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June 2010
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Saturday at the Austin City Limits Music Festival was about the groove. Well, about half the time, anyway: it seemed like half the acts were soul- and R&B-derived, and the other half were either quiet indie songwriters or country-fried rockers. Quite a contrast, and it created some conflicts. But good performances were many. The top ones: 1). Fleet Foxes. The Seattle outfit's music can be rightly dubbed ambient folk: creamy harmonies and basic instrumentation that interweaves like an aural magic dragon to create a sunny, swirling cloud of rough-hewn song. Somehow -- the early performance time of 12:30 p.m. on the AMD Stage likely had a lot to do with this -- the music coagulated into a pixie-dusted wall of delight, as if it were a soundtrack to some Legend-like fantasy movie set in rural Kentucky. It was beautiful in an overall-sporting, gap-toothed way. To top it off, the band's members were extremely loose and spontaneous with their on-stage banter. "I'm sleepy," was drummer J. Tillman's intro. "Isn't is reassuring that banks can't manage money, just like regular people?" mused keyboardist Casey Westcott. Funny stuff. 2) Spiritualized. Jason Pierce's space rock outfit blew me away because I hadn't realized how fitting his band's name really is. At times crushingly delicate and sorrowful and at other times inexplicably uplifting, the music has a heavy gospel influence -- a pair of large-and-in-charge black female singers assisted the band during its ACL set -- and the slide, wah-wah and noise-rock riffing between Mr. Pierce and guitarist Doggen, who faced each other on stage instead of the crowd, was like a battle that culminated in a violent but lasting truce. You should have seen how those two singers were rocking out at the end of the set's closing song, "Come Together," which ended in a three-minute finale of guitar noise. 3). Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. I only caught the front end of its set (had to file a story; I missed CSS and Man Man 'cause of that, too), but it only took two songs to have even people without any semblance of rhythm to be moving as if they were all 'dat. This old-school soul-funk outfit has so much charisma it should be registerable as a motor vehicle. It's no wonder this band's involvement in Amy Winehouse's Grammy-sweeping album Back to Black made that disc so listenable beyond Crazy Amy's voice. Mmm-mmm good. Archived Comments |
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1) Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves
Nestled inside the WaMu tent was the most soulful white boy you've ever heard. It's obvious he loves the great soul records of the '50s and '60s. This is no mere homage.
2) John Fogerty
After Dylan's atrocious set last year, I was afraid this elder of rock history would be horrendous too. How wrong I was. Even at his age, he was more energetic than artists half his age.
3) Beck
Another one I was dreading. But leaving his experimental-for-experimental's-sake attitude behind, Mr. Hansen put on a hit-packed set, and only twiddled with oddball effects when it served the song (he performed a version of "Hell Yes" that was listenable!).