ACL Music Fest - Part One
It was a crazy weekend in Austin. It's not enough that thousands descended upon the city for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. But because the powers-that-be cancelled the Texas-Arkansas football game a few weeks ago (in fear of Hurricane Ike) the game was rescheduled for Saturday, the second night of the fest. There are a LOT of people in town! But no worries. Great music makes everything else great...Eugene Hutz of Gogol BordelloThe first artist I saw on Friday was the extremely talented Jamie Lidell on the Dell stage. I started out backstage but when he began "Another Day", the... read more
Austin City Limits 2008, Day 2: Roky Erickson
Wound up going with Kate and Kevin to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band at the AT&T stage on the way to Roky Erickson last night. It was a huge surprise for me-- with this new musical turn, he's shed not just the Bright Eyes name but the Bright Eyes mannerisms and affectations. Last night he seemed looser and happier than I'd ever seen him, and I believe he did a better Dylan than Dylan himself did last year on the very same stage. But more on that from Kate later. (Actual conversation we just had: "Do you... read more
Austin City Limits 2008, Day 2: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, CSS, Man Man
Let me add this to Kate’s Fleet Foxes write-up: Though they seemed more than a little overwhelmed by the immensity of the AMD stage (“We’re not used to communicating on this scale,” lead singer Robin Pecknold apologized) when the awkward banter finally dissolved into music, it was fantastic. “Ragged Wood” always gives me goosebumps—and even today, in the heat of the day, they rolled right up my sweaty legs. ... read more
Austin City Limits 2008, Day 2: Fleet Foxes, break-dancing kiddies, fashion tally
Today we got to the park and headed straight to see Fleet Foxes suffer for fashion in what I'm pretty sure was flannel. They must have been nervous--between songs, they talked about their hot feet, someone's cousin getting married, WaMu and what would happened if all of the band members were attacked by bees. It was unfunny and uncomfortable, but the music saved the set--their live harmonies are as stunning as the recorded ones, and they're all so good at their instruments!... read more
Austin City Limits 2008, Day 1: Mates of State, Jamie Lidell, Patty Griffin
This morning I chatted with Mates of State about adding instruments to their live shows and touring with kids--they bring their baby June and four-year-old Magnolia everywhere they go. They needed something to protect the baby's ears during shows and couldn't find mini-headphones at a music store, so they had to buy some for June at a firing range! A baby in headphones is one of life's cuter things.... read more
Austin City Limits 2008, Day 1: M. Ward, The Swell Season
If there's one thing I have in common with the fourteen-year-old indie girls of America, aside from the inability to properly apply eyeliner, it's that I can credit Zooey Deschanel's involvement with She & Him with introducing me to the duo's inarguably more musically established half, M. Ward. His dreamy, bottom-of-a-deep-dark-well crooning on "You Really Got A Hold On Me" and "I Should Have Known Better" on Volume One gave me the long-overdue push to explore his solo catalog. It's proved to be an absolute revelation but also a never-ending source of guilt for not listening sooner. I've been actively... read more
Austin City Limits 2008: It begins! Mates of State, Dan Dyer and more
First of all, a note to anyone who saw us nearly passed out on the VIP couches at our ACL kickoff party at Emo's last night: We were not drunk. We were not even drinking, minus the one beer each we imbibed around 9:30. Rather, we both were besot by sinus-crud related exhaustion. See, unlike here in Austin, fall arrived on schedule in Atlanta last week, and bestowed upon us one of the great gifts of this fair season: The nasty head cold. Unfortunately, this meant we spent the better part of last night's festivities sprawled out in various ladylike... read more
Fantastic Fest - Day Three - Girls Rule!
I hadn't intended to focus on films about powerful, independent women but that's how it turned out on Day Three of FF. Barely made it into the first film in time to see an extended trailer of Disney's new animated film Bolt. It reminds me a bit of The Incredibles with its fast action and secret agent type adventure. Curious if the rest of the film is as good as the clip.TERRAA peaceful race of aliens receive an unexpected invasion from earth in this animated tale. With voice talents from a lot of folks like Evan Rachel Wood who played main character Mala, plus Luke... read more
All Tomorrow's Parties 2008: Day 3
[Above: His Holiness Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine]A new flyer went up around Kutsher's late on the second day of All Tomorrow's Parties' New York debut. Earplugs would be available, for free and in large quantities, for everyone. Smart people (like me) had already brought their own: the unofficial reports from My Bloody Valentine's London shows was that they were reaching 132 decibels during their set, which is just slightly softer than a jet taking off.... read more
All Tomorrow's Parties 2008: Day 2
[Above: Thee Silver Mt. Zion]Day 2 of ATP began with a scare: there was a rumor, spread over Blackberries and touch-and-go Internet access, that Kutsher's and the surrounding Catskills hotels near the festival site had severe bedbugs infestations. It was hard to determine which was scarier: the idea of carrying bedbugs back to our homes, or standing too close to the stage during Les Savy Fav's set.... read more
Fantastic Fest - Day Two - Pig with Rice, Not Lipstick
Tim League of the Alamo Drafthouse joyfully serves as ringleader of the festival. If he's not introducing a film he's out in the lobby chatting with fans and filmmakers. Inspired by the world premiere of Seventh Moon League came strolling into the theater as a Chinese monk and blessed the film with sacred incense in one hand and a can of Foster's in the other. Accompanying him was a roast pig. A real roasted pig, similar to what was seen in the film. Director Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project) and much of the cast, including the beautiful Amy Smart (Road Trip,... read more
Gary Louris and Mark Olson perform at Americana Music fest
More of Louris meeting Olson As a general rule, in latter-day Jayhawks lineage Mark Olson has been the one playing stripped down, loose-limbed shows, while Gary Louris has hewed closer to pop hooks and full-band polish. And they’ve each done it without the other. But recently, they’ve dipped their toes into writing and playing together, and their new part-acoustic, part-ragged folk-rock duo album, Ready for the Flood, will soon be out overseas. Which means European audiences are getting a tour promoting the new album, while we have slim pickings on this side of the pond. (That will be remedied in... read more
Fantastic Fest - Day One - Kevin Smith brings porno
Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) cast their porn filmTake the nation's greatest movie house--THE Alamo Drafthouse in Austin--and then host films centered around the unusual, the horrifying, the outrageous, the unloved, the unexpected, the futuristic, the disturbing and the demented and you have the ingredients for a unique film watching experience. And that, my friends and fanboys, is Fantastic Fest!ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNOKevin Smith's new film Zack and Miri Make A Porno may not be your typical Fantastic Fest film but I gotta say that as an opening film it was a pretty fantastic idea. My... read more
All Tomorrow's Parties 2008: Day 1
[Above: The Meat Puppets]Two firsts are happening simultaneously at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival this year: it not only marks the return of My Bloody Valentine to the United States, but it also mark's the first East coast festival for the UK based ATP, who has previously staged festivals in both London and Los Angeles. MBV is headlining the final night of the three-day, all-indoor festival, which kicked off with ATP's "Don't Look Back."... read more
Plant & Krauss, Joan Baez, more win at Americana Awards
[Above: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant]Alison Krauss & Robert Plant—the roots-music queen and the former Led Zep banshee—pulled down Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year honors Thursday night at the Americana Music Awards, a loose and congenial affair held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the so-called “mother church of country music.”... read more
Americana royalty salutes Levon Helm
The Band deserves as much credit as anyone for inventing the country-rock subgenre we now know as Americana, so it made sense that this year’s Americana Music Association conference kicked off Wednesday night here in Nashville with a tribute to The Band’s drummer/singer Levon Helm.... read more
Monolith Festival 2008: Day 2
After its first day spotlighted depth, Day Two at Monolith was a chance for the big dogs of the line-up to roam free. Sure, there was some sterling Ben Foldsian pop from Washington D.C.’s Jukebox The Ghost to start the afternoon, a bit of smoky folk rock from former Paste Band of the Week The Rosewood Thieves, and a spirited fireball of a set from Tokyo Police Club. But the day belonged to a succession of four artists who dominated the Monolith main stage in four different ways...... read more
Toronto International Film Festival 2008
The Toronto International Film Festival, which wrapped up its 10-day run this past weekend, is arguably the most important film festival in North America. But to the average moviegoer it's not as well known as Sundance, in part because TIFF samples the most promising new film from around the world while Sundance emphasizes home-grown movies, for better or worse. But TIFF showcases its share of English-language films, too -- often with star-studded red-carpet premieres -- and this year some of the festival's best movies were among them:Rachel Getting MarriedI'll have to admit that the new film from Jonathan Demme (Silence... read more
Monolith Festival 2008: Day 1
For those who have never been to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, picture an impenetrable mountain fortress. A skyscraper’s worth of stairs runs up and around the main stage, and two towering, triangular rock formations jut forth from the earth, framing an indescribably vast, epic scene.... read more
SoCo Music Experience: Altamont, N.Y.
Justice was served Saturday night as the dance duo from France headlined the final SoCo Music Experience tour stop in Altamont, N.Y. The two men from Paris performed crowd favorite and contagious hit single, “D.A.N.C.E.,” toward the end of the set, sending fans home satisfied.... read more
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The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
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Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
