Halftime!

I have made my way through more than half of the bands coming for this year's ACL,* and wanted to take a break to set out a few thoughts that may only be partially related to ACL:

1. How fun is the lineup for the Free Press Summer Festival?  Happening in Houston in a week and a half, and they boast Weezer, Skrillex, The Decemberists, St. Vincent, Mastodon, Tears for Fears (!), Gary Clark, Jr., Chance the Rapper, Band of Horses, Flogging Molly, Diarrhea Planet, and Ben Kweller, among others.  If you treat it like ACL's new missing headliners lineup, that is pretty fun sounding.
2. Check out "Welcome to Houston," playing that festival, which is an all-star group of Houston rap royalty.  Sweet.  If only they had gotten Bushwick Bill.
3. Speaking of other festivals, am I right in thinking that ACL should be considered top 3 or 4 in the US?  I feel that way, that we are in the top 4 mix with Bonnaroo, Lolla, and Coachella. Right?  Now, go check out the Governor's Ball lineup, some rando festival I've never heard of before that started a few years ago, who scored ACL "headliners" Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Deadmau5, but then also tacked on The Black Keys(!), My Morning Jacket(!!), Bjork(!!!), and Ryan Adams, as well as a pack of other headliner worthy material like Lana Del Rey (minus one !) and Noel Gallagher, and then a ton of good lower tier stuff like War on Drugs, The Decemberists, St. Vincent, Death from Above 1979, Tame Impala, Sturgill Simpson, J. Roddy Walston, Moon Taxi, Benjamin Booker, and many more.  Damn!  Pretty awesome lineup.  They stole our headliners!
4. Also of note, in comparing the posters for Governors and ACL, note where Sturgill Simpson rates: 4th row on ACL; 9th row on Governors.
5. Entirely unrelated to ACL, but I finally watched the Kurt Cobain documentary "Montage of Heck."  Thought it was great, although it made me so very sad.  Just seems like Cobain got a crap deal as a kid, and then aimed for a better life, but then couldn't figure it out once he got something better than he had.  Oh, and heroin is really stupid.  You should go check that out.  The music in it is so good, and I loved the way they integrated old notebooks, home video, recordings, etc. into a cool story.
6. Also unrelated to ACL, read an interesting article about the relevance of U2 and liked this one quote from Adam Clayton: “I think, sadly, what we’re seeing happen is, albums as collections of music had a cultural significance that told a story and connected people, [and] now have social media filling that role. Music no longer has that social or political place in the community. It’s become a novelty and a soundtrack because I don’t think there’s any real invested loyalty anymore. It’s a different relationship.”  Totally agree - I feel like everyone used to know the same music, and now its all so segmented that people don't relate to each other through it the way we used to.
7. I was bummed to see that the massive rains and wind hammered one of the big trees next to the Rock Island at Zilker.  

In good news from that bad news, I can finally get that kite out of the top limbs my son got caught in there at the Kite Festival 6 years ago.  Suck it, anti-Giving Tree!  These rains have been insane down here.

*If you are counting at home, I know I haven't published 'm not half way yet, but know that I have written more than I have published so that I can keep up with a somewhat regular publishing schedule even while out of the office for a week in a few weeks.  Now quit being creepy and counting!

Stay dry out there - I'll get back to work on the music listening!