Having wimped out of doing the second day of the festival, I was pretty well-rested heading into the second night of Hot Freaks. This time, both headliners – St Vincent and The Rosebuds – were official Hot Freaks! alumni having played the inaugural event back in March.

The ping-pong set times were once again in effect and first up was Austin’s Yellow Fever, a trio whose ultra-minimalist, lo-fi pop stylings had me looking for the K Records shield emblazoned somewhere on their instruments. Dutifully swapping instruments every few songs, their set was sweet and simple if a bit sparsely-attended – I guess people weren’t leaving the fest early what with Arcade Fire closing things out.

Things then went from a former member of Voxtrot (Yellow Fever singer Jennifer Moore used to be in the band) to a current one – keyboardist Jared Van Fleet who plies a solo trade as Sparrow House. Accompanying himself only on electric guitar, Van Fleet’s folkish songs gave up some of the bedroom-fidelity lushness of the recorded versions but not their inherent intimacy and coziness.

With both openers establishing a low-key vibe, it was up to The Rosebuds to crank up the tempo a bit. Playing as a three-piece (they had a bassist back in March), the ‘Buds got things going with songs equally danceable and hummable from their latest Night Of The Furies. Just like last time, their set was simply loads of fun and culminated in a mini-stage invasion/dance party. They’re two for two now and I’d be perfectly happy to have them play every Hot Freaks event from now till whenever – you could do a helluva lot worse for a house band.

Annie Clark, on the other hand, was in quite a different place than she was when she played solo at 11:30 AM inside the Mohawk during SxSW. Since then, she’d released a rather stunning debut album in Marry Me on Beggars Banquet that had garnered all kinds of critical acclaim, picked up a band and generally had her profile grow exponentially. I hadn’t seen her with the band before – only solo opening for Midlake – so it was interesting to compare her live show then and now. On her own, she was more unpredictable, sometimes almost violently so, and completely riveting. This time, and maybe it was because I’d already seen her and heard the record and was familiar with the wide breadth of her styles and talents, but her show seemed smoother and less visceral but no less impressive. From her songwriting to her guitar chops to her amazing voice, this girl has got it all and though the last act to be added to the Hot Freaks! lineup, was certainly a stellar choice to close things out.

A big thanks to everyone who made this event such a success yet again – Dell and Dell Lounge.com (where videos of all the shows will eventually turn up), John, Moody, An Aquarium Drunkard, La Blogothèque, Brooklynvegan, Gorilla vs Bear, My Old Kentucky Blog, You Ain’t No Picasso, Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good, Daytrotter, everyone I met and whom I’ve forgotten and of course, the bands for helping make this weekend so enjoyable.

Photos: St Vincent, Sparrow House @ The Mohawk – September 15, 2007
Photos: The Rosebuds, Yellow Fever @ Club DeVille – September 15, 2007
MP3: St Vincent – “Now Now”
MP3: The Rosebuds – “Get Up Get Out”
MP3: Sparrow House – “When I Am Gone”
MP3: Yellow Fever – “Culver City”
Video: The Rosebuds – “Silence By The Lake” (YouTube)
MySpace: St Vincent
MySpace: The Rosebuds
MySpace: Sparrow House

Speaking of the fellows at Le Blogotheque (who are as wonderfully French as you can get), they’ve just posted a Takeaway Show with Final Fantasy from the streets of Paris. Of course.

Cheers to The Tripwire for pointing out an MP3 from the new Saturday Looks Good To Me album Fill Up The Room, out October 23.

MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “Make A Plan”

Gateway debates the likely winner of the second Polaris Music Prize, being awarded on Monday night.

Reveille q&a’s Megan Hickey of The Last Town Chorus.

Chart talks to Iron & Wine, in town at the Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday, September 25.

The Mountain Goats, in town at Lee’s on Wednesday September 26 Tuesday as well, discuss their next album with Express.

John K Samson discusses The Weakerthans’ Reunion Tour (out Tuesday) with The Winnipeg Sun.

The Winnipeg Sun also goes through another Tuesday release, Steve Earle’s Washington Square Serenade, track by track.

It’s a Maritime power pop party on November 25 when Sloan and Two Hours Traffic play a venue to be determined, though the Kool Haus might be a safe guess.

Stars’ single date at the Phoenix in November has mutated into a three night stand – they’re now playing there on November 26, 27 and 28.

And of course, two of those dates coincide with Neil Young’s two nights at Massey Hall on November 26 and 27. Tickets for that go on sale today at 10AM and will run a steep $85.25 to $185.25 – not that that’ll stop me from at least trying for a ticket. Update: Monday night, left side gallery, row A, seats 11 and 12. Who wants to be my friend? Check out an MP3 from Chrome Dreams II and set some time aside – it’s one of those epic-length ones they’ve been talking about.

MP3: Neil Young – “Ordinary People”

And looking to this weekend, The Phoenix, eye and Soundscapes have interviews with Will Sheff of Okkervil River, playing a sold-out Lee’s Palace tomorrow night. And it’s worth noting that NPR will be webcasting their show at DC’s Rock and Roll Hotel on September 30.

And NOW‘s cover girl this week is Basia Bulat, who plays twice on Saturday night at the Music Gallery. She’ll also be playing in her hometown of London, Ontario this weekend at LOLAFest, which runs tonight through Sunday and features an insanely good lineup that would really make that drive down the 401 worthwhile.

It sometimes seems like Austin is becoming a home away from home and if that’s the case, then the Mohawk and Club DeVille are my home at home away from home. Following up on the Hot Freaks blogger party we threw during SxSW back in March, the folks from An Aquarium Drunkard, La Blogothèque, Brooklynvegan, Gorilla vs Bear, My Old Kentucky Blog, You Ain’t No Picasso and myself joined forces to put together a second event coincidentally timed with but absolutely unconnected to the Austin City Limits Festival.

The Hot Freaks! Part Deux, as some of use were calling it, were after parties across two nights at the aforementioned clubs sponsored by the good people at Dell Lounge.com and featured some terrific local and international acts in a tag-team set up between the two stages. Also nice was the fact that both clubs had undergone some extensive renovations since March and were now sporting improved lighting rigs, capacities and sightlines. Throw in packed houses both nights and you had a party and a half.

Things both nights opened with the winners of a battle of the bands-type contest sponsored by Dell called The Sound & The Jury and though something like that could have been cringeworthy, Homer Hiccolm & The Rocketboys, as the winners were called, turned out to be alright. Young and fresh-faced, they offered up a set of earnest pop in the vein of Coldplay or fellow young and fresh-faced Texans, Eisley. Except all boys.

Openers on the Friday night on both stages could have been flip sides of the same Austin-based coin, though that might just be because they shared the same drummer. Both traded in skittery indie pop but Brazos leaned slighly towards the gentler, folkish end of things while White Denim – playing under the pseudonym of Crazy Sexy Rainbow to avoid a double-booked scolding – were considerably more frantic and in-your-face. Both were well-matched to their respective headliners… can you guess who was playing whom?

Grizzly Bear’s show was greatly enhanced by the Club DeVille setting – when lit by the rich green and purple lighting, the rock face behind the stage gave the impression of a mysterious and magical grotto, perfectly suiting the Bear’s hypnotizing, haunting and faintly medieval songs. Maybe they should get a faux rock wall backdrop and tour with it all the time.

The highlight of the night was, however, the UK’s Art Brut. While I’m not especially won over by the band on record – Eddie Argos’ spoken word rants over classic rock riffery don’t really translate in a studio setting – live, they’re fantastic. Argos is a hilarious frontman and whether he’s being sincere or ironic, he throws himself into the show – and occasionally the audience – 110%. His bandmates don’t hold back on the rock star moves either. Displaying a ruthless efficiency, they crammed upwards of twenty songs into their hour-long set, possibly every song they had, and still found time to take playful digs at the show’s sponsors. Exhausting, but so much fun. That Fall tour they’re doing with The Hold Steady is going to be one big sweaty orgy of shouting and pointing. I envy those who are going to be there. The Gateway and Georgia Straight have interviews with Art Brut.

Photos: Art Brut, Crazy Sexy Rainbow, Homer Hiccolm & the Rocketboys @ The Mohawk – September 14, 2007
Photos: Grizzly Bear, Brazos @ Club DeVille – September 14, 2007
MP3: Art Brut – “Moving To LA” (acoustic)
MP3: Grizzly Bear – “On A Neck, On A Spit”
MP3: White Denim – “ShakeShakeShake”
MP3: Brazos – “Hands Up Little Gun”
Video: Art Brut – “Direct Hit” (YouTube)
Video: Grizzly Bear – “Knife” (YouTube)
MySpace: Art Brut
MySpace: Grizzly Bear
MySpace: Brazos

And that was just night one – a blast was had and there was still another party to go. But while I’m in a UK state of mind…

Tha Bombshelter has tracked down a bunch of new Doves songs squirreled around their website – not very good sound quality but intriguing nonetheless. That album should be out next year.

Maximo Park’s Paul Smith explains the art of the concert rider to Spinner.

Uberdrivel, The Examiner and Canada.com have posted interviews with Editors.

Paste talks to The Go! Team’s Ian Parton. They’re at the Opera House on October 31.

The Scotsman has an interview with Emma Pollock, also just declared Spin‘s artist of the day. She’s in town at The Phoenix on October 21 opening up for The New Pornographers.

And some bits from NME that have elicited varying degrees of excitement from me – firstly, British Sea Power will release the five-song Krankenhaus? EP on November 20 (much excitement). Secondly, Graham Coxon is “raring to record” a new Blur record (moderate excitement, some trepidation). Thirdly, Spiritualized have finished their new album and will be releasing it in early 2008 (mild excitement, more fear that it’ll be as underwhelming as the last couple records).

This Friday night, September 21, is going to be a hell of a tough night for the Toronto concert-goer. On one end of the price scale, you’ve got Ryan Adams at Massey Hall and at the other, you’ve got Okkervil River at Lee’s Palace and right in the middle, though tending towards the pricey, is hippie prince Devendra Banhart who brings his new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, out September 25, to the Danforth Music Hall.

Now I’m pretty sure the first two options mentioned are already sold out so in you’ve got your tickets, your decision is already made. And if you haven’t, there’s still no choice at all. But courtesy of Against The Grain, I’m making your hypothetical decision making process a little easier. I’ve got two pairs of passes to Devendra’s show at the Danforth this Friday night to give away. If you want, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Devendra” in the subject line and your full name in the body. And get those in to me by 5PM tomorrow, September 19. That is all.

MySpace: Devendra Banhart

Saturday’s Austin City Limits schedule was disappointingly light – the only acts I’d planned to see were Steve Earle, Andrew Bird and, of course, Arcade Fire. All sure to be fine performances but not really firing me up to head back out into the heat. So when the opportunity came up over breakfast to head over the Austin City Limits television studio to watch them tape a session with Wilco, the answer was a quick “hell yes”.

The taping took place in a relatively small studio on the University of Texas campus with a capacity of maybe 300 people, both seated and standing. Intimate to say the least, and when the band took the stage in front of a painted, illuminated backdrop of the Austin skyline, there was no question it would be a special performance. The sound was stunning, the band in fine form and Jeff Tweedy in particularly jovial spirits and obviously enjoying the cozy atmosphere, taking his running man “Hummingbird” dance into the audience and blowing a kiss to the cameras.

It’s such a shame that the hour-long performance will have to be edited down to a half-hour broadcast, especially since the highlight of the show will almost certainly be excised. That was when the band unexpectedly reached way back into the Wilco archives to A.M. for “Too Far Apart” – the first time I’d heard the current lineup play anything from their first album. The arrangement sounded fantastic, keeping the original’s twang and adding a light gloss of jazziness but when Tweedy tried to go falsetto for the outro, he discovered he didn’t have one. Instead we got him wheezing almost inaudibly into the mic while everyone – band and audience alike – cracked up. Tweedy joked that that was probably the clip they’d use in commercials for the show but it’ll almost certainly end up on the cutting room floor (the producer’s asked if they wanted to play it again and they declined). But definitely one of the most fun and memorable Wilco moments – and shows on the whole – that I’ve had. And I ended up missing the whole day of the fest but I regret nothing.

Photos were not permitted, obviously, so the above image comes from Wilco’s previous performance on Austin City Limits, originally broadcast in January 2005. As does this track:

MP3: Wilco – “Ashes Of American Flags” (live on Austin City Limits)

Northwest Arkansas News talked to Nels Cline about how life in Wilco has affected his solo works.

Band Of Horses, who release Cease To Begin on October 9, have a date at the Phoenix one month later on November 9. CMJ talked to Ben Bridwell about Wal-Mart and the new album, from whence the following tracks is taken.

MP3: Band Of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”

Elsewhere, The Telegraph chats with labelmate and fellow beard connoisseur Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. He’s at the Danforth Music Hall next Tuesday, the same day The Shepherd’s Dog hits stores.

The Walkmen are at Lee’s Palace on October 11, full tour dates at Pitchfork.

CMJ reports that Longwave will be releasing a digital-only EP in conjunction with their upcoming Fall tour – cards with information on how to acquire the three-song release will be available at their shows, including their date at the Horseshoe next Monday night.

Paste features Rilo Kiley, in town at the Phoenix tonight.

You can stream the whole of The Mendoza Line’s final release 30 Year Low. The proper mini-album part of the release is superb, the second disc of attic cleanings is patchy but considering this may be the last we hear from the band as we know it, every little bit is precious.

eCard: The Mendoza Line / 30 Year Low

Austin’s KUT-FM talks to Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg about birds and capture a video performance of Meiburg and drummer Thor Harris playing “Palo Santo”.

Rocky Mountain News asks Arcade Fire’s Will Butler eight questions – no more, no less.

PopMatters and The Globe & Mail interview Kevin Drew and The Guaridan profiles Feist. He’s at Lee’s Palace on September 27, she’s at the Sony Centre February 18.

The Los Angeles Times talks to possibly the coolest Toronto Maple Leaf ever (at least as far as musical taste goes), centre Boyd Devereaux, about his record label. I wonder how hard it is to find Devereaux jerseys in stores…?

Texas in September is hot. And it’s even hotter when you’re running around a big open park with little shade all day, but that’s Austin City Limits for you. Situated in Zilker Park, just southeast southwest of downtown Austin, the festival ran for three sweltering days this past weekend with a slew of musical acts from around the world divvied up amongst six stages (seven, if you count the kids’ stage which I don’t).

Transportation to the festival was, thankfully, fast and easy as it seems the organizers had commandeered every charter bus in central Texas to shuttle people to and from the fest. Using Lollapalooza as a comparison point, the ACL grounds are considerably more compact – whereas it would take upwards of fifteen minutes of brisk walking to get from one end of Grant Park to the other, Zilker can be traversed in just five or so if you’re able to navigate the sea of lawn chairs set up in front of each stage. Trees and cover in general are also scarce on the festival grounds, leaving people to basically broil to a crispy brown under the sun. This is, after all, Texas. BBQ is king.

The first act I caught a piece of was Joseph Arthur, who was just wrapping up his set on the Dell stage right next to the media entrance. I stuck around long enough to note that his lead guitarist was Jennifer Turner, who did terrific work way back when with Natalie Merchant. I felt like doing some exploring so I headed over towards the AT&T main stage where Pete Yorn was setting up shop but shortly after he began, I noted a huge plume of black smoke rising from the north side of the park. At first I thought it was the mother of all barbeque pits but after seeing flames licking the tops of the trees, i decided that was unlikely – even in Texas. Not many others seemed to be taking notice, obviously hypnotized by Yorn’s rather nondescript rock, so I moseyed over for a closer look.

The on-site security had already set up a perimeter around the fire, which from my vantage point was consuming several outhouses, and were shooing festvial-goers away. I found it interesting how nonplussed people were about a rather large fire taking place just yards away – the general lack of survival instinct was good for not causing panic, but maybe not so good for the long-term future of our species. But I digress. It turned out the fire was caused by some propane in an RV behind the food concessions and had spread to the outhouses before being contained and extinguished. Four festival workers were hurt in the conflagration and sent to hospital – best wishes to them.

After that little bit of drama it was back to the music. I don’t know if there’s any sort of etiquette or code for artists playing festivals, but Pete Yorn’s decision to cover “Young Folks” while Peter Bjorn & John’s roadies were setting up their stage in a direct line of Yorn’s sight must break some kind of rule. When Yorn finished his set, PB&J started theirs and didn’t enthrall sufficiently to keep me around for more than a few songs. No idea if they countered with a Pete Yorn cover though I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize a Yorn song to save my life.

Across the park, Blonde Redhead were playing to a crowd considerably larger than the one that they dazzled at V Fest last week. They also took advantage of the longer set time to spread out a bit, offering up a show that was noisier and more sprawling than the last one I saw. Toward the end of their set I’d headed over the the main stage beside theirs and noticed that some of the festival patrons, particularly one in a James Taylor tour t-shirt, was staring at Blonde Redhead’s stage with undisguised disgust. This pleased me. People in James Taylor t-shirts deserve to suffer.

The – and I – were patiently waiting for the resurrected Crowded House to take the stage which they did once the last note of Blonde Redhead feedback faded out and though I never really noticed they’d gone – I’ve got the best-of and that’s it – it actually felt good to have them back. Neil Finn was in fine voice and his finely-crafted pop songs sounded wonderful, having endured quite well over the past couple decades and proving they’re songs for the ages.

I don’t know what they were thinking scheduling LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A. at the same time at opposite ends of the park. Who would be best suited to teach the indie kids how to dance? James Murphy’s New York electro-punk collective, with their impossibly tight and deep live rhythm section and his gravelly shouter vocals or Maya Arulpragasam’s unstoppably live-wire, globetrotting hip hop? I did my best to sample both, taking in about half of LCD’s set and the tail end of M.I.A.’s and while it was close to a draw, I’d give the edge to M.I.A. and her set-closing stage invasion. Yeah, she did the same thing last week in Toronto but that doesn’t make it any less awesome to watch.

And then it was back to the other end of the park, again, to hit up Queens Of The Stone Age. I’d never listened to the Queens before and I’m sure that any of the thousands of sweaty fans in attendance, three-finger devil salutes at the ready, would tell me that I’ve been missing out. Their unrelenting rock’n’roll was suitably loud and muscle-y but not nearly as heavy as I’d expected. As someone with a general heavy rock deficiency in their musical diet, I rather enjoyed the change of pace. Not calling myself a covert or anything, but sometimes you do need the rock.

At this point I opted to call it a day, at least as far as the festival was concerned. Yeah I’d be missing Bjork but I had just seen her the week before and I knew that I’d spend most of her set looking at my watch trying to figure out when I’d have to leave to catch the shuttle back to town. After all, I needed a shower and still had an after party to attend to.

Only a handful of photo sets from the first day – very tough to get anything especially interesting from the audience but I’ve also included various shots from around the festival on my Austin City Limits 2007 page, just to flesh things out.

Photos: Peter Bjorn & John @ Dell Stage – September 14, 2007
Photos: Crowded House @ AMD Stage – September 14, 2007
Photos: LCD Soundsystem @ AT&T Blue Room Stage – September 14, 2007