Austin Sound

Early in 2010, Balmorhea released Constellations with local imprint Western Vinyl, their fourth album in as many years. The quintet’s sold out release show at the Central Presbyterian Church was a testament to how popular the instrumental outfit has become in Austin, inspiring a fervid but reverential fanbase enthralled by Balmorhea’s intricate, classically-based expositions. With Constellations, principle songwriters Rob Lowe and Michael Muller turned to a much more subdued, if no less impressive, stylistic compositions, peeling back the dramatic build that had increasingly crescendoed on their previous works. Yet what still emerges most from Balmorhea’s tunes are vivid imagistic and emotional episodes, fleeting narratives that arise through their subtle constructions spearheaded by guitar and piano. We spoke with Lowe and Muller via email about their recent work, the philosophy behind the band, and their place in the Austin music scene. Balmorhea will be making their Austin City Limits Festival debut on the Austin Ventures Stage on Saturday, October 9 at 11:20am.

Several years ago, Ryan Bingham was kicking around Texas and the Southwest, a former rodeo rider beginning to garner attention for the rough-hewn songwriting of his official debut on Lost Highway, 2007’s Mescalito. Three years and two albums later, including last year’s Roadhouse Sun and newly released Junky Star, and Bingham has shot into the national spotlight, in no small part due to his co-writing (with T Bone Burnett) the Oscar-winning theme song to the movie Crazy Heart. Junky Star capitalizes on Bingham’s screen success with his best album to date, a collection of weary and worn tunes wrought from the road and the dire desperation of hard times. Bingham’s songwriting has matured to the kind of raw and emotional storytelling of early Steve Earle or Bruce Springsteen to establish him as one of the best emerging talents in the broad spectrum of Americana. Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses will be playing the Austin Ventures Stage at the ACL Festival on Friday, Oct. 8 at 7:15pm. They will also be doing an official aftershow that night at Momo’s.

Hold your horses there SXSW and Fun Fun Fun Fest, we aren’t done talking about ACL, yet! Today, C3 announced their official after and pre-shows for the early October bash in Zilker Park, and there is some good stuff for those of you that prefer to pass on the heat. We know it will break your hearts to miss those ACL headliners that everyone is so uber-excited about, but hey, here’s your chance to see the Antwoord. For the Thursday pre-shows, you can kick off the weekend with Spoon at the Mohawk (wow!), while Friday our money is split between Emo’s with the Black Lips, Those Darlins, and The Ettes outside, and Givers, Cults, and TV Torso in, while the Black Keys and Foals take on Stubb’s. For Saturday night, we’d probably take Girls with the Soft Pack at Antone’s, but it’s also tempting to see if there might actually be a tune or two that Jimmie Dale Gilmore does with the Monsters of Folk at Stubb’s. Anyway, peruse the schedule below, or here. And tickets for all of these shows will be going on sale August 27 at 10:00am. We suspect that Spoon at the Mohawk will blow out the servers first.

Well, thank goodness that there is no one playing up against the Eagles on Sunday night! The Austin City Limits Festival released their schedule, and there are really only a few slots that look like potential conflicted, at least for anything we care about. Miike Snow and Girls will have to be decided on Friday, as well as Broken Bells going up against the Black Keys. (Actually, that’s not hard. Go see the Black Keys). And it makes us sad that Vampire Weekend will probably draw more people than Sonic Youth, but you know - kids these days! Saturday doesn’t look too bad, except for the block around 7:00pm that will have LCD Soundsystem, Dave Bazan, Gogol Bordello, and a huge two-hour set from Monsters of Folk going on simultaneously. And Sunday will see Band of Horses go head-to-head with the Flaming Lips. Other than that though, things look to be pretty decently spread over Zilker Park. What do y’all think? What are you not looking forward to having to choose between? ACL goes down October 8-10.

We were kinda surprised at all the folks bemoaning the Eagles being tapped to headline ACL this year. Sure, it’s the Eagles, but what where you all expecting? It is ACL after all. And don’t worry, there is plenty in your indie wheelhouse that you’ll love - like Slightly Stoopid! Seriously though, we have to say that this is one of the better ACL lineups we’ve seen. The headliners are a big batch of big-money MEH, but even locally, the Fest is pulling in acts like the Sword and Balmorhea! Eclecticism! And sure, you can’t go wrong with the Flaming Lips, the Mountain Goats, Spoon, Band of Horses and LCD Soundsystem, but ACL is also bringing back some great lower tier stuff, like the Soft Pack, Girls, Local Natives, and MyNameIsJohnMichael. Sweetness. The 3 day passes are gone, baby, gone, but you can still buy your single day tix here, on sale now. Scope out the full lineup below. ACL will be unloading in Zilker Park on October 8-10.

Yeah, ’cause that’s a fair tradeoff! (And no, you can’t make us happy).

See now, this is the problem with booking the nostalgia ticket - they start backing out. We blame the Alzheimer’s, mostly. Sadly, Sonic Youth appears to be headed to the trashheap of the ACL lineup cancelations, a rumor that’s been bubbling all week and that the Chronicle just reaffirmed with news that their ACL taping has been canned. It seems that ACL is beginning to look like high school not only in its aesthetic this year, but also its drop out rate. They should get Lil Wayne on that shit! Anyway, the reason for the pullout is apparently that Lee Renaldo broke his wrist, which sucks, but we suspect this is really just the catty kind of shit that happens when start hanging around with those damn Gossip Girls. Sonic Youth is currently still scheduled to play Sunday night from 7-8, right before Pearl Jam’s headlining set and opposite Dan Auerbach and Girl Talk. C3 refuses to confirm, because they’re like the damn New England Patriots when it comes to announcing status updates. We’ll keep you posted.

Oooh, look kids, a Supergroup! Them Crooked Vultures, this year’s installment of bored rock stars fooling around, has been announced by ACL to fill the vacant Friday evening slot. Featuring the Led Zep’s John Paul Jones (back to rocking out after playing hillbilly the past few years), Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme (because he clearly needs another group to channel all that genuis) and the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl (because it’s not officially a super group until Dave Grohl is involved), Them Crooked Vultures only started playing live this August, so let’s not get our hopes up too much there, folks. Their Myspace page is really stellar, too! If you want to get a taste of what a crooked vulture sounds like, we posted a live video from a recent English show below. They apparently played with the Arctic Monkeys. Talk about one shitty zoo!

What the hell is ACL thinking? Here they had this nice 90s retro theme going with Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys, and they ruined it! It was totally like your memories of high school prom were plied from your repressed childhood and put on display for everyone to mock in middle of Zilker Park. (They’re all gonna laugh at you!) Then they had to go add the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as the replacement for the Beastie Boys. WTF ACL? Arty dance-punk? That’s like so, 2000s. Not to mention they’re going on opposite Kings of Leon on Friday night, also a band from the past decade. Although, “Sex on Fire” does actually still remind us of our high school prom, too, but probably for different reasons. So Friday night will be for the kids, and the rest of the weekend can still belong to us sad and sagging old farts. But don’t fret too much, nostalgia mongers, because ACL also just announced that they’ve replaced oddly immodestLily Allen with Raphael Saadiq, who was the lead singer of mother fucking Tony! Toni! Toné! Well, it never rains in central Texas, either. Slow jams, kids, Couples’ Skate! Check out the full ACL Schedule here.

Because seeing Sound Tribe Sector 9 at the ACL Fest just isn’t intimate enough for you, there will thankfully be an cozy aftershow performance at Stubb’s. We really admire those who feel the need to double up on their experience by catching a band like STS9 or Thievery Corporation in Zilker Park, and then again at Stubb’s. Oh, and Ghostland Observatory has the Sunday night big aftershow slot. Gonna be gettin’ dancy down on Waller Creek. All that being what it is, there are still some actually great aftershows on the official list this, especially if you don’t want to pay a hundred some bucks to get sunstroke and dust poisoning. Emo’s looks like it’s especially receiving the love this year, with shows from Grizzly Bear, !!!, Deer Tick, the Felice Brothers, and more. Also Bon Iver will be playing the Paramount, which we honestly can’t imagine him coming close to selling out, but what do we know - STS9 is playing freakin’ Stubb’s. Full list below, and the tix on pre-sale at the not so secret site.