ACL was great fun this year, but I'm honestly a little glad it is over right about now. Getting all of that crap together is a little stressful, especially if work takes it up a tick, which it did this year. Happy to be back to the low stress of listening to new music and writing just a simple paragraph about it. Also, glad to skip over something that is obviously shit - one negative of doing the ACL reviews is that even when I can tell, right away, that The Score sucks on toast, I still have to read about them and listen to them for a day to get together the material to write them up. Where here, when I'm just trying something out, if it seriously sucks and I can stand it, I just say "this seriously sucks and I'm not listening to it." Anyhoo! Todd Snider - Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3. I really wish I could have taken my friend up on some tickets to see this guy live a few months ago. He is hilarious. His voice is not great - he makes Robert Earl Keen sound like a real vocalist - but his lyrics are freaking funny and unexpected and weird. His top track on this album is probably his top track because it features a more famous lyricist/singer on the track, so I'm not going to play you the one with Jason Isbell. Instead, you get "Just Like Overnight," with 224k streams.
Comes on like a Townes Van Zandt tune, and then it continues like a John Prine tune. Not a funny one this time, but believe me, go listen to most of his lyrics and they are twisted and funny. Not interesting music - pretty bland guitar strumming, with maybe a little harmonica here and there, but the voice and guitar aren't why you are here. The live album I streamed earlier this year was better than this, but still entertaining. Cage the Elephant - Social Cues. I'm highly annoyed that I had to miss their concert this summer when they came through town with Beck - although my friend Joseph told me that their show was pretty annoying - I don't care, I still like these dudes. And then another friend gave me the invite to see their ACL taping the other night and I had to skip out on that too because of family commitments, and I read an Austin Chronicle article talking about how they blew the doors off of the place. Dammit. As for this album, I don't think it is as good as their last one - "Night Running" with Beck is pretty catchy, but not great. "Ready to Let Go" is pretty good, as is the frenetic "Broken Boy." This disc just seems softer than their prior music, and I liked that harder edge better. "Ready to Let Go" has more streams, but "Social Cues" is currently more popular, so I'll give you that one. 13.5 million streams.
That wavery little piano thing makes me think of The Cars. I think that is the Cars - Midnight Oil used an effect like that a long time ago as well, but I think I'm thinking Cars here. Whatever, just an OK tune. How I feel about the whole album - it keeps popping back up in my queue and I don't hate it, but I'm always kind of hoping for something else to hurry up and come on. Jade Bird - Jade Bird. You may have heard the first track from this album a few times, its been on the radio around town after she killed SXSW and everyone fell in love with her. Won the prize for upcoming talent from the fest in 2018. "Lottery" currently has 15.1 million streams.
Her voice is great - can go from a pretty, plaintive, warbled tunefulness to a full-on blast. And the lyrics are catchy as hell and pretty solid. Beautiful song. The next one - "I Get No Joy" is a little more brassy and in the face, as is the other single I hear on the radio, "Uh Huh." I prefer the former. Overall, this is a really nice album, her voice shines and she can do a few good turns of phrase with her lyrics. I'd like to see her play live sometime. Beyonce - Lemonade. I'm well aware that this is like a three year old album by now, but because it was exclusive to Tidal for years, I never got the chance to actually hear it. Somewhat surprisingly, to myself at least, I really like it a lot. I think it also helps to know some of the background on the album - explains the multiple references to "Becky with the good hair" and the pure anger on the Jack White track. But "Formation" is not only a very cool, odd beat, but the lyrics are great too. "Hold Up" is also a great song. "Sorry" and "Daddy Lessons" are also cool. Her beautiful voice in "All Night" just reverberates around in my skull, and combined with those horns, I love it. She even throws out some real raps in the midst of the singing on here - I don't know what I expected to hear on this, but its just so raw and real and non-pop feeling, that I've kept listening to it long after I should have moved on to something else.
That little sproing sound, right out of some Looney Tunes thing. And on top of the song, and the lyrics, that video is fabulous as well. And the line about taking his ass to Red Lobster, *chef's kiss* The Kendrick collab of "Freedom" is also solid - her killer voice on the verses, and then Kendrick's conscious rap in the cut? I know it probably is the right thing for her to be married to Jay-Z, but wouldn't it be cool if she married Kendrick or someone who still makes vital music? Instead of boring cash-the-check music like Jay makes these days? That Carters album would have been greatness instead of mediocrity. I like this.
I know that one of the lamest things possible is for someone to talk about their fantasy football league, but I just mainly want to gripe about the fact that I am currently in four leagues. Which is so terrifically stupid. I own just about every player on one team or another, and end up cheering for myself against myself every weekend. It's making me burn out on the whole endeavor - I just can't keep track of it all or worry about breaking news and players like I might have in the past. Which is probably a good thing that will lead to me dropping out of all four leagues next year. Then I can redirect the dumb time I spend reading about the potential of the Steelers' fourth string running back and start concentrating that energy on dumb things like researching whether Bushwick Bill was a better rapper with one eye or two eyes (unquestionably the latter). Time will tell. Catfish & the Bottlemen - The Balance. These guys rule. I've already espoused my pleasure in their rock and roll goodness, and then the first single from this album came out, was picked up by the radio, and I thought they were ready to take on the world. "Longshot," with 35.1 million streams.
Yes! That is the good stuff. Great catchy pop rock stuff, and a great sing-a-long chorus. "every once in a while, the little things make me smile, as if one of my long shots paid off." I will say that their band name could use some help, its just a little too much of a mouthful. Also, "2all" is another pretty good one - chuggin guitar and catchy tune. The final tune is a little weird, "Overlap," in that is just ends in mid-jam, like mid-line. Very good album. Injury Reserve - Injury Reserve. These guys were one of my favorite finds on last year's ACL poster, and they brought it hard in person. Very fun, raucous show. This is their brand new album, and it ain't great. They're at their best when they use a catchy, hard beat and then spray fun lyrics over the top. This finds them trying to be very odd, with glitchy, uneven beats and way too much repetition with the lyrics. Like, I could barely finish listening to "GTFU." Not horrible, but just nothing nearly so catchy as their best stuff from earlier albums. The top streamer is one called "Jailbreak the Tesla," with someone named Anime. 3.5 million streams.
Yeah, saying "how to hack a Tesla car" 80 times in a row, and "fuck it, jailbreak the Tesla" another 30 times in a row? I don't need it. I kind of like the verse about his childhood iPod though. "Gravy n' Biscuits" is OK. "Rap Song Tutorial" made me grin, even if it shouldn't be on an actual album. Halfway - Rainlover. Not sure how this album from a Brisbane, Australia eight piece ended up in my Q, but its pretty nice stuff. Kind of in the same vein as the gentle side of Strand of Oaks or the harder side of David Grey. Or like the soft stuff from Manchester Orchestra? Whatever. Indie rock, right? Tuneful rock and roll that angles towards Americana at times, especially when the pedal steel is mournfully speaking up. Even more weird, none of the songs has more than 10,000 streams, so I have no idea where I found this thing. The top track, with all of 7k streams (and 855 views for this official video) is "Swinburne Ashes."
That video truly sucks ass. Like, way worse than something my 9 year old could shoot with my iPhone. But I really like the tune. Overall, I like the album, but I probably wouldn't say that it should be a must listen for anyone else. Anderson.Paak - Ventura. The dude throws down with an Andre 3000 verse on the first song. How you gonna give us the goods in the very first one? This guy makes very chilled, cool, jazzy half-rap/half-R&B that sounds so organically smooth that I don't hate it. If you read my thoughts frequently, then you know I can generally do without all of the R&B clogging up my rap these days, but this feels more genuine and leans towards funk more than generic R&B platitudes. Also, he adds Smokey Robinson, Brandy, and Nate Dogg as guests on top of 3K, which shows that he has good taste and a very powerful agent. "King James" was the initial single (and is funky goodness), and it still works pretty well, but the Smokey Robinson track, with its sweet, cool, smooth flow, is the stream winner. "Make It Better" with 25.7 million streams.
So sweet! And then the video makes me think its maybe about couples wanting to murder each other. And now that I give it a critical listen, it isn't about improving a great relationship, its about making new memories to make a relationship better, ostensibly because the old memories are of them screaming at each other and using their hands too much to emphasize those screams. It's a nice album - a good change of pace from what I normally do. I like it.
This whole set of reviews was written long before the ACL-imposed break in my regular reviewing and listening. Giving 130+ artists a good, real listen takes a crapton of time, and while a few of the bands for ACL aren't worth the listen, I find a bunch of cool stuff. Am thinking that I need to go through my old reviews and find the hidden gems from each year I've done this blog - maybe something to come soon.
I bring up the timing, just in case one of these songs now has a billion streams, because I'm not gonna go back and research and edit. Sorry. Love ya, mean it. Robert Ellis - Texas Piano Man. This dude came through ACL a few years back, and then came back as part of a band that I can't remember right now, but this one adds a fun layer of piano flourish and a bunch of pretty funny jokes. Such as the album opener, "Fucking Crazy," "Topo Chico," "Passive Aggressive," and then the Elton John-ish "Nobody Smokes Anymore,' with good lines such as "I guess I'll be the only one who looks good in pictures" and "the last years of your life are so shitty anyway." Great tune. The tunes are good grooves - like the swaggering funk of "Passive Aggressive" that has the cadence of "Benny & the Jets" at the start and then rocks out later on. Most of these songs have less than 50k streams, so the album isn't necessarily lighting the world on fire, but I actually enjoy it quite a bit. The top track is "Passive Aggressive," with 254k streams.
The real version includes drums and guitar and other bits and pieces, but you'll get the gist from this version of him chilling in some music nerd catacomb. It is a tasty album overall - you really should listen to "Nobody Smokes Anymore," which has a great rock jam, a good guitar solo, and a ton of funny lines. What's not to like? And even quieter tracks like "Lullaby" are surprisingly nice, with a jazzy guitar solo breaking up the falsetto loveliness. Thought I'd only want to hear the jams, but even these low key ones are nice. Good stuff.
Strand of Oaks - Eraserland. I like this dude - he's played ACL before and put out some generally good rock albums. Old song "Goshen '97" is a jam. The opening track of this one is perfection - "Weird Ways." A slow start, a guitar spray, then a build up, and a longing bridge followed by guitar shreddage that brings you back to the rest of the song. Then the second track is also upbeat rock and roll. There are some dank tunes - slower, moody, introspective - on here, and I have no fault with that sound, but I definitely am here for the ones that rip instead of cuddle. That being said, even the slow burner "Visions" rips a pretty serious guitar part into the middle of the otherwise plodding sound. The top track, by a long way, is that album opener, with just over 1.1 million streams.
Feel that slow, quiet, purely lovely open? A touch of pedal steel, a few strums of the acoustic, his plaintive vocals - "it's what you make, and the people you love..." And then the guitar and drums at 1:30 kick in with a Springsteen-esque raw thump. This dude is good, and this album is another good one.
ScHoolboy Q - CrasH Talk. I've always enjoyed me some Schoolboy. He puts great cameos on other people's tracks, but never seems able to make a full album that works from front to back. Each of his other three albums have flashed top shelf stuff at bits, but also some filler. This one is no different. The two hot singles are the ones with 21 Savage and Travis Scott, but the one I'm gonna give you thankfully has more streams than either of those. "Numb Numb Juice," with 55.5 million streams.
Yessir. When the beat kicks in it works. I would NOT Mess with the momma and her pink pistol. He just bitch slapped that dude into hell! "Tales" is another good one, as is "Die Wit Em," but none of the ones with big cameos hit for me (especially not the one with Ty Dolla Sign). Maybe the one with 21 Savage is OK. But overall, while there are a few pretty good tracks on here, nothing is really worthy of keeping for good. Kevin Abstract - ARIZONA BABY. He calls out a bunch of different locations, which is interesting to do. "Georgia" is nice, sounds a lot like an Outkast track being performed by BROCKHAMPTON. Being that this dude is part of BROCKHAMPTON, it makes sense for it to sound like them, I suppose. "Corpus Christi" is a cool confessional talking track, but the beat is kind of non-existent. I want some bass and shit in my rap songs, man. I also can't tell why he named the song after Corpus. He never mentions Whataburger or the Hooks, so what's the point, man? "Mississippi" is too auto-tuned, and again, a little too sparse for my liking. I get that he's not trying to make a banger about cash, weed, and hoes, but I feel like you can sneak in a smart rap if the beat is something people want to bang. "Peach" is the top streamer, with just over 16 million.
Cool, laid back beat on that one. But with the Brockhampton guys singing the hook and some background vocals, not sure how this is different than one of their tracks versus his own solo stuff? In fact, the more I listen to this, the more it sounds like what BROCKHAMPTON has been doing on a lot of tracks - a lot of singing, less banging, less rapping, more introspection and boy band stuff. I prefer the ones that are more traditional rap tracks like "Boyer" and "Big Wheels." But overall, I don't need to hear this one anymore.
The wife and I were just e-mailing about our kiddos' STAAR test results. Being that she was the Type A, All A's type student, and I was the "did I pass? sweet!" type student, we have different ideas about how the testing stuff should go. I showed her a few articles about how the STAAR is flawed and testing kids at the wrong levels, and now I've convinced her it is cool to be mediocre at standardized tests. Winner! Although, while my actual classroom grades might have been mediocre, I could slay a standardized test. I freaking loved test day – roll in, finish the test in like 1/3 the time they had allotted, then dick around in the classroom and make sure everyone else knows I had finished long before they were even on the third page? It was like Redhead-with-Glasses Super Bowl. Partner - Saturday the 14th. No clue where I found this one, but its all over the place. The opener sounds like a track that would be used in the Lego Movie or something - "Fun For Everyone (Minions)" - is a silly ass track that sings about dancing like a Minion. Catchy for sure. Vapid without a doubt. Then "Stoned Thought" is kind of a bluesy rocker that sounds pretty good - but as with the first track, this sounds more like an Adam Sandler/Lonely Islands joke album. And now that I actually look at the playcount for these tracks - the minions song has freaking 3,069 plays total, and I am probably 20 of those. "Stoned Thought" has even less. The "hit" is going to be the third track, "Tell You Off," with a grand count of 11,504 plays as of now.
Leave it to two Canadians to write a jaunty tune about getting so durned upset that you finally tell someone off for their bad actions. And yes, that is their Tiny Desk, which includes that one track at the start (well, the second song officially). These two ladies are super odd, although kinda funny. Don't need to save this EP. Steve Earle - GUY. A full-fledged tribute album to the late and extremely great Guy Clark, by a guy who doesn't sound too terribly different from the rough tones of Guy himself. Which is really the issue with this album - they're pretty straight-forward country takes of the originals, with slightly lesser vocals that depend on growls to cover up for weakness. The fabulous "Dublin Blues" gets a little more electricity to the guitars and some fiddle work, but otherwise your just singing the same tune. "Desperados Waiting for a Train" has been done better multiple times. "The Randall Knife," which still guts me to this day, is significantly weaker than the beauty of the original. Honestly, just makes me want to listen to the original tracks instead. "Old Friends" has the top stream crown at 256k.
I can tell Jerry Jeff on there, and I think the lady is probably Emmylou Harris, but I'm not sure who the other guest friends are. And yeah, I mean, Guy Clark was one of the best songwriters in the business. These songs are still good, because he was amazing. And Steve Earle has a cool sound. So these aren't horrible, but I personally think that Clark's own voice handles these tracks much better, and the new arrangements aren't anything particularly amazing. So I'll just keep listening to the real deal. The Chemical Brothers - No Geography. Yikes. These guys should have stayed back in the mid-90's. I'd readily admit to loving Dig Your Own Hole (and to a lesser extent, Exit Planet Dust and that song they did with Q-Tip) but this doesn't move the needle forward at all, and yet is 22 years later. Most of it is just fine, nothing bad, just more of the same house techno tunes. But others are actively bad, like "MAH" with its aggravatingly shrill effects. The top one by streams is "Got to Keep On," with 2.9 million streams (a surprisingly big number to me).
Makes me think of that band Jungle, who came to ACL last year. The video makes me think of Gap ads from 15 years ago. Up until everyone gets melted into semen together. Which is freaky. I'm good without this album. Beyonce - Homecoming: The Live Album. I'd be fully on board with seeing Beyonce live. I don't know her music at all - like only the biggest of her hits - so listening to this has been a weird exercise of wondering if I am hearing a cover or an original Bey hit. I literally don't know. Also, she interpolates a bunch of other songs into her own, as she is going along. Like, as one example of many possible ones, in "Countdown," after a while, the brass band playing the track shifts from whatever they were playing before into an interpolation of DRAM's "Broccoli," complete with the piano plinking thing from that song, as Bey continues to sing the rest of her song. Or "Soldier," with the rest of Destiny's Child, where she slides in some Jay-Z and Tupac bits. "Before I Let Go," second to last song on the album, is the most streamed so far at 3.6 million (which is interesting, right? Not the first track, or one of the big hits?).
Honestly, a freaking dope song. Shows off her voice (as usual), gets super funky with a danceable beat and the good usage of the drumline and brass, and I just got goosebumps right after the three minute mark when she kicked in. If you don't want to dance a little bit to that then something is actually wrong with you. It also uses elements of other songs - Tupac's "All About You" is what I hear, although that beat/sample probably came from some other, older track. Also, this album is almost 2 hours long and has 40 tracks. So if you want to try it, buckle down for a buncha Beyonce. That being said, it it sounds like a really fun concert - heavy on the drum line and brass band and probably a bunch of awesome dancing that I can't see. The call and response in tracks like "Run the World (Girls)" was probably highly fun to yell along to. I ought to watch this Netflix special with my kiddos, even though I won't hold on to the album.
What a crazy ass set of weekends. The music was honestly great - I liked just about every single thing that I saw, and loved some of them. The weather was freaking schizophrenic. Weekend one had a day hit 99, and weekend two had a day that started in the 40's. Like, what in the hell is going on? I ate a bunch of good food, I drank a few too many Elysian Space Dust beers, and I heard some great music. Let's get into it.
Friday, Weekend One.
Holy smokes, this feels like a month ago!
Disappointed that Sam Fender dropped out of the Fest at the last minute. I really liked his music and was looking forward to seeing him in action live. BUT, him bailing out meant that my buddy and I got to go gorge on good food and beer at ABGB, so not a total loss.
Caught the last song of FIDLAR, from far away, and while I wish I could have seen more, it definitely allowed me to repeatedly yell "I DRINK CHEAP BEER, SO WHAT, FUCK YOU!" into my friend's face repeatedly. Which was nice.
Walked over and heard a song or three from Cherry Glazerr. They sounded really good. Better than I expected, to be honest. I thought the lead singer's voice would sound too feathery, but instead she sounded just right in the mix with the band blasting stuff out.
But then we needed to move along because my buddy was all in on the Black Pistol Fire experience, which did not disappoint. I'm always a little bit amazed by these guys, like Reignwolf or Jack White, who can turn their guitar into a one-man band type experience. This band has a drummer, so it isn't actually one man, but the drum mans one station while the singer/guitarist handles the rest of the band's job. I loved this show.
Heard the last four or five songs of Tyler Childers, which included "Feathered Indians," and it was highly cool to see the folks in the crowd just smiling and dancing and singing along to that excellent song. Cool moment. I heard from another friend, whose opinion I trust, that this was boring to them, but I disagree.
TacoDeli tacos for dinner. Yummo.
The Raconteurs were SO FREAKING LOUD. But they played "Level," which is my top track, so I'm all about it. This show was good times rock and roll bashing fun.
Guns n' Roses. Great show. Now, I'm not going to try to blow smoke and tell you that Axl was perfect or sounded just like he did when he was 18, but the vast majority of the show sounded like real Axl, screaming and wailing, while Slash and the rest of the band never missed a beat. I loved this show. They played "Coma," man!
Saturday, Weekend One.
Took our time to get to the park today, with a pretty long sojourn at Pluckers to enjoy football and beer, mainly because there wasn't much lighting me up in the early hours.
Made it in time for Sigrid, who I love. Just exuberantly running around the stage in a plain white t-shirt, singing her fun songs and throwing hands like a gangster. She was fun and lovely to watch.
Tierra Whack was a little disappointing. Part of this is not her fault. She sent her hype man out there to play some other random music on his laptop, and it was so freaking hot that the computer wouldn't do it. The laptop just stood up on the table, flipped a double-bird at the sun, and passed out. Once he got a couple fans going, he was able to play a few songs, but I'm not here to see you play an old 2LiveCrew song on a laptop while you yell on a mic! I'm here to see Whack spit her inventive rhymes and be cool! Once she started her real show, it was good. She was cool, too, in that she gave away her sneakers to some kid in the audience, and interacted well with the crowd.
Heard some Lauren Daigle from far away as we queued up for Judah & the Lion. My buddy wanted to be close. She's got such an amazing voice.
Judah & the Lion. Despite myself, this was a fun show. These guys sometime try too hard, with some of their videos they made for the screen behind them, or their coordinated clothing changes and stuff, but the show itself was a ton of fun. The crowd was very into it, and the band members were all really into it, felt like I was caught up in a good time, so why be a sourpuss and blame them for naming an album Folk Hop and Roll or whatever, just go with the joy!
My buddy went for Eilish, I went for Gary Clark, Jr. I was late to the party, so I ended up way back, but I'll be damned if that dude can't just freaking slay his guitar. It is very cool to see. Although I'll say that the experience way in the back is not nearly as visceral and fun as the time I saw him a few years ago directly in front.
Fish tacos from Peached Tortilla were solid.
Metric. Great show. Pretty straight-forward pop rock blast, but it felt vital, like they truly cared that I was getting it and the crowd seemed to be giving it right back to them. I wish I knew their music better, other than the two or three hits I'd re-listened to.
The Cure. Another great one. We managed to squeeze pretty close, up the side of the crowd, and these guys still sound awesome, look ridiculous, and know how to pick the perfect setlist. Well, not perfect (I could do with "Caterpillar" and "Friday I'm in Love") but they played a ton of Disintegration and other classics that we needed to hear, and left out junk like "Love Cats" and I loved it. Ran into some friends in the crowd and we had a great time singing along and dancing around.
Sunday, Weekend One.
The rest of the weekend was pretty hot, but today was when it truly got brutal. High of 99 degrees, without a single cloud anywhere in the sky. We wanted to be there for an early show, and so we just baked in front of the BMI stage, saving spots up against the barrier, while chatting up some young guys from Boston who had come all the way down because they were huge Cure fans. Sweat just ran down my whole body before the show, and by the end of it, when I reached my hands up to clap, water sprayed from every clap like I was in the pool. It was something amazing to behold.
cleopatrick was fantastic. As noted above, we were up against the metal barrier for the show, just front and center with these two dudes slamming through some chugging rock and roll. Two Canadians, and they look about 17 years old. The guitarist runs his guitar through a massive panel of pedals and knobs and whatever, that he is continually tweaking either by bending down to manipulate with his hands, or even with the tips of his toes, as he is shredding. Freaking great show. "San Jake" is my anthem of the weekend.
One annoyance with this show? There were about six photographers/ videographers buzzing around the stage, shoving their gear up into the space, and they became an actual distraction to the show. Like, if the guitarist knelt down to get all mad scientist on the effects pedal board, three ladies with cameras would immediately cluster like moths to a flame to get just the right angle of his angst as he tweaked a knob and plucked a string. It was annoying.
Thomas Csorba, heard from the food court area (out of the Tito's tent) sounded very good. I like his stuff. Had a Salt Lick brisket sandwich.
Idles were freaking wild. I'm not sure that I loved the actual music, but the show itself was mesmerizing. One guitarist kept tossing his instrument into the air for no apparent reason, not even trying to catch it. The lead singer just seemed pissed off, stomping the stage and spitting at the crowd. When I say stomping the stage, I don't mean like keeping time to the beat, I mean like he was Michael Bolton in Office Space trying to stomp that printer into the core of the earth. At one point, he pointed out the pit down by the stage, and told everyone in there to be cool to each other and watch out for those on the edge who didn't want to mosh, and then the other guitarist went down into the center of the pit (with roadies holding up the cords) and jammed the next song from in the middle of the scrum. Wild show.
Watched some football for a bit here, nothing too inspiring on the schedule and the shade of the tent was very welcome in the heat.
Billy Strings was freaking amazing. Like, jaw-dropping, shaking-my-head-in-fascination amazing. He was on guitar, but his banjo guy and mandolin guy were also top notch, just highly technical, fast-fingered, beautifully complex bluegrass stuff. I'm very glad I got to see that one.
Kacey Musgraves put on another great show - I think this is the 4th time I've seen her, and I love it. My only major quibble is that she didn't play a single track off of the first album. I get it, she loved Golden Hour, and I do to, but skipping "Follow Your Arrow" and "Merry Go Round" is a big bummer. I felt empty when I realized that I had gotten to sing along to Whitney Houston and Brooks n Dunn, but I'd never gotten to tear up as I sang that "just like dust, we settle in this town." Still a good show.
But then, the biggest disappointment of my weekend, was that I couldn't get back from Kacey to see Lizzo. The crowd for Lizzo was the biggest thing I think I've ever seen at ACL. The two I could compare it to were The Lumineers at the height of their initial popularity when they were at that tiny rock stage right in front of the food court, and no one could get any direction because of the crowd, or when Iggy Azalea was popular for eight minutes and they had her at the stage that kind of faces AmEx, and we just wanted to walk through at the back to get to the other side of the park, and it was physically impossible. So, I could get as far as the beer tent towards the Miller Lite stage, and no one would move anymore, so we just bailed and went to Mumford. Which SUCKS! I heard that it felt actually dangerous in that crowd, that it was just too much of a crush and people couldn't get out when they needed to.
Mumford & Sons. They did a great show. Even though some of their songs aren't my favorite, and I still wish they would have stuck to straight bluegrass, they did a very fun show that included a cool stage up in the midst of the crowd, which allowed me to be just a few people back from them for a few songs. When the crowd sang along to "Little Lion Man" it was a goosebump inducing experience.
This was the first time in a few years where I felt like every single headliner I watched was awesome. Last year, McCartney and Metallica were great, but Arctic Monkeys were very disappointing. In 2017, the Chilis and Killers were good, but Jay Z and The Gorillaz were not. In 2016, you had Radiohead doing whatever it was that they tried to do up there. So, it was refreshing and fun to have all three of the headliner experiences feel good this time.
Second Weekend, Saturday.
Took my wife and daughters back for the second Saturday because they really wanted to see Billie Eilish. First off, the weather was freaking fabulous. In the 60's when we got to the park, with a nice cloud cover and a few small showers. Felt glorious after baking to death the week before.
Took them to Sigrid first, and she didn't disappoint. When I first saw her, at SXSW a few years ago, she reminded me of my older daughter up there, and so I was excited for the girls to see this young, pretty (but without a ton of makeup or pretense) girl who had the confidence to dance and sing and absolutely beam pure smiles at a big crowd. Good show, and I think they liked it too.
We also had the idea, stolen from others, and pure genius, to bring little collapsible stools for the girls to stand on so that they could see over the adults, and it made a huge difference.
Grabbed a popsicle and exceedingly overpriced t-shirt, and then took them to catch a little Tierra Whack. Not sure they really comprehended what was going on over there, except when she threw snacks to the crowd, which they thought was cool.
Later that night, when we got home, I showed them the potato video for "Unemployed," which they enjoyed and were terrified by, which I also enjoyed.
Lauren Daigle was next. I think they were so taken aback by her freaky clothing choices that they were distracted from the music. They kept looking at me and being like, "is that really her?" She had huge, sparkly, weird, fake glasses on, and big weird cape/robe thing. Her voice sounds great, but I'm not entirely sure that they enjoyed it at all. My older kid kept asking if it was time to go see Eilish.
Now, to the main event. We went over and tucked ourselves into the Billie Eilish crowd - pretty close, but still a good ways to the side but in front of the sound stage thing. It was PACKED. My wife hated every second of it. People would try to squeeze past us, but there was no where to go, and with the girls on stools, we were not very mobile. There was a nice group of weirdo megafans right in front of us who were bossy and sweet about protecting our girls from the crowd. I'm very grateful for how cool they were to the girls.
Such a weird show. One of the megafans in front of us was screaming, as the opening video and music started playing, how she was "GONNA FUCKING RAAAAAGGGGGEEEE!" but then the music started, and everyone just kinda sang along and stood there. For the most part, Eilish's music really isn't dancing or raging or grooving music. Its just her quietly, creepily, singing about killing herself or how she wishes you were gay.
Also, when the music started and people pushed forward, my wife looked at me with fear in her eyes and said "I gotta go, I can't do this." I talked her down and she stayed, but then she also looked at me about halfway through and whispered - "this is really boring, isn't it? Is this fun?" Which made me laugh out loud, because yes, it was a pretty boring show, even if the crowd was hyped up to 11 for the greatest thing ever. I bet her ACL taping the night before was the right way to see her show - less hype, more pure performance...
At one point, Eilish asked for mosh pits to open up, and about 5 feet away one sprung to life and I got into box-out position to make sure I could shove people back who came towards us. I needn't have worried, it was the lamest most pit of all time. The moshers all got circled up, flexed their knees, started their cell phone video recording, turned their ballcaps backwards, pointed at someone across the circle and smiled, and waited through the first few stanzas of "You Should See Me In a Crown." When the chorus kicked in, they all just yelled the first seven words, jumped in the air, rushed to each other, and jumped for another 20 seconds, before calming down and just standing there some more.
I get it. I'm old. I am not in the right demographic for her music, but I actually enjoy some of her tunes, some of her lyrics, but I got zero enjoyment out of that live show.
We forced the girls to watch two songs from the Cure, and I was pleased that the second one was "Pictures of You," so that they got to see a classic before we bolted back to the bus. The girls were hilarious, making fun of Robert Smith's makeup and the drummer's big hair. I told them that if Billie Eilish is still a thing in 30 years, that this will be her, wearing hilariously unflattering basketball jerseys and singing depressing music that they remember from childhood.
Whew. Hell of a good time. Other than the heat first weekend, and the overcrowding for Lizzo, I didn't hear many complaints about the weekend. I think it really went off well. Time to get to work on predictions for next year!
Sunday during weekend one RULED. Cleopatrick was heavy and hard and super awesome even though it was still morning when they took the stage. Thomas Csorba sounded good. IDLES were kind of terrifying and, in that way, pretty awesome. Billy Strings was absolutely jaw-dropping. Those dudes can jam on some instruments. Kacey Musgraves was great, as usual (although, playing nothing from Same Trailer Different Park bummed me out. I like Golden Hour a bunch too, but come on, "Merry Go Round" is classic). Mumford was great too - excellent musicians and a fun show. Sunday is usually a slow day for me, just because I'm old and tired and I'd probably rather watch some football and drink beer in air conditioning than mess around and watch the 11:30 band at ACL. But last week I got motivated because of cleopatrick and Otis the Destroyer. Worth it (even though it was so hot I thought I was going to die - right about 12:30, when I raised my hands to clap for cleopatrick, water sprayed off of my hands and forearms like I'd been soaking them in a pool. it was insane). A few prelude thoughts:
The comments for each band are those "One Liner" things that I added to my reviews. It helps me to remember who they are (sometimes) and provides some detail on the kind of music they play.
I've made each band name a link so that you can go read the full review and listen to some tunes if you are unswayed by the One Liner.
The first column in each box is the stage where the band is playing (in case you thought I was just playing a weird word association game).
MUCH BETTER WEATHER! Although the grass is deader than dead, so you might consider a bandana.
Here is a playlist of my suggested tunes for Sunday.
Here we go.
11:45
Miller Lite
Caroline Rose: Alt country gal turned pop rock indie blast
VRBO
Kady Rain: Local pop music following a Kesha and Katy Perry blueprint
Caroline Rose is good. She's come up on my Spotify Daily Drive playlist a few times and I like it each time. But I also really liked PNTHN. I'd probably choose them. Well, maybe not - early Sunday, some indie niceness might be sweet. Nah, gimme the dope beats.
12:30/12:45
Honda
Julia Jacklin: Pensive indie folkie stuff very much like Big Thief from last year.
Kiddie Limits
School of Rock: Kids jamming cover tunes based on what they learned at private lessons
Tito’s (12:45)
Ley Line: Local ladies making bilingual indie tunes
I heard a little bit of Julia Jacklin while walking past her stage last weekend, and it is very pretty stuff. But I'd choose Holcomb in this slot - he's pretty great.
1:15
Miller Lite
Still Woozy: Mediocre electronic indie that reminds me of that awful "Gooey" song.
Real talk, before re-reading their one liners, I couldn't have told you what the top three of these were. I probably spent a day listening to each at some point, and yet now they all could be EDM or acoustic girl groups for all I recall. I remember Duckwrth, but the problem with Duckwrth is that while two or three of his raps jam, his R&B stuff (which is the majority of his tunes) is blah.My Spotify mix keeps trying to get me listen to more of his music, and I don’t want any of it. That being said, "Start a Riot" is super duper dope. Don't know what to tell you about this hour. Go check the Cowboys' score or something.
1:45 / 2:00 / 2:30
Honda (2:00)
Idles: Semi-punk English dudes making catchy blasts with humor
Tito’s Tent (1:45)
Shandon Sahm: Son of Doug Sahm doing psych rock and cosmic cowboy country covers
Joseph: Beautiful harmonies from a trio of sisters
Joseph is the best actual music of these four, but Idles might win just because I might want to go get my face bashed in for a while instead of hearing angelic harmonies. I could see you making a different choice though. I watched Idles last weekend, and they are freaking wild. The lead singer would spit at the audience, and at one point was stomping his foot on the stage like he was literally trying to knock a hole through it. They had a legit mosh pit, and the guitarist went down in there. Crazy show.
3:00
Miller Lite
Bea Miller: Forgettable pop with indie pop girl voice
VRBO
Shura: Perfectly pleasant electronic indie pop songs for making out to.
Tito’s (2:45)
YOLA: Soul and country combined by a sweet sounding lady
BMI (3:15)
IDK: Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge rapper with some good stuff
T-Mobile
Koffee: Young reggae lady with a super catchy sound and a Rihanna co-sign
A bunch of weird one word names here - last week this hour was weak, but this week, you get YOLA, and you should absolutely go check her out. She has the feel of someone who will be at bigger stages two years from now. If, for some reason, you hate soulful country delivered by a lady with a strong voice, then IDK was pretty good rap and Koffee is interesting reggae-ish tunes.
4:00
Honda
Rosalia: Converting traditional flamenco into modern R&B, all in Spanish
Tito’s Tent
GoGo Penguin: Jazzy piano beat-focused instrumentals (is a phrase I never knew I'd write)
American Express
Rebelution: Reggae rock for the college bros to chill to.
Kiddie (4:45)
Imagination Movers: those Disney show guys
Another weak hour.Come on!Put Third Eye Blind in one of these slots for the olds!I guess I would pick Rebelution out of these three?Maybe go to Rosalia just to see the hype?
Y'all missed out this weekend by not getting Billy Strings. The dude (and his bandmates) can jam. Out of these, I guess Caamp would be my choice, but I could also see trying out Banks for the hype.
Kacey Musgraves: Bad ass country chick with legit lyrics and cool sound
This is the hardest hour of the whole Festival.On the one hand, it is actually pretty simple, because I’m seeing Kacey play any time that it is possible for me to see her play. On the other hand, I would have really enjoyed both of these other two shows, which is just annoying.Why y’all gotta do me like that? As I mentioned above, Kacey was great last weekend, but I really wish she would have played more of her older songs. "Follow Your Arrow" and "Merry Go Round" still resonate today - great, well-written songs. Replace the Whitney Houston and Brooks & Dunn with those two songs and I'm a happy camper.
7:00
Miller Lite
Lizzo: Boss queen rapper, singer, twerker, and flautist extraordinaire
VRBO
LANY: 80's pop redux balladry like The 1975, but more 80's
Lizzo.Don’t be stupid.If you skip that show, then you are stupid. Although, I will have to call myself stupid here, because I could not get to this show. Like, it was physically impossible because I had stayed for the entire Kacey show, so the walk into a place where I could have seen the little side stage where they stuck Lizzo was physically impossible. Very annoying. So I missed out on one of the big things I wanted most from this year's fest. SO, if you want to see Lizzo, you need to go there early. And be prepared to be crushed.
HEADLINERS:
Honda
Cardi B: Unapologetically brash New York hip hop gal with some good tracks, some annoying sounds, and a bunch of forgettable lines.
American Express
Mumford & Sons: Roots rocking Americana revivalists with two great albums and then ...
I could see doing Cardi B, just for the pure spectacle of it all.But if I’m doing it for the music, then I’m for sure going to go see Mumford again. Mumford were fabulous. They did this thing where they came out into the crowd some to jam on a little round stage about 50 feet from the normal stage, and so we ended up being very close to them for a handful of songs, and it was very cool to watch them blast on those instruments from right up close. The crowd singing the "aahhhhh ahhhhhhh uuuuuh aaaaaahhhhh" part in "Little Lion Man" was beautiful.
In my post for weekend one, I called this the weakest day of the Fest this year, and I'm not so sure anymore. Had a really great Saturday last weekend with a bunch of really good shows. If you thought the Cure was bad for some reason, then I don't know what to tell you. From up close, they sounded really great.
Being that I will have two pre-teen girls along for the day this weekend, we'll be avoiding some of the action out there. Like, no freaking way I am taking them to watch Megan Thee Stallion, despite the fact that I just re-listened to her album yesterday and it is clever and kind of awesome. BUT real damn raunchy. And I also don't expect to go for the show-up-at-noon-and-attack-the-day-with-everything-I-have like last weekend. But, we are still going to have a good time. A few prelude thoughts:
The comments for each band are those "One Liner" things that I added to my reviews. It helps me to remember who they are (sometimes) and provides some detail on the kind of music they play.
I've made each band name a link so that you can go read the full review and listen to some tunes if you are unswayed by the One Liner.
The first column in each box is the stage where the band is playing (in case you thought I was just playing a weird word association game).
More rap this day than last weekend.
Playlist!
11:45
Miller Lite
The Aquadolls: Surf rock like Best Coast listened to the Breeders
VRBO
Blackillac: Gary Clark Jr. making good beats w/ two local Austin rappers spitting legit rhymes.
Armani White: Philly rapper with just a few tracks, but all good stuff
I have to note that the explosion of Spanish language artists this year for ACL is jacking up my Spotify suggested artists something major. In this hour, I liked the Aquadolls pretty well, and Armani White (while his catalog is pretty limited) is legitimately good. But the chance to see two local rappers go to town with Gary Clark Jr. potentially in the background? For sure would choose that one.
Imagination Movers: Kiddie music that used to have a popular Disney show
Tito’s (12:45)
Abhi the Nomad: Indian rapper with some R&B hooks over low key beats
American Express
Flora Cash: Quietly generic dream pop with that one "You're Somebody Else" hit.
Orville Peck is the most interesting one to me in this hour - not only is his music good, but the whole weird hidden face thing intrigues. Although, I now note that I just failed to fully write a One Liner for the guy. Sorry man. I was too busy looking up lampshade masks to wear for Halloween. I don’t much care for Flora Cash.
Don't get me wrong from what I said up above, Megan Thee Stallion is awesome. Just know that you are going to hear so many different terms for genitalia that you are going to need internet access to interpret with urban dictionary. But she has great beats and a good flow, so go see her if you aren't easily offended or watching music with elementary school kids. Diamante are great too - just all Spanish lyrics so you're just going for the rock bits. Taylor Bennett is solid if you are wanting to see cleaner rap. Weird how they have put so many rap shows against each other so far today. Laundry Day is a hard no for me.
1:45 / 2:00 / 2:30
Honda (2:00)
Denzel Curry: Surprisingly solid rapper whose mom gave him some sage advice
Tito’s Tent (1:45)
Madison Ryann Ward: Killer voice, but only one single so far to go with it.
Sigrid: Killer voiced Norweigian gal deserves more hype
Saw this Sigrid show last week and loved it. She is really fun - I think my girls will enjoy it as well. Denzel Curry has a few good songs, but a lot of his older stuff isn't my thing. Good new album though. "Ricky" makes me want to run through a steel wall with exuberant joy.
Tierra Whack: Philly rapper with those tiny tracks now making good long raps
Tierra Whack was my gut reaction to seeing this time slot – she really is good and interesting and different.But I’d also say that Baird is good, Dayglow is fun, and Maroney is also impressive.Some good choices to be made during this hour. Being that I'm with the girls, I might pick Dayglow. Did the Tierra Whack show last weekend, and was a little disappointed because of technical difficulties (it was so freaking hot that the laptop playing the music was glitching) and her hypeman used up half of her time by just playing other people's music. I know a lot of her songs are only a minute long, but I can hear an old, recorded 2LiveCrew song at home.
Missed this hour last weekend - well, I watched Daigle from afar because my buddy wanted to be close for Judah and the Lion. She's pretty damn good (sorry for cussing, as Brittany Howard would tell me, God still loves me anyway). On the one hand, Howard was amazing with Alabama Shakes, and I like what I have heard of the first few tracks from her solo stuff.On the other hand, Daigle’s voice is beautiful and it would be nice to see her doing her thing live.I expect we will do Daigle because my girls will actually recognize her music.
5:00
Miller Lite
Kali Uchis: Mediocre R&B sounds with some Amy Winehouse tendencies
Chris Shiflett: Countrified current Foos guitarists yeehaws around on his own.
T-Mobile
Judah & the Lion: Popular combination of bluegrass sounds into hip hop-tinged pop rock.
Did Judah & the Lion last weekend, and I have to begrudgingly admit that it was pretty fun. Very high energy show, uplifting songs - the crowd has fun. But they were a little too cute with, like, matching costume changes and video goofiness. But, seemed wholesome enough to let the girls do (unlike Uchis).
Although, they might just want to go get into the crowd for Eilish, since that is sort of the reason we are going. Oh God. I just realized I'm going to have to wait in that crowd for like four hours, and then hold my 9 year old in the air so she can see anything as we get crushed like we went running with the bulls. Starting to feel like I might have the flu. Anyone want a single day pass?
6:00
Honda
Billie Eilish: Dark pop phenom at only 17 years old.
If you know anything about my musical tastes, you know that I’d go see Gary Clark Jr. here. Did that last weekend, and he sounded great. Although, I'll readily admit that the crowd was large and I couldn't easily get close after staying for the whole Judah show. So I hung back and chatted with some friends during the show. If you are going to Eilish, know that the crowd last weekend was outrageous. Like, it is hard to compare it to the numbers that crushed into the Miller Lite stage for Lizzo, but I had friends send me pictures of the Eilish crowd and it was insane. I very much doubt that I will be able to get very close for it, but we shall see. Masego is actually pretty interesting, if you are not feeling either of the other options and want something that will be inventive and different. And probably like 20 total people.
7:00
Miller Lite
James Blake: Falsetto-singing, glitchy-electronic R&B Brit
VRBO
Metric: Solid indie rock cut with electronic rock and their few hits about a decade old
T-Mobile
21 Savage: "Atlanta" mumble rapper who has a couple very good tracks.
I would pick Metric to see out of these.21 Savage isn’t as terrible as some of the other rappers doing the mumble rap thing, but Metric is legitimately a good band. When James Blake's most popular track is someone else's rap song that he schmears 14 or so words in the middle of, I say no thank you. Metric was really great last weekend. High energy show, good rock and roll.
I would absolutely go see the Cure.But I also feel like I just saw them a few years ago, and with no new music, am I just going to see the exact same show? All I know is that when I re-listened to them a few weeks ago, I got excited about this show. But then I think that Gambino has about 3 tracks that are worth seeing, so going to that side might be a waste? But maybe he's an insane performer because there has to be some reason he is popular when his music kinda sucks? Torn on this one for sure.Have a feeling Jason will make this pick for us.
We ended up at The Cure for weekend one, and I loved it. I hear a few people say it was weak, but I loved the song selection and though everyone sounded really good. That being said, we were also very close to the stage, so our sound might have been better than those listening to the auxiliary speakers 300 yards away.
