Sound on Sound Fest 2016: Speed Analysis of Sunday Lineup (7:00 to end)

Man, now is where the schedule gets meaty and awesome, but I'm going to be hard pressed to get my crew to stay for the late night stuff on a Sunday night in Bastrop.  Wish me luck, folks.  I'm going to need it.

7:10

• Baio.  Dance-y indie pop grooves, by the guy who plays bass guitar for Vampire Weekend.  "Sunburn Modern" is a pretty tight groove instrumental, and the most popular track is more of a Vampire Weekend-style tune, "Sister of Pearl" with 7.3 million streams.  I'd go watch this guy.
• The Monkey Wrench.  So, I bought an album by this band when I was in high school, based solely on the fact that it was from the Sub Pop label and I was jonesing for more Nirvana.  Clean as a Broke Dick Dog.  Never did understand that album name.  The band is a couple of dudes from Mudhoney along with a few other guys from the Seattle music scene of the 90's, although it looks like they haven't done any music in a long time.  Nothing available on Spotify, all I have are my fuzzy memories of skuzzy grunge-ish tunes that sound like Mudhoney.  I'd go see them do it again.

7:55

• Young Thug.  More rap from the AutoTune generation of rappers talkin' loud but ain't sayin' nothin'.  Atlanta guy, and he has some good trap beats on some of his tracks, but much of his lyrical output is just a waste of time.  His most popular track, which somehow has an RIAA platinum designation, is "Best Friend."  I present to you, the hook from this song, per Genius: "That's my best friend, that's my best friend, flexin', Big ol' booty bitch missus from Texas, what's next is, I'm gon' skeet off, lil nigga come catch me, catch me, And that's my bestie, my bestie, my best friend, go best friend, Nigga livin' TTG and everything is still on fleek, Bad bitch rollin' wit' me, she gon' smile 'cause she on fleek, Hundred thousand dollars inside my pants, my shit on fleek, Hey-yeah! Yeah."  Yeah.  The music that once allowed Chuck D to raise issues with 911 and Hollywood, or Eazy E and Ice Cube to blast on corrupt cops, is now the nonsensical brand of idiocy being used for nothing.

8:15

• Bob Mould.  Bob Mould is awesome.  I dug him as a kid and have enjoyed his most recent album as well.  I'd love to go see Bob Mould do his thing.
• White Lung.  Lady singer over lite punk tunes.  Their bio calls them an indie rock group, but I wouldn't call these tunes indie.  Meh.

9:15/9:20

• Courtney Barnett.  I love Courtney Barnett so very much.  I want to see her play so bad.  I doubt I'll get to do it, but she is so great.
• STRFKR.  When pulling up this band name (add some vowels to figure out how to pronounce that name) I figured this was going to be some EDM garbage.  Its actually pretty good indie pop/rock electro type stuff.  Pretty cool.  Another band with no new music.  Weird how that appears to be the thing with bands playing this Fest.  I wonder how much a band costs if they have new music versus if their last album is 5 years old?
• Protomartyr.  With this being on the death metal stage, I thought for sure that this was going to be some scary scream-core satan-swabbing stuff, instead, its actually pretty chilled and pleasant indie and lite punk.  "Maidenhead" makes me think of Real Estate with a few quick forays into noise.  This is good, but if I were still at the grounds at this time I'd be watching Barnett.

10:25

• Big Freedia.  This kind of music is apparently called "bounce," which sounds like rap that is faster and more dance focused.  Wikipedia says "Bounce is characterized by call-and-response-style party and Mardi Gras Indian chants and dance call-outs that are frequently hypersexual." Mmmmkay.  Don't hear that, but whatever.  Freedia was born Freddy, but while he says he is not transgender, he wears women's clothes and prefers being called "she."  Just one album, 2014's Just Be Free, is available on Spotify, and it is pretty fun, but it is hyped up.  She actually sounds a little bit like KRS-One.  You are not going to chill at any point in this show, you are going to be bouncing your ass off the entire time.
• Baroness.  These guys are freaking bad ass.  I did a Quick Hit about their most recent album, Purple, a while back.  Brawny metal tunes, and kind of a medieval theme about their cover art, so maybe they'll be the ones who are playing the castle-top and slaying dragons with their mighty riffage.

10:45

• Explosions in the Sky.  Yo no comprende how this band would be a headliner for this Fest. These dudes make the blandly lovely instrumental music that you hear in your mind when you think of Friday Night Lights.  I listened to their most recent album a few months ago and was unimpressed.  Its fine background music to just make a mood with, but a festival band?  Just seems weird.

11:40

• A-Trak.  Big EDM guy.  Don't care for it, but I get the appeal of dropping acid for a midnight bout of freaking out in a huge crowd in a forest surrounded by the trappings of medieval life.  This is one of those guys where, if you aren't paying attention on Spotify, you'll have to listen to the same damn song for 9 hours straight.
• Carcass.  God.  I mean, what kind of life have you lived when this is what you want to do at 11:40 on a Sunday night?  This is the kind of music I imagine the Marines play after they duct tape headphones onto an Iraqi prisoner when they want to torture information out of the guy. "Oh, yeah, you won't tell me about where you've got Bin Laden holed up?  Have some "Heartwork" at volume level 11."

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to make my kids stay up until midnight so that we can all watch Baroness together and then drive back to Austin.  Their elementary school teachers will fully understand the need to rock versus their need to pay attention to grammar lessons.

This is all going to be MUCH further afield than my normal music tastes, and absolutely outside the norm for the wife and kids, but I'm looking forward to it anyway.