I've written a lot about the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at this weekend's Austin City Limits Festival, but I'd be derelict if I didn't mention Family Music Meltdown 2, the show Bill and I are throwing early Saturday night at Ruta Maya Coffeehouse. Five great Austin bands for just five bucks. That's a great band per buck (or for free if you're an infant). Regardless of how you spell it, it will rock.
The set order will be as follows:
Super Pal Universe (acoustic)
Mr. Leebot
Telephone Company
Laura Freeman
Joe McDermott and the Smart Little Creatures
There's no better excuse to keep your kiddos up late than to have 'em dancing 'til 9 PM. Heck, even if you can only stay for an hour or so, it's a heckuva deal. For more details on these fine Austin artists, read on...
Super Pal Universe, the brainchild of the wonderful Sara Hickman, are a group of kids that rock out (seriously, I saw 'em at AKL last year, and they were loud). But for this show, they're gonna drop it down a notch and play acoustic. You can watch a bunch of videos of the band here, or watch the stop-motion video for their theme song below:
Mr. Leebot brings together the sounds of They Might Be Giants, Devo, and Diana Krall... uh, OK, just TMBG and Devo. He's also the creator of this program's name. Check out his tunes on his Myspace page or YouTube page, or just watch the live video of "Ants in my Pants" from the same Ruta Maya stage he'll playing Saturday...
I wish I could describe the Telephone Company's music, but it's, just, difficult. Surreal and fun. Go to their website to watch their video for "Mustache," or, if you'd prefer, watch the documentary below. They played this show last year, and we're glad to have 'em back!
Laura Freeman played this show last year, but this year I think she's also bringing along Heather Jarry, so I think there will be some puppetry involved. It's a bit too simplistic to call Laura's music folk music... but I'm feeling lazy at the moment. Check out this live version of the awesome "Orange":
And last but not least, Joe McDermott and the Smart Little Creatures. I've seen Joe play a couple times (including this show last year), and he's a great showman. His kids-pop music sounds great with the full band. The video below shows some snippets of Joe playing solo, but he and the band are a great way to end the night of music.
