Sunday summary

My Sunday ACL lineup

My Sunday picks, designed for minimal walking/wheelchair pushing:

Yellow Ostrich: Indie pop.

little hurricane: blues/rock duo.

Graffiti 6: Soul/pop.

The Head and the Heart: KGSR friendly folk/pop harmonies.

Suzanna Choffel: local chanteuse makes it big

Nick 13: Americana/country

Broken Social Scene: indie pop/rock supergroup.

Elbow: UK rock/pop awesomeness. Highly recommended.

Fleet Foxes: folk

Empire of the Sun: MGMT/Phoenix dance band. Looks like it could be a cool show.

Arcade Fire: In my top 10 of best live shows ever, maybe top 5, and I've seen a lot of live shows. Don't miss a single minute.

Saturday summary

Had a little blip the other day so didn't get this out. I'll do two in a row.

My Saturday ACL lineup:

Here are Saturday's picks:

Telekinesis: Indie pop

The Antlers: mellow. Highly recommended.

Belle Brigade: Fleetwood Mac style 70s harmonies. Another highly recommended show.

Phosphorescent: Gram Parson's style Americana

Black Dub: Daniel Lanois' latest project. Funk/dubstep

Abigail Washburn: country/pop w/banjo.

The Moondoggies: Fleet Foxes style folk w/a country rock bent.

Fitz and the Tantrums: it's that or Skrillex.

Cut Copy: awesome live act. Highly recommended.

Chromeo: 80s style funk/synth. Really fun.

Stevie Wonder: For once in your life, you have to see him.

Losers

I said I wanted this song to be experienced live but I just saw this video. Belle Brigade plays Saturday. Watch this. You're welcome:

Friday summary

I was told it's too hard to scroll through to find the bands so I'll finish up this project with a daily summary. Today is Friday. You can see my custom schedule here.

Here are my picks for Friday. Click to read more about them and listen to a song.

Cults: Good start to the day. Retro/dreamy indie pop.

An Horse: Indie pop from Australia. Reminds me of Teagan and Sara.

Ha Ha Tonka: Americana. KGSR friendly.

Secret Sisters: More Americana. If that's not your thing go check out Wild Beasts, who are mellow a la the National.

Francisca Valenzuela: Chilean pop.

The Cave Singers: Folk/Americana. Cross between Fleet Foxes and Head and the Heart.

Kurt Vile: mellow rock/singer-songwriter.

Charles Bradley: old school soul. Think James Brown/Al Green.

I didn't preview Gary Clark, Jr. or Santigold but you should know them. See Gary Clark, Jr. now before he goes big-time.

Mavis Staples: KGSR friendly.

Kanye West: not KGSR friendly. The anti-Coldplay.

Futurebirds

It looks like MONA cancelled their 2:30 Sunday slot. In their place is Suzanna Choffel. Good for her! Maybe we should lend our support. The other options are Airborne Toxic Event and The Walkmen.

Another band I skipped the first time around the schedule: Futurebirds. Psychedelic Folk-rock from Athens, GA. They are playing opposite Cults at 11:45 on Friday so probably won't see them this time. This song reminds me a little of the Billy Bragg and Wilco collaboration.

Johnny Utah

Telekinesis

I've finished up the schedule by timeslot so I'll try to go back and see if I missed anyone we should try to check out. Telekinesis is playing at 11:45 on Saturday, before the Antlers. The band is basically a solo project by Michael Benjamin Lerner. He's in Seattle and signed to Merge Records, home of Spoon and Arcade Fire. Straight-up indie-pop, this song reminds me of Generationals or Cloud Control. If we can get up and going early it may be worth it to see these guys.

Car Crash

Graffiti6

They found a replacement for the Vaccines at 12:30 on Sunday: Graffiti6. A duo from the UK, they have a couple hits there and were recently signed to Capitol Records in the U.S. I listened to one of the popular songs, "Annie You Save Me", and thought it was kinda saccharine pop. But then I read this review from KCRW and decided to listen to another song, "Stare into the Sun". I like this one. Based on the KCRW review it may be worth checking them out.

Stare into the Sun

Empire of the Sun

I'm going to skip ahead to 7:30pm on Sunday. We've got Hayes Carll and Randy Newman for all the traditionalists. I already waxed poetic about Randy Newman. The thing is, I plan to get up close for Arcade Fire so I won't get to see anyone's set to the end. Given that, the band facing the Arcade Fire stage is Empire of the Sun. An Australian duo, their debut album has been a huge success. I hear lots of MGMT with a little Phoenix, Cut Copy, and Temper Trap mixed in. I like it. Check out their video below to see their stage show. Quite outrageous. Should be a good opener for Arcade Fire.

We Are the People

We Are Augustines

We are now up to Sunday at 6:30. The choices are Fleet Foxes, Manu Chao, Gomez, and We Are Augustines. I may post something from the other bands but figured I'd start with the new band. They are playing the BMI stage which is typically for local Austin acts or small unknown bands. It's not typically for the buzz bands. The buzz bands usually get the early slots. So this is unusual.

We Are Augustines just came out with their first album. They are compared to Bruce Springsteen with a little Arcade Fire. I hear some Hold Steady. Very earnest and cathartic, the album was recorded after some major tragedies in the lead singer's life. Like "Funeral", it's getting great reviews and helped the band land a prime-time slot on Sunday at ACL before Arcade Fire. I'm not a big Hold Steady fan so this music isn't right up my alley but I figure if this is going to be the future headliner it may be worth seeing them on a small stage.

Chapel Song

little hurricane

Since the Vaccines cancelled their tour we now have an opening at 12:30 on Sunday. The alternative is a duo that plays blues-rock with a male guitarist and female drummer. Not the White Stripes. It's a band called little hurricane. Not a bad sound. Listen to the attached song or watch the video of another song.

Crocodile Tears

Elbow

There's no decision to make at 5:30 on Sunday: I'm seeing Elbow. Hugely popular in England thanks to their 2008 Mercury Prize winning album "The Seldom Seen Kid", it's a treat to have them playing in the U.S. They site their influences as old Genesis, Talk Talk, and Radiohead. I definitely hear the vintage Peter Gabriel influence, especially in their latest album. It has some 6-8 minute songs that are pretty mellow so not sure how they'll be live. I have heard they're a great live band, though. We'll see.

The attached song is an older one.

The video below is their hit. It's a great song: lyrics and music. It's from Glastonbury in 2008. I read a quote from NME.com that there were "grown men weeping buckets during this." A wonderful communal bonding experience. One day like this a year'd see me right.

Grounds for Divorce