Breaking Music News: ACL Fest Reveals First Big Names of 2007

Censorship on the board? Where did the last post go?

boycott this corporate acl festival taking hush money from AMD ( one corporate sponsors of the festival stages )until they stop the new office complex on has Polluted the Barton Springs watershed in Zilker Park with huge amounts of sediment that washed off their sites with modest rains on March 26Th( 1.49 inches at Camp Mabry and 1.2 inches at the airport). It was enough to wash untold amounts of construction pollution off two large building sites in the fragile Barton Springs watershed. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) polluted the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer with dirty runoff leaving their construction sites. Fortunately, we were there to take pictures and video of the pollution.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is building an 860,000 square foot office complex in the Barton Springs watershed. Rains on March 26Th washed construction sediment over, around, and literally through AMD's erosion and sedimentation "controls." The result is muddy, silt-laden water leaving the site and flowing into a tributary of the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer.

Save Our Springs Alliance and many other groups and thousands of citizens urged AMD not to move to the Barton Springs watershed, in part because of concerns that they would pollute the aquifer and springs during construction. AMD insisted that they would their project would be " green.The City of Austin has reportedly given AMD a notice of violation of city rules, but the City did not issue a stop-work order or fine AMD.

please tell all the bands this there will be a protest this year will presidential hopefuls coming to Austin where the fuck you going to cool off if it gets into the 100,s like most years Visit the SOS Alliance Website

221 E. 9Th Street, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78701

Trees are the things that get in the way of building new condos, but you can see them in planned suburban communities like Circle C where the HOA dictates that all houses must have 2 trees, 3 bushes, and 23 flowers.

What're these "tree"s everyone's always talking about?

I have never in my life been called cool. But I take the "jerk" as a compliment. ;)

Yes, Pappster-- a hat with holes does not provide shade at all to ones' eyes, face, and neck. Just like a tree, with spaces between it's leaves, does not provide shade at all.

ol pappy,

stuff your cool hats where the sun don't shine...what a jerk you are...but I suppose that's not the first time someone has told you that.

Jennifer,

How the hell is a hat with holes in it gonna protect your head (I'm assuming from the sun)? All I can see it doing is keep your head boiling and making little sunburned dots on your head. The hats irk me because the only time I see them is ACL-time. That and they look stupid and they're the most retarded concept for a hat. If it was cold enough for a hat, why would you want a hat with holes in it. If it's too hot for your Stetson, why are you cramming something on your head anyway? It beguiles me.

picked on by "cool" people like zues is my guess

stan must not get out much slash he was heavily picked on in school.

I guess that I have some hat shopping to do. You never know who may be watching.

Fashion aside, I guess I'll be the only one who might like Peter Bjorn and John since I missed them at SXSW.

I wish Factory People would start selling straw cowboy hats, so all you pretentious fucks crammed into 80s inspired doucheware would instead wear those hats while you're at Beauty Bar listen to Car Stereo Wars or at Emo's pretending that the Black Angels aren't boring.

For a town that allegedly is laid back and mocks other Texas cities for looking and acting they way they do, Austin sure is filled with an assload of fashionistas who care way too much about what other people are wearing.

I've never ever gone to a show to look at the people not on the stage. Maybe I didn't get the memo though.

Wouldn't those big flower hats be much more protective and cool than a binding cowbooy hat that has less coverage and retains humid air? Oh yeah - that's right. They aren't cool.

Who cares what you want to wear - if people want to wear straw cowboy hats so be it, just because they choose to look like a douchebag doesn't mean you have to - don't wear one and take pride in knowing you were smart enough to not wear something so cliche and douchebaggish.

ol' pappy, I'm certainly no Dallas sorority girl. I just like a hat that's going to keep my head protected and cool. And that's going to be the straw cowboy hat that I happen to own - so there ;-P !

Yup she do and she looks ugly as sin while wearing it too.

Jennifer, you can wear whatever hat you wanna wear but those straw cowboy hats just scream "SORORITY GIRL FROM DALLAS HERE THINKIN' I OWN THE TOWN YEE-HAW!"

I just think they look retarded.

good grief...so what kind of hat is "acceptable" to wear at ACL ? can someone please let me know *sheesh* ?

Your mom wears a straw cowboy hat.

That's what ACL means to me:

straw cowboy hats all the time.

I'd love to see Bjork and The White Stripes but it's too goddamn hot and there are too many assholes in straw cowboy hats.

Aw geeze guys. The straw-cowboy-hat look is still hot this year right? Right? I can still wear my straw-cowboy-hat at ACL time right? Right? Will someone please tell me my straw-cowboy-hat is really stylin' so I can stop obsessing about my love/hate relationship with my straw-cowboy-hat right? Right? Oh please, tell me Phish is playing.

The only band on there I really want to see is the Heartless Bastards. Let's hope they play a club show so I don't have to bother with the festival and all the chair people.

I saw Peter Bjorn and John at Emo's during SXSW and they sucked. I was really disapointed because I like their album a lot. I don't imagine they will be much better on a big festival stage.

Blonde Redhead and JAMC please.

I don't know what message board you're looking at, Charles, but most of the people at the official ACL message board are pretty fair-handed in giving bands a chance. There are plenty of us over there who are geninuely stoked about having Bjork play the fest, and even many of those who don't care for her music are at least saying they're glad that so many other people are excited about her appearance -- they're just hoping another band more to their tastes will play opposite her. Don't characterize all the people on that board as close-minded and smug when making a sweeping generalization like that. Pot, kettle, black (what a great Wilco song that is!).

It's so lame how all the jam band fans are ripping on Bjork on the ACL message board and saying they are definitely going to leave for her set and then they rave about Dave Matthews Band, Medeski Martin and Wood, and reminisce about Tom Petty (ugh) last year. I hope she gets a large enthusiastic audience in Austin-she deserves it, she's brilliant. And it's a shame that so many of the ACL fest audience is so close minded and smug.

Eli Young Band has ACL on their tour schedule according to their myspace page, so there's another one.

Hey, I'm not a fan of the chair cities either, but if you can figure out a better way for me to smuggle in a six-pack and tacos, let me know.

I'm totally with you Dan, on the cahir people. I conversed with CSE a few times over email about it after last ACL and they promised to take care of the situation. I just hope that their attempts at "taking care of things" isn't the equivalent of their past attempts of using a sign that just gets disregarded.

thanks for the info, bjork lovaaaahs.

i once met this girl who put her credit card in water, then stuck it in her freezer so she couldn't use it. her mom did the same. apparently it was *in the genes*.

but now that bjork is confirmed...everyone get yo ice picks out. holla.

The Chair People are in tight with the Illuminati, Trilateral Commission, and the World Bank. They cannot be stopped. You're on the watch list already, "Dan Atkinson"

dan....word on the banning of the Chair-People at ACL. can't stand them.

also...crossing my fingers for JAMC at ACL, or in Texas at all

PBJ? Are you dicking me? Ok sure they have a couple catchy cuts on their album but live, at a festival nevertheless, definitely anything but special.

that's the entire point! while the majority of fest-goers cram onto some side stage to see this awful "buzz band," maybe a bunch of us can see something better with minimal crowd size :)

btw...Blonde Redhead are confirmed for ACL, they said so at Stubb's last night...wooooo

There are some big-name acts that have open schedules right around ACL and are doing the festival circuit already:

Smashing Pumpkins

Arcade Fire

Red Hot Chili Peppers (not likely)

Beastie Boys

Ben Harper

I'll be crossing my fingers for Billy and Jimmy.

I just saw Bjork live for the first time at Coachella. Her performance was very, very impressive... She had a full horns section, and a DJ with this crazy futuristic touchscreen mixing device that looked like it was out of a sci-fi movie. Her new material sounded stellar, and she reworked the older stuff to sound very rich and epic with the addition of the horns. I would say that she was the 2nd best performance I saw at the festival this year, close behind and absolutely spectacular set from The Arcade Fire. Given all of the amazing bands that I saw there, that is saying a lot. Hopefully she'll bring a similarly elaborate setup for ACL.

PB&J on the other hand, sucked a big one @ Coachella. They seem to be really hot-cold live... it's like they're not really into it most of the time. Of the three times that I've seen them live, only one was impressive. I feel bad for them because I really like their music, but in terms of stage presence, they are usually lacking.

Also, I was told by multiple folks at Coachella that Gotan Project was one of their surprise favorite sets of the festival. Unfortunately, I missed them... Their music is really lush laid back and should be a great match for the sure to be sweltering temperatures at ACL.

The initial 15 bands look very promising... If I remember from last year, they held back and did not drop the biggest names in the Scavenger Hunt. I think the final announcement will reveal a few more mega-headliner type bands. I also would definitely really like to see Arcade Fire added. Also, depth is key, and I'm curious to see the quality of the 2nd and 3rd tier bands this year... while there were some good picks last year, I felt this is where ACL was particularly weak. They need to think like Coachella and focus on getting bands that are good live, not just random buzz bands.

Also, I'm hopeful that they can get of the sound issues worked out this year. ACL has been plagued by bad sound the past few years. I am really starting to see this as a big downside of ACL compared to other big festivals.

Oh, yeah... and PLEASE BAN THE CHAIRS! The best part of a festival is going around from stage to stage, exploring, and exposing yourself to new music. I absolutely can not stand the lazy, militant chair people at ACL. You know, the ones that get to the main stage at 2pm with 10 blankets and a massive pile of huge folding lounge chairs and proceed create a small replica of their living room. Then whenever the crowd tries to move through, they defend their territory as though they own the 150 sq feet of the park that that they laid claim to. This is a big problem at ACL and needs to be addressed. At a minimum they should move the chair-free zone back at least a few hundred more feet from the main stages and actually enforce it for a change.

There are Bjork live videos out there... from what I remember it was a good show.

Though personally, I'm more excited about the White Stripes.

From what I've been reading, Bjork was one of the best acts at Coachella. I've only heard amazing things about her live performances.

Bjork is incredible live-everyone I know that has seen her has raved over her. She never plays Texas, so well played ACL Fest!!! It's going to be great!!!

thank you austinist for this amazing bjork news! my wife and i drove to red rocks in colorado to see her back 2002 and it was amazing. she is worth it.

i just bought tickets for ACL! my credit card hurts.....

PBJ? Are you dicking me? Ok sure they have a couple catchy cuts on their album but live, at a festival nevertheless, definitely anything but special.

Robert Earl Keen & Josh Stone? So this is supposed put me into a salivating frenzy to throw down $150?

where are the big names? This looks like a reunion tour for those who have passed their prime or don't get any other gigs than ACL.

excellent question! another question: i love love bjork. but i heard she's not great live. is that actually true?

why is björk listed second? why is she not listed first?

can you say Boy Dylan and Arcade fire