Austin Sound

It’s that time of year again, time to unleash the Fun Fun Fun! For us, that means the means the Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Blog, keepin’ it real like it’s 1998 up in here. Let’s face it, though, for something as awesome as the F3 Fest, we just can’t do it justice in 140 characters and some twitpics, so we’ll be out at Waterloo Park this weekend bringing you awesome pics and quick reviews of the action as it goes down. And what a weekend it promises to be! We were bummed that Devo had to cancel their headlining spot, but Transmission pulled a nice one by slipping in the Descendents in their stead. And the rest of the lineup is, in our opinion, their best yet as the Fest celebrates its 5th year. The weather looks like it’s going to be great, even if a little chilly in the evening (layer up kids!), but if you can’t make it down, just stay tuned here to see what all your missing. Or if your one of those folks checking your phone during the show, we can show you what you’re missing in front of you! Check out the schedule for the action here, and let’s have some Fun Fun Fun Fun!

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 Live Blog

Well, nothing about this sounds like fun at all. Devo guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh cut his hand pretty badly (”to the bone!”) and they’ve had to cancel their headlining slot at Sunday’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Bummer indeed. Of course, never one to pass up a social media opportunity, @funfunfunfest has been soliciting suggestions for replacements on Twitter. Next year, they should just let fans book the entire festival through Twitter and Facebook! We’re actually pretty excited to see who Transmission comes up with as a replacement - they’ve vowed to dole out the full Devo money in their hunt, and if we were going throw in our chips on anyone being able to pull a pretty awesome act out of their ass at the last minute, it would definitely be the Transmission folks. So the obvious question (other than what the hell are they going to do with all the misprinted posters now) is who do you want to see at take up the headlining banner at Fun Fun Fun Fest? Tix are also still on sale for both the full weekend and individual days, and though we were really excited for Devo, the rest of the lineup still remains damned impressive enough for us. Meanwhile, the countdown to find a replacement is on, as FFFFest deploys next Friday, November 5. Weird Al is going to have to seriously step up his game now, and this totally dashes our hopes of seeing a collaboration on “Dare to Be Stupid.”

After several weeks of tactical leaks (which apparently has induced us to write in bad rhymes), Fun Fun Fun Fest has finally decided to stop fooling around and dump the full list of bands for their Fifth annual shindig in Waterloo Park this November 6 & 7. We weren’t able to make it down to their press conference (nice touch!), but we really hope that it unfolded like the NBA draft or something. We hear the bloggers were out in full force, and something about fried chicken. Anyway! We have to say, that this lineup is pretty damn astonishing. Bad Religion, Gwar, Devo, Mastodon, Os Mutantes, MGMT, just to name a few. Providing the weather holds and the dust stays settled this year, it should easily serve as the best FFFFest yet, and perhaps we’ll have to quit considering it a little DIY upstart and a full fledged party. Who knows, maybe they’ll actually even make some money this year! Tickets aren’t yet on sale, but you can currently sign up to enter their early bird lotteries. Anyway, here’s list as posted on their website currently.

And, here it is - your weekly Fun Fun Fun Fest band announcements. We think that this came courtesy of Wikileaks, who have obtained the documents and, against the threat of national security, have released the latest round up. Also, Fun Fun Fun Fest apparently wants to have a press conference when they announce the full list, which we find kind of hilarious. Why not? This is clearly press conference worthy. Someone notify Reuters! Will there be an open bar? What’s a press conference without an open bar, we always say. Reporters will also be able to ask their hard hitting questions, if called upon, which means there will be a mad scramble to see who will fill Helen Thomas’ seat in the front. We really feel this press conference needs to happen, because the public needs to know what Transmission Entertainment is doing about shoring up these continued leaks.

Anyway, today we have announced The Hold Steady, with Craig Finn bringing his breathless “oh, kids these days!” ranting to Waterloo Park. Is it just us, or does Finn and the Hold Steady’s songs kinda remind you of that teacher you had in high school who was down with what all the kids were into - you know, the one that wanted to be your buddy, and yeah, knew all about the crazy rave last weekend? It’s ok, we thought he was the coolest back then, too. We’re just waiting for Finn to one day whip out this line. Also on this week’s FFFFest roundup, though: RJD2, Dwarves, and High on Fire. And now you know.

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.

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.

In these days of bleak, wintery weather, it’s nice to remember better times. Like Fun Fun Fun Fest, which was, well, ok, the weather sucked then, too. But at least we were miserable together, right? The F3 folks are trying to let the memories linger, and have been uploading videos of live performances for the past few weeks. We picked a couple of our local favorites, including the Strange Boys debuting the title track from their upcoming sophomore album, Be Brave in the rain. The local lads provided one of the highlights of the fest, especially with the addition of new member and just-moments-before-disbanded Mika Miko fixture Jenna Thornhill, who wails away nicely on sax. It’s actually rather uncanny how similar Ryan Sambol and Thornhill sound when they’re moaning out their ragged R&B. We’ve also posted video below of the Sword unloading “Barael’s Blade,”, because even making fun of Neon Indian is getting boring, especially when the Sword is simply so much better. So if you want to see the videos of Neon Indian or some Jesus Lizard insanity, as well as a bunch of other great live vids from the Fest, check out the Fun Fun Fun Youtube channel. (Thanks to Ultra8201 for the catch).

This year’s 4th annual Fun Fun Fun Fest once again proved to be a testament to the eclectic pull of Austin’s music scene, dosing the base of indie rock with metal, punk, hip-hop, electronica, and even comedy. With a headlining reunion on Saturday of the Jesus Lizard and Sunday with Danzig, the hardcore Black Stage set the bar, but across the board, performances were impressive despite the rain that muddied the Fest’s close. Local acts proved impressive among the bigger national names, showcasing some emerging new artists like L.A.X. and The Roller to and those about to break like Harlem and the Strange Boys, as well as top tier Austin bands like Shearwater and the Sword. Our crew was liveblogging the Fest the entire weekend, with photos from the pit and live reviews. Click through to check out all of our coverage.

No moment of Fun Fun Fun Fest this past weekend was more emotionally fraught than the performance by Bankrupt and the Borrowers. Announced as their final show in the wake of last month’s tragic death of Jon Pettis, the show brought out a large local contingent to both pay their respects to Pettis, and celebrate the band. You can read our review of the show here, but Austin Sound writer Marc Perlman also shot some excellent live footage of the performance that we wanted to share. With the Bridge Farmers Tyler Hautala filling in for Pettis, Bankrupt and the Borrowers offered a touching send off with the song “Dumpster.” Watch the performance below, and the all star benefit show with a number of friends and fans is still currently scheduled for December 6 at the Hole in the Wall.

The first Fun Fun Fun Fest emerged almost by accident in December of 2006, the result of too many big names converging on Austin at once for then-Emo’s booker Graham Williams to place in various venues. A year later, Williams had founded Transmission Entertainment and reinvigorated the north end of Red River, with the Fun Fun Fun Fest serving as the capstone of the new company. Now in it’s fourth year, the Fest has become a uniquely Austin event - dedicated to a small but eclectic grassroots and indie music scene that has come to represent the aesthetic of Transmission Entertainment itself. We sat down with Williams at Transmission’s new headquarters in a house at the corner of 8th and Red River as they readied for the final run of Fun Fun Fun Fest preparations, and spoke at length about the evolution of the Fest, how big Transmission and FFFFest can get, and the good and bad of Austin’s contemporary competitive booking scene. Fun Fun Fun, of course, goes on this Saturday and Sunday in Waterloo Park, with afterparties spilling out all down Red River through the weekend.