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Entries in Austin City Limits Festival (46)

Saturday
Sep132008

Austin Kiddie Limits 2008 Preview: Uncle Rock

In the days leading up to the 2008 edition of the Austin City Limits Festival, I'm going to be giving brief previews of the artists who will be playing the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. This is the second in the series (Buck Howdy with BB's preview is here).

So, first are the technical specs for Uncle Rock...
-- Official Website
-- YouTube channel
-- Myspace page
-- Zooglobble archives

Uncle Rock (AKA Robert Burke Warren), from upstate New York, plays all-ages roots rock. But he doesn't limit himself just to straight-ahead roots rock. His latest album, Uncle Rock U., shows Warren's willingness to assume character personas in song, play homage to James Brown, and generally have lots of fun. Given his background playing bass for the Fleshtones and portraying Buddy Holly in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, it should be a solid live show.

Uncle Rock kicks off the AKL stage on Friday at 11:30, and plays Saturday at 12:30 as well.

Uncle Rock - "Break A Few Eggs" (Live)

My favorite Uncle Rock video, plus one more from his latest album, is after the jump.
I think "Picnic in the Graveyard" is a great little song and video.

Uncle Rock - "Picnic in the Graveyard"

Uncle Rock - "Polar Bear Over There" (off Uncle Rock U.

Wednesday
Sep102008

Austin Kiddie Limits 2008 Preview: Buck Howdy with BB

In the days leading up to the 2008 edition of the Austin City Limits Festival, I'm going to be giving brief previews of the artists who will be playing the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. I'm attending with Miss Mary Mack again this year, but as I'm planning my own schedule for the fest, I'm again facing the incontrovertible fact that I can't be in two (or even three) places at once. And I don't think anybody else has solved that problem. So for those of you wondering how in the world you're going to see Uncle Rock, the Old 97s, and Fleet Foxes Saturday at 12:30, I'll be giving just a little bit of information on the artists and bands playing down in that little AKL nook so you can plan your day accordingly.

First up, Buck Howdy with BB...
-- Official Website
-- YouTube channel
-- Myspace page
-- Zooglobble archives

Buck Howdy plays smooth Western swing -- the fact that the songs are sometimes about farting or the farm is just sort of a side note. Both Buck and his co-singer BB have great voices that meld really well together. And his fine album Chickens! (review) was nominated for a Grammy this past year.

So, yeah, this'll be a fun set. In fact, this might be one of the most country sets at the entire ACL 2008 festival.

Buck plays Saturday at 1:30, Sunday at 12:30.

Buck Howdy With BB, "Friends" (off Chickens!)

(One more video, from Giddyup!, after the jump.)
Buck Howdy, "Baa Neigh Cock-a-doodle-doo"

Tuesday
Jun032008

Austin Kiddie Limits: Schedule Set, Let Schedule-Balancing Begin.

A few weeks ago, the Austin City Limits and Austin Kiddie Limits lineup was announced, now comes the hard part -- figuring out what shows you're gonna see at this year's ACL Festival.

Austin Kiddie Limits lineup after the jump. Now updated for a totally revised schedule. Oh, and I hope you're not a big fan of both Beck andRobert Plant and Alison Krauss, 'cuz your Saturday night will now be fraught with confusion...
Day 1:

Uncle Rock: 11:30 - noon
The Q Brothers: 12:30 -- 1:00
Jambo: 1:30 - 2:00
Big Don: 2:30 - 3:00
Anthropos: 3:15 - 3:30
Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars: 3:30 - 4:00

Band I'd most likely skip the AKL stage to see: Either Vampire Weekend @ 2:30 or CSS @ 3:30

Day 2:

Jambo: 11:30 - noon
Uncle Rock: 12:30 - 1:00
Buck Howdy with BB: 1:30 - 2:00
mr. RAY: 2:30 - 3:00
Special Guest: 3:15 - 3:30
The Jimmies: 3:30 - 4:00

Band I'd most likely skip the AKL stage to see: Either Old 97's at 12:30 or Sharon Jones and Dap-Kings or Drive-By Truckers @ 2:30

Day 3:

Big Don: 11:30 - noon
Buck Howdy with BB: 12:30 -- 1:00
mr. RAY: 1:30 - 2:00
The Jimmies: 2:30 - 3:00
Special Guest: 3:15 - 3:30
Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars: 3:30 - 4:00

Band I'd most likely skip the AKL stage to see: Gillian Welch @ 2:30

Tuesday
Apr152008

Austin Kiddie Limits 2008 Lineup Announced. Along With Some Other People.

Well, they've announced the Austin City Limits Festival lineup for the 2008 edition, and it's a doozy. Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Beck appear to be the 3 headliners based on the fact they're listed first, and there are a lot of bands on the undercard worth seeing (David Byrne, Neko Case, Gillian Welch, Mates of State are just some of the intriguing names on the list).

But this is Zooglobble, and so here I am with the Austin Kiddie Limits lineup:

Jambo
Q Brothers
Buck Howdy with BB
Uncle Rock
Big Don
Mr. Ray
The Jimmies
School of Rock

With the exception of Jambo, Q Brothers and School of Rock, all are new to the AKL stage. The lineup is a little more country (Buck Howdy), a little more hip-hop (Big Don, who was there last year passing out CDs, so that seemed to work out well for him), with perhaps the Jimmies trying to fit the large showmanship shoes of the Sippy Cups.

Austin City Limits Festival this year is Sept. 26 - 28.

Thursday
Mar132008

Interview: Tor Hyams

I've been sitting on a bunch of interviews from my trips to Austin last September. With the music world once again congregating in Austin for SXSW, it's high time I transcribed and shared them with you.

Given the South By Southwest connection, I thought it appropriate to kick things off with Tor Hyams, who will be speaking at a kids music panel at SXSW Friday.

Among the many roles that California-based Hyams has is producing the Kidzapalooza stage at Lollapalooza and the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at the Austin City Limits Festival, not to mention the Little State stage at the Big State Festival. It was backstage at ACL 2007 that I caught up with Hyams and talked about producing those events and his thoughts about the future of kids music festivals.

Zooglobble: What's been the best part about the Austin Kiddie Limits stage?
Tor Hyams: The best part about the Austin Kiddie Limits is, I have to say, Austin. People are really different. There's no airs about anybody, they're very open and honest and willing to have a good time, and that makes what we do a lot easier.

You produce Kidzapalooza, Austin Kiddie Limits, and the kids stage at the Big State Festival. Big State is more country, while the other two are more rock. How did you decide who you would try to get for Kidzapalooza as opposed to Austin Kiddie Limits?
In Kidzapalooza, we go a little harder-edged. It's just a different energy to that place than here. This is more of a roots-rock kind of energy, where Kidzapalooza is more of hard-rock kind of energy. Some bands fit into both, like the Sippy Cups. Some bands don't work in both. For example, we had the Blisters, Jeff Tweedy's son's band, at Kidzapalooza, but they're from Chicago, and they're kids. It would've been hard to get them out here. I think they would've done well here, but it's just a different thing. So it's really who fits more the roots-rock mold or even country crossover acts do well, but Austin's such a dynamic city that I think you could any kind of act on stage here and it would work.

I saw a quote from Charles Attal, the head of C3 Productions who sort of described the festival circuit as a land grab -- there are a lot of opportunities in a lot of other places to establish these festivals. Do you think a kids stage is something C3 or other entities would be looking towards doing?

Yeah, it's something I'm looking towards doing right away, especially with the Kidzapalooza brand, if not both. Obviously, Kidzapalooza would be a little easier to transport because it doesn't have a city's name in it, but Austin Kiddie Limits is a great brand and it could easily travel. In fact, in a way the kids idea could move even faster than the grown-up idea. There's less at stake, the ticket prices aren't as high -- parents just like going out and seeing great music.

The difference in what we do here and at Chicago is that we have legitimate recording acts on stage. Whether they're signed or not, it doesn't matter, but are they playing real music for the whole family as opposed to dumbing it down. So if you're dumbing it down, you're talking to the wrong people. We believe children are much more in tune and intelligent than grown-ups are because as grown-ups we forget a lot of this stuff, the purity of why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing.

James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem at his set on Friday said Austin Kiddie Limits was great because nobody in the audience is reading the blogs saying, 'That guy is over.' They're either crying and asking mommy to go home or they love it.
Yeah, that's right, there's no hip factor to contend with. "Oh, they didn't play all their songs from their first album that we loved." It's really a pure place where it's really just about the music. The other thing about kids watching as opposed to teenagers or grown-ups watching is that you really have to be good. Kids don't care about who you are, what you're wearing, what the image is. They feel that stuff, the energy of the performer, and if you're not good, they'll walk away, they don't care. They get nothing out of it besides the purity of the music. Some of the main stage performers who come over here get a little nervous because they know that, just because they are whoever they are does not guarantee them an audience.

Do you go out to solicit the special guests, or do they come to you?
Both, really. This year, I went out to Big Sam's Funky Nation from New Orleans. I love them, and they agreed to play. But then you have Ziggy Marley, who asked us. It's really just got to be like that, because they're not getting extra money, we don't pay them. It's really got to be a labor of love. We're not as well funded as the other stages, obviously, and so if they want to do it, we let them do it, and we're happy to have them. It's wonderful for the kids and obviously it gives the parents something extra, too.

Any future plans, anything you're looking forward to doing?
I want to take Kidzapalooza on the road to several different cities, not the whole country, but several different major cities. This year is the biggest year we've done for Austin Kiddie Limits yet and I want next year to be better. Every year I think there's no way we can top that, but there's always a way. Whether it's just making parents more comfortable or whatever. Which is why I like working these things so much because it's always a challenge and that's what gets me going.

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