ACL Music Fest Saturday Listings
ACL Saturday by the blurb
Fri., Oct. 8, 2010
BMI Roundup
11:15am-6:40pm, BMI stage
Texan Caitlin Rose is currently trying her country-folk luck in Nashville, Tenn., with latest Own Side Now. Nashville also sends Run With Bulls, hot off their Black Tongue EP and rarin' with tough, twangy rock. Funk-retro defines the heavy-bottomed trio the Jane Shermans, an organic contrast to the soaring, crashing synth-pop of Dan Black. Ex-Pedro the Lion vocalist David Bazan is making waves with latest Curse Your Branches, cutting indie rock with a poet's heart. – Margaret Moser
Balmorhea
11:20am, Austin Ventures stage
Over the past four years, these classically minded local instrumentalists have developed into a more scenic and understated counterpart to Explosions in the Sky, working with strings, piano, and wordless vocals. Their latest, Constellations, is a more subdued, frosty affair, completing a seasonal four-album cycle bookended by recent 7-inch single "Candor" b/w "Clamor" for local indie Western Vinyl. – Austin Powell
Austin Kiddie Limits
11:30am-3:30pm, H-E-B stage
Hey, hey, it's Saturday! The Jellydots start the morning off with Doug Snyder's good-natured pop, much as they've done since 2002. Two years later, Elizabeth Mitchell collaborated with former college roommate Lisa Loeb and found her calling performing music for children. Besides playing for Ben Harper, Tom Freund thumbed bass with 1980s darlings the Silos before embracing songwriting for a youthful audience. San Francisco-based Frances England is the award-winning "queen of indie-folk children's music," in case you didn't know such a genre existed. Sonicbids winners the Sugar Free Allstars call it a day with exuberant kid blues. – Margaret Moser
First Aid Kit
12:15pm, Honda stage
Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg take the window seat on youthful debut The Big Black & the Blue, which follows up last year's Drunken Trees EP, first released on the Knife's label, Rabid. They're natural storytellers, conjuring the perfumed ghosts of folk past and present. – Audra Schroeder
Basia Bulat
12:20pm, Austin Ventures stage
Toronto treasure Basia Bulat prefers the path less taken. The young songstress closes out October in Halifax with Symphony Nova Scotia, debuting arrangements by Final Fantasy's Owen Pallet, and has taken to covering Abner Jay's outsider lament "I'm So Depressed." Her sophomore LP, Heart of My Own (Rough Trade), offers soulful indie folk ruminations with orchestral flair, led by her beautifully gnarled voice. – Austin Powell
Pete Yorn
1:30pm, Honda stage
Pete Yorn can thank his lucky stars he isn't Twittered-out PR nightmare John Mayer. The L.A. songwriter hit the target with last year's Back & Fourth and sharpened his skills further on a new self-titled CD, sprinkled with Pixies dust by producer Frank Black. Yorn's a favorite at the fest, though this year's set is not likely to accompany exploding Porta-Potties like in 2007. – Margaret Moser
Lucero
2:30pm, AMD stage
Rumbling out of Memphis, Tenn., Lucero's gritty, down-home guitar rock received a second life last year with sixth studio effort and major label debut 1372 Overton Park (Universal). Behind the wrecked and wracked howl of Ben Nichols, the sextet spikes heavy country with hometown-inspired horns that spawned last year's impressive Lucero Ramblin' Roadshow & Memphis Revue. – Doug Freeman
Manchester Orchestra
3:30pm, Honda stage
Orchestra frontman Andy Hull showed promise on the band's precocious high school-crafted lo-fi debut, I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child. The follow-up, Mean Everything to Nothing, revealed him as a hirsute powerhouse, with single "Shake It Out" adding stomp to emotionally bruised lyrics. The Atlanta quartet closes its current tour in Austin before a jaunt with Kevin Devine as Bad Books. – Richard Whittaker
Black Lips
3:30pm, Zync Card stage
Atlanta's punk ambassadors have been around the world, from India and Estonia, and most likely have been run out of town each time. Last year's 200 Million Thousand (Vice) keeps up the quartet's blackout antics with a more psychedelic edge. Party 'til you puke. – Audra Schroeder
Mayer Hawthorne & the County
3:30pm, Austin Ventures stage
Mayer Hawthorne's nerdly good looks only add to his smooth R&B style. Last year's stellar Stones Throw debut, A Strange Arrangement, anointed the singer as Smokey Robinson's modern-day equivalent, namely the heart-on-his-sleeve slink of "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'." Expect to testify and/or dry hump. – Audra Schroeder
Beats Antique/Kinky/Ozomatli
4pm/5:30pm/7pm, Clear 4G stage
Pachanga Fest comes to ACL! Oakland down-tempo electronistas Beats Antique sandwich belly dancer Zoe Jakes between producing duo David Satori and Tommy Cappel, whose West African revelations beat global. Monterrey, Mexico's electro-rock quintet Kinky, now four LPs deep after a dozen years, raises a fist to Mexican independence alongside Jaguares, Ely Guerra, and ACL vets Aterciopelados on Bimexicano: Nuestros Clásicos Hechos Rock, a stance Clear stage headliners Ozomatli helped invent. The L.A. juggernaut of South by Southwest (non)riot fame ("Free the Ozo 3") recently volleyed fifth Latin shaker Fire Away. – Raoul Hernandez
Silversun Pickups
4:30pm, Budweiser stage
At South by Southwest last year, this alt-space-rock quartet went from "who?" to "wow" with a humble but hypnotic set before Metallica's "secret" show at Stubb's. Since then they've been touring steadily on the back of sophomore album Swoon, shedding the early Smashing Pumpkins comparisons in favor of alluring stadium-sized shoegazing. – Richard Whittaker
Broken Bells
4:30pm, AMD stage
On paper it's a perfect pairing: the Shins' James Mercer with Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, the beat chemist behind Gnarls Barkley. While the odd couple's perfect single "The High Road" demonstrated mad chemistry, their self-titled debut as Broken Bells, released earlier this year, never quite lived up to expectations. This is still a rare opportunity to catch two of the suavest men in modern pop. – Austin Powell
LCD Soundsystem
6:30pm, Budweiser stage
James Murphy wrote the anthem for aging hipsters with 2002's "Losing My Edge." For the NYC dance punks' latest, This Is Happening, Ben Ratliff's New York Times review nailed the single: "It appears to be a song about a guy who's had the great idea to write a song called 'Drunk Girls' but can't convince himself that they're any better or worse than sober girls." Drunk or sober, LCD gets us to the dance floor's edge. – Audra Schroeder
Deadmau5
7:30pm, Zync Card stage
This Canadian DJ and remix-happy beat freak with an oversized mouse head was nominated for a Grammy in 2009, so Deadmau5 is hardly your typical deceased vermin. The 29-year-old's ubiquitous sonic leavings can be found everywhere from DJ Hero 2 to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Winter Games, from the beaches of Ibiza to the ratty warrens of various BBC Radio 1 programs. – Marc Savlov
Matt & Kim
7:30pm, Honda stage
It's a mystery whether this Brooklyn duo's energy comes naturally or chemically, but drummer Kim Schifino and keyboardist Matt Johnson certainly whip crowds into a froth. Last year's Grand chopped dancey punk into three-minute head rushes; third LP Sidewalks drops in November. – Audra Schroeder
Muse
8:30pm, Budweiser stage
Muse's studio output peaked with 2003's Absolution, an ultra-modern guitar rock quasar of apocalyptic angst and sexual decadence. Since then, the progressive UK trio has toured with U2, topped ACL twice, and waged Cylon warfare on par with Battlestar Galactica – existential drama splattered across deep space. Latest uprising The Resistance is custom-tailored for stadiums, trading early Radiohead urgency for Queen's operatic pomposity. – Austin Powell
M.I.A.
8:30pm, AMD stage
Maya Arulpragasam likes to kick the hive. The video for "Born Free" got the Internet swarming with red-hot backlash earlier this year, and that was just fine with the new century MC. South London's rebel queen stoked big buzz for third LP Maya, which tries to bridge the gap between message and image. ACL 2007 and pop's agent provocateur. – Audra Schroeder
