My, aren’t we up early? Yes we are, because our flight for Austin leaves at 6:20AM. And we are bound for Austin to attend the wonderful (if now White Stripes-free) Austin City Limits Festival as well as play host to the equally wonderful Hot Freaks! 2 after parties at the Mohawk and Club DeVille.

For ACL, expect coverage a bit different from my usual festival format, with band-by-band breakdowns. For starters, I’m without a photo pass this time as the organizers have made those mighty scarce and (most) blogs simply don’t rate. As a result, I’ll probably be both drifting around the festival more than I normally would as well as perhaps sticking around for more than three or four songs before hoofing it to the next stage. It should actually be a much more relaxing pace which is good, since I’m not nearly recovered from V Fest this past weekend.

And for Hot Freaks!, well with Art Brut, Grizzly Bear, St Vincent and The Rosebuds headlining over the two nights, I’m not likely to be getting much rest those nights either. I don’t know how many readers here were going to be in Austin and/or tried to get wristbands for entry, but if you did and ran into problems, I apologize and hope that it got worked out.

But fear not, my Toronto peeps, I’ve forgotten you not. After rocking Austin, Grizzly Bear are going to be up in our neck of the woods for a show at the Mod Club on September 20 and courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away. They’re touring in support of their new 10-song EP Friend, out November 5, which will feature new songs, alternate versions of old faves and covers by friends (like the title, get it?) such as Band Of Horses and CSS. The band talks to CMJ about their slightly unconventional take on the remix album and Sterogum is streaming one of the remix/redo songs from the new record as well as the original version.

But back to the contest. To enter, send me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Grizzly Bear” in the subject line and your full name in the email body. The contest will close when I’m scheduled to return to Toronto – 2PM on Monday, September 17 – and I’ll draw the winners when I get home.

MP3: Grizzly Bear – “On A Neck, On A Spit”
MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Lullabye”
MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Knife”
MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Sure Thing”
Video: Grizzly Bear – “Knife” (YouTube)
Video: Grizzly Bear – “Central & Remote” (YouTube)
MySpace: Grizzly Bear

Great Lake Swimmers, playing on September 29 at the Phoenix, have offered up a 5-song EP culled from their last Toronto show back in April at the Church Of The Redeemer and it’s free! Free free free. And yes, this is the same show that Matthew was sharing last week. Go get.

ZIP: Great Lakes Swimmers Live From the Church of the Redeemer

NOW gets Rilo Kiley to discuss the polarizing response that their latest Under The Blacklight has gotten. Congrats to Kim, who won yesterday’s contest, and for the record, five votes were yea and eight for nay.