Dispatches from AUSTIN CITY LIMITS

Watching news about the economy is making me sad/pissed, so I'm going to show you some pictures from ACL, k?

MGMT:


I was a little far away! Freaking AWESOME show.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, on the AT&T stage:



Oh Conor Oberst....I made soooooo much fun of Conor Oberst when he was Bright Eyes. I know many of you loved him. But I just couldn't take the whiny, warbly-voiced, "I'm special because I'm sad" thing.


There's the Bright Eyes I know and love. Pulling hair 'cause it hurts.

Anyway, now that he's toned it down a bit, I'm really liking ol' Conor. Look at him here, singing Paul Simon:


Doesn't he look cute and playful?


Onto Beck......


Yes, his hair really is that long, and no, I'm not hovering two feet in front of him (I wish). Took that one zooming in on the Jumbotron. But I think it turned out nice.



God, I love him so much. Even though he stopped playing 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, with no encore - kind of lame, Beck! - I still love him. You can especially see the Live with Larry King-like wall going on in the background here.

Beck's guitarist, Jessica Dobson:


I don't know how/why my camera made her all red, but I'm glad that it did.

Jessica Dobson, if you have a Facebook account, you totally have my permission to make this your new profile pic. (Heh, am so cocky!! I would flip out if that actually happened).

Some more random pictures:


Doesn't it look like I'm taking this from backstage. I'm NOT (how funny would it be if I tried to get press access for this blog??), this was just another lucky Jumbotron shot.

Onto the vendors' booths at ACL: These toys are the cutest.


Does anyone know what those are called?

This next one was taken at the MGMT show. I really liked this girl's guitar pick earrings - so very ACL:



I took that one all stalker-style, pretending to point the lens at MGMT while actually zooming in on her ear. I know, it's a little creepy.

Back to the vendors' stands - more jewelry, in the form of pretty pendant necklaces:



I would like to own those. All of them.

Here's a real beauty - my friend Rob and I with our ACL game faces on:


Isn't that frightening?

I'm pretty sure we had just sat down in somebody else's chairs, and were making faces to scare them off. (They didn't come back, so I guess it worked).

I heart ACL.

Neato mosquito ACL widget!

Beck has a new album, y'all

Beck will be headlining ACL (Austin City Limits Festival) this year, and his new album Modern Guilt dropped today. It is also Beck's birthday. Wanna guess how old he is? (Answer here).

I haven't heard the album, but I thought you all might like Austinist's review of it. What do we think?

"Produced by Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) and featuring none other than Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Guilt oozes pop noir. Squeaking in at just 30 minutes, the album is a slight addition to Beck's library, but it's a finely-tuned stablemate: Danger Mouse ties up the loose ends that tend to be Beck's stumbling blocks, tightening up the collage approach that the artist has become famous for. The geek chic is still there, but there seems to be a new found focus on the transition."
(Read entire review at Austinist)

I don't know if any Beck album can dethrone Sea Change for me. I remember hearing "Paper Tiger" in some guy's dorm room during college and freaking out (in a good way). Come to think of it, this particular guy and I dated for almost 2 years afterwards. It's kind of a hot album, non?