With the festival headliner guessing game starting, what do you guys think about the connection between the festival headliner and TV show appearances?

Seems to me that headliners are the "style" of band that would appear on the TV show if they haven't already.

For example, the Beastie Boys are a great festival headliner, but they wouldn't be an ACL PBS act. So I doubt that they will headline (speculation only).

Sadly this could apply to Prince as well. Thank goodness this applies to Bjork.

What do you guys think?

Festival headliners don't always appear on Austin City Limits. For example, Van Morrison appeared last year, but Massive Attack and Tom Petty did not tape appearances. In '05, Coldplay taped a show, but Oasis did not. In '03, R.E.M. headlined the festival and did not tape a show.

There's no real correlation between who headlines and the show itself. The guy who books ACL and the guy who books the festival acts are two completely different people with different business interests backing them.

I certainly didn't mean to imply a business connection (I don't know either way). However, The Sunday headliner has traditionally been an ACL PBS "style" act.

I have no idea if Petty ever played ACL PBS, I'm sure lots of you can recite every act that performed and when the taping occurred. But I'm arguing that Petty's music is the "style" of music often presented on the program. As was Coldplay, R.E.M. and other past last night headliners.

If this is a trend that continues, it can help in the guessing game of who might headline.

True, but I don't think you eliminate anyone because they wouldn't be on the program. R.E.M. and Petty weren't. The Pixies did play the program, and at the time, they weren't exactly what most people would consider the type of band the show would have on.

The fact is, the show's undergone a major transformation the past few years and shifted itself in the direction of a much younger, wider audience. I could easily see Bjork fitting the new format.

And while I can see factoring the program into who might be at ACL, I wouldn't necessarily use it as a gauge to eliminate bands. Some play the program. Some don't. I think what Attal stated regarding the headliners is a better gauge than who might play the show.

For my money, I could see both NIN nails or RATM filling a slot at ACL and not playing the program. I think that extends to Dylan or any of the older acts who might play the festival but might not necessarily have the time to do a studio show.

You can cross off any names of bands that draw in a rowdy audience of mooks and sullen teens, such as NIN or RATM. CSE isn't interested in dealing with 40,000 complaints from festival goers, the city and the local neighborhoods about all the bratty frat boy wannabes getting into mosh pits, fist fights and obnoxious drunken behavior all over the area, and thus they'll keep as far away from the hard rock/alt-metal end of the spectrum as possible, both at ACL and Lolla. That doesn't mean ALL fans of those bands are assholes, but certainly a sizable portion of them are there simply to "tear shit up" and act like fools, so that nixes those bands from appearing.

Steely Dan FTW!!!1!!