Austin’s other music fest celebrates its 10th anniversary

After 10 years of Austin City Limits, you should know this by now: Get your tickets early. At press time, there are still a few individual tickets for Sunday, and if you look at the lineup (see ticket info box), you’ll realize the $90 tag is actually a bargain. Too late? Too bad.

With more than 130 performers on 46 acres on Zilker Park, seven stages, more than 30 food stands, a section for the kids (“Austin Kiddie Limits”), and one art market, ACL’s 10th anniversary edition is bigger and greener than ever: There will be two bike parking lots at the Barton Springs and Lady Bird Lake entrances, and if you visit one of the Rock & Recycle centers with a bag full of recyclable cans and water bottles, you get a limited-edition ACL 10 T-shirt. One more thing: No smoking this year. If you smoke, you’re out.

Some local veterans — and not-so-veteran — from the first edition in 2002 will be back this year: Asleep at the Wheel, Patrice Pike, Gary Clark Jr. (featured), and Jack Ingram. But the complete list of recommended acts wouldn’t fit on a couple of pages, so here’s what the Current’s staff and contributors chose for you. If you already have your three-day pass, go to aclfestival.com and plan your own schedule. If you’re still hunting, hurry after that Sunday ticket. You can always troll Craigslist hoping for a lucky break. Most of you, however, will have to read along with us and wonder what might have been. We’ll be live-blogging the event, so watch sacurrent.com and our Facebook page for regular weekend updates.

Death From Above 1979

Let’s be honest: dickheads often churn out great music. In the early aughts, soon after Death From Above 1979 (back then, sans numbers) first began barking out their gritty, angry noise-rock with Heads Up, a legal spat with Death From Above Records forced the Canadian duo to alter their name. And they did so, naturally, in true dickhead fashion, by adding on the legal minimum of numbers and calling the head of DFA Records, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, a “selfish piece of fuck,” adding: “If I had the resources I would fly a plane into his skull.”

It’s an attitude befitting the bands tempestuous, impulsive, and screeching sound. While remarkably dancey, DFA’s tracks are an assault — loud and nasty. Both Sebastien Grainger and Jesse Keeler have done well in the band’s five-year hiatus — Grainger with a (little too) poppy solo bit and Keeler with his electro-pop project MSTRKRFT. While each hold hints of what made DFA great, both are still puzzles with missing pieces. After reuniting earlier this year, we’ve been given a chance to see the duo back in action. 5:30 pm Sunday, Sept 18, Honda stage. — MB

Arcade Fire