Austin Sound

The North vs. South Fest has always had a way of bringing back bygone Austin bands to play alongside the next generation thanks to the work of Mike McCoy, but the fest usually takes place up in Kansas, meeting point for the lineups that are packed with bands from Texas and Minneapolis. So we were pretty excited when we heard that this year’s North vs. South Fest would actually take place here in Austin, and at the Hole in the Wall, no less. The three night lineup from Thursday, August 12 - Saturday, August 14 is packed with good stuff, but the kicker is the chance to see Eighties Austin luminaries Doctors’ Mob reunite for the gig! Doctors’ Mob were often lumped into the New Sincerity scene back in the day, but more because no one knew exactly what the hell to do with their brand of melodic, post-punked-up rock. The lineup for the reunion will consist of the members from the band’s second album, 1987’s Sophomore Slump, which is Don Lamb, Glenn Benavides, Tim Swingle and Steve Collier. And although Doctors’ Mob isn’t planning anything more in the future right now, Lamb related that they will unleash a few new songs for the show, as well as “a couple we have not done at any of the last few reunions, so it won’t be the same old stuff.” You can check out the full lineup on the Fest’s myspace page, which includes new notables like Leatherbag, Salesman, and Til We’re Blue or Destroy, but also a host of other older heavy hitters like Hickoids, Wannabes, Stickpony, and the new Reivers/Zeitgeist incarnation Right or Happy. Check out the video of Doctors’ Mob that appeared as part of MTV’s infamous The Cutting Edge back in the day below.

Oh hey, look: more bands leaked out for Fun Fun Fun Fest! And we’re slowly getting more and more excited! The Gories! Now that’s the kinda Fun Fun Fun we like to read about. Good job guys. Also, Cap’n Jazz reunion (to be followed by a dual with Li’l Cap’n Travis, because this town ain’t big enough for two Cap’ns). Also announced this week are Snapcase, Dirty Projectors, Airwolfe, and Yelle. The full lineup will be coming in a couple short weeks, so then we can stop all this leaky mess, but we suppose we’ll play along till then. Anyway, that’s all you get. Now stop whining.

As if Austinites don’t have enough music to keep themselves occupied, AustinSound writer Marc Perlman spent Sunday July 18th at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Set in Union Park with the Chicago skyline in the near distance, P4k Fest is somewhere between Austin’s own Fun Fun Fun Fest and ACL Fest– an eclectic mix of hipsters, young and old folks, punks, and hip hop fans all jockeying
for position in a field. And, just like Austin everyone complains about the heat, the dust, and the camp chairs. Shockingly, there was no Old Style to be found on the festival grounds– can you imagine not
being able to find a Lonestar at Fun Fun Fun Fest?!

Thanks to the kind folks at Pitchfork, Marc was able to shoot some pictures of Pavement, Big Boi, St. Vincent, Lightning Bolt, Surfer Blood, and Girls while downing overpriced Heineken.

It ain’t much, but it ain’t bad. The fifth annual edition of Austin’s little Fest that could has already sold out of their early bird tix - before even dropping any of the bands that are playing. Not that we really have to worry about it, though we already know that the Eagles are booked for another Austin engagement. Transmission SO lost that bidding war. They have, however, just released the names of three artists who will be playing the November 6 and 7 bash in Waterloo Park. Keeping to their eclectic approach, we have a rapper (Slick Rick), an old school hardcore punk outfit (Suicidal Tendencies), and some indie buzz (Best Coast). Worlds be so colliding!!! The full lineup will reportedly be out next month, and they’ll be trickling out more “leaks” (c’mon guys, this really isn’t a “leak” - can we stop calling them that?) over the next few weeks. If you missed the lottery for the first round of cheap early bird tickets, as always Transmission will be rocking tons of social media shenanigans to get tickets into your little hipster hands. Check out their website for more info on that (and probably best be doing the Twitter and Facebook thing, too). And check out their lineup leak video here, which is, well, something.

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.

We’re not going to lie - we love the Church of the Friendly Ghost, but we don’t understand half the shit they do. They’re way too musically advanced for our sad little three chord reviewing capabilities. But we have great faith that the rest of Austin is much more musically advanced than we are (which isn’t really saying much, so don’t make too much of the compliment). With that in mind, however, we encourage all to help the CotFG folks put on a pretty sweet little festival here next month. They’re calling the thing the New Media Art & Sound Summit, which sounds damned impressive! And it’s a whopping 3 day affair they have scheduled from June 17th - 19th. We’re not talking about just some little music showcases here - this is over 30 artists, with full on workshops, speakers and everything. Among the folks currently scheduled are Dr. Eugene Chadbourne, Mark Southerland Trio, Trio Tarana, Tatsuya Nakatani & Omar Tamez, Slow Six, and a ton of awesome local artists. Chris Schlarb will be providing a keynote.

But here’s the thing - the CotFG folks aren’t going to be paying themselves for any of this, and any proceeds will be split between HAAM and SIMS. So they’re asking the Austin community (that’s you!) to help get this awesome little event off the ground. They’ve got a Kickstarter fund going, trying to raise $15,000, and every little bit helps and would be greatly appreciated, we’re sure.

You can donate to the cause and find out more information here.

Last year’s Pachanga Latino Music Fest was one of the local highlights of 2009, a fantastic day out at Fiesta Gardens filled with some amazing music both local and international. You can check out our review of that one here. This year, they are slightly expanding it to two days, kicking off the evening of Friday, May 21, at 6:30pm and running again all day Saturday. The lineup is impeccable, including expected local Latino notables like Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, and David Garza. But they are also throwing some rock into the mix with Girl in a Coma and Amplified Heat, as well as the fantastic pop of Hacienda. The full lineup is below (courtesy of Austinist), and the Pachanga website is live with early bird tix on sale for only $15! That’s cheap, people! They’ll also be doing all the cool stuff from the previous fest again like the kids workshops (watching David Garza lead the “Hokey Pokey” was a definite selling point last year, but of course we are easily amused). Here’s hoping we have beautiful weather again this year for another awesome day of music.

Quick, get that computer booted up. You have the grid, and now it’s time to get your wristbands. Like last year, SXSW will be selling their wristbands online this morning starting at 10am at http://wristband.sxsw.com. The first allotment is 4,000 will sell for $129 a pop and last until they’re gone, and you’ll need to prove Austin residency with a local zip code for your credit card billing address. That means all you students can’t use dad’s credit card, so better find a friend. As always, you can only purchase two, and you have to provide the second person’s name when you buy them.

http://wristband.sxsw.com.

Oh yeah, we almost forgot about this little party. Yesterday, SXSW put its full showcase schedule online, which you can have at here. This is all of the official stuff, as it stands now, and there are of course day shows being announced every second. We recommend you try to keep up through our atxmusic twitter list! Anyway, we’re busy trolling through the list, and suggest you should be too, so get moving: