Culture Greyhound

Transmission keeps bringing the goods, and this year they’ve certainly increased the exposure for the finest little fest in ATX; Pitchfork announced yesterday they’re hosting the first-ever webcast for Fun Fun Fun. That means all you unlucky souls who can’t make it out to the Shores, or Austin, can still partake in one of the finest lineups ever concocted for this festival’s short life. All four genre-specific stages will be accounted for on the webcast, though Pitchfork hasn’t announced who exactly will be shown. A location change, an app with a taco locator, a lineup the size and stature of Texas, and now a webcast? Hosted by Pitchfork?! The McDonald’s of hipsterdom?! Looks like Fun Fun Fun Fest is on its way from the underdog to a major player. They keep this up, they might need a fourth Fun.

REM have broken up, and so it is the end of an era. As a final hurrah, the group is releasing a career-spanning retrospective Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, dropping November 15th. Below are two videos for the group’s final song, to be featured on the collection, “We All Go Back to Where We Belong.” The first video features Kirsten Dunst, and the second has John Giorno.

It doesn’t seem that long, but the Black Keys are already prepping a new album El Camino, for release December 6th. And the viral promotion for it has been absolutely awesome. First a teaser video featuring Breaking Bad’s Bob Odenkirk, then a fantastic album cover, then the equally minimalist single cover above (which you’ll be able to grab November 25th on vinyl as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday – the single is available digitally today), and this video below for the song. And “Lonely Boy” itself? It’s guaranteed to make you move and shake just as erratically as our friend here.

On a side note: apparently there used to be a building where that bulldozer now sits. And in that building the Black Keys recorded their best album Rubber Factory.

In what can only be described as a clusterfuck, the always hirsute (and probably stoned) organizers at Transmission have managed to officially, after literally months of anticipation, announce set times and the Nites schedule for this year’s Fun Fun Fun.  Those of us who have attended the fest in years prior are not surprised at the sheer lack of organization.  And because the bands picked usually rule, we are quick to forgive.  Transmission is usually slow getting things together.  They truly are the most casual, laid-back, and Austin-y of the two major promoters in town (love them or hate them, C3 has their shit down pat almost a year before anything happens – but their lineup usually sucks, so you take the good with the bad).

But now that the fest has moved to Auditorium Shores, is selling more tickets, and is bringing bigger acts, I think it’s time for a smoother operation.  Let’s chalk this year up to a learning experience.  With some minor setbacks, usually quickly corrected.  For the few of us who bought early bird tickets when the fest was only a two-day thing and then upgraded, we have only received two wristbands; meanwhile, Ground Ctrl Ticketing does not answer phone calls or e-mails, probably because it’s being run out of a shanty in Pflugerville…. or something.  The schedule today was initially released as a too-small-to-read press release JPEG on Austinist, but thankfully the lineup was posted on the official site shortly after.  Of course, the Nites schedule isn’t finished, and there was some original confusion over what stage Slayer is now playing (they’ve moved to Orange), but everything else seems to be intact.  As is the case when you make an official lineup, some bands were moved around, but it doesn’t seem too far off what was originally announced, and conflicts, at least in my opinion, remain minimal.  So great job, Transmission!  Looking forward to rocking at the Shores.  Now I just need that Friday wristband….

UPDATE: And they took my advice and got an app this year!  But no Android version….?

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has been talking to AV Club this week about Season 4, analyzing the progression of characters and themes on an episode-by-episode basis. They just released the third part of a four-part series, and it’s completely in depth and awesome. The interview is ridden with spoilers; you’ve been warned.

In what can easily be qualified as one of the busiest weeks of my year (finals week), it’s nice to take a break from education for….more education? Humor. Let’s call it humor. Because Lil Wayne ranting and raving about his legacy for half an hour in the wake of the death of Steve Jobs is pretty funny. I mean, I know rap music DNA is about bragging and stuntin’ and all that, but comparing yourself to one of the greatest modern creative minds for half an hour while giving a tour of your Cribs-worthy house…..it’s a bit over the top. And then posting your obvious weed-influenced stream-of-consciousness lunacy on the Web for the world to see, like what you’re saying is a new idea, or even a complete one….well, that’s the funny part. I mean, if you wanna make a skateboard video, just make one, man.

WEEZY F BABY PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT from DERICK G on Vimeo.

Just Tuesday the news was all about the lackluster Apple summit new CEO Tim Cook hosted, and the new iPhone 4S, which is receiving underwhelming press. The commentary constantly remarked this was the first launch without the company’s figurehead Steve Jobs, and that something felt….off. Without Jobs around, is this a turning point for Apple? Are its glory days over? And now, with the untimely death of Jobs Wednesday afternoon, all of that is trivial.

To deny the radical influence Steve Jobs had on the world, and the profound sadness of his death, is simply foolish. I grow tired of seeing #iDead hashtags, Mac haters naysaying, or people who ridicule others for acknowledging the man’s productive life because they “didn’t know him.” Unsurprisingly, the ignorant Internet misses the point. Jobs’ work impacted everyone you know in some form. If you’ve played with an iPod, owned a modern smartphone, messed around with a computer, or watched a computer-animated film, you’ve experienced the inspiration of this man. It could be argued he helped saved the music industry from sheer collapse with the iTunes model. There’s a reason why his death is front-page news, why it’s a trending topic, why public figures are comparing him to Thomas Edison, why the President found it prudent to release a statement honoring him.

There’s no doubt Jobs lived a full life; he created and innovated technologies which are now second-nature household items, and his left-field thinking is still present in Apple’s mindset. And yet, we can sense that he was just getting started. That he still had a lot to show us. Very rarely does a visionary come around as forward thinking and as revolutionary, and Jobs certainly filled a void and created a vision that will resonate for years to come. The scope of that vision should be honored, and the loss of that vision should be mourned.

And so, I invite you to spend what will undoubtedly be the fifteen most inspirational minutes of your day and watch a speech Jobs gave in 2005 to a group of Stanford graduates. He tells three stories about connecting the dots, love and loss, and death. Each are fitting for a commencement speech (ironically, Jobs never graduated college), but they also apply to life in general. And if you’re looking for motivation for a full life, look no further than Steve Jobs.

We’ve all seen the Ticker and the News Feed updates, and we either love them or hate them. I find it particularly amusing when people get so fed up with Facebook’s incremental changes they whine and moan about something they can simply opt out of. It’s like complaining about how bad smoking is for you when you continue to smoke a pack a day. That analogy works well, unfortunately; it could be argued social networking is just as addictive. Probably now more than ever.

Because where are you gonna go? Google+, huh? The only friends I have on Google+ are the early adopters, the techies who were going to join anyway, no matter what. The Reddit readers, the iPad buyers, etc. Everybody else? Still on Facebook. And it’s not like those early adopters deleted their Facebook accounts, either.

If anyone should bitch about anything Facebook does, it’s not the layout changes, but their stance on privacy, which started off awful and has only gotten worse. The new Open Graph, in particular, pretty much makes you as a Facebook user vulnerable to every third party that wants any sliver of info about you. And to customize it otherwise is already a hassle, but at least for now it’s optional. Take Spotify, for example. All of us who use the service have seen what we were listening to broadcasted to our friends whether we wanted it to or not. At least currently, there are ways to opt out (the new “private listening” function should have been included initially – seems a bit obvious), but it made a lot of regular joes mad, for the short term anyway.

Those of us who follow tech, who are keen on new apps and features and software, we knew something like the Open Graph and Timeline was on the way. We knew Facebook’s history of wanting to share and share and share. We had an idea of the hidden algorithms; how else can Facebook attract advertisers? Third party apps? Zynga? Spotify? Every person and company in the world? This was a long time coming. But just because you see the train doesn’t mean it’s good when it hits you. And it hurts even worse for the average joe, who wasn’t really aware, or intuitive, about how exactly Facebook operates. Who had never heard that old cliche about free sites – if you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.

That old adage is now truer than ever. But at least Facebook is being more transparent and gradual with their rollouts and intentions this time around. It seems they may have learned a thing or two from the “Like” button scrutinies.

But users should be more aware of what’s getting out there, because it just might be something you don’t want. We all have an individual responsibility to control our digital spaces and perceptions, and we can’t expect, or trust, Facebook or any Big Web entity to necessarily incorporate acceptable defaults. This has ALWAYS been the case.

Facebook is taking a large leap with the Open Graph – an enhanced marketing tool that aggregates data enrichment and progressively precise analytics.  There are several things Facebook can do to adapt to our privacy concerns, and once they roll out the Open Graph for all, this will become more apparent.  The question is, will they do them?  In the meantime, users can adjust their Web social habits accordingly and still enjoy what I deem as necessary for the 21st century – personal, business, or otherwise: a social media presence.  Abandoning it altogether hurts you in the long run.  Facebook is rock and roll – it’s hear to stay. You can jump ship, but the world turns without you.

As far as emerging artists go, Star Slinger has had the Culture Greyhound bump ever since he dropped Volume 1 last year. Of course, the UK producer’s sound has evolved in that time, and he’s gone from banging remixes to his own original material. Today we hear the first finished product he can call his very own, a track called “Dumbin'” available from Green Label Sounds. Listen and download below, and if you’re in ATX, be sure to check out Star Slinger at Beauty Bar on October 12.

Last month Lou Reed told the Guardian he thinks this new Metallica collaborative album is the “best thing” he’s ever done. But if this first leaked track, and the Soundcloud comments that accompany it, are any indication, longtime fans of neither will agree. As if the name of the project, Lulu, wasn’t awful enough.

Of course, we’ve been expecting dreck from Metallica for a while now. Depending on who you ask, they’ve either sucked for ten years, twenty years, or always (choice C is correct). So what’s Reed’s excuse? What is it with legends nowadays tarnishing their legacy with half-assed collaborations with more modern has-beens? I thought Reed fell off the deep end when he delivered that one-note Killers tune, but here he babbles meaningless playwright-influenced prose over tired guitar crunches, only to have Hetfield step in and remind you what shitty band is delivering the clashing background music. Hetfield, as usual, growls his angsty nonsense in an exaggerated manner, only to have Reed come back and read some more, sounding consistently confused.

Best thing you’ve ever done, Lou? Someone needs to listen to Transformer again.

The View by Lou Reed & Metallica