Friday Top 5: Best ACL Headliners of All Time
Follow the jump for a list of my Top 5 ACL Headliners of all time.
Category: Featured
ACL Interviews: The Morning Benders
Well ACL Festival is finally upon us in just a couple short days and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s a busy time of year, but the fun and debauchery throughout the weekend always rewards us for all the hard work we put in. Leading up to the weekend we sent a few questions to The Morning Benders leading man Chris Chu. We discuss the current state of his band and his strong feelings about the internet age of music we’re currently living in. Follow the jump to read more from Chris.
ACL Interviews: David Bazan
I first discovered David Bazan and his work in Pedro the Lion when I was just a young lad in my early high school years. I was always drawn to Bazan’s early post-emo work and have continued to follow his career for the last 10 years or so. Being such a big fan of his work in Pedro, Headphones, and now solo, I was pretty excited to land an interview with Bazan to preview his spot on the ACL festival roster this weekend. Sometimes this job has it’s perks. Follow the jump to read more from the conversation between David and I.
FT5: Guys I’d Go Gay For
We’ve dedicated some time in the past to Hot Ladies of Indie Rock, which, well, is totally acceptable for a heterosexual male. But, one of my homosexual brethren, Marcus, brought to my attention that I need to give some respect to some of the men of indie rock. So, in discussion with my lady friend, I decided upon the five guys that I would be willing to go gay for, with, of course, the lady’s permission. It might sound a touch ridiculous, but come on, its a fun subject to discuss, albeit, one that will likely not come to fruition.
ACL Interviews: Foals
ACL continues to draw ever closer and we here at ATH are starting to get hyped up for the festival. In preparation, we had an opportunity to send some questions over to Walter Gervers of Oxford band Foals. We really dig the sound these guys have created on their two album career so we were excited to hear what they have to say about their music. Follow the jump for more.
Show Review: Pavement @ Stubbs (9/28)
After a semi-tragic day in Austin, a return to innocence was much needed. Fortunately for me, and about 2000 other people, Pavement would provide the necessary cure for all those lucky enough to get into Stubbs. Follow the jump for review and fancy photos.
ACL Battles: Band of Horses Vs. Flaming Lips
With only about a week and a half remaining until the huge ACL festival starts on the 8th of this month, it’s time that you really start thinking about that plan of action for who you want to see over the weekend. Sometimes your choice will be easy with only one decent band playing at a certain time, but then you’ll have a choice like this one that will make you want to pull your hair out. So on the one hand you have The Flaming Lips who formed over 25 years ago and have been doing their psych rock thing for longer than most of us can remember. But then we have a more recent favorite in Band of Horses who can still hold their own despite their relatively short career together. Both bands are playing on Sunday late in the day at 6pm on opposite sides of the festival, so you have little hope of catching a bit of both sets. My initial feeling was to go with Band of Horses based on my just having seen Flaming Lips at Free Press Summer Fest earlier this summer. Plus, I feel like The Lips are still using the same damn live gimmicks that they’ve been hitting us with for the last 5-6 years… I mean cool, but I’ve seen it more than once. Then again, Flaming Lips play right before The National on back to back stages so it would be nice to just post up and avoid fighting the crowds. I also fear that the Band of Horses crowd could be old hippie city since The Eagles play on the same stage shortly after BOH. My indifference towards the recent material from both of these bands may cause me to just go with a majority vote amongst my friends. Care to share your thoughts?
Friday Top 5: Reasons I’m Actually Looking Forward to ACL
I know, another festival related post from myself, but it’s that time of year in Austin if you haven’t noticed. Fall. Sure SXSW rules the Spring, but Fall in Austin, Tx can have your head spinning at all of the live music options. Not only do we have ACL and Fun Fun Fun Fest, but the schedule of touring acts this time of year can be ridiculous. The festival known worldwide and sometimes confused with the television show is our kick-off to the end of the year in music for Austin, Tx, and as much as we might shy away from the fact that The Eagles are a headlining act, deep down inside it’s our festival, and a pretty cool one at that.
Show Review: Pixies @ Austin Music Hall (9/21)
Many of us have waited years for the return of the Pixies. After a few years of reunion tours, which some of us caught at ACL, we were fortunate enough to book the band for two nights at the Austin Music Hall, playing their legendary album Doolittle in its entirety.
ACL Battles: LCD/Bordello/Monsters/Bazan
So every year ACL festival has a few tough choices to make when they schedule two really great bands playing at exactly the same time. Typically we’re stuck with making a choice between two bands, but this year we have been faced with a choice between FOUR great bands. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the ACL schedule was this huge conflict between these four heavy hitters on Saturday. So let’s see what we have here… First up for consideration is a performance from incredible gypsy-punk band and awesome live group Gogol Bordello beginning at 6:30 on the AMD stage. Then you have the option of stopping by the Austin Ventures stage at 6:00 for the two hour long Monsters of Folk show. Or maybe you fancy a solid veteran songwriter in the form of David Bazan beginning at 6:40 on the BMI stage. Last but not least, you can check out great live performers LCD Soundsystem on the Budweiser stage at 6:30. So what’s it gonna be? Some are saying you could maybe check out a few songs from each? Maybe you want to check out a bit of one and then slide over to catch the end of the Monsters of Folk set? I personally don’t like a lot of migrating during sets so I want to make a choice and stick with it. I’m honestly still torn on this one… You guys have any insight?