Gentlemen of the Road Tour

See, this is what I am talking about for ACL - Mumford & Sons, My Morning Jacket, Foo Fighters, Alabama Shakes, Dawes, Flaming Lips.  Too bad not everyone is playing every stop, and that they are all very far away from Austin.  But if we had that top line for ACL I would be pretty excited.  If that Iowa stopover was a little closer, I'd make it happen.  Marfa in 2016!

Quick Hits, Vol. 40 (Kodaline, Project Pat, Miami Horror, The Tallest Man on Earth)

Live Nation has now nabbed Bonnaroo.  In my estimation, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and ACL are the big four festivals each year, and now Live Nation controls three of the four.  We'll see how that plays out over time, but I sadly expect even more homogenization of the festivals.  It is already a bummer to have ACL look just like Lolla, but this may make it even harder to have a truly Austin festival in the future.

Kodaline - Coming Up for Air.  If you have been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I fell in love with these dudes last year in listening to them in preparation for ACL 2014.  And then they broke my heart, by pulling out of the Fest (as I recall, because a band member broke an arm or something while riding a motorcycle?).  Anyway, their 2013 album In a Perfect World is a fantastic thing, and so I was pretty excited to check out the new disc.  After a couple of listens, I like it but am not quite so into it as the last one.  This one amps up my Coldplay-o-meter rating with more good arena rock ready for jamming at high volume in front of a huge crowd.  Hopefully they have plans to come make up for last year's diss and play ACL this year.  Here is "Honest," the lead track from the album:

Good song, but it might be the best one on the album.  Also, I have to note that they run off the rails for one song, "Play the Game," which is kind of drum machine pop garbage.    I seriously thought that the album had crossed over to some other band when this one kicked in.  Blech.  "Human Again" is right there on the edge of that as well.  This one is a little uneven, with some good tunes and some missteps.

Project Pat - Mista Don't Play 2 Everythangs Money.  I have no clue how to read that album title. They do have an older album from 2001 called "Mista Don't Play: Everythangs Workin'," so I guess this is a continuation of that amazing title they came up with.  You'd hate to waste something so amazing as "Mista Don't Play." Project Pat is a Memphis rapper who had a minor hit in the early oughts with "Chickenhead."  My wife and I still quote that song to each other every once in a while, 15 years later, as it was on constant rotation on Dallas hip hop radio when we lived there in 2001. "Bwawk bwawk, Chicki Chicki, Bwawk bwawk, Chickenhead!"  Truly revolutionary lyrics.  Pat is also part of Three Six Mafia ("Hard Out Here for a Pimp" and "Sippin' on Some Sizzzurp") with Juicy J.

Similarly, this album is full of good, slow southern beats, with good but repetitive lyrics.  I dig "I Ain't Payem Shit,""Leave Me Alone," and 'Pull a Move."  The most popular song on the album is "Twerk It" with Ty Dolla $ign, Wiz Khalifa, and Wale.

Khalifa's verse is garbage.  Complete throw away.  Wale's is a little better, but not much.  The only way this song is popular because it says twerk in the title.  Eh, this album has a great sound, but if you really pay attention to the individual tracks, its pretty weak.

Miami Horror - All Possible Futures.  Dude.  "Love Like Mine" is a power pop 80's mega-jam.  The background guitar swank sounds like "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," the key-tar sounds like something from Grand Theft Auto's Vice City soundtrack, the hand-clapping beat is unstoppable, and the COWBELL lives.  Stick this on a mixtape with "Uptown Funk" and "Just My Type," and just back up and cover your mouth, because something is going to explode all up on you.

That video makes zero sense at all, but check the jam!  What!?!  "Wild Motion" is a pretty sweet party as well.  The rest of the album is more throw-back, Passion Pit ("Real Slow") and London house ("Cellophane") sounding tunes, none of which come close to touching Love Like Mine, but still pretty fun music.

The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now.  Dylan-esque in sound, if not in lyrical content.  Swedish dude who does some pretty sick acoustic picking, with a growly, nasal voice tone. I've never been much for Dylan, even though I know that brands me as a musical loser with no coolness factor, so this isn't my favorite thing I've ever heard.  However, at the same time, I can appreciate that this is really well done acoustic folk.  "There's No Leaving Now" is beautiful.  The video below isn't music from this most recent (2012) album, but is one of those NPR Tiny Desk concerts, which are really cool.

He's got a slot at Lollapalooza (tenth row!  With the excellent Lord Huron!) this year, so he very well could show up at ACL Fest as well, although I'm not sure how well these nice tunes will translate to a huge stage.  But after a few listens, when I put my Dylan issues behind, I'll admit that this is cool music.  He's got a new album coming out in May, so maybe I'll be able to review that one for an eventual ACL slot.

Quick Hits, Vol. 39 (Peter Bradley Adams, Mindy Smith, Teddy Thompson, Dwight Yoakum)

After spending some time with the Pandora stations we play at home through our Sonos system, I have finally honed one station ("Bluegrass and Chill") into a lean, mean relaxing machine that even the wife enjoys.  As with any Pandora station, it will stumble once in a while, but so long as I stick to it and thumb songs, it has gotten pretty dang good about sticking to the right mood.  The other day at lunch, I got a string of texts from my darling lady who had tapped into a great run of good music on that station, while getting some work done at the house.  I had never heard of 3/4 of the people she mentioned (Dawes, who rule, was the lone exception), so I thought I'd check them out.

Peter Bradley Adams - Leavetaking.  Pandora played "The Longer I Run," from 2008's Leavetaking, and its a fantastic song.  I understand why it caught the wife's ear.

Simple beauty in the music, along with really great lyrics.  Go check the lyrics on this one, and maybe you are made of stone, but I just got goosebumps reading along while I listened.  It's lovely and well done.  The rest of the album is similar stuff - understated and soft spoken but really pretty. "Los Angeles" is also a great tune.  Apparently, this guy was half of a band called eastmountainsouth that was popular during the early oughts and had music on about 30 shows during that time frame.  Never heard of them, but all of this album sounds like something that could easily be used on a TV soundtrack.  Really good disc.

Mindy Smith - Long Island Shores.  I got super excited when first hearing her, thinking this was the vocalist for the Sundays who had started making her own music.  But nope, she is a Long Island raised gal living in Nashville to make really nice country-tinged folky tunes.  The title track sings about leaving Tennessee to go back home to a family reunion.  According to the Wikipedia, she came to prominence by covering Dolly Parton's "Jolene" for a tribute album.  It's a pretty boss cover:

However, that song isn't on this album (although it is familiar, I think it was on a soundtrack somewhere).  Even without that tune, this album is good.  A little more straight Nashville sound than I would normally cotton to, but its got enough bluegrass, folk, and strong vocals to pull me in anyway.  Check "You Just Forgot" for a slow burning beauty.

Teddy Thompson - Up Front and Down Low.  Has the sound of Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak. Check out "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" and tell me that doesn't sound just like a track from Isaak's Forever Blue.  This is a 2007 album, and "Down Low" is the track that Pandora played:

Another smoldering Chris Isaak-y sound there.  Nice, strong voice and good harmonies with a simple country shuffle.  Cool song.  He also does a handful of covers on the album - "Walking the Floor Over You," "She Thinks I Still Care," or "(From Now On My Friends are Gonna Be) Strangers."  I like this find.

Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart.  I like ol' Dwight.  I wasn't listening to country music back in his true heyday, but I got his 1989 greatest collection, Just Lookin' For a Hit, in college so that I could have his duet with Buck Owens on "Streets of Bakersfield," which is a kick ass tune.  And that whole album of hits is good classic honkey-tonk country stuff.  1993's This Time also had some hits on it, but I feel like Dwight hasn't done much of note in 20 years.  I say that, but then a look at the charts shows that an album called 3 Pears peaked at #18 on the US Charts in 2012.  So maybe I'm just not paying that close of attention to the guy.
This one sounds like the old classics, and is pretty dang good.  He rocks a little harder than normal country, and his version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" is fun as hell.  Here is the title track:

I think I like "Made of Clay" better, but all of this is a fine extension of the classic Yoakam sound.

Quick Hits Vol. 38 (Wale, Ludacris, Courtney Barnett, Earthgang)

Wale - The Album About Nothing.  Really a strange move for a rapper, but this album pays homage to Seinfeld.  The cover art looks like the Seinfeld logo, Jerry and Costanza audio happen multiple times throughout the album, and the title tracks the theme of the show.  Weird, right?  Here is part of the taping of the album - apparently Seinfeld helped out with the vignettes.

So it is not just clips from the old show added to the album.  Huh.  But then I look back at his old albums because I'm trying to remember the song he had years ago that was cool, and I see that he did the same thing in 2010 with "More About Nothing" and "The Mixtape About Nothing" from 2008.  So he likes himself some Seinfeld.  Okay.  It actually works really well.  For example, "The Pessimist" opens with Constanza saying his dream is to be hopeless so that he can be attractive to women, and then the song kicks in with Wale hollering about being hopeless.  Here is "White Shoes," with an intro of Jerry saying that wearing white shoes made him feel good.

Then the track is all about feeling good and being alright.  This album is the same - good beats, good rhymes and lyrics.  Has grown on me over the multiple listens.  Oh, and the old song I remembered that he was good on?  Waka Flocka Flame's No Hands:

Yeeeeeaaaahhhh.  That song is awesome.

Ludacris - Ludaversal.  My immediate instinct is to think that Ludacris is a joke.  I don't know why that is, I guess the acting, because I thought 2001's Word of Mouf and 2003's Chicken and Beer were both pretty dang good.  His raps are funny at times, but still hard enough at other times to be more than just a joke.  He's a fan of the ridiculous skit in between songs (this album goes with a guy who took viagra and can't get his dong to relax, and so the 911 operator goes to his house to help him out), but he also gets strong beats and has a really good flow over the top of them.  The most popular songs on this album have Miguel and Usher, respectively, on them doing some R&B crooning, but I liked the track with Big KRIT, Come and See Me:

Oh, and "Beast Mode," which is straight braggadocio, with some really great one liners, and Marshawn Lynch bouncing around in his video, is also a damn solid track.

Good disc.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.  Well deserved mega-buzz songwriter from Down Under.  I ran through her old EPs a few weeks ago, and this one does more of the same to great ends.  If you stop and take the time to listen to the lyrics, these tracks are mostly amazing.  Well, they aren't curing cancer or anything, but they tell stories in wonderful ways, such as the wry and funny "Depreston," that talks about the unpleasantness of looking for a house and having to compromise.

You can hear the conversation about maybe looking a bit further out than where you were looking, but then you can see the blighted area with cops.  Love the line about a two car garage being good for storage.  And the ability to knock it down and start over if you just have half a million.  Its all so simple, but I can see it and love it for that great visualization.  And the music is also a fine chilled rock, kind of like the Real Estate album I liked so much last year.  She also gets more rockin' on other tunes.  "Illustration of Loneliness," "Dead Fox," and "Kim's Caravan" also all sound great and contain really cool visuals.  Excellent album to listen to with the lyrics scrolling.

EARTHGANG - Shallow Graves for Toys.  This is the real damn deal.  I had never heard of these dudes until a few weeks ago when I saw that they had gotten some SXSW buzz, but this 2014 album has some great tunes on it.  Check out "Machete."

Starts out with alien spaceships swiping back and forth, until some clicks break in, and then the bass hits.  If you don't feel the need to nod your head and puff up your chest a little while you bump this, then you need to try again.  Bang it.  His grandad kept a machete tucked off in his sofa!  Yeah!  These guys remind me of The Pharcyde and Outkast.  No song on this album has more than 20k plays on Spotify, and most have low 4 digits, but this is some salty sounding production with cool sounding vocals.  The song right after that on the album, "Bill Campbell's Soup," switches up the sound entirely, going with 70's guitar licks and a New Orleans gumbo funk brass stew.  Sounds very much like old school Outkast, laconic and woozy, with a pound of soul.  "The F Bomb" is the most listened to song on the album, and its good too, but those two tunes above are sooooo good.

Best rap album I've listened to in a while.  If rap is your kind of thing, go give it a spin.

Quick Hits, Vol. 37 (Death Cab for Cutie, Earl Sweatshirt, The Minus 5, GoldLink)

Death Cab for Cutie - Kintsugi.  More great sounding music from Ben Gibbard and his friends.  I loved Transatlanticism and Signs, and still think "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is one of the greatest songs around.  This one follows the same kind of sound, indie rock with good groove.  Here is "Black Sun,"

I feel sad for that guy who keeps getting run over.  Poor guy.  But this album is good.  I don't hear an instant killer hit like IWFYITD, but it is solid.

Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside.  I have never been able to get on board with Sweatshirt.  This album has all the hallmarks of something I would like - cool beats that sound like they are samples and not just synth bloops and trap clicks, with dense lyrics that don't spend the entire album bragging about cash and cars.  And when I really stop and pay attention to the tracks, I think I like them, but each track is so down-tempo and dense that I feel like they all just run together until I miss the fact that I'm 9 songs into the album.

The Minus 5 - Dungeon Golds.  Their official website is intentionally confusing, but I think this band includes Peter Buck from R.E.M., although they also claim to sometimes use members of many other bands, including the Decembrists and Wilco.  Nine albums available on Spotify, and none appear to have been heard very often according to play counts. The website also is copyright "2015 Scott McCaughey (deceased)."  Which seems odd, since that dude still seems to run the band/tour with them now.  Whatever.  Point being, this is classic-sounding rock, in the vein of Tom Petty, the Dead, or old Wilco.  And Cracker.  I hear Cracker.  Each of these tracks is apparently a highlight from a limited-edition vinyl only box set of Minus 5 rare and unreleased material.  I'm so confused right now about what is going on.  What the hell.  They have one track called "It's Magenta, Man!" So I think I am supposed to just be confused, jam this album a few times, and then move on with life.

GoldLink - The God Complex.  I love reading music commentators who turn a hang with an artist into an existential reverie on the human condition.  I read this article/interview the other day about GoldLink, a DC rapper who apparently used to wear a mask all the time when he performed.  I really can't explain the music better than the writer, who called it "bouncy, elastic dance music."  That is exactly right.  Especially "Divine," which is exactly that - squishy, synthy, quick, shifty dance. Reminds me of the MTV Party to Go CDs from the early nineties, where they would remix raps in a dance/house music remix kind of thing.  But that makes it sound like this is bad, and I don't think it is bad.  Definitely different from other rap beats going on these days, but bouncy and fun is pretty cool sounding.  Here is "Sober Thoughts," the most popular track on Spotify:

Use caution with the video for "Ay Ay," unless you work at the kind of place that has no issue with bare assery.  "Sober Thoughts" is less of a fun, bouncy track, but its good nonetheless.  Go check this guy out.

Quick Hits, Vol. 36 (Drenge, Waxahatchee, Sufjan Stevens, Meganaut)

In case you didn't see it, 365thingsaustin.com did a pretty funny April Fools ACL lineup release that a friend actually brought to me to ask if it was real.  By the time I read the third line, I remembered it was April 1.  "Uh, Bob Marley is dead, dude.  So is Stevie Ray."

Drenge - Undertow.  Yes!  Love these dudes.  Thick, meaty rock and roll in the grungy spirit of the early 90's music I once loved.  Their last album (2014's Drenge) was also a good one, and this keeps up the same spirit of basic face-melting with drums, bass, guitar, vocals.  No prissy new wave synth flourishes.  No drum machines or trap clicks.  Just the real deal.

This tune (We Can Do What We Want) is off the new album and it is more Arctic Monkeys-style party rock than the rest of the album (and that video is crazy) but you get the idea.  This is made to rock out and take no prisoners.  Bring it.  Awesome.

Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp.  Fuzzy rock and roll alternative.  I thought their last album was solid and interesting (2013's Cerulean Salt) and this one is likewise really well done.  The band name made me think maybe they were a Texas band, but this is apparently a gal named Katie Crutchfield who named her band after a lake in Alabama.  This is good, crunchy, lo-fi rock.

"The brick house that you built around your cranium, you wear it like a crown"  Nothing fancy, but I dig the sound and lyrics and the whole deal.  Sweet.

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell.  This is not my normal cup of tea, but I have to say that the start of this album is as purely beautiful as anything I have heard in forever.  The softest tenor weaving through plucking guitar (or maybe mandolin?) melody.  Achingly lovely.  I read somewhere that this album is about/dedicated to the death of his mother and memories of her.  If so, this is truly an amazing response to something so sad.  Yeah, the rest of this album is similarly gorgeous.  I rarely go out of my way for pretty things, I want a little more fuzz on my music, but this one is hard to put down.  Here is the second track, "Should Have Known Better"

Meganaut - Meganaut.  Ha!  Speaking of some fuzz, this one opens up with a full-on assault by death-ray guitars.  No song on here has more than a thousand listens, but it is funny, hard-charging garage rock that is actually kind of kick ass.  No frills, no great lyrics, no good voice, just pummeling and snarling and a set of huge swinging balls crushing everything not made of steel.  If you want to take a nap or hold your baby in your arms while cooing sweetly, play Sufjan Stevens.  If you want to irrationally rock out and break things with your pelvis, then play this thing.

Meg White Clothing Primer

I've convinced the wife that we are going to be the White Stripes for an upcoming costume party that requires rock and roll costumes.  She is, unfortunately, not as in to the Stripes as I am, so I am providing her with the following primer on Meg White's role in the world.

The White Stripes came from Detroit and kicked in right about the time of the rest of the garage rock, lo-fi revival scene of the early oughts.  They have a great bluesy rock sound and kind of kicked ass.  Darling, you are probably not a fan of most of their music, as it involves a lot of Jack White torturing his guitar to make otherworldly and awesome sounds. You have likely asked me to stop playing their music before.  Anyway, these two married each other in 1996 (when Jack actually took her last name, dropping his own, Gillis), and formed the band soon thereafter.  But they had a weird thing where they told people that they were brother and sister.  No clue why they did that, but they were actually married. Weird.

Here is "I Can Tell that We are Gonna Be Friends:"

Check out how well she lies there on the couch.  If you need to pass out at the party next week, we can just reference this video and be set.  Red cowboy shirt and white pants.  This was off of their 2001 album, White Blood Cells, and you may remember it from the opening credits to Napoleon Dynamite.  Another popular tune from that album is "Hotel Yorba."

Rocking a red and black dress in that one, and she moves some as well.  Drum that box!

Their next album was huge, and amazing, and was called Elephant.  "Seven Nation Army," "Ball and Biscuit," and "The Hardest Button to Button" are all amazing.  Oh, and "Little Acorns."  And kind of the rest of the whole album.  Here is the biggest hit of their entire career, "Seven Nation Army"

That video is puke mode.  Looks like Meg is rocking white shirt and red pants, and maybe a red dress shirt too, in that video.  Rock and roll.  After Elephant, they released Get Behind Me Satan, and "Blue Orchid" was the big hit off of that album.

Meg rocks a black and red striped clown pirate woman outfit from the old west in that video. Although I bet Amazon sells Whorehouse Pirate Clown Sexy in their costume store, let's not try to go there.  Next album was 2007's Icky Thump.  "Icky Thump," "Conquest," and "Little Cream Soda" all jam. Here is "Conquest."

They wear fo-real, and very expensive looking, matador costumes for this one, so I think we'll stick to the old school outfits for the costume.  After this album, they sadly broke up and Jack White continued to shred on his own and with other bands, but I don't think Meg has done anything musical since.  But, now you have the basic arc of the Meg White experience.

Updated ACL 2015 Lineup Predictions

First, you can go check out my prior thoughts and ideas for how to predict this sort of thing here. Second, a few things have happened since then that make me think some of my predictions are right, while some are not going to happen.

1. I've had two months to let my prior predictions marinate in my head a little bit, and I just don't think we'll see any of the big LiveNation people signed up for ACL as I had hoped for.  I think there would have been some sort of news or Lolla would have tipped us.  I guess I can still hope that we get Madonna over Macca.
2. The Lollapalooza line-up announced.
3. Adequate Man put up an interesting article about how to book a music festival.  I took a look at this and then ran through the list of people with new albums coming out soon.  I couldn't access the Pollstar information because of a paywall, but I'm also not sure how much I can trust this article, seeing how much reliance he/they place on Pitchfork reviews.  But, now I know who has new albums coming out.

Regarding the Lolla line-up, I doubt we will see Sam Smith again since he was here last year.  But I can see the rest of the top headliners coming here, although I hope they are further down the list to make room for some other big names.  Here are a few on the Lollapalooza lineup that I see coming here.

1. Florence and the Machine. Called this one previously, but with the addition to Lolla, and new album coming out in June.  I'm certain it will happen.  I just hope they are down on about line 3.
2. Metallica.  Called this one too, because they had cancelled their own festival that C3 also books. Now that they were booked to play Lolla, this sounds right.  Their touring schedule ends in August, so they are wide open.
3. Sturgill Simpson.  On the Lolla bill, recently played two sold out shows for C3's Stubb's.  Insanely popular right now.
4. Father John Misty.  Same thing for him.
5. Shakey Graves. Lolla date, New album, blowing up right now, and from Austin. 
6. Alt-J, Alabama Shakes, Of Monsters and Men, and A$AP Rocky.  All on the Lolla bill, plus Alabama and Of Monsters each have a new album coming out in the next few months.  Lord Huron.  Gary Clark Jr.  War on Drugs.

But of those, only Metallica should be a top tier headliner.  How about other bands who have new albums coming out in the next few months and could be the big names on the lineup:

1. My Morning Jacket.  Putting out a new album in May, have played kick ass sets at ACL before, and would be a good draw.  Playing Lolla Germany in September, so maybe they are in with the C3 folks and ready to party.
2. Mumford & Sons.  New album coming out in early May, and again, would fill some seats.  Both them and MMJ would be great festival music.  Their concert schedule only goes through August.  But, the official ACL facebook feed recently asked the world if we had listened to the latest from Mumford.  Could be smoke, but I think there is fire here.
3. AC/DC.  Mentioned this one before, but I've now looked at their touring schedule, and it goes to L.A. at the end of September and then pauses for the month of October before picking back up in November in Australia.  Looks like the perfect break to head to Austin and melt faces at the beginning of October.
4. Muse.  Dear Lord, please don't allow this to happen.  But somehow, these dudes are putting out another album in June, and since they traditionally play ACL every single year as the headliner for every single night, won't it happen again?  Death.
5. Coldplay.  New album apparently coming out this summer.  Haven't played ACL in a while.  But, no tour dates on their website.  Doubt it.
6. Less large, but other names with albums coming out that I could see being added: Passion Pit.  Blur.  Zac Brown Band.  Snoop Dogg.  Migos.  Nate Ruess (had fun. in 2013, Bleachers in 2014, so now his turn?). 

Other things that I suspect but have less proof for:

1. Drake.  I still can see this one happening.  Not sure exactly when the new album (Views from the 6) will come out, but I can see him following up Coachella and a new album with another big festival spot.  However, he doesn't have tour dates going that far out (his current tour ends in August) so maybe not.
2. Jack White.  See my old reasoning, mainly because he is booked to play the foreign Lolla shows and ACL needs a rocker.  However, I am working on a costume to dress up as Jack White in a week, and saw something said that he is going to back off of concerts for a while though, so maybe not.
3. If not Jack White, then I can still see the Foo Fighters coming back to be the rock pick, after their good times in Austin for the Sonic Highways deal.  However, as previously stated, their touring schedule includes a show first weekend Sunday night in Atlanta, then two other southern shows that week, which means that they wouldn't be able to be the biggest band closing out the whole weekend.  Which seems wrong to me (but I'm sure not to Joseph).
4. Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters.  Also playing all three of the Lolla South America dates.  Huge name.  But his tour appears to end long before ACL.
5. Dr. Dog.  Purity Ring.  Bad Religion.  Jungle.  Lotus.  Either playing Coachella, Emo's, Stubb's, or I just have a feeling.
6. Hozier.  Playing Coachella, and needs to make up for missing the festival last year. Update: confirmed.
7. Courtney Barnett.  Piles and piles of buzz for new album and her anointing as the greatest songwriter ever in the history of all time forever.  Playing Austin in June, though, so maybe not.

Update: the ACL Fest website links to this blog entry (translate it unless you are cool and know Spanish) which agrees with some of my thoughts (Mumford, Foos, AC/DC, MMJ, Florence), but also adds Bjork.  I literally pumped my fist and said something about creaming when I saw that she might be a possibility.  Please add Bjork.  Please!

Quick Hits, Vol. 35 (Action Bronson, Laura Marling, Chief Keef, The Prodigy)

Before I get to the reviews, a few interesting notes about the blog.  First, I have passed 3,000 views, which is kind of a fun milestone.  Aiming for 5k next!  Second, I keep seeing one particular old post pop up in my stats as being viewed repeatedly.  For ACL 2014, I listened to A Thousand Horses, and put up a post about them that was more or less complimentary, but also made fun of their marketing and website.  Well for the past month, the most popular post for my blog, other than the ACL Predictions post, is that Thousand Horses post.  Sounds like they have a new song out and people are hunting for more information on them.  Odd the way the Internet works.


Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful.  I've talked about Action Bronson before - his Rare Chandeliers mixtape was sincerely boss.  This one is his first real album, and according to Rolling Stone, it was produced by Mark Ronson.  All of that sounds great.  Uptown Funk plus a guy who can create great rhymes about food or being generally badass.  But I just can't get into a groove on this thing.  Actin' Crazy is still tight (see link above for video) but, like "Terry" or "Falconry," they've got a couplet or two that are cool, but a lot is just stream of consciousness random phrases.  "The Rising" is pretty good.  But he does a lot of sing-song action on this thing ("City Boy Blues" or "Baby Blue"), or the track is not much of a beat, more of a pretty song ("Only in America," or "Light in the Addict").  I'm conflicted, because normally I dig a funk song backing up a rapper, but most of this is just not memorable.  Well, that isn't entirely true.  "Actin' Crazy," "Baby Blue," and "Easy Rider" all stuck in my head afterwards, but this is not your typical rap album in the slightest.  Here is Easy Rider:

I mean, that beat and underlying sound is like something out of a spaghetti western movie.  No big bass thump, no trap skitter, no guest verse from Drake.  What?  And I think he rolls into the church from Kill Bill in this video, which is sweet, before a very Bon Jovi-esque guitar solo on some rocks (well, except JBJ is shaped like the Kool Aid Man).  Lyrically, this one goes some strange places, but it also has some cohesion and story, at least for a portion.  I dunno, man.  I wanted to love this thing, but I'm going to have to live with it for a few more listens to see if I can get my head around it.  Right now, not doing it for me.

Bjork.  Super dandelion of death alert!

Check out that cool costume thing!  And those scary boobs in shrink wrap behind lace!

Laura Marling - Short Movie.  Great folky rock from a strong songwriter.  I really liked her album from two years ago called Once I Was an Eagle, but this one comes a little stronger, a little more electric.  Marling's voice is lovely - warm and familiar in tracing beautiful lyrics over the music. "How Can I" and "Easy" have a little Nick Drake sound, and I hear echos of Jeff Buckley in here as well.  Here is the most popular tune, False Hope:

Nothing like the light folk tunes elsewhere on the album (and on Eagle), but a pretty solid rock song. Good disc to chill with on a rainy morning like today.

Chief Keef - Sorry 4 the Weight.  I fear that I am losing my love for rap music.  I can't get behind this, even with generally pretty good beats, it just has a same-ness that becomes brutal to listen to after the 71 minutes required to listen to this album.  So much auto-tune.  So many lines about money and drugs and killing people.  Enjoy "Vet Lungs," the most popular one on Spotify.

Yawn-o-rama.  Nothing on this album sticks to me at all.

The Prodigy - The Day is My Enemy.  More bang crash techno stuff from the Prodigy.  Music for the Jilted Generation and Fat of the Land were both kick ass sources of enjoyment in college.  My friend Jason showed up with Jilted in hand and we wore that disc out for a couple of years until Fat came out.  Fat was their big break into the mainstream, with "Firestarter" and "Smack My Bitch Up" going big in radio and Charlie's Angels movies and commercials and X-Games intros.  Both are still pretty damn great albums when you want to run or angrily dance or drive fast.  The Prodigy did a 2004 album (Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned) that was OK, I remember liking it pretty well, but then their 2009 album (Invaders Must Die) was not good (except for "Stand Up," which is a pretty good jam).  Sorry, not here for a history lesson.  This album is back to the classic sound - I wouldn't put anything on here at par with the best songs from their first two albums, but this stuff has a nasty edge to it, an aggressive pounding, crunching, snarling feel that takes me back and sounds good.

This one sounds like an old Sega game soundtrack, but with bass and chanted lyrics.  This fox and moose combo are hardcore badasses, yo.  Any moose that can explode people's heads with a war cry is pretty excellent.  But while it was fun to reminisce about Prodigy, I think I'll stick with the tried and true classic albums and let this one go.

Line 6 of the Lolla Poster

A couple of weeks ago, I put up a post about the Lollapalooza 2015 line-up, which overall was not my favorite line-up that could have been possible.  I feel like the majority of the first rows of the line-up are not the top level acts that should be at the top of a major festival poster.  As part of that post, I noted that I had never even heard of the four artists found on the 6th level of the Lolla poster.  Which seems odd, because that should still be the pretty well known bands, right?  Last year's ACL poster had Jimmy Cliff, St. Vincent, Phantogram, and Juanes on that line.

Anyway, its time to remedy that issue and give these folks a shot.  Without further ado, here are Kygo, Carnage, Twenty One Pilots, and G-Eazy.

Kygo.  No albums available on Spotify, just a handful of singles and remixes.  Interestingly, no bio available on Spotify either.  His website says "Tipped by Billboard Magazine as the ‘the next EDM superstar’, Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, a.k.a KYGO, has gone from bedroom producer to one of the most hyped electronic artists on the planet in unprecedented time." So, I guess that means he is Swedish or Norwegian or something?  Any name with the ghostbusters slash o is pretty sweet, but this goof dropped it out!  Come on!

This guy does electronic music, and it is apparently insanely popular, with over 131 million spins of a track called Firestone.  Its all about rollover accidents and suing for defective tires.  Oh, no?  Not surprisingly, it is about being alive and in love and lighting up the world with just the power of your hearts.  No surprise to anyone here, but this sounds like a ringtone with loads of bass thump and the kind of chorus that a stadium-full of Europeans could "wooaaaahhh ooohhhh" along with.  The main tune reminds me of something from a children's TV show about irrationally happy bunnies or monkeys or something.  This is not good.  Huh.  The second most popular song (Stole the Show) also has a pan flute-sounding musical element that sounds like it belongs on a Diddy Kong game.  And the third most popular track (the "Ultra Music Festival Anthem") also has a similar vibe.  Oh, and Christmas-y jingle bells happen in these songs as well. Hope this guy doesn't sign up to come to Austin, or if he does, he is opposite someone I want to see.

Carnage.  Rap DJ.  Er, according to the web, he is a Guatemalan "trap sensation."  No clue what that means.  And here is an apparent joke that he tried to stage dive and killed three people?  Fat joke? Really?  Well, whatever he is, this song below with the rappers Migos is pretty dope.

That one has almost 5 million spins on Spotify.  He also has a I Like Makonnen track ("I Like Tuh"), one with A$AP Ferg and some other dudes ("WDYW"), and several EDM instrumentals with people I've never heard of like Borgore and Tony Junior.  Not sure how he should be classified, but seems to do EDM music unless he has a rapper on board, when he goes more traditional rap music.  I dig that Migos track, could do without the rest, but will say that his traditional EDM bass drop music sounds right in line with everyone else, if you are into that stuff.

Twenty-One Pilots.  This is crap.  Kind of EDM-y, kind of earnest piano rock, kind of Linkin Park rap/rock, with plain bad rap added in for good measure.  Two 2015 singles, "Tear in my Heart" and "Fairly Local" to follow up two albums and a Spotify Sessions from SXSW. Here is "Tear in my Heart,"

"The songs on the radio are OK, but my taste in music is YOUR FACE."  Mmmmkay.  Yeah, and that might be an improvement over the most popular songs on Spotify from the last album.  This reminds me of bad Good Charlotte.

G-Eazy.  Rap.  His Spotify bio says he is known as the "James Dean of rap."  Vomit.  His 2014 album These Things Happen has millions of plays per song, with one - "I Mean It" - cracking 20 million.

That tune is dope.  Auto-tune is annoying, but I'm going to let it slide in favor of the chilly beat, good lyrics (about humping your girlfriend!  Sick burn!), and funny video.  His album is kind of up and down uneven, going from light R&B garbagio ("Let's Get Lost") to dumb concepts ("Tumblr Girls") to soft-core guitar crap ("Remember You") to pretty good, if overly repetitive, rap ("Lotta That" with A$AP Ferg or "Far Alone" with E-40).  He also has a remix of "I Mean It" with Rick Ross on it that is a fine remake.  "Been On" is also pretty slick.

I think I rank the contestants of line 6 in the following order:
1. G-Eazy.
2. Carnage's track with Migos.
3. Kygo.
4. Carnage's tracks without Migos.
5. The silent spaces in between the names on line 6 of the poster.
6. Twenty-One Pilots.

Classics: R.E.M.

I love old R.E.M.  They were, without any doubt, my favorite band for years until grunge hit and I realized I liked a harder sound as well.  I think that when you are young, you'll really try to plant your flag in a band to try to be the biggest fan in the world (or at least prove to friends that you are the biggest fan), so I spent years obsessing over these guys.  Well, and Midnight Oil and John Cougar Mellencamp and other less exciting bands, so maybe I'm actually a terrible resource.  I was about to try to pick an album and detail why it was a classic, but I think I need to unpack all of the albums over their amazing run.

Until their surprise breakup in 2011, they were back to making some good music again after a few lean years in the middle.  I'm still kind of bummed that they broke up, even if they just aren't the same band now as they were back in the late 80's and early 90's.  But here's hoping that they'll reconvene with each other for a big ACL headlining slot this fall!  Here we go, in my order of preference.

Automatic for the People.  1992.  Hard to believe this one came out the next year after Out of Time. Hell of a good run for any band.  While I still have a soft spot for Green because it was my first favorite, this one has to be up there in the top ten to twenty albums of all time for me.  Four time platinum, lost out to the dumb Bodyguard soundtrack for the Album of the year Grammy in 1994, and lost to U2's Zooropa for Alternative Album of the Year.  Reminds me so much of high school and the pain and pleasure of trying to figure out who you are and what you want to be and what is love.  Great production, and seriously, not a bad song in the bunch.  Maybe "Ignoreland" is the weak link with its yelped lyrics about God-knows-what.

"Everybody Hurts" or "Man on the Moon" are the two big hits, and they're worth every bit of accolade they get - "Everybody Hurts" is just about as perfect of a pop hug for the world as I can think of.  Especially when it kicks in at the end and you actually feel lifted up, like it really is going to be OK, and you really can hold on, and it really is going to be better.  Phenomenal song.  "Drive" is the ominous opener that sets the tone for the rest of the album - except maybe for the odd "Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" - this one has darker sounds than most other REM albums.  Same with "Sweetness Follows" - the deep, sawing strings and spare strumming with a little organ leave plenty of room for a sad tune about trying to buck up when the little things want to pull you under.

I think my favorite tune on the album is "Nightswimming," which just evokes so many memories for me and takes me back to that uncomfortable world of high school.  Earnest piano, strings, some oboe fired up in there, and with lyrics perfectly capturing the discomfort and fear of stepping out into that water and putting yourself out there.  "Not sure all these people understand, not like years ago, fear of getting caught..."

Green.  1988.  This was the first CD I ever bought, at the old Sound Warehouse on Burnet, just north of 45th street.  It was still early in the time of that technology, so I didn't actually have a player of my own, but my mom had one in her sewing room so that she could listen to the three or four classical CDs she owned.  I commandeered the player and would do my homework in her sewing room with this CD taking me from introspective burners to exuberant dance, all within the same framework of tuneful pop rock.  I don't know how many times I listened to the album, but I sang "World Leader Pretend" like it was my anthem, learned the super lame "Stand" dance, and actually read encyclopedia entries to better understand "Orange Crush."

Oh man, that video is awesome 80's-ness.  Such a terrible dance, but I remember doing it for the whole song at camp dances, mainly just to prove that I was a hardcore, awesome fan who knew the dumb dance. Ugh.  I still love this album today.  Really not a bad song on the whole thing.

This was also one of my first concerts ever, at the Frank Erwin Center, in probably 1989 or 1990.  Holy crap.  The internet is insane.  Here is the setlist for that show, apparently on March 21, 1989.  Unbelievable.  I recall it being a great show, and there being this insane video playing behind them during "Its the End of the World as We Know It" that was like a roller coaster at warp speed.

Out of Time.  1991.  This one was an instant classic.  From including a rap in their opening track (Radio Song), which was relatively groundbreaking for this type of band at the time, to the world dominating popularity of the heart-on-the-sleeve "Losing My Religion," to the silly fun of "Shiny Happy People," this one was all over the map stylistically, but it still came together.  For reasons that only the teenager me would recall, I spent like $100 on this CD so that I could get a special "limited edition" version (btw, so stupid) that included a longer cardboard case you had to tie shut with strings, 10 artwork postcards by God knows who, and a disc that looked like woodgrain.  A fool and his money are soon parted - and it was super annoying to try to get that case onto my CD rack in my bedroom, it was always falling out and being generally annoying.

I think every single song on this is great.  The moody simplicity of "Low" is one of my favorites, but I think the joy and release of "Near Wild Heaven," which still demands that I move when I hear it. I've put that tune on many a mixtape back in the day.  I also feel like I am really good at singing the "Ooooooooohhhhhh" portions of "Belong."  True story.

Life's Rich Pageant.  1986.  My sweet grandmother, having no idea what a CD was, actually bought me my first CD player - a Sony Discman that is about an inch and a half thick and square as a giant's coaster. Along with that purchase, I was able to pick two CDs and I chose this and Murmur.  I've never stopped listening to it since.  "Fall on Me" was the big hit, "Superman" was the non-sensical favorite, but I would again submit that there is not a dud on the whole thing.  The rocking borders on punk, between "Begin the Begin" and "These Days," but then "Fall on Me" and "Cuyahoga" dip back into the cooler, more relaxed band that became huge in the early 90's.  "I Believe" is a perfect example of the carefree, fun rock and roll that these guys made on this album:

From banjo into a straight rock groove.  Still a great sing-a-long, even almost 30 years after it came out.

Document.  1987.  Such a top to bottom classic album.  Hard to believe it ends up fifth on this list. "Finest Worksong," "End of the World as We Know It," and "The One I Love" are indelible slices of the lasting rock library and still get play on the radio today.  Seriously, "One I Love" is such a great great tune.  Especially when you are like 12 and love is the most important thing ever and you can yell "Fiiiyaaaaaaaaahh!" in the middle of a song about the one you love.  Then you get funky jams like "Exhuming McCarthy," introspective rock tenderness like "Disturbance at the Heron House," or weird stuff like "Oddfellows Local 151."  This is what rock and roll sounded like to me for a long time.

Reckoning.  1984.  This album is beautiful.  Takes the simple rock of Murmur and increases the harmonies and tightness to make some truly great songs.  "Harborcoat," "So. Central Rain," and "Rockville" are all classics.  Some alt-country-ness pokes out on here, as does more punk sound than I recalled as a kid, but overall these songs are tight pop rock that hold up ridiculously well for an album that is over thirty years old.  Mumford & Sons or the Decemberists could cover this whole disc and a pile of younger folks would love it without knowing it was written three decades ago by some weirdos from Georgia.  Seriously, "Rockville" is directly in the wheelhouse of the Decemberists.

"Little America" rocks.  "Pretty Persuasion" rocks with some funk as well.  I think that was always R.E.M.'s secret weapon - the slightly funky bass of Mills that weaves in and around the songs unlike most rock and roll outfits of the time.  Anyway, this is a great disc.

Murmur.  1983.  After my grandmother bought me this disc, I recall taking it to my great-grandmother's house in the tiny town of Eldorado, where there wasn't just a ton to do, for a week in the summer. Each day, we would drop by the post office to get mail, maybe go by the little grocery to talk and buy a few things, maybe drop by the bank so I could get a piece of candy (er, maybe she was depositing things too), and then by the tiny little library so I could exchange books.  Seriously, this library probably had a thousand books, and was set in the bottom corner of the courthouse in the center of town.  Then I'd go set up shop in a back bedroom with my discman, some crappy little tinny speakers, this CD, and a weathered Hardy Boys or some similar book to read for the afternoon as the sun streamed through the windows and splayed shadows across the ancient bedspreads. Great memory of that.

Anyway, this album is beautiful as well.  "Radio Free Europe" or "Talk About the Passion" were the hits from the disc, but they are all pretty dang good.  "Perfect Circle" has always been one of my favorites - longing piano ballad with odd, cryptic lyrics.  The album as a whole is quieter than what comes later for the band, but I can only imagine how great it was to discover this new band based on this album.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi.  1996.  I always have liked this album.  I think it has a cool, laid back sound that is unlike most of their other music.  I don't recall any of these making it big on radio - maybe "E-Bow the Letter" or "Bittersweet Me" did, but I love the opener "How the West was Won and Where it Got Us."

The album was not a commercial success, but I still dug it.  Reminds me of moving into my first house in college.

Dead Letter Office.  1987.  This was a B-Sides collection that includes a couple of great covers - Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic, Velvet Underground's Pale Blue Eyes, Femme Fatale, and There She Goes Again, Roger Miller's King of the Road - that I loved when I was a kid.  I remember thinking that Velvet Underground must be amazing because of Pale Blue Eyes, and I've been unable to rectify that childhood belief despite loads of attempts to appreciate VU.  Covers aside, it has a fine selection of songs that didn't make the album cut for Murmur, Fables, Reckoning, or Pageant.  "Burning Down" or "Ages of You" are great classics.  I also always dug "Voice of Harold" because, until Primus, no one used the name Harold (my grandfather, father, and brother's name) in song.  Walter's Theme also rocks.  Amazing this was just a b-sides collection...

Accelerate.  2008.  Faster, harder, better than their other output in the 2000's.  By far the best thing they did after Berry left the band.  The opener "Living Well is the Best Revenge" is a punky rip, then the second tune "Man Sized Wreath" rocks while kind of sounding like an old-school Stipe rap.  Most of the album is upbeat, driving, rock.  "Supernatural Superserious" was the "hit" from this album, but it didn't even make a million spins on Spotify.  But I think my favorite on here is the sad Katrina homage of "Houston," singing a song about the refuges from Katrina finding someplace to go after New Orleans got hammered.  This album reminds me of Monster because it swerves back into more straightforward rock.

Monster.  1994.  Here is where I think the band lost their way.  They went from the powerful, understated, moody music of Automatic and Out of Time, and decided to just rock the hell out instead.  I clearly remember coming home from college for something or other and playing this disc for my sister, who was like "This is R.E.M.?  No its not, who is this?"  "What's the Frequency, Kenneth," "Star 69," "Crush with Eyeliner," "Bang and Blame," these were all rock bordering on punk that was a long way off from their older music.  This album went 4 times platinum, but I think it was solely based on everyone wanting to buy Automatic for the People II, and I bet you can find 3 million copies of this disc in used bins all over the world now.  All of that being said, its not a bad album, I just think this is when the albums stop being great from start to finish and more up and down.

Collapse Into Now.  2011.  The swan song of the once great band.  After this album, they announced their breakup.  "Blue" sounds like one of the low burners from Automatic for the People time, until it kicks back in with the guitar riff from "Discoverer," the upbeat album opener.  Not sure why they did that, but it sounds confusing, like you accidentally left the album on loop.  The album also includes a track called "Mine Smell Like Honey," which can only mean that Stipe has the best smelling gas on the planet.  I have no clue what this song is really about.  The chorus repeats that his smell like honey, then sings to dig a hole deeper and climb a mountain steeper, then track a trail of honey through it all.  Yep, no clue.  But its a pretty groovy rocker with a silly line you can sing!

Around the Sun.  2004.  Definitely better than Up or Reveal, but still far below their classics.  That being said, other than the Q-Tip rap on "The Outsiders," this is pretty good, tuneful music.  But nothing in here really lights up and sticks to your memory.  The band apparently wasn't so into it - Wikipedia includes this fine recommendation from Peter Buck, saying this album "... just wasn't really listenable, because it sounds like what it is, a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can't stand it anymore."  Ouch.

Fables of the Reconstruction.  1985.  I'm almost sure that I ended up buying this CD during those wonderful halcyon days of the BMG Music Club, but I know for sure that I first got a copy of the album by checking out a vinyl copy from the Howson Branch Library and making a tape of it on my sweet Panasonic all-in-one:

Aw yeah!  (not actually mine, but similar if not the same type)  Before Napster, I just had the exceedingly slow ability to pirate by diligently sitting next to a stereo like that to make a scratchy version of a library's record album.  Beauty.  This album was never my favorite of theirs, it feels much darker, understated, less bright and adventurous.  "Driver 8" is the hit from the album, and "Feeling Gravity's Pull" is another standout track.

Reveal.  2001.  Better than Up, but not good enough to climb out of the cellar.  I liked "All the Way to Reno," reminds me of Adventures in Hi-Fi, and "Imitation of Life" is good too, but those sound like what I expect to get out of R.E.M.  Tunefulness, a good bass line, clever lyrics, and some feeling. A lot of this goes too far away from the reason you like R.E.M. and just becomes a Michael Stipe solo project.  But at least this one is closer to their core sound than Up.  This one just has a weird vibe, like its intended to be a concept album but there was no discernible concept.

Up.  1998.  Like when U2 decided it needed to change its sound, except U2 pulled it off and made some awesome electronic-tinged albums, while these don't work at all.  The opener ("Airportman") sounds like something from the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack, and most of these are just not memorable or are actively annoying ("Hope").  Not bad, but come on, when you are still riding high off of one of the most popular albums of the mid-90's, to have an album with multiple songs with less than 100k listens?  No one cared about this disc.  I bet if you could graph listens to songs, there would be a slow, downward slide from Out of Time and Automatic for the People on down over time to this and Around the Sun, before the slight renaissance of Accelerate and Collapse Into Now.  All of that complaint being said, I think that the real reason that their sound changed and they got lame is that Bill Berry left the band.  Berry was the drummer, the driving beat of the band, and they replaced him with a robot for this album, and it was an unfortunate thing.  Anyway, on this album, I kind of like "Daysleeper" and "The Apologist."  And I've obviously listened to this album quite a bit back in the day, because I still can sing along to songs despite not having played the album in probably 15 years.  Weird.

Quick Hits Vol 34 (Lupe Fiasco, Mourn, Future Brown, Milky Chance, Houndmouth)

Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth.  I have not been a fan of Fiasco for a while.  I feel like his last few albums have been very uneven, with a good tune or two and then a lot of meandering mediocre.  They also have weird themes about The Man in the Moon or something.  This one is varied as well, but I think in a good way.  It has some jazzy tracks (check out "Mural," clocking in at almost 9 minutes), a bluegrass tune ("Dots & Lines"), some weird instrumentals, and then a few great bangers. Love "Chopper"

One of those classic crew cuts where a pack of guys get a great beat laid down underneath them and then everyone takes turns tearing it up.  Love a good crew cut - Black Sheep's "Pass the 40," Geto Boys' "Bring it On," and Tribe Called Quest's "Scenario" remix are all killer stuff.  I've never heard of any of the other dudes on this (Billy Blue, Buk of Psychodrama, Trouble, Trae tha Truth, Fam-Lay, & Glasses Malone), but the beat kicks ass and each one brings it.  Pretty good album.  I'll keep it around for a while.

Mourn - Mourn.  Dark 90's alternative revival on this 2014 album from Spanish teens.  Female lead singer has a Siouxie vibe, and the music is raw, loose garage-y jangle and crunch.  Here is Otitis:

Definitely look like children.  That bass player looks like a 13 year old extra from a Disney show. Anyway, their tunes are pretty cool, although that one (the only "official video" I found) is not my favorite of the batch.  I liked "Dark Issues" and "Silver Gold" pretty well.  Good but not great.

Future Brown - Future Brown.  I forget who suggested this, but my recollection is that some website or magazine said this is the best rap album of the year or something.  Entirely untrue and false.  This is garbage.  I think that it is telling when the first track on an album has 311,000 spins, and then nothing else cracks 50k.  Because, like me, after you hear the first track, you'd rather find something else to listen to.  Kind of electronic music with rap and some jenky R&B.  Entirely forgettable.

Milky Chance - Sadnecessary.  They remind me of the good portions of Alt-J, slightly dance-y indie alternative with a talk-y sort of singer.  You've likely heard "Stolen Dance" if you listen to the radio:

Not my favorite tune in the world, but that may be because of radio overplay.  Pretty poppy alternative guitar over the top of beat machines.  But that video has ONE HUNDRED THIRTY THREE MILLION freaking views on YouTube.  And the track has over 180 million spins on Spotify.  So what the hell do I know?  Its apparently the greatest song since Stairway to Heaven.  The rest of the album is pretty similar beats and guitars.  I think Sadnecessary is also on the radio some right now.  Anyway, I wanted to love this group because a friend had said their live show was kick ass.  I just can't get fully on board.

Houndmouth - Little Neon Limelight.  Excellent jammy, country-tinged rock.  One of those groups (like Of Monsters & Men or Lumineers) where it seems like ten people are singing on half of the tracks.  But these tunes hop into a groove and rock it with short-ish (almost everything under 4 minutes) jams.  Also reminds me of Bright Light Social Hour, which I dig.  Fun music that sounds like it would be a blast in person.  I wanted to find "15 Years," because its a good example of my explanation, but "Sedona" appears to be their most popular tune and the only real video:

I like the lines about your neon glowing brighter, a "Saturday night kind of pink."  They have a lot of party tunes that should be great live, and a few slower burners that are also good.  I think you should check this band out.

Sturgill Simpson - April 2, 2015 - Stubb's

If you've been reading me in the past, then you know I dig on some Sturgill Simpson.  He does classic country sounds like nobody else in the game right now.  Well, maybe Jamey Johnson is in the same league, but Sturgill's game is on point.

He took the stage around 9 and started off really slow.  Pretty chilled, relaxed straightforward country for a bit.  Then he kicked in some bluegrass-y breakdown hoedown tunes and got the crowd rockin' with him.  Speaking of rocking, his guitarist can freaking shred.  The dude (Laur Joamets) is apparently Estonian, and can jam.  Like, I bet he could throw down some metal-head thrash at any time, but he is fantastic live with this band.  Really cool.

The crowd, predictably, went crazy for The Promise, but I thought my favorite tune of the night was Long White Line.  Great, classic tune.  A trucker singing about missing a lady?  Love the line "If somebody want to know what's become of this so and so."  This video not from Stubb's, but you'll get the idea.

And speaking of the crowd, I can't recall a whiter show I've been to.  Like, ever.  So many trucker hats and hipster country-ness on the dudes, and loads of ladies in skirts and boots.  I also ran in to loads of people I know, which was different than the last few shows I've done.  Not many old camp friends or late-30's parents hanging at the Skrillex concert...  Anyway, fun show - he's a great, understated showman who took care of his business.

Quick Hits, Vol. 33 (purity ring, George Ezra, Kid Rock, EARTHGANG)

purity ring - another eternity.  Excellent alternative electronic music.  Heavy dosage of hip hop influence and low end sounds in here, along with a really fine singing voice.  Kind of like Chvrches. Hottest song right now is "begin again."

I have no clue if I am supposed to be using all lower case letters, but that is how they are written on Spotify, so I'll give them the e.e. cummings-esque benefit of the doubt.  But check that out - its got some of the skittering trap sounds and thump of rap, but with the synths and soft-touch voice of electronic chill.  Loving this album.

George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage.  I've given this one a few spins, and just can't get behind it. Generally pleasant folky pop that kind of reminds of Ray Lamontagne, with one song that is on the radio quite a bit here around Austin.  "Budapest"

I mean, it is just about impossible to hate on that - it is a perfectly nice little strum-along love song. And yet, I'm just not all that interested.  He is included on the Lolla 2015 lineup, so I'd bet $20 I will be revisiting him in a few weeks for the ACL 2015 lineup.

Kid Rock - First Kiss.  Oh damn, this is horrible crap.  Cheesy treacle, sounds like new Nashville country rock.  When Kid Rock first came out and blasted us with raunchy, raw, party rock, that was excellent stuff.  American Badass, Bawitdaba, Cowboy, Roving Gangster?  Even though they are rap/rock, which is highly out of style now, they still bring fun, cocky heat.  This new garbage though? Those big balls of steel have been cut right off and replaced with wimpy riffs, drum machines, and an earnest singing voice that would get its ass kicked by the old Rock.

Remember Bryan Adams?  Yeah, how much does that sound like a big, fat, terrible rip-off of Summer of '69?  And some of that garbage new Nashville country that talks about falling in love and Chevy Trucks and drinkin' on a Tuesday.  Ugggghhh.

Earthgang - Torba.  Laid back Atlanta rappers, some of which sounds a lot like Big Boi.  The album runs through a song for each day of the week, and I think Wednesday does it the best (even though Monday, with Mac Miller, and Friday, with OG Maco, are more listened to tracks).  This one is funky and has some classic sampling to go with their nice flow.

Pretty good for something I've never heard of or seen anywhere before...

Mackned - Cyber Magicka.  Speaking of stuff no one has ever heard of before, I present Mackned. Who said Seattle wasn't a rap hotbed?  First, Sir Mix-a-Lot busted out the Posse on Broadway, then Thrift Shop took the world by storm a few years back, now I give you Mackned.  This is "Rookie of the Year."

I have a strange feeling that the NBA licensing department didn't give them permission to use game footage for that video.  The second song on this album says that his buddies are smoking weed, sipping lean, and "serving Katy Perry," and I'm not entirely sure what that means.  Maybe selling coke?  That is my guess.  Because Katy Perry is white and stuff.  Seattle is so HARD!  Anyway, this is enjoyable rap - entirely devoid of good storytelling, but enjoyable nonetheless for having rock solid beats.  Only one of his tracks has more than 1,000 listens on Spotify, but this is just as enjoyable as most of the other plain, current rap out there.