https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2009-11-06/904598/
Noon, Black Stage
Phil Spector's wall of sound writhes in prison every time the Roller erects its sonic monolith in the black name of Southwestern doom. The Red River metal quartet's meticulously packaged 2007 Monofonus Press debut demands another round of aural wedding invites: devoid of hope, with environmentally friendly corners. – Raoul Hernandez
12:30pm, Orange Stage
If you're up at noon on Sunday, NYC duo Growing's music is a nice way to ease into the day. 2008's All the Way (The Social Registry) is repetitive but warm, gathering more rhythm under its rolling guitars and more structure since 2003 debut The Sky's Run Into the Sea. They're touring as a threepiece now, so expect drone jams plus one. – Audra Schroeder
1:05pm, Orange Stage
After practically sweeping the Austin Music Awards last year behind their Jerry Harrison-produced debut, the Black & White Years now take a victory lap on their new EP, Nursery Myths. The five-song ditty, available in three different packages on the band's website, finds the quartet expanding its whimsical electro-pop with varying degrees of success behind singer/guitarist Scott Butler's theatrics. – Austin Powell
1:40pm, Orange Stage
More a promise than a threat, This Will Destroy You thrives in the shadow of Explosions in the Sky. The San Marcos quartet crafts elongated suites of glacial post-rock that also sweep ambient and electronic elements into its gray scale. Be sure to check out Field Studies, TWDY's split EP with fellow instrumentalists Lymbyc Systym, produced by the Paper Chase's John Congleton. – Austin Powell
2pm, Yellow Stage
Twice through town since releasing their Austin-recorded 2 Man Wrecking Crew last winter, Mississippi singer/drummer Cedric Burnside and dirty-as-the-Delta guitarist Lightnin' Malcolm do it like Ced's granddaddy R.L. Burnside taught 'em. They play the "Mad Man Blues." – Chase Hoffberger
2:25pm, Blue Stage
Seattle's Astronautalis digs up Beck's Mellow Gold on 2008 Eyeball Records debut Pomegranate, a quasi emo-rap effort that finds him drifting away from his days battle rapping at Scribble Jam. Now three albums deep, Astronautalis rages fresh off an appropriately matched tour with fellow crossovers Sole & the Skyrider Band. – Chase Hoffberger
2:55pm, Black Stage
See them now, because Mika Miko is calling it quits after the fest. The L.A. punk quintet's latest, We Be Xuxa, ends things on a good note: skate-punk riffs and the shouted vocals of Jenna Thornhill and Jennifer Clavin. Add in song titles like "Sex Jazz," some Vision Street Wear shirts, and it's like Reagan's still president. – Audra Schroeder
3pm, Orange Stage
This side project from Deerhunter's Bradford Cox just released Logos (Kranky), a polished batch of shoegaze balladry that features Noah Lennox of Animal Collective. The last time Cox used this alias, as an opener for July's Spoon x 3 at Stubb's, he took the stage alone, issuing fragile and at times awkward pop confessionals that ended with a bizarre 10-minute reimagining of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer." – Austin Powell
4pm, Yellow Stage
These bleary-eyed romantics not only write sweet garage-pop ditties about "Psychedelic Tits" and "Witch Greens," as heard on last year's glorious Free Drugs, but also host a Cover of the Month club that's tackled the likes of RTX, the Dixie Cups, and Q Lazzarus. The local trio recently wrapped up some recording sessions in Los Angeles for its forthcoming Matador debut. – Austin Powell
5:20pm, Yellow Stage
Ryan Sambol's nitrous vocals on the Strange Boys' national debut, 2009's And Girls Club, coughed up another singular garage artifact for In the Red (the Ponys, Boss Hog). The fivepiece local rock-me-ups then took its infectious lope and hop beyond the festival circuit. Expect a shot of shambala. – Raoul Hernandez
5:35pm, Black Stage
"Catastrophe" isn't just one of the best punkdowns on March's Underneath the Owl (Volcom). On Oct. 17, a car struck Gamblers guitarist Ian MacDougall as he rode his bike home. The intensive care unit tallied a broken hip, a broken wrist, internal bleeding, and soon a hemorrhaging bank account, so please pay, pal: ian.gambler@gmail.com. That means a something-to-prove Stooges fest set behind the Austin's quintet's fourth LP and commercial breakthrough. – Raoul Hernandez
6:05pm, Blue Stage
L.A. fourpiece Health doesn't play its instruments so much as confront them, finding that dark alley where it can pull up strings and taunt with something sharp. Latest LP Get Color (Lovepump United) mixes dancey and doomy to dizzying effect. Make sure to get your bandana screen-printed before Health's set. – Audra Schroeder
6:15pm, Black Stage
Now a threepiece, Torche has no problem living up to the power trio rep. 2008's Hydra Head-splitter Meanderthal brought the Miamians out of stoner metal purgatory and into the spotlight as a band that could detonate any venue they played. Just load another Orange amp onstage and go. – Audra Schroeder
7:05pm, Blue Stage
Portugal's musicologists remix dancehall and electronica into their native kuduro, a blend that yielded high-speed jams on 2008 debut Black Diamond. It could be called rave music if those grimy beats didn't pull it out of the tent and into the street. Live, they allegedly have dancers and explosives adding to the parade. – Audra Schroeder
8:30pm, Orange Stage
Of Montreal's shows have evolved into complete art-pop spectacle, an irreverent and bewildering carnival of characters and props. Behind the androgynous flash of Kevin Barnes, however, the Athens, Ga., conglomerate produces expertly arranged bursts of disco and funk-fueled pop masterpieces. – Doug Freeman
9pm, Blue Stage
No doubt Chicago's Kid Sister has game, but dating Kanye West's DJ never hurts. When the Mouth of the Midwest dropped a verse on "Pro Nails," Melisa Young's salon sass became a certified anthem. Now on its third working title, her long-delayed debut Ultraviolet (Downtown) is a wavelength of club rap connecting the dots from Chi-town rappers Kanye, Common, and Crucial Conflict to the Windy City's early 1980s house scene. – Thomas Fawcett
Old punks never die, they just play faster. This year, their waiting room is the Black Stage. Houston's legendary speedsters D.R.I. (Sunday, 6:55pm) nailed 22 songs of pure aggression to their 1983 debut. Reno-born straight-edgers 7 Seconds (Saturday, 6:05pm) came close to breaking D.R.I.'s cacophonic sound barrier minus the rage, as remains the case with fellow Better Youth Organization alumni Youth Brigade (Sunday, 3:30pm, plus the documentary, Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records, screens Saturday at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz), as well as the ridiculously hook-laden, proto-emo of Face to Face (Saturday, 7:45pm). This is Austin, not Boston, but in the Skeeno spirit of walking together and rocking together, hardcore Southies Street Dogs (Sunday, 4:10pm) return with Beantown growl intact. The sound, the fury, the fun, fun, fun. Just watch yourself in the pit, Grandpa. – Marc Savlov
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