I have made my way through more than half of the bands coming for this year's ACL,* and wanted to take a break to set out a few thoughts that may only be partially related to ACL:
How fun is the lineup for the Free Press Summer Festival? Happening in Houston in a week and a half, and they boast Weezer, Skrillex, The Decemberists, St. Vincent, Mastodon, Tears for Fears (!), Gary Clark, Jr., Chance the Rapper, Band of Horses, Flogging Molly, Diarrhea Planet, and Ben Kweller, among others. If you treat it like ACL's new missing headliners lineup, that is pretty fun sounding.
Check out "Welcome to Houston," playing that festival, which is an all-star group of Houston rap royalty. Sweet. If only they had gotten Bushwick Bill.
Speaking of other festivals, am I right in thinking that ACL should be considered top 3 or 4 in the US? I feel that way, that we are in the top 4 mix with Bonnaroo, Lolla, and Coachella. Right? Now, go check out the Governor's Ball lineup, some rando festival I've never heard of before that started a few years ago, who scored ACL "headliners" Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Deadmau5, but then also tacked on The Black Keys(!), My Morning Jacket(!!), Bjork(!!!), and Ryan Adams, as well as a pack of other headliner worthy material like Lana Del Rey (minus one !) and Noel Gallagher, and then a ton of good lower tier stuff like War on Drugs, The Decemberists, St. Vincent, Death from Above 1979, Tame Impala, Sturgill Simpson, J. Roddy Walston, Moon Taxi, Benjamin Booker, and many more. Damn! Pretty awesome lineup. They stole our headliners!
Also of note, in comparing the posters for Governors and ACL, note where Sturgill Simpson rates: 4th row on ACL; 9th row on Governors.
Entirely unrelated to ACL, but I finally watched the Kurt Cobain documentary "Montage of Heck." Thought it was great, although it made me so very sad. Just seems like Cobain got a crap deal as a kid, and then aimed for a better life, but then couldn't figure it out once he got something better than he had. Oh, and heroin is really stupid. You should go check that out. The music in it is so good, and I loved the way they integrated old notebooks, home video, recordings, etc. into a cool story.
Also unrelated to ACL, read an interesting article about the relevance of U2 and liked this one quote from Adam Clayton: “I think, sadly, what we’re seeing happen is, albums as collections of music had a cultural significance that told a story and connected people, [and] now have social media filling that role. Music no longer has that social or political place in the community. It’s become a novelty and a soundtrack because I don’t think there’s any real invested loyalty anymore. It’s a different relationship.” Totally agree - I feel like everyone used to know the same music, and now its all so segmented that people don't relate to each other through it the way we used to.
I was bummed to see that the massive rains and wind hammered one of the big trees next to the Rock Island at Zilker.
In good news from that bad news, I can finally get that kite out of the top limbs my son got caught in there at the Kite Festival 6 years ago. Suck it, anti-Giving Tree! These rains have been insane down here.
*If you are counting at home, I know I haven't published 'm not half way yet, but know that I have written more than I have published so that I can keep up with a somewhat regular publishing schedule even while out of the office for a week in a few weeks. Now quit being creepy and counting!
Stay dry out there - I'll get back to work on the music listening!
High energy indie rock. In the wheelhouse of Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand, and I also hear some punk-ish Sleater-Kinney or Fugazi or Firehose flavor in here. I have never heard of the band before in my life, but they were able to snag good festival slots in the past as well as a nomination for the 2012 Mercury Prize (like the top album Grammy for Brit bands). And they are opening for Mumford now. I'm hooked. Love their sound.
English band, and according to Wikipedia, they got their name by "flicking" through the Bible and picking out a random word. I was wondering why they chose that weird word as their name - now we know. Just so you'll know what these flickers are all about, the Maccabees "were the leaders of a Jewish rebel army that took control of Judea, which at the time had been a province of the Seleucid Empire." Rebel army leaders. Like Admiral Ackbar, but you don't get sued by Lucas for calling yourself the Maccabees.
Sadly, Spotify doesn't have all of their albums. Wikipedia says that the band has 2007's Colour It In, 2009's Wall of Arms, and 2012's Given to the Wild, with another album (Marks to Prove it) coming out this year. All Spotify has to offer is the 2007 album. Sad-face. But it is a blast of an album.
My favorite tune comes in at fourth place in the popularity index on Spotify - called "X-Ray," with 1.12 million listens.
Urgent and fun rock and roll. Their most popular song on Spotify (obviously also from that album) is called "Toothpaste Kisses" and has about 8.6 million spins.
Not sure how that one got to be so popular, kind of a weird sound with only one little, short chunk of lyrics. Nice little love poem and all, but they take up about 30 seconds of the 2.5 minute song. Must have been featured on Girls or something.
The top song on their YouTube page is the title song from the upcoming Marks to Prove It, and it fires me up. That opening blast and scream is fun stuff.
And then they go all trippy with the underwater sounds at the end. Fun tune. I'd jam it again for sure. I might be reaching my video overload limit here, but because my niece is named Ayla, I have to present you with "Ayla," from 2012's Given to Wild.
Going a little more arena sound now than back in the original album days. Not sure I like it quite as much.
Aaaaand if you have eight extra minutes you don't know what to do with, here is a short film named after their 2012 album:
Pretty weird. Not sure that is necessary. BUT, I do think you should go jam their original album on Spotify and get a taste for yourself. I've got them penciled in to enjoy at the fest as well.
Dark-sounding electronic pop. Like a depressing sounding Chvrches from last year's lineup. She has one EP of five songs, and then a handful of remixes of those songs. All but one of those tracks has over a million spins on Spotify, and the top one has over six million, so she's getting some buzz. That top song, "Ghost" is here:
That girl be cray, yo. According to Billboard, she was the most mentioned artist on Twitter during this year's SXSW. If you want to go deep into the rabbithole of insanity that is pop teen fandom, go search for Halsey with Five Seconds of Summer (or 5sos if you are super cool like me) and descend into the insanity. Apparently, like, Halsey took a Instagram with Ashton from 5sos, but Ash was like totally supposed to be in love with me, cause he said so in that one song I bought, and now I'm so confused and scared that he may not like me anymore, but it was gonna be 4eva, and what if he doesn't and I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!! <emoticon hearts and knives and guns and bombs x infinity>
The second most listened to song is called "Hurricane," and I think I like it better than "Ghost." Clocks in at 1.8 million Spotify listens and 870k YouTube watches.
Woah! That video was a prequel to the other one! Mind blown!
I just checked her website, and this, literally, is her entire bio: "I am Halsey. I will never be anything but honest. I write songs about sex and being sad." Ugh. Hollywood Sadcore time. These few tunes are fine - I like them well enough - but I doubt I'll try to go see her play at the festival.
[Updated on 7/24/15] She has released two new singles, presumably off of an upcoming album to be released soon. The most recent one, "New Americana," is a youth anthem with a pretty catchy chorus about being the new Americana, high on legal marijuana, raised on Biggie and Nirvana. I actually like it.
I can see that being a crowd pleaser at the festival - all the children raising their various marijuana accouterments to the sky to cheer their role in the new America.
Kiddie Limits. If you don't smile a little bit while listening to a rap version of "If You're Happy and You Know It," then you need to go hang with the Grinch in his mountaintop cave. Sadly, I don't see a video of that particular track, which is his most popular on Spotify with a little over 18k listens. But, I can provide you with this lovely alphabet rap, surprisingly titled "The Alphabet Song"
Thanks for saying "J" is for "Jack," my friend. His damn smile is so big near the end of that video, it is a little bit terrifying. His flow reminds me of Biz Markie. Oh, man, and there is one for Humpty Dumpty, which is comedy gold as well.
Take it easy, you're starting to wobble! Humpty! Get off da wall! Humpty! You might fall! That is excellent stuff. "Itsy Bitsy Spider" sounds like a creeper - that's a gangster spider, yo. "He creepy crawly y'all! He crawl across tha wall!" "At the Zoo! We at the Zoo! This is what we do at the Zoo!" So many fun things!
I'll give the guy points for some originality in making kid rap, this is funny stuff. For your information, the guy is apparently part of the Austin Music Hall of Fame. I'm not going to go see him do his thing, but I appreciate the fact that he exists.
Holy crap. I made fun of my friend Chad the other day for saying that I needed to ditch ACL Fest in favor of the Fun Fun Fun Fest. Was I wrong? After the surge of adrenaline and excitement I just got by reading this line-up, I feel like I may have been wrong. An aside, why does their website suck so damn bad? I can never get it to work with my browsers except for my phone.
Highlights:
Jane's Addiction playing Ritual in its entirety? While Nothing's Shocking is my favorite, I listened to Ritual de lo Habitual about a million times in high school after my sister Sharon introduced it to me. "Ain't No Right" likely took a large chunk of my hearing away from me because of the huge headphones I used to blare it straight into my eardrums while feeling very tough. And "Three Days," I might have to pay a videographer to come with me to tape that song so that I can re-watch it over and over.
Wu Tang Clan! The freaking Wu Tang Clan!! I don't know what lineup this will include, but come on, having the whole living portion of the Clan together would be better than all the rappers named for ACL if they were combined like Voltron.
D'Angelo. I figured ACL would score him - with his hot new album full of funky goodness. Instead, FFF has him.
L7 (Wargasm!!!), Chvrches, Schoolboy Q, Afrika Bambaataa, OFF!, Cheap Trick (I want you, to want ME!), and then a bunch of cool lower tier stuff, like Alvvays, Speedy Ortiz, BadBadNotGood (with WuTang on the bill, I bet they get some Ghostface!), Viet Cong, Benjamin Booker, Joey Bada$$, Parquet Courts, Rae Sremmurd...
And I don't even really know other bands that people are excited about, like top biller for the Black Stage, Venom, or RIDE, NOFX, Drive Like Jehu, etc.
Unfortunately, this is one month after ACL Fest (Nov. 6-8), which means I'm going to have to do something serious to get a hall pass. Why can't they put their fest in April? But if I could see Wu Tang and Jane's Addiction, I might die happy.
Rap. Excellent rap. So very glad he'll be at ACL Fest, as I only got to see part of his show at Fun Fun Fun Fest a few years back, and wanted more. A$AP comes from Harlem, part of the A$AP Mob (including A$AP Ferg, "Master Bruce!"), and also buddies with Schoolboy Q. I forget how I first came across him, but he put out a mixtape in 2011 called Live Love A$AP, and that was one of the first DatPiff mixtapes I ever found.
Live.Love.A$AP has some amazing tracks - some of the best rap I have enjoyed in the past decade. The first four songs on that album (sadly the album isn't available to stream on Spotify, so you'll have to go to DatPiff or YouTube) all crush it. Top shelf beats and production from Clams Casino. in three of those first four. First, I give you "Peso," clocking in at over 31 million views.
The deep bass, that atmospheric tinkle of bells, then other sounds trickling in - plus Rocky's smooth as hell lyrics and fun wordplay. Then you've got the opening crush of "Palace," with this huge descending bass fade, screwed lyrics, chanting monks, and so much damn bravado for an opening track of an artist you've never even heard of:
He name checks his influences on there, and you can hear them - New Orleans, Tennessee, Houston - but he also spits a bar like Bone Thugs, name checks Master P and Kriss Kross, uses DJ Screw's Houston methods on his lyrics, and yet still represents Harlem. It is a thing of beauty. Before I leave that album, I have to show you "Wassup" as well.
That opening beat is so chill, and yet ominous when the bass comes in. And the flow of the lyrics over the top of that - the offbeat delivery is so kick ass. 15 million views. And what the hell, I showed you three of the first four tracks from the album, here is "Bass," the fourth that kicks so much ass.
Screwed again, and so very good.
You'll notice, on "Wassup," that he repeatedly calls himself that "pretty motherf**ker." This is a big part of his schtick, that he rocks the finest clothes and is all in on fashion. I don't even hear most of the references - I have no flipping clue who Raf Simons even is, but Rocky is apparently the man on fancy fashion. I could care less what he's wearing, I just know that he sounds freaking bad ass while wearing it.
Rocky's first real album was the confusingly titled Long.Live.A$AP, released in 2013. The initial single off of that album was called "Goldie," which has over 40 million spins on Spotify, and just so happens to have the beats per minute I use to jog. Stand up and jog to this:
17 million views, and so much swagger and solid flow. For me, it is just that combination - the beat is good, nothing groundbreaking, but when mixed in with the perfectly timed lyrics and then slowed down chorus, it just clicks perfectly. He's still repping the Houston sound and Master P, and you have to feel extremely cool when you can slur "bitchin' witcho bitch ass" or "errybody play the tough guy 'til shit pop off" repeatedly while listening to the track. I am sooo hard, yo.
Also on this album, A$AP's biggest hit without any doubt, is the collaboration with Drake, 2Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar, called F**ckin' Problems.
59.5 million YouTube views. 102 million Spotify spins. This is one of the most popular tracks I've reviewed so far for this year's artists. A ton of that traffic comes to this song because its got Drake and Kendrick Lamar on it, so take the popularity with a grain of salt (at least they knew well enough to keep 2Chainz to just the hook). Great beat, top notch guest verses, with a mediocre verse from Rocky himself, but still a hell of a track. The rest of the album is also good, with standout tracks "Long Live A$AP," the Skrillex-assisted "Wild for the Night," the posse cut "1Train," and the trippy-sounding "LVL."
And now, as of May 25/26, the new album is out. The original release date was supposed to be June 2, but it either leaked or he decided to stream it early. He has a ton of collaborators on here - Kanye, M.I.A., Future, Schoolboy Q, Juicy J, UGK, Lil Wayne, Mos Def. Oh, and Rod Stewart. WTF? I forget where I read it, but Rocky himself said there would not be any radio hits/singles on this album. He cited the Beatles, as artists who had been making popular tunes and then shifted into weird stuff without the pop feel, as an inspiration. I don't know how much of that is showmanship and trying to psych people out, but I think there are plenty of hits on this album. Frankly, I think he's full of shit. This album is just as chock full of well-crafted beats and his excellent sound as any others that came before it.
The most listened-to track from the new album (albeit based on early release as a single) is the strangely named "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2" with just over nine million listens:
Dark, ominous, gritty, straight-forward for just 2 minutes. For reasons I'm not sure about, that video transitions from that song straight into the Lil Wayne-assisted "M'$" (second most listened to track on the new album) for the last minute. "M'$" is sweet as well, with a crusher of a beat, although I could leave the Lil' Wayne verse. "Max B" uses a slowed down sample of "Peter Piper" that is super cool as hell, even if it ends with a weird indie singer being sad. I looked up Max B, and that is apparently the stage name of an older Harlem rapper who is currently in prison on a 75 year sentence. According to this article, the guy singing that sad song is some rando English singer who appears on five of the songs on this album. Weird, but that beat in that song is fab. "Jukebox Joints," the Kanye track, has a tight, old school sample feel and a damn good Kanye verse. The Schoolboy Q collabo "Electric Body" is just waiting for strip joints to discover it. Album opener "Holy Ghost" is also a slowed down beat and Rocky just strutting all over it. "Wavybone," the one with UGK and Juicy J, has another laid-back soul sample and great verses from each of the rappers. Smooth, ready to be blared from the open top of a pimp daddy caddy down in H-town. After a few listens, this album is good stuff. I'm not going to go all "instant classic" on you, but I'm also going to keep listening to it for the rest of the day and maybe all of tomorrow.
Just because I think you ought to experience it, here is that Rod Stewart-assisted track, called "Everyday"
Not sure why they list Rod Stewart as though he is on the track. Maybe he is singing live, but that definitely sounds like just a sample (and according to the Internet, it is). Miguel has a great voice as well - I like the way he parrots the Stewart sample. Strange song that switches things up multiple times on the beat/sound, but it sounds cool anyway.
This guy is really great. I know that he doesn't match the mold of who I normally fawn over in rap, as he really doesn't do much story-telling in his raps. That being said, his style and rhythm over beats are just too smooth and perfect for me to ignore. And even if he's not weaving stories, he still uses clever wordplay to create slick couplets and verses that could make you groan, but more frequently make me smile. Definitely going to go see him do his thing.
Electronic groove. Reminds me of Paper Diamond, which I found at ACL a few years ago, with EDM that is less proper formulaic build/drop and more into a jazzy free groove electro sound. The most popular track on Spotify, by quite a bit, is the 1.2 million spins for "Smash the Funk"
I dig that song for sure. Starts and goes back to electro jazz, but then drops some hard distortion sliding in there to keep his EDM cred strong. Although, that video is a little annoying that is cuts out the music here and there to let him talk about how cool it is to play music to people. Kind of funny that he actually plays the sax part to his EDM. Not the norm. And if you keep listening to his tunes, the sax comes out in just about every song. Saxman!
He has four albums, all since 2011, with the most recent being 2015's Say It Loud. His second most listened-to song is "The Anthem" from that album, and it also has jazzy sax, but also throws in some James Brown-esque Good GOD type things in there as well. With 225k listens, this is "The Anthem"
This, and the majority of this album, are reminding me of being in a hip clothing store or something. Urban Outfitters or a boutique for haberdashery in the downtown business district. Its very hip, melding jazz and funk with electro. I spent most of Friday afternoon jamming it and liking it, despite feeling like I'm being seduced by something I should be shunning. It makes me bob my head, and I listened to it longer than I had to, so it has something going for it. But I ran back through the top five songs again this morning, and I'm just not that into it. Gotta watch out for that pre-holiday weekend bias here at dulljack. Remain vigilant!
I like the fact that this is a different sound than most of the other EDM artists coming to ACL, but I doubt that I'll take the time to go hear this guy jam his sax live.
Pop rock. You've likely heard their hit single, even if you don't know who this band is. I certainly didn't know that this band was called MisterWives. Their top listened-to and most-popular on Spotify is "Reflections." With almost 32 million jams on Spotify, they've definitely hit the nail on the head for getting one massive hit out there.
When the chorus kicks in, with one million pounds of disco dance slinky fury, you are physically required by human biology to move. I mean, if that doesn't make you want to dance a little bit, or at least bob your head, or just tap your toe for crying out loud, then you should see a doctor. I need to add that song to my summer jams playlist. That stuff is silly good.
The band has one album, 2015's Our Own House, and an EP from 2014. Their second most listened to track on Spotify is called "Our Own House," which is not nearly as instant ear candy pantheon worthy as "Reflections," but still has a pretty great disco-funk, horn-fueled beat. Just over 11.5 million spins.
The majority of this album is good fun stuff (check the strong ass "Hurricane"), and the rest is also good, just more somber (i.e. "Coffins"). Their live Spotify sessions album on Spotify has some talking, and the lead singer notes that their band name is a play on the concept of sister wives since the band is one lady and four dudes. I have to say, the acoustic version of "Reflections" is nice and all, but you lose major factor of fun. Overall, well crafted, tuneful music that ought to be a blast to see in person. I'll bite.
No longer showing up on the schedule as playing Weekend One. I'm not sad.
Electronic dance. Can the connoisseurs of this type of music actually tell who is playing? If I took brand new songs from Mako, Nero, Deadmau5, and Kygo, songs that had never been heard outside of the hard drive upon which they were composed, would even the most fervent EDM mastermind be able to tell me which was which? I have my doubts, but maybe they all have tell-tale signs that EDM-heads know all about. Whatever it is, I can't notice in this music. Synths, build-ups, bass drops, lady singers doing hooks. But then again, I am old. And I once bought Snow's album 12 Inches of Snow, so what do I know?
The current most popular track on Spotify is "I Won't Let You Walk Away - Radio Edit," with more than 2.1 million listens. Close your eyes, and tell me if this is Calvin Harris or Avicii.
That might not have been the radio mix. I'm so very sorry. If you could tell, then you are the best listener around. Here is the most listened to track on Spotify, "Beam - Dannic Radio Mix," clocking in at over 3.3 million listens.
First, it certainly looks like fun to go to their show, especially when that lady sings the word "inside." I can dig the fact that their music is likely fun to jam out to in a big crowd. Second, there is, I shit you not, a ONE HOUR version of that song available on YouTube. Lord have mercy, I hope the NSA never finds that thing or they are going to ear-board everyone with it and there will be an end to Western civilization as we know it.
I listened to the top ten on Spotify. Please don't make me listen to anymore. Please? I do not want to see these two people push their buttons and dance.
The Garage Rock Revival. In the early oughts, these guys were the face of the new garage rock revival movement, with raw, edgy rock bordering on punk, on 2001's Is This It. The big hit off of that album was "Last Nite."
Nothing frilly. Just straight bass, guitar, drums, and growling, distorted vocals. And yet this stuff shot straight up the charts and became lauded by critics. Rolling Stone named the album number 2 in its list of top albums of the 2000's. NME literally named it the top four album of ALL TIME. So some people get hysterical about their music. I thought that album was good, but seriously, top four of all time? Come on.
I honestly had not paid attention to the Strokes since that initial album, so I had no idea that they have released another four albums since then. I just gave the two most recent albums a spin, and it sounds entirely different to me. Both 2013's Comedown Machine and 2011's Angles are poppy, disco-tinged rock with some flourishes that sound like the Strokes of old, but also get pretty far afield. Here is "One Way Trigger," the most popular tune from Comedown Machine (~ 6 million spins on Spotify):
Which is, uh, just not quite the same as the old stuff. The two new albums also have some songs that hew pretty true to the original formula, like "Under Cover of Darkness":
I dig that tune. I guess the question is who is going to show up at ACL? The odd, new electro pop rockers, or the old school garage rockers? Either way, I'd expect that the show would be pretty fun, although I think I'd prefer the latter.
No longer showing up on the schedule as playing Weekend One. Good news for all.
Ugh. Their website just makes me want to hate them so very much. Oh, and their label website is similarly vomit inducing: "If music were a cocktail party filled with sweets, thought-provoking conversations and energy, then holychild would be those hosts." Blerg.
They have one EP (2014's MINDSPEAK) and then two 2015 singles. Their most popular track on Spotify is "Happy With Me," from that 2014 EP, which has a pop reggae synth thing going.
Not all that interested in the music. Lyrically, its a pretty cool sentiment and all, but the tune isn't doing much for me. Then the second most popular tune is called "Running Behind"
Makes me think of TuneYards, one of my least favorite things from last year's ACL. Not on board with this duo.
[Update on 7/24/15] Their new album is out, and I dislike them even more than I previously did!
Exhibit A: their album is titled "The Shape of Brat Pop to Come," which makes me throw up in my mouth. And also pisses me off a little because I loved the Refused album The Shape of Punk to Come (which was likely based on something else). Also, "Brat Pop." Lord help us all.
Exhibit B: Their music. Oh man. The first track is called "Barbie Nation" and it is just as cringe-y as you expect from that title. It all comes off like a cheerleader vanity project recorded at the studio in the mall.
I will not be seeing them play live.
A week or two ago, entirely separate from any inkling that Billy Idol would potentially be coming to ACL, I was having a conversation with two friends about Billy Idol's videos. We literally couldn't remember what he sang beyond "Dancin' With Myself" and "White Wedding." One guy had to fire up the Internet on his phone to remember the name of the song with the racy music video of a teenager grinding all around an apartment.
Oh yeah, Rock the Cradle of Love, baby. That song is terrible. The video was amazing when I was 13 or whenever it came out, but the song is crap. She spilled wine on her shirt! And took it off! Anyway, now that I pull the man up on Spotify, I'm ashamed that I forgot the other fun tunes the dude has in his catalog. "Rebel Yell," "Mony Mony," "Eyes Without a Face," "Flesh for Fantasy," even "Hot in the City." He started about 35 years ago, but still looks the same (tough, biker leather and omnipresent sneer) and sounds pretty much the same (sneering soft rock). "Rebel Yell" is by far the best of the bunch.
Mo! Mo! Mo! Speaking of sneering soft rock, he actually has a current (2014's King and Queens of the Underground) album out which you can go listen to on Spotify right now. I mean, I don't encourage it, but I'm just telling you it is possible to do. You know that group of movies (Love Actually is the one that comes to mind first) where there is an aging pop star who pushes a come back? This sounds like the joke album the cast puts together for the movie. This album is truly godawful. I have to imagine that the session musicians who joined him for it just sucked it up, turned on the drum machine and played their hyper-generic rock riffs, cashed their check, and hoped that no one noticed they were associated with the album.
Really, its too bad. Because a greatest hits show would be pretty fun, but if he decides that he needs to play his new tunes, it'll kind of ruin the pleasure. Oh man, the album is still playing as I write this, and just, wow, this is, no. No. Please. Let's all hope for a greatest hits show.
First things first, the band name is excellent. Just saying it made me grin. As for the music, it sounds like Erykah Badu over the top of simple but tight beats. The most popular track on Spotify is the Childish Gambino-assisted "Jump Hi"
I dig that sound for sure. Sounds like some Marvin Gaye in the sample. The band is made up of the singer (apparently the daughter of actress Vanessa Williams) and a beat guy. They have a 2014 EP called LION BABE, and then a few remixes of songs, and then a 2015 single for a track called "Wonder Woman."
Damn, man. Her hair game is on point. Loogit that afro, man! This track is another with her strong vocals (again, Badu dripping all over it) over a super simple beat. I think I heard Pharrell in there as well? Not much here to go off of, but what I hear is really enjoyable.
Kick ass electronic music. I don't put him in the EDM bucket with Calvin Harris and Deadmau5, he's more of a DJ who happens to use a metric crapton of bass among his rhythms to make really fun music. Like the heavy metal of EDM. I have no clue how many albums he has - Spotify is just plain confusing to figure out which things are remixes, albums, EPs, compilations, whatever. Wikipedia shows him as having 10 albums, but not all of those are available to hear on Spotify.
The first time I ever recall hearing him was, strangely enough, as background music while on the patio at the Cedar Door. Not normal beer garden music. But I literally came back up to the office and searched for electronic music that talked about causing a frenzy. That led me to the overwhelming, mind-boggling "Cozza Frenzy"
That track came out in 2009 - long before Skrillex became part of my vocabulary. And it just slams the beat all up in your head. So heavy and awesome.
Then, in 2012, Bassnectar was at ACL. I kind of wanted to see him, just based on that one song above (and the similarly wild "Boombox" on the same album). But he ended up being scheduled right before Jack White, and we knew we wanted to get a good spot to see ol' Jack. But what we didn't plan for is that the Bassnectar show would be at the stage right down the hill from Jack White's spot, and the sheer volume and thump of Bassnectar meant that we pretty much got to be there and enjoy it as well. Two things I remember: (1) he used a load of really cool samples in his show - I recall the Beastie Boys, Nirvana, and Beck; and (2) the crowd went abso-freaking-lutely insane down there in front of the stage. It sounded like a fun show.
Despite my pleasure found in Cozza Frenzy, that tune doesn't even make his top ten on Spotify. The most listened-to track is a wobbly, fuzzy, thumping, hand-clappy dubstep thing called "Bass Head"
That one is OK. I'm not going to drop my love for Cozza Frenzy in favor of that thing. But it has 7.9 million Spotify listens, so he's doing something right. And the current most popular track is called "Now" and features the rapper Rye Rye. It is apparently part of the Fast & Furious Soundtrack, and it is ri-damn-diculous.
If that doesn't make you want to bob your head and move, then I don't know what to tell you. Go put your Lawrence Welk records on and play some solitaire for the rest of the weekend.
That being said, listening to this music for most of today has made me feel loco in la cabeza. It is one thing to go jam it in a huge crowd for an hour of good times, but spending 5 or 6 hours wub-wubbing, click-clacking, and thump-thumping takes a lot out of you. As far as I am concerned for the festival, let's do this. [Updated 7/24/15] The new album (Into the Sun) came out in June, and, to this uninformed EDM listener, it seems like a detour from the straight ahead action I've heard previously. he still has some bass crushing bangers ("Speakerbox" and "Science Fiction" stand out to me) but the first two tracks ("Chasing Heaven" and "Into the Sun") are actually kind of pretty. Here is "Into the Sun" for you to hear for yourself.
Even "Science Fiction," which bangs, includes some spacey trip flight music at the end. Oh, and this album has a freaking 1:11:16 long song at the end called "Mixtape 13." Damn, son. I'm basing a lot of this on the sounds of his show a few years ago, but I think it should be a fun one to go see.
More gospel. Spotify is totally confused. When you click on the artist "Blessed," their system pulls up at least four different artists' information and just mashes it all together.
the image at the top of the page looks similar to the ladies that the official ACL website image shows. This is probably the correct Blessed.
The biography on that same page for Spotify says this is a "Jamaican born, Canada raised Reggae artist and performer." I am going to assume this is not the right Blessed, although he did apparently win a Juno Award in 2002.
The first album on the list is a "Chopped & Twizted" album of rap music called "Woundz" by a dude. It is terrible. Hopefully this is not the right Blessed.
The second album listed appears to not even be by a person or group called Blessed, but is somehow "Music from Keyon Dooling's New Book Performed by Bless'Ed." This might be the same rapper as the top album, but how does a book have music? What is going on? And then the third and fourth albums are also rap, but the guy on the cover of these albums doesn't appear to be the same dude?
The 2000 album called "Blessed" is three ladies and a dude, not four ladies. So much confusion.
On top of that, googling "Blessed" is just dumb. All the hits! And counting! And I can't see the word blessed without thinking hashtag blessed and feeling annoyed. But that is my own issue.
Anyway, I'm going to go with what the ACL website says, which is that this group is a group of ladies from Houston who are "full of the Holy Ghost." Further, "BLESSED is ready to have a shouting good time with each of you." Why do they need to shout at me? Is this a gospel thing? As far as I can tell, they have a 2000 album called Journey for the Heart, another 2000 album called Blessed (maybe not them?), and then a 2008 album called Unshakeable. The most popular song on Spotify in this trainwreck of an artist page appears to be from these ladies, and it is called "Your Mercy." Just over 10k plays, so they've gotten some notice.
Woah, 223k plays on YouTube, and a bunch of cover versions on YouTube as well. I guess this song hit the gospel big time. Again, I am about the last person who should be reviewing gospel, as its just not my thing, but you can't deny the strength of their voices. Really top notch. And people dig this song enough to cover it and post their cover. Maybe this is the good stuff? I hope they hit the big time and everyone forgets about the rapper(s), reggae-er, and maybe another vocal group that has a dude in it.
Electronic disco dance. From reading the group's Wikipedia page, it sounds like their best known work is remixing other people's songs. My first pass through their one album (2013's Hanging Gardens) was forgettable soft electro. But after a few more listens, a few tracks started to get through to me. As I've said before, this kind of music really isn't my thing, so others may enjoy it considerably more, but the album has ups and then a lot of forgettable portions.
That might not be entirely true, one track (not surprisingly their most listened to) has a classic dance sound that caught my ear. This is the most popular track off of their album, called "Holding On," with almost 3.5 million listens on Spotify.
That video completely mesmerized me - watching the perspective of the front of a car driving through LA is pretty cool. "I'll Get You" also stuck with me after a few listens.
It sounds like their most popular remix was done to the Phoenix song "Lisztomania." It definitely becomes a different song with a surreal waterfall of disco-ness dripping up and around.
Cool track. Maybe they aren't as forgettable as I once thought, but the album is definitely not as strong, as a whole, as these two tracks right here. Doubt I'll watch them. But who knows?
The official ACL website shows a picture with about 97 people in it for this group, which the description for this show describes as Tim Kubart (the "Tambourine Guy") plus an eighteen-piece, Austin orchestral indie-born band called Mother Falcon. Which sounds super dang weird, but the music on Spotify for Mother Falcon is actually kind of fantastic. Before I get to that, I'll note that this looks to be something playing the Kiddie Limits stage, because Tim Kubart is apparently the host of a preschooler show on Sprout (a cable TV station) called the Sunny Side Up Show. His website includes other accolades and makes him sound pretty awesome. I assume that this song is him, which is a cute little tune about being together with your happy family.
From the Internet, it looks like Kubart usually plays with a group called the Space Cadets. He was also on American's Got Talent, and a part of a Motown Tribute to Nickelback, which sounds godawful. If anything like prior years of the Kiddie Limits stage, he'll be singing alphabet songs and making the kids happy while their parents get FOMO about missing other music at the main stages. However, this time, I might just think about going and seeing this so that I can hear Mother Falcon. First of all, they have an entire album of re-imagining Radiohead's OK Computer. They use their big pile of instruments to layer in a bunch of orchestral sounds where the bleeps and bloops of the original would have been, and it actually turns out pretty cool. Here is "Paranoid Android"
Neat, right? I think I would have chosen The Bends album, but that is just personal preference, and this is cool either way. And then they have a few other albums of their own material (2010's Still Life, 2011's Alhambra, and 2013's You Knew). That most recent original disc has a complicated layering of instruments and voices that makes me immediately think of Arcade Fire. Their top song off of that album is a track called "Marigold," which has almost 1.3 million spins on Spotify:
Video of little kids dominating alien monster things all over Austin is kind of funny too. In addition, NPR did one of their Tiny Desk concerts with this pack of folks. Take 12 minutes and jam it out, I think you'll find it worth your time:
14 people don't really fit at a "Tiny Desk," but I dig what they have going on anyway. That last song is especially good, called "Dirty Summer," but I also really like the middle song, named after the west Texas town of Marfa. "Blue and Gold" also sounds great from their 2013 album. I honestly never expected to like something that would be playing at the Kiddie Limits stage, but I truly feel like this group should get a slot at the real deal stage (and maybe they will) because I think this music is really great. Fun find on the bottom of the whole poster.
Massively popular rap star with over five million records sold and loads of awards. Came up as the protege to Lil' Wayne, after a short career as a teen actor. Drake's delivery is definitely similar to Lil' Wayne's, but he sings a lot during his hits. Heavy into the kind of sad, soul-baring R&B style of singing his own hooks within rap songs. In about 2010, I was in a movie theater in Portland, Oregon, waiting for the show to start, when a Sprite commercial came on. The four high school aged girls in front of us in the theater literally squealed with excitement and pain when they saw Drake speak on the screen. It was extremely weird, especially since I had no flipping clue who the dude was at the time. Made me feel extremely old.
"Marvin's Room," from 2011's Take Care, is a great example of the kind of raps Drake has become famous for. He sings about being drunk in his room and calling a girl that he wants to hook up with, to tell her that she could do better than her current man. I mean, is there more of a passive-aggressive, sad-sack way to tell a lady you are interested in her? The tune is very low energy as well, dark synths and spare base bumps. He even notes that he's having a hard time adjusting to fame. The song ends with a lovely little piano outro. It's just such an odd, depressing rap song, in an era of brags and parties and excitement. His first album, 2010's Thank Me Later, starts off in the same vein with a piano ballad-based Alicia Keys tune with him sounding unsure about fame and fabulous-ness. But the guy has Alicia Keys, T.I., Nicki Minaj, Jay Z, and Lil Wayne, among others, on his debut album, so he's doing pretty damn well. The top song off of this album leaves behind that sad, introspective vibe to brag over a choice beat. Here is "Over."
Solid track. And this album also had hits with "Fancy" and "Find Your Love." I definitely like the true rap tracks more than the R&B-flavored singing songs. 2011's Take Care had "Marvin's Room" (up above) as a hit, but also spawned "Headlines," "Take Care," and "The Motto," which is all about Drake living YOLO:
"Headlines" is also a good one, with the great line of him saying someone told him he fell off, to which he responds that he "needed that." And the flow of his lyrics on that track are so good. Like Thank Me Later, I'd have to say that this one is up and down, with the straight rap being better to me than the R&B. Nothing Was the Same, from 2013, was the first time that I ever really started paying attention to Drake. Hits included "Started from the Bottom" and "Hold On, We're Going Home," with other really solid tracks on this album as well ("All Me (with 2Chainz and Big Sean)," "The Language (with a cool, off-beat delivery)," "Pound Cake (great except for Jay Z's tourette's-esque need to say the word "cake" 800 times), and "Worst Behavior." Best album he's got, as far as I'm concerned. Drake put out a new mixtape a few weeks ago, and it was not my favorite. Its not terrible, but nothing on there jumped out at me after a few listens. The first four tracks on this album each have over 28 million listens on Spotify, so other people apparently dig these tracks. Or he's just huge enough to get the benefit of the doubt. Not sure which. Drake's got a new album coming out this year, to be called View from the Six (or something like that). I'll check it out when it comes out and we'll see. More important that a lot of his album work, Drake has been on a jillion other people's tracks to add a verse or two. The new Big Sean album, Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne, Future, YG, Justin Timberlake, DJ Khalid, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Rick Ross, Bieber, Rhianna, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, you name just about any major rap star currently on top. The ones that I remember best of all are his verse on Nicki Minaj's Truffle Butter (sick beat!) and A$AP Rocky's "F**kin' Problems." Obviously, NSFW:
Another great beat, plus his braggadocio is spot on. Oh, and "Trophies," from an otherwise pretty bad compilation disc for the Young Money label, is also pretty damn awesome. I'm a sucker for rap songs backed by horns though.
Regardless of what the new album sounds like, I think this will be a pretty fun show. I'd prefer that he just stick to the straight rap, but either way, to get a chance to see one of the top current rappers do his thing will be pretty awesome.
Pop rock with a huge hit under their belt. I thought I'd never heard of them when I pulled them up on Spotify, but their most popular song is most definitely something I've heard (and heard and heard). Here is "Cool Kids"
39 million YouTube hits and 164 million Spotify spins. One hundred and sixty four million!!! The song has such a great, crisp sound - I love the clean tone of it. The lead singer has a great voice as well. And the lyrics are truth about what its like to be young and struggling. Good song.
Of note, the band is comprised entirely of siblings. And when I looked at pictures of them, I thought they all looked like children. I wasn't entirely too far off - the drummer is 16, lead singer is 18, and then the two older brothers are 19 and 22. In the realm of creepy facts you can use to impress your friends, the band is managed by their father, who is named Jeffrey David. Assuming Wikipedia is truthful (which is a stretch of an assumption) all three of the boys in the band have the same middle names - Jeffrey David. Weird.
Their debut album came out in 2013, called Talking Dreams. Other than the double platinum "Cool Kids," a second single was released and has gotten some radio play and chart position as well. Here is "Bright"
This tune reminds me of something from Taylor Swift's country-lite days. It is not as catchy and world-dominating as "Cool Kids," but its a really nice song. The rest of the album tracks in between these two tunes, tuneful pop rock that is quite enjoyable. "Nothing's Wrong," "Tell Her You Love Her," there are several other good songs on the album. We'll see how the schedule plays out, but I think I'd like to go check these kids out.
Really boring electronic indie. Even their Wikipedia entry is bare and boring. They are from Oxford. They have an album. Wiki Out.
The number of plays they have on Spotify shows that I'm likely off base, as they have a song with almost 24 million spins, "Gooey" from the 2014 album ZABA. Here you go:
How great are the lyrics to that song? You be the judge: "Right, my little pooh bear, wanna take a chance? Wanna sip this smooth air, kick it in the sand. I'd say I told you so but you just gonna cry.
You just wanna know those peanut butter vibes." Yep. Peanut butter vibes. But if people have played that tune millions of times, there is something going on with it that I'm just not cool enough to comprehend.
Here is the second most listened to on Spotify (6 million spins), "Black Mambo"
More extremely sleepy electro stuff. I've run through the album a handful of times, and it just does absolutely zero for me. Not planning on seeing the gooey guys. Of interest to me, this is a band on the 10th line (of 28 lines) on the ACL poster. Not prime position, but in the top third-ish. Makes me scared I'm losing my discerning ear if these guys are listed that highly.
Gospel time. The beginning of the most popular song on Spotify ("Spirit on Me") sounds exactly like some old NWA spoof song - synths and drummer - before the backup singers kick in and it is obviously a gospel song. There is no video I can find for that track, so here is the second most popular song, called "Happy"
Not sure what is up with his glasses, bowtie, and t-shirt, but maybe that's just his thing. Gospel isn't my thing, but the groove in that song is something you can't deny. Almost 2,000 views on YouTube and less than 1k listens on Spotify, so there isn't a huge following out there for this group yet. But they sound great to me. Well, I could do without him telling me to get my swag on. But otherwise, okey doke. The group is from Denver, and according to the website, they are touring the country melding "Gospel, Hip-Hop, R&B, Retro-Funk, Jazz and nuances of Neo-Soul into an electrifying performance that is engaging, uninhibited and life-giving." Keep on doing it, man.
Amazing guitar stud. His live album from last year was one of my top ten albums of the year. His full album from 2012, Blak and Blu, is also great, but the live version of his tracks are just so damn good. So much passion and fire and shredding ear candy. I love the fact that he can go from molten hot lava guitar domination to a more tender, nimble guitar style at the drop of a hat. See the transition between "Numb" and "Please Come Home" on Blak and Blu. Also love that he went to Austin High (LOYAL FOREVER!). Here is "Numb," just so you can taste the sludge:
I mean, come on! That is so good!
I saw him when he came to ACL a few years back and was just straight up blown away. I never got to see Jimi or Stevie turn their guitar into a weapon of blues-flavored rock and roll fury, but I love hearing someone so obviously steeped in their tradition. His most popular track on Spotify deserves that position, although the live version is even better than the studio track. Here is "Bright Lights," at the top with over eight million spins.
If you haven't played this guy's music before, you seriously need to go enjoy it. If you don't like rock, or are scared of good music, at least go listen for the skill the guy has on his instrument. One more video that I have to add to this, its not his top song on Spotify or anything, (#6 in popularity though), and this isn't the amazing version on the Live album that they've played it on KUTX some recently, but it still shows the amazingness of what he's got going on when he plays "When My Train Pulls In" live.
I can't play jack crap on the guitar - the F chord was more than my fingers could bear. But I can sure as hell hear when something is transcendentally fantastic. I've heard that song 40 times by now, but I still just got goosebumps listening to him hammer his solos out. So good! Definitely going to see him. There would have to be someone pretty major opposite his show for me to skip.
Disappointingly bland pop rock from the lead singer for the Killers. Truly a bummer to me. The Killers' Hot Fuss was a freaking great album, coming out of left field with retro-80's pop synth-rock flourishes and really fun songs. A lot of people crapped on their next album, Sam's Town, but I thought it was pretty good too, even if not as good as the debut. So I have high hopes for the continuation of those albums.
Well, this ain't Hot Fuss. His only available solo disc is called Flamingo, from 2010. Here is the most popular tune overall on Spotify, which is from that album, called "Crossfire."
I mean, not terrible, its just super generic sounding soft rock. The album opener, "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" is a sweeping love-song-to / warning-about Las Vegas. "Didn't nobody tell you, the house will always win!" Not an especially good album. I also listened to the top ten most popular tunes on Spotify a few times, and there are some that are better than others, but still not nearly as good as the original Killers tunes. Here is the title song that I think will be on the new album that is purportedly already out (just not available on Spotify), "Lonely Town."
Oh man. Auto Tune in the house? Check. Backup choir? Yup. Synth blips to hope that people remember the Killers? Of course. Honestly, not a terrible song, but also not something that I'll ever need to hear again. I doubt I'll go see him play, but we'll see about the schedule.
[Updated on 7/23/15] His full new album is now out, as of May 15, 2015. Called The Desired Effect. I have to say it is better than that older album (Flamingo). It still isn't something I'd ever buy, or probably even listen to again, but it has some good songs on there. "Can't Deny My Love" is actually pretty snappy. But some of these other songs are soft rock schmaltz. Maybe I'd go see him, but I doubt it.
In the midst of all of this music listening, I found this cool website that shows the racial composition of the country as of the 2010 census, with a colored dot representing every person. Completely fascinating.
Without the overlay of street names, look at Austin. Of course, no surprise that east of 35 is heavily yellow (for Hispanic) while the west of 35 is mainly blue (for white). But the dots that caught my eye are the red ones, for Asian folks. It took me a bit to figure out the big spot in the center of town, the slice on the north side of the river, and then the big cluster up Mopac before 183, but once you think about where those locations are - it's UT students. The central cluster is campus itself, the one on the river is the Breckenridge apartment group, and then the cluster up north is the big apartment area in between Far West and Spicewood Springs.
Another spot that caught my eye, why would that zone just to the west of Mopac and south of 35th street be heavily Hispanic? In Tarrytown? But then it dawned on me. My guess is that spot will turn blue in short order, once the State School is closed down and those yellow dots are sent off for some other facility to deal with.
I also note how dense a lot of the yellow dots look on the map. None of the blue dots have that density except for maybe Rainey Street area or portions of Tarrytown, but some of the sections of east Austin are just solid yellow. The downtown towers are also almost fully blue.
I wish I could get closer to really see the differences in neighborhood composition. Fun map.
Folky rock now, grown out of a more Americana sound. I checked out this band's most recent album at the end of 2014 because it made the Grantland top ten albums of the year list. I was so put off by the fact that the writer compared the album to the Smashing Pumpkins that I don't think I ever really gave the music a chance to stand on its own. Totally not the Smashing Pumpkins. But pretty good if you get over trying to compare it to that band.
The band is a guy named Tim Showalter, who has a massive beard of beauty. That most recent album (2014's HEAL) more reminds me of old Arcade Fire using the Cure's synths ("HEAL") or some late-80's / early-90's jangle rock like the Replacements ("Goshen '97") or a Ryan Adams-esque dad rock thing. The most popular track on Spotify is that last song, "Goshen '97"
Here is the second most popular tune he has on Spotify, called "Shut In"
This one sounds more like War on Drugs or Ryan Adams. Confessional rock and roll anthems ready to have a lighter raised to them in the crowd. I love that line though, about when he was born, everything good had already been made. He's got some pretty salty hot-molten-lava guitar solos in here, like on both "JM" and "Mirage Year." I like this album. More so now than when I first listened to it, but it is also a little uneven.
The album before this one, 2012's Dark Shores, is a gentler, folkier album. "Little Wishes" or "Satellite Moon" are the two best tracks from that album. Then there is 2010's Pope Killdragon, which is even stranger, with an opening instrumental track that sounds like a Dark Side of the Moon outtake, then he goes with a really light touch on acoustic guitar tunes until some sludge guitar rock action on "Giant's Despair," only to go right back to chilled acoustics with a few synth flourishes. It's actually damn pretty, even when it transitions back and forth. Really good rainy day music. Finally, you've got 2009's Leave Ruin, which is more pretty acoustic Americana with some banjo/mandolin thrown in that doesn't show up in his later work. Some extremely pretty music on this one. Talented guy.
I think this would be a pretty good show. He shows a lot of angles in his music, so I'm not sure which one you could really expect, but all of the different facets are good ones.
In general terms, the point of this blog for me is to have fun writing and thinking about something other than the normal work stuff. Listening to new music and forming my thoughts about them, or reminiscing about the great music of the past, or figuring out why I like what I like, it has all been a fun exercise. But this weekend, I got the first tangible perk of the blog, when one of the band members from the band Calliope Musicals read my ACL preview on them and invited me to come and see their show in Austin. Pretty exciting - someone other than my close friends and wife actually read something I wrote down! So I had to take them up on the offer. I had never been in the Mohawk's small room, but it was a great little intimate room for music. When the show started, there were just over 50 people in the place (not counting the musicians and sound guy). More people wandered in over time, but it stayed a pretty intimate show.
The best word I can use to describe the show was fun. They fired up with a lot of energy, weirdness, and pretty great music. When they rocked, they truly kicked in with some great riffs and nice groove. As I noted previously, they feature the xylophone pretty prominently, with about a third of the stage taken up with a big ol' xylophone (which may not even be the technical term for what was being used, but alphabet books for children have warped me into thinking that only x-ray and xylophone exist when discussing "x" words). You can see it in those pics above, over to the left. But during the live show, that instrument pretty well blends into the music and sounds just right. Not all that different from a keyboard in any other band. In addition, they've got two guitarists, a bassist, a great drummer, and then the lead singer who just crushes it. Rocking a cape, either asking for hugs or twirling around like an animal, she just looks like she couldn't be having any more fun as she bounces around and conducts the party. She sound-checked with a slice of classic Janis Joplin, and the comparison in voices was just right. In addition to the good music, they obviously think about fun things they can do to make the experience. They fired up a confetti cannon at one point, threw out a huge beach ball and inflatable alien for people to bounce around, and handed out pieces of Shiner boxes for people to wave around. At one point in the show, they handed out candles (like you would get at the Christmas Eve service in church), the lead singer stepped down into the crowd and sat down on the floor. Most other folks in the room took a candle and sat down too, and then sang along with the next tune. It was highly unusual, but it seemed so genuinely real that it wasn't offputting. I was a little bit unsure about what the hell I was doing - wandering by myself up to the bouncer guy and telling him that I was "on the list," but it actually worked! And then to have the show be a fun treat left me feeling pretty excited about the band and about keeping the blog going. I may never see another perk from doing all of this, but Saturday night felt like a pretty good score. Many thanks to Chris and the rest of the band - I hope that the ACL show brings many more converts into the fold!
Electronic chilly singer. This is a gal named Charlotte O'Connor, who has only two EP's available on Spotify. Strong voice, but overall her music is not something I'd seek out. Not quite as depressing sounding as Lana Del Rey, but I'd put them in the same general wheelhouse, especially "On and On." Her most listened to track is "Colour My Heart," with just over 750k listens:
Sounds a bit like Kate Bush there at the start. I bet the budget for that video was under $50. "We need $48 worth of black makeup and nail polish, one light bulb, and then I need you to just wear a black dress. Mmmkay?" That track was off of the 2014 Strange EP. The current most popular on Spotify is off of the new EP, Burning, and is more of a dance number, called "If My House Was Burning"
Again, I can dig the fact that her pipes are top notch, but I can't say that I really care to hear the tune. Three of the four tracks on this EP (Burning) are versions of that song. I doubt I'll go check her out.
Synth dance R&B-ish-ness out of England. Sounds like Bieber singing over Disclosure. Spotify only has one EP and a handful of singles available, but the most popular song ("King") has 51 million listens, so these guys aren't quite as under the radar as one might expect. Here is that tune:
It's a pretty bad ass pop tune. Listen to it three times and then try to get it out of your head. The rest of their music isn't this good, but its still fine synth pop. Here is the second-most listened to track on Spotify, "Desire"
Again, heavy dose of Disclosure-esque electro with a pretty good voice soaring over the top. They've also got a reggae influenced track ("Take Shelter") and a quieter chill tune or two ("Real" or "Memo"). This is not my normal type of music, but I have to say that "King" is good enough for me to keep listening to. Maybe I'll go see these dudes do their thing.
[Update on 7/23/15] A full album is now out for these cats, called Communion, released July 10. I've run through it - not much change in opinion from listening to their EP, although listening to the whole thing makes me like them less. "King" is still a great pop nugget, but a lot of the album is more electro R&B that doesn't do much for me. In fact, as I bring a second listen to a close, this is not good.
