Austin City Limits hosted some of the nicest weather in years alongside an impressive line up with main headliners The Strokes, Muse and the Eagles. Some tough scheduling choices though needed to be made like choosing Sonic Youth or Vampire Weekend, Broken Bells or Silversun Pickups, Band Of Horses or the Flaming Lips, and Muse or M.I.A. ACL typically sells out every year and they have already announced that September 16-18 will be the dates for next year. Until then, here’s spread of photos to fill you in on some of how it looked this year.

On Friday, the Roots posted up a full album stream of their 11th LP, How I Got Over. The LP credits ought to have a special mention of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon‘s music booker: many of its Stereogum-friendly collaborators/sample sources (Amber from Dirty Projectors, a page from Joanna Newsom’s “Book Of Right On,” etc.) have been guests on that show, almost certainly approached while the Roots were punching the clock at their game-changing day job. So it goes, Friday night was the second time Yim Yames aka MMJim James has crooned the hook to “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” with the Roots; that first collab yielded the How I Got Over cut “Dear God 2.0,” and here it is live, with an orchestra, and lot more of Black’s thoughts.

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“Dear God 2.0″ obviously remakes Monsters Of Folk’s “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” and is maybe referencing “The Seed (2.0),” Internet 2.0, and (by default) XTC, but once Black Thought gets going, it reminds me of Common’s “Retrospect For Life.” The mellow, globally-minded letter to the big guy, which finds Jim James reprising his “Dear God” role, appears on the Roots’ forthcoming How I Got Over.

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The soulful, dreamy opener to Monsters Of Folk’s self-titled album tackles big spiritual questions, and its official video tries to put this all in perspective. Director/animator Lauri Faggioni begins among the stars and zooms to the cellular level, in a clip reminiscent of Charles and Ray Eames classic Powers Of 10 short film. Of course MOF’s video goes deeper, revealing a whole universe inside us. Wild. Members Jim James, M. Ward, Mike Mogis, and Conor Oberst are likely busy with their other projects, so you don’t get to see them here — a bummer if you were hoping to see what the universe inside James’s beard looked like.

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Yim Yames told BBC 6 Music My Morning Jacket’s working on their sixth album (“[W]e’re knocking around three or four songs”) and that Monsters Of Folk will “likely” follow their self-title debut with another collection. (Thanks for the tip, Brad.)

The last time a video featured Conor Oberst in a public performance period piece, he was getting clobbered by trash and tomatoes. But that was before he and Mogis recruited Yim Yames on drums and M. Ward on piano to form the hydra-headed Paste-rock superbeast Monsters Of Folk, so this time around the reception is much lighter on the hostility and much heavier on the soldier’s uniforms and roller-skating. Naturally.

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Your local triple-A format radio station’s favorite of this year’s supergroup explosion stopped by 30 Rock last night. That’s M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Yim Yames, singing “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.),” the minor key harp and soul track from Monsters Of Folk’s self-titled debut. As has been the case on tour, Centro-matic’s Will Johnson is sitting behind the drums, although M.O.F. had an extra-extra special beat maker last night in ?uestlove, and the rest of the most fab Roots crew, who together made what was a simple supergroup into something like a preview of a Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony superjam from ten years into the future. Despite the star power, the song remains the same, but have a look anyway because Questo has a way with them brush sticks.

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In a very special Halloween edition of the ‘Gum Drop, David “Moose” Adamson, aka Jookabox, told us “Evil Nite” — “a song about the infection taking hold of a pure soul in limbo” — is an early version of “Zombie Tear Drops” from his Indianapolis crew’s zombie-inspired Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic Kitty, 11/3). We kept digging. In fact, we dug so deep we didn’t have room for the entire discussion in the newsletter. No worries, you can read his thoughts on Varg Vikernes, George Romero, Star Wars, “The Monster Mash,” and, of course, zombies here.

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Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Jim James, Mike Mogis, and Centro-matic’s Will Johnson donned their best late-night suits and played Seattle’s Paramount Theatre last night. Photographer Laura Musselman was on hand and delivers this set of shots.

Monsters Of Folk are four dudes better known for other projects, they are the Them Crooked Vultures of the NPR-section of contemporary music, they are like the Traveling Wilburys but not as iconic, all of this is true. But also they are four dudes best known for playing guitar while they sing, which you’re reminded of as soon as The Tonight Show‘s camera pans past M. Ward bent over a piano and Yim Yames who keeps plucking that chicken bass. Conor gets to play it close to the vest with acoustic strums and totally necessary sunglasses (who’s gonna be the Orbison if not), and his other Bright Eye Mike Mogis holds it down on electric because just listen to that guitar solo. Centro-matic’s Will Johnson is their new drummer. The supergroup performed their album’s lead single “Say Please” last night, sounding nice and tight and looking like the best men at a wedding you wish you were invited to.

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