ACL FEST

Stepping out from behind the keyboards

Some of the most popular music bloggers chose the lineup for after-shows at Club de Ville and The Mohawk

By Omar L. Gallaga
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Bloggers are influencing everything from presidential election campaigns to what new phone we buy: why not let them pick our concert lineups, too?

Some of the most popular music bloggers on the Internet have collaborated to curate two nights of after-shows during the Austin City Limits Festival. The non-official shows are sponsored by Dell Inc. and are RSVP-only for fans who sign up on delllounge.com for the "Hotfreaks!" showcases. Though the RSVP list is filled up several times over, entry will be first-come, first-served. As of Wednesday morning, the site was still accepting RSVPs.

Friday night will bring a lineup that includes the Sound and the Jury winner, Brazos and Grizzly Bear to Club de Ville and Crazy Sexy Rainbow and Art Brut to the Mohawk.

Saturday's shows include the Sound and the Jury winner, Yellow Fever and the Rosebuds at Club de Ville followed by Sparrow House and St. Vincent at Mohawk. Performances on both nights begin at 9:15 p.m. and doors open at 8.

The bands were corralled by "Hotfreaks!," a collective that first teamed up during South by Southwest and now includes the bloggers at Gorilla vs. Bear, You Ain't No Picasso, My Old Kentucky Blog, Chromewaves, Brooklyn Vegan, Aquarium Drunkard and La Blogothéque.

Craig Lile, an Indianapolis-based blogger who writes as "Dodge" on My Old Kentucky Blog, said "Hotfreaks!" is an opportunity to put together two great nights of music while a huge cross-section of music fans are all in one city.

"I wish the clubs were three times as big," Lile said. "I think we'd be able to put three times as many people in there. I'm happy we can offer it to the music fans."

Lile said that while there's no unifying theme to the lineups, the bands were matched up to play well off each other. "I think we have bands that people are going to enjoy, that they're going to dance to. Well ... Grizzly Bear and St. Vincent maybe not so much."

While music blogs — sites that review MP3s, post concert news and engage in punditry over the independent music scene — have grown in influence, Lile says it's sometimes tough to make headway in the Midwest. Most of the influence of My Old Kentucky Blog, he says, involves influencing the lineup of festivals like Lollapalooza or helping get bands signed.

Or putting on a free set of concerts to turn fans on to new music.

"We're not changing the world, but I think we're doing good things for indie music," Lile said.

ogallaga@statesman.com; 445-3672