Greg Ackerman – Page 18 – The Cosmic Clash

Music Festival Review: 10th Utopiafest featured Lukas Nelson, Patty Griffin, STS9

Last weekend’s 10th Annual Utopiafest held for the first time at Reveille Peak Ranch just outside of Burnet saw ideal weather conditions perhaps for the first time in the festival’s history as the event dates moved to their latest time of the year thus far. The limited-attendance festival featured performances by Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9), Patty Griffin, Lukas Nelson and John Medeski’s Mad Skillet among other acts that followed in the Americana / Jam band slant the festival bookers lean toward.

The Bright Light Social Hour & Joi Chevalier

Greg Ackerman Review

Song Premiere: Walker Lukens’ Election Confession brought Bright Light Social Hour and Joi Chevalier together and it was magic

October 31, 2018 Greg Ackerman 506 Views Election Confession, Jim Eno, Joi Chevalier, live music, Native Hostel, new music, politics, Song Confessional, The Bright Light Social Hour, vote, voter initiative, Walker Lukens

The Bright Light Social Hour can geek-out with the best of them. Case in point, when the band was invited to participate in Walker Lukens’ Election Confession project which aims to mobilize younger voters, they met Texas Comptroller candidate Joi Chevalier and wrote a truly geeky song relating her story of meeting her Australian husband online in the early days of the internet. The interview and session took place at Native Hostel.

Greg Ackerman Preview

Live music preview: Luscious Heaven Shoegaze show and The Nothing Song label launch

October 31, 2018 Greg Ackerman 347 Views Austin, Blushing, Cheer Up Charlie's, live music, Luscious Heaven, psych-rock, Ringo Deathstarr, rock n roll, shoegaze

There are probably more small, independent, local record labels in Austin than you’d expect. That fact isn’t stopping The Nothing Song owner, Trish Connelly from launching her own label on 7″ featuring talented newcomers, Blushing. The Cheer-Up Charlie’s booker is announcing the newly formed label at her Luscious Heaven: A Night of Shoegaze and Dreampop on Saturday, November 3 (this weekend) at the aforementioned Red River club.

Greg Ackerman Review

Live music review: White Denim played stellar tour finale at Mohawk Friday

October 29, 2018 Greg Ackerman 473 Views James Petralli, live music, mohawk, new music, prog rock, rock n roll, White Denim

When White Denim lost 40 percent of their roster to Leon Bridges’ tour, things looked uncertain for talented founder, James Petralli. The path to the sound the virtuosic guitarist is constantly seeking was temporarily muddled. What was never in doubt is Petralli’s ability to make exceptional music. White Denim’s sound was largely built around former drummer Josh Block’s unorthodox technique who left to tour with Bridges full-time as did guitarist Austen Jenkins.

Greg Ackerman Live Review

Live music review and photos: Bob Moses played Emo’s with Mansionair

October 25, 2018 Greg Ackerman 755 Views Austin, Bob Moses, concert, Emos, live music, Mansionair, photos, Review

Vancouver-via-Brooklyn-based electronic group Bob Moses brought their Battle Lines tour through Austin at Emo’s last Friday, October 19 supported by Mansionair. Bob Moses is actually a duo comprised of Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie, their pop-electronic work was filled out with a lineup of live drums, bass, keys, guitar and vocals for a set list that drew heavily from their latest album, “Battle Lines.”

Greg Ackerman Live Review

Live music review: Arctic Monkeys taped Austin City Limits TV episode Saturday

October 15, 2018 Greg Ackerman 815 Views ACL TV, Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys, Austin City Limits, live music, Music, TV taping

Austin City Limits, the long-running PBS series, continued its 44th season with the debut of the UK’s Arctic Monkeys on the program. The popular alternative rock band (who headlined at Austin City Limits Festival over the weekend) taped the episode Saturday evening at the Moody Theatre at ACL Live. The relatively intimate space gave fans the opportunity to see the British rockers up close, behind the cameras of the ACL TV crew.

Greg Ackerman Live Review

Festival Review: Iconic artists mix with future stars at Austin City Limits Festival

October 10, 2018 Greg Ackerman 231 Views ACL Fest, ACL Festival, Austin City Limits, concerts, David Byrne, Janelle Monae, live music, music festival, Paul McCartney, Talking Heads, The Beatles

Last weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Fest) featured legacy acts Paul McCartney, David Byrne and Metallica along with upcoming stars, Janelle Monae, St. Vincent and Austin’s own Shakey Graves. We’re partial to female-fronted acts and we’ll take this opportunity to point out it was the many talented female fronted acts along with legends Sir Paul and Byrne who garnered the most attention over the three-day event held at Austin’s Zilker Park.

Album Greg Ackerman Music Video Review

Album review: The Bright Light Social Hour released first new music in three years Friday

September 30, 2018 Greg Ackerman 851 Views Afrobeat, Austin, Austin Music, Curtis Roush, Jackie O'Brien, Music, new music, psych-rock, shoegaze, TBLSH, The Bright Light Social Hour, The Cosmic Clash

After covering The Bright Light Social Hour for nearly a decade, since their debut album The Bright Light Social Hour dropped, I can honestly say I couldn’t be more excited for the group. If you clicked the link, you saw tens of thousands of plays their debut has on Soundcloud which isn’t even the most popular streaming platform they’re found on. The band was hot. You couldn’t turn on KUT (KUTX didn’t exist yet) without hearing one of the band’s singles.

Greg Ackerman Music Video Review

Music video premiere: San Antonio post art-rocker Ila Minori releases beautiful Mend clip

September 27, 2018 Greg Ackerman 361 Views Ila Minori, Mazzy Star, music video, new music, San Antonio, video premiere

Today we’re premiering another video from San Antonio songstress, Ila Minori. The haunting clip from the song “Mend” details the fallout of a breakup, featuring Erica Monzon aka Ila Minori as she contemplates her breakup. The video is beautifully shot on location in Austin and San Antonio by John-Marc Lucid (Lucid House Productions). Lucid expertly depicted the emotional lows of dealing with a sudden breakup. The clip is moving to watch and highlights Ila Minori’s incredible vocal style.

Greg Ackerman Review

Festival preview: Utopiafest Makes a Move

September 14, 2018 Greg Ackerman 392 Views live music, Lukas Nelson, music festival, Patty Griffin, preview, STS9, Utopiafest

For the tenth UTOPIAfest, the limited attendance music festival has rebranded, Utopiafest Down in the Oaks to reflect the new venue the event has moved to located at a ranch near Burnet, Texas which is significantly closer (45 min) to Austin than the original venue. Organizers have also made some other changes, inching up the attendance cap and limiting BYOB beverages to the camp ground areas to grow festival revenue while maintaining the same community vibe that has been the festival’s hallmark. This year, the fest takes place Nov 2-4, promising cooler weather than past years. For festival goers, the experience at UTOPIAfest is vastly improved from larger format festivals. Fans can get close to the stage. The atmosphere is more relaxing and less hectic. It’s simply a more enjoyable environment.

Greg Ackerman Preview

Live music preview: Waterloo Music Festival launches three nights of The String Cheese Incident this weekend

September 6, 2018 Greg Ackerman 262 Views Carson Creek Ranch, concerts, jam bands, Leftover Salmon, music festival, String Cheese Incident, TAUK, Waterloo Music Festival

Austin welcomes progressive new grass jam band The String Cheese Incident and friends back to Texas for the first annual Waterloo Music Festival. September 7-9th at the beautiful Carson Creek Ranch which sits on the banks of the Colorado River near downtown Austin, will be occupied by veteran national act jam bands as well as local acts to help keep the party going.

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