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

Ryan Bingham

The other 4:30 act is a staple on KGSR with "Weary Kind" and "Hallelujah". Most of what I knew of his was slow ballads. I'll share something different. This was the first song he played at Stubb's and it got the crowd hootin' and hollerin'. He can redneck with the best of them. This song reminds me of "Guitar Town" era Steve Earle, right down to the anti-establishment lyrics.

Dollar a Day

Broken Social Scene

ACL books average acts from 2:30-4:30 on Sunday and then puts two good acts at 4:30. So we have another decision to make. Fortunately we saw both of them just recently: Ryan Bingham at Stubb's on May 21st and Broken Social Scene at LZR on February 18th. Both were great shows. I'll play something from both since I can't decide.

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian "collective" from Toronto, but its core is 2 guys. Feist used to be with them but she's gone on to bigger things. Their songs vary from peppy to mellow but their show is mostly upbeat. Can't go wrong seeing them. This is my favorite song of theirs.

Texico Bitches

Nick 13

Playing next to AWOLNATION on the Austin Ventures stage at 3:45 on Sunday is Nick 13. He's a solo musician that plays old country/Americana in the tradition of Buck Owens or Roy Orbison. This is my bet for worst bleed-over from another stage. His music is going to be inaudible with the bass beats from next door. Still may be a good alternative to the hip-hop of Chiddy Bang.

Carry My Body Down

AWOLNATION

There are two bands in the 3:30-4:40 slot on Sunday that may be worth checking out. Two very different bands. Both are solo projects. I'll start with AWOLNATION since it's Friday and this is most definitely a Friday kind of song. Even if we don't go see them I have a feeling we'll be able to hear them everywhere. LOUD bass. Electronica/rock. He was at SXSW and also played LZR back in April to a packed house. This will be a rave scene. Check the video from LZR below, too.

Sail

The Walkmen

2:30 to 4:30 on Sunday is a dead zone for me. Nothing really sticks out at this point. At 2:30 you've got MONA (U2 wannabes), Airborne Toxic Event (generic rock) and The Walkmen. I'll flip a coin...

The Walkmen have been around awhile and I think they even played ACL a few years ago. Originally from D.C., they met at St. Albans Prep School (Al Gore, Neil Bush, John D. Rockefeller V, etc. You get the picture) but now are in NYC. Their sound is similar to other Northeast bands (Strokes, Real Estate, Interpol, White Rabbits). I listened to "You & Me", one of their recent albums, and liked this song the best.

Canadian Girl

The Head and the Heart

You shouldn't vote until you've heard all the options. I said there were 3 bands in this 1:30 scheduling dilemma. The third is Seattle's The Head and the Heart. We saw them at SXSW and they were great. They're riding a wave of popularity that includes an ACL taping while they're here.

Lost in my Mind

Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr

Sunday at 1:30 is another scheduling dilemma. There's not really anything I want to see between 2:30 and 4:30 yet there are 3 bands I want to see at 1:30. The Greencards are originally from Australia but got popular while living in Austin a couple years ago. They moved on to Nashville to make it big and are back playing ACL. Good bluegrass sound. They play at 1:20 on the Austin Ventures stage.

The 2nd band I'd like to see is Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr. Two guys from Detroit who play endearing pop. We saw them at SXSW and they were great. Quite a show to see. They dress up in NASCAR outfits and have a great time on stage. The music is good, too. This song is straight-up Paul McCartney pop.

Simple Girl

The Vaccines

We have a new sponsor at ACL. The Zilker stage (originally the Heineken stage) is now the Google+ stage. My suggestion for basecamp on Sunday is between the Google+ stage and the Bud Light stage.

Assuming we get there by 12:30 on Sunday, my vote is The Vaccines. I'm not a big fan of their style but they could be good live. They just formed last year but exploded in the U.K. and are now touring the U.S. They were at SXSW, too. They're compared to the Ramones and the Jesus and Mary Chain but I hear some Strokes influence, too. At least in this song.

Post Break-Up Sex

Yellow Ostrich

On to Sunday. I'm not sure about this band. They're playing in the "hip indie band" slot of early Sunday morning so ACL must like them. 11:45 may be too early for me. They were the buzz at SXSW. Barsuk just re-released their first album so expect more buzz.

When I first heard them I thought they sounded too much like other experimental indie bands out there like Dirty Projectors or Animal Collective. Now that I've listened again I think there's more to it. They've got a romantic quirkiness like the Modern Lovers, and good pop sensibilities, too.

Whale