ACL Fest Announces Its Lineup And, Hey, Lookie Here!

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Late last night/early this morning, the Twittersphere was ablaze with TinyURLs linking to the official 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup, which had suddenly been announced some time around midnight.

As expected, the headlining acts are straight out the mid-'90s with Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys sitting atop the lineup card.

And overall, actually, it's a pretty solid bill for the October 2-4 fest, mixing these longtime megastars and touring mainstays with the modern indie stars/up-and-comers of today, with names like Kings of Leon, The Decemberists !!!, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Here We Go Magic, Andrew Bird, Girl Talk and Bon Iver, among many others. Also: Martin, Medeski & Wood. Oh, and Sonic Youth, too.

Plus, there's a few Dallasites on there: Promising young locals Sarah Jaffe and Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights both made the cut, as did area mainstays the Toadies, whose bizarrre summer finds the band starting off at Richardson's Wildflower Festival and ending at ACL. Go figure.

Another sort of local angle: School of Seven Bells, a DC9 favorite from Brooklyn that features Ben Curtis, formerly of The Secret Machines, UFOFU, Tripping Daisy and other area projects, is also on the bill.

Regular and VIP passes are currently on sale via ACL's site. So, you know, go stiumulate the economy and what have you.

Self-important Faces in the ACL Crowd

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We gave it the requisite thee days PLUS one (a hard and fast rule in this business), but we're ready this afternoon to unveil two new slide shows showing ACL at its seediest, hairiest, and knee-high sock-iest:

Hipsterwatch: Our top shots of that zany crowd at Zilker Park last weekend, along with...

Hipster Feet on Parade: Our look (down) at the true mark of an ACL enthusiast, the festival footwear. Enjoy! --Patrick Michels

Gillian Welch and Neko Case at ACL Fest: The Return of the Redheads

Gillian Welch must have read our earlier post about Friday's redheads, Patty Griffin and Jenny Lewis. She and partner David Rawlings took the theme and ran with it in their cowboy boots. First there was "Red Clay Halo," from their touchstone album Time (The Revelator), and later there was "Knuckleball Catcher," a new song about Red Sox pitchers and the men behind the plate who've got only "one job to do." Read more.

Random Thoughts on ACL Fest

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Sharon Jones, with a little help from a new friend (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

The best fan-participation moment came during Sharon Jones’ set, when not one but two different random slobs got onstage to dance with the funky soul siren’s set. The first guy was a bearded, burly dude who came out from backstage and busted some impressive moves, not a bit intimidated by the powerful Miss Jones. A couple songs later, she called up a guy in khaki shorts and glasses who looked like he was interrupted from his hacky sack game and who got down on his knees and totally hammed it up. I later overheard the bearded guy swearing to somebody in the media tent that he hadn’t been a plant. (UPDATE: Turns out the "bearded, burly dude" was Nakia Daniel Reynoso of Southern rock band Nakia and his Southern Cousins, which performed at ACL Sunday.)

Yawn: Foo Fighters at ACL Fest

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(Dawn Jones-Garcia)

I want to like the Foo Fighters, I really do. Since Nirvana, Dave Grohl has always come off as a really likeable guy for a rock megastar with a gift for catchy hooks and big rock choruses. But about a half hour was all I needed before the Foos’ songs started running together, and the band’s flying hair and rock poses started to look like watching a few friends play Rock Band on the easy setting.

Photos: ACL Sunday Grab Bag

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The Foo Fighters performed Sunday night at ACL. (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

Don't miss our slideshow of select shots from our entire photo team -- but to delve a little deeper in to ACL's last day, check out more work by the classically trained Dawn Jones-Garcia after the jump.

Photos: The Raconteurs at ACL

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The Raconteurs performed Sunday night at ACL. (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

Look for plenty more ACL coverage trickling in here this morning, as we continue posting photos and show recaps from the big finish at Zilker Park. More of the Raconteurs after the jump, and shots from other shows coming soon.

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Zilker Park scenes from Sunday

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It's one thing to get a band tattoo. It's quite another to appropriate as your own makeshift family crest. Read more here.

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Against Me! at ACL Fest

The closest the MySpace generation will get to its own Bruce Springsteen is Tom Gabel, lead singer/guitarist of Gainesville’s Against Me! And if by any chance you aren’t swayed by the comparisons to the Boss, then he and his band could also be the Clash, circa Give Em Enough Rope. It’s working class rock and roll for the kids who make your morning coffee and build your fences. Read more.

Erykah Badu at ACL Fest

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Erykah Badu (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

With all apologies to Beck and Sharon Jones, nobody I’ve seen has completely owned the crowd from beginning to end the way Erykah Badu did yesterday afternoon, from the raucous applause that greeted her as she slowly and confidently strode on stage during the funky soul of “New Amerykah” to closing burner “Honey.”

Her set was heavy on new songs; about half came from her latest album, New Amerykah Part 1 (Fourth World War). Though few in the crowd seemed familiar with the material, the new songs were received with as much enthusiasm as older hits “On and On” and “Tyrone.” Scattered cheers rang out as she sang “Hip hop is bigger than religion / Hip hop is bigger than the government,” over trippy Rhodes during “The Healer;” the crowd was clearly a bit wary about the suggestion that hip hop could be as big as religion (some things clearly haven’t changed much since John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus more than four decades ago), but it seemed we could all agree on the government. “Me” was a real crowd pleaser too, with a strong female response to “This year I turn 36 / My ass and thighs have gotten thick.” Then, blissfully smacking out thick beats on a drum machine during “Appletree,” Ms. Badu looked even happier than the audience.

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