Video Du Jour: Social Distortion

Forgive us, but new videos keep popping up on the Austin City Limits festival webcast channel with cool performances from last weekend’s festival. We may share one or two … today it’s Social Distortion, with their take on the Johnny Cash classic “Ring of Fire.”

Austin City Limits festival: Day Three

The third and final day of the Austin City Limits festival had something for everyone – even cooler temperatures and mercifully, a sprinkling of rain. Headliners Arcade Fire closed out the event with a rousing set; here are the band’s first four songs, courtesy of the Austin City Limits festival webcast.

Austin City Limits festival official website

Austin City Limits Festival: Day Two

More fun from the second day of the big ol’ Austin City Limits Festival down here in Texas. First a video recap that ends with My Morning Jacket:

Iron and Wine “Me and Lazarus”

The Antlers “I Don’t Want Love”

Austin City Limits Festival webcast website: Today they have performances by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., The Head and the Heart, The Walkmen, Ryan Bingham and Fleet Foxes scheduled, among others.

Live: Austin City Limits Festival, Day Three Wrap-up

 

ACL 2010 - Best weather ever!

 

The Austin City Limits festival has now passed into history, with postcard-perfect weather for perhaps the first time in its nine-year history.  Our correspondent Lily Angelle had to attend class today, so she asked me to convey that the three-day festival was so worth it for unsurpassed performances by the Strokes, the Flaming Lips and the Black Keys, among others.

 

Wayne Coyne and the Bear

 

So the Lips captured many hearts with their Sunday show in the fading daylight – Wayne Coyne sang most of “Silver Trembling Hands” from the shoulders of some dude wearing a bear outfit (or a real bear wearing Wayne Coyne).  The Lips’ frontman also rolled into the audience inside his “space bubble” while the band swirled through one of the Flaming Lips’ psychedelic favorites.

Our reporter and her companion also caught some of the set by Texas favorite Robert Earl Keen, and managed to score an autograph from Norah Jones.  They also enjoyed the psychedelic indie-thump of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, whose set-closing “Home” detonated the most explosive response from the sun-saturated crowd.

The duo wanted to catch at least one iconic tune from Sunday’s headliners the Eagles, and they didn’t have to wait long: “Hotel California” was programmed as the third song in the set, and all but the die-hards headed for the exits.   Her last bit of info was not intended for general readership, but y’all may be interested: “early bird” tickets for the 2011 Austin City Limits festival go on sale in a couple weeks.

YouTube: “Hotel California” by the Eagles at ACL 2010

Video wrapups of each festival day at Austin City Limits festival website

Coverage on KUT-FM, Austin

Coverage on KGSR-FM, Austin

Get yer Free ACL related MP3s from Spinner.com

SPIN magazine’s 10 must-hear artists at the ACL festival

SPIN magazine’s free ACL mixtape (e-mail required)

ThinkIndie’s free 2010 ACL artist sampler (registration required)

More photos after the jump

Live: Austin City Limits Festival Day Two – Local Natives, Gogol Bordello, M.I.A.

 

M.I.A. onstage Saturday night at Austin City Limits festival

 

(Editor’s Note: Our Austin correspondent Lily Angelle is covering the Austin City Limits festival in Austin’s Zilker Park, and Saturday she dipped her toe into the variety evident at this year’s event.)

Everybody is saying how this weekend’s weather is perfect for a festival, perhaps the best it’s ever been in the eight-year history of the ACL fest.  Saturday we walked the grounds a bit, sampling some of the food and the variety of music.

We saw Local Natives, a California band that we also caught earlier this year at SXSW.  I like this band’s mix of world beat and rock, and they helped me get over not being able to see Vampire Weekend on Friday.  This is very happy music, perfect for this sunburn kind of day.

 

Gogol Bordello

 

And I really liked Gogol Bordello, the gypsy punk band from New York City.  There’s no way I can tell you many of the song titles but their set was full of energy and fun – front man Eugene Hutz had his shirt off and the entire group remained in constant motion through the set.  People went nuts during their accordion-driven “Start Wearing Purple,” which I’m told is one of their most popular tunes.  People tried to crowd surf during the Gogol Bordello set, but each time somebody went up security was right there to bring them down and walk them away.  Where do they go?  I don’t know, I hope those people weren’t getting tossed out though.

We also caught some of the Black Lips, who sound like they could be a cross between a garage band and the Jefferson Airplane.  I wasn’t too thrilled with these guys, but they drew a large crowd for their early set.

After Gogol Bordello, we were positioning ourselves for one of the headliners so we saw/heard Matt and Kim from a distance … they sounded pretty good.  But we were in place for M.I.A., the singer/rapper whose real name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam.  We got “XR2” and “Bamboo Banga” from her 2007 album Kala and the obligatory “Paper Planes,” most famously from the movie Slumdog Millionaire.  M.I.A. is also in constant motion, and she really sent everyone into a frenzy when she ventured out into the crowd.  She can really mix it up – even though she has only three albums, M.I.A. puts on a strong and entertaining show.

We walked over to catch the big finale of Muse, as they kicked into “Stockholm Syndrome” and the encore with “Plug In Baby.”  Lots of fireworks and smoke, and a very appreciative crowd here too.  Amazing that two headliners can put on big shows on opposite end of a park, and each has an audience of literally tens of thousands of people!

Today is the last day of the festival; we’re going to try and catch some of the big names including Robert Earl Keen, Norah Jones and the Flaming Lips.  And if we have to, some of the Eagles.

UPDATE: Muse will stream its entire ACL set here at 10 p.m. CDT today.

Webcast at Austin City Limits festival site

Coverage on KUT-FM, Austin

Coverage on KGSR-FM, Austin

Daily updates from the Austin American Statesman (5:30 p.m. CDT)

Get yer Free ACL related MP3s from Spinner.com

SPIN magazine’s 10 must-hear artists at the ACL festival

SPIN magazine’s free ACL mixtape (e-mail required)

ThinkIndie’s free 2010 ACL artist sampler (registration required)

 

Local Natives

 

 

M.I.A. works the crowd while security hangs on

 

Live: Austin City Limits Festival Preview

Not quite Woodstock - but a crowd nevertheless

Austin, Texas, hosts the big ol’ Austin City Limits festival beginning today (Friday) and ending Sunday – scheduled performers include the Black Keys, the Strokes, Muse, M.I.A., Spoon, the Eagles and many more.  Our Austin correspondent Lily Angelle is on the grounds right now, and she will send reports every night.  Hopefully she will also send along some photos that we can post intermittently over the weekend.

We already got a taste of this year’s festival with the controversial “pre-show” by the Strokes on Wednesday, and our reporter promises she will give the New Yorkers another chance when they hit the ACL stage around 8 p.m. tonight.  The Black Keys, led by Dan Auerbach, promises to be another highlight this evening.

Anyway, drop by over the weekend – we’ll update when we can.  You can catch a webcast of the music from the official festival site, and Austin radio station KUT-FM is providing wall-to-wall coverage as well.

Webcast at Austin City Limits festival site

Get yer Free ACL related MP3s from Spinner.com

SPIN magazine’s 10 must-hear artists at the ACL festival

SPIN magazine’s free ACL mixtape (e-mail required)

ThinkIndie’s free 2010 ACL artist sampler (registration required)