Austin Sound

The Austinist just announced the lineup for this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, and it’s a good one. The acts don’t seem as big as last years, but a ton of quality indie acts and some major punk and metal heavy hitters, along with a nice dose of hip hop. And once again, a number of Austin acts are given some love. This year’s Fest, which will take place November 8 and 9 at Waterloo Park, will feature 4 stages (up one from last year’s, for those counting) and will throw in some comedians for good measure. Tickets for 2 days passes will be $60, and go on sale soon. More bands will apparently also be announced soon, but you can check out the main list, via Austinist, below:

The 3-day tickets for ACL are sold out, but we’re already looking forward to November when the Fun Fun Fun Fest brings its tri-stage party to Waterloo Park. Bands for this year’s third annual Fest have been trickling out, and today we have three more courtesy of Austinsist. In addition to the awesome reunion of Dead Milkmen and Deerhoof and Dan Deacon announced last week, now we can add one more to each stage: Punk icons DOA, along with Minus the Bear and DJ Z-Trip. There will also apparently be some comedians performing, at least according to some of their myspace pages that we’ve come across.

Oh those Transmission folks, they certainly know how to tease us, and we feel like freshmen at the homecoming dance. After announcing earlier this week that they’ve scored a reunion show from the Dead Milkmen to headline one of the Fest’s nights, they’ve dangled a couple more names for us via their blogging cohort Gorilla vs. Bear. Also on the lineup according to the Dallas bloggeratti are Deerhoof and Dan Deacon.

If there’s a punk band even thinking about getting back together, and probably even a few that hadn’t ever considered it, you can bet that Graham Williams of Transmission Entertainment will have them booked to play the Fun Fun Fun Fest. The Statesman is reporting that William’s latest stab at re-experiencing the glory days of his punk youth is to nab Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen to headline a day at this year’s fest, which will be taking place November 8 & 9 in Waterloo Park.

Last year’s somewhat impromptu inaugural Fun Fun Fun Fest was a success despite the December cold, and this year’s upped the ante with a bigger lineup, better organization, and, thankfully, a beautiful early November weekend. Expanding to 2 days and serving now as the premier event for the recently formed Transmission Entertainment, FFFFest captures everything that is great about Austin music, from the laid back atmosphere, local vendors, and, best of all, a cross-section of indie, punk, hardcore, hip-hop, and djs that highlights the diversity of the local scene. Though headliners like the New Pornographers, Girl Talk, and the re-united Murder City Devils offered spectacular sets as expected, the local acts once again proved to be the backbone of the Fest. And while the dual stage setup on the indie and hardcore stages provided fast set ups that kept the music flowing, it also meant less opportunity, or at least tougher decisions, in exploring the full lineup. The weekend was about as packed with non-stop music as it could it have been, and the easy going atmosphere of the fest extended to the fans as well. Below we have our review and photos of the Fest from Doug Freeman and John Laird, as well as a few questions with festival organizer Graham Williams and the impressions from some of the local artists that made the weekend such a success.

Photos by John Laird and Doug Freeman
Click image to view full-sized picture

Day 1: Doug Freeman

9/4/07
The lineup for this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest has been teasing us for the past few months, slowly dropping bigger and bigger names for what is shaping up to be the signature event of the new Transmission Entertainment enterprise. And once again, the organizers have put together a stellar roster of both national and local acts in the pursuit of finding the ultimate superfan that loves hardcore and punk, indie rock and pop, and DJs and Dance beats. Hopefully this year will result in even more mingling between the segregated stages - we think the goal should be a mosh pit in the DJ tent.

8/6/07
While we’re still waiting for the official announcement of this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest (which is shaping up to be quite the two-day spectacle), some other names have popped up since the preliminary lineup was dropped last month. Most exciting is the apparent addition of the Murder City Devils, who split in 2000, and have only reunited for one show last summer.

While it’s hardly official, the group’s bio has been put up on the Festival’s myspace page along with Neurosis, and Showlist Austin has a few more bands listed as well. The Festival will be going on Saturday and Sunday November 3 and 4 in Waterloo Park and will feature 4 stages this year. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear any confirmation on the lineup or when tickets go on sale, but here are the bands Showlist marks as playing:

7/5/07
In this week’s Chronicle, the new news column “Off the Record” dished some details on the second installment of last year’s hugely popular, though cold-as-hell Fun Fun Fun Fest. The festival will be held again in Waterloo Park, but the date has thankfully been upped to November 3-4, expanding to two days and raising the ante on last year’s talent.

It looks as if the Punk stage will be in full effect again, but the Indie Stage has some quality talent to rival it this year. Whether the dj’s will still be stuck in the tent or get a more accessible stage is yet to be determined.

12/1/06
Just in case it had somehow slipped your mind, the first of what we hope will be many Fun Fun Fun Festivals is taking place today down at Waterloo Park. Kicking off at 2:00, it’s the perfect excuse to wander out for lunch and just go ahead and call it a weekend. And it looks to be a beautiful, if brisk, December day today.

Some things you should know before you head out. Tickets on sale at the gate are $25 and there is no reentry. So be sure to have everything you need - including some warmth in whatever form for when the sun sets. No outside food or drinks are allowed, but there will be plenty of options inside, including beer at $4 a pop. No dogs are allowed, but you can bring the kids. Doors open at 1pm, and everything will be done by 10pm sharp so you can go hit more shows or the official afterparty at the Beauty Bar.

The fine folks at Emo’s and Alamo Drafthouse have teamed up to create the perfect mid-sized festival that Austin has needed. The inaugural Fun Fun Fun Festival will set up shop in Waterloo Park this Friday with the Fun kicking off at 2:00 pm. With headliners like Spoon, Peaches, Circle Jerks and Prefuse 73, the festival will mix the local and touring acts across three stages (indie, punk and dj) that showcase the diversity of Austin’s music scene.

As large festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, and ACL have firmly taken hold here in the States, it has given rise to a number of smaller festivals, but this will really be the first for Austin to begin to compete in scope with the Siren or Pitchfork size fests. Over half of the 25 acts on the bill are local or Texas artists as well, with some of the best hometown talent like Octopus Project, the Black Angels and the Riverboat Gamblers highlighting the local scene. Not only should we show our support for the event to ensure it becomes a mainstay here in town, but at only $20 for a full-day’s worth of music, there’s really no excuse not to be there.