Holy Shit, FPSF 2016 Is Nearly Upon Us (And You Can Contribute to the Art, Tonight!)

Yep, believe it or not, Free Press Summer Festival, aka “Houston’s Best-Loved, Best-Known, Most-Bitched-About Music Festival” (depending on who you are), is right around the freaking corner.

If you live under a rock — and this year? I feel like I’ve been living under a damn rock the past six (er, eight?) months or so — you may not realize that next Saturday and Sunday, June 4th-5th, a big-ass explosion of music, art, sweat, beer, sunburn, raging hormones, tattoos, bliss, and college kids making thoroughly bad decisions will be happening up on the western edge of Downtown, in normally-serene Eleanor Tinsley Park.

This year’s lineup has me somewhat conflicted, I have to admit. I’m psyched to see awesome folks like Modest Mouse, Frank Turner, Built To Spill, Father John Misty, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, X Ambassadors, David Ramirez, Leon Bridges, and the reunited Refused on the bill, for sure, but I’m bemused to see some reruns, like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Young The Giant, Matt and Kim, Gogol Bordello, and The Black Angels also in the lineup.

I don’t mean to slam any of those bands, mind you — in fact, I like ’em all — but it worries me a little to see that many bands that’ve played previous FPSFs coming back out, y’know? Don’t get me wrong; I’ll happily dance like a lunatic to Gogol Bordello any day of the week, but it feels like there should be something different. Like when The Flaming Lips played their second FPSF, they came back not playing all Flaming Lips songs, but specifically playing their version of Dark Side of the Moon.

I dunno. Again: I like all those bands. But part of me thinks, “well, why can’t we get somebody different this year, somebody who hasn’t played before?” shrug. I’m still looking forward to the festival (well, both looking forward to it and utterly terrified that I’m doing it again, but that’s a different matter entirely), but I just wanted to throw my two cents out there.

Now, as for more immediate matters: want to join in with the whole art side of the festival? Well, you can, tonight, Wednesday, May 25th, up at the Raven Tower. The FPSF organizers are having a painting party with esteemed H-town artist Patrick Renner, who even the least-arty out there may know, inadvertently, from his “Funnel Tunnel” sculpture made of wood that sat on Montrose Blvd. from 2013 to early 2015.

No clue what the project will be this time, but people are asked to come out and be ready to paint some new cool thing that will — I’m assuming, anyway — be unveiled at this year’s FPSF. The organizers say you can bring your own paintbrushes if you want, but they’ll have plenty on hand just in case.

This thing starts at 7PM tonight, and yeah, it’s gonna be cool. Get your ass out there and join in, alright?