Things are a little nutso around here after the ACL weekend, but we're finding our bearings. Here's the photo accompaniment to our article about the Arcade Fire playing ACL Live, with photos by Trent Lesikar . more ›

In 2007 Peter Silberman was quietly dabbling with a solo project he called The Antlers. Still relatively unknown, he had no idea what was in store for him when he (pulling back mostly to guitar and vocals) joined up with Darby Cicci (keyboards, trumpet, bowed banjo) and Michael Lerner (percussion) for the release of Hospice in 2009. Their heart-wrenching crescendo/decrescendos song structures and heavy lyrical tales hit to the core of their listeners as they turned heads and melted hearts with their epic breakthrough LP. Earlier this summer the Brooklyn-based three-piece returned to prove their staying power with Bust Apart, a well-rounded and well-received release that showcases an accessible musicality that reveals the growth of an outfit capable of creating some truly enchanting, atmospheric, and borderline pop music. Following The Antlers' third full-length release, they stopped in Austin earlier this summer for a stellar show at Emo’s. Next week they will return to play ACL Saturday afternoon. During a mid-summer break from touring, Silberman took some to catch up with Austinist to talk about time in the studio, finding art in misery, and his back-up plan/interest in astronomy. more ›

The first season at Moody Theater continues, and ACL has announced a handful of really exciting tapings coming up in 2011. Joanna Newsom, The Decemberists, Gillian Welch, Jeff Bridges and Arcade Fire are all scheduled to appear (dates after the jump). As always, they suggest staying in touch for details: "Any announcements regarding ticket availability and giveaways for the public will be posted on the ACL blog approximately one week before each taping." Follow at Twitter for breaking news. more ›

The Austin City Limits festival has confirmed their second Sunday headliner: Manu Chao. Chao will perform in his La Ventura trio format, which is a more acoustic-based show than some of his past Austin and ACL appearances. Chao fills the void in the top tier of the schedule for early Sunday evening; the French artist who sings in roughly a half dozen language is a stadium rock act in many parts of the world, so he'll likely have no trouble entertaining Zilker Park opposite the more mellow sounds of Fleet Foxes across the park. Friday's schedule also had a late addition in Philadelphia's Kurt Vile, an indie rock artist who has received raves in Pitchfork and The Onion for his latest Matador release Smoke Ring For My Halo. Sunday passes are still available at aclfestival.com; Friday tickets are now sold out. more ›

Steve Miller performed to capacity audiences two nights last week at the confusingly named ACL Live at the Moody Theater venue to break in the new Austin City Limits soundstage. more ›

The February opening of the ACL Live venue at The W Hotel in the 2nd Street District is an exciting milestone for Austin music lovers, but has also led to some understandable confusion. Most of this stems from the fact that the venue is a dual-purpose concert venue: the ground floor will be used for roughly 20 Austin City Limits TV tapings each season, while the entire three levels of the space will be (far more frequently) utilized as a 2,700-seat space for touring concerts - essentially, a slightly larger venue than Stubb's. So - will every event at ACL Live be taped for TV? Well, no. But the state-of-the-art theater will attract some roadshows that may have otherwise skipped Austin - to boot, both Janet Jackson and John Mellencamp have already announced dates in April.

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While tuning in to the KLRU-produced Austin City Limits is always a good idea, this week's episode holds an especially big place in our hearts. Saturday's show features a co-bill of The National and Band Of Horses, bands that have each grown from playing SXSW sets in the volleyball pit at Pok-E-Jo's (Band Of Horses, circa 2006) and matinees at Ruta Maya (The National, 2005) to deserving, full-bore festival headliners over the last half-decade.

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• One wonders if that Def Leppard tribute band in Dallas has found their one-armed drummer yet?
• Maybe it’s time to go to Dallas and try this “Hollandaise sauce, which tasted as if it had been lovingly crafted out of first kisses, hilarious Internet cat videos and freedom.”
• You can stream Austin City Limit’s Monsters of Folk show.

As of today, ACL Live is an official, impending reality for Austinites. Their new website is live, and they've announced the first round of live performances, including dates for Blue October, Willie Nelson and Styx. more ›

Last night's Austin City Limits taping with Lyle Lovett was a historic moment and the end of an era for the iconic PBS series which has been in Studio 6A at KLRU-TV on the campus of UT for 36 years. In early 2011 the show will move into its new digs downtown at the W Hotel. Before the show began, executive producer Terry Lickona said "we're saving Willie for the new venue" in response to people who felt he should have been taping the final episode (after all, he was on the pilot episode 36 years ago). He went on to speak about how Lyle Lovett first headlined the show in 1987 and was a way to "celebrate the past, present and future all at once." more ›

Photos by Pooneh Ghana and Chad Wadsworth Starting the third day of ACL with Blind Pilot’s early afternoon performance was just what we needed to inspire a boost in festival resolve in the home stretch. Even though the soft-spoken Portland folk group had received a healthy dose of buzz around the fest, the crowd for their set was light enough to provide an intimate view for their warm and natural set under a high sun. The buzzing and clanging guitar and banjo strings along with sweet and humble vocals, keys, stand up accordion and more on “Go On, Say It” stretched out over the lawn full of lounging onlookers. more ›

Photos by Pooneh Ghana Walking toward the front gate of ACL Festival on day two just after noon, Lissie's voice already wafted over the eager crowd. Her simple setup was surprisingly effective - Lissie sang and played rhythm guitar, accompanied only by a lead guitarist and a bassist who also played the kick, snare, and high hat using pedals. The stripped down sound lent itself perfectly to Lissie's soulful vocals, which have been compared to Janis Joplin's. more ›

Polaroids by Pooneh Ghana more ›

After a series of lines beginning at the bus stop and ending at the Zilker Park gates at Austin City Limits, which all moved surprisingly quickly, we arrived in front of the Budweiser stage and planted ourselves for The Mountain Goats. more ›

Whispers flew around the packed ACL Studio as five men in suits as varied as their personalities filed on stage at 8pm. There were the expected four members of Monsters of Folk: Jim James, frontman for My Morning Jacket, M. Ward of She & Him fame, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes. (For more background on Monsters of Folk, check out the ACL/Stubbs preview.) But who was the fifth suited man seating himself behind the elegant drum kit? more ›

Last night, veteran noise rockers Sonic Youth appeared on the Austin City Limits stage for the first time. With only a handful of tapings left in the KLRU campus studio before moving over to their new downtown digs, the venerable PBS series is hosting several performances in conjunction with this weekend's Austin City Limits Music Festival. The band were booked to play on the show last fall, but had to cancel the show and their festival appearance after guitarist Lee Renaldo fractured his wrist. more ›

Few debut albums have rung up as much praise this year as Local Natives' Gorilla Manor, a rhythm and harmony driven stack of awesome whose effortless and layered sound has evoked positive comparisons to everyone from Grizzly Bear to Vampire Weekend (and it may even be reasonable to say that, as far as live performances are concerned, Local Natives has them both topped). In light of all this goodness, and the act's Saturday performance at ACL, we thought we should touch base with the extremely talented drummer of the band, Matt Frazier, to chat about living with bandmates, writing for the new album, and what they think of Austin. more ›

The first sound on Big Echo, the second LP by The Morning Benders, is the faint crackle and pop of a needle touching down on a spinning vinyl record. Then a lush string arrangement floats in, followed by a lilting drum beat and, finally, Christopher Chu's soaringly tired voice. It comes to you as though breeze-borne through a window you didn't know you had left open. The sounds evoke a kind of nostalgia for simpler times, with influences that include '50s doo wop, the Beatles and vintage Kate Nash, and production that hearkens back to Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. more ›

The San Francisco-based band Girls was one of 2009's most captivating breakout bands, in no small part due to the fascination about guitarist and singer Christopher Owens's difficult upbringing in the Children of God cult and subsequent escape. The trauma-survivor-turned-emotive-artist narrative has been the genesis of many great rock bands, but nowadays it's a narrative you seem to encounter less often. Owens sounds like a guy who's seen some of the worst of what the world has to offer, and is now just trying to make sense of that world and his place in it. more ›

What’s the Deal: If you’re a music-loving Austinite and haven’t heard of these guys, then maybe you’re just not listening hard enough. It’s no surprise that this local supergroup of songwriters made it to the Austin City Limits lineup this year considering their second studio album, One Foot In the Ether, helped earn them much-deserved music media buzz and an AMA award nomination or two. more ›

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, better known in the world of songs and mud-flinging as M.I.A., is two things for sure: 1. a dance music whirlwind capable of throwing down some of the catchiest fire-starting political statements, and 2. a proven lightning rod for criticism. It's not just in her over-the-top public persona, complete with multiple and potentially narcissistic variations on her name, but her willingness to engage in back and forth shit-talking via twitter, that makes her a compelling character. Some fallout: after being a critical darling since her debut in 2005, her newest album, /\/\ /\ Y /\ (a statement on the joys of creative typography only a postmodern e.e. cummings could love), has been panned in all the right places despite the fact that a few of its tracks are among the year's most infectious. See "XXXO" and "Born Free" for proof she's still got it. more ›

Spoon have always been masterful artists in the recording studio. If there were ever a criticism of them, it usually hinged on the fact that their live show was very straightforward and businesslike - no gimmicks, no games, just the tunes. Somewhere during the extensive touring for 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon's current lineup moved their live show to a new plateau in the eyes of many longtime observers. Though they're only been touring for four months in support of new LP Transference, the set taped for PBS mainstay Austin City Limits in early July will likely prove to be a vital snapshot of a band at the height of their powers.

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Austin 360 is reporting that The Moody Foundation of Galveston has granted KLRU $2.5 million to go towards the new Austin City Limits studios build on 2nd Street downtown. Scheduled for completion in 2011, the new venue's capacity will reach 2,700 and will be called The Moody Theater. KLRU is seeking $6.5 million to complete the venue using entirely HD equipment. more ›

Long before Mos Def referred to Somalian-born K’Naan as his brother, inviting him back onstage for an extended duet rendition of “My God,” it was clear how organically their sounds fit together. Even as their stellar hip-hop acts broke ground as a new sound for ACL, K’Naan and Mos Def kept true to cherished intimacy of an ACL taping while infusing the crowd with more energy than we’d ever seen there before. more ›

There was a definite buzz in the air. And the excitement was palpable. You don’t get too many opportunities to witness legends from bands like The Beatles, The Doors, or in this case Led Zeppelin, live in concert and it wasn’t surprising that the eager crowd included a good chunk of our city’s media personnel. Plus there were a handful of local luminaries in attendance -- Spoon’s Jim Eno sat directly behind us while Lance Armstrong, in the section to our left, seemed to enjoy himself throughout. But the star power tonight was undoubtedly on stage. more ›

What’s the Deal: According to Dr. Dog, they’re interested in “three-part harmonies, the out-of-doors, hoagies, vegetables and diminished chords.” And, that’s not a bad way to describe them. They’re a slightly eccentric Philadelphia five-piece who play music that’s a little folk, psychedelic, pop, soul, bluegrass and other. The band, all with nicknames like Taxi, Trouble and Tables, have been fortunate to be considered a band’s band by many, helping land them tours with groups like My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Black Keys, The Cave Singers, and many more fairly early on. With a handful of releases tucked under their collective wing since 2001, the band is set to release another record in early 2010 on Anti- Records. more ›

What’s the Deal: Ah, supergroups. Where would we be without them - The Highwaymen, Traveling Wilburys, Temple of the Dog, Velvet Revolver, Angels & Airwaves, The Dead Weather, and the list goes on? Now, there’s Them Crooked Vultures, a project sure to sell out tours and churn out crave-worthy songs built on the strength of the millions of albums sold of their independent projects. Them Crooked Vultures is vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and bassist/ keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), with Alain Johannes as a live guitarist. They have yet to release a recording, and the only music out there is from snippets of songs released by the band and live recordings on YouTube, which surely, combined with the fact that they haven’t played a date in the U.S. since their debut post-Lollapalooza performance, has hard rock fans chomping at the bit to really see what they’re made of. more ›

With Elvis Costello, it's all about timing. The restless nature of the man's creativity seems to dictate that he never stay in one place for too long, be that physically or creatively. As such, fans hoping for a pass through Costello's greatest pop hits were likely disappointed at the setlists that emerged last week both at Austin City Limits and at Bass Concert Hall. We suspect, though, that those fans were in the minority. As fans of Costello's great mid-80's record King Of America, we welcomed the chance to see Elvis return to a genre he seems awfully good at given that he's not exactly a folk or country lifer. more ›