ACL 2009 Preview: Friday (Day One)

The actual first day of the festival is loaded with good music. Just writing this preview has been taxing. Imagine how 9+ hours of music will be!

12:30-1:30

On many days, you won't see too many big crowds until the more well-known indie bands start playing mid-afternoon sets. This year, you very well may see some volume earlier in the day when the buzzy School of Seven Bells kicks off their set at 12:30. Their debut album, Alpinisms, got a pretty nice review (and a score of 8.0/10) from Pitchfork, dropping comparisons to atmospheric outfits like My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins and the production on Depeche Mode's Violator album. Allmusic.com also cites MBV and the Cocteaus as influences, in addition to Medicine and Siouxie and the Banshees, and gave Alpinisms a high rating of 4½ stars. Just to cement the Cocteau Twins connection, Robin Guthrie made a great remix of album closer My Cabal, which was good enough to make it on the ACL2009 compilation CD I burned for Rachel in anticipation of the weekend and is one of my favorites from the disc.


School of Seven Bells - My Cabal

1:30-2:30

This slot is a duel between Blitzen Trapper and The Knux, a well-regarded hip-hop duo from New Orleans who apparently put on a great live show. Given that we'll be seeing the former the night before, plus we don't want to overload on indie rock, we're leaning toward The Knux.

2:30-3:30

The 2:30 slot features a band I haven't heard of (The Avett Brothers), an old alternative band that I've known about for a long time but don't really know (Poi Dog Pondering), and a band that plays spacey electric jazz jams that may or may not translate well to an outdoor festival (Medeski, Martin & Wood). We'll probably stop in at a few things during that slot and do some people-watching.

3:30-4:30

Philadelphia's Dr. Dog pulls from the familiar bag of "B" influences -- in their case, primarily The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Band. Their 2005 single The World May Never Know is another good one from the compilation CD. They're up against The Walkmen, who (like Blitzen Trapper) we'll have seen the night before. I'd call that one a game-time decision.

4:30-5:30

Another tough decision. Phoenix, in the blue corner, just released a great album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. It got pretty uniformly great reviews, and that's because the sound is rocking, melodic, and mainstream-ready. 1901 has even found its way into a car ad. In the red corner is Austin legend Daniel Johnston, the slightly-nutty, rather grubby, Mountain Dew-addicted, frog-drawing DIY pop superhero who, despite living nearby, rarely plays here in town. What to do? This has to be another game-time decision. We might have to split this one right down the middle.

5:30-6:30

This is the ultimate example of the bounty that is Friday at ACL 2009. No fewer than four intriguing acts are playing in this time slot: Bassnectar (experimental electronic), Raphael Saddiq (neo-soul singer who has traveled far from his roots in new jack swing icons Tony! Toni! Toné!), K'Naan (Somalian hip-hop) and Robyn Hitchock & the Venus 3 (latest project from legendary frontman of The Soft Boys). Can we see all four? Please?

6:30-7:30

Break/dinner-time! John Legend (not that exciting to me) and Thievery Corporation (good but plays every f---ing year at ACL) highlight this hour. Probably the best time to grab a beer and a chicken cone.

7:30-8:30

Andrew Bird has put out some interesting music. The singer-songwriter-instrumentalist's last album, Noble Beast, was great. Wikipedia notes that he's proficient at the violin, whistling, guitar, mandolin and glockenspiel. Glockenspiel! How cool is that! This should be a good, relaxing set that hopefully will allow us to catch our breath so we can gear up for the final hours of day one.


Andrew Bird - Imitosis

8:30-9:45

Okay, so they aren't the Beastie Boys, but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still a pretty good day one headliner. Karen O might be a bit dippy in her interviews, and perhaps their early material bit off a big chunk of early 80s New York City no wave, but each of their albums have been solid or better, and their latest, It's Blitz!, is one of the better new albums I've heard this year. We've never seen them live, but I have a good feeling they'll put on a fun show.


Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

And ...

Just in case you haven't gotten enough, and if you have the stamina of an Olympic marathon runner, indie rock web-radio icon WOXY.com, who just relocated to Austin, along with Rare Magazine, is putting on a very cool show at the Seaholm Power Plant, just across the river from ACL and Zilker Park, headlined by Broken Social Scene. The free show starts after ACL is done for the night and runs until the wee hours (4 AM). 4,000 people will be granted access. According to the Futurist blog on WOXY.com:

The decommissioned Seaholm Power Plant has been virtually out of reach for all Austinites since its construction in the 1950’s. For years, the Art Deco building has held a great deal of mystery to passersby due to its looming presence and restricted access. But things will change in October as Rare Magazine has been given the keys to the Seaholm and will host the first large scale public event to take place at the power plant on the nights of October 2nd and 3rd. WOXY is proud to present the first night with one of our favorite bands. VIP guests and attending artists will encounter an unrivaled experience, as the industrial mammoth is turned into a lounge and green room, complete with DJ’s, dance floor, and bar.

Sounds amazing, but can we last that long?

Broken Social Scene - Almost Crimes

ACL 2009 Preview: Thursday Pre-Show

As if three long days of music aren't enough, Rachel and I decided to expand our ACL weekend this year and got tickets to one of the Thursday night "pre-shows" happening at a few of Austin's music clubs. There were a few good possibilities, but we thought the triple bill of The Walkmen, Blitzen Trapper and Wye Oak at the venerable Emo's was the best option.

We've seen The Walkmen a few times already. Three times, to be exact, including a set at our first ACL in 2005. They always sound great live, and their last album, You & Me, is definitely one of their best. We caught them last year at The Parish when they played a set heavy on songs from You & Me, and it was probably my favorite of the three shows by them we've seen. So I'm pretty confident Thursday's show will kick some tuchus as well.


The Walkmen - In the New Year

I hadn't heard much by Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper until I saw one of their videos a few times after it went into heavy rotation on ME (Austin's version of MTV, back when it was still good and played videos). That song, Furr, is very cool. Apparently, even main-stream music media liked it: Rolling Stone named it #4 on the magazine's Best Singles of 2008, while the album of the same name was ranked #13 on the RS 2008 album list. Picky Pitchfork gave it an 8.5/10 as well.


Blitzen Trapper - Furr

I don't really know anything about Wye Oak. Wikipedia describes the Baltimore duo as "a blend of American folk and indie rock [whose] songs often focus on themes of family and maturing through youth."


Wye Oak - Please Concrete

Trip to Dallas: Culture, Baseball, and the Best Burger in Texas

Last year I blogged about being a longtime Boston Red Sox fan and our trip up to Fort Worth/Arlington to catch the Sox on one of their swings through Texas to play the Rangers. Last season, the Rangers weren't good. This year, though, things were different in August. When the BoSox traveled to Texas to take on the Rangers, they were one-two in the AL wild card standings, only a couple of games apart. Last season, the stadium was half full at most. This year there were barely any empty seats.

Papi at the bat

So even though the Sox lost again, we were glad we went. Much better drama. Maybe I'm nonchalant about Boston losing now that the Rangers have faded and the Red Sox are on their way to the postseason?

Naturally, the trip was about more than just baseball. Since we stayed in Fort Worth last year, we spent the weekend in Dallas this time. The stay was short, but that didn't prevent us from soaking in a little culture at the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum has a great collection which is uniquely divided up by geographical region rather than style or time period. The Native American collection was wonderful, especially the ceramics. We also visited the nearby Nasher Sculpture Center. The space there is beautiful, both indoors and outside in the sculpture garden.


Nasher sculpture

We also spent a little time checking out downtown Dallas and one of the nearby neighborhoods, Deep Ellum. The historic part of downtown was pretty cute, although it was a bit dead, probaby because it was a Sunday and pretty hot out. If history, presidents or conspiracy theories are your thing, there's a lot of stuff to see associated with JFK, including the infamous Texas School Book Depository (now a museum).


Downtown Dallas


A map of the JFK crime scene


The Texas School Book Depository building

Deep Ellum, a few blocks from downtown, is the requisite arts and entertainment district. It has a bit of a funky vibe, a nice alternative from the Texas-conservative feel of downtown Dallas. There are some nice little food and drink spots, cool stores, and lots of great street art.






Deep Ellum wall paintings

Of course, as you could probably guess, we did some eating as well. We had a tasty lunch at Medina on Saturday and a nice breakfast at All Good Cafe Sunday morning -- not to mention a few good beers at the Dallas outlet of one of our favorite Austin pubs, The Ginger Man.


Origami fills the skies at the All Good Cafe in Deep Ellum

The culinary highlight of the weekend, though, was Sunday lunch at The Grape, home of Texas Monthly's top rated burger in the beef-happy State of Texas (see prior blog post). As soon as we saw that the top spot was held by a place in Dallas, we figured we'd have to incorporate a visit into our weekend in Dallas, so we made a reservation.

The burger at The Grape is no mere quarter-pounder or even a half-pounder. Theirs weighs in at 10 oz., and it comes with a thick slice of cheddar and a few strips of bacon. So we decided to split one and also share a lighter entree.

And that big ol' burger did not disappoint. We ordered it "on the rare side of medium," and it came out about medium-rare. The beef was excellent, lightly seasoned and cooked perfectly. I normally don't get cheese on my burgers because I like to get a better taste of the beef, but this was great cheese -- sharp but not overpowering. The bacon provided a nice note of smokiness and a little bit of crispiness to balance out the moist patty. So while the hype was as big as this burger, we both thought the burger lived up to it.


Righteous burger

After our Sunday lunch, we felt full and satisfied as we climbed into our car to head back to Austin. Great weekend, excellent burger, and while the baseball game didn't go our way, I'm already looking forward to heading back up to Dallas-Fort Worth for next year's Red Sox visit. And just in case we can't wait to return to The Grape for some more beefy goodness, the #2 Texas Monthly burger joint is located right here in Austin.