• Rock,  Video

    My Morning Jacket – Smokin’ From Shootin’ at ACL

    Here’s My Morning Jacket performing “Smokin From Shootin” at last weekend’s ACL Festival. MMJ have just announced a set of tour dates with both Band of Horses and Delta Spirit – basically my wet dream of a show. But alas, Phoenix, Arizona is once again not on the radar. So I’ll need to live through amazing live HD clips like this. Gotta love the age we’re living in when anyone anywhere can share the live experience… it ain’t the real thing, but it’s as close as you can get.

    Update: The ACL clip is gone, but check out this Live on Letterman performance:

  • Indie

    Cults at ACL

    I couldn’t make it to ACL this past weekend, but thanks to the Youtube webcast, I caught a number of acts from the comfort of my office chair. One of the bands new to me was Cults, who performed on Friday. Led by singer Madeline Follin and guitarist Brian Oblivion, they have sort of a 60’s girl group meets indie pop/electronic vibe.

    “Oh My God” really got my attention. A definite earworm, but the good kind…

    Visit: CultsCultsCults.com

    Buy: Cults

    Update: the ACL video is long gone, but check this out:

  • Rock

    Super Tuesday: Band of Horses, Stones, ACL lineup

    May 18th – a date I’ve have had marked on my calendar most of this year, since learning that…

    a) Infinite Arms, the third album by Band of Horses, is released (check out the CD or the Deluxe Box Set on Amazon).

    b) The remastered edition of the Stones classic Exile on Main Street is released (check out the deluxe version or thr Super Deluxe Edition on Amazon).

    c) The Austin City Limits Music Festival – which I will be attending for the third time – releases its lineup (check out the ACL Festival site). Pre-announcement rumors are pointing to Phish, the Eagles, Muse, and the Flaming Lips, among others. In fact, USA Today posted this on Monday night.

  • Jam

    Phish + ACL Music Festival? Yes. Please.

    If this rumor turns out to be true, then it’s clear to me that the music gods are on my side. A few weeks ago, I tried for a ticket (one ticket) to see Phish play Telluride’s Town Park in August. My folks live there during the summer, my first Phish show was in Colorado twenty years ago, yada yada yada…

    I would even have forfeited my October trip to the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

    But I had no luck. Telluride tickets sold out in minutes. “It wasn’t to be,” I sighed and told myself.

    So the ACL Festival it was. I secured my three day pass on April 20th, booked my flight and hotel, and all was well. I’ll be returning for my third ACL…

    And NOW look – straight from the rumor mill – it’s looking like Phish could be announced as one of the headliners for ACL! Could this be any more perfect (other than a lineup also including Springsteen, Prince, 70’s Stones, and a resurrected Joe Strummer and Elvis Presley)?

    Phish. ACL Festival. Yes. Let it be.

    Source: Coventry Music: – Phishy Rumor: 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival

  • Miscellaneous

    Austin City Limits 2009 Lineup Announced

    https://ickmusic.com/pics/ACL2009Lineup1.png

    If you’ve been hiding under a rock for fear of contracting the Swine Flu, you might have missed the lineup announcement for this year’s installment of the Austin City Limits festival (Official Link) – and it looks to be a hell of a lineup. They are clearly going for a certain demographic (which I am fairly certain that I belong to), and at $185 for a 3-day Pass it comes in less per-day than seeing any of the headliners solo. The festival takes place October 2-4, 2009 at Zilker Park in Austin, TX.

    https://ickmusic.com/pics/ACL2009Lineup2.png

  • Country,  Roots Rock

    ACL Highlight: Rodney Crowell

    The first full set I caught at this year’s Austin City Limits festival was Rodney Crowell. It was 12:30 in the afternoon on Friday. Maybe it was the combination of a sunny day, a cold beer, good friends, and the opening day of a great music festival in Austin, but Crowell’s set was a thing of beauty.

    Crowell, accompanied only by Will Kimbrough on guitar, and Jenny Scheinman on violin, delighted the crowd with some great tunes. Thing is, Rodney is such a great storyteller, he has a way of keeping you on the edge of your seat, anticipating where the story is going next. All the while, these stories are embedded in the sorts of wonderful, rootsy melodies that Crowell has been creating for decades.

    There were a few highlights for me. First was Scheinman on violin, who got to showcase her stuff in her own tune, and launched into a killer violin solo – yes killer violin solo – on “Wandering Boy”, also with some great interplay with Crowell’s acoustic…the ending violin strokes had the entire crowd entranced.

    Crowell’s “Earthbound” was another favorite, but it was two sublime new ones that stood out this afternoon… consider the first verse of the closing song, “Closer to Heaven”…

    I don’t like humus
    I hate long lines
    Nosy neighbours and the nation blind
    Chirpy news anchors alter my mood
    I’m offended by buzz words
    Like awesome and dude
    I look like a trainwreck
    I feel like a blob
    Till you get to know me
    You may think I’m a snob
    But I’m closer to heaven
    Than I’ve ever been

    It’s lyrics like these interwoven in a beatiful song that is the magic of Rodney Crowell.

    The other song that affected me was “Moving Work of Art”. It has that Townes Van Zandt / Steve Earle finger pickin’ ballad feel (both Townes and Earle spent a lot of time with Rodney back in the day) – and the love-lost lyrics hit you right where it hurts…

    Time is jammed and flying fast
    the brakes are bad and the potholes rough
    I’m out here running from the past
    What we had was not enough
    Heard she just touched down in Hollywood
    And her friends all say she’s looking good
    I saw it coming from the start
    She’s a moving work of art

    Beautiful stuff. The studio version is great, but doesn’t hold a candle to seeing and hearing Rodney perform the song live. He’s out on the road supporting his latest record, Sex and Gasoline (awesome cover!). Rodney Crowell is one of those underrated living legends, and I recommend the show…

    Rodney Crowell Moving Work of Art (mp3)

    Rodney CrowellEarthbound (mp3)

    From Fate’s Right Hand

    Links: Official Site | MySpace

    Set List
    Austin City Limits Music Festival, September 26, 2008

    The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design
    I Want You #35
    Moving Work of Art
    Sex & Gasoline
    Earthbound
    U Don’t Know How Much I Hate U
    I Wish It Would Rain
    Wandering Boy
    Untitled Julie Scheinman Cover
    Fate’s Right Hand
    Closer to Heaven

  • Punk,  World

    ACL Highlight: Gogol Bordello

    What a fun &%#$ band! High energy bohemian gypsy maniacs.

    Gogol Bordello was high on my list of must-see acts at the ACL festival a couple weeks ago. Like a lot of people, I first came to know of them during Madonna’s performance at Live Earth last summer (7/7/07). She brought guitarist and lead singer Eugene Hütz and violinist Sergey Ryabtsev out to join her for “La Isla Bonita”. If you were able to ignore Madge’s annoying backup dancers, you got a glimpse of these two eccentrics, and they spurred you into finding out more about them.

    The original members of Gogol Bordello met at a Russian wedding in Vermont in 1997. From there, they played up and down the isle of Manhattan and, in the process,  got banned from the Mercury Lounge, CB/GB, Fez and the Bowery Ballroom for “being too over the mothefucking top”.

    They set up residence at a performance art space called PIZDETZ, on the lower east side. Eventually, they ended up at Menahata, a Bulgarian bar, also on the lower east side, where their weekly gig. ‘DRINK LOCALLY! FUCK GLOBALLY!’, put them through the roof, and turned Menahata into the CBGB of the Gypsy Punk scene.

    A couple months before ACL, I picked up Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, their second album. The album, coupled with some good YouTube festival footage, got me primed for the show. On Friday afternoon at 4:30, the opening day of ACL, Gogol Bordello took the AT&T stage, and Entertainment ensued.

    I could watch frontman Eugene Hütz all damn day – such manic energy, and that great Eastern European accent flavoring his lyrics. But then there’s the seven others, including Sergey on violin, an accordion player, and Elizabeth and Pamela, the two crazy-sexy dancers who leaped and bounded to all ends of the stage.

    The ACL program put it best: if you like the Clash, the Pogues, and the Gypsy Kings, then you’re in for a treat. They tour all over the world now, so get out and see ’em!

    Here are a couple of my (and my two daughters’) favorites:

    Gogol BordelloI Would Never Wanna Be Young Again (mp3)

    Gogol Bordello60 Revolutions

    ACL Set List – 9/26/08

    Ultimate
    Sally
    Not A Crime
    Supertheory Of Supereverything
    Wonderlust King
    Mishto!
    Tribal Connection
    60 Revolutions
    American Wedding
    Start Wearing Purple
    Think Locally, F’ck Globally

    Visit: Gogol Bordello’s Official Site | MySpace

    Check out a couple Gogol Bordello albums…

  • Rock

    Kenny Aronoff

    How cool was the Austin airport on Monday? I got to meet two great artists: Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell and good ol’ Kenny Aronoff – a drummer I’ve admired and enjoyed for years. Most people will know Kenny from his 17 years of backing John Mellencamp, all the way back to 1980’s Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did. He was in Austin to pound the skins for John Fogerty at ACL (one of my favorite sets of the weekend).

    But Kenny has also been one of the most in-demand studio session drummers for a long, long time. The list of artists he’s played for in the studio is staggering. Some of them: Iggy Pop, Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, Garth Brooks, Meat Loaf, Cinderella, Richard Thompson, B.B. King, Paul Westerberg, Lyle Lovett, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, and the list goes on and on. See for yourself.

    So when I spotted Kenny over near the Salt Lick stand, I had to say something.

    John Cougar MellencampLonely Ol’ Night (mp3)

    Check out Kenny’s Site: Kenny Aronoff.com

  • Miscellaneous,  Rock

    Austin Bound

    Off I go for my second Austin City Limits Music Festival experience in as many years. I’m just – ohh – a tad excited. Because I am an über-music-nerd, I’ll be snapping pics with my iPhone throughout the weekend, and uploading them to my Picasa photo site. More pics will be uploaded from my camera after I get back.

    9/27 Update: Greeting from the Dell buuble like structure at the ACL festival. Yeah, so apparently, intense heat, snapping pics, and uploading by email seems to drain an iPhone battery quite quicky. So, I won’t be able to post as many pics as I want to my Picasa site from the festy. Now, where’s my supersized can o’ Heineken?

    Austin City Limits 2008