In preparation for what is going to be one of the most fun weekends of the year (PLEASE let the weather hold!), I've asked Jordan to provide us with some of her personal pics by day for this weekend. I said you give me the names and I'll pull videos and bio info from the ACL site. Let the ACL pandemonium begin! Look for me, I'll be the one in the psychedelic caftan noodling...
Jordan's Fantastical Friday Picks:
JJ Grey and Mofro (Fri, 12p, Budweiser Stage)
Singing with a passion and fervor directly influenced by the classic soul heroes, JJ Grey has written and recorded five albums of original songs steeped in the rhythm & blues, rock, and country soul of his native backwoods home outside Jacksonville, Florida. Grey comes from a long tradition of Southern storytellers and, in that spirit, he fills his songs with details that are at once vivid, personal and universal. After a decade of hard touring, he still spends eight months of the year on the road, bringing his music to a loyal, ever-growing, worldwide fanbase.
Miike Snow (Fri, 3p, Honda Stage)
The speed at which trio Miike Snow reached success—selling out shows on their first tour—might seem surprising, until you peel back the masks to reveal who is behind the project. Swedes Chris Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, aka production duo Bloodshy and Avant, have been working with high-profile artists since the early 2000s, including Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears—they co-wrote and produced Spears’ “Toxic,” and won the 2005 Grammy for Best Dance Recording for their efforts...Miike Snow is a record filled with danceable beats, deep synths and soulful singing care of Wyatt, and live, the groups’ uniforms of black windbreakers shimmer under the light, creating a contagious nightclub vibe befitting their infectious songs.
The Black Keys (Fri, 4p, AMD Stage)
Artists who grow up in industrialized cities tend to have a muscular, no-nonsense sound, and the Black Keys, a product of rubber capital Akron, Ohio, are no exception. The strength of their minimalist blues-rock has made the duo of guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney popular not only among casual fans, but musicians as well. Gritty, elemental and full of Hendrix influences, it’s simple, yet expansive; hardcore, but not a metallic assault. If anything, the track “Tighten Up,” from their new album, Brothers, is sinuous, sexy and funky (yet spare), with tasty guitar licks and supple bass lines, some ‘60s psychedelic flavor and quite a bit of soul.
Slightly Stoopid (Fri, 6p, Budweiser Stage)
With more than a decade of making music together, the members of Slightly Stoopid have perfected one of the rarest and most valuable skills a band can develop: the art of the stealth groove, that knack for quietly, almost innocently, sliding into a composition, and utterly lassoing anyone within earshot by mid-song. That's where the band has come to reside, musically: deep in the pocket, that ever-elusive, funky trench where a band can entrance an audience, hypnotize it and hold on to it until the set or CD is finished.
Phish (Fri, 8p, Budweiser Stage)
Formed in Vermont in 1983, Phish—Jon Fishman, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell—are known as masters of improvisation, humor and intricacy. They might do an a cappella barbershop-quartet rendition of “Free Bird” or reproduce an entire album by another band each Halloween in “musical costume.” Though Phish never intended to take over for the Grateful Dead as the planet’s pre-eminent jam band, they wore the mantle with relish, always looking for new forms of musical expression in any idiom they could embrace: psychedelic rock, jazz, funk, blues, country, prog-rock, bluegrass, classical.
Extended improvisational grooves are their stock in trade. In the process, they’ve attracted huge numbers of fans who love attending their roving summer festivals and special events: Phish’s millennium concert at the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in the Florida Everglades drew 85,000 people, reportedly the largest paid audience for any concert that night, and featured a 7½-hour set that lasted from midnight to sunrise.
As we all know, I have no problem shopping the globe for fashions that I am obsessed with (remember the instance with the German company and the Dries van Noten scarf - I rest my case) and this collection from Stella McCartney is no exception (click the above pick for a larger view). It will be online Oct. 29 and with pieces that look like they walked right off her Fall RTW runway, ahem, minimalist black suit, the lace, the cigarette pants, ahem, I'll be there with my AUS $/size conversion calculator in hand and my debit card. Check out some of my fave looks below.
In preparation for what is going to be one of the most fun weekends of the year (PLEASE let the weather hold!), I've asked Jordan to provide us with some of her personal pics by day for this weekend. I said you give me the names and I'll pull videos and bio info from the ACL site. Let the ACL pandemonium begin! Look for me, I'll be the one in the psychedelic caftan noodling... 
The speed at which trio Miike Snow reached success—selling out shows on their first tour—might seem surprising, until you peel back the masks to reveal who is behind the project. Swedes Chris Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, aka production duo Bloodshy and Avant, have been working with high-profile artists since the early 2000s, including Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears—they co-wrote and produced Spears’ “Toxic,” and won the 2005 Grammy for Best Dance Recording for their efforts...Miike Snow is a record filled with danceable beats, deep synths and soulful singing care of Wyatt, and live, the groups’ uniforms of black windbreakers shimmer under the light, creating a contagious nightclub vibe befitting their infectious songs.
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With more than a decade of making music together, the members of Slightly Stoopid have perfected one of the rarest and most valuable skills a band can develop: the art of the stealth groove, that knack for quietly, almost innocently, sliding into a composition, and utterly lassoing anyone within earshot by mid-song. That's where the band has come to reside, musically: deep in the pocket, that ever-elusive, funky trench where a band can entrance an audience, hypnotize it and hold on to it until the set or CD is finished.
Formed in Vermont in 1983, Phish—Jon Fishman, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell—are known as masters of improvisation, humor and intricacy. They might do an a cappella barbershop-quartet rendition of “Free Bird” or reproduce an entire album by another band each Halloween in “musical costume.” Though Phish never intended to take over for the Grateful Dead as the planet’s pre-eminent jam band, they wore the mantle with relish, always looking for new forms of musical expression in any idiom they could embrace: psychedelic rock, jazz, funk, blues, country, prog-rock, bluegrass, classical.
