If braving the Texas heat and wading through crowds of festival-goers at ACL isn’t your thing or you just couldn’t afford it, but you still want to get out of the house and your dancin’ shoes are beggin’ for some wear and tear, feel free to visit Emo’s Friday night. ‘Free’ being the most important word there, because it is. The Clientele, Oakley Hall and Zykos are offering a varied night of art pop, psychedelic country-folk and staple Austin indie rock for those who aren’t too busy sweating it out in Zilker Park.

The Clientele, a London-based foursome, have an adorable sound filled out with softly-sung vocals and 60s pop sounds delicately dusted with twilight keys and featherweight violin. Brooklyn’s Oakley Hall has worked their way out of playing honky tonk covers as a 10-person collective and into an astral form of Americana with soaring cross-gender vocals, lap steel guitar and a hell of a lot of upward mobility. They just released their fourth full-length and first for Merge Records, I’ll Follow You. Zykos is a band name no show-going Austinite should have to be reminded of. Between singer/guitarist Mike Booher booking shows around town and Zykos frequently in an opening slot on many of the city’s worthwhile indie rock shows featuring Booher’s distinctive wild and emotional vocals and a sound that grows bigger by the show, they’re pretty hard to miss. Hey Mike, when’s that new CD coming out?

We found the time amid all the ACL chaos to catch up with Jesse Barnes, bassist/vocalist for Oakley Hall, to hear about fiddles and lap steels in Brooklyn and their dive bar days.

Why did you guys choose the name Oakley Hall? Are you big fans of the Western American novelist?

When we chose the name I didn't know who Oakley Hall was. We all thought it sounded good and sort of fit with the band. Afterwards, I picked up a copy of Warlock, which is his best known work and really enjoyed it. It's an epic western loosely based on the OK Corral shootout and the events surrounding it. I've just started his new book Love and War in California, and so far I like it.

The Clientele w/ Oakley Hall, Zykos
Friday, September 14th
Emo's (Inside)
Free Show
Doors at 8pm, Show at 10pm

The Clientele Official
Oakley Hall Official
Zykos MySpace

How do crowds in Brooklyn react to fiddle and lap steel?

There are so many different styles of music in Brooklyn nowadays that I don't think anyone was shocked by our sound. I think it's refreshing for some people to see a band with some different instrumentation as opposed to the typical guitar and laptop Williamsburg art rock band.

I know you guys have played in Austin before. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about playing here?

I love this town. We always get a good response, and I have some really great friends here. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is fun.

What is the music scene like in New York right now? I hear that some people are anticipating a real drop off in the arts scene there because it's getting so expensive to live there.

It's pretty much always been expensive to live there. People just keep moving further out in Brooklyn. There's still a whole lot of different music scenes. The venues keep changing because people keep spreading out into different neighborhoods. Now the cool art and music spaces are all out in Bushwick and East Williamsburg, and you have to try a little harder to find them.

Do you consider yourselves as having more in common musically with older folk music or the newer stuff?

I'd like to think we have a pretty open mind to all styles of music new and old. I know for myself, I've played just about every style you can think of over the years and that all ends up in the mix. I think Pat and Rachel write songs mostly in a more conventional country/folk tradition, but when the rest of the band gets to them, they end up all over the map.

Do you think that people are getting a little tired of 'conventional rock elements' and that's why more and more bands these days seem to be incorporating fiddles and banjos and horns?

I think musicians get bored doing the same old thing and constantly want to try different sounds. Hopefully, that will always be the case. Also, I think the recording process has changed and this has a lot to do with it. Now, artists are free to add as many overdubs as they want, and the result is that they're adding all sorts of different instrumentation. This can be good or bad. I think limitations are good in some ways, which is why we don't really go overboard with adding nine million tracks to a record. It makes mixing a lot more difficult, also.

What prompted you guys to whittle down the lineup from the 10-member collective atmosphere you guys had during the early 'dive bar' years?

I guess mostly logistics. Stages were too small. Touring as a six piece is hard enough. Although, the band seemed to whittle itself down. The really driven, committed ones stuck around while the others left on their own accord.