Day 2 was fantastic, starting things off with an amazing set by Pete Yorn. I've seen him many, many times, but this is probably the best he's been. Great band, really tight, love the new songs, his voice was strong. The crowd was singing along with the ones they knew, and loved the ones they didn't. It was quite a moving set, the crowd fixated on him for this early afternoon show. Really, go see him, when he comes to your town. This man is on, really at the top of his game.
Check out the pics and video below for the rest of the day, Lissie, Broken Bells, Monsters of Folk, Muse.
It's here folks: ACL Festival, the thing we wait for the minute SXSW closes. Day 1 was lovely, and the rest of the weekend seems to be shaping up to be one of the best weather weekends we have had. I started the morning at Threadgills for the KGSR series, hoping to catch Local Natives and Britt Daniel before entering Zilker. Local Natives was a no-show and Britt only played one song (but that song was good).
Oh well, then on to the important business of the day, securing basecamp. We got a nice spot for our group, then on to the traditional first Chicken Cone from Hudson's Mighty Cone.
I saw Charlie Mars, Ponderosa, Verve Pipe (who play for kids these days), Black Keys (who were great, but I failed to bring my camera to their stage), and Spoon, caught a bit of the Strokes from afar and listened to Vampire Weekend from basecamp. A great first day. Enjoy some of the sights and sounds.
On to Day 2. More from the park on my Twitter, when the wireless is actually up.
Quinn models the latest in Basecamp fashion. All the cool kids are wearing them. Including her brother who refused to be photographed.
I've seen some legendary bands in my day, but few are as legendary as the Pixies. It's hard to believe that Doolittle came out more than 20 years ago, but the music still sounds fresh and relevant. While some of their songs have morphed into pop anthems (Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone to Heaven, for 2 examples), they remain a hard-edge punk band at the core. Loud and awesome. Every band since them has borrowed a bass line from Kim Deal. And, to this day, no one is like them. What a fantastic show.
Here Comes Your Man
Monkey Gone to Heaven
And because I live in Austin, I was able to drop by the Belmont on my way to the Pixies show and catch a few songs by Platinum-selling, '90s icons Fastball. Just another day in the music city :-) They sounded great, drew a big crowd.
I love when I get the opportunity to take Sessions on the road, and when I heard that Salim Nourallah was returning to Texas Treefort Studio to work on his own album, I jumped at the chance to visit this special place again. I had been out there in June to interview Rhett Miller about the forthcoming Old 97's CD The Grand Theatre (out on Oct. 12) and had an amazing time exploring this remote, vintage studio. This time out, Salim had assembled a superstar team, including Joe Reyes (Buttercup), John Dufilho (Apples in Stereo, Deathray Davies, I Love Math), Jason Garner (every band you like, including I Love Math and Buttercup) and Richard Martin, and Rip Rowan, all handily assisted by studio engineer Jim Vollentine. Learn more about the CD and how it was funded by fans through Pledge Music on the video.
The interesting thing as I talked to everyone was the theme of the bond across a community of musicians, the ways they work together, share and create are truly inspirational. And the results are stellar. The day I was there, they were working on a song called "The Quitter," which you can hear in the background. The opening and closing song is called "Unstoppable" and that's a finished track, and there's a snippet of "38 Rue de Sevigne" as Salim wrote it in Paris, as it was being filmed by his then 6-year-old son Gavin. Look for a release of what is tentatively titled Hit Parade late this year or early next.
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Dancing at Basecamp to Deadmau5
