ACL Festival News TodayinAustin

ACL 2008 Schedule Released This Morning

2008-06-03T16:10:35Z

This morning, Austin City Limits Festival organizers released the schedule for 2008. The lineup, featuring acts like Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Spiritualized, Foo Fighters, Beck and Manu Chao, is notable this year thanks to its extremely strong middle section (the "heat of the day" section, as we like to call it) and offers acts like MGMT, Patty Griffin, Hot Chip and Duffy, as well as several quite worthy local acts, including Okkervil River and White Denim.

The evening headliners work like this: Mars Volta and Manu Chao play (essentially) opposite at the end of Friday, while Alejandro Escovedo, Swell Season (Oscar winners) and G Love play elsewhere about an hour earlier. On the same day, David Byrne and N.E.R.D. play simultaneously at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday evening, headliners Plant and Krauss (AMD Stage) will begin at 8:15 p.m., while Beck begins at 8:30 p.m. on the AT&T stage. An hour earlier, Roky Erickson, the Black Keys and Iron & Wine will all fight for a crowd together. Spiritualized will only have to pull from Duffy's crowd (or vice-versa) earlier in the day. On Sunday night, the Foo Fighters will perform unchallenged at 8:30 on the AT&T stage, and preceding that performance will be Band of Horses and Tegan & Sara both beginning at around 7:30 p.m. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs will play opposite at 6:30 p.m.

The middle sections of the festival are a bit harder to plan for those of us interested in catching some local acts as well as out-of-town, independent "must-sees". On Friday afternoon, Yeasayer's set (1:30-2:30 p.m. on the Dell stage) is scheduled to end the minute Vampire Weekend's begins (2:30 p.m. on the AMD stage), so if you're trying to catch both buzz-worthy acts, you gotta hustle. Locals What Made Milwaukee Famous and the Strange Boys play (essentially) opposite each other as well, one beginning at 1:30, the other at 1:50 p.m. Seeing both solid Austin bands will be difficult, which is a shame (of course, it's not hard to see them other times around town if you're local, but if the bands were hoping to expose their act to some ACL attendees that don't typically see shows in bars, it'll be rough).

Keep reading and view the grid schedule after the jump.

Saturday's middle section features an unfortunately early set for Jamie Lidell, whose characteristically dance-fused, hip-hop influenced set might suffer from Friday's hangover-nursing late-comers, scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on the AT&T Blue Room stage. Also scheduled around that time is one other act that might (duh) want to lure some hip-hop and electro dance fans: Bavu Blakes (1:50 p.m., Austin Ventures). Later in the afternoon, Sharon Jones will perform opposite Band of Heathens and the Drive By Truckers. MGMT performs early in the day (12:30 p.m., AMD) with little competition from the indie rock genre on other stages. On Sunday, the Silversun Pickups will play opposite Neko Case (both begin at 4:30 p.m.), while White Denim kicks off their set at 5:15 p.m., making it hard to see all of the former (either Case or the Pickups) without missing some of the latter. Shooter Jennings fans will (maybe?) be upset that Blues Traveler is playing simultaneously, and Octopus Project battles the Kills and Adele in their 1:30 p.m. slot on Sunday.

Now, every year we get opinionated about the scheduling, even if we don't plan to attend, and this year is no different. Though crowd-splitting is certainly a concern for festival planners, a couple of the at-odds scheduling tactics are particularly unfortunate. As usual, even the most finely tuned itineraries and maps will be challenged by crowds and the distance between stages, which at times can seem more daunting than deciding which band you need to see and which you'd just like to see.

View the schedule here, and grab a PDF here. Still thinking about tickets? You can get a three-day pass for $170, and day passes are once again available, going for $80 each. There are some variations of those prices on Craigslist, but most offers are so close to the actual ticket price, they don't make driving to someone's house to pick them up worth the gas money.

ACL grid release and single day ticket sales pushed back

2008-05-12T16:12:35Z

Previously scheduled to be released tomorrow, the ACL grid, announcing which of your favorite artists you may have to sacrifice seeing for another of your favorites, will now be released June 3. Single day tickets will be now also go on sale the same day so you have a couple more weeks to save up some change.

ACL organizers announce 2008 lineup

2008-04-15T19:00:02Z

Among the bands scheduled to headline the three-day festival in September -- Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck, Manu Chao, John Fogerty, David Byrne, The Raconteurs and The Mars Volta.

Here We Go Again: 2008's ACL Lineup Revealed

2008-04-15T15:29:53Z

The Raconteurs @ ACL 2006 by Julene McCoy

It's official: Foo Fighters, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and John Fogerty take top billing along with Beck, Manu Chao, 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, and Patty Griffin rounding out tier one.

As usual, a couple local names land on the list: Iron & Wine, Okkervil River, White Denim, Roky Erickson, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Black Joe Lewis and Alejandro Escovedo will perform as well. Follow the cut for the full lineup.

ACL 2008
Foo Fighters Official
Robert Plant & Allison Kraus Official
Spiritualized Official

Foo Fighters
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Beck
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
Roky Erickson
Yonder Mountain String Band
Spiritualized
Flyleaf
Drive-By Truckers
Ingrid Michaelson
Stars
José Gonzales
CSS
Del the Funky Homosapien
Man Man
Jamie Lidell
MGMT
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Jenny Lewis
M. Ward
Asleep at the Wheel
Mason Jennings
Heartless Bastards
Antibalas
The Nachito Herrera All-Stars
Shooter Jennings
Xavier Rudd
Yeasayer
Octopus Project
Joe Bonamassa
The Kills
White Denim
Louis XIV
Delta Spirit
Mates of State
Nicole Atkins & The Sea
Electric Touch
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears
Back Door Slam
Tristan Prettyman
The Strange Boys
Ryan Bingham
Scott Biram
Freddy Jones
Colour Revolt
Five Times August
Langhorne Slim
Sybris
Eli "Paper Boy" Reed and the True Loves
Bavu Blakes & the Extra Plairs
AA Bondy
Christopher Denny
Mike Farris
The Lee Boys
South Austin Jug Band
American Bang
Bobby Bare, Jr.
Massacoustics
Belleville Outfit
We Go to 11
Band of Heathens
City and Colour
Sunny Sweeney
Elizabeth Wills
Bonnie Bishop
Ben Solee
Ben Cylus
The Concert Supremes
River City Christionettes
Shields of Faith
The Jones Family Singers
Nakia and his Southern Cousins
Brotherly Luv
The Hensley Ensemble
School of Rock
Jambo
Q Brothers
Buck Howdy with BB
Uncle Rock
Big Don
Mr. Ray
The Jimmies

Can you figure out who is playing at ACL Fest this year?

2008-04-07T20:13:02Z

The Austin City Limits Festival and Car Stereo (Wars) have teamed up to create a brain teaser of sorts. Follow the link below to see if your ear is sharp enough to uncover the 29 bands mashed together in one song, all of which are playing at this year’s ACL Fest….

http://www.aclfestival.com/mashup/

ACL 2008 Lineup Mashup: 29 Artists Revealed in Car Stereo (Wars) Mix

2008-04-07T16:58:59Z

The Austin City Limits festival will take place September 26-28 this year, and there are 130 bands lined up, with a release of names scheduled for April 15.

As a special teaser, the festival has offered a mashup curated by Austin's own Car Stereo (Wars), the musical moniker for local filmmaker Chris Rose. Rose's keen ability to layer pop culture onto itself has earned him praise from many, including Gorilla vs. Bear, URB Magazine, the Austin Chronicle and yours truly. His talents are highlighted in the mix for ACL, as he weaves 30 of the festival's performers together in one mega-mix.

Grab the mashup and listen to get a quick glimpse into what we can expect from this year's festival, days ahead of the official lineup release. If that's enough to hook you, buy your tickets now: three day passes are on sale for $170.

ACL ‘08 Rumors: Pearl Jam, Band of Horses, Neil Young, Beck, Robert Plant w/ Alison Krauss, My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, more

2008-04-02T16:21:28Z

According to the ACL Fest 2008 News and Rumors blog, here’s who you can expect to see at ACL ‘08:

Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, Raconteurs, Dave Matthews Band, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Neil Young, Portishead, Beck, My Morning Jacket, Oasis, The Allman Brothers, Death Cab for Cutie, Drive By Truckers, Wilco, Stone Temple Pilots, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Spiritualized, Blind Melon, Jason Mraz, Justice, Dwight Yoakam, Ryan Adams and The Cardinals. Tegan and Sara, Minus the Bear, Jens Lekman, Joe Bonamassa, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, Nada Surf,Tokyo Police Club, Blue Mother Tupelo, The Bees, Rogue Wave, Islands, VHS or Beta, St. Vincent, MGMT, Metric, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Eli Young Band, The Annuals, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Mike Farris, Manchester Orchestra, Sigur Ros, Ben Folds, O.A.R., Iron & Wine, Lee Boys, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Avett Brothers, Ghostland Observatory, Jakob Dylan, Kevin Fowler, Back Door Slam, Mates of State, Matt Costa, Shooter Jennings.

Many more acts still to be announced…

ACL Fest 2008

2008-03-25T13:07:52Z

The Austin City Limits Music Festival comes to Zilker Park in September. This is one of those events that's not for people like me who don't plan more than a...

ACL Fest: Save $20 On Tickets Right...Now

2008-02-02T15:43:42Z

Image via ACLFest.com.

ACL Festival 2008
September 26-28, 2008
Zilker Park Rock Gardens (2100 Barton Springs Road)
$150/3-Day Pass
[info] | [tickets]

Looks like ACL Fest organizers have chosen Groundhog Day to release their mildly discounted multi-passes. 3-day passes priced at $150 including service charges are on sale now at ACLFest.com.

Last year, the discount tickets sold out in less than 12 hours, so Austinist advises that if you're interested, head over there now and grab them. Prices will move to $170 per pass once this initial allotment sells out.

It's far too early for any lineup details, which are usually announced in April or May. Big name touring artists this summer include Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Kanye West, and Coldplay. All but Radiohead and West have played the ACL mainstage in the past, so a return visit from one of them is certainly possible. Petty is the least likely of the above names, as he's already scheduled a late August date in San Antonio. 2007 festival highlights included The Arcade Fire, Bjork, and Muse.

Music festival, as pastry

2007-09-18T17:14:41Z

It’s no secret that ACL Fest has gone corporate. Like, Huey Lewis corporate. But what’s the real scam?

ACL Notes: M.I.A.: Spectacular, a Goddess, Etc.

2007-09-18T20:31:54Z

M.I.A.'s Friday ACL performance felt so seductive because it was both spicy and sweet; but what else can you expect from a girl who salts and peppers her mango?

She burst onto stage wearing pink pedal-pushers, white trainers, wrap-around glasses and war paint, all the while shimmying her heart out to Kala's "Bamboo Banga." Her dancing seemed confounded by tentative limb placement, and it marked her as one extremely sexy dork. (Hawt!)

It's this contradictory complexity that makes Maya Arulpragasam so bewitching. A daughter of war-torn Sri Lanka, she is gifted with a fierce warrior spirit, great physical beauty, anger, warmth, fearlessness, worldliness, a potty mouth, and gangly charm. She's nearly perfect, in that imperfect kind of way.

So it was a privilege just to get within 50 feet of her, and to watch the power of her performance build. And it did have to build. That's because, like her dancing, her voice at first expressed some tentativeness. The night before, when we caught her act on Letterman, we had chalked up her inaudibility to a faulty sound system. But M.I.A.'s lyrics seemed as indiscernible at ACL, all their color and consternation masked by stellar bangra beats, bad articulation, or something in between. For example: when she sang Arular's "Pull up the People," it generated collective ear strain to catch the simple chorus, "pull up the people, pull up the poor." That's no small problem for an MC whose motivating force is the promotion -- the ultra-hip promotion, of course -- of international political awareness. And shakin' ya rump.

Happily, the shakin' ya rump bit was never compromised. All the mumbling in the world couldn't kill the fun and ridiculous danceability of songs like "Boyz" or "Bucky Done Gun". M.I.A. kept on with her hypnotic, tribal inflection, and as she gained momentum (and alcohol), her voice got louder, wilder and more generally assured. In fact, the high point of the show was her invitation to audience members to rush the stage and dance. When they didn't climb the security barriers fast enough, she taunted, "Get up on stage! C'mon, where are the leaders here?!" (Apparently, Austin has so many leaders that the stage was quite immediately filled to capacity, M.I.A was unable to perform, and everyone had to return to their original viewing positions.)

Her afternoon set closed* with "Paper Planes," a giant flip o' the bird to David Letterman, who had forbidden her the previous evening from broadcasting the gunshot and revolver-cock soundscape so central to it's chorus, "All I wanna do is [bang bang bang bang!] and [k-ching] take your money." The song may have even been intended as a piss off to the whole of the United States. After all, M.I.A. has had some well-publicized trouble obtaining a visa, probably because she's suspected as some kind of musical terrorist.

And the shoe might fit; the tone of M.I.A.'s rage is gorgeous and celebratory, but even peaceful protest holds a note of danger when it incriminates those in power. She's not lying when she sings, "I'm knockin' on the doors of your Hummer, Hummer."

[M.I.A. official]
[M.I.A. MySpace]
[M.I.A. Village Voice interview]

Photo courtesy Patrick Dentler

*We discovered today the show closed with "Galang." Apologies for the error. -BL (9/20/07)

ACL Festival boosts local economy by $27 million

2007-09-18T01:35:07Z

According to the Austin Convention and Visitors Board, the three-day event, which ended Sunday night, brought $27 million into the Austin economy. • Photos: Sights from the ACL Festival

Austinist Covers ACL Fest - Sunday

2007-09-17T17:32:04Z

Photos by Joshua Huck

ACL Fest Day Three Wrap-Up: Part One

2007-09-17T16:57:14Z

We entered the park around 1:10pm to the strains of a seriously thrashy number from Yo La Tengo. It was impressive to hear how determined YLT were to throw out some serious noise rock at such an early hour. Being a bit sunburned and rather low-energy, we listened rather than watched, grabbed a blissfully freezing cold beer, and headed over to grab a spot for The National.

The National (1:30pm): What perfect music for a Sunday afternoon. The National took the stage and joked about the hot, still day: "Pray for rain." As they launched into "Start A War," it was hard to resist feeling chills as the song's slow, majestic build began. An ace sound mix really aided the proceedings, as it was easy to hear Matt Berninger's words and slowly take in the beautiful music surrounding them. The group's pacing was excellent, and when they finally tore into full-bore rock mode on "All The Wine," the crowd simultaneously exhaled from the build-up and applauded wildly. Other highlights included new tracks such as "Brainy" and "Slow Show" from the excellent Boxer album. All of the songs were given a beautiful boost thanks to the viola and additional vocals.The National's constant touring this year was obvious in the sharply executed performances, some of which even improved on the album versions. Perhaps the band that everyone will regret missing a year from now, The National's music brought grace, power, and intelligence to the stage and helped cure everyone's Sunday afternoon hangovers. Consider us impressed.

Ben Kweller (2:30pm): After our amiable chat with Kweller back in August, we had to drop in and see how he fared at ACL 2007. Kweller entered dressed totally inappropriately in a long-sleeved stripey T-shirt and red jeans, and we wondered if he'd follow last year's allergy attack with an accidental heatstroke. Short sleeves, Ben, short sleeves! His 3-piece band was solid, but played mostly mid-tempo numbers rather than out-and-out rockers. They may have decided to take it easy on the crowd at such an early hour, focusing on newer material and only playing two songs from our 2002 favorite Sha Sha. Kweller also mentioned that he's stopping over in Austin for a few weeks this fall to record a new album, and featured two new tracks during his set (one of which had a strong Americana and gospel flavor.) The highlight of the set was a two-song (mostly) solo piano sequence featuring new classic "Thirteen" and "In Other Words". He then segued into the sad rocker "Sundress," and as we walked toward the fringes to rehydrate, the huge crowd at the AT&T stage smiled and swayed with the mellow sounds.

Midlake (4:00pm): We were a little surprised to see Midlake performing on the Austin Ventures stage, a relatively small stage that had, for the rest of the weekend, been populated by some pretty big names locally, but not by international acts like Denton's smooth-rockin' darlings. In the end, it made sense: Midlake offer a unique show at a festival the size of ACL, specializing in complex harmonies and multi-instrumentation that probably suffers a bit on a larger scale. We noticed the band struggling to hear themselves on stage, but they worked through it and seemed totally on top of their game once the ball began to roll. The last couple of years have been filled with travel, tours and various efforts to support The Trials of Van Occupanther, and all of that practice was obvious. From "We Gathered In Spring" to crowd favorite "Roscoe", the band was tight and polished, showcasing their apparent adoration for classic rock, their talent as arrangers and their beautiful vocals. "Head Home," a compelling tune featuring a fuzzy '70s guitar solo, some of their most complicated vocal arrangements and a steady, pulsing beat propelled by bass and drums, was a highlight. The crowd got a special treat midway through the set as the band introduced their friend John, who shocked his girlfriend by proposing on stage. The crowd cheered as John got an emphatic "Yes!" and as the couple exited stage left, the band jumped right into "Young Bride". Midlake's set was one of our favorites of the weekend, and we were totally wrong about them being on the wrong stage: the intimacy of the smaller Ventures stage was perfect for their tightly knit, carefully composed tunes.

Images via Joshua Huck. Midlake review by Paige Maguire.

Austinist Covers ACL Fest - Sunday

2007-09-17T04:32:04Z

Photos by Joshua Huck

Austinist Covers ACL Fest: Friday Afterparty Snapshots

2007-09-16T17:43:28Z

Photos by Joshua Huck

ACL wraps up

2007-09-17T04:05:34Z

The sixth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival has come to an end. Organizers say about 65,000 people attended each of the three days.

Austinist Covers ACL Fest: Saturday Afterparty Snapshots

2007-09-16T18:14:21Z

Photos by Joshua Huck

Austinist Covers ACL Fest: Saturday Snapshots

2007-09-16T17:43:18Z

Photos by Joshua Huck

Austinist Covers ACL Fest: Friday Snapshots

2007-09-16T17:00:53Z

Photos by Joshua Huck