Bassnectar {update}

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.