According to his website, Crowded House’s Neil Finn will record a new solo album over the upcoming holidays. He has confirmed several special guests, many of whom have appeared recently on Austin City Limits:

Over
Christmas 2008 and New Year 2009, Neil Finn has invited the core band
from his 2001 Seven Worlds Collide project, plus some other special
guests, to create a new album at Roundhead studios in Auckland, New
Zealand. Guests confirmed so far are Radiohead’s Phil Selway and Ed
O’Brien, legendary guitarist Johnny Marr, founder member of The Smiths
and current member of US alternate rock innovators Modest Mouse, Soul
Coughing’s Sebastian Steinberg, multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano,
Wilco members Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone,
along with NZ musicians Liam Finn, Don McGlashan and Bic Runga. All
proceeds from this very special recording will go to support the
continuing great work of Oxfam International.

You can catch last year’s ACL episode featuring Crowded House on Saturday, December 13th. Check local listings. 

Gotta love The Raconteurs. This Antiques Roadshow parody is just one more reason why we love those guys. For the full version head over to http://www.fromoldtogold.com/ .

And, in case you need a refresher, our worlds previously collided when The Raconteurs played Austin City Limits a couple of years back. Check it out here.

A new Raconteurs video was released today. Check it out over on Stereogum.

Gnarls Barkley just released a new video for “Mystery Man.”  Gnarls Barkley’s ACL episode airs on Saturday, November 22nd.

This was My Morning Jacket’s second appearance on ACL and Jim James’ third, having helped out friend Conor Oberst in a Bright Eyes segment on season 30. Since then, MMJ’s growth, both musically and in popularity, has blossomed exponentially. When they first appeared on our show in 2005, it was apparent that this band had the talent and ambition to go in any of several musical directions. In their subsequent releases, especially Evil Urges, they have decided to explore all those directions.

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Entertainment Weekly’s Whitney Pastorek, who attended six major music festivals this summer, deemed the ACL Festival the best of the bunch!

Those of us on the TV production end of things didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the festival this year - we were in our studio taping the shows that are now airing as part of our 34th season. I have to admit we are a tiny bit spoiled though, since we got to see many of the marquee acts perform in our 320-seat studio (in air conditioning!). Be sure to check out the new episodes featuring many of the festival’s top-draws: Foo Fighers, Manu Chao, the Swell Season, and Gnarls Barkley. For the upcoming schedule, go here.