Austin City Limits Announces 2010 Line-up

The line-up for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival has finally been an announced.  I’m not gonna lie, I am a little disappointed.  They have still managed to garner a big list of artists that I would love to see, I am pretty underwhelmed by the choice of headliners.  While I have respect for the Eagles and can appreciate their past contributions to the music world, they are not the kind of band that I want to camp out in front of their stage in anticipation all weekend. In fact, if I am able to attend the festival this year, I will probably leave before their set  so I can get back in time to save a vacation day from work.  The Flaming Lips, The Strokes and Phish were all decent choices.   I don’t love either of those groups albums, but I think their performances will be a ton of fun for all in attendance.  While the other two (Muse & M.I.A.) definitely deserve an invite, I think they were pretty poor choices as headliners for festival of this caliber.  While it doesn’t match up to Bonnaroo’s stellar line-up, it is still a pretty great one overall, and well worth the trip if you are able to get your hands on a weekend pass (which I believe are already sold out).

Here is a look at the rest of this year’s line-up.

ACL Music Festival 2010 Line-up

The Eagles
Muse
Phish
The Strokes
M.I.A.
Flaming Lips
LCD Soundsystem
Spoon
Vampire Weekend
Norah Jones
Band of Horses
Monsters of Folk
Deadmau5
Sonic Youth
Gogol Bordello
The National
Robert Earl Keen
The Black Keys
Broken Bells
Slightly Stoopid
Yeasayer
Pat Green
Rebelution
Beach House
The Sword
Matt and Kim
The XX
Portugal. The Man
The Temper Trap
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
Girls
Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
Local Natives
Gaslight Anthem
Lucero
Devendra Banhart
Blues Traveler
The Soft Pack
Gayngs
Amos Lee
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Ozomatli
Richard Thompson
Martin Sexton
Manchester Orchestra
The Almighty Defenders
Miike Snow
Mountain Goats
Bear In Heaven
Mayer Hawthorne
Midlake
Foals
Switchfoot
Cage The Elephant
JJ Grey & Mofro
Kinky
Angus & Julia Stone
The Morning Benders
Hockey
White Rabbits
David Bazan
Asleep at the Wheel
Trombone Shorty & Orleans
Avenue
Nortec Collective
The Very Best
Beats Antique
Blind Pilot
GIVERS
Dawes
Band of Heathens
Charlie Mars
Two Door Cinema Club
Lissie
Sarah Harmer
Constellations
T. Bird and the Breaks
Chief
Frank Turner
Those Darlins
Carolyn Wonderland
Kings Go Forth
The Relatives
The Ettes
Qbeta
Mynamisjohnmichael
Basia Bulat
Balmorhea
Dan Black
The Jane Shermans
The Kicks
Ponderosa
Two Tons of Steel
Caitlin Rose
SPEAK
Run With Bulls
Maxim Ludwig
Gospel Stars
Heavenly Voices
Wesley Bray & The Disciples of
Joy
Jones Family Singers
Ashley Cleveland & Kenny
Greenberg
Buddy & The Straight Way
Travelers
Ruby Jane Smith
Verve Pipe
Frances England
Jellydots
Elizabeth Mitchell
Okee Dokee Brothers
Tom Freund
School of Rock
Q Brothers

What are your thoughts?  Is this line-up up to par, compared to years past?

“Phrazes,” a Confusing New Phase for Strokes’ Singer

Julian Casablancas, lead singer of the Strokes and leather jacket enthusiast, lost his cool. It may have happened when his popular group splintered into a collection of guitar-focused side projects or when he married a few years ago. But Phrazes for the Young, Casablancas’ debut solo album, lacks the detached breeziness of the singer’s previous work.

This is only natural. Hip, young angst has nothing to do but cool down, from Catullus to Bob Dylan to Kanye West (impending). Hindsight strips hotshot posturing down to what it is, and Casablancas couldn’t stay mad forever.

As its title suggests, Phrazes for the Young is nothing if not self-aware. The album is literally comforting advice for young people set to upbeat music. Maybe the 31-year-old Casablancas has assumed the elder statesman role a bit prematurely, but it’s an interesting change in tone.

So Phrazes is a warning to arrogant young bucks, but more importantly, the album is an acknowledgement of weakness. “Yes, I know I’m goin’ to Hell in a leather jacket,” he sings on “Out of the Blue,” one of the album’s best songs.

The singer no longer buries his threats in distortion (“Oh, just take it or leave it,” he sneered in 2001). They’ve all been replaced with glossy self-help “phrazes” like “your faith has got to be stronger than your fear,” from lead single “11^th Dimension.”

That song and most of the others buzz with clever ideas and sounds: drum machine click-pops with trumpets with outdated synthesizers with genre songwriting. Amongst it all are joyful melodies that seem to stick to the roof of your mouth.

But even at a mere eight songs, Phrazes is full of dead ends. “Ludlow St.” is a country ballad with drum machines and it’s about as successful as one would expect it to be. The real clunker is “Glass,” an overstretched and hackneyed piece of radio fodder Casablancas probably wrote in his sleep.

For this reason, Phrazes feels more like a collection of one-offs than a proper album. The singer has grown confident in his serene new worldview but struggles to sell those ideals without sounding like Dr. Phil.

If there’s a unifying theme, it’s that middle age is confusing. So is “cool.”