Hidden Track

Haven’t been following? Get caught up if you haven’t been following: full Day One recap, full Day Two recap, and the Great ACL Fire of 2007…

So long, Texas — I shall miss this Glorious Smörgåsbord you natives call the Austin City Limits music festival. Seventeen more bands offered us free samples on the final day of the event, bringing the total tasting menu up to an uneven 49 acts over the 27 hours we spent cruising the spectacular (and quickly browning from the over-aggressive sun) Zilker Park grounds.

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James grew out his hair again

Day One brought the unexpected fire, Day Two brought the unrelenting warmth, and Day Three just brought the heat. Tell me how it’s possible to top a two-hour stretch of My Morning Jacket > Wilco > Ghostland Observatory > The Decemberists. Vanessa Williams didn’t play today, but ACL certainly saved the best for last. First, I will chop off my balls for crafting such a silly sentence. Next, I shall regale you all with a comprehensive report from the festival and publish another full photo gallery from our main man, Danfun.

We just can’t praise enough the effort the organizers of this festival put forth — about the only complaints I’ve unofficially registered surround the choice of placing Wilco and My Morning Jacket in conflicting time slots on Day Three and the fact that Bob Dylan may have sent his evil twin in his stead to sing with gravel and razorblades in his throat. Yikes, Uncle Robert.

But other than that, the execution was flawless. This was a festival virtually devoid of any inter-artist collaboration and breakout covers, and yet the performances were worth every penny. The bang for the festival buck here is simply astonishing, so read on after the jump for the latest installment of Ace Is Goddamned Exhausted And Hasn’t Slept In Three Days…

Wait, you missed our full coverage of Day One? Click here to get the skinny…

I’d love to look back and say all 16 acts we caught on the second day of Austin City Limits brought the heat, but instead it was the equatorial Texas sun that did the job. It was the kind of day that can convince even the laziest lardass to shed a few pounds. At one point the front of my lower legs from knees to ankles were drenched in sweat, which is something I never knew was possible. At least this festival is teaching me the basics of human perspiration.

Day Two of ACL lacked the sense of intensity and must-see urgency that the Friday session delivered, but that first day was admittedly tough to top. Still, only four of the 16 sets managed to truly floor me, with the rest of the day’s performances ranging from generously mediocre to only fairly impressive. Those four, though — Dr. Dog, Paolo Nutini, Andrew Bird and Arcade Fire — validated the entire afternoon and evening, even if we’re still a little pissed at the White Stripes for pulling out of the Saturday headlining spot against Quebec’s finest.

That introduction to the second day’s festivities shouldn’t imply a complete lack of good times at Zilker Park. But sandwiched between the instant reminiscence of Friday’s spectacular beginning and the eager anticipation of Sunday’s jam-packed lineup, the middle-day quasi-letdown was only natural. In any event, read on after the jump for a full recap of the day’s events, including our second straight photo gallery supplied by our photographic genius, Danfun.

As we mentioned in the Day One recap, a beautiful day of music and sun was marred only by a midday propane tank explosion and subsequent fire that injured four people, two of them critically.

It’s a sad footnote to an otherwise fantastic day, and we wish only the best to those injured. Our festival photographer Dan managed to rush over to the fire and snap a couple shots of what transpired:

Read on after the jump for two more pictures of the Great ACL Fire of 2007…

Austin, Texas may very well be the greatest city in the world. I can’t speak to the city’s infrastructure, its public transportation, its race relations, its garbage pick-up or its political competency, but when there’s unrelated piles of vomit splashed all over famed 6th Street at closing time, you get my vote. That’s a city that knows how to deliver that glorious metaphorical reacharound.

Oh, yes, the city also hosts the best-organized festival out there, bar none. Austin City Limits today kicked off three sunny days of solid performances, the musicians and the weather each hot-as-fuck in their own right. On Day One we managed to catch at least two songs if not the whole set of 16 different acts, enjoying eight straight hours of pure, unadulterated audio sodomy before heading back to the madness of 6th Street (and my buddy’s bachelor party). And the real crazy part? I still feel like I missed everything. Craisins.

Photo by Danfun

Day One may have not have been the best of the three days on paper, but I’m finding it incredibly difficult to picture a better or brighter day than the one that just kicked my exhausted ass all around Zilker Park. Del McCoury and His Talented Sperm — three-fifths of the band shares the surname — ushered in a day of shit-eating grins, and the afternoon and evening that unfolded will be tough to top.

So read on after the jump for a full recap of the day’s events, complete with an extensive photo gallery from Danfun and myself…

There are a bunch of amazing performances and documentaries airing this weekend, and as usual we clue you in on the best of the best: Friday [all times Eastern]: Classic

Prince is fed up with people stealing his music, and he isn’t taking it anymore. The artist formerly known as a symbol has hired the anti-piracy firm Web Sheriff to

Uncle Neddy is down in Austin with Ace right now for the festivities that’ll kick off shortly — and he offers us this musical olive branch for those of you

From their moniker to their setlists to their personalities everything about Give Us The Money Lebowski comes in the name of having fun. These guys just want everyone (including themselves) to have a good time at their shows. Consider the mission accomplished: GUTML jammed for three hours on a batch of amazing covers and one audacious original during a late August Rocks Off cruise around the bottom of Manhattan.

Wanting to make sure they got to play as much music as possible, Lebowski started their rendition of the Velvet Underground’s Rock N Roll as soon as the boat pulled away from the pier at East 23rd. The boys jammed the hell out of the tune for nearly 20 minutes before they worked their way into Also Sprach Zarathustra. The song commonly referred to as 2001 started with guitarist Chris Cartelli adding a unique pattern to the familiar theme. Lead guitarist Nick Setteducato and bass player Mike Sojkowski quickly picked up what Cartelli was layin’ down, and they proceeded to accentuate the phrase nicely for the next 10 minutes. Now that’s fuckin’ teamwork!

Read on after the jump for much more on the GUTML Good Times Cruise…

The time hath finally arrived, and I’m about 10 minutes from classifying myself as “officially en route to Austin City Limits.” This trip marks my inaugural jaunt to the annual

My sister just gave birth to her second son. One of the first things she said to me about having two sons was “now they can form a band.” Over the course of rock history there have been many pairs of brothers that have achieved major success. So this week’s B List looks at our 10 favorite pairs of brothers who jam together.

10. The Evans Brothers [Soulive]

The Evans brothers with band mate Eric Krasno

Neal [organ] and Alan [drums] Evans make up two thirds of the soulful trio known as Soulive. The Evans boys cut their teeth by playing with Moon Boot Lover in the mid ’90s before forming Soulive with Eric Krasno in 1999. Neal is an incredibly percussive musician who plays organ with one hand and a bass keyboard with the other. Alan is the king of inventive fills, always thinking of new ways to push the music. Soulive recently released No Place Like Soul on the revamped Stax label.

Read on after the jump for nine more pairs of musical brothers, sans Smothers…