ACL Music Fest Sunday Listings

TV Torso

11:20am, Austin Ventures stage

Austin's beloved Capitol (Records) investment Sound Team took its final bow at the 2007 ACL Music Festival. After the split, frontman/guitarist Matt Oliver went the way of Paul McCartney with TV Torso, exploring a more pop-oriented sound while maintaining his former outfit's knack for lingering darkness and vintage experimentation. The trio recently released a new 12-inch EP, Status Quo Vadis, helmed at Oliver's Big Orange studio. – Austin Powell

Shearwater

11:45am, Honda stage

Think of Shearwater's sixth album, The Golden Archipelago, as leader Jonathan Meiburg's final dissertation. Based on his studies of the striated caracara and "community life at the ends of the Earth," the LP's a scholarly and stylistic work of rare beauty that opens with the national anthem of Bikini Atoll and serves as the closing chapter to the local band's triptych that began with 2006's Palo Santo. – Austin Powell

Warpaint

11:45am, Zync Card stage

A breakout act from South by Southwest 2010, Warpaint has its L.A. look down but sounds more in line with German space rock from the early 1970s. The female quartet's 2009 debut EP, Exquisite Corpse, is a slinky seduction, with hypnotic post-rock rhythms and dreamy vocal harmonies, mixed by John Frusciante, formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band's first LP for Rough Trade, The Fool, drops later this month. – Austin Powell

White Rabbits

12:30pm, AMD stage

NYC's White Rabbits succeeds primarily through association. The band carries the same Esquire appeal of former tourmates the Walkmen but owes an even greater debt to Spoon. Britt Daniel produced the sextet's second album, last year's It's Frightening, bringing all the familiar hallmarks – faux-studio chatter, cocksure swagger – as if following A Series of Sneaks to a different conclusion. – Austin Powell

Speak

12:40pm, BMI stage

The name alone suggests volumes, which is what this young Austin quartet is likely to be releasing over the next few years. On the strength of a five-song EP bursting with bright, funky dance-pop, Speak stole the 2009-10 Austin Music Awards as Best New Austin Band. They'll be backing that up with a full-length later this year. Catch 'em while they're still local. – Margaret Moser

Blind Pilot

1:15pm, Zync Card stage

Portland, Ore.'s Blind Pilot mastered the art of folk-pop: mellow yet hooky, uplifting but torqued with nostalgia and yearning. After 2008's promising debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound (Expunged Records), the band expanded from a duo to a sextet, lacing in banjo, trumpet, and vibraphone. – Doug Freeman

Frank Turner

1:20pm, Austin Ventures stage

Billy Bragg doesn't look over his shoulder, but if he did, Frank Turner would be all up in his grill. The 28-year-old folk-punk was Eton-educated alongside Prince William, helped pioneer UK hardcores Million Dead, and last fall reeled off his third LP of musical socialism, Poetry of the Deed, on punk imprint Epitaph. – Raoul Hernandez

Devendra Banhart & the Grogs

2pm, AMD stage

After raising the freak-folk flag to inspire the short-lived "New Weird America" movement, Devendra Banhart shed his flowing locks but only mildly curbed his eccentricity. Last year's What Will We Be (Warner Bros.) may be the smoothest of the troubadour's warbles, however lasciviously cracked the video for "Foolin'" came out. – Doug Freeman

Portugal. The Man

2pm, Budweiser stage

Wasilla, Alaska's other export is certainly more palatable. This quartet's latest, American Ghetto, improves upon the swirly pop of its previous albums and jumps from tree to tree, keeping the listener guessing. – Audra Schroeder

Dawes

2:20pm, Austin Ventures stage

If Dawes rustles an echo of Laurel Canyon, they do so with a decidedly contemporary ear. Fine-tuning 1970s country rock against My Morning Jacket's epic balladry, the L.A.-based quartet's 2009 debut, North Hills (ATO), balances rich harmonies with loping Americana jams, the latter serving as the foundation for their popular live shows. – Doug Freeman

The Relatives

2:30pm, Clear 4G stage

Dallas' premier gospel family was rediscovered last year, as if by divine intervention. In 2009, local soul label Heavy Light Records released Don't Let Me Fall, a collection of the Relatives genre-defying church music, and one night at the Continental Club last fall – their first live performance in 35 years – shook the walls. – Audra Schroeder

The Morning Benders

3pm, Honda stage

With production from Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, the Morning Benders' 2010 sophomore LP, Big Echo (Rough Trade), takes swooning West Coast pop into new terrain, slinky grooves accentuating bright harmonies. The S.F. quartet's aggressive melodies proved a highlight at March's SXSW, its warm wash of sound setting the band atop the next wave of indie breakouts. – Doug Freeman

Yeasayer

4pm, AMD stage

Yeasayer's "Ambling Alp," from this year's excellent sophomore LP, Odd Blood (Secretly Canadian), is destined to be one of 2010's best singles, an anthemic, electro-warped pick-me-up for Animal Collective refugees. The tune only hints at the Brooklyn band's live show, which explodes with dense contortions of genre and sound and resulted in two sold-out shows at La Zona Rosa in April. – Doug Freeman

Midlake

4:45pm, Austin Ventures stage

If Midlake's 2006 breakout, The Trials of Van Occupanther, charmed like a laid-back Fleetwood Mac, the Denton quintet must have figured digging even deeper into the past would produce more magic. This year's third offering, The Courage of Others (Bella Union), weaves intricate folk ballads, accented by Tim Smith's rustic vocals, dreamy and doomed in the same breath. – Doug Freeman

Band of Horses

6pm, Budweiser stage

At SXSW 2010, Band of Horses debuted its third album and major label inauguration, Infinite Arms (Columbia), at Central Presbyterian Church. It proved an ideal environment to showcase the mournful wail of Ben Bridwell, highlighting the South Carolina-based quintet's flair for haunting Southern reverb and pummeling rhythmic assaults. – Doug Freeman

T Bird & the Breaks

6:40pm, BMI stage

Led by the charismatic Tim Crane, this local ninepiece brings the party wherever it goes. A Westside soul revue echoing the sweat and tears of Memphis R&B, the Austin flock keeps the vibe retro and has taken to releasing a series of 7-inch singles on a monthly basis. – Jim Caligiuri

Norah Jones

7pm, Zync Card stage

Norah Jones' 2002 debut was the right breath of fresh air at the right time, tender but substantial jazz-inflected pop that nabbed five Grammys. 2010 finds the Dallas-raised singer still glowing from last year's sultry The Fall, a warm tumble featuring the sweetly elusive "Chasing Pirates." – Margaret Moser

Cage the Elephant

7:15pm, Austin Ventures stage

Untamed by brothers Matt and Brad Shultz, Bowling Green, Ky., fivepiece Cage the Elephant bulleted Top 40 right out of the indie circus last year with its eponymous debut on Jive. Matt's subterranean homesick blues come alive in his Brit-pop vocal sneer, and two guitars cross tusks. Jumbo, not Dumbo. – Raoul Hernandez

Eagles

8pm, Budweiser stage

With apologies to Messrs. Henley, Frey, and Schmit, my three reasons to stay for the Eagles: 1) Joe Walsh's "Life in the Fast Lane," co-written by Henley and Frey on 1976's Hotel California; 2) the Walsh-written and sung "In the City," from initial Eagles swan song, The Long Run; and 3) guitarist Walsh's seven-minute, sun-drenched metronome "Last Good Time in Town," off the first new Eagles studio album in an ice age, 2007's Long Road Out of Eden. – Raoul Hernandez