Pitchfork

Sufjan Stevens and Calexico both stopped by "Austin City Limits" a couple of weeks ago to play sets and talk about their craft, and now some clips of their performances, as well as brief interviews, are online here.

Sufjan and his band-- dressed in those damned bird/butterfly wings-- turn in a competent version of "Casimir Pulaski Day" that is most notable for its completely false introduction: "This next song is about a famous Polish-American Revolutionary War hero." (Yes, we know Casimir Puaski was a famous Polish-American Revolutionary War hero. But the song isn't acutally about him.)

In his interview, Sufjan talks about his writing process, those "sacred moments" of creativity, his relationship with the music and city of Detroit (his birthplace), and the possibly of getting out of songwriting for a while to write "pieces, symphonic works." Keep in mind that he says all this while wearing the wings, so it's kind of hard to take any of it seriously.

Calexico play the instrumental "El Picador" from 2000's Hot Rail, and Joey Burns talks in his interview about the band's origins, evolution, and influences. Beware, Burns' shirt is hypnotic when listening to this interview!