ACL 2017: Sunday Thoughts

Just realized that I had forgotten good old Vance Joy in my drafts folder, so NOW all of the artists for weekend one are up there and ready to be peeped.  After all of that action, now its time to piece all of this together and figure out what I actually want to see on each day.  I know this makes no sense, but I'm going to start with Sunday.  As I did last year, I'm not going to try to list everyone in order of how much I like them, because it honestly provides no good information for you to know that Zhu is better than AJR in my mind.  What really matters, to me at least, is how to navigate the hard conflicts and figure out who to see in each time slot.  So, here we go again.

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.  Every once in a while they make me giggle too.
• 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).
• Overall, I'd say this is a pretty weak day for the weekend.  Other than Run the Jewels and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, nothing on this list is very MUST SEE to me. Maybe someone will knock me out with a rad live show. 

Here is a playlist of my suggested tunes for Sunday.

Let's do this:

11:45

Miller Lite	Amy Shark: Indie electronica gal making beat-heavy pop
Barton Springs	Billy Raffoul: Soulful lite rock guy from Canada who apparently likes cars
Tito’s (11:30)	The Lands Band: Gospel, formerly known as The Warrior Gospel Band
BMI	Devin Dawson: Like John Mayer told people his music was country
HomeAway	Tank and the Bangas: Funky oddities that bounce between hip hop poetry and soul balladry

I mean, with all honesty, I'm not going to be out at the park before noon on Sunday.  By the third day, my ancient bones will have caught up with me and I'll be thinking that a plate of wings, a gallon of sport beer, and an hour of football sounds like a welcome way to get this day started.  BUT, assuming that I made it there for the Breakfast Bands (trademark, me), I'd go see Tank and the Bangas blow it out.  Devin Dawson is pretty solid, but the others aren't something to hurry to the park to see.

12:30

Honda	Bibi Bourelly: R&B/ Alternative-Soul-Almost Rap stuff with interesting lyrics at times.
Tito’s	Melat: Local R&B lady over hip hop beats
American Express	Deap Vally: Hard rockin' ladies hole up in Jack White's garage

Same caveat as before, but if I made it out in time for this set, I'd absolutely go hear Deap Vally tear shit up.  Both of the other two ladies are pretty alright if you are into R&B though.

1:15

Miller Lite	Middle Kids: Cool Aussie three piece doing some good alt rock
Barton Springs	Jacob Banks: Soulful dude with a great voice doing some R&B-type tunes.
Tito’s (11:30)	Jamila Woods: Hook singer for Chance the Rapper with a silky smooth voice
BMI	Charlotte Cardin: French and English indie pop
HomeAway	Sam Dew: Silky-voiced electronic R&B

Another one where my choice is pretty simple and clear.  Middle Kids rock, and when I saw them at SXSW for a short little showcase set, they were really good.  On top of that, nothing else during this hour is enticing at all.  It's like they tried to stack all the R&B stuff into early Sunday afternoon.

2:15

Honda	Danny Brown: Annoyingly high-pitched rapper who enjoys the shock value
Kiddie (2:30)	Sleepy Man: Bluegrass boy band from New Jersey (for real)
Tito’s	Raging Fyah: Reggae roots rock good times
American Express	Rainbow Kitten Surprise: One of the worst names in rock makes great rock like old Kings of Leon

Here is the first spot where maybe I have a slight conflict, but not really.  Sleepy Man was a pretty cool band, prodigy bluegrass brothers (especially the banjo player) who would have been kind of fun to go see.  But Rainbow Kitten Surprise wins this hour, hands down.  The more I think about Danny Brown, the harder it is for me to understand how anyone wants to hear him whine his way through bars.

3:15

Miller Lite	SuperDuperKyle: indie-ish rapper who sounds alternatively like G-Eazy and Drake NOPE: Replaced with LIDO: Remix guy and electronic "rap" chameleon.
Barton Springs	Whitney: Folky falsetto-filled indie fest
BMI	Caitlyn Smith: Heart-felt Nashville country tunes
HomeAway	Brothers Osborne: New Nashville sound that leans hard on rock to make country music.

Meh.  Nothing among these four really torques my crank.  I guess I might go watch Whitney for 30 minutes and then go hear Kyle do his one hit?  Or maybe I'll go find some snacks?  I'll tell you one thing I won't be doing, and that is watching NFL games while music is happening.  I don't know why this makes me irrationally annoyed, but it does.  Go watch music, fartknockers.

4:15

Honda	Dram: One hit rapper/singer who Does.Real.Ass.Music (burp, vomit)
Kiddie (4:30)	Q Brothers: Dear Lord, I hate these dudes.  Every freaking year.
Tito’s	Skip Marley: Grandson of Bob Marley, doing a pretty solid job of holding up the mantle. NOPE: replaced with GoldFish: Dance electronica from the tip of South Africa.  Not too shy to sax it up.
American Express	Milky Chance: German combo of singer/songwriter with pop electronica that works well.

I mean, nothing on here is must see music, but I have a feeling I'll be at the Milky Chance show, which should be pretty good.  The buddy I always go watch ACL with will likely be in to them.  Dram has a few good songs, and would maybe be fun too, but I get so tired of the singing-my-rap-like-Drake thing going on these days.  But "Cash Machine" is a jam.

5:15

Miller Lite	The Growlers: Strokes-esque garage rock with a touch of psych in their older (and better) catalog
Barton Springs	Louis the Child: Electronic pop in the wheelhouse of the Chainsmokers
BMI	AJR: Classical music steeped electronic pop
HomeAway	First Aid Kit: Some of the finest folk harmonies in the world, Americana via Sweden.

Since I've already seen the "show" presented by First Aid Kit, I very well might just go eat some food during the first half of this and then go squeeze up close for Run the Jewels. The Growlers are OK, but they are one of those bands with weaker new albums, which means to me they are going to play the new weak stuff instead of the better old stuff and then you'll wish you were eating a cheesesteak instead.  But out of these four bands, I'll say that First Aid Kit is the best of them.

6:15

Honda	Run the Jewels: Top notch, killer rap
Tito’s	BadBadNotGood: Jazz funk Canadian dudes with a hip hop style
American Express	The Head and the Heart: Folky, beautiful indie rock from the Seattle crew behind that "Lost in my Mind" song

RUN THE JEWELS, baby!  I had to drive up to north Texas yesterday and then back to Austin the same day, so I spent about 8 hours rolling in the car, and I gave almost all of that time to the RTJ boys, and I still love them.  The live album (apparently recorded at SXSW here in Austin) on Spotify is kick ass.  I love the mental image of this crowd of people just going super hard and yelling along with the lyrics.  I'm very much looking forward to this show and doing embarrassing (but very, extremely tough) dance/posturing moves throughout.

Also, to the extent you have not seen this, I literally got goose bumps with the idea of this being me, brought up on stage to rap "Legend Has It."

YES!  Goosebumps again!  How freaking cool was that for that kid?  And when Killer Mike tosses him over his shoulder and he just keeps rolling?  Awesome.  Huge crowd for this show.

As for the others during this time slot, don't get me wrong, The Head and the Heart are great, if they were up against most of the bands on this day I would have gone to see them instead.  And BadBadNotGood is cool too, although I don't know what they plan to do at a major festival to make their chilled jazz exciting.

7:15

Miller Lite	Vance Joy: Pleasantly poppy indie music, with that one huge "Riptide" song that mentions Michelle Pfeiffer.
Barton Springs	Zhu: EDM that is more clean, house music for dancing not hard thrashing
HomeAway	Portugal. The Man: Alt. rock psych guys who made a funky new jam of 60's pop

I liked Vance Joy just fine, but I'd definitely go see Portugal. The Man over the just-fine-ness of Joy.  My hope is that Zhu is more popular than I think and everyone will go over there.

8:15

Honda	Gorillaz: Damon Albarn's rap-centric cartoon electronic experiment
Tito’s	Silent Disco
American Express	The Killers: Massively popular alternative dance rock in the Oughts, even with no new music they ought to be fun.

Ehhhhh, I guess I will choose The Killers over Gorillaz, but I'm up for being persuaded otherwise.  I like several of Gorillaz old tunes, but their new album is pretty terrible. Likewise, I love some of the old Killers stuff, but their new song "The Man" is up there for worst song ever in the history of man.  Sooooooo, pick your poison here and enjoy a few great songs and then some less great stuff.