Category: Taping Announcement

We’re pleased to announce two more tapings for Season 38 with a veteran and a rising star: Bob Mould on November 1 and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros on November 5.

For fans of alternative rock, Bob Mould scarcely needs any introduction. The singer/songwriter/guitarist rewrote the rules of punk rock in the 80s with his band Husker Du and defined the sound of melodic alt.rock with his 90s power trio Sugar. He’s also released a line of critically lauded solo albums that have ranged in sound from acoustic reverie to electronic dance music and everything in between. Following his highly regarded memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody and a successful tour performing the classic Sugar album Copper Blue in its entirety, Mould has release his acclaimed new LP Silver Age, a high-volume reminder of Mould’s mastery of melody, power and passion.  With Mould in Austin for a set at the fabulous Fun Fun Fun Fest, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring this pioneering rocker to the ACL stage.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are the brainchild of singer/songwriter Alex Ebert, former frontman for the band Ima Robot. Following a relationship dissolution and treatment for addiction, Ebert began writing a book about a Messianic figure sent to Earth to heal mankind, but kept getting distracted by love. How the book evolved into a large, psychedelic folk rock ensemble remains mysterious, but the band’s impact is crystal clear: a radio hit with the infectious “Home” (from the debut album Up From Below), a spot on the inaugural Railroad Revival Tour alongside ACL vets Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show, and a loyal audience built by heavy touring. Now, in celebration of their second album Here and a spot at Fun Fun Fun Fest, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros bring their freewheeling, hard-folking party to Austin City Limits.

Two great acts on the greatest stage on the planet in November. Keep an eye on our Tapings page for information on tickets!

As leaves turn brown and the weather grows cooler, we have more exciting tapings to announce: an ACL debut with Delta Spirit and return visits from Gary Clark, Jr. and Esperanza Spalding.

Formed in San Diego and based in Brooklyn, modern rock quintet Delta Spirit have steadily built a loyal live following over the course of seven years and three records. Originally self-released before being picked up by Rounder Records, the band’s debut Ode to Sunshine gave its earnest, spiritually-inclined guitar pop enough attention to earn it spots on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and Last Call With Carson Daly. The group’s second record History From Below hit the Billboard album chart at #174, while its current self-titled LP entered at #103 and earned the #1 slot on BB’s Heatseekers chart. As likely to include beats hammered out on trashcan lids as sprightly melodies played on the usual rock instruments, Delta Spirit has brought its sound into the light the old-fashioned way: with good records, hard work and steady touring. Come find out on November 2 why the buzz is growing.

Gary Clark, Jr. has been tearing up Austin stages since he was a teenager, and has lately made a name for himself across the country as well. Though known for his driving blues-rock guitar style, there’s more to his music than just twelve bars and guitar solos. As Rolling Stone notes, Blak and Blu, his major label debut, “[owes] as much to Kurt Cobain and the Ramones as Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker, indebted to hip-hop and psychedelia…grounded in tradition while standing on the brink of change.” Clark has appeared on ACL before, as part of the Tribute to Bluesman Jimmy Reed with Jimmie Vaughan and Omar Dykes, impressing his fellow musicians and our viewers. On November 30, he’s coming to show Austin City Limits what his own music can do.

With one foot in jazz, the other in soul and both hands on her bass, Esperanza Spalding has become a rising star in both critical and commercial circles. A restless creative spirit, the young musician/singer/composer has absorbed everything from jazz to Brazilian pop to R&B to classical music in her creative evolution. Her most recent album Radio Music Society leans most heavily in a soul direction, with a set of original tunes, plus covers of Michael Jackson’s Stevie Wonder-penned “I Can’t Help It” and Wayne Shorter’s “Endangered Species,” featuring lyrics by Spalding herself. The former Berklee School of Music professor first appeared on ACL three years ago, where she wowed an audience unfamiliar with her music, and she continues to do so every time her show is rebroadcast. On December 2, Esperanza Spalding is back, with a whole new program, and we couldn’t be happier.

The usual lottery for taping passes will be announced on our Tapings page as we get closer to the dates. We have more exciting announcements coming soon!

June may be vacation time for most folks, but here at Austin City Limits we’re happy to come to work. Why? Because we have not one, not two but three great artists visiting us: Dr. Dog on June 25 and Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples on June 27.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Dog has had the virtue of developing far away from the music industry. Grown organically through practice and experimentation, the band’s quirky, catchy pop draws equally from the psychedelic 60s and the indie rock 00s. Dr. Dog earned its national break in 2004 after going on the road with ACL veterans My Morning Jacket. The band has since become a well-traveled touring outfit, releasing half a dozen albums and appearing on the late night TV shows of David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Craig Ferguson. Armed with its acclaimed seventh LP Be the Void, Dr. Dog records their first episode of Austin City Limits on June 25.

Bonnie Raitt needs no introduction to ACL fans, having appeared on the show twice before, in Seasons 9 and 28.  The veteran musician’s remarkable talents are back in the public eye this year with Slipstream, the first release on her own Redwing Records label and her first since 2005’s Souls Alike. NPR praised Slipstream as “vital and fresh… beautiful,” Rolling Stone gave it a 4-star review, and Entertainment Weekly wrote “Superb… she slips her purring voice into every song like a letter going into an envelope addressed just to you.” The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200, marking the nine time Grammy-winner’s highest charting album and best sales week in nearly two decades. We welcome Bonnie Raitt back to the ACL stage on June 27.

But Ms. Raitt is not coming alone. Joining her will be gospel/R&B legend Mavis Staples. The Chicago native began her career in 1950 with the Staple Singers, who became one of the most successful family gospel bands in America with pop hits “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” The Staple Singers represented the musical voice of the Civil Rights movement due in part to their friendship with Martin Luther King and also to their willingness to record material as topical as it was inspirational. Mavis first tested the solo waters in the late 60s, recording sporadically for the next 40 years. Currently signed to hip label Anti-, Mavis is still riding high on the success of 2010’s You’re Not Alone, produced by pal Jeff Tweedy from Wilco. Now she’s bringing her venerated pipes, whose “otherworldly power comes…from a masterful command of phrasing and deep-seated sensuality” (All Music), to the Moody Theater for her Austin City Limits debut.

Stay with us on Facebook, Twitter and this very blog for more news about upcoming tapings, and check out our Tumblr page for blasts from the past.