It can go without saying that 2010 has been a big year for The Band of Heathens.
This year alone, the Austin, Texas Americana band played South by Southwest, performed on the same bill as Elvis Costello on the nationally televised PBS program, "Austin City Limits," and was just recently nominated for Americana Honors & Awards category of "Best Duo or Group" — the band's second nomination in the past two years.
The Band of Heathens continues to go strong with its first performance at Lollapalooza this weekend.
"There were early Cumulonimbus clouds, and they cleared, then there were Cirrus clouds and sunshine and beautiful people," said Ed Jurdi, singer and multi-instrumentalist for the band.
Jurdi referenced the morning rain that kept many festival-goers from entering the Lollapalooza gates. Fortunately for the band, the rain let up before its set.
"It was rock and roll, it was fun. The crowd was great," said Bassist Seth Whitney.
The Band of Heathens' Chicago Lollapalooza stop comes as a break in its current West Coast tour. It'll wrap up the tour in three weeks and the members will head back to their homes in Austin, and to the music scene that attracted them years ago.
"...I remember living in numerous other places and remember people saying to me, ‘Man, Colin, you gotta go to Austin. That's your home,'" said Singer/Multi-Instrumentalist Colin Brooks. "And it turned out to be somewhat true. We all found that we fit in well there."
Musically, it has been a year since the band put out its most recent album, One Foot in the Ether. Its members are always writing and recording, and have some studio time reserved back home, but currently, they do not have set plans to write and record a follow-up. Instead, Band of Heathens finds other ways to get its music out to fans.
Recently, the band recorded "Free Again," which is described ironically on the band's website as "A catchy summer tune for the oil spill season." The song is available for free download on the band's site.
"We're a band, and we play music," Jurdi said. "Nobody's really interested in being a politician, a priest, or any of those other ‘P' words. We record music and we have fans, they listen to our music, so we wanted to give them something to listen to for free."
While an album may not be on tap soon, the band still knows how to keep its fans happy. In the meantime, The Band of Heathens will continue to enjoy the success 2010 has brought.
"If it all ends tomorrow, we can all be cable repair men," Whitney said. "That's our other dream."
