u/CharlesIntheWoods

All I can say is: Wow, I can't believe a band whose music used to evoke so much imagery and that I found so interesting ended up so... dull.

They were my favorite band in the early 2010s when 'Thank You Happy Birthday' was released. I was obsessed, listening to every song of theirs I could find. Every b-side, every radio appearance, etc. I absolutely adored Lincoln Parish's guitar playing. I remember how shocked I was when they started promoting 'Melophobia' and Lincoln was no longer part of the band.

Even though Lincoln left, I still held out hope for the future of the band because I had loved all their albums. Then 'Tell Me I'm Pretty' dropped and remains an album I've only listened to once. While Social Cues was released, and while I initially liked the songs I heard off the album, it wasn't enough to draw me to the album. Not because they sounded different; what I love about the first three albums is the variety of songs, but the new songs felt like filler. I couldn't help but feel Lincoln's playing was the secret sauce that made the band so good.

I do feel I have to point out how much the music industry also changed, as I pinpoint the mid 2010s as an era when a lot of my favorite bands' output started to decline. A time that saw the decline in music magazines and blogs in favor of algorithmically curated streaming playlists and social media feeds. The 2000s and early-2010s saw a rise in a bunch of fun new alternative bands, whereas when streaming services took over, I found much of the new 'alternative' artists being pushed to sound pretty uninteresting.

The kind of music computer code would choose for a playlist, over what a Radio DJ would select. I recently read the book 'Mood Machine' by Liz Pelly and one of the author's most prominent points is that Spotify (and other streaming services) cater to the 'lean-back listener', listeners who mostly use music as something in the background. And how this even affected how artists write music to fit better into these playlists.

Today I figured enough time had passed, and I decided to listen to Social Cues and Neon Pill with optimism. Needless to say, I was tremendously disappointed. Not because I found the albums to be bad; I just found them to be incredibly bland. The kind of music that's found on a Spotify playlist and put in the background, but nothing special. I do think the song 'Metaverse' off Neon Pill is a gem of a song.

One of the things that made Cage so special was that they had amazing deep album tracks. One of my favorites is 'Japanese Buffalo' off TYHB, which starts frantic with Matt screaming his verses, then breaks into a blissful chorus with some beautiful guitar. I was hoping for some more incredible deep cuts, but most of the songs seem to follow a pattern of: drum beat, funky bassline, vibes, repeat. It's almost as if the band sounds uninterested in the songs, almost like they're saying, 'we're not going to make any money off these, let's just make something the algorithm will like, and fans will still come out to hear our early hits'. The current guitarist still feels like a hired hand and not someone whose guitar is driving the songs like when Lincoln was in the band.

I honestly can't blame the band for these lacking albums, as I can't imagine how stressful it must be to be a musician in this current climate with constantly touring and album sales no longer a plausible source of revenue. From what I've heard, the shows are still great, but it seems to be struggling in the studio. I know Lincoln quit because he hated touring and wanted to focus more on producing; I hope that someday he'll join them in the studio again for an album and are able to recapture some of the magic.

Could also be the fact that I'm 30 and miss my teenage years.

I (30M) grew up in a family that worked in the outdoor industry in New England. Since I was a teenager, every job I've worked has focused on getting as many people as possible outside and experiencing the outdoors. I've worked a handful of different positions at outdoor shops and guiding; guiding especially has been my favorite. Though recently I've found myself conflicted about the future of the outdoors industry. As much as I adore introducing people to the outdoors, I'm not sure if outdoor spaces can handle more influxes of people. It hurts for me to write because I want everyone to experience the outdoors, but it may be better for these outdoor spaces if fewer people flock to them.

This worry especially hit me when I visited Yellowstone National Park a few summers ago, and the park was a sea of people looking at everything through their phones, and the bathrooms were the most disgusting sights I've ever seen. National parks were designed to preserve the natural environment and give people chances to experience the outdoors so they care about conservation. But maybe the greatest threat to conserving these places is actually the people who are visiting?

As vast as outdoor spaces may seem, I worry the amount of resources it takes to support influxes of visitors is unsustainable. Think about transportation, food, plumbing, etc., all that it takes to maintain these places. But I also don't want to abandon my lifelong values of getting people outside.

Growing up in the 2000s, it was easier to feel more optimistic about getting everyone outside, but around the mid-2010s when social media influencers rose in popularity, national parks and other outdoor destinations began to rise in attendance. I still remember visiting a national park in 2015 and being shocked by how people seemed to be on their phones the whole time; it was never like that before.

I currently live in Northern New England, and while our Autumns are truly something special, the past couple of years have seen a rise in 'leaf peeper' tourists. Autumn has always been a busy season, but the past couple of years have seen a rise in 'influencers' visiting to get content; the roads are packed with traffic, restaurants can't keep up with the demand, and people are glued to their phones everywhere you go.

It's a weird back-and-forth I've been battling where I want to get as many people outside as possible, but worried about the consequences people have on these places.

:edit: In reading and responding to some comments on this post, I feel I need to emphasize I don't believe in limiting or cutting off access to the outdoors, which is why I became a guide. AND I'm also realizing there are negative consequences to having more and more people in places that aren't designed to hold this many people, especially as our population only increasingly continues to rise, but our resources are finite.

I recently blocked Subway Takes because I was so sick of their clips popping up on my feed. I never followed the account, but how modern algorithms work, their videos kept popping up because I realized their guest's "takes" were ragebait, and I don't need that polluting my feed.

Which is unfortunate because I think Kareem is a cool person who found a niche and thinks he's making a fun show, but when your popularity is based on celebs spouting off ragebait, I have a hard time respecting that. I get he wants to approach 'Subway Takes' like a talk show, but every clip I watch has some undertone of anger, and I don't need that polluting my feed. It's one thing if you're purposefully seeking out the show because you like the content, but I've found it better to block their ragebait clips out of my feed.

It's basically the 2020's equivalent of Jerry Springer.

I've been a devoted Jack White fan since I was a kid; as a kid, his music was my refuge from the abusive household I grew up in, which is why the recent divorce news and rumors have been particularly difficult. All I can say is we'll need to wait and see how this plays out before jumping to any conclusions.

Like when Jack and Karen got divorced, like most divorces, it was messy, but now Jack and Karen seem to have worked things out and they seem to have a positive co-parenting relationship. Or when Jack was beefing with the Black Keys, they worked things out and became friends, started borrowing each other's equipment and watch baseball games together.

Marriages are difficult, especially for musicians who don't work regularly 9-5 like most of us. Someone like Jack can't clock out from their job; he seems to be putting his career first, and maybe that isn't fairing well with Olivia, which seems to be the case. I'm worried about the possible abusive allegations, but I'm also worried about Olivia exploiting the divorce. I've also seen situations like this play out with a family member whose ex-wife was making false accusations, to the point that the kid's social worker had to stand up and say she was wrong. Watching this family member go through this taught me to be skeptical of when news like this breaks out.

Jack can act in some really upsetting ways that can be hard to defend, but what I give him credit for is that he also has a record of righting those wrongs, like with Karen and the Black Keys.

Ronnie has already scheduled a solo tour and Mick wants to tour but sounds like Keith doesn’t feel well enough to. Without Mick or Keith, theres no Stones. Since Ronnie is touring I cant help but wonder if Mick will do a solo tour. My first guess would be no, since I’m not sure how Mick would handle the ego drop of performing smaller venues and realizing people are there to hear Stones songs and not his solo work.

At the same time I could see him do some sort of solo tour, he definitely has the energy. Maybe even tour with the current Stones road band, call it ‘Mick Jagger & the Foreign Tongues’.

I originally started following Bassem through what I thought were well thought out takes on Israel/Palestine and separating antisemetism from zionism. Though I did find it interesting how he fled to the US from his home country of Egypt, but his entire career is now built around criticizing the US and Israel, but not any other countries.

Then I saw he glowingly posted about hanging out with Dan Bilzerian, whose current platform is not anti-zionism, but across the board antisemitism. For someone seemingly as intelligent and well spoken as Bassem, I expect better than to praise and want to be associated with someone as dumb as Bilzerian. After seeing the post I watched more Bassem clips, which for someone making a living as a "stand up comedian" there sure is a lack of actual stand up material from him, his words feel hollow and his entire career seems to have coasted off his activism and charisma.

Needless to say, I will no longer be following the so called "Egyptian Jon Stewart".

I grew up and continue to work in the outdoors industry. Recently,I've been longing for how unique the outdoors industry felt before the rise of smartphones and 'outdoorsy' social media influencers.

Now you go to a national park like Yellowstone, and it's not just that it's overcrowded, it's the fact that it's overcrowded and most people are on their phones the whole time. I remember camping trips before and after smartphones, and it's an almost night-and-day difference on how much smartphones took away our ability to live in the moment. Especially with the rise of outdoor social media influencers (Pattie Gonia, for example), a whole culture has been created where people's entire connection to the outdoors is built around social media. While these influencers are often well-intentioned, they still contribute to the social media atmosphere that thrives on FOMO, gaining 'likes', and screen addiction.

It's a double-edged sword because I also want everyone to experience the outdoors. I work as a guide, where I introduce people to the outdoors and see people's reactions when they realize they are out of cell service for the first time in their lives and how at peace they feel in the solace of nature. 

The national parks might be packed, but I still find backcountry and camping spots that are not overcrowded. I really just miss when so much of the culture wasn't so built around social media.

:edit: In responce to some of the comments I’ve gotten I feel I need to reiterate that it’s not the crowds I see as a problem, but the crowds of people on their phone is what I see as the problem. Parks are for everyone and should be accessible for everyone.

All the reviews are saying it feels like a two-hour bottle episode of the show with no real consequences. In preparation for the movie, I've been listening to interviews with Filoni and Favreau. At first, I thought they were condensing plans for season 4 into a movie, but it sounds like Favreau wrote a whole different script for season 4, and they wrote a new script for the movie.

My assumption is the Mandalorian & Grogu will be a moderate success, a fun popcorn flick that families will love, and if it does well enough, they'll greenlight another season since a script is written and might give Filoni more time as preps for his movie (if it ever gets made), which sounds like it will essentially be the coda to Mando and the rest of the shows set during this time.