Fool's Gold

ACL MUSIC FEST

• ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews

• Ha Ha Tonka

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• The Secret Sisters

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• Kurt Vile

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Charles Bradley

  BY THOMAS FAWCETT

• Nas & Damien 'Jr. Gong' Marley

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• Mavis Staples

  BY MARGARET MOSER

• ACL Music Fest Friday Reviews

• An Horse

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Theophilus London

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• Wild Beasts

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Fool's Gold

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Smith Westerns

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Foster the People

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Kanye West & Jay-Z

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• ACL Music Fest Friday Listings

  The blurbing of ACL 2011

• ACL Music Fest Saturday Interviews

• Iron & Wine

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Fitz & the Tantrums

  BY MARGARET MOSER

• Wanda Jackson

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• TV on the Radio

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews

• Telekinesis

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• The Moondoggies

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Preservation Hall Jazz Band & the Del McCoury Band

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• The Antlers

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Black Dub

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• ACL Music Fest Saturday Listings

  The blurbing of ACL 2011

• ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews

• Bomba Estéreo

  BY THOMAS FAWCETT

• Manu Chao

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Hayes Carll

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Randy Newman

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews

• Yellow Ostrich

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• The Greencards

  BY JIM CALIGIURI

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• The Head & the Heart

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Joseph Arthur

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Elbow

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Gomez

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Social Distortion

  BY MARC SAVLOV

• ACL Music Fest Sunday Listings

  The blurbing of ACL 2011

• BMI Stage

  BY MARGARET MOSER

• ACL Aftershows

Fool's Gold

The eponymous 2009 debut from Fool's Gold approached Afro-pop and Caribbean funk with a collective zeal, crafting a Third World dance party in a California basement. Refined into a quintet after two years of touring, the band broadens its appeal on Leave No Trace, threading the needle between the Sahara and the synth-heavy romanticism of 1980s New Wave. Joyous opener "The Dive" ensures smooth transition, bolstered tremendously by Israel-born bassist/songwriter Luke Top's shift from Hebrew to English (exception being the enchanting "Tel Aviv"). He still bears a worldly wanderlust and an affinity for Roy Orbison akin to Devotchka's, but Fool's Gold gets down, as evidenced by the skittering guitars and polyrhythmic propulsion of "Bark and Bite." Squiggly electro-funk and progressive soul in "Street Clothes" and "Narrow Sun" could pass as modern interpretations of seminal comp Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79. (2:30pm, Austin Ventures stage)