ACL Music Festival is done for another year, but even though the flags, fashions, and fantastic music acts are gone, you can still reminisce about the VIP experience known as Casa Bacardi.
This hip paradise was where all the cool kids gathered in between sets to dance up a storm and drink a Zilker Spritz, the official rum cocktail of ACL Fest.
If you missed this taste of the tropics or want to mix up your own at home, you're in luck: here's the recipe. And you can easily purchase Bacardi Coconut Flavored rum at your favorite retail store.
Here are some glimpses inside Casa Bacardi during weekends one and two — just kick back with a Zilker Spritz and pretend you were there.
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Festival attendees were asked to "do what moves you" at Casa Bacardi, the VIP experience at ACL Music Festival sponsored by Bacardi.
Photo by Drew Taylor
Casa Bacardi served as a place to relax and recharge during the festival.
Daniel Johnston around the time of the initial album's release.
Austinites have their fair number of musical exports, but none they're as protective over as Daniel Johnston. This beacon of authenticity enthralled listeners with his emotional straightforwardness, including supporters like Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, and Built To Spill, among many others.
Now, a posthumous 2-LP vinyl re-release expands Johnston's 1991 album Artistic Vice with outtakes, rehearsals, and even previously unreleased songs. It comes out October 18, including the song "All Good Children Got To Die," which just premiered October 18 via Spin.
Fans who still feel raw about Johnston's 2019 death — and there are a lot of them if the popularity of Austin's memorial Hi, How Are You Day is any indication — will be hit with heightened feelings by this living eulogy. The track, remastered by Johnston's friend Kramer, is as lo-fi as ever, in Johnston's usual style, but with an upbeat blues guitar providing a base. The lyrics start with the cleverly delightful metaphor, "Been gettin' fat on my humble pie/Pretty soon, I'll up and die," and continue on in simple coupled rhymes consoling the listener.
The cheery and nostalgic visualizer by Fly Eye Media features photos of Johnston, drawings of Casper the Ghost (famously, one of the few dead children anyone wants to think about), some of Johnston's own drawings, and close-ups of the Artistic Vice album cover. Another image depicts the cool geodesic dome where the album was recorded.
These visuals are a preview of similar things to come in the collector's edition vinyl — which will be peach and light blue — including a lyric booklet with rare photos and words from Johnston's bandmates in Eye Band. The entire second album will be made up of the archival material mentioned above. This isn't a cobbled-together afterthought, but a collection of works that were intended to make it onto the album in some form or another, and never did.
This album was significant in Johnston's career because it was the first time he fronted a band. But it was about a dozen albums into his career (depending on how you count some releases), and it came several years after Hi, How Are You, still the artist's best-known collection, which he used to hand out around Austin.
The re-released Artistic Vice is put forth by Eternal Yip Eye Records and Thirty Tigers. Johnston's brother, Dick Johnston, leads a team of workers and volunteers, according to a press release, to continue the artist's legacy.
Artistic Vice re-release set.Courtesy of Eternal Yip Eye Records and Thirty Tigers
The tracklists for the two vinyls are as shown below. Pre-orders ($32.98) are available at hihowareyou.com or through other local and online stores stores here.
LP1 Tracklist: 1. My Life Is Starting Over 2. Honey I Sure Miss You 3. I Feel So High 4. A Ghostly Story 5. Tell Me Now 6. Easy Listening 7. I Know Casper 8. The Startling Facts 9. Hoping 10. It's Got to Be Good 11. Happy Soul 12. The Dream Is Over 13. Love of My Life 14. I Killed the Monster 15. Laurie 16. Fate Will Get Done
LP2 Tracklist: 1. All Good Children Got To Die 2. Christian Martyrs 3. Easy Listening 4. I Know Casper 5. Penny Penny 6. You Said You Didn't Really Love Me 7. Piano interlude 8. Happy Soul 9. Got To Be Good 10. It's Over 11. Love of My Life 12. Something Fantastic Rolling Over My Soul 13. Boogie 14. I'll Be Going Home Someday 15. Dead Dogs Eyeball (Variation) 16. Ego Trip