Ben Kweller

Foo Fighters have recorded five new songs, including one with Ben Kweller

Foo Fighters, headlining both weekends of Austin City Limits, came out with exciting news on Friday night for the second performance of the festival.

“You know what I did last night?” Dave Grohl asked the crowd during their performance on Friday evening. “I recorded a fucking song in your beautiful city of Austin, Texas.” And that isn’t. “And I’m just gonna say it now: We recorded five fucking new songs in your beautiful city of Austin, Texas. And we’re gonna give it to you! But not tonight.”

“Just by chance,” Grohl continued telling the crowd. “I bumped into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in about 16 years, right as I was recording a vocal. This motherfucker walks in — I’m like, ‘Hey, man!’ — and he starts fucking singing the most beautiful harmony to the thing I was singing. I was like, ‘Get your ass in the vocal booth right now.’ And then he said, ‘Hey, if you want, I’ll come up and sing a song with you tonight.’” Austin resident rocker Ben Kweller took the stage to help with “some straight-up sweet, tug-your-heartstrings ballad shit” on “Big Me,” off of Foo Fighters’ self-titled debut, which had turned 20 in July. Watch below.

SXSW announced preliminary music lineup

Returning to Austin between March 13th and the 22nd is the widely popular South by Southwest. The music part of the showcase takes place between March 17th through 22nd. Organizers announced a list of preliminary acts set to play over the course of that week.

Among that list are: The Dodos, Jessie Ware, The Pop Group, Thee Oh Sees, Carl Barat and The Jackals, Twin Peaks, The Twilight Sad, The Big Pink, Ben Kweller, Mew, Courtney Barnett, Twerps, Black Milk, Bishop Nehru, Alvvays, Pharmakon, Lust For Youth, Dry the River, Hey Marseilles, Moon Duo, The Octopus Project, Sleep ∞ Over, Ume, The Stone Foxes, Jonathan Toubin, Warm Soda, Natural Child, The Lonely Wild, Civil Twilight, Cheerleader, and Angus & Julia Stone. In all, over 1,000 acts will perform in Austin during SXSW.

Mark Duplass, actor/director is set to be one of the keynote speakers for SXSW’s film portion.

Badges to attend SXSW are available on the festival’s website.