From Belle & Sebastian!...

"We announced one additional show today to our tour of the USA in July. Hopefully some of you will keep a space in your diary on the 16th July as we'll be playing at ACL Live at The Moody Theatre, Austin, TX with Blitzen Trapper."

Continue reading "Belle & Sebastian playing Moody Theatre in Austin before Pitchfork Fest (presale thursday)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Vampire Weekend @ The Moody Theater - 3/17/2013

As we recently mentioned over on Brooklynvegan, Vampire Weekend have released the details of their upcoming new album, Modern Vampires Of The City. They head out on the road in April, and you can stream two of their new tracks now.

During their visit to Austin for SXSW, they stopped by The Moody Theater to help kick off Season 39 of Austin City Limits with VW's first-ever taping for the show.

Speaking of Austin City Limits, they have big things in store for Season 39 - rumored to include live streaming of performances. So far there are some great tapings to look forward to, including Grizzly Bear, Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), Lumineers and Phoenix.

More pics of Vampire Weekend's ACL taping are below.

Continue reading "Vampire Weekend taped an episode for Austin City Limits' Season 39 (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Austra @ The Moody Theater on 2/11/2013

"I think I kind of started making electronic music by accident. It was mostly because I was coming out of the classical world and opera world and I was really interested in writing soundtracks like for movies. I was writing soundtracks for my friends who were dancers and performance artists and my way of doing that was tinkering with orchestral samples on my computer. So that's actually how I got involved in electronic music, I was using fake violins, and fake cellos, and fake oboes, and then eventually I just got really partial to the synthetic sounds and instead of replacing them with the real instruments, which a lot of people suspected I would do, I kind of just delved deeper into the electronic world and slowly but surely discovered dance music. It took me a long time though."- Austra's Katie Stelmanis to Austinist

SXSW success story and Music Fest favorites Austra return to the festival this March, debuting new songs from their eagerly awaited forthcoming sophomore release, which is expected later this year.

The band will be performing at the Moog/Switched On showcase on Saturday, March 16th at Elysium, alongside fellow synth enthusiasts Xeno & Oaklander, The Soft Moon, S U R V I V E, Ssleeperhold and Kontravoid. They are also the first artist announced to be playing the Brooklynvegan Official SXSW Day Parties, more details to be announced.

Following their 2011 SXSW appearance, Austra released their wildly successful debut LP, Feel It Break (Domino), have toured the globe non-stop (most recently with The xx), and were shortlisted for the 2011 Polaris Prize.

Continue reading "Austra played 2 nights @ ACL Live, added to SXSW, playing Moog & BrooklynVegan shows (dates & pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Diana Ross @ The Moody Theater - 1/30/2013

In its relatively short tenure, The Moody Theater has hosted its share of legends (current and future), and Wednesday night was no exception with the amazing Diana Ross gracing the downtown stage.

Miss Ross opened from backstage fittingly with "I'm Coming Out," and as the curtains fell away the people rose to their feet and cheered their approval. By the time she began Spiral Starecase's "More Today than Yesterday", the entire audience was a sea of swaying bodies, waving arms, and of course many-a-cell-phone trying to capture a shot of one of the most successful female music artists in history.

Pictures of Diana Ross from the 1/30 show in Austin below.

Continue reading "Diana Ross reigned Supreme at ACL Live (pics)"

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012 (more by Glen Brown)

Sorry for the late post of this. Graham actually did send us this last year, but we forgot to post it!

We posted many year-end lists from artists and other people in the music world as 2012 came to a close (browse our "Best of 2012" tag) and this one comes from Fun Fun Fun Fest/Transmission Events booker Graham Williams who gave us a list of the "best stuff of 2012." A few albums make the list, as do some live shows in Austin and a certain reunited group that Graham booked at this year's FFF Fest.

You can check out the full list below...

Continue reading "Graham Williams' (FFF Fest/Transmission) Best Stuff of 2012"

Deftones at MSG, Sept 2010 (more by Matthew Eisman)

BV has the lowdown on the return of Deftones to the road in the US, the dates of which include four stops in Texas:

03/26 - Corpus Christi, TX @ Concrete Street Amphitheater
03/27 - Pharr, TX @ Pharr Entertainment Center
03/29 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits @ Moody Theater
03/30 - Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center

Celebrate tracks from the band's new LP Koi No Yokan at Austin City Limits on March 29th. Tickets for that show go on sale 12/21 at 10AM.

Chan in the USA (via)

As discussed at BrooklynVegan, Cat Power will hit the road for a string of US dates in the new year. Those shows include a pair of Texas shows::

01/25 - Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall
01/26 - Austin , TX @ ACL @ Moody Theatre

Tickets for the Austin show go on sale Thursday at 10am.

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Gary Clark Jr. @ The Moody Theater - 11/30/2012

KLRU's Austin City Limits is now finished filming Season 38 of the longest-runnning live music show. Before they wrapped up for the year, Gary Clark Jr., who landed on Rolling Stones' Best Albums of the Year list, came and did his Austin proud for the second-to-last taping. From ACLTV's site:

"I've been wanting to do this for like 16 years," the young guitar slinger commented before he began. "So let's have some fun!" There's an irony to that statement being followed by the downhearted "When My Train Pulls In," but the heavy blues riffs defied the lyrics' melancholy cast. The show kicked into high gear immediately afterward with the driving fingerpicked boogie of "Don't Owe You a Thang," and the hometown crowd settled into the palm of his hand. "@garyclarkjr is slaying @acltv right now mayne!!!," claimed tonythecuate on Twitter.

Continue reading "Gary Clark Jr. taped for Austin City Limits (pics, setlist)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Esperanza Spalding @ The Moody Theater - 12/02/2012

It's a wrap: Austin City Limits filmed the last episode of Season 38 with Esperanza Spalding (and her Radio Music Society) at The Moody Theater. Coming just two days after Gary Clark Jr taped another episode, Esperanza and co helped KLRU finish the 2012 season strong. Pictures are in this post. More below...

Continue reading "ACLTV finished 2012 tapings with Esperanza Spalding (pics)"

Alejandro Escovedo at Waterloo Records, August 2012 (more by Tim Griffin)

Starting in middle December, Alejandro Escovedo will embark on a five night campaign on Texas, including a stop in Austin to play ACL Live at Moody Theater on December 29th. Tickets are on sale.

The shows are the only string of dates for the guitarist/songwriter, who otherwise has dates scheduled for Evanston, IL for New Year's Eve and

Continue reading "Alejandro Escovedo books Texas tour, including a stop at ACL Live before the new year (dates)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Jack White @ ACL Festival - 10/13/2012

While Neil Young & Crazy Horse did their thing at the other end of Zilker Park, Jack White & The Peacocks (his all-female backing band) cast a blue glow on the crowd at the AMD stage. Here are some pictures and the setlist from Jack's performance which maybe you also caught via the livestream. If not, it repeats again tonight (10/14). Watch and you'll see Jack perform a mix of solo, White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather material.

Or maybe you're busy tonight because you were lucky enough to get a ticket to see Jack tape an episode for ACLTV. If you didn't, it will air on PBS probably next year, like the Bon Iver episode did this week.

A full ACL Day 2 set of pictures is coming, but first a taste of what people will be seeing at The Moody Theater tonight. Pictures of Jack White & The Peacocks and ACL setlist below...

Continue reading "Jack White & the Peacocks played ACL Fest 2012 (pics, setlist)"

Fiona Apple in Port Chester (more by David Andrako)

Speaking of Texas drug arrests, ACL Live reports:

We regret to announce that the Fiona Apple show originally set to play September 20th, 2012 will not be rescheduled. Ticket refunds are available now through point of purchase.

Fiona Apple is still on tour however (she even played Houston), and we posted some pictures from the show she played in Port Chester, NY last night.

Jack White @ Radio City on 9/30/2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Bob Mould @ BookPeople (more by Tim Griffin)

Alex Ebert (aka Edward Sharpe) @ ACL (more by Tim Griffin)

Jack White is having his taping this week on 10/14 during the ACL Festival, and you can enter to win tickets to that show on the ACLTV site (still available as of this post).

ACL TV announced two new tapings for Season 38 set for the first week of November:

We're pleased to announce two more tapings for Season 38 with a veteran and a rising star: Bob Mould on November 1 and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes on November 5.

For fans of alternative rock, Bob Mould scarcely needs any introduction. The singer/songwriter/guitarist rewrote the rules of punk rock in the 80s with his band Husker Du and defined the sound of melodic alt.rock with his 90s power trio Sugar. He's also released a line of critically lauded solo albums that have ranged in sound from acoustic reverie to electronic dance music and everything in between. Following his highly regarded memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody and a successful tour performing the classic Sugar album Copper Blue in its entirety, Mould has release his acclaimed new LP Silver Age, a high-volume reminder of Mould's mastery of melody, power and passion. We're thrilled to bring this pioneering rocker to the ACL stage.

Check out videos of all three below.

Continue reading "Jack White tapes for ACLTV this week, Bob Mould & Edward Sharpe in November"

Season 38 of of Austin City Limits premiered last night on PBS with the Radiohead episode. If you missed it live in March, on TV, and in Republic Square Park, now here's your chance to finally catch it, via the video below...

Continue reading "Austin City Limits season 38 kicked off w/ Radiohead (watch)"

As the press release reads:

Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced today that it has officially opened its new broadcast studio in Austin, Texas.

The new studio, in Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater, 310 Willie Nelson Blvd, will be home to SiriusXM shows, musical performances, interviews, special broadcasts and more.

SiriusXM will host a grand opening event on Friday, October 12 at the new studio with special guests Willie Nelson, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and others. Nelson's SiriusXM channel, Willie's Roadhouse, channel 56, will broadcast with host Dallas Wayne live from the new studio weekdays from 12:00--6:00 pm ET and will broadcast live from the event.

"Austin is one of America's most vibrant music cities, and we are excited to expand the SiriusXM footprint there with our new studio," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM. "The unpredictable but influential music scene of Austin, its artists and its style, will be represented by the amazing array of artists, and the shows and channels that will broadcast from there. Willie is an iconic and much-loved artist, who has been part of the SiriusXM family for years, and we are thrilled to have him help us open the studios."

The SiriusXM studio is situated in the same complex as the Austin City Limits Live concert venue, giving SiriusXM unique access to performers and performances alike. Additionally, Radio Margaritaville, channel 24, and Outlaw Country, channel 60, will also broadcast from the Austin studio.

For more information on SiriusXM, please visit www.siriusxm.com.

Watch a video of Willie performing on SiriusXM for Willie's Roadhouse, from earlier this year, below...

Continue reading "SiriusXM opens studio in Austin @ The Moody Theater; Willie Nelson playing opening event"

As we were saying earlier, Fiona Apple was arrested yesterday for having some hash. ACL Live now reports:

Tonight's Fiona Apple show has been postponed, details for a rescheduled show to come shortly. All tickets will be valid for the rescheduled date.

That said, at least Fiona is out of jail:

Apple spent the night in the Hudspeth County Jail, and was ordered released this afternoon on $11,000 bond.

Apple was arrested at the same checkpoint where Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, and 'J. Edgar' actor Armie Hammer were arrested on similar charges. What does Dean-Walker think of all of the celebrities being arrested in her remote county, which is in the Big Bend between San Antonio and El Paso?

"I think the reason we're catching so many celebrities there is they are going through there with stuff they shouldn't have," she said. [WOAI]

Fiona Apple @ Music Hall of Williamsburg in March (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Today is Fiona Apple's Birthday (Happy Birthday!).

As we mentioned previously, she's in town next week and will be playing ACL Live on Thursday September 20 with virtuoso guitarist/producer Blake Mills (who also joins her as part of her band).

Tickets are still available here. Check out her latest video for "Every Single Night", as well as Blake Mills' video for "It'll All Work Out" below.

Continue reading "It's Fiona Apple's Birthday; She's at ACL Live next week w/ Blake Mills!"

by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

GrulkeFest @ The Moody Theater - 9/8/2012

On Saturday (9/8), Brent Grulke's life was celebrated in a fashion that he would likely have approved of: a concert held at The Moody Theater featuring many of the artists he had worked with or influenced - or had even made possible. From Austinist:

By all accounts, Brent Grulke lived life large. A beloved figure amongst Austin bands and fellow fans for more than thirty years, Grulke passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 51 last month. The community came together last Saturday night to throw the kind of party that Grulke would have loved: a reunion of bands, many of which reunited for the first time in years for this performance, with all proceeds going towards the Graham Grulke Education Fund. "Grulkefest: A CELEBRATION OF BRENT / 1961-2012" featured Doctors' Mob, Fastball, Glass Eye, the Reivers, Sixteen Deluxe, True Believers, the Wannabes, Wild Seeds and other special guests. They all performed in front of a backdrop that displayed Grulke's tattoo, who was once told that his eyes looked like those of a horse in a fire.

There were silent auctions and plenty of loud music to make for a great party. Took plenty of pictures, albeit with a lesser camera than usual - but the idea should come across regarding that Brent was a big deal, and is missed by many.

If you couldn't make it to the show, there's still time to donate to the Graham Grulke Education Fund via the SXSW website.

More pictures from the event below.

Continue reading "Austin came together to celebrate Brent Grulke @ Grulkefest (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti @ Mohawk - 9/7/2012

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti filled and thrilled The Mohawk on 9/7. I wasn't able to catch the openers Bodyguard and Moon Diagrams as I was over at The Moody Theater for Dead Can Dance and then off to Stubb's Slash before I went to Mohawk.

More pictures of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (including one of the setlist), below.

Continue reading "Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti played Mohawk (pics, setlist)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Dead Can Dance @ The Moody Theater - 9/7/2012

Austin Chronicle: Has Dead Can Dance ever played in Austin?

Lisa Gerrard: I don't think we have. To be honest, I can't remember. We've done so many thousands of concerts in America. I don't think it was exactly Austin, but I do believe we played not too far from there. It all becomes such a blur, especially back in the early days when you're sleeping on a bus and you just turn up in a place and do five shows in a row. It's insane. Just a blur. Actually, it's really unrealistic and really silly to do it like that, but you have to, because you just don't have the budget to do it differently.

AC: LL Cool J famously said, "Don't call it a comeback." Is Anastasis a comeback for Dead Can Dance?

LG: "Don't call it a comeback," how funny. I don't think Brendan and I really knew whether we'd ever work together again. It was one of those things where our lives moved into a completely different area. We drifted apart because I was living in Australia and Brendan was living in Ireland, where previous to that we'd always lived in very close proximity to each other, whether in the same house or very near to each other.

So our communication and our interests in philosophy and history and painting and walks and movies [fell away]. It was very much an integral part of our communication and the things that were influencing the way we wrote music. We, of course, have explored a lot of various Mediterranean traditional pieces. We were both heavily influenced by that as children because we grew up in immigrant areas. Well, I did especially.

Then Brendan and I developed a real love for Arabesque music, which found its way into our music from the point of view of exploring the very different rhythms, because we really wanted to break out of the box of just staying with a four-four [beat] and explore what it was that made that piece of music uniquely different from Western music.

That became something that caught our attention and we explored. Because you have to understand that when you do this work it's like an apprenticeship. You have a love for the work of music as something that drives you, but then there's no one to teach you how to find your own unique potential. So usually you're driven by things that inspire you as a tutorial if you like. - [Austin Chronicle]

Continue reading "Dead Can Dance played The Moody Theater as part of their long-awaited world tour (pics, dates)"

It was a shock to report several weeks ago on the passing of Brent Grulke, long-time Creative Director for SXSW. The festival and Austin are still learning how to cope with the loss.

This coming Saturday (9/8) a celebration will be held in Brent's honor at The Moody Theater to benefit The Graham Grulke Education Fund (via SXSW):

Grulkefest: A CELEBRATION OF BRENT 1961-2012

Join SXSW on September 8 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater for a public memorial, benefit concert and celebration of the life of SXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke.

The Evening will feature Doctors' Mob, Fastball, Glass Eye, the Reivers, Sixteen Deluxe, True Believers, the Wannabes, Wild Seeds and more. SXSW is very grateful to the Moody Theater for providing a large space for the huge number of Brent's friends, and people whose lives he touched through his work, to get together in one place to remember him in a way that he would have enjoyed. The doors will open at 5 p.m. and the show will run from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Tickets are on sale now at www.acl-live.com and they can also be purchased via the venue box office, Waterloo Records or by phone at 877-4-FLYTIX

All proceeds from the concert will go to the Graham Grulke Education Fund.

Continue reading "GRULKEFEST: A CELEBRATION OF BRENT will be at ACL on September 8"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Robyn @ The Moody Theater - 6/21/2012

Robyn took a break from her tour with Coldplay to headline a show at ACL Live's Moody Theater here in Austin last week (on 6/21). Austin's own Feathers opened the show. Here are some pictures. More, including a shot of the setlist, below...

Continue reading "Robyn flew into The Moody Theater w/ Feathers (pics, setlist)"

by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

tUnE-yArDs @ The Moody Theater - 5/29/2012

After playing Sasquatch over Memorial Day weekend, tUnE-yArDs (aka Merrill Garbus & co) came to spend two nights in Austin. They taped an episode for Season 38 of Austin City Limits last night (5/29), and will be playing a sold-out Mohawk show tonight (5/30) with Deep Time (formerly known as Yellow Fever).

Pictures form the ACL taping at The Moody Theater below...

Continue reading "tUnE-yArDs taped for ACL (pics), playing Mohawk tonight"

Photo via Adi. Jeff Mangum setlist below...

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum played the Moody Theater (setlist)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Bon Iver @ The Moody Theater - 4/25 (from BV Austin's Instagram)

Not long after playing two weekends of Coachella, Bon Iver taped an episode of Austin City Limits at the Moody Theater (in Austin) last night (4/25). Check out the full setlist of what was played, and more pictures from the show (not Instagrams), below...

Continue reading "Bon Iver taped an episode of Austin City Limits (pics, setlist)"