Last week psych-folk heroes the Diamond Center rocked Austin Psych Fest on the main stage at Seaholm Power Plant, but beforehand, they stopped by the spiffy Do512 Lounge and debuted a new song, “California.” See the beautiful damage done for yourself.
Trailers for upcoming movies. Some are good, some not as much.
The Obama Administration has (wisely) decided not to release a photo of the body of Osama Bin Laden.
A slew of artists came together for a badass upcoming tribute album to Buddy Holly. Listen to the Black Keys’ contribution here.
In what will hopefully be a shakedown to reform for college football, the Justice Department is demanding the NCAA explain the good of the BCS system.
Anyone that knows me knows I am a man of impeccable taste and opinion. Also: humble. So when many things all at once are on my mind, and the 140-character beauty of Twitter just isn’t doing it for me, I will take to the blog to sing my praises and wag my finger.
Rant: Austin City Limits Music Festival
I have ranted about this fest before. Major fests just aren’t my bag for a number of reasons. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but does any other major fest sell out three-day passes (or for that matter, even have them on sale) before the official lineup is announced? Probably more than any other fest, ACL seems to have a loyal gathering of people who decide they’re going every year, even before they find out the horrible, dreadful, increasingly worse list of bands playing. Or maybe C3 just doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing in regards to scalpers. I mean, if I really wanted to go to ACL, I could find tickets in Austin pretty easily via Craigslist/word of mouth. But it’s a matter of principle, and convenience, to buy them directly from the festival itself.
Rant: Who Gets Credit for Killing Osama Bin Laden?
It didn’t even take 12 hours for the Beltway and nonstop news cycle to ask the question: who gets credit for the execution of Bin Laden? And now, two days after Obama’s prime time announcement Sunday, they won’t shut up about it. MSNBC’s drinking the Obama Kool-Aid, and Fox News makes sure to mention every five minutes they think the Bush administration deserves a lot of kudos for this (they actually do deserve credit for the initial launch of the intelligence mission, though it was Obama who made it his #1 national security priority, and, of course, he was the President to sign off on the raid and watch it via a live video feed). And then there’s CNN, who are amping up the “retaliation” speculation, as they are wont to do in order to boost their god-awful ratings. How about we just wave our flags and chant a little more? This is a win not for Obama, or Bush, but for our entire country. You know who deserves the MOST credit for killing Osama? The heroes that did it.
Rave: Z-Trip Beastie Boys Mega-Mix
A career spanning mix of new and old Beastie tracks, from one of the best mashup artists out there. Check it.
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Purity Ring – Loftcries
XV – Swervin (Clams Casino Remix)
Pony Pony Run Run – Hey You (Star Slinger Remix)
DJ Quik – Flow For Sale (feat. Kurupt)
Today, Transmission Entertainment announced they are moving Fun Fun Fun Fest, after five awesome years, from Waterloo Park to Auditorium Shores. I am not crazy thrilled about the move, frankly, and it isn’t because this past year I could walk to the park from my Central East Austin home (the walk will obviously be much farther this time around). No my complaint is intimacy. I don’t blame Transmission for wanting to earn more greenbacks; hell, a festival is a giant endeavor to partake. I really doubt the fest has turned a profit, even with a sold-out crowd last year. So selling more tickets (Waterloo Park’s full after 10,000 – Auditorium Shores can hold 30,000) will probably help turn the event out of the red.
And kudos to the FFF organizers for realizing the fest is growing and actually dealing with that. ACL is an overcrowded mess at Zilker Park, and will continue to be so until C3 does something about it. Auditorium Shores can accomodate for this smaller scale festival well.
But increased attendance is the problem. When I watched the Strokes play the Shores during SXSW, it was not an intimate experience. Simply put, there were too many fucking people there. And if that’s what Fun Fun Fun Fest is going to be like now, I’m afraid the festival’s best days are behind it. We all loved FFF because of a stellar lineup that we could actually see….we could get up close and watch the band and dance and hear the music, we could have quick access to bathroom facilities without walking a mile and a half. We could quickly grab a beer and get back to the show without falling over dickheads in patio chairs.
So I ask Transmission – is the new location gonna kill the Fun Fun Fun vibe? The fest I remember wasn’t even a smaller scale ACL (which is basically what a show at the Shores is like), it was an intimate experience with awesome bands on a completely different level. It was a stroll away from the afterparties on Red River. It was incredible. The Strokes show was fun, yeah, but, like ACL, I felt like I should have showed up an hour earlier if I wanted to actually see it without looking at the big screen. And if there’s a big screen, that means there’s likely little intimacy.
I’m not saying I won’t go. I go every year, and I’m curious to see what changes will be made in light of this location change. I’m just saying I’m not expecting much….and depending on how it goes this time around, this may be my last year at Fun Fun Fun. Maybe by then the Waller Creek Project will be taken care of and another fest can start up in Waterloo, where the real fun fun fun is.
And who knows? Maybe once November comes and goes, I will be eating these words/this post. I certainly hope so.
Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
30. Johnny Cash – Hurt
Some artists are so talented they have the capability to make a cover song sound like their very own creation. Â The Beatles, Tom Waits, and, most recently, Lissie, come to mind. Â But no one did it like the Man In Black. Â Johnny took Soundgarden’s grunge-ridden “Rusty Cage” and made it a Wild West, gun slinging, outlaw affair. Â And then he took Nine Inch Nails’ haunting, spooky “Hurt” and turned it into a somber deathbed lamentation.
