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.