Woohoo!

Wristbands have arrived, baby!I always sweat their arrival - like someone out there would target my unassuming house and come after my mailbox to score my wristbands - bit now I am super psyched they are here!

Three things I am the most pumped about seeing:

• Pearl Jam.  I haven't seen PJ in like 15 years.  I think Eddie Vedder was still railing on the original George Bush (when he had the crowd chanting "F*** Bush" when I was in high school, that was the height of comedy) the last time I saw them.  Really excited about it.

• Spanish Gold.  Never seen them live, but I just can't get over how great I think their album sounds.  If they suck, I will be pretty devastated.

• Chvrches.  Kind of like Spanish Gold, in that I have built them up so high in my head, it may be a sad let-down to see them for real.

Best day?  For me, Sunday.  Funday.

• Friday Schedule Thoughts (Temples, Chvrches, Outkast!)

• Saturday Schedule Thoughts (Spanish Gold, Kodaline, Avetts, Eminem!)

• Sunday Schedule Thoughts (The Districts, Nikki Lane, Cults, Real Estate, Fitz & the Tantrums, Pearl Jam!)

Things I have become less pumped about seeing since announced:

• Eminem.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I dig old Eminem.  Or at least my memory tells me I do.  But when I listen to new Em, it sounds tired.  And when I listen to old Em, it just sounds like he is trying so hard to be hard.  And angry.  And shocking.  This might be the first sign I am getting old.  All of that being said, if he stays away from Monster and Love the Way You Lie to stick to stuff like My Name Is, Brian Damage and My Fault, I'll be able to jam along.

• Outkast.  Again, I love old school Outkast.  But the more I read about their tour this year, the more I feel like this is just a cash grab.  Andre 3000 had a short interview in the most recent Rolling Stone where he gripes that rapping the same stuff he did when he was 17 is boring.  Makes me worried that neither he nor Big Boi are going to be all that excited about yet another festival show.

• Lake Street Dive.  I think I'm going to have to go see Hozier instead.  The more I listen to Hozier, the better I think he is.

Things I am super sad about missing:

• #1, no doubt, is Benjamin Booker.  That dude's brand new album is hot freaking heat.  But I want Spanish Gold real bad, so you just have to make choices in life sometimes.  I'd love to go see him on the 10th when he is still here to play an after-show, but I'm going to be seeing SKRILLEX like a big, fat, fratty, dumb goon that night.  Jeah!

• Beck.  Dammit.

• Blackberry Smoke.  These dudes sound like the best kind of party I've never heard.  But I just don't think I can make it happen between the other shows I want to see.

Things that truly terrify me:

• The children (and I do mean children) who I will absolutely see smoking dope right in front of God and the world.  Stresses me out every time.  Especially when they remind me of my kids.

• The ACL Cashless thing they are doing where I can buy ALL THE BEERS, by just swiping my wristband at the bar.  I am extremely scared about what I will do once I have had three warm Heinekens and decide I need for all my "friends" to have some beers.  I hope they take an eyeball scan or sobriety test too.

• Peoples' daughters not wearing sufficient clothing.  Oh man.  My girls are never going to ACL without me tracking their every move.  I may even use a leash.  And about 75 nannycams.  And they'll need to come home with me at 7 every night.   

Two weeks!  Let's do this!

Coolest Finds

I've had a number of people ask me about the best new stuff I have found after listening through all of the bands coming to ACL this year.  Here are five of them, that I never knew before starting this thing, that click for me.  Heavy on rock and roll, but I guess that's me anyway.

1.  Kodaline.
2.  Spanish Gold.
3.  Benjamin Booker.
4.  Blackberry Smoke.
5.  Modoc.

Really looking forward to the weekend!

The Schedule! Sunday Thoughts.

Sunday is going to have my most difficult decisions.  I don't think I have the stomach to make these decisions just yet.  My initial impression:

12:15: Going to be another early day.  Either MODOC or The Districts.  Both are solidly fun rock and roll.  Not sure which one I want to see more - I would have leaned towards MODOC before, but after listening to The Districts again, they are pretty dang good.

1:00: Likely do Reuben and the Dark.  They just added a new artist in this slot (Vic Mensa) who might be fun to go see, but I think I'll likely go with Reuben.

2:00:  Nikki Lane.  I may just stick around for half of her show so that I can go see part of Jamestown Revival (another new addition).  I have a feeling my buddy Jason is going to want to go see Kongos instead.

3:00: Cults.  I have liked their albums even more after listening over time.  I hope that music translates well to the big stage.  High Road and I Can Hardly Make You Mine are both jams.

4:00:   Uggggghhh.  (That is not a band name, well, it probably is, but they are not playing this slot at ACL).  Fitz & the Tantrums vs. The Gaslight Anthem.  Uggghhhh.  I've never seen either before.  I like both of them quite a bit.  I can see myself doing sweaty and very constricted 80's dances to Fitz and enjoying myself immensely.  I can see myself pumping my fist in the air and screaming along to Gaslight with a couple thousand other bad ass people.  I am leaning towards Gaslight, but I just don't know here.

As a quick aside, have you ever played with Flickchart?  I forget who sent it to me a couple of years ago, I played with it a lot then and have not messed with it again for years, but it is a fantastic way to rank movies because it makes you choose between two films, over and over until it figures out their hierarchy.  I wish they would do that for music, then I could scientifically determine the answer to my conundrum.

5:00:  Real Estate.  No hesitation.  So great.

6:00:  Uggghhhhh again.  Why is Lettuce playing during this time slot?  Can't they play during an early afternoon slot against Bernhoft and Steve Songs?  I think they would be an amazing funkified party.  And even more than that, I really want to see Spoon play.  But I bet I need to just go see The Replacements at the Samsung Stage so that I can be reasonably close to Pearl Jam for the headliner slot.  Dammit.  if only Spoon was at that stage...  Oh well.  My guess is that I see Paul Westerberg and his buddies tear through their set and like it anyway.  I'll just have to see Spoon another time.

7:00:  Which leads me to the depressing conclusion that I will not get to see the Turnpike Troubadours.  Such a bummer.  I have come to like them quite a bit, but if I am going to squeeze my way up to the 98th row to see Pearl Jam, then there is just no way I'm going to get to hustle over to the Austin Ventures stage and then get anywhere near the Pearl Jam show.

8:00:  Pearl Jam.  I am really excited about this show.  Saw them three times back in the 90's, but haven't seen them since.  I expect greatness.

The Hunts

Promising single song from these folks.  From their album cover, it looks like a set of twin girls infiltrated a tween boy band, and the whole pack of them decided to break out their violin and mandolin and make a lovely little ditty.  Listen to this and, unless you suck, I bet you'll still be hearing that lilting little tune in your head.

It is in the Head and the Heart/ Lumineers vein, and all we get is the one song for now, but this is a great start.  However, they are up against Spanish Gold, so their crowd will not exist.  I feel bad for them, they are young, and might tear up when they see that their patch of grass in front of the BMI stage is completely empty.  But then they'll see the puddles from melted faces, flowing like a river of pale lava, from the Samsung stage, and they'll understand.  Hope all the best for them - this song is good.

Imelda May

Torchy, jazzy rockabilly with a strong voice.  Her most popular track on Spotify is called Johnny Got a Boom Boom, which is a kind of awesome title regardless of anything else.

She is apparently Irish, which is surprising since her voice doesn't seem to have any accent that I can hear. Her most recent album on Spotify is Mayhem, from 2010, although the internet seems to believe that she put out another (Tribal) in 2014.  Mayhem is more of the same as the above - good rockabilly groove with her powerful voice cranking over the top.

She might be kind of fun to go see play, but luckily for me, she easily comes in third behind Gaslight Anthem or Fitz & the Tantrums on Sunday afternoon, so I'll just have to appreciate her groove from afar. 

Haerts

This band only has four songs, but they are pretty dang good tuneful pop.  Although I have to get over the lameness of that name.  Am I supposed to say "harts," "hay-erts," "ha-erts," or what? Get offa my LAWN!  Both of their most popular songs sound really familiar to me.  They must be on the radio or something, especially All the Days.

Their first single is called Wings.  Almost 2 million listens on Spotify and over 600k spins on YouTube, so they must be doing something right.  Most of the other bands at this area of the schedule (11:30 am on Sunday) don't have six figures.

That is a good tune.  Their next single is called All the Days, and I think it is even stronger than that first song.  Kind of a brooding little groove of a bass line, with some atmospheric synths over the top.

I don't think I'll even be at the Park by this time in the morning.  But if I am, I'll likely drop by to see how these guys sound in person.

Nostalghia

A kind of Nine Inch Nails meets Siouxie and the Banshees/Kate Bush thing?  Thankfully, the name of the band is the lead singer's last name, so I don't need to feel disappointed in the youth of today right now. None of these songs have more than 10,000 listens on Spotify, which is not a large surprise to me because this stuff is extremely different.

Her song with the most listens is called Homeostasis:

This next one is a little more Bjork doing baby voices over a very simple piano riff that turns into a screaming, brooding techno beat.  Amy, do not click on this link or you will likely hurt your brain.  Or you might hurt me.  Whatever, don't listen to this song.  It sounds nothing like old Indigo Girls or Tracy Lawrence.

Yep.  So, lucky for me, this guys will be jamming at 11:30 on Sunday morning, so I'll let their 150 biggest fans handle that show for them.

James Bay

Pleasant piano rock.  Is that damning praise?  Two EPs, one from 2013 and one from 2014, so his stuff is relatively recent.  Hopefully one of his album covers later down the line does not involve the same drawing of his Smokey the Bear hat with stringy hair and his nose poking out underneath.  I bet he'll come up with something by 2015.  This one is an acoustic only version of his most popular tune - Let It Go (thankfully, not a Disney cover):

Soulful stuff, right?  His second most popular song is from the earlier EP, called When We Were On Fire:

Still wearing the Arby's sign on his head, but again it is pretty soulful and simple.  I like it.  Weird part is that these videos don't sound quite like the studio versions, so it makes my comment that he plays pleasant piano rock sound insane.  Just believe me, his most recent EP is full of piano.  Or go listen for yourself.  After making it through all of his music, I like him.  I wish the dude would go find a kick ass band to front - his voice is strong and expressive.  His stuff is good, but I think he could be fantastic in front of a good band.  I'm going to put him in touch with Guns n Roses.

Vic Mensa

Er, not sure when they added him to the lineup.  And Spotify has zero for me to go on.  I did manage to find videos on YouTube of the guy, and it sounds like he's got some of the intelligent rap stuff going on here.  According to the Internets, he is part of the Chance the Rapper posse in Chicago, which totally sounds right on the second video down there.  This first one, with over a million views, sounds like a b-side from the Disclosure/Sam Smith sessions.  My first impression was that this was weak, but after a second listen, its actually pretty snappy.

The start of this next one is weird, some pre-teen show on Nickelodeon or something.  Tune is called Orange Soda.  I need to find re-runs of You Can't Do That On Television to show to my kids.  I can guarantee you my son would dig that stuff in a major way when people got the green slime poured on them.   

 One more, called Feel That, which feels a little bit like when Lil Wayne wanted to clown by doing Lollipop:

(is that Mandy Moore in the video at about 2:28?)

From these three videos, I have no clue what to think of this guy.  First, he hooked up some EDM/disco music to rap and sign along with.  Second, he goes backpack rapper with a simple little beat and verbose rap.  Third, he goes mainstream rap where the beat takes the reins because the rap is so repetitive and generic.  Whatever, if I am at the park by 1 on Sunday, I'd like to go see Reuben and the Dark anyway.

Jamestown Revival

Fine alt-country, roots-folk stuff.  A little more funky than some of the others in that vein, but still rocking all-acoustic with a banjo sprinkling and solid harmonies.  These songs feel like I have heard them before - I wonder if KUTX ever plays them, or if they are just so good that they feel right on first listen.

California (Cast Iron Soul) is the first single off of their only album, which came out this year.  I like it.  The rest of the album isn't quite so polished, which I also like.  Loose and relaxed, makes you feel like you are hanging out with them while they jam in a living room.

This is good stuff.

Jhene Aiko

Good hook singer for top rappers, with her own soft R&B stuff.  If you listened to Drake's Nothing Was the Same, you'll recognize her from "From Time," which sounds pretty dang close to her most popular track on Spotify, "The Worst."

31 million damn views on YouTube?  Damn!  Either people like looking at her bra, like the way she steps over her dead man's body while she makes some peanut butter toast, or this song is good.  I think it might be the first, but the song is likeable.  Her rap in the middle is interesting because it is kind of quiet, not as low as a whisper, but there is something cool about the delivery she uses.

Her second most popular track from her album is Bed Peace, with Childish Gambino.

Which I find myself wanting to dislike, because in general I'd say that R&B is not my thing, but as I listen to the song and watch that video a second time, I find that I like this quite a bit.  The softness in her voice is really nice.  The message, of taking time in bed, sounds wonderful.  I'm going to send my kids to her stylish all-white flat next weekend and see how much bed peace she gets.

Rey Pila

Some of their songs are in spanish, but they sound like an 80's synth band.  They get rocking here and there, but in general, I'm hearing a good time, seeing legwarmers, tasting Jolt Cola, and wishing that Ally Sheedy would just dance with me!  Most popular song, No Longer Fun, is from their 2010 album, Rey Pila.

It has a TV on the Radio vibe, except that they want you to shout along to the chorus and dance and stuff.  I don't get that feeling when I usually listen to TVOTR.  But it also feels like something Demi Moore's band would have played in Better Off Dead.  Either way, this is their most popular song, with about 30k listens. Second most popular tune is a 2013 single (with Lady in Red on the B-Side!  What?!  Literally, a cover of that terribly awesome song), called Alexander.

They definitely stick with the 80's new wave sound.  And it works - this is a pretty catchy, bouncing pop song.  I may just wander by and check these cats out on my way to Kodaline.

Nightbox

According to Wikipedia, this is a "dance-punk" band from Ireland.  Falsetto-filled dance pop, yes.  But I hear nothing that could even remotely be called punk in the four songs they have on their EP.  They apparently have a second EP out as of April 2014, but Spotify doesn't have it.

Nice groovy dance song.  Their rhythm section in the background is locked in and really good at hitting a nice disco pop groove.  Here is their most listened to one from YouTube with just over 30k spins.  Called Relocate You:

Weird video about a dude saving a space alien against his buddies' wishes, where shotguns apparently shoot regular bullets.  Another pretty good dance-pop song though.  I don't see anything wrong with putting on your pop groove shoes here and there - maybe I'll stop by this stage on the way between Spanish Gold and Falls.

The Schedule! Saturday Thoughts.

Saturday is going to be a fantastic day.  It is going to be long, and I'll have to gird my loins, but I think it is going to be awesome to see some of these new bands for the first time.

12:30:  I'm going to go see Spanish Gold.  I don't care if it destroys me for the rest of the weekend to get there at lunchtime.  I'm kind of bummed to not get to experience Benjamin Booker, but I'm going to survive. Spanish Gold are already making an individualized plan to rock my face off and make sweet sweet to my ears. Unbelievable that they are in the early slots - they should be headlining the whole damn thing.

2:00:  Falls.  I can imagine how this scene will look, because it is exactly how I watched Dawes last year.  Sitting back from the stage, enjoying this band's beautiful harmony while sipping on a cold and extremely overpriced tallboy.

3:30:  Kodaline.  I plan on taking some kleenex, for all the grown men standing around me who will be bawling and thinking about their long lost loves and favorite pets and stuff.

4:30:  Head & the Heart.  Although I might be talked into seeing Interpol, who have grown on me more and more as I have listened to their last two albums over the past month.

5:30:  Lucius.  Speaking of growing on me, these guys are like my beer gut.  Sneaking up on me until I hardly notice they are always with me.  I started off unimpressed, but I have listened to their album a few more times recently and it is a damn fine thing.  I know I should probably go watch the train wreck that is Iggy Azalea, but I just can't get over the thought that she is Vanilla Ice for a new generation.  #Vanilliggy

6:30:  Avett Brothers!  Damn right.  I hope they come strong like a few years ago when their set was the perfect pre-show party before the Chili Peppers.  Loving their new album.  Also, a very easy decision, to not go see Lana Del Rey, Johnnyswim, or Beats Antique.  Easiest decision of the entire weekend.

8:30: Eminem.  I am very hopeful that he sticks to his old school music and not his newer Rihanna ballads.  I fear that, because they are touring together this summer, she will be there and we will have to hold hands and sway through Love the Way You Lie and Monster for 20 minutes instead of hearing about drug-addled murders and other happy things.  His most recent set in London (http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/eminem/2014/wembley-stadium-london-england-5bc1db18.html) looks promising, but he only has an hour and a half in Austin, so there is no way he'll be able to do all 35 of those songs here.  I know I'll go for Em in this slot, but I am definitely bummed about missing out on Skrillex.  Even though I don't know much about Skrillex. But that one Bangarang song, man, if I ever make a jillion dollars somehow and throw myself a huge birthday party on a private yacht in my private ocean, I'm definitely going to have him come and play that song on repeat for 2 hours while I kick people overboard.

The Schedule! Friday thoughts.

It is going to take me some time to digest all of this, but the schedule for each day was just issued and I wanted to weigh in on my path through the weekend.

Friday:
Noon - Not sure if I will go out first thing on Friday, but if I'm there by noon, then I'd like to see Sphynx.  I think their live show will be fun and big energy.  If you haven't gone to my post about them and watched that grandma get crunk in their video, I think you are missing out.

1:15, I'd really like to see Temples.  Going to the park that early will likely lead to a brutal weekend, but Temples is freaking awesome.  I really hope I can take the time to go see them jam.

3:15 - Lake Street Dive.  I may go for Hozier instead, but I feel like LSD is the one I'd rather see.

4:15 - Chvrches are the first band that I feel like I must see.  Thankfully, I don't much care about the bands they are up against at this time.

5:15 - St. Vincent.  Looks like I'll be deep in the Lilith Fair experience of lady bands by now.  Maybe go see J. Roddy Walston & the Business instead, but I doubt it.

6:15 - I think I'll take a break to eat something here.  I could go see Foster the People, but I think I'd rather go get some grub or go see Childish Gambino just to get into position for Outkast.

7:15 - either Blackberry Smoke or get into position for Outkast.

8:15 - Outkast.  I truly hate skipping out on Beck.  I have dug Beck's chili ever since Odelay, but I have also seen him play live before and expect that I'll get to see him again someday.  His show at ACL Fest a few years ago was fantastic - great retrospective of classic songs, new stuff, and a few fun covers.  On the other hand, Outkast was one of my favorite rap groups in college and I've never seen them play.  I also expect that they will not tour again after this final money grab of 40 festivals this year.

ACL Daily Band List Thoughts (and the powerful bummer of overlapping bands)

This morning was the much vaunted announcement of single day lineups for ACL Fest.  Which I was excited about, until I realized that they don't actually mean that they are providing me with the scheduling grids so that I can obsess about the injustice of missing out on Beck in favor of Outkast.  Instead, they have just released a more generic listing of all bands playing on each day so that a single-ticket-buying person can figure out which day to go enjoy.

http://www.aclfestival.com/2014-lineup-by-day-weekend-one/

So, I think I will prepare a more detailed schedule listing once they actually release the full schedule grid, but I have a few thoughts that bring me sadness.

On Friday, it looks like I will have to choose between Outkast and Beck.  Which sucks big time.  I have seen Beck before, so I'll likely choose Outkast, but I am sincerely bummed that I can't enjoy another Beck show, especially right now when his new album is so locked in on my head.  Hopefully Chvrches will be playing the same stage as Outkast and I can just stay right there and enjoy both in a row.  Which likely means I am going to miss out on St. Vincent, which also bums me out.

On Saturday, I bet that Skrillex and Eminem are up against each other, as well as the Avett Brothers vs. Head and the Heart.  That sucks.  I feel like I have to go see Eminem, although I'd love to experience a Skrillex show.  Maybe one of these days I'm going to have to buy tickets for both weekends.  (Just kidding darling wife!  Just kidding!)  And the Avetts will win out over Head and the Heart, but that is weak sauce.

Sunday night will be ruled by Pearl Jam.  I have no issue with missing Calvin Harris or Zedd or the Replacements.  But the bands just prior to that matchup are going to hurt me.  I'd love to get to see Spoon, Fitz & the Tantrums, Gaslight Anthem, Turnpike Troubadours, and Real Estate.  But those bands are all jumbled up in the upper middle of the lineup, meaning that I'll likely miss out on a bunch of them.  it would be awesome if two of those led up to the Pearl Jam show so that I could just hang at that stage all evening.  We'll see how that shakes out.

Who else is getting excited?  I definitely am.

The Avett Brothers

I really love these guys.  I got to see them from pretty close up two years ago when they played ACL, and their energy was off the charts.  My expectation - a relatively staid alt country concert with one guy plucking his banjo and another strumming his guitar - was blown out of the water.  They jumped around the stage, thrashing their banjo and wailing out their lyrics.  They had a stand-up bass player who was kicking around and flipping out like he had missed the memo that he was a refuge from the symphony.  They also made the boss-level move of inviting Chad Smith, the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, up to play a few songs with them.  He banged out a few songs like they were Uplift Mofo-era punk gems - it was serious fun.  With all of this history in mind, I am really looking forward to seeing them play.

As to the music, this is two brothers from North Carolina playing funky bluegrass folky music in a way that is terrifically accessible and loads of fun.  I first came to them through KGSR and the title track off of the "I and Love and You" from 2009.  This was a Rick Rubin-produced beauty that went to #16 on the annual best albums chart, #7 on the rock charts, and #1 in the folk charts, and got them slots on Letterman, Fallon, Kimmel, the Grammys, and Austin City Limits.  I and Love and You is a soft, wonderful love song:

Before I leave that first album, I think you also need to hear January Wedding, because it is another fantastic thing (although this is not the cleanest audio):

Their next album, 2012's The Carpenter was more of the same magic.  Some slow, harmonic alt-country tracks mixed among some happy banjo-fueled rockers.  One of those is Live and Die:

Which just makes me want to learn how to pluck a banjo or dance in a field of clover or pet a cat or something else weird.  The Carpenter's sessions produced a ton of good music, so pretty soon thereafter they released 2013's Magpie and the Dandelion.  The top two songs off of that album are Another is Waiting (with a video apparently about model culture and being too skinny?):

and Morning Song, another soft, harmonic gem, all about finding hope and getting over a loss:

There was a long article about them in Rolling Stone a few months ago that I enjoyed, it was just fun to know more about them and where they have come from.  And some tabloid-level gossip about one of the brothers dating the sister from Dexter (and potentially naming The Carpenter after her).  I think they are a great band and I really hope that I can go back and see these dudes play again.

Icona Pop

Non-stop dance party.  I really like their big hit, "I Love It" (as do more than 74 million YouTube users) - it is a great dance pop anthem to not giving a damn:

I really hate the KidzBop version my children listen to, because they censor/change more than just the cuss words and take the careless joy out of the song by not even letting them crash their car.  Come on, man.  Let little kids know about crashing cars and watching them burn!  This is a good example!

This is a duo of Swede ladies who came out with I Love It in 2012 and blew up.  That song has since been featured in a slew of video games, TV shows, commercials, and every radio on the planet.

I played their one album 4 times today to get a good feel for it, and it is all thumping, danceable good time EDM.  However, nothing is as good as that major hit.  Second place to me is In the Stars (which doesn't have an official video, but you can hear here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-jAEM-oEiQ).  Their next biggest song is apparently We Got The World, which is a remarkably similar thing.

Instead of crashing cars and not caring, you get people think we're freaks because we have fun but we are just crazy and cool and stuff over and over again, over the top of a dance-able but relatively basic EDM thump.  They keep all their songs nice and short, the longest one on their album is 3:20, while five of their songs don't even crack the 3 minute mark.  Which is good, bang it out and move on to the next party.

I expect these guys will be up against other big acts, so I kind of doubt that I'll go see them.  But I think they would put on a fun party of a show.

Ozomatli

Seems like a bad sign when you most popular song on Spotify is not actually your song (Jack Johnson's Mudfootball from some festival compilation disc).  But once you get past that, these dudes are latin funk and hip hop-fused rock and roll.  They've got at least two Grammys under their belt from 2002 and 2005, and apparently served as the United States' cultural ambassadors in 2009/2010 with officially state-sanctioned trips to play Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, and China.  Which is messed up; if people in Asia now believe that this music is representative of America, we are screwed.

Now multiple countries still think we are in to Limp Bizkit and Fishbone.  Dear Vietnam, most people in America (except for Michael Bay) quit listening to rap/rock in about 1999.  Maybe they just stuck to their rap/cumbia sound when melting Asian faces, although that also ought to be highly confusing for people trying to learn about American culture:

By the way, although we just missed it, April 23 is apparently Ozomatli Day in L.A., so put that on your calendar for next year.

Ana Tijoux

Female latin hip hop.

I've got zero clue what she is talking about.  From the video, I think she went to Paris, and then hung out with the Royal Tennenbaums and Flavor Flav (who she robbed), then some people in the Louvre told her to be more quiet, so she went to Six Flags and the little avenue where Jason Bourne's apartment was in Paris, and then fought in the Russian Army for a bit before her time at Texas State University.  It's quite a compelling story, actually.

But that song has millions of plays and views, so a lot of other people are digging on it.  Here is her second most popular song, which is apparently about fighting the man about him not letting you have free school.

I sure hope the man speaks espanol and doesn't mind you misusing the chairs and desks that belong in his school.