British Heroes Elbow Talk Their New Album, The States and Their North Texas Connection

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Marco Torres
Elbow guitarist Mark Potter onstage at ACL.
For nearly two decades, cinematic Manchester act Elbow have been fairly silent in the U.S., despite drawing comparisons to Coldplay, Doves, and Radiohead. Meanwhile, their five records have earned critical acclaim back in the U.K. Their last two -- Build A Rocket Boys! and The Seldom Seen Kid, were both nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize. The Seldom Seen Kid actually won it.

And yet, even with all this attention overseas, they've managed to miss the boat on several British invasions of the states. In fact, they've never performed in North Texas before. But, interestingly, that hasn't stopped North Texas music from having an influence on them.

Over the weekend, the band performed at Austin City Limits Music Festival. Their slow building songs and affable onstage banter -- singer Guy Garvey charmed the pants off of about 3,000 onlookers -- easily made their set one of the best of the festival. And, before they performed on Sunday, we had the chance to sit down and talk with guitarist Mark Potter, Keyboard player Craig Potter and drummer Richard Jupp about their stateside prospects and their intriguing North Texas ties.

Hit the jump to read our interview.

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No, Kanye West Wasn't Joking When He Eulogized The Black Eyed Peas at ACL.

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Pete Freedman
Kanye West at his ACL '11 performance. Swag?
Gotta admit it: We just thought he was being confident and awesome when he said it. Turns out, though, there may have been something of merit behind Kanye West's out-of-nowhere banter about the Black Eyed Peas from Friday night at the 2011 Austin City Limits festival.

"Rest in peace to the Black Eyed Peas," he announced to his massive, attentive Zilker Park audience. "You'll be missed."

Fact is, he wasn't joking.

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Night Three of Austin City Limits '11: If You're Gonna Go Out, You Better Go Out With a Bang.

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Pete Freedman
Arcade Fire played a familiar set to end Austin City Limits 2011. But it was still thrilling.
The hot sun from the morning of Day Three at the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival persisted well into the afternoon and evening at Zilker Park. But with the festival end looming and plenty of anticipated sets remaining, no one seemed to mind.

In fact, most of the stage performers book for the final sets of ACl '11 seemed to downright enjoy the circumstances in which they were playing -- none more so than AWOLNATION frontman Aaron Bruno, who quite literally crowd-surfed when someone handed him a surfboard to match his Hawaiian shirt. Miraculously, he somehow completed a lap above the crowd, maintaining his balance on the board before being returned to the stage.

It was just one of many impressive feats that closed out the 2011 Zilker Park festivities.

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Austin City Limits Music Festival: A First-Timer's Recap

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Pete Freedman
The sweet, sweet ACL crowd.
Before this weekend, I'd never been to Austin City Limits Music Festival. Actually, I'd never been to any outdoor music festivals the scale of ACL. I've probably been to eight or nine South By Southwests, and, before heading down to Austin this weekend, I hypothesized that ACL wouldn't be my thing.

In many ways, I was right.

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ACL Stage Banter: The Weekend's Funniest and Most Interesting On-Stage Quotes

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Marco Torres
And the award for ACL 2011's best stage banter goes to Kanye West.
Now that Austin City Limits Music Festival is in the rear view mirror, all we have are the memories. That is, unless you spent the weekend drunk and high, in which case you might not even remember who performed, let alone what they said between the songs.

Lucky for you, we here at DC9 kept a running list of the choicest on-stage banter at the festival. Not surprisingly, a lot of it had to do with the weather. The Walkmen riffed on the heat and Elbow claimed to have brought the rain with them from Manchester.

It wasn't all lighthearted small talk or offhanded jokes, though. Kanye parodied himself, and a small handful of bands got political. Hit the jump to read the entire list.

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Last Night At ACL: The Arcade Fire Bids the Crowd Farewell "For a Couple of Years"?

Arcade Fire 
Austin City Limits Music Festival 
September 18, 2011

Better than:
having to sit through an Eagles set at the end of ACL.

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James Bricker
Arcade Fire at ACL
​On Sunday Night at Zilker Park, the largest crowd of the weekend converged on the Bud Light stage, where Arcade Fire was scheduled to play the one and only closing set of the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Turns out, according to an offhanded comment by singer Win Butler, that it would be the last chance the crowd would get to see Arcade Fire play for a while.

"We probably won't see you guys for a couple of years," he said, "so take care of yourselves."

The crowd, who barely seemed to notice the comment at the end of the band's set, was a diverse one -- thanks to a long list of electro and hip hop acts on the festival's bill -- but Win Butler and his Arcade Fire turned out to be the great equalizer. The audience was united under a single notion: nostalgia.

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ACL Capsule Reviews: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., The Walkmen, Broken Social Scene, and Elbow

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Marco Torres
Elbow brought the Manchester rain.
And just like that, the heat returned. 

The hot sun beat down on the wet grass, creating an inescapable humidity in Zilker Park on Sunday. As such, the people came prepared to sweat it out. The same guys hawking ponchos yesterday now had packets of sunscreen for sale at a "discount" rate.

It was the final push of Austin City Limits Music Festival. The final day. Fans who were already exhausted from the previous two days would have to tough it out, because with Sunday came the strongest lineup of the festival. The Walkmen, Broken Social Scene, and Manchester's Elbow, who rarely play the States, were all cued up and ready to go. 

Hit the jump to see our micro reviews of those shows.

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Day Three of Austin City Limits '11: Dallas-Born Ruby Jane Kicks Thing Off and The Sun is Back

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Pete Freedman
Dallas-born 16-year-old Ruby jane kicked off Saturday's proceedings in fine fashion.
After a lackluster Saturday, things are already heating up on Sunday afternoon at Zilker Park. Actually, they were plenty hot in the morning, too: Temperatures soared into the '90s, but, more important, the sun has returned from its gray Saturday slumber .

And it started its beating early: By the time 16-year-old, Dallas-born fiddle prodigy Ruby Jane Smith took the stage to kick off the final day of the 2011 Austin City Limits Festival at 11:20 a.m., lines had already filled at the Camelbak-sponsored water filling stations scattered around the park.

People seemed thirsty for Ruby Jane's own first attempt at a new, grown-up sound, too.

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ACL Night Two (With Pics!): The Calm of Stevie Wonder Meets The Storm of My Morning Jacket

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Pete Freedman
TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, possibly among those disappointed in what would later happen with Stevie Wonder's set.
Kind of an awkward second night at the 2011 Austin City Limits Music last night. The worst part: It could've been great. Alas, in the end, not so much. But, sure enough, it started pretty well: Exciting offerings from Cee-Lo Green and Cut Copy bled into anticipated performances from Chromeo, Court Yard Hounds, Preservation Hall & The Del McCoury Band and TV on the Radio.

TV on the Radio was especially in phenomenal form, serving as fine set-up for the would-be greatness that was expected to shortly follow their own funked-up indie party jams.

Unfortunately, Stevie Wonder's set largely came off like trying to hold a conversation on a cell phone in a loud, crowded room.

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Last Night at ACL: My Morning Jacket Got a Little Weird, But Still Rocked

My Morning Jacket
AMD Stage -- Austin City Limits
September 17, 2011

Better than: about 99 percent of any other concerts I've ever seen.

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Jim Bricker
My Morning Jacket. More photos of the fans in our slide show
Is My Morning Jacket the best live band on the planet? In the universe? They sounded like it on Saturday night at Austin City Limits Music Festival as they played an abbreviated set at the AMD stage.

Before my computer gets overloaded with hyperbole, I'll tap the brakes. But only a little.

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