2007

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…