Pages tagged “austin city limits”

Gillian Welch is my second favorite live performer. She and David Rawlings are so consistent, it's like all they need's a few instruments and each other. And there's something about seeing them at a festival that makes me think they should only ever perform outdoors--a natural setting somehow authenticates the songs. On the AMD stage Sunday, played a lovely mixture of old favorites like "Look At Miss Ohio," live favorites like "Throw Me A Rope," and a couple of soon-to-be-favorites--one about a knuckleball catcher and one about a sweet tooth. They even invited Alison Krauss (who played the same stage night before with Robert Plant) onstage for an a capella rendition of "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby." I can't wait for her new record.

For me, the last day of a festival can go either way: I've either hit my stride and am entertaining delusions of being able to keep up the pace for another few days, or I'm dragging my feet through the dust, struggling to make it from tent to tent and ruing the fools who thought hosting an outdoor music event in [insert Southern state here] in [insert summer month here] was a good idea.

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. 

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!

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.

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 atoning all summer and decided to further pursue absolution by seeing him live this afternoon on the WaMu (R.I.P WaMu) stage. 

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 poses, chugging water and entertaining thoughts of propping our eyelids up with toothpicks, while bands played downstairs and people drank (for real) and enjoyed the party all around us, occasionally shooting us judgmental stares and having way, way more fun than us.

Thomas Function, the Alabama band that considers itself part of an ongoing "rock-n-roll renaissance," begins its fall tour next week. The band's debut, Celebration, came out earlier this year (it's quite good, if we do say so ourselves), and the guys are looking forward to the November release of a 7". Below are the dates, along with TF's new "Filthy Flowers" video—be sure to check out the band's Sept. 25 performance at the Paste-sponsored showcase at ACL. (Speaking of which, if you're going to be in the Austin, Texas area on Sept. 25, you should RSVP for the party, which will also include performances from Mates of State, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Bobby Bare Jr., Dan Dyer and White Ghost Shivers. Snap!)

Tis the season for music festivals. And while it might be easy to associate these these rock-infused bacchanalias with the summer months, they extend well into the breezy autumn as well. Case in point, Austin City Limits, which kicks off its seventh year on Friday, September 26.

The Mars Volta has been there and seen it. All. For the past few months, the "progressive-rock whirlwind" has been touring through Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe. But come September, the duo (and all of its epic hair) will be home, sweet home again. And touring.

Click above to watch "Hollow Man" from R.E.M.'s performance on Austin City Limits.

It was cool when the Austin City Limits Music Festival leaked a line-up teaser last week in the form of a musical mash-up featuring 29 of the artists playing the 2008 festival. We had fun guessing. Thankfully though, the festival organizers have now put us out of our misery and simply told us who's playing. All the obsessive speculation can quit, because here the lucky bands be.

The top half (and therefore ostensibly the more important half?) of the poster reads as follows: Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck (long live the '90s!), Manu Chao, John Fogerty, David Byrne, The Raconteurs, The Mars Volta, Gnarls Barkley, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, N.E.R.D., Erykah Badu, Robert Earl Keen, Patty Griffin, Tegan & Sara, Iron & Wine, G. Love & Special Sauce, Neko Case, Band of Horses, The Swell Season, Silversun Pickups, Gogol Bordello, Gillian Welch, Eli Young Band, The Black Keys, Against Me!, Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels, Okkervil River, Galactic, Kevin Fowler, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, Slightly Stoopid, Duffy, Alejandro Escovedo and Roky Erickson.

And all that's just what's before the letters get smaller. Some standouts from the rest of the pack include Spiritualized, Drive-By Truckers, Stars, CSS, M. Ward, Yeasayer, Delta Spirit, Mates of State, Colour Revolt, Langhorne Slim, Man Man, MGMT, Jamie Lidell....stopping now. There are enough fantastic bands here, that if we keep going we'll just have to retype the entire lineup.

To save us the trouble, check out the official poster with all 130 bands here. And get to ticket-buying, because $170 three-day passes are still available at ACLFestival.com. The festival takes place at Austin, Texas's Zilker Park for the seventh year running, September 26-28.

Related links:
ACLFestival.com
ACL on MySpace
Paste: Austin City Limits 2007 Coverage

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Get those discerning ears ready! While the full lineup for this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival will appear on this page on April 15, in the meantime (and as if festival news doesn't trickle in gradually enough), ACL has taken lineup-leaking technology to a new level.

They've posted an audio mash-up of songs by 29 of the confirmed artists (out of 130) for the fest. The mix was made by Austin filmmaker Christopher Rose, recording under the moniker Car Stereo (Wars).

Listen here, and let the hypothesizing begin!

If there's no time in your busy schedule to try to parse the artists in the less-than-four-minutes-long mash-up, take a peek at The Daily Swarm's best guesstimations:

Asleep at the Wheel
Okkervil River
Man Man
Silversun Pickups
CSS
N.E.R.D.
Gnarls Barkley
Raconteurs
MGMT
Jamie Lidell
Eli Reed
Neko Case
Kate Nash
Hot Chip
The Octopus Project
Del the Funky Homosapien
Heartless Bastards
Robert Earl Keen
Sharon Jones

(Paste also hears Tegan & Sara, Louis XIV, Ingrid Michaelson and maybe Joe Jackson...)

The festival will take place Sept. 26-28 at Austin, Texas's Zilker Park. Three-day passes have been on sale at the ACL website since February, though both of the discounted advance levels have already sold out. The regularly-priced passes are $170. You can buy them through the website, or, you know, you can get 'em from this squirrel:

Related links:
ACLFestival.com
ACL on MySpace
Paste: Austin City Limits 2007 coverage

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.