed to be selling more beer than coffee. And when I tried to say hello to a friend who works at Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que, where live bands were also playing, the place was so slammed, I just waved at him and said “see you later.” Meanwhile, Daily Juice was jumping as well, but the atmosphere was far less hectic, and a customer in line danced happily to the electronica playing in the shop.
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ACL 2010 review: Ruby Jane
A couple of days ago I was lauding the youthful prowess of 21-year old singer/songwriter Sahara Smith. And talented she indeed is. But in terms of age, she looks like a candidate for AARP membership next to 15-year old Ruby Jane Smith. Ruby Jane, as she is billed (“If Madonna can use just her first name, so can I,” she declared at age 10 according to her mom).
A vivacious, effervescent and ferociously talented instrumentalist, writer and vocalist, the young Dallas native immediately attracted the attention of Willie Nelson and Asleep At the Wheel’s Ray Benson upon moving to Austin. She’s released a live mostly-acoustic/roots album and has a new EP coming out of the gates soon.
But as a performer, she’s accelerating far faster than her recorded repertoire might indicate. Onstage at the BMI Stage Sunday morning, she surrounded herself with a crew who could rock as hard as they could swing.
And at that, it was all they could do to keep up with their bandleader as she made lightning changes between fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin. In the course of several songs, she slung her guitar behind her back, the better to pick up a fiddle and take a hot solo.
Kicking off with a gypsy jazz take on Django Reinhardt’s “Minor Swing,” Ruby Jane moved into the country-blues-flavored “Feels Like Home” and the romping, sunny “Beautiful You, Happy Me” before essaying a surprisingly mature cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Be Here To Love Me” (and how many 15-year olds have the chutzpah to cover a Townes song?)
Speaking of chutzpah, Jane completed a new pop ballad, “The Fall,” only a little more than a week ago and determined to present it to the ACL crowd freshly hatched, so to speak.
After another new song, “Stick Around,” in which Ruby Jane used a vocal effect to give her voice the timber of an old field recording before turning the tables with a fuzztone-flavored rock finale, she closed her set with the juiced-up swing/boogie stomp of “Greasy World,” from her debut album.
As she left the stage, several of the early-morning festival goers wandered around like survivors of a tornado’s near miss. And in some ways, that was apropos-Ruby Jane seems less like a kid not yet old enough to drive and more like a force of musical nature.
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ACL 2010 review: Muse
It’s a pretty big honor for a band to headline the ACL Fest twice - even if it is by accident. After the White Stripes cancelled in 2007 and the English alternative rock trio were bumped up to the top spot, they proved themselves adept headliners, with a massive, spectacle-laden rock explosion that seemed to be timed just right - this was just as “Knights of Cydonia” was in its highest circulation on the radio.
But were they so good they deserved another headlining slot three years later? If the shirtless guy next to me jumping a solid foot into the air and screaming “Yeah!” every two seconds is any indication - and come on, this is a rock festival, so of course it’s an indication - the answer is yes.
The intervening three years have seen Muse build itself an ever-larger, and exceedingly devoted, fan base - which equaled a clearly engaged, enthusiastic audience which greeted each radio single with rapturous applause and filled in the vocals on a brief instrumental cover of the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.” The energy was at a feverish pitch right from the start, when Matthew Bellamy walked on stage and launched into “Uprising,” backed by the best light show the touring market can buy. From that first note on, Muse, stadium rockers in the truest sense of the words, unraveled its spiraling, epic jams over a barrage of lasers, lights and projections for an hour and a half. Although Bellamy’s vocals were at times a bit quiet, Muse proved itself an ideal festival headliner - with tight musicianship and a nearly obscene level of spectacle to match.
It’s a little astonishing to know that Muse consists of only four live players, because the band sounded impressively expansive on rockers like “MK Ultra” - named for a covert CIA program centered on mind control and one of many signs of the band’s fascination with paranoid subject matter (to say little of the news footage and Orwellian imagery that popped up at times on the projection screen). But in all the axe-grinding and spectacle there were bits of tenderness on display - Bellamy’s piano interlude “Niche” and Muse’s surprisingly sensitive take on classic “Feeling Good,” an Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse tune that’s been sung by everybody from Nina Simone to Kat Edmonson.
Bellamy broke out the keytar for “Undisclosed Desires” and a double-necked guitar for the bombast of “Resistance.” Although it may have been Bellamy’s right-hand man, bassist Christopher Wolstenhome, who busted out one of the most impressive feats of the night, a thematically perfect harmonica intro to final song “Knights of Cydonia.”
Although there’s few 10-minute solos on display in Muse’s songs, you can see bits of progressive rock creeping in here and there - the epic feel, the focus on world-building within the lyrics and, of course, the very dedicated audience. Mix that in with a whole lot of spectacle, and you have a pretty solid show. At least the shirtless guy next to me seemed happy, and who am I to argue with him?
Set list
Uprising
Supermassive Black Hole
New Born
Map of the Problematique
MK Ultra
Nishe
United States of Eurasia
Feeling Good (cover)
Undisclosed Desires
Resistance
Hysteria
Time Is Running Out
Starlight
Stockholm Syndrome
Encore
Plug In Baby
Knights of Cydonia
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL 2010 review: LCD Soundsystem
Two songs into his Saturday night set at the Budweiser stage, just after nailing delightfully silly “This Is Happening” single “Drunk Girls,” LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy apologized for wearing sunglasses on-stage. Directly in front of him, the Austin sun was setting over the west hills. One can only imagine how blinding it must have been.
“There’s a mid-size star (expletive) up my vision. I’m very sorry for looking like a jerk and wearing these sunglasses,” said Murphy. “Wait no, I’m trying to look cool, that’s it.”
It’s too bad Murphy had to deal with the world’s most epic glare, but it’s a happy accident - it’s hard to imagine a band better suited to guide ACL Fest audiences from day to night than LCD Soundsystem, with its cathartic, weary-yet-enthused dance rock jams. Murphy’s songs were practically made for those waning hours of twilight, and indeed LCD Soundsystem proved even more enjoyable than they did during their 2007 mid-afternoon set. Striding onto stage in a black-and-white plaid shirt and a five o’clock shadow, Murphy and the six other members of LCD Soundsystem’s live band - charmingly, all of whom look like total schlubs aside from glamorous Moog jockey Nancy Whong - kicked off the set with the wandering first track off “This Is Happening,” an immediately winning rendition of “Dance Yrself Clean.”
Although the dancing didn’t reach the feverish heights it would an hour later for Deadmau5’s groove-a-thon, there were ample hands in the air for “Drunk Girls” and “I Can Change” - and there was a noticeable surge of enthusiasm for a sped-up, punked-up take on “All My Friends.” I’ll confess to being modestly surprised by just how much this set rocked and just how good it sounded - in particular, “Movement” was shattering in its intensity.
A world here about the people in LCD Soundsystem who aren’t James Murphy: Murphy tends to get the lion’s share of the credit, but the rest of the band’s players are absolute experts at taking music that has plenty of electronica in its DNA and making it surge live, which is probably harder to do than it looks. Particular praise is due to drummer Pat Mahoney - since we’re talking dance music here, a pounding drumbeat is even more important than usual, and Mahoney’s a monster on the kit. Especially when Murphy joins in, as he did on “Tribulations,” a deep cut off LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled debut.
By the time Murphy tore into the 2,137 shouted exclamations of “Yeah!” that make up the song of the same name (that number might be slightly exaggerated) and the disco ball came on, the sun had dropped out of the sky and Murphy had adeptly helped navigate the audience into the darkness. Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL 2010 review: Local Natives
A crew of well-meaning young men from Silver Lake, California, Local Natives fall into that oddly expanding category “bands who cite Talking Heads, possibly from the stage, as a huge influence.” (See also Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend, Wolf Parade and a dozen more.) Some folks scoff at this - as one fellow on Twitter put it, “Their mouths say Talking Heads, but their music says every (expletive) Byrne solo alb;” OUCH - but the crowd at the Austin Ventures stage on Saturday seemed to adore their combination of vocal harmonies, skittering rock and sunny Afro-pop breaks. (They even covered Talking Heads “Warning Sign.”)
Drawing from their nearly-year old, well-regarded hyped debut “Gorilla Manor,” the band worked on their titration of California folk and something slightly funkier. Singer Taylor Rice reinforced the beat on a tiny drum kit up front and bassist Andy Hamm drove the songs this way and that. You could not have grown in a vat a band more perfect for a late afternoon crowd at ACL.
Photo: Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL 2010 review: Jones Family Singers
For four years, the Jones Family Singers of Bay City have come to the Austin City Limits Music Festival and blow minds with their “tradition gospel with a contemporary flair.” In the Clear 4G tent, five singers, led by the mighty Alexis Diane Jones-Roberts harmonize over guitar, bass, drums and keys that brush up against funk and remind you that gospel is the root integer of soul.
Rallying cries such as “if they ain’t clapping their hands, I want you hunch ‘em a little bit in the shoulder” and “But we got our own version of rock ‘n’ roll…we like to roll with the Holy Ghost” punchtuated to rolling gospel. The chorus of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” became “Jesus Christ is my savior” and the “Star Spangled Banner” was played for troops here and abroad. So far, so sanctified.
Then a very odd thing happened. As Jones-Roberts brought the next generation of Jones Family Singers out, small children who looked between 4 and maybe 11, a large frat-looking fellow jumped on stage to dance with them. Then two girls joined him in front of the kids.
Mercifully, everyone was back in the crowd within a few minutes but it created a moment so distastefully bound up in the complicated intersections of race, appropriation, class, privilege, power and money that you could practically hear all the cultural studies grad students in Texas start to take notes. Add to that the soul-saving mandate of evangelical Christianity (perhaps the Spirit moved the dude) and there’s a thesis in there. There’s not enough space here to go into it in detail and the Singers seemed very charitable about it. I am not as charitable, so two points:
Frat dude, there is such a thing as manners. After you jumped up on to the stage, a few of those little kids looked quite scared. This was their moment, and you made it all about you. Very, classy, ace.
Security didn’t seem to do anything after the dude went on stage, nor did I see anyone talk to him afterward. Perhaps someone in Jones Family waved them off, perhaps they didn’t want to scare the kids — I don’t know, honestly. Someone in a W3 shirt spoke to the two girls, but that was it. It was impossible to imagine that had the band been white and the interloper been African-American, the situation would have played out similarly. I really, really hope I am wrong about that.
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ACL 2010 review: Mayer Hawthorne
Just as accidental soul singer Mayer Hawthorne took the stage Saturday afternoon at ACL Fest, two 50-something white women at the front of the crowd pressed their backs against the photo pit fence imploring a friend to capture them mugging for the camera with Hawthorne in the background. Does this say something about Hawthorne’s appeal? Maybe.
A formidable hip-hop producer with a knack for recreating a vintage Motown sound, Hawthorne’s solo debut was something of a lark that unexpectedly took off. With a falsetto croon that’s less velvet and more cheap 80s velour, Hawthorne’s saving grace is self awareness. He knows he’s not a great soul singer. (Or, as my colleague Matthew Odam remarked, even a good soul singer.) While someone like ACL 2009 artist Raphael Saddiq embodies old school soul, Hawthorne pays homage.
Consequently, reports from his early shows tend to portray Hawthorne as a quick-witted, down to earth dude with an easy, self-deprecating stage banter. But somewhere along the line did Hawthorne begin to believe his own hype? For the most part Hawthorne played the straight man in Saturday’s performance. Yes, he told an anecdote about an autograph seeker in Waterloo Records mistaking him for Michael Buble, but it was clearly a canned intro for the track “Maybe So, Maybe No.” He emphasized “the word for the day was fun” before launching into a yacht rock cover of Michael McDonald’s “What a Fool Believes.” But he also un-ironically labeled his slow jams “baby-making” music. Some of the audience was with him, but the overall response was lackluster.
“I know it’s hot,” Hawthorne said, trying to coax the audience to dance. He asked for bouncing and got a few bobs here and a couple hip switches there.
The performance wasn’t a complete dud though. When Hawthorne dropped irresistibly funky originals like “My Green-Eyed Love” with it’s spot-on, in the pocket groove, it was obvious why hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg, who Hawthorne shouted out (name dropped?) twice clamor to collaborate with him. But baby-making music? Not so much.
Photo: Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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Rat pack: Dedication for Deadmau5
ACL is full of interesting fashion statements. Westlake High School students Chris McDaniel, 16, and Robert Hunt, 16, decided to rock some serious headgear to show love for their favorite band, Deadmau5.
The DJ is known for sporting an oversized mouse mascot head on stage, so the Westlake Chaps took a page from his book.
They actually got the idea from a buddy who apparently chickened out. Considering the amount of attention the two were getting — specifically cute high school girls — it looks like their friend missed out.
The two friends put aside school work and used some tips from the Internet and a little improvisational kill to construct the mouse heads, which were made from hamster wheels and wood boards. Amazingly, they said the costumes, which took about eight hours of work, weren’t hot.
Photo (from left): Chris McDaniel (left), Caroline Hunt and Robert Hunt. (Matthew Odam AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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ACL is a slam dunk
Standing in the VIP area earlier this afternoon I noticed a rather tall dude.
“Do you ever get confused as one of the Barrys?” I asked the guy as he waited for his drink.
“Almost every day of my life,” he said.
Turns out it indeed was former San Antonio Spur Brent Barry, brother of Jon and son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick.
Barry, who said he is able to cruise the fest in relative anonymity, told me that this was his fifth festival. The Spurs are quite the musical team, it seems, as Barry said he had planned to come to the festival with Spurs forward Matt Bonner (no stranger to Fun Fun Fun Fest), but alas the Spurs have a pre-season game tonight. Looks like it pays to be retired.
I would imagine Barry is the only Slam Dunk Contest winner to ever attend ACL Fest.
Brent Barry (left) with friend Len Briley at the Austin City Limits Music Fest. (Matthew Odam AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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ACL Cares
Combining live music and positive social contribution is part of Austin’s cultural charm, and it’s also what ACL Cares is all about.
The ACL Cares booth is on the south side of the park near the entrance, and offers 9 groups (SIMS Foundation, Health Alliance for Musicians (HAAM), HeadCount, Anthropos Arts, Austin Music People, Austin Parks Foundation, Rock the Vote) an opportunity to interact with the public.
First year participant SharedEarth is an online community started by Adam Dell that offers an opportunity for people with land and gardeners a chance to connect. Volunteer Amy Wilson told me this afternoon, that the group had already signed up a couple dozen people early today. The good weather and organic gala apples the group was giving away likely led to increased foot traffic by the table. Antropos Arts was building interest in their cause with the opportunity to see Ozomatli, as the band was scheduled to be at the non-profit group’s tent at 5 p.m.
Green Mountain Energy is no stranger to ACL. The ACL Cares organization is at the fest for the fourth year. They are selling $3 fan tags to offset carbon emissions. All of the money raised through the sell of the stickers go to the Goat Wind Farm, with each sticker purchase going towards 300 kilowatt hours of renewable energy certificates. Green Mountain’s Neal Gilbreath told me that each fan tag sold offsets the equivalent of 400-mile drive or 1300-mile flight.
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ACL scene report: Friday aftershows
If you’re so inclined, the bounty of good-to-stellar aftershows at clubs around town can turn Austin City Limits Festival weekend into South By Southwest jr. That is, assuming you’ve got anything left in the tank after 10 or so hours out in the sun and tunes at Zilker Park. Since I skipped the park this year, I decided to make Friday night as SXSW-esque as possible and see as many bands as I could in one three or four-hour stretch.
The best chance for that came by circumnavigating both rooms at Emo’s as well as Red 7 and making a loop I ended up completing three times. To be reasonable, I used SXSW coverage rules, which hold that the lesser of three songs or 15 minutes count as having “seen” a band enough to write about them. The result? 10 bands in 210 minutes, one solitary beer to start the night (bathroom breaks throw off the schedule) and one kinda pooped but happy writer.
- Emo’s Outside (Black Lips, Those Darlins, The Ettes): I was already on the list for this garage-heavy lineup so I was pretty relieved when the door barker said the show was sold out. Get inside though it’s still a pretty sparse crowd. No matter. Once The Ettes started I was reminded that I need to give Lindsay Hames and her L.A. band more attention. Really feisty throwback fuzz rock that hard to not smile during. Interviewed those gals at 2007 SXSW and haven’t gone back much since, but that’ll change. The photogenic country-tinged trio of Those Darlins came into ACL as something of a buzz act and seem like the perfect small-dose party band, coming off like what The Donnas would’ve sounded like if they were ripping off X instead of The Ramones and AC/DC. After some brief sound issues, they had the growing crowd moving plenty, but four songs was enough for me on this go-around. And Black Lips. Oh man, Black Lips. Might just be me projecting, but this band gives me the willies. Not musically - sonically it’s The Kinks double-timed and with a ton of distortion and bad (OK, worse) attitudes - but their stage presence is that of some kind of backwoods religious fringe gang. Like they’re eyeing up crowd members to drug later and harvest their organs, or like playing garage rock presented a nice respite from their day jobs such as cooking meth or human trafficking. In any case, a fascinating, fun, thrilling band that had my attention the longest of any band all night.
- Emo’s Inside (Givers, Cults, TV Torso): Disclaimer - if you’re a fan of any of these bands just stop reading and move to the next section. It’s a classic “It’s not you, it’s me” situation here, where none of them were my cup of tea, coffee or soda. Actually, I’d go see TV Torso again as a support act. Can’t remember much of what they sounded like, but at the start of the night I remember thinking that they had a good thing going. Cults was some meandering, orchestral indie rock that sounded sterile and left me feeling about the same. Givers, another buzzy band heading into the weekend, are the act I broke the SXSW rule for. After 67 seconds (I counted) I was off back around the corner to Red 7. Don’t take it personal. This bill was a mismatch with me from the start.
- Red 7 (Swingin’ Utters, Krum Bums, Born To Lose, The Stampede): Not technically an ACL-affiliated aftershow but a solid lineup that deserves some attention all the same. Actually, the separation from the festival was apparent all night as the three Austin bands on the bill made a point to talk down the fest that brings thousands of outsiders to town and makes normal life pretty chaotic for a long weekend. Sure it was punk rock theater and proselytizing at its most cliche, but if it gets you crowd points you do it. The Stampede were a youngish bunch doing the west coast-tinged punk thing respectably, but it’s too early for them to offer much more in the way of analysis. Born To Lose, who pack crowds in Europe and then strangely come back home to play a tiny dive like Red Eyed Fly, are an intense, no-nonsense bunch the remind these ears of a tougher version of early Rancid. That’s a compliment, by the way. Up higher, a couple bands I have no good excuse for seeing until now considering that I grew up on punk rock. Krum Bums are probably the next Austin punk band fated to break big and it was easy to see why, especially when lead singer Dave Tejas climbed into the club’s rafters to sing hanging upside-down. A little further on the hardcore punk side of things than I typically opt for, but a sensational band if that’s your thing. As for Swingin’ Utters, I can’t really say much that’s going to sound new or innovative. They’ve been charging audiences up with catchy shout-alongs since before my voice broke, had the crowd circle pit dancing pretty much the entire night and left the stage and everyone present (yours truly most certainly among them) completely wiped out.
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ACL 2010 review: the Black Lips
The Black Lips on-stage introduction for themselves — “Hello, we’re the Black Lips, and we play rock and roll” — couldn’t possibly serve as a more succinct encapsulation of the band’s stripped-down style. Though there’s bits and pieces of blues, doo-wop and punk in there, the Black Lips are still probably one of the most straightforward, pure rock groups to ever play the festival. Even the normally smooth ACL camera seemed to adopt a “Bourne Identity”-inspired shakiness to correspond with the band’s unbuttoned charm.
Their spare, rapid-fire approach isn’t necessarily for everyone — and they played to a reasonably sized crowd with a fairly constant stream of festivalgoers making their way out, indicating that not everybody wanted in on what the Atlanta quartet were selling. But the beach ball and toilet paper flying in the air were tell-tale signs that those sticking around were enjoying our consolation prize for not getting the Almighty Defenders, the gospel rock supergroup the Black Lips are in with kindred spirit King Khan that was on the initial ACL Festival lineup.
Older and wiser and less likely to make out or urinate on-stage than they once were, the Lips — not to be confused with the flaming variety — sounded shaggy and even a bit quiet for an opening run through of songs ranging from “Good Bad Not Evil” gem “O Katrina” and a rendition of “Short Fuse” that saw drummer and vocalist Joe Bradley growling so intensely the lyrics were nearly unintelligible. But things took off more with an enthusiastic take on “Cold Hands” that also seemingly included a needed boost to the volume levels for the rhythm section. Though the band didn’t cross into full-on controversial antics, they did grow more animated and dynamic and even faster, cranking through 10 songs in 25 minutes and laying on the reverb during “Lock and Key.” And a road-test of new material went fairly well, before the band closed with “Bad Kids,” the fist-pumping anthem of youthful indiscretion that’s a heck of a lot more transgressive than its inclusion on the “500 Days of Summer” soundtrack would lead you to believe.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL scene report: Waterloo Records
Judy and Dan Gauchat will be going home to St. Louis with heavier suitcases. By early Saturday afternoon, they’d already hit the Waterloo Records tent more than once. While their 34-year-old daughter was off at another show, Judy Gauchat had picked up a First Aid Kit CD for her, as well as one for herself, and got in the autograph line. Her husband soon came to keep her company, and eventually get his photo taken with the Swedish duo. Holding CDs by Nortec Collective, Carolyn Wonderland, and Two Tons of Steel, he said he’d stumbled on Two Tons as the first act on the BMI stage Friday and was so impressed by their expressions of gratitude at opening the festival.
“They were very humble,” he said.
His loud print shirt testifying to past attendance at the Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, he said ACL compares favorably.
“It’s neat to see the variety of people, older as well as little ones,” Judy Gauchat said.
She mentioned that St. Louis had just hosted its first big music fest, which had clearly taken a lot of cues from ACL.
Dan Gauchat named Robert Randolph’s set as one of their favorites so far: “His energy level is just unbelievable.”
On the food front, their favorites: chicken cones and sloppy nachos.
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ACL 2010 review: The Very Best
With a group consisting of just a vocalist and a producer playing on the enormous Budweiser stage at 12:30 pm, The Very Best might have had a sparse looking set. But Malawian artist Esau Mwamwaya performed flanked by a pair of dancers who started the showcase clad in black and gold fringed hoodies and gradually shed clothes as the set went on. These women, physically interpreting the group’s electro-African grooves with some crazy kind of Afro-vogue pop locking brought an exuberant energy to the stage. For his part Mwamwaya, who sang, rapped and led the audience through call and responses, was a solid opener coaxing motion out of an audience largely unfamiliar with his work and battling a beatdown from the high noon sun.
With a gregarious vibe and upbeat grooves, the entire set was well received, but proving the new school adage that for the mashup generation familiarity pays the wild responses came at the end of the set when the group dropped the tracks “Rain Dance” and “The Warm Heart of Africa” which sample MIA and Vampire Weekend respectively. Hands went up, bodies swayed in unison and a collective smile spread across the lawn.
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ACL 2010 review: First Aid Kit
Sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg of First Aid Kit completely charmed the early risers who made it for the first slot at the Honda stage Saturday, although most in the audience had likely never heard of the Swedish duo before. Both women have strong, sweet voices with a steely brightness that gives their old-fashioned country-folk harmonies a modern edge. When Klara sang high notes, she sometimes conjured a tougher Joan Baez, while Johanna brought a tempetuous undertow with her impassioned, full-throated harmony lines.
Although very young — Johanna was born in 1990 and Klara in 1993 — the pair’s songs are thoughtful, poetic and rather wintery. Maybe it’s a Scandinavian thing, although their dispositions seemed decidedly sunny on stage. After the melancholy but resolute “You’re Not Coming Home Tonight,” with a drummer backing Johanna on emphatic autoharp and Klara on acoustic guitar, Johanna had to hold her blue, fluttery vintage dress to keep the wind from flipping up the hem. Klara joked “I feel like I’m in a music video!” She then ased “Johanna, what do I do next?” and laughed and explained “She makes up the setlists.”
Klara, wearing a long, bright-green, short-sleeved dress straight out of the early ’70s, introduced a song so new it didn’t have a name yet by suggesting to fans “If you can come up with anything, just shout it out.” The gorgeous tune celebrated some of their influences in its chorus, promising “I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June if/you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny, too.” Johanna played keyboards that sounded like a circus organ on another fine new song, “The Lion’s Roar,” which had more rock energy, although it was a waltz. At that point, basslines started bleeding through egregiously from the AMD stage, and people in the crowd turned their heads and grimaced in its direction from time to time. (I thought it must be some metal band, but it turned out to be Grace Potter.) The sisters continued undaunted, even tho the bass was sometimes so loud you could feel it in your chest, and they received a long, long round of applause.
Afterward, a long, long line of fans formed at the Waterloo tent for their autograph signing — and everyone I spoke to or overheard had simply stumbled upon First Aid Kit, heading over to the stage upon hearing the sisters’ voices ring out across the park. Some were holding more than one copy of their debut full-lenth release, The Big Black & the Blue.
Midway
A brand-new song, “The Lion’s Roar,” the song ‘First Day of My Life’ by Bright Eyes as a revelation. ‘Jagadamba, You Might’ ‘Tangerine’ In April 2008, First Aid Kit’s 7 track debut EP ‘Drunken Trees’ was first released in Sweden Wichita Recordings is re-releasing ‘Drunken Trees’ with a bonus track, the sensational and much You-Tubed cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” You’re Not Coming Home Tonight Cross Oceans Little Moon Tangerine Our Own Pretty Ways
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ACL 2010 review: Balmorhea
Balmorhea is something of an interesting choice for the opening slot of a major festival — it’s not hard to imagine them playing beautifully at night under (ideally) an impressive light show. And they’re perfectly suited for a seated venue. But their intricate, atmospheric classical-influenced rock — generally instrumental pieces overseen by Rob Lowe and Michael Muller and accompanied by an astonishingly talented ensemble of percussionists and string players — sounds like it could get lost under the toasting sun of an early outdoor festival set. Strolling over there after the gates opened, it was tempting to wish they were instead playing the shaded nearby Clear 4G stage rather than Austin Ventures.
Which is something Lowe and Muller seemed conscious of this morning, as they smartly balanced a set interspersing the more deliberate compositions that make up this year’s “Constellations” with more bombastic, thundering selections, including highlights from last year’s “All Is Wild, All Is Silent.” Even the meditative “Bowspirit” felt booming, thanks to the bone-rattling bass of Travis Chapman. Kendall Clark’s percussion perfectly shook the stage, while Muller’s electric guitar chops proved impressive.
From the punch of the wordless vocals that characterized “All Is Wild, All Is Silent” to spirited hand claps to an expansive, shaking new song that heralds good things to come from the band, Balmorhea’s set was a classy, perfectly played way to ease into the ACL Fest’s second day.
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C3: “We didn’t sell 10,000 more tickets”
Charlie Jones of C3 Presents called an interview Saturday to dispel the word that ACL Fest has 10,000 more people on hand than in year’s past. A new contract with the city allows C3 to sell 75,000 tickets, up from 65,000 last year, but Jones said that doesn’t mean they did so. Even though ACL has been sold out for three months. He said that attendance yesterday was 68,000 fans.
“The contract was amended to more accurately reflect what comes through the park during the festival,” he said. Included in the total Friday were about 1,200 kids under the age of 10 and a guest list of nearly 5,000 staffers, volunteers, sponsors and media.
C3 partner Charles Attal said the total attendance in Zilker during the Black Keys crush of humanity was 52,000.
“Just because we can sell more tickets doesn’t mean we will,” Jones said.
The original capacity of ACL was 75,000, but organizers voluntarily lowered the total to 65,000 in 2004 after fans complained about two-hour waits for shuttle buses and other hassles. Jones said in the past six years, C3 has smoothed out many of those wrinkles.
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ACL live review: Lissie
Illinois-bred singer-songwriter Lissie has got quite a voice- attractively raspy (a la Phoebe from “Friends” with a cold) and able to power-up into a melodic twirl. But her stage personality was almost as charming. After a couple members of the audience shouted that they were also from Rock Island, Lissie said, “Hey, we’ve got a posse.” When the rumble of reggae band the Very Best invaded her set during the gorgeous “Everywhere I Go,” she danced to their music for a few seconds after her song was over.
Standing barefoot on a towel, in a red silk dress, she was the day’s perfect opener, the balm before the scorch. Backed by a bassist who also played the bass drum and a guitarist, the blonde in Scandanavian pigtails opened strong with “When I’m Alone,” her best-known song. But it was “In Sleep” that really tore it up, with Eric Sullivan keeping the encroaching riddims at bay with a guitar solo that was a song in itself.
Lissie plays Emo’s tonight with the Black Lips.
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ACL 2010 review: Phish
I’m not mathematician, but working the calculus in my head Friday night, I figured there’s probably never been an ACL headliner with so few tunes recognizable by a majority of festival patrons. However, there are a massive number of people who know all of the Phish lyrics.
All of which is to say, Phish is not a band for everyone — and, sadly, many will never give them a chance due to judgments of or aversions to the band’s style and its fans — but those who do appreciate the musicality and sense of joy the band exudes were undoubtedly thrilled by the band’s performance at Zilker.
The last time the quartet from Vermont played a live gig in Austin was 1999. They were nearing the end of an amazing run, closing out the millennium as the godfathers of the jam band scene. They had grown a massive following and were selling out shows of all sizes from coast to coast. They were also running out of gas. Whether it was the weight of being the musical Moses for a generation of wandering Phish heads, collaborative issues as a band or personal demons and desires, the two decades of playing together had taken its toll. The band went on hiatus.
After a false re-start earlier in the decade, the band is finally back in full swing following a tour in 2009, and their first visit to Austin in 11 years proved that the time off was a good thing.
The band took the stage looking business-like in dark slacks and shirts, excepting drummer John Fishman, robed in his trademark muumu-style dress, and ripped into a tight “Down With Disease.” The song was tight and crisp, but not in a workmanlike manner. It was a polish that comes from rehearsal and commitment and rejuvenation. The band seemed just as happy to be on stage as the crowd did. And, interestingly, for a band with little left to prove, they did seem to be on a mission of sorts. They had come out the other side, from whatever it was that nagged at them and required their attention for the last decade, and were prepared to blow doors. It was one of many “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose” type of moments that would set the tone for the two hour set.
Maybe as a nod to a few fans lingering to get their first taste of Phish, the band used their second tune to play a cover of Talking Heads’ “Cities.” Along with the Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll,” it would be one of several covers.
A nod to their eclectic nature and that of the festival, the band jammed a country-inflected “Possum” that had Trey Anastasio’s guitar dripping with Texas twang, as the band seemed to have a blast with a song that is decades old. That hoedown jam gave way to a super funky “Wolfman’s Brother” that synthesized blues, funk, rock and jazz to the delight of a crowd that may have been smaller than a usual headliner’s crowd but was having the fun of 150 thousand people.
Rewarding those who likely had not seen the band in ages while offering accessible tunes for first timers, Phish played a strong, solid set of (mostly older) fan favorites that spanned 25 years. There were few surprises, but almost no weak moments in a set that featured extended jamming in all of the right places and highlighted the musical strength of each member.
Phish’s improvisation and communication on stage, as well as their relationship to the music, was all buoyed and enlivened by the band’s spirit of gratitude that was reciprocated by the audience. A lot has changed for the band and its fans since 1999, but Friday night was the best type of reunion, fueled not my tired nostalgia and rote ritual but by a true spirit of joy. Many will scoff at the band or its fans, and dismiss the music as noodling-you-can-twirl-to, but those who were into Friday seemed like they could care less what the detractors had to say.
(The band has rmade the show available on CD and as CD-quality Apple Lossless, FLAC, and MP3 downloads, as well as higher than CD quality FLAC-HD at LivePhish.com.)
Phish Austin City Limits set list, October 8, 2010
1.Down with Disease
2. Cities
3. Possum
4. Wolfman’s Brother
5. Chalk Dust Torture
6. Rock and Roll
7. 2001
8. Backwards Down the Number Line
9. Harry Hood
10. Light
11. Suzy Greenberg
12. You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Cavern, First Tube
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ACL scene report: The Sword
The diversity of Friday’s lineup was on full display in the afternoon when a crowd of metal fans began to gather on the lawn in front of the Zync stage to wait for Austin’s own the Sword. Off in the distance, you could clearly hear country singer Pat Green covering U2’s “With Or Without You” while the Sword’s guitar tech ran around the stage setting up in front of amps that were stacked as tall as some of the band members who would soon be performing in front of them.
Once the band got started, I headed for the middle of the crowd, but I’m sure it was fascinating to watch the sea of headbanging and fist pumping from afar. Lead vocalist/guitarist J.D. Cronise, clad in a vintage ZZ Top T-shirt, led the band through an hour-long set covering all three of their studio albums, including “Maiden, Mother & Crone” and “The Black River” from “Gods Of The Earth” and even dug back into debut “Age Of Winters” for “Winter’s Wolves.”
I was struck by how animated Cronise, guitarist Kyle Shutt, and bassist Bryan Richie are in comparison to the almost stoic nature of drummer Trivett Wingo, who fiercely propels the band’s brutal riffs forward.
The audience seemed to respond the strongest to tracks off their latest album, “Warp Riders.” A few attempts at crowd surfing were quickly squashed by security, but they didn’t seem to interfere with the mosh pit that formed toward the front of the stage. I was surrounded by fans who were singing along to every word, a good indicator of how this city has embraced the band. The set-closer “(The Night The Sky Cried) Tears Of Fire” is also the closing track on the new album. As the crowd began to clear away, the stagehands started to get ready for yet another example of the festival lineup’s diversity: The Sword’s gear was rolled away to make room for Vampire Weekend.
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Lonesome Dove comes to ACL backstage
Celebrity chef Tim Love of Fort Worth’s Lonesome Dove Western Bistro roasted two pigs on a spit for C3’s executive staff and their guests Wednesday night. The “urban western” cuisine master will prepare different dishes each night, as well as oversee the food court, where his Love Shack burgers had long lines all day and sold out at about 7:30 p.m.
Love became part of ACL last year when he catered for Pearl Jam and sold 12,000 burgers at Love Shack. C3’s Charlie Jones says he personally invited Love after eating at Lonesome Dove two years ago. “I was up in Fort Worth, working on a (motocross) event with Red Bull and I had some time to kill, so I went to Lonesome Dove to eat,” Jones said. “It was the best meal I’ve ever had.”
A native of Denton, Love says he’s been looking for a location in Austin to open a new restaurant. He first achieved national recognition when he won an “Iron Chef” battle in 2006.
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ACL 2010 review: the Strokes
It was tough to go within five blocks of Stubb’s Wednesday night without overhearing the grumblings of a disgruntled Strokes fan. After everybody’s favorite New York City rock and roll revivalists blew through a 45-minute-or-so set of material spanning their three albums — but only after taking the stage sans opening act more than 2 hours after doors opened — even many of the quintet’s most devout fans seemed a little perturbed.
Of course, the Strokes have always had a lightning-quick approach to their live show, rarely playing a gig over an hour. But even the snappiest, best-delivered, most timelessly catchy nuggets of garage rock can be disappointing when you’ve dropped $65 for less than an hour’s entertainment.
So it was understandable to walk into the Strokes’ Friday night set with a reservation or two — but, mercifully, a headlining set at a major festival where the audience has already spent all day devouring music carries different expectations. So the Strokes’ set — yes, short at just under an hour, and like all of the band’s performances this year a greatest-hits run-through with no new music — needed to be less a mind-shattering individual show and more a fun culmination of the opening day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. And by that rubric, singer Julian Casablancas and the boys succeeded.
Waltzing onto the stage looking every bit the all-too-imitable picture of New York cool, clad in skinny jeans and sunglasses (“I can’t see (expletive) because like an (expletive) I wear sunglasses at night”), Casablancas immediately grabbed the microphone to launch into the properly anthemic “Is This It.” It was an apropos choice for an opener, as the title and debut track off the album that would endear the Strokes to a generation of music fans with its tightly coiled grooves and sly lyricism.
Backed by an elaborate and impressive LED display (which most enjoyably mimicked “Space Invaders” gameplay during the nostalgic “Someday”), Casablancas preceded to grip that microphone for dear life for most of the rest of the show. He ripped through fan favorites culled from all three Strokes records with an emphasis on “Is This It,” interspersed with glib self-deprecating banter (“Money can’t buy you love, but it can help find you love. Now that I have money girls are coming out of the woodwork.”)
The unrushed note-perfect drumming of Fabrizio Moretti and memorable guitar solos from Nick Valensi further enriched a set that found the Strokes reasonably focused, from the giddy heights of “Someday” to “Room On Fire” deep cut “Under Control,” as close as anything the Strokes have ever recorded to a ballad. After spurning the quaint notion of an encore (“We know we’re supposed to go off-stage and do a fake encore but (expletive) that, we’re just going to keep playing,” said Casablancas) the band grew looser and more enjoyable still, ending with a buoyant send-off in “Take It or Leave It.”
As engaged — and quite possibly moreso — than the band was its audience, a massive throng that cathartically clapped along on “Reptilia” and crooned out every last note on “Last Nite.” If anybody needed any evidence that the Strokes indeed left a genuine legacy with “Is This It,” that they recorded the perfect high school music to drink to, to fall into and out of love to, to chill out with in your parents’ basement, it was all over the crowd. Nothing like seeing an audience rich with high schoolers, some quite tipsy, who may well have been in the second grade when “Is This It” was first released (for people of a certain age, this is a scary thought) to confirm what I’d long suspected: all those music critics who called “Is This It” timeless nine years ago were pretty spot-on.
Set list Is This It Hard to Explain You Only Live Once Someday Under Control Juicebox Trying Your Luck Evening Sun Reptilia Last Nite New York City Cops
Encore (of sorts) Vision of Division Between Love & Hate Take It Or Leave It
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ACL 2010 review: the Black Keys
When the garage blues duo the Black Keys last played the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2008, on the heels of the release of the Danger Mouse-produced fifth album “Attack and Release,” they played lead single “Strange Times” with clockwork precision. It was an almost perfect reproduction of the studio version of the hard-charging gem.
Two years later, when they again unleashed “Strange Times” on the ACL Fest crowd, as the second song in their massively anticipated and attended afternoon slot at the AMD stage, the sound was different — sloppier, faster and a whole lot more fun. It was only the second in a thirteen-song set, following the title track of second album “Thickfreakness.”
Which proves that while the Black Keys may be smack-dab in the middle of blowing up — “Tighten Up,” off this year’s “Brothers,” is nearly inescapable and the album itself is the duo’s best-selling yet — they’re not letting that success go to their head. Guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney are still able to keep it raw and real when called for, which is nearly all the time, a fact appreciated at the AMD stage as the duo played a too-early set for an appreciative crowd.
Auerbach can still bring the growl like few contemporary rock vocalists, roaring on “Your Touch,” a highlight off fourth album “Magic Potion.” But he’s growing as a singer all the time — just check out those highs he hits on “Everlasting Light,” an earner of many a mid-afternoon head-bob in Zilker Park. Looking svelte and recently beard-trimmed, he cut an equally impressive figure as a guitarist, cutting loose in a controlled fury on closer “I Got Mine.” It would have been easy and understandable for the Black Keys to pull their whole set from “Brothers,” but the occasional foray into deep cuts from albums past was a pleasant surprise for the band’s longtime fans.
And Patrick Carney remains, as always, a rhythmic hurricane, given to losing his glasses no more than three songs into any given show, disappearing into a flurry of limbs on “Tighten Up” — which had much the same effect on the audience, which buzzed with gratitude when Auerbach whistled its first few notes.
As ever, the Keys remain a meat-and-potatoes band, more skill than sizzle, and though they generate a tremendous amount of noise and muscle for two players — well, generally; they were occasionally joined by a keyboard player and bassist for their ACL Fest set — there can be periodic moments of flatness. But under a toasty October sun, their summer-drenched electric blues-rock — and they’re one of the few bands that’s an insult to neither genre — was just what the afternoon called for.
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ACL 2010 Review: the Soft Pack
You have to wonder if Los Angeles quartet the Soft Pack ever consider hanging up their guitars from November through February or so, so quintessentially are they the perfect summer band.
There’s little — okay, nothing — unique in the Soft Pack’s modus operandi. They specialize in spare garage rock with a dash of surf rock vibes, like a more polite and slightly more hi-fi version of fellow ACL performers the Black Lips. But Matty McLoughlin’s perfect guitar licks and Matt Lamkin’s just-disaffected-enough voice hit all the right notes. The Soft Pack aren’t revolutionary, but they sounded tight and — refreshingly — genuinely excited for their 1 p.m. Austin City Limits Music Festival show.
Not that there was much in the way of banter or antics to back that up — Lamkin and company spent much of the show surprisingly stationary. Only McLoughlin moved much on-stage, and the band rarely spoke. But spurning showiness doesn’t necessarily mean spurning the show — the band’s enthusiasm was evident in the music, with a set list drawn primarily from the band’s self-titled debut, released earlier this year on Kemado Records.
Single “Answer to Yourself” galloped along with verve, while drummer Brian Hill’s clockwork beat kept the pace for a set that rocketed along — they’d played five songs by 13 minutes into the show. Hill promoted foot taps from the good-times anthem “C’Mon” to the stripped-down “Extinction.” And what Texan wouldn’t enjoy “Pull Out,” a satirical call for California seccession that doesn’t actually contain the word “California,” making it very easy to repurpose for the Lone Star State (“Draw your own map/Print your own cash/Put up the fence,” croons Lamkin in the song, which could be an anthem for reactionary Texans everywhere if it weren’t so cheeky).
Straightforward rock? Unquestionably. But also a fair sight more endearing than you’d think. And while the Soft Pack may not be the most showy band in the festival, they walked off after 50 minutes covered in sweat — proof positive that they were working hard up there.
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ACL scene report: Vampire Weekend
When I interviewed Chris Baio and Chris Thompson, collectively the rhythm section from Vampire Weekend, in the afternoon before their Friday gig at ACL Fest, Thompson remarked that with a catchy melody it’s possible to make highly intelligent music widely accessible.
I thought about this as the band launched into its 7 p.m. set with a couple ridiculously catchy pop tunes from their 2010 release “Contra.” The songs were “Holiday” and “White Sky,” and as the sun dipped behind the horizon and beach balls bounced easily over the crowd of thousands, the African-influenced cascading guitars and vocal hooks felt absolutely, beautifully in place — even if I don’t fully understand the lyrics.
The crowd at the Vampire Weekend set was a mixed group, predictably dominated by a collegiate set but also consisting of a surprising amount of 30-somethings with small children balanced on their shoulders. Crafted by unapologetically preppy East Coast intellectuals, Vampire Weekend’s music comes off as clean-cut and charming. Civilized. Which also, I suppose, makes it pretty kid-friendly.
The set itself was a mixture of tunes from the band’s two albums, well-executed and generally well-received. Crowd-pleasers included an amped up version of “California English,” a rollicking version of “Cousins” enhanced by strobe-like light flashes, and the cerebral yet danceable “Oxford Comma.” Less popular was Ezra Koenig’s soft falsetto croon on the new album’s slow-paced (sort of) title track “I Think Ur a Contra,” which inspired more people to chat amongst themselves than to pull out the lighter function on the ACL Fest smartphone app.
After a spirited rendition of “Horchata,” Koenig remarked that he always loves to play that song in a place that used to be part of Mexico — and before closing the set, he remarked that the band would not be back in Texas for a while as they plan to head back into the studio. “But I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up our year than here at Austin City Limits,” he said. Then the band played a fine rendition of “Walcott” to a crowd that split between diehard fans and deserters rushing to catch Phish or the Strokes.
Overall, it was a solid set. Fun. But coming immediately after a mind-blowing performance by Nortec Collective, it felt a little anti-climatic.
Jack Plunkett photo / ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ACL review: Nortec Collective
Nortec Collective’s Bostitch and Fussible presided over the Tijuana-based group’s electrifying evening set standing in front an elaborate audio control center that wouldn’t look at all out of place in Bruce Wayne’s basement.
Working the monstrous sound machine remotely with iPads in hand, the two producers pummeled the Clear tent crowd with the kind of wicked rhythmic pulsations that sneak into the body somewhere near the base of the spine and proceed to demand full physical submission. Bootys must shake. Hands must be raised. An entire crowd must jump, jump, jump in unison.
It’s that kind of party.
The term “Nortec” references a fusion of Northern Mexican Norteno music and techo, and Bostitch and Fussible recruit top-notch players of the traditional form to tour with the group. Consequently, while the electro beats drove the grooves forward, furious trumpet flourishes traded the spotlight with manic acoustic guitar strums, a wayward tuba and the meanest squeezebox you’ll ever meet. It’s mad scientist conjunto, traditional border sounds flipped, reprocessed, and reborn as something dark and edgy, raw and irresistible.
The audience, a large portion of which had never heard of the group, was rapt, crowding the front of the stage, spilling out of the tent. No one was sitting down. No one was standing still. The sun was still out while the group threw down, but the energy and reckless abandon of the crowd created the vibe of a happening night spot an hour past closing time. It was that kind of party.
Photo: Nortec Collective’s Fussible shows off the custom designed iPad app he uses to power the band’s set. Jenni Jones AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: Girls
To paraphrase the ground-breaking American philosopher Mr. T, I pity the fool who has to follow the Mountain Goats at ACL.
Girls (the San Francisco band, not the gender) had to follow the Mountain Goats by about 30 seconds, their set starting on the Zinc stage directly after the Mountain Goats completed theirs. And while it was tough not to admire the sheers ’80s-ness of singer/guitarist Christopher Owens’ sideburn-free hair cut (New Order’s Bernard Sumner would be proud) it was hard for them to gain all that much traction.
Plagued with sound problems at the top of the set, their civilized indie pop felt a dicey fit with an afternoon festival slot. Owens strummed his Rickenbacker at roughly nipple-height on his chest, looking (and often sounding) for all the world like a fellow in a Smiths cover band. Their energy was low, which forced their detailed songcraft into the background. Or perhaps they are like that all the time. Either way, All but the most devout fans looked a little bored and it was tough to blame them. Not the best set of the day.
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ACL review: The Mountain Goats
The Budweiser stage at the Austin City Limits Music Festival is the biggest stage I’ve ever seen Mountain Goats singer/songwriter/ embodiment John Darnielle on. It might be the biggest stage anyone in the audience had ever seen him on.
But if he’s played a lot of those European festivals, it’s probably not the biggest one he’s ever been on, which might be why he and his rhythm section straight-up owned it Friday afternoon.
Darnielle is well known as a stellar lyricist, his songs profoundly specific vignettes, usually detailing victims rather than victors, awkward situations rather than assertive ones. But there is a feeling of victory in every line, largely stemming from his amazing vocal yelp, a furious assertion of the triumph of simply getting through the day in difficult circumstances. Aas he says in “This Year,” “I will make it through this year if it kills me.”
Decked out in a green sports jacket and black pants while barefoot, strumming (almost hammering) an acoustic guitar here and playing a keyboard there, Darnielle was joined by longtime bassist Peter Hughes and Superchuck drummer Jon Wurster, both of whom lent his songs a vibrant bounce, Hughes’s melodic bass lines often doing the driving. Tunes such as “Psalms 40:2” (“Left that place in ruin/ drunk on the Spirit and high on fumes”) and “Your Belgian Things” (“The men were here to get your Belgian things/ They’ll spend the whole day hauling them downstairs/ I shot a roll of thirty-two exposures/ My camera groans beneath the weight it bears”) bounced and rolled with Darnielle’s energy.
He engaged the crowd beautifully, responding to requests (“Dude who is yelling ‘Going to Georgia,’ I have heard your cry”) trying to clarify who he was to those who were there for the other bands and noting that one solo tune he hadn’t played for awhile and might flame out on. (The song was “Source Decay,” which opened with “Once a week/ I make the drive/ two hours east/ to check the Austin post office box,” he did flame out and was bailed out by the devout in the crowd who shouted the words at him until he got the thread back.) He acted like the masses were simply some pals in a club.
By the time he closed with “House Guest,” jumping around, singing sans guitar to nothing but the rhythm section, well, if there were people in the crowd who didn’t feel like one of those pals, you could make a pretty good case that they were missing a bone in their souls.
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ACL review: Sonic Youth
Nobody could accuse Sonic Youth of resting on their laurels, especially not after their latest release, “The Eternal,” which marked their debut on indie label Matador. The band opened their set on the Honda stage with one of the best numbers from the enthralling 2009 album, “Sacred Trickster,” and played the full hour with the emotional force of a brand-new band touring behind their first album and trying to make a memorable impact. At the same time, they possessed the easy assurance of veterans approaching the three-decade mark.
With second bassist Mark Ibold (of Pavement fame) in the lineup, and drummer Steve Shelley providing propulsive yet surprisingly nuanced pummeling, Sonic Youth had more thrust than ever, and guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore and bassist-guitarist Kim Gordon were free to explore vast fields of dissonance with no fear of losing direction. Moore smooshed his guitar into the top of an amplifier, leaning against it until it apparently surrendered, and a tech brought him another. He and Gordon tortured their strings with what looked like files, suitable for use in a prison break, and Ranaldo bowed his guitar, sending swaths of strange harmonics into the night air.
On another terrific new song, “Antenna,” the rhythm guitar had a melodic, metallic clang, and Moore ground away at his whammy bar while the rhythms grew progressively more violent. “Anti-Orgasm,” also from “The Eternal”, showed the group’s sense of humor, with a vocal chorus of grunts that later recurred as something more martial than sensual, and menacing sheets of dissonance that grew more vast, but didn’t reach for any kind of climax. Throughout, Ranaldo, Moore and Gordon sculpted noise into fascinating forms, creating a fascinating morass from which vocals seemed to emerge almost by accident before getting subsumed again.
At the start of the set, the back of the crowd was full of people texting, consulting programs, gossiping and debating where to go next, but by the time the sun had set, that contingent had melted away, and the audience pressing in toward the stage was held rapt by the ever-shifting aural textures. When the beautiful noise finally stopped and the band said good night, people stood looking a little dazed before turning to find their way in the darkness.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: Robert Randolph
The best set I will ever see at ACL Fest was Robert Randolph and the Family Band in year one, 2002. I will never again feel that way during a set at Zilker, just as I knew, ten minutes into a Bob Marley and the Wailers show in 1979, that I would never see a better concert.
If anything, I know my level of ecstasy.
Friday night, Robert Randolph reminded me what is so special about his sacred steel sound. But only for about 20 minutes. I don’t know the name of the instrumental he played at the midpoint, but it levitated the crowd.
It brought back memories of Sept. 2002, when a young girl of about 13 danced by herself behind the drummer. When Charles Attal, who books ACL, stood with his parents, who looked out over the sea of delirious music fans and knew their boy, this former guitarist of Clown Meat, had found his calling.
The problem with Randolph, the Carmelo Anthony of rock, is that he tries to expand his appeal, when playing it Pentecostal is really what he is. The funk stuff, the jammy stuff, it’s allright, but really nothing special. But when he plugs into his soul, music takes flight. At times, he was other-worldly..
I don’t think I’ll have a better moment all weekend. No, I’m sure of it.
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ACL review: Qbeta
A hot and fruitless trudge around the park in a vain quest for ice coffee put me in a foul mood, but Sicilian ensemble Qbeta immediately yanked me out of it. Led by singer-guitarist Peppe Cubeta, the eight-piece Sicilian ensemble was like a quadruple shot of espresso. They had even the chair people in the Clear 4G tent up on their feet and dancing.
Backed by a three-piece horn section, a phenomenal rhythm section, and wildly versatile guitarist Seby Forte, Cubeta radiated charisma, although the goateed singer in his black fedora looked more like a philosophy professor than a rock star, and was equally likely to emote like an opera baritone, arms stretched skyward, as to unspool a rapid-fire dancehall-reggae rap, or croon gently. Qbeta’s style, definable only by the inadequate word “eclectic,” crazily mixes traditional Mediterranean influences, ska, flamenco, funk, mambo, and a host of other genres, segueing seamlessly between them or recombining them, mostly at a rapid pace, although the group never maintained a single tempo for very long. They executed tricky dynamic shifts effortlessly, keeping fans engaged as they tried to find the right dance moves to match a new polyrhythm.
While Cubeta easily claimed the spotlight, all the band members were fascinating to watch. Forti threw himself around his part of the stage as he played, and bassist Santi Romano, grinning happily, must have made eye contact with almost every single person in the immediate vicinity of the stage. Gray-haired drummer Salvo Cubeta (brother of Peppe) was Gene Krupa one minute, and the next he and Romano were locking in a ska-funk rhythm that made you think people would start stage-diving as if they were at a Fishbone concert. When the band members started jumping up and down, nobody had to tell the crowd to do likewise.
Qbeta has terrific songs, too, including the irresistible mambo-and-then-some “Voglio Vivere Cosi” and metal-ska “Ognittanto.” The crowd gave them a rapturous round of applause as they ended their performance with a group bow at the front of the stage, and every band member smiled ear to ear.
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ACL review: Angus and Julia Stone
Sometimes in the festival business, like in the restaurant business, everything depends on location, location, location. The Australian brother-and-sister duo of Angus and Julia Stone might have had occasion to reflect on that maxim during their set at the Austin Ventures Stage on Friday afternoon.
With an acoustic-based songwriting style that might be described as “pastoral” (think “Harvest”-era Neil Young, or Fairport Convention), the duo has an undeniably al fresco appeal. Unfortunately, sound-bleed from the surrounding big stages made sonic goulash out of some of their quieter material.
Which was a shame, because in their native country, the Sydney natives are bonafide Big Deals. Angus, the possessor of a high and supple tenor voice, merges eerily well vocally with his sister. For her part, Julia, whose own voice has echoes of Sandy Denny and Norah Jones, hopped from instrument to instrument onstage, eventually taking star turns on acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, trumpet and keyboards. She particularly shone during the quirkily listenable “Private Lawns” and the single “Big Jet Plane.”
It was the kind of set where a mention of getting wasted got a predictable rise from the crowd (“Yay!”), whereupon Julia elaborated that she meant “wasted on love” (“Boo!”)—relaxing and melodic, without being cloying.
Possibly out of self-defense, the duo plugged in and turned up during the last third of their set, bringing many of the seated listeners to their feet for an edgy turn on “Yellow Brick Road,” a convoluted, high-octane Crazy-Horse-style instrumental and the set-closing rocker “And the Boys.”
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ACL scene report: Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel
Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson on opening the Austin City Limits Music Festival every year:
“They said, ‘(Asleep at the Wheel) did the first ‘Austin City Limits’ (television) show, so you’re gonna play the first slot every year.’ And I went,‘Deal.’ They like it, and I like it. (Normally at a festival), you want to be on when the lights are out, but this is different. What’s cool about it is that people are fresh, and they ain’t heard a note of music. They’re like, ‘All right! We’re here, and the grass is green and there’s no mud!’”
“The tradition of it is really touching to me. I’ve been on the ‘Austin City Limits’ (television) show 10, 11, 12 times. The festival is not as rootsy as I’d like, but I ain’t booking it. They draw the crowds. They’re doing something right, is all I know. People here are appreciative music fans.”
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Four Seasons and KUT raise thousands for cancer
Hundreds showed up early this morning to see Spoon and Robert Randolph rock the lawn at the Four Seasons. (Read Michael Corcoran’s report here.)
I spoke with Kerri Holden, director of public relations at the luxury hotel, who told me that the event raise $4,625 for the Seton Shivers Cancer Center. Holden said the total quadrupled what they raised in 2008 over two days.
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Video: Live ACL updates at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Austin360.com has 20+ staffers working to bring you the most comprehensive ACL Fest coverage on the web. Stop by Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 5:30 p.m. for a live video update from Zilker Park featuring previews, reviews and live interviews with artists.
Get a (low-budget) sneak peek here. (With stick figures!!!)
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Surprise guests, pretty flowers, PB&J and lots of people
Even though their trippy, reflective silver masks and thumping beats are definitely more fit for a late-night show at a club, Swedish band Miike Snow (yes, it’s a band of dudes and none is named Miike) had what looked to be the biggest crowd of the early afternoon pretty lathered up at the Honda stage. It was the biggest, most excited crowd I’ve seen so early on a Friday.
It was my first time to view an ACL set from the stage, and I say that only to mention that seeing the mass of fans bobbing, swaying and singing along is really a cool site. Obviously the sound is better down in front of the stage, though the claustrophobia-inducing moments are much fewer behind the speakers. The view from the back did allow me a glimpse of Ezra Koenig before the Vampire Weekend frontman took the stage with Miike Snow for a rousing, upbeat rendition of VW’s “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.”
Speaking of the massive crowd, I’ve never seen so many people at the festival so early on a Friday afternoon. I don’t know whether it can be chalked up to the early acts, the less-than-brutal temperatures or the extra tickets sold this year, but I believe it’s likely a combination of temps and tickets.
Leaving Miike Snow, I checked out some of Girls at the Zync stage. Unfortunately for Girls (all dudes, by the way), it seems the whole park was over at Miike Snow. I will give a tip of the cap to the guys from Girls for the coolest stage accoutrements. The drummer and keyboard players both featured beautiful bunches of roses wrapped around their mic stands.
What’s with the PB&J, you ask? A friend offered me a bite of a peanut butter and jelly Larabar. Maybe I was just starving … but it was damn good.
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ACL review: Pat Green
Although the unhip collegiate country rock showboat, might seem out of place in this Pitchfork-approved lineup, there might not have been a second (and ninth) year of ACL if Pat Green didn’t play the first one. Back in 2002, Green was a phenomenon, with his first-night co-headlining slot played out to a sea of about 20,000 people who had come mainly to see him.
Friday afternoon at Zilker, Green played one of the two biggest stages to a crowd of only about 5,000, while the Black Keys’ audience was the ninth biggest city in Texas for about an hour. But Green, who has been on more labels than the words “dry clean only,” set out to prove he’s still vital and succeeded somewhat, though such songs as “Footsteps of Our Fathers” and “Take Me Out To a Dancehall” sounded a bit corny in this setting. His show was 95% Mellancamp and 5% Merle.
The set-ending cover of U2’s “With Or Without Me” was a crowd-pleaser, but none of Green’s originals could match the energy. Once a headliner, Green is currently relegated to the “something for everybody” file.
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ACL scene report: Play ball!
In previous years, when the fest happened in September, the massive tent in the middle of the festival grounds has always been swarmed on weekends with many seeking relief from the heat and many more looking to catch a little football. You could always count on seeing a load of SEC fans hanging out on Saturday trying to catch a glimpse of their Bulldogs or Tigers, with Sundays reserved for pro football, usually Cowboys fans.
This year, with the festival happening in the second week of October, there is a new game turning heads. Walking around the festival one notices a lot more Major League Baseball hats, specifically those representing teams in the playoffs, which started earlier in the week. I have to say I have never seen so many Texas Rangers hats in my life. Here is where I would accuse the folks I’ve seen today of being hardcore bandwagon-jumpers, but, keeping in the spirit of the festival, I’m in a kind-hearted mood. In addition to Rangers hats, I’ve seen a lot of Twins and Phillies hats. At 4 p.m., there were a handful of Phillies fans lingering around the TV tent in anticipation of the 5:07 p.m. first pitch in game two of the NLDS. It seems fitting to see America’s pasttime get some love in this pastoral setting. (Also, go Astros.)
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ACL scene report: No Phish phreakout … yet
When it was announced that Vermont jam band Phish would be playing the fest, many assumed the park would be crawling with thousands of hippies, the south side of Zilker park would turn into a full-on Phish lot scene with drum circles and patchouli, and that mangy dogs would be bathing in Barton Springs.
Well, as of 3 p.m. this afternoon, the scene at the Budweiser stage on the east end of the park was as calm as it has been any other year. If you were so inclined, you could walk all the way up to the stage and camp out and wait for Trey and the gang.
All of which is not to say that there haven’t been a few more hippie sightings than in years past. I’ve seen a little more tied-dye and skirts fit for twirling than before, but certainly there has been no serious takeover by the phanatics.
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ACL review: Kings Go Forth
ACL has never been this hyped this early. At three in the afternoon, you had the Clear 4G tent packed in anticipation of Kings Go Forth, while Swedish techo-rockers Miike Snow had what seemed to be 30,000 kids jumping up and down to the beat.
Milwaukee’s nouveau soul band Kings Go Forth no longer has the element of surprise: folks are expecting them to blow the roof off. But the band’s weakness- fresh songwriting- became apparent four songs into the set when every blaxploitation film score had already been remined. KGF has been together less than three years and should beef up their reprtoire in the years to come.
It’s telling of the band that its conga player, Cecilio Negron Jr., proved to be its MVP. He kept the groove tight for 50 minutes. But on this afternoon, KGF was a band to sample and enjoy and move on. By the time they closed with a wild, dance-inducing “Wade In the Water,” a once-packed tent showed some bare spots.
Miike Snow had to be the first spectacular set of this year’s ACL, though it’s climax fizzled when the mechanical pulse of “Animal” cut out just as the crowd was about to lose its collective mind. Looking out at the crowd, however, they looked to be the headliners of the entire fest, not some afternoon delight.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL scene report: New to the fest: Hope Market
Just to the west of the food vendors this year is a new addition to the fest, the Hope Farmers Market. The market, which runs on Sundays at the Pine Street Station in East Austin is part of the national non-profit group H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everywhere).
At this year’s fest, the market is split into two groups: food vendors and artists. All local, the food vendors include Salt + Time, Royal Indian Foods, Cafe Mundi and more. The artists area features vintage cowboy boots, t-shirts, bags, recycled personal products, art work and more.
I spoke with Hope Market manager Greg Esparza who said the idea of the booths is “tooffer a local and fresh option and give patrons of the fest the opportunity to support and learn more about local farmers and artists.”
Check out the fest’s newcomer each day until 8 p.m.
(Full disclosure: My girlfriend is part of the artist’s market at Hope.)
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ACL review: Chief
Los Angeles quartet Chief is a great band for a sunny afternoon — if you want to lie down and take a nap.
The group’s warm-up was promising. They showed a little personality by getting some of those obligatory “AUSTIN, TEXAS!!!!!!!” shouts out of the way while checking sound levels. Then they launched into a song, playing quite a few bars before coming to a halt and joking “Psyched you out! That was just our warm-up.”
The opening number “Mighty Proud” was fairly encouraging, too, with strong four-part harmonies and a Crosby Stills & Nash (but definitely no Young) vibe. However, most of the songs were in pretty much the same vein, no matter which of the two guitarists, Evan Koga and Danny Fujikawa, happened to be singing lead. Periodically, they ventured out of ’70s soft-rock territory into a chimey ’80s sound reminiscent of the Church, but the energy level never shifted.
A good cover song is usually a safe bet to liven things up, but Chief’s version of Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” was so anemic, they might as well have played something by Firefall or somebody else closer to their own safety zone. When they sped up the final verse, it was hard to tell if they were attempting to generate excitement, or had just realized the set was running long.
The vocal harmonies were pretty throughout, but when the four members sang over just guitar backing, the singers dragged a bit. The arrangements throughout lacked imagination, and the rhythm section was stolid, so by their last song, “Night and Day” (definitely not likely to be confused with the Cole Porter song), the effect was of complete stasis.
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ACL review: Those Darlins
Imagine the Dixie Chicks with death-dealing hangovers, attitude to burn and a serious Black Lips fetish and you have some idea of what Those Darlins brought to the table at the Austin Ventures Stage Friday afternoon.
Coming off a country-flavored debut last year, the Murfreesboro quintet (spearheaded by Kelley, Jessi and Nikki “Darlin”) has, over time, skewed closer to a punk/garage/Southern Rock aesthetic. Call it “Even Cowgurls Get the Blues.”
Shredding guitars and three-part harmonies might not seem like the most fruitful musical alliance, but the three frontwomen made the most of the juxtaposition, especially in the Patsy Cline-meets-Patti Smith rocker “Wild One,” and the countryesque train song “Cannonball Blues.”
Ribald, punky and firmly irreverent, the three Darlins put a distaff stamp on macho swagger and guitar machismo. It was a refreshing, fun and revitalizing change of gender roles that endeared them to both sexes.
With an array of new material (including their sassy new single “Night Jogger,” in which the girls ask mockingly, “What you runnin’ from?”), Those Darlins want to put a harder edge on the “girl group” equation. Southern women, Kelley, Jessi and Nikki are saying, will rise again.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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Scene report: Paul Oakenfold at Austin Music Hall
Writing about electronic music events for a recovering rock hack like me is about as tough a transition as a baseball writer taking on professional wrestling or mixed martial arts. It’s a completely different paradigm that takes someone with a specialized skill set to do well, which is why wrestling/UFC expert Dave Meltzer is probably the best sports writer you’ve never heard of. If
Who knows if there’s there’s a Meltzer-level scribe covering the DJ world, but if I’m sure of one thing it’s that I ain’t it. Still, there I was Thursday night at Austin Music Hall, where superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold was holding forth on the second night of high-profile shows leading up to the start of ACL Fest today. Some bullet point thoughts and observations:
A night that was originally supposed to feature mucho-buzzy South African glitchy rap act Die Antwoord as openers might’ve actually benefited from them dropping off the bill last month in favor of their own tour to support the new “$O$”. The result was a straight-ahead turntables and laptops night of DJ music (with local openers Toddy B and Jason Jenkins) that was right in the wheelhouse of the fashionable party-going crowd, most of whom would’ve scratched their heads during the bulk of Die Antwoord’s in-your-face show.
All I’ve ever heard since I moved to town a couple years ago was how lacking Austin Music Hall is as a venue, which caused me to stay away until this show. And I’ll give you that it’s got next to nothing going on in the way of aesthetics. But as a home for dance-athons and artists like Oakenfold it’s pretty close to perfect; wide open for dancing, great stage and production capacity for the visual effects you need for a show like that to go off well, and a respectable balcony with good sight lines to get away from the masses. When the new Austin City Limits theater opens next year and more than likely sucks the theater-level live acts from AMH, booking DJs like Oakenfold are where it can stay relevant and create a niche.
Who knows if they were contraband or if I was just in the wrong spot, but the crowd was pretty bereft of neon glow sticks and dancers waving them around that (cliche or not) add some nice visual flavor and people watching over the course of several hours of dancing. While visiting big DJ nights at Travis County Expo Center and elsewhere around town earlier this year for a story about the resurgence of the genre locally, you couldn’t go two feet without someone waving them in your face. Here though, next to nada.
As for Oakenfold, there’s not much new to say beyond that the guy knows how to build pulsing piles of beats, bass and stitches of pop music samples (including Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “By The Way” in a kinda gutsy move that of course paid off) into huge crescendos that make it pretty impossible to stand still. He’s one of the best in the world at what he does, as the cheering, surging crowd on Thursday night confirmed again and again. Or as one of my companions for the night later Twittered: “Rarely in life do you get to dance so idiotically in such a public place.” Yup.
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The wealthiest musician playing ACL is …
… not Don Henley or any other member of the Eagles. It’s Jim Dolan, who owns the New York Knicks, Cablevision and Madison Square Garden- but not in that order. Dolan’s band JD and the Straight Shot play the BMI stage Sunday at 1:40 p.m.
Not surprisingly, there’s no mention of Dolan’s day job in the ACL program.
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ACL scene report: Code enforcement keeps eye on ACL vendors
Code enforcement officials said that as of Friday afternoon, they hadn’t found a single vendor operating without a permit near the Austin City Limits music festival.
For the second consecutive year, the city is cracking down on selling or setting up stages without permits along Barton Springs Road and other main streets near Zilker Park, where the festival is held. On Friday, every vendor approached by enforcement officials had the required permits, said Melissa Martinez, division manager for the city’s code compliance department. Last year, officials shut down a number of vendors who were operating without permits and issued one citation, Martinez said.
“This is our second year walking the perimeter, and it appears the educational messaging has worked. It appears the businesses have gotten the message,” Martinez said. “Compliance is our goal, and looks like we’re getting there.”
The compliance checks, which will continue through the weekend, are being conducted by the Public Assembly Code Enforcement team, Martinez said. The team is a consortium that includes officials from the city’s fire, police and code compliance departments and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Texas Department of Public Safety.
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ACL scene report: Noon Friday at ACL
So it begins and let’s not kid ourselves: One should never underestimate the power of nice weather.
It’s the one thing in the ACL experience that nobody can control — not the bands, not the promoters, not the fine people selling straw cowboy hats. It can make or break an ACL experience.
Folks, if this is your first time at ACL, listen up: This is as nice as it has ever been. Temps in the 80s and clear skies beats torrential rain (last year) and blistering heat (pretty much every other year). This is a golden age, ladies and gents, Soak up the sun (safely, of course).
On the Honda stage, Givers rocked remarkably hard for folks awake at 11:45, while Two Tons of Steel delivered Texas honky tonk to a loyal gathering at the BMI stage. The latter’s proximity to big shade trees (along with the Austin Ventures stage) make it a prime spot for the “chair people,” who bolted in as soon as the gates opened at 11 to stake out their spots.
The retail area was doing a brisk trade in hats of all sorts as fans realized that the temps may be glorious, but the sky was cloudless and the sun wasn’t going anywhere.
Things can seem a little tense on the first day — many of the W3 security folks seem like they’re auditioning for something — but everyone always seems mellower by Saturday.
For Twitter fans, the hashtags seem to be #acl and #aclfestival .
One note from @texeyes :” if u ride Yellow Cab to fest they drop u off at Zilker Park Kiddie train station - short walk in”
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ACL scene report: tickets, parking
Three-day wristbands are going for $200 and they seem in abundance. Wonder how much of the 75,000 ticket sellout went to scalpers? A couple of fans were seen trying to unload single day tix for face value of $85.
Shady Grove and Baby A’s on Barton Springs Road are renting parking spaces for $30. But Chuy’s, which is about a block closer is charging $25.
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ACL review: Sahara Smith
“Precocious” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but consider this: When the ACL Festival debuted in 2002, Sahara Smith was 12 years old. What a difference nine years (and a T-Bone Burnett-helmed debut album) make. Smith, a willowy 21-year-old singer/songwriter from the nearby town of Wimberley, was making her return To Austin after a summer opening shows for Raul Malo and promoting her own album, “Myth of the Heart.”
That exposure has paid dividends, to judge by her early-morning set on Friday at the Austin Ventures Stage. Those who have seen her hometown gigs before were privy to a more polished and confident performer than they have witnessed in the past. Getting a surprising punch out of her minimalist three-piece outfit (Jake Owens on guitar, Will Sexton on guitar and bass, and Mike Meadowns on a small trap kit), Smith was free to let her malleable, elastic voice slide between falsetto and lower registers, often in the same tune.
From the languid opener “Midnight Train” to the easy-rocking country groove of “Tin Man Town” to the erotic bluesy-rocker “The Real Thing” (with its inexplicably wonderful line, “Why don’t we drive all night and wake up in Laredo?”), Smith covered a lot of stylistic territory while threading the eight-song set together with seemingly cool ease. Juxtaposed against Owens’ spiky, crunchy electric guitar, Smith’s vocals sometimes seemed to float off into the air like sonic meringue (as in “Angel”), but she soon returned to earth. If she continues to mature as an artist at this rate, her future seems assured.
Updated to correct who Smith was opening for this summer.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: JJ Grey and Mofro
My first truly musical moment at ACL — when I finally found where I needed to be — was a magical one.
JJ Grey and Mofro’s set had been marred somewhat from the sound bleed of rappers Vonnegut about 200 yards away, but when they launched into the slow-building Southern rock gem “Lochloosa,” they were the only band in Zilker Park. This North Florida band (augmented by Austinites Anthony Farrell on keyboards and Andrew Trube on bass) makes good records, but they don’t do justice to Grey’s passionately soulful voice.
The seven-piece band deserved a later slot than noon Friday, but then all the press they’ve been getting, including a big piece in New York Times and a segment on NPR, came after the times were set in stone.
Much of the set, such as “King Hummingbird” and new title track “Georgia Warhorse,” kinda bubbled under, but the Boys of Simmer blew the lid off on “Orange Blossoms,” which got the crowd of about 3,000 diehards and 2,000 curious dancing to a 60’s-flavored R&B sound. “The relentless groove of “Hide and Seek,” powered by drummer Anthony Cole’s right foot, made the band come off like a swamp-raised Neville Brothers.
A great start to a music festival which is a little more musical than the rest.
Bad news for Chair People, however. The line where chairs are prohibited in front of was easily 50 yards from the Budweiser stage.
Jay Janner photo / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL scene report: Spoon at the Four Seasons
ACL Fest unoficially kicked off this morning with a decidely SXSW feel: two live radio shows open to the public featuring several of the official act: KUT live at the Four Seasons and KGSR live from Threadgill’s. Each charged a five dollar cover which went to the Seton Shivers Cancer Center.
Portland, Ore.’s Blind Pilot — a former guitar-drum duo fleshed out as a six-piece — sent out the perfect mellow vibe on the Four Seasons back lawn in front of a surprisingly smallish crowd of about 250. “Three Rounds and a Sound” was quite lovely, with a melody caressed by soft trumpet and mandolin.
Austin architect Winn Wittman was soaking it up on a morning in which he had headed off to work, heard opener Sahara Smith on KUT and ended up in the Four Seasons parking garage. “I heard Spoon was playing and it’s such a beautiful day,” said Wittman, who is bypassing ACL this year after attending in the past. “This is a great way to get a taste of ACL without battling the crowds.
By the time Spoon opened with “The Beast and Dragon Adored,” the crowd had grown considerably, but there was still room to stand about 30 yards from the group. Let’s see how close you can get this evening for the group’s official show.
Britt Daniel and the gang ended their three-song set with “I Summon You” and “Don’t You Evah.” A nice little sampler for a great cause.
“I’m meeting a client at two-thirty today” said Wittman, sipping a cocktail. “I hope this bloody Mary wears off by then.”
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ACL scene report: Sonic Youth taping at ‘ACL’ studios Thursday
Gotta love a band with a roadie who wears a white dress shirt and skinny tie. Or maybe it was an “Austin City Limits” staff member. Whatever. Some dude in a white dress shirt and skinny tie was making sure everything was just so before the kings of noise rock, Sonic Youth, stepped onto the venerable TV show’s stage.
It was weird but somehow felt right, as did the fact that a band like Sonic Youth was playing a room more commonly associated with Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and, uh, Willie Nelson. Like the show, Sonic Youth has had a long and unlikely evolution since coming together at the dawn of the ’80s, from atonal, abrasive and grating to atonal, abrasive, grating and improbably melodic. (Fun fact: “Hey Joni” from “Daydream Nation?” That’s a shout-out to Joni Mitchell, one of founding guitarist Thurston Moore’s songwriting heroes.) Everybody talks about the tricked-out guitars in this band, with their weird tunings, and sometimes played with screwdrivers or drumsticks. That’s undeniably the band’s calling card, proof that, pound for pound, no other act has done more to push the limits of the instrument since Hendrix. (It’s also the reason it’s almost a theoretical impossibility to cover a Sonic Youth song.)
But there’s great melodic beauty buoyed by all that noise, and that’s quite a trick. “Sprawl,” to pick just one song out of Thursday’s killer set, has hooks that a lot of pop songwriters would envy, gorgeous and scary at the same time, the sound of the future and dread. If Sonic Youth wrote novels instead of made albums, they’d be somewhere on the literary continuum between Williams Burroughs and Gibson. And they are breathtakingly tight, which is what happens when you’re heading into your fourth decade — !!! — playing together. (We’re not factoring in the relatively recent addition of bonus bassist Mark Ibold into the equation, but adding him gives the band even more of a whomp.)
It’s a good thing that after few more tapings the show is moving from its old home on the UT campus to new studios downtown next year because after that set, there’s a chance the building is structurally unsound. Terry Lickona told the crowd, “They’re gonna blow the roof off this place.” And just this once that wasn’t hyperbole.
As it happens it was Lickona’s birthday Thursday, as well as band manager John Silva’s, which made for an even more festive occasion, complete with the crowd singing to Lickona. Before the show Lickona mentioned “our little picnic in the park starting tomorrow,” a reference, of course, to the ACL fest in Zilker Park, where Sonic Youth is playing tonight at 7. There’s a whole bunch of bands in town this weekend, but I walked out of the studio pretty sure that the best show I’ll see this weekend was the first one.
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Scene from the airport Thursday
ACL Fest early arrivals packed the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Thursday afternoon, with Phish fans easiest to spot.
Alysa Sandoval of Los Angeles had an interesting way of counting the number of times she’s been to ACL, which starts tomorrow at Zilker Park. “Let’s see, dust, dust, mud” she said, extending three fingers, one by one. “That makes this my fourth year.” Sandoval said last year’s mud didn’t have her thinking about skipping this year. “It was a mess, but it was still fun,” she said, adding “I’ve been checking the weather forecast and it looks like it’s going to be great this year.”
The band she and her sister Angela, an Austin resident who picked her up at the airport are most looking forward to seeing are the Strokes.
The Sandovals used the ACL “Airport Wristband Redemption” table, where there was a short line. “This is a great service,” Alysa said, while Angela lugged a big suitcase from baggage claim.
The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that 25% of ACL Festgoers are from out of state.
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This is not a Strokes review: how I met Two Cow Garage
I should still be mad at The Strokes. After a couple months of anticipating reviewing the band’s Stubb’s show on Wednesday night - which spawned this musing on its weird place in the pop music consciousness - word came down Wednesday morning that the show was going to be press free. No writers. No photogs. No Strokes for Chad.
Dang. No way I was laying out $55 for one of the final-release tickets since I $35-like The Strokes but definitely don’t $55-love them, so I suddenly had a free night and a thirst for rock of some kind. My pal and local singer Andrew Anderson and his wife were headed to Red 7 to see Two Cow Garage, a Columbus, Ohio act I’d assumed based on its name was some sort of cowpunk/alt-country thing, and I opted to tag along hoping maybe a couple beers and tuneage of any kind would suffice.
This is where I say thanks to The Strokes. First, I was way off in my assumption. TCG is a muscular but kinda unhinged straight-ahead rock four piece (guitar, bass, drums and Korg CX-model organ) that’s got all the best parts of Lucero, Deer Tick, The Hold Steady, Gaslight Anthem and The Replacements fused together. In a word; brilliant. In another word; affirming. Singer/guitarist Micah Schnabel has the gravel-voiced gutter poet thing locked down and the band at his side courses with energy that hits in wave after wave.
I can’t single out specific songs since my first and only listen to the new “Sweet Saint Me” (out this month on Suburban Home Records) came on a drive home that was marked by that rare delirium that hits when you realize, “Oh right, rock’s not dead no matter how many stakes Local Natives, Portugal. The Man and the turgid indie rock masses keep trying to drive into its heart.”
So by being jerks, The Strokes - who based on Twitter noise weren’t much to see last night anyway - helped me look at today a little brighter, even if my ears are still ringing 12 hours later. I’ll take that trade, every single time.
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Big Boi at East Side Drive In rescheduled for Dec. 4
Sorry, Big Boi fans: Transmission Entertainment honcho Graham Williams confirms that Sir Lucious L. Leftfoot’s performance at East Side Drive In — scheduled originally for next Saturday, October 16 — has been rescheduled for December 4, also a Saturday.
All tickets for the original performance will be honored.
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The other music fest of October comes to Ben McCulloch
ACL is the monster of fests, but the Austin String Band Fest at Camp Ben McCulloch Oct. 15- 17 looks pretty special. Headlining are Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur, but there is quite a lot of educating going on at the workshops. Here’s a schedule.
Go here for full lineup and ticket prices. The fest is sponsored by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, an organization formed in 1974.
“Sure the SXSW and ACL are fine, good for the industry and the local economy,” says AFTM member Dan Foster.. “But what the AFTM does is really at the heart of this town - music not as a commodity, but a way of life. If we lose that, then Austin will just be Nashville with beef brisket instead of pulled pork.”
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Live music is booming: the Economist
Thanks to SXSW’s fine music news roundup “The Daily Chord” for hipping us to this article in the Economist entitled “What’s working in music.”
What’s working are concerts and festivals. Between 1999 and 2009, the Economist reports, concert-ticket sales in North America more than tripled in value, from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion. And it’s not all due to Lady Gaga.
A few more people are going to concerts than ten years ago, but the increase is because they’re paying more. “In 1996 a ticket to one of America’s top 100 concert tours cost $25.81, according to Pollstar, a research firm that tracks the market. If prices had increased in line with inflation, the average ticket would have cost $35.30 last year. In fact it cost $62.50,” the Economist reports.
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On the Wednesday before ACL, Ryan Bingham work on Guy Clark tribute
Former Austinite Ryan Bingham spent part of Wednesday afternoon at Cedar Creek Recording in South Austin cutting the Guy Clark classic “Let Him Roll” for a forthcoming Clark tribute album. “I think my mom was the first to turn me on to Guy Clark records,” Bingham says. “I was 10 or 11 years old, and I knew it wasn’t the stuff you hear on the radio. His was a really true, honest voice. I didn’t think recording a Guy Clark song for an album like this would be anything I’d ever do.” Bingham cut his keeper version of “Let Him Roll” on the third take.
The Clark tribute, due in November 2011 to coincide with the songwriter’s 70th birthday, also will feature Kris Kristofferson (“Hemingway’s Whiskey”), Rodney Crowell (“That Old Time Feeling”), Jack Ingram (“Stuff That Works”) and others. The Trishas followed Bingham in the studio Wednesday afternoon to record an a cappella “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” Terry Allen, Hayes Carll, Joe Ely and Robert Earl Keen are slated to record tracks at Cedar Creek around Clark’s Oct. 19 date at the Paramount.
Meanwhile, the Oscar-winning Bingham plans to “take it easy” until the Austin City Limits Music Festival. “I haven’t been back to Austin for a while, and it’s such a great town,” Bingham says. “Every time I’m here, there’s so much to do that you don’t get a chance to sit back and enjoy the town. I tried not to make any plans so I can just go out and catch a few bands and eat some good Mexican food.”
Ryan Bingham performs at ACL at 7:15 p.m. Friday on the Austin Ventures stage. He also plays a way soldout after-show later that night at Momo’s.
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ACL Fest announces webcast schedule, takes over KUT
If you couldn’t nab tickets to the Austin City Limits Music Festival — or wanted to go but opted out after last year’s mud bath and the preceding years of “Zilker lung” — there’s an increasing number of ways to enjoy the festival from the comfort of your home.
ACL Fest will stream performances from all three days of the festival, starting on Friday, on its own webcast page (last year’s performances were streamed on Hulu). Scheduled webcast times don’t necessarily line up with the actual performances, which means some shows will be on a delay. You can view the full schedule at the link. There’s still quite a few performances waiting to be announced, so take your bets on which headliners will make an appearance. (Hat tip to Consequence of Sound)
The festival will also take over KUT for much of the weekend. Not only will the previously mentioned Four Seasons kickoff shows be broadcast live, but KUT.org will offer an exclusive live stream from the festival. Jay Trachtenberg will anchor a program from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday dedicated to performances and interviews from the festival, with on-site contributions from Kevin Connor, while “Texas Music Matters” will present a wrap-up report on Monday, October 11’s “Morning Edition” at 5:33 and 7:33 a.m., with a longer special at the program’s usual times (noon and 11 p.m.) on Friday, October 15. The “Texas Music Matters” website will also commandeer the front page at KUT.org for the duration of the festival, according to KUT spokesperson Erin Geisler.
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Phil Collins to remember Alamo in non-fiction book
Singer Phil Collins is such a nut for all things Alamo that he keeps an apartment in San Antonio, Billboard reports.
The singer is currently working on a book on the Texas Revolution, based, in part on his collection of artifacts.
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“ACL” is now a radio station, too
Slacker.com has it’s own Austin City Limits Music Fest radio station. A good way to gear up for the big weekend.
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Slim Thug cancels, Mates of State discount
First, the bad news: Houston rapper and “Still A Boss” Slim Thug, scheduled to play Emo’s tonight, has made a last-minute cancellation. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase; according to Emo’s booker Kevin Hoskins there’s no word yet on the possibility of a rescheduled show.
Now, the good news: Friday night’s performance by husband-and-wife pop duo — and veterans of both the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Fun Fun Fun Festival — Mates of State at the Mohawk has been switched to a free, all-ages show. ((Sounder)), We Are Country Mice and the Midgetmen will also play; doors open at 8 p.m. with the music starting at 9 p.m. Between this and Saturday’s all-day local music extravaganza of Ditch the Fest Fest, ACL Fest weekend is shaping up nicely for the thrifty.
In other “free stuff during ACL Fest” news, Jamie Smith of The xx will DJ a free afterparty Saturday night at Malverde, 400 W. Second St. The event runs from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Smith will be joined by fellow U.K. DJ and The xx collaborator Fantastic Mr. Fox, born Stephen Gomberg.
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Eagles cancel three dates leading to ACL
Citing a Don Henley illness, the Eagles, headlining ACL Fest Sunday, have postponed shows in Lubbock tonight, Orlando Thursday and Fort Lauderdale Friday, Pollstar has reported. All shows have been rescheduled for later in October.
The ACL gig is the band’s next show. No word on the nature of Henley’s ailment.
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Will “ACL” go full circle with Willie?
There’s a TV show called “Austin City Limits” too. It predates the festival by more than 25 years. Willie Nelson played on the pilot episode in 1974. But who will be the final act to play the famous Studio 6A stage in November, after which the show moves into the new Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater venue on West Second Street?
How about Willie Nelson? Tuesday, the show’s producer Terry Lickona would not name the mystery act booked for the finale. He would only say it would be in November. But, lookee here, Sir Willie will be in town Nov. 5 to help Asleep at the Wheel celebrate it’s 40th anniversary at the Long Center. Once that show sells out, look for an official announcement.
How could anyone besides Willie Nelson close out the incredible 36 year run of “ACL” at Studio 6A?
One thing Lickona did confirm: the days of free beer at “ACL” are over when the show moves into the new venue. Tapings will still be free to the public, however.
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New nonprofit hopes to give music community more political clout
Solidarity was on display Tuesday at the “Austin City Limits” studio on the University of Texas campus, when a host of movers and shakers in the Austin music business community announced the formation of Austin Music People. The nonprofit lobbying organization, which former Mayor Will Wynn called “a one-stop shop, a singular voice” for the local music community, is headed by Paul Oveisi, who owns Momo’s live music club and formerly led the Live Music Task Force created by the Austin City Council in 2008.
Onstage during the press conference were local club owners, including Steve Wertheimer of the Continental Club and James Moody of the Mohawk, Roland Swenson and Brent Grulke of South by Southwest, Charles Attal and Charlie Jones of C3 Presents, musicians Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma and Suzanna Choffel, plus managers, booking agents, publicists and retailers. Many charter AMP members are competitors, joined in the mission to “protect and grow Austin’s music culture and economy,” said Oveisi.
AMP is a 501(c)(6), a tax-exempt business league required to advance a community and allowed to be politically active, “and we intend to do so,” said Oveisi.
Wynn said the goal is for AMP to do for the local music business community what the Austin Film Society does for the movie-making community.
Oveisi outlined a three-step plan to “obsessively organize and recruit” new members, to listen to community concerns and to “bolster our cause through lobbying efforts.” Oveisi’s task force recommended the creation of a city music department in 2008, but the City Council voted against that action and instead filled a single position of music program director, hiring Don Pitts. “At that time we, in the music community realized that we needed to organize,” said Oveisi. Directors of South by Southwest, C3 Presents and Transmission Entertainment were among the first aboard the new nonprofit venture.
Oveisi said one immediate AMP goal is to commission a new economic impact study, calling the currently used figure of $1 billion and 18,000 jobs “under represented.” Fans are encouraged to join at www.austinmusicpeople.org, where membership levels range from $1- $49 for fans to $1,000- $10,000 for businesses. “This isn’t just for promoters or club owners,” Oveisi said. “The ecosystem of Austin’s music scene includes everyone from bartenders to musicians.”
AMP plans to host a town hall meeting later this year.
For more information on the 501(c)(6) organization visit www.austinmusicpeople.org.
Rodolfo Gonzalez/American-Statesman photo
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Live video: Local music execs gather for ‘major’ announcement
A number of heavy-hitters in the local music scene have gathered on the University of Texas campus for a 2 p.m. press conference to make what they’re calling a ‘major’ announcement. Watch it live right here:
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CD review: Raul Malo, ‘Sinners and Saints’
Raul Malo
‘Sinners & Saints’
(Fantasy)
Grade: A-
The title might seem to portend a black-and-white affair, but Raul Malo’s follow-up to last year’s well-received “Lucky One” is more a riot of colors, with a strong Texas tinge.
Although he recorded much of the album in his Nashville home studio, Malo brought tracks down to Ray Benson’s Bismeaux Studio for some collaborating with Texas Tornados Augie Meyers and Shawn Sahm, as well as accordion ace Michael Guerra of Sahm’s Tex Mex Experience (also a former sideman for Rick Trevino, Malo’s Los Super Seven bandmate). Malo’s terrific new originals “San Antonio Baby” and “Superstar” would not sound out of place in a Tornados set, although the giddy tempos also recall his old outfit, country misfits the Mavericks.
For all its upbeat verve, including scintillating organ, zippy accordion and even mariachi horns, “Superstar” is actually a dry rumination on the ephemerality of fame: “No one ever loves you when you’re down and out/flavor of the month is what it’s all about./Take it all, oh, take as much as you can get./Man, how quickly they forget,” Malo croons smoothly, but the grit he lets out is decidedly sardonic.
A mid-tempo original, “Staying Here,” sounds like a lost Jimmy Webb song, right down to the lonely ambivalence of the lyrics. “We got kids, one on the way./What will friends and family say when we are through?/For now I’ll be right by your side, hopin’ things will turn out right/but I’m stayin’ here with leavin’ on my mind.” Funky wah-wah guitar and pretty organ and acoustic guitar solos put interesting twists on the arrangement, while the Trishas provide retro female backing vocals. Malo sings as sweetly as Roy Orbison on “Matter Much to You,” but the lilting Latin beat and gentle melody serve not as love song but as a timely plea for everybody to chill out, or at least back off: “You may not share my point of view/or see the world the way I do/I hope it doesn’t matter much to you.”
Malo’s supple, luminous tenor is at its loveliest on the standard Spanish ballad “Sombras” and a nuanced cover of Rodney Crowell’s anguished “’Til I Gain Control Again,’ but is equally convincing on his own forceful ordinary-guy rocking blues, “Living for Today.”
The title track opens the album, setting a delightfully misleading tone with two minutes of surf-flamenco guitar topped by a heroic mariachi trumpet before Malo starts to sing with operatic grandeur, and somewhere in the five-and-a-half-minute tour de force, the electric guitar goes all bluesy. If Pedro Almadovar decided to write a song, this is probably what would happen. “Saints & Sinners” ends on another surprising note, with a soulful cover of Los Lobos’ haunting “Saint Behind the Glass.”
As a producer, Malo at times keeps things a tiny bit more polished than they absolutely need to be, but it’s hard to argue with an album that takes the listener in so many different directions without ever going astray.
Also out this week: Corin Tucker, ‘1000 Years’; Finger Eleven, ‘Life Turns Electric’; Guster, ‘Easy Wonderful’; Fran Healy of Travis, ‘Wreckorder’ (Paul McCartney and Neko Case guest); Toby Keith, ‘Bullets in the Gun’; KT Tunstall, ‘Tiger Suit’; Joe Satriani, ‘Black Holes and Wormhole Wizards’; David Archuleta, ‘The Other Side of Down’; Joe Cocker, ‘Hard Knocks’; Donavon Frankenreiter, ‘Glow’ (Frankenreiter plays ACL Fest this weekend); Jars of Clay, ‘Jars of Clay Presents the Shelter.’
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ACL forecast: sunny, sunny, sunny
Last year’s mudbath looks to be just a bad memory as this year’s forecast for ACL Fest looks like perfect fall weather. Meteorologists say thunderstorms are a possibility- on Monday.
There’s also no chance of repeating the 2005 dust storm as Zilker’s Great Lawn is in perfect condition, as lush and green as the fairways of Fazio Canyons golf course.
Looking at next year’s Longhorns football schedule, which always dictates when ACL Fest is held, the likeliest dates are Sept. 23- 25, when Texas has a bye week, or Sept. 30- Oct. 2, when the Horns are away at Iowa State. The decision will probably be up to Radiohead.
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It’s official: Jody’s the fifth Beatle
When he announced about ten months ago that he’d be leaving his job at KGSR, Jody Denberg cited burnout as a factor.What better way to get back in love with the music business than by working with a Beatle and a Beatle by marriage?
Denberg interviewed Paul McCartney in July for an electronic press kit for the upcoming “Band On the Run” reissue, then the next month worked extensively with Yoko Ono for the John Lennon 70th birthday celebration. Denberg’s interview with Yoko will air on KGSR October 17 at 7 p.m.
Jody is off to Iceland Saturday to catch a Plastic Ono Band concert following the lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower. Meanwhile, I’ll spend Saturday with 75,000 people, trying to get within half a mile of Muse.
I’m not jealous, Jody, I hate you.
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Wonderland to receive DeJoria award in Corpus
Nine years ago, soulful blues musician Carolyn Wonderland lost her apartment lease and lived in her van. For two years. With that firsthand experience, homelessness is an issue that’s been important to her. Wednesday, Wonderland will play a benefit concert for the Texas Homeless Network’s annual conference at the Executive Surf Club in Corpus Christi. She’ll also receive the John Paul DeJoria Award for her charity and advocacy work. Billionaire DeJoria was also homeless before co-founding the Paul Mitchell hair care giant.
It’s a big week for the big-voiced guitar slinger, as Wonderland plays ACL Fest Friday at 2 p.m.
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Quiet Company holding out hope for their “My Generation” guest appearance
The Austin-shot ABC faux-docudrama “My Generation” joined Fox’s “Lone Star” — another Texas-based drama — on the chopping block last week, receiving a cancellation notice after airing its second episode.
That’s bad news for Austin power pop favorites Quiet Company, who were set to have a very visible guest appearance in the series’ third episode, playing an indie rock band produced by main character the Falcon. Both the band and its music were to feature prominently in the series. ABC has yet to announce whether “My Generation” will see DVD release or if its remaining episodes — eight have been shot in total — might be burned off online or in a different time slot. But series creator Noah Hawley told fans “My understanding is we’ll be finishing the 8 existing episodes for release online or DVD,” via Twitter today.
“That gives me a glimmer of hope that we will get our paycheck and at least some exposure from it,” wrote Quiet Company front man Taylor Muse in an e-mail. “It’s crazy to me that ABC would have so little faith in something they made as to yank it after only two episodes … We were supposed to be in the third episode, which looks like the first one to not be shown. Just our luck, huh?”
The band is still soliciting donations via its website to help replace last month’s stolen gear.
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AARP guide to ACL: Don’t embarass yourself
Yeah, yeah, we know you saw the Sex Pistols at Randy’s Rodeo in 1978. But 32 years later, you’re the opposite of hipster and wearing a Matt & Kim t-shirt only proves you own a radio and have a credit card on file at Amazon.
Admit it, you only bought a wristband to ACL Fest because you can afford one and didn’t think there was a mathematical chance that that Wilco, Ben Harper AND G. Love and Special Sauce would skip ACL the same year. That’s like Leonard Nimoy and George Takei both bypassing a “Star Trek” convention.
As founder of the new Austin Association of Rockers Passed-by, I’ve devised a little tip sheet to help those of us who are secretly looking forward to Norah Jones this weekend.
Study up and you won’t blow your cover.
* Deadmau5 is pronounced “Deadmouse.”
* Miike Snow is three guys, not one.
* The xx don’t know “In This House That I Call Home.”
* Girls are all guys.
* If someone mentions the Dillo Dirt Scare from last year’s fest, they’re not talking about a jamband.
* Dan Black is not Clint’s younger brother.
* There will be no one onstage named Edward Sharpe or Henry Clay.
* It’s a given that Phish is just like the Grateful Dead, so pointing it out is like saying rain is wet.
* Oh, God, please don’t ask anyone where the WaMu tent is.
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Waterloo Records announces ACL Fest signing schedule
Short of sneaking back stage or into the media area, the signings Waterloo Records offers at their on-site location at the Austin City Limits Music Festival are probably your best chance to meet and gab with the talent. This year’s signing schedule includes the boys from Girls, Beach House, the Silversun Pickups, LCD Soundsystem, Ted Leo, Norah Jones and many others.
Sure, you have to weigh the pros and cons of waiting in line for half an hour for thirty seconds of James Murphy time when you could be catching some music. But that copy of “This Is Happening” isn’t going to sign itself.
Check out the full schedule below.
Friday, October 8
12:30 p.m. Sahara Smith
1:00 p.m. Vonnegutt
1:30 p.m. Charlie Mars
1:30 p.m. JJ Grey & Mofro
2:30 p.m. Donovan Frankenreiter
3:00 p.m. Ryan Bingham
3:15 p.m. Carolyn Wonderland
3:30 p.m. Blues Traveler
4:00 p.m. Spoon
4:00 p.m. Sarah Harmer
4:30 p.m. Girls
4:45 p.m. Angus & Julia Stone
6:30 p.m. The Sword
6:30 p.m. Beach House
Saturday, October 9
12:00 p.m. Balmorhea
1:15 p.m. First Aid Kit
1:30 p.m. Lissie
2:00 p.m. Silversun Pickups
2:00 p.m. Gogol Bordello
2:00 p.m. Temper Trap
3:00 p.m. Monsters of Folk
3:00 p.m. Bear In Heaven
3:30 p.m. Two Door Cinema Club
3:30 p.m. LCD Soundsystem
4:00 p.m. David Bazan
5:00 p.m. Manchester Orchestra
5:30 p.m. Deadmau5
6:00 p.m. Local Natives
Sunday, October 10
1:00 p.m. Shearwater
1:45 p.m. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
2:00 p.m. The National
2:00 p.m. SPEAK
2:30 p.m. Blind Pilot
2:30 p.m. Foals
3:00 p.m. Band of Horses
3:30 p.m. Dawes
4:00 p.m. Norah Jones
4:30 p.m. The Morning Benders
5:00 p.m. Cage The Elephant
5:30 p.m. Trombone Shorty
6:00 p.m. The Henry Clay People
6:00 p.m. Yeasayer
6:30 p.m. Midlake
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Review: Guided By Voices at East Side Drive In
The improbably good reconstituted “classic” mid-’90s lineup of Guided By Voices was having as good a time as they crowd they were playing to at the outdoor East Side Drive In Thursday night, ripping with delayed gusto through roughly 40 songs from the sweet spot of the band’s catalog before a house that seemed to know every word as well as frontman-songwriting savant Robert Pollard.
For his part, Pollard still has his trademark kicks — though not as high or as frequently — as well as his Roger Daltrey style mic cable lassoing. He also drinks lots and lost, though not as much as on the band’s farewell tour in 2004. Most important, he remains in fine voice.
The other members of the band — Tobin Sprout and Charles “Mitch” Mitchell on guitar, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fennel — acted like they’d been waiting for the phone to ring for 16 years. On just the second night of the tour — and after having practiced all of half a day, according to Pollard — they sounded like they’d been burning up the road for months.
You had your “Tractor Rape Chain,” your “I Am a Scientist,” your “Salty Salute,” your “Watch Me Jumpstart.” The indier-than-thou crowd worships this material, much of it written in haste and pressed on what sounded like the back of a cereal box. It’s not hip to admit, but I actually prefer their later stuff starting with “Do the Collapse” in 1999. With Doug Gillard and Nate Farley? Now that was a band. (Although if memory serves Farley did not join the band until after that record came out.)
Still, this lineup’s legacy is assured; Pollard and whatever hired guns he had found common ground between the British Invasion, punk and straight-on rock — and for good or ill or both pretty much invented the low-fi, DIY ethic to boot.
I saw this lineup or something close to it one time, years ago during SXSW and I thought it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Then I started plowing through the albums and became a fan. Thursday night it was plain that the songs from that period are much better live, and best played by band members of a certain vintage. Sprout and Mitchell particularly are two very distinctive and complementary guitar players. Throw in Pollard’s melodic chops and penchant for lyrical non sequiturs (not to mention those song titles) and you’ve got yourself an interesting evening.
It felt a bit like a family reunion, and the most enthusiastic attendees at that reunion looked like they were eating paste in elementary school when the band broke up. For them it was a chance to see a legend revived. And aside from only a couple of ragged moments, Guided By Voices lived up to the legend. Not bad for a half day’s practice and one road date. Like the neon sign on the stage said and the man sang, the club is open.
