© Andrea Barrack / RumBum.com
The end of the road to the way in. Finally!
2009's Austin City Limits will be remembered for one thing: mud. The mud in Zilker park. The mud in our shoes, cars, and hotel rooms; the mud below our eyes and in our hair; the mud that seemed to come from nowhere.
On Friday, Austin's Zilker park had some of the greenest, silkiest grass you've ever put bare feet upon. On Saturday, it rained. (And all of Austin sold out of umbrellas, ponchos and rain boots as festies prepared to bare the brunt of a few Texas-sized storms.) By Sunday, the beautiful grass was gone and in its place came gloppy, soppy, oozy, goozy mud. And in that mud we danced, we laughed, we cheered, we fell. We made mud angels. We got into car accidents. We called tow trucks. We ruined formally pristine hotel towels.
Between all that, there was music. Some of the best music being made right now, in fact. And to that music, we danced and sang and made new friends and discovered new favorite bands, and decided that we were lucky to be there, mud or no mud. Below is some of the very best of Austin City Limits 09 as seen through the eyes of our writers and through our camera lens. Enjoy!
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 28, 2009 at 02:04PM
When we heard that Jypsi, the fashionable quartet from Nashville, were siblings, we raised our eyebrows. Any fights? Any sibling rivalry? Any jealousy? No, no no. While they might not make for good gossip, the foursome ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 23, 2009 at 12:23PM
At times, State Radio sounds like a grown-up, socially-conscious version of Sublime. But that's the influence of the reggae on their music, not any kind of affinity with the 90s party band. True to the meaning of reggae, State ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 12, 2009 at 10:41AM
If you’re like me, the typical post-music festival ritual is to 1) shower, 2) plop down in your comfiest spot (preferably with your feet up), and 3) delve into your music downloading tool of choice and seek the plethora ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 11, 2009 at 10:18AM
For a band that supposedly had its heyday in the 90s and has been mired in legal and label disputes ever since, Pearl Jam did not miss a beat on Sunday night as the headlining and final act of Austin City Limits. The ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 11, 2009 at 10:00AM
Oh, the drama! The rapture! The masterpiece! Swooning were the masses at the LiveStrong stage at ACL on Sunday evening. The hour was 6:00 o’clock. The sun crept below the trees confining the ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 11, 2009 at 04:21AM
Stalwart fans endured a test of will by sticking around for Dan Auerbach's set at 7:15pm on Sunday night. Muddy and gross, the ACL's Austin Ventures stage was not a welcome nest for his eager listeners, but Auerbach ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 10, 2009 at 01:40PM
L.A.X. is a bit hard to pin down, genre-wise. There is definitely an electro/house element but also a pop element, and definitely an R&B element to their music. Credit this to the band's three singers ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 10, 2009 at 12:53PM
Anyone not standing at the Austin Ventures stage waiting for State Radio or passing by at exactly the right moment probably missed Brett Dennen's set at Austin City Limits on Sunday. Dennen, who will be appearing on Dave ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 10, 2009 at 10:07AM
What does a man with Wednesday Adams’ pigtails, a cowboy hat, aviator glasses, and a leather jacket with fringe have in common with a man in a cape trimmed with Christmas lights and a glowing Celtic cross on the back? I ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 10, 2009 at 09:17AM
Around 4:00pm on ACL's muddy Sunday, the Arctic Monkeys took the AMD stage though a cloud of artificial smoke (and some of the real stuff rose from the crowd). Tens of thousands waded their way across the oozing park floor to ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 10, 2009 at 07:55AM
Here We Go Magic just may be the best band that you don't know. The quartet from Brooklyn, NY makes funkadelic lounge music with a rich, textured, sound that seems to go with just about anything. Their style is ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 10, 2009 at 03:47AM
Credit White Lies for bringing back dark indie-pop music and the keytar. (Well, dark indie pop never went anywhere, but the keytar...that's just bold.) The London-based band plays music reminiscent of The Cure (or, perhaps more ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 10, 2009 at 03:08AM
When we met Ben Sollee at Sunday morning at ACL, he had just arrived in Austin after driving all night from Lexington, Kentucky. To keep himself awake all night as he drove through the deep, deep south, he sang. Sollee ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 09, 2009 at 08:46PM
Though legendary Dave Matthews and his Band are festival mainstays, whenever they hit one of those massive outdoor arenas they are giving thousands the experience of a lifetime. "Dave! Dave! Dave!" they chanted at the end ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 07:40PM
The crowds were huge at Austin City Limits – bigger than at any festival we've been to this summer. At one point, on Saturday, the rainiest, most uncomfortable day of the fest, thousands crowded the main stage under torrential ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 07:20PM
The radio loves pop-sensible rock; it’s no wonder then that the radio loves Mute Math, the photogenic rock band out of New Orleans. The foursome has been “rockin’ it up the charts” ever since their self-titled ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 06:01PM
The Henry Clay People is a high-energy rock band from LA. And the fact that they're from LA usually raises some eyebrows. This is, in part, because of their no-nonsense, no-pretense live shows; it's also because of the sheer ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 05:35PM
Most poets can't sing. Though most do try, while cleaning their houses, or driving their cars or scrubbing their bodies in their impossibly small showers. Just like the rest of us, they try to sing. They test it out. After a few ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 03:33PM
Cotton Jones makes beautiful and dreamy music reminiscent of the blissed-out sixties (or any blissed-out time, really). But Cotton Jones is rooted in the 60s. Formally of the Baltimore-based band, Page France, Cotton Jones' ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 10:37AM
The Airborne Toxic Event has had a really big year. In August of 2008, their self-titled album was released; in March, they were signed to a major label, Island Def Jam, and in April, their album broke #1 on Billboard's ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 10:01AM
Brett Dennen might be a dead-ringer for Ziggy Stardust, but he's the just about antithesis of a glam rocker as anyone could be. And he's pretty proud of that. One of the most down-to-earn "rock stars" we've ever met, Dennen ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 09:17AM
You might imagine a band with the name And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead to be pretty hardcore. But Trail of Dead is actually kind of theatric; they are also hugely symphonic and pretty fun to listen to. Make no mistake, ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 09, 2009 at 08:53AM
Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan often gets compared to Talking Heads' frontman David Byrne for his on-stage penache. (Both Noonan and Byrne have a cute little dance they do while singing into their respective microphones and ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 09, 2009 at 06:18AM
Day two of Austin City Limits, marked by nearly continuous rain, had left only the faithful at Zilker Park. The crowds didn't necessarily demand more, but a lackluster performance was far less forgivable to people soaked from ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 05:11PM
There's just something great about the rock music coming out of the south as of late. It seems to know a little more about life than most. Or maybe it's just more honest. Whatever it is, the Dexateens have got it – ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 05:03PM
Listening to their music, you'd never know Los Amigos Invisibles formed in 1991. They sound so much like the very best in disco funk fusion that you'd think they formed more than a decade earlier. But it's the benefit of ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 03:03PM
After their interview with Rum Bum, Nelo's hunky singer Reid Umstattd stuck around to chat with Danielle. So, we made it official, kept our cameras rolling and turned it into an "interview." Because, you know, why not? And ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 01:42PM
What do you get when you combine childhood friends, a southern rock sensibility and loads of chemistry? Really good music, that's what. Nelo, the quintet from Austin, Texas (formally, and briefly, from Athens, Georgia) ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 08, 2009 at 10:06AM
Chicken wings go great with Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. And how better to enjoy Flogging Molly than with a frosty brew? With lots of hits and only a few misses, Austin Eats showcased fare for famished festival folks and ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 09:59AM
There is just something about a well written country song that climbs into your psyche and won't let go. It's in part due to the images the song conjures (a man in a car, say, with the windows down and the road stretching out ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 08, 2009 at 09:45AM
When Danielle says Sara Watkins plays perfect rainy day music, she's not kidding. Watkins blends her perfect harmonies with the sweet sound of her violin, ukulele and guitar (though not all at the same time). The music ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 08, 2009 at 07:20AM
The only things missing from the AMD stage on Friday night of Austin City Limits were candlelight, a wood-burning fire, wine, and a bear skin rug. John Legend provided everything else needed to create an intimate evening for ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 07, 2009 at 01:39PM
The Low Anthem makes heartbreakingly beautiful music. If there wasn't more space to fill, I'd leave it at that. But because one man's heartbreakingly beautiful is another man's Slayer, I'll continue... The serene vocals of ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 07, 2009 at 05:34AM
ACL-goers got cozy Friday night at the Dell stage, and not just because the packed in crowd had no choice but to snuggle shoulder to shoulder. Even before he emerged from the wings in his smart button down and distinguished navy ... More »
-
by Lauren Doyle on October 07, 2009 at 04:34AM
The Parlor Mob loves to play live. So much so that they anticipate their live shows the way children do Christmas morning, eagerly anticipating the songs the songs they're set to play. If you played music like The Parlor ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 06, 2009 at 09:54AM
Rock n' roll is a staple for most large musical festivals. For a country music festival, travel to Chicago or Porterfield, Wisconsin. Want bluegrass? Best go to Tennessee or Georgia. Aside from the Gospel Music Festival in ... More »
-
by Andrea Barrack on October 05, 2009 at 11:51AM
Sunday meant a ridiculously soppy Day #3 in Austin, but that didn’t dampen the steadfast ACL spirit. An overly-reported news peg circling the fest this year was The Rain. No one was quite sure what to expect after ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 04, 2009 at 09:18AM
Dealing with whatever weather conditions Mother Nature throws at you is part of what differentiates festival concerts from other kinds of shows. So the fact that most of the sets on Day Two of the Austin City Limits festival ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 03, 2009 at 09:54AM
As I walked toward Zilker Park for the 35th Austin City Limits festival, passing people setting up temporary shop on the sidewalk with t-shirts, glass pipes (for tobacco use only), and bottled water, I saw a sidewalk vendor with ... More »
-
by Candice Adams on October 02, 2009 at 03:24AM
Drive down Airport Blvd. in East Austin and there's an unassuming restaurant called Quality Seafood Market that, up until three months ago, employed Joe Lewis as an oyster shucker. Now a full-time musician, Joe Lewis, front man ... More »
