Sun It Rises: Fleet Foxes join ACL Fest

Day two of the upcoming ACL Fest just got a lot more intriqing with the addition of the Fleet Foxes, at 12:30 pm on Saturday on the AMD Stage. Fleet Foxes replace the previously-scheduled Brooklyn electro-rockers MGMT.

Ask anyone who still buys records, and they'll tell you that the Fleet Foxes eponymously-titled album is one of the best of 2008. The Seattle band has made two previous visits to Austin this year, at SxSW in March and a sold-out Mohawk show in early summer. Their music may be often described as baroque harmonic pop but that doesn't really do it justice.

Solid Gold: I'm Gonna DJ

Twice a year, Austin radio station K-Geezer (aka KGSR-FM, 107.1 FM) serves up its "Select a Set" weekend, giving listeners a chance to submit a handpicked set of five songs. Listeners choose the playlists, often opting for goofy themes like this one:

"Golden" My Morning Jacket
"Golden Years" David Bowie
"Golden Bear" Alejandro Escovedo
"Golden Dreams" Syd Straw
"Golden Slumbers" The Beatles

Submit a set before the Tuesday deadline via the KGSR website. Not that we need any more attendees, but everyone who enters get a chance to fly in two friends for the September ACL Fest, along with two free passes.

My Morning Jacket tapes Austin City Limits on Monday

Sunday's My Morning Jacket performance at Stubbs has been sold out for several weeks - as expected. Yet, just a couple of years after taping the Austin City Limits TV show, the Kentucky band has been called in for another taping, scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the ACL studios at 26th and Guadalupe.

A limited amount of space available tix will be distributed sometime Friday, and in a first, the announcement will be made on the Internet at this ACL website.

Just click and scroll down. Looks like you don't have to listen to the radio tomorrow to learn about the MMJ ticket giveaway. I'm amazed.

NOON UPDATE: Only 15 pair of tickets were distributed to the public, via the website link above. Announcement was made 11:30ish and tix were gone, gone, gone in short order.

Once In A Lifetime: Shows that sell out fast

David Byrne’s September 25th show at the Paramount -- featuring songs from multiple collaborations with Brian Eno (with and without the Talking Heads) -- sold out pretty darn quick. No surprise, since the songs from More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light are post-modern Talking Heads classics, and there is even a new Byrne-Eno album to boot (the sequel to 1981’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts). At least many of us can catch an abbreviated version of the show the following night (Sept. 26) at the ACL Fest in Zilker Park.

More puzzling is why the Alejandro Escovedo/Reivers new sincerity double bill at Antone’s on August 28th is not sold out. Though there are not many tickets left to the show that benefits the Austin Child Guidance Center, which focuses on mental health. Get the $25 tix while you can ‘cause they will be gone by next week. Ian McLagan & the Bump Band are now added to the bill, and it’s the Reivers first appearance since their successful February relaunch at the Parish. And of course, Escovedo should be well rested and ready to act like a Real Animal.

Meet Glen “Galveston” Campbell

Until Michael Stipe referenced the 1969 chestnut “Galveston” during REM’s appearance at Stubbs last March, I had not thought much about Glen Campbell in recent years. As it turns out, the Rhinestone Cowboy releases Meet Glen Campbell today with remarkable arrangements of songs by Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Paul Westerberg. But wait, there’s more: namely covers by Foo Fighters, Green Day, Travis, U2 and the Velvet Underground. Supposedly all “hand picked” by Campbell.

You can listen to Campbell’s covers of “Angel Dream,” “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and “Sing” at his new website to promote the album. Lots of angelic strings from these samples but his voice sounds resonant as ever…

RIP Jerry Wexler - Is Anybody Going to San Antone

For all the accolades former Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler received this week since his passing in Florida (the day Wexler died, Bruce Springsteen dedicated his R&B-flavored "Back In Your Arms" to him in Jacksonville), his obits cannot help but focus on his work with soul greats Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. But let it not be forgotten that some of his best work involved Texas artists including Lou Ann Barton, Doug Sahm and Willie Nelson.

Most folks know that just a few years after Nelson moved to Austin in 1970, Wexler helped the Nashville outlaw with his career-defining albums Shotgun Willie and especially Phases And Stages -- Rhino's 2006 reissues of both albums contained this quote from Wexler about meeting Willie: "Somebody introduced us and it was instant karma... I have been told time and time again by the well informed... that it's up there with his best recordings." Who knows if Willie would've traveled to Muscle Shoals to record Phases And Stages without Wexler's involvement?

A decade later, Wexler (and Eagle Glenn Frey) helped Lou Ann Barton establish her career with her 1982 debut Old Enough. The April 1, 1982 issue of "Rolling Stone" said this about Barton's album: "Old Enough is one of Jerry Wexler's finest achievements as a producer, as well as an impressive production debut for Glenn Frey." Certainly, none of Barton's albums have been as focused as the first one.

This week, I'm listening to Doug Sahm And Band, the 1973 solo debut produced by Wexler and Arif Mardin. The album where Bob Dylan plays uncredited, and where Sahm unleashes such classics as "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone," "Don't Turn Around" and even Nelson's "Me And Paul." It stands as one of the finest Texas country albums ever recorded.