Local bands compete for stage time at Austin City Limits Festival

by Erin Rice

The Sound and the Jury contest decides who will "get the gig of a lifetime" at the 2008 Austin City Limits Festival. The voting is broken into four rounds, the first of which started on July 11 and will run through August 22, is open voting for the public. In the second round, celebrity judges will chose a group of 20 from the top 100 in the first round. Then, in the third round (you still with me?) public voting reopens on those 20. From there, the top five will compete in a finale event on September 24, two days prior to the start of ACL.

With thousands of bands in the first round, there are several from our area. A quick scan of the Texas bands gave me the list below.* Currently, David Ramirez, a pop/folk singer/songwriter who spent several years in DFW (now lives in Tennessee), is in fourth place, just two votes behind third. The next highest local vote tally belongs to who else, street-promoter extraordinaires, Odis.

Band Name (# of votes as of July 29, 3 p.m.)

Boys Named Sue (35)

Chris Miller Band (59)

Confusatron (17)

David Ramirez (2051)

Gazelles (343)

The Liking Strikes (938)

Lindby (42)

The Magically Delicious Smoking Skunk Monkey (0)

The New Frontiers (2)

Odis (1093)

The Orange (618)

Smile Smile (116)

Telegraph Canyon (100)

Whiskey Folk Ramblers (448)

We Are Villains (13)

Wolf-Rayet (371)

Click here to cast your own vote. You don't have to vote local, but it'd sure be neighborly if you did.

*It's highly likely I've left a local band off the list. If so, feel free to add them in the comments below.