It wasn’t the heat so much as it was the humidity–just like they say, really. But this humidity… on this day… in this mud… it was all pretty overwhelming at first. While their feet dragged through the mud, the rest of the attendees’ bodies were forced to swim through the…

The rains from Day Two at ACL may have held off on Day Three, yeah. But, make no mistake, the repercussions off dropping that much water onto a confined space? Those were definitely still felt by all in attendance on Sunday.Indeed, Zilker Park was one giant mud pit on Day…

The early outlook here on the Day Three of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival isn’t too bad. The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds here and there, and, for the time being, the rain has held off. Forecasts appear to indicate more rain as the day…

Though Nick Urata, front man for Denver-based gypsy folk-rock outfit Devotchka, joked that the only reason his band had a draw worth mentioning during its set at ACL’s indoor Wildflower stage was because of the rain, consider his words simply a matter of humility. Because, for the bulk of Devotchka’s…

Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights had a lot of things working against it as its 4:40 p.m. timeslot neared. The rain was coming down at its hardest, the crowds were starting to tire, and, at this point, it was more than clear that there was no hope of sunshine…

Banter is not Grizzly Bear’s strong suit–not in the slightest. Rather this is a band propelled by meticulous instrumentation and harmonies. And though the band failed in the first count, its moot apologies to the crowd for putting up with the rain falling flat, the band succeeded glorious on the…

All photos by Patrick Michels The rain came down–and came down hard–just after !!! lanched its party-funk sound in the still-early afternoon of Day Two at ACL. But, perhaps because the crowds weren’t yet completely soaked, there was a certain novelty to the precipitation–and !!! frontman Nic Offer used that…

The radio announcer who introduced the band made sure to point out to the crowd that, despite whatever their programs may have said, this was not The Raveonettes. But, alas, the late arrivers to the XBox stage didn’t necessarily hear as much. So, great as Neon Indian may have been…

All photos by Patrick Michels In short, the weather made​ for a rather miserable day on Day Two of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival.Gray skies hovered from the day’s start–and it didn’t take long for the clouds to unleashed their fury. Shortly after 2:30 p.m., the day’s first…

The Toadies may take the stage tomorrow afternoon in a prime 4 p.m. slot on one of the festival’s two main stages, but make no mistake: Today is DFW’s day at ACL. As I write this, Sarah Jaffe is preparing to take the Austin Ventures stage, performing for the first…

Dressed like a character belonging more to Pan’s Labyrinth than anything of the natural world, Karen O led the Yeah Yeah Yeahs through a fantastical, epic performance at Zilker Park last night.And it was all thanks to O’s doing. Beyond charismatic and magnetic, Karen O’s on-stage persona is a mixture of…

(Check out our final ACL wrap-up slideshow on Monday for photos of this and other acts from ACL) The crowds may not have been all that familiar with the catalog of Them Crooked Vultures, the supergroup comprising of Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, others), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone…

Three times, Raphael Saadiq asked the audiences fawning before him, “Do you love me tonight?” Three times, the response was a resounding, enthusiastic, unwavering yes. “I sure hope you mean that,” he quipped, flashing a smile. But how could the crowds not? Backed by an impeccably tight band and flanked by a…

Like a black hole located at the far west end of Zilker Park, it seemed that just about everything at ACL was being drawn to Phoenix’s set yesterday in the four o’clock hour. Unruly crowds tussled about the outer realms of the masses that extended some 300 yards out from…

First things first: Pangs of regret fill our hearts this morning at DC9–which, consider that today is Saturday, sounds about par for course. But, alas, today we have reason beyond our undiagnosed manic depression: Specifically, we missed the above seemingly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch one Eddie Vedder jumping on stage…

Sorry if this post comes off as a little, I dunno, off. As I write this in the ACL press tent, Daniel Johnston’s giving an on-air interview to my right, School of Seven Bells is giving a web chat interview to my left, and Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights are…

The feel-good hip-hop popularized by groups such as A Tribe Called Quest gets a prominent nod, sure, but so too does a smattering of dub influence, funk samples and even soulful singing (Sly himself belts out a few lines on “Until You Get Home”). As a result, the final product stands as…

Mississippi’s Colour Revolt is no stranger to shows in the DFW region having stopped through a couple of times in just the past year alone, if memory serves. But, each time they return, it seems the anticipation and excitement only increases. If the above video of the angsty indie rock…

Fresh off the band’s ACL performance this afternoon and follow-up after-party performance at Stubb’s tomorrow night, trip-hop duo Thievery Corporation will be stopping by Dallas for a Sunday night date at the House of Blues. That Dallas stop is part of the act’s (RED)-sponsored tour, aimed to help spread awareness…

In this week’s paper, Eric Grubbs comments on Saturday night’s Strung Out show at the Granada Theater, even going so far as to tell you all what you can expect from the show. But I guess that just starts to happen once you’ve reached two decades of performance, huh? Anyway,…